I kind of felt bashful, and laughed as I opened my eyes. I realized right away that I was expecting some kind of white-robed, human-shaped being to come into my view. Pretty silly of me – I know that angels take many shapes. It was slightly overcast that morning, the light mellow, muted. As I […]
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Tag: inner spirit
Ten of the Strangest Fears You Ever Heard...
Tonight, when I was reading about fears, I saw this word: Kakorrhaphiophobia, so I decided to play google search. I love googling weird things. I’ll type two unrelated words in the search bar and hit go, just to see what comes up. Much to my surprise and delight, not only did the definition of Kakorrhaphiophobia […]
The Spirit Door
Suddenly, the plastic sheet in my hands quivered a little, and there! There it was! The Door! In a dream, I was with a man who was kind of Tibetan looking, but not. He was showing me a piece of sheet plastic — about a foot square, clear, shiny. He was shifting it around in […]
What Happens to You When You Watch Scary ...
Sometimes I do things that drain my energy. I forget to stop, and end up an emotional mess. Have you ever done that? A video I watched a couple of days ago that a friend sent me was one of those really well-done, 2-hour videos outlining how ‘they’ do this bad thing and ‘they’ do […]
My Thoughts of Peace Fly Out Far Beyond M...
Because love is a verb. And it acts a million times more powerfully than our puny little minds can imagine. At 13, my dentist decided that deflowering me right in the open, right on the dentist chair, would be a cool thing to do. I was so shocked, so surprised, so absolutely flummoxed that I […]
Hope Is A Beggar. Or Is She?
I once knew a fantastically popular, immensely powerful man. Once his swooning fans had left for the night, he would retreat to his den. He’d try to bend his skeletal frame around the huge, impossibly soft pillows on his couch, and he’d sit there, scowling and frowning, gazing blindly out into the night. He’d hear […]
CREATION
In a dream, I ushered men out of a light-filled chute and onto the ground at the bottom. I could hear them flopping and bouncing and clattering down the chute, some cussing loudly, some weeping and wailing, terrified; others silent. All came out with a shout of pleased and excited surprise that they were still alive […]
What’s the Difference between jpg, tif an
What do the different file type names mean and how do they affect your images? These explanations of file types will help you understand what kinds of files to use for your documents, print books, ebooks or websites. Cover of my book, The Etsy Image Guide This is an enhanced excerpt from my book, […]
How to ‘Read’ The Drawings
How many times have you looked at my tile drawings and they didn’t make sense to you? Or maybe felt so busy you didn’t look at them for long? Here’s how to ‘read’ them. 1. Direct your eyeballs to the exact center of the square. 2. Drop your eyes vertically to the center of the […]
Why Do Some Men Think It’s OK to Be Such
What can be done about it? How do we deal with it on a daily basis? I can hardly believe the things men oh-so-casually do to women. The things they have the nerve to say. Even after decades of observing and experiencing their stupidity, I’m still astounded. I’m in my late 70s, and men still […]
No More Letting Baby Cry Herself Out!
I had to slowly slowly convince myself to open to receive any thoughts at all that I might be worthy, and even lovable. In a reel I watched tonight by a gal whose name I never caught, she explains how parents used to be advised to ‘let the baby cry itself out.’ That the baby […]
Once in A Lifetime
They were jumping in and out of the water so smoothly, so fast, that it looked like a fountain of silvery sea flesh. When my boys were young, we lived in Hawaii on the island of Kaua’i, in Kekaha, a tiny little sugar town. The main residents were mostly Filipinos and Puerto Ricans who worked […]
I Was Damned if I Was Going to Allow Hard...
Nights when magical swaths of stars would span the entire ceiling above, making it seem as light as noon. Bright evening lightning shows burst through the dark evenings on the far horizon… Living in New Mexico in the early 1990s was one of the darkest times of my entire life. I was perpetually depressed, never […]
Our Disconnect from the Cycles of Life
We allow little mundane BS things to distract and steal our attention away from what’s important: being with and cherishing the ones we love most, caring for those who need and want our love, attention, and affection. Lately I see so many posts on facebook by folks who have lost friends and family from covid […]
The Tale of Frank and Lilly of Desolation...
In a frozen stand-off, all three halted, just a few feet from each other. Like wooden soldiers, they stood silent in the middle of the street. Slowly, Frank reached up and tipped his hat, took Lilly’s hand and walked on. “No, Frank, don’t! He didn’t mean it!” Lilly exclaimed. “Don’t hold me back this time, […]
HELPING LITTLE TINA STOP HER TANTRUMS
My friend Rachel had two grand-daughters, aged 2 and 4. The two-year-old, Tina, was prone to throwing some mean tantrums. Rachel was concentrating on finishing up a 3-year back-to-college program, and found it difficult to deal with the kids’ high energy — especially the tantrums — when the girls came to visit her. She was […]
PATTY CAKE
Ahhh, yes! A bunch of innocent delightful critters playing in a lovely world where things are the way they’re supposed to be: open, loving, caring, fun, creative and compassionate…. PATTY CAKE, PATTY CAKE, BAKER’S MAN – Run away! Run Away! Fast as you can! How I wish I could. With the BS happening now across […]
BE KIND. NO MATTER WHAT.
We learn to hide the pain. We feel unacceptable. We learn to present happy faces, calm demeanors, soft voices — where what we really feel like doing is screaming until our throats rip apart. Be kind. That’s what comes to mind when I see people getting down on folks who write about being depressed and […]
TAKE BACK YOUR POWER!
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick to death of people telling me what I ‘should’ buy or ‘should’ do. Use the Law of Attraction! Do this technique! You should eat green! You should stop eating sugar! Use this technique to get more clients! You should…you should…you should! NO! I shouldn’t! And I won’t, […]
‘I DIDN’T SIGN UP FOR THIS!’
The secrets every last one of the characters carries are all starting to dribble out, with horrifying consequences. Everyone’s true nature is being revealed. I’ve been watching a fairly new show on Amazon called POWER. You have to know that I don’t watch TV. Not EVER. So it’s pretty near miraculous that I even heard […]
GET UPSET? OR TAKE the OPPORTUNITY to UPL...
Images flooded my panicked mind of internet police coming to Get Me and Punish Me, hoards of angry women descending upon my house and doing Bad Things to me, being banned from being online forever…. The first time a customer complained to me and told me she was really upset about trying to buy my […]
VIOLATED. AGAIN.
I was astonished — I didn’t remember ‘screaming bloody murder’! I said so, and he laughed and said, “Yep, you sure was, and boy was it loud, yeah man!” Huh. The second time I was raped was a far cry from the first. Looking back, I count what happened to me that day as a […]
HOW MY DOG FOUND ME AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND
…his voice was deep, gravelly. For some odd reason, I felt like I could totally trust him, so I told him I was just back in town, 54, no place to live, sleeping in my car, yadda yadda. Him nodding, listening, focused, kind. September of 1999 was stifling hot. I had just returned to Santa […]
HOW BURT BECAME MY VERY BEST FRIEND
Burt is the kind of friend everyone should have. He holds little babies as if they were the gods’ own precious lights; plays with the toddlers; treats little girls and boys to merry-go-rounds, lots of colorfully illustrated books, pencils, and art supplies; Tonka trucks, small-hand size tools and paints, encyclopedias, roller skates and skis; and […]
THE FIRST TIME I WAS VIOLATED
I went home that day all stirred up inside. I had no idea it was wrong of him to touch me. I had no idea it was what we’d call grooming, now. I just knew…. I was 13 years old the first time I was raped. Not to worry, this will not be a rant […]
DON’T LET LIFE BLOCK YOU - EVEN HURRICA
On a dark mid-November day in 1982, the boisterous, heavy-breathing Hurricane Iwa* swept in and wreaked havoc upon the island of Kauai, in Hawaii. (*pronounced EE-vah) I was a studio potter and stone caver. My kids and I lived in one of the plantation houses in the tiny, sugar-plantation town of Kekaha, way out on […]
STONE CARVER, Part V
Just by looking at people’s feet, I could always pretty much dependably tell who was American and who was European (or other nationality) before I even met them. Whereas we bumpkin Yanks almost always wore some brand of tennis shoes, flip-flops, or sneakers, Europeans mostly wore fine leather shoes or leather sandals (with socks!). But […]
STONE CARVER, Part II
The Quarry In 1989, I was thrilled to be invited to go carve marble in a weeks-long workshop in Lucca, Italy, under the instruction of a bona fide marble-carving maestro, Professore Roberto Bertola. I was excited because up until that point, I had only carved the softer stones like soapstone and softer varieties of alabaster. […]
The OTHER OTTER
I birthed my younger son at home. Labor had started at 10 pm, but I went to bed anyway, exhausted from canning tomatoes all day. I awoke with a bang at 3 am, though, and somehow, as daddy went to get the midwife, I clambered clumsily and carefully down our loft ladder and crawled over […]
SAM: Likes Shiny Things
The second time I was raped was a far cry from the first. Looking back, I count what happened to me that day as a stroke of incredible good fortune for myself, and out-of- the-blue evidence of amazing community solidarity in its intolerance for violence and cruelty, and its endeavor to maintain peace. I was […]