Active Meditation with a Side of Milk

I'm making this post in honor of my original homeschool student Brantley. He has a bright spirit and likes to find his own way to go about discovering meaning in his world. Therefore, it didn't strike me as odd when he told me what he wanted for his 13th birthday was "a new way to meditate that doesn't involve just sitting quietly or picturing something that doesn't take long to do." I've failed this student by not fulfilling his request until now, after he's already spent over a month as a teen. I've also failed to update this blog in around the same amount of time. I apologize to each of you.  Here's to new years and new beginnings. In peace, Kelli

Now, let's meditate, ACTIVELY!

What does this mean, exactly?

Well, meditation is the act of calmly but deliberately clearing and quieting your mind. When you carry a general intention to the meditation (such as how to find the perfect job, building stronger relationships, do well in school, etc.), then the answer will normally just "come" to you after your mind has been cleansed of the clutter. Many people meditate in a traditional way by sitting cross-legged and breathing while visualizing colors associated with chakras, the body's major energy centers. However, other people find this difficult, time-consuming and sometimes just not the most effective way to find a sense of clarity and calm. For those of us who feel that way (and, yes, I include myself here!), there is active meditation. My personal favorite forms of active meditation are cleaning, dancing, walking and drumming. Dancing and drumming give me a great focal point in the form of a musical beat. Cleaning, dancing and walking are also somewhat physically stimulating, so I get a little endorphin rush and a sense of physical fitness and personal accomplishment. Cleaning is also just really great metaphorically. As my student Brantley and I discussed during our last homeschool session of the summer, when you clean and LITERALLY make surfaces clearer and areas less cluttered, your mind follows suit!

That stuff is all "old hat" though. Today I'm busting out a new form of active meditation, which also produces a tasty and healthy (or, at least, healthiER!) birthday treat.

Supply List

3/4 cup olive oil
1.5 cups brown sugar
apple sauce
2 tablespoons flax meal
6 tablespoons water
2.25 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 standard-size bag dark chocolate chips
1 tablespoon of honey
lavender essential oil
burner
Ralph Roddenbery's "Nobody Else Can Be Yourself"

Process

1. Fill the basin of your essential oil burner with water and add up to 15 drops of lavender oil. CAREFULLY light a tea light candle and place it under the basin in the appropriate spot. Diffusing the lavender will clear the atmosphere and help you relax.

2. Pre-heat a conventional oven to 375 degrees F. Tell yourself that sometimes life "heats up" so good that creation can take place. Recognize all pressure, tension and "heat" in your life as being necessary for personal growth.

3. Mix together all ingredients EXCEPT apple sauce, chocolate chips and honey. Tell yourself that chaos brings positive change, that all are one and that all things return to peace.

4. Slowly add apple sauce to the mix. Continue adding apple sauce and mixing to give it a smooth, consistency that is easy to stir. Think of all the connections in your life. Remind yourself as you add the applesauce to your mix that everything comes together in the end.

5. Add the bag of chocolate chips and the honey and blend them in. Smile because you are adding sweetness to both the mix and your life.

6. Scoop little balls of the mix onto your cookie sheet. Use wax paper or treat cookie sheet with some spray oil or butter so the cookies won't stick.

7. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. While they are baking play "Nobody Else Can Be Yourself." Sing the words aloud and dance.  Be proud of who you are. Keep this song on repeat, or sing and dance to other inspirational music. Here is a link to a live performance of the song!

8. Enjoy your cookies!!!! They will look a little "undercooked" at first but will firm up when they cool. As you are eating the cookies, take a moment to savor them. Pay attention to the way each bite feels inside your mouth. Notice the way the cookies taste and smell. As you enjoy the cookies, think thoughts of gratitude and imagine the chakras lighting up within you: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Imagine a rainbow wraps around you to keep you safe and warm. Remind yourself that you have the power to feel this way and the no one can ever take away your ability to be yourself.

Emergence of the Natural Shaman (Bienvenidos, Alberto!)

photo by my friend Wendy Ritchey of ArtisticallyStiched.com 

I look up to see a gigantic foam structure towering over me. It’s the bust of a female gymnast obtained by my husband C. back when the Olympics came to Altanta and marriage was still something I vaguely thought I’d do when I “grew up” and completed middle school. The gymnast is flanked by weathered Blue Meanies and a Yellow Submarine crafted for a Turner Broadcasting tribute to the Beatles. Since then, these sculptures have been carted back and forth many times to and from Atlanta’s Lake Claire Community Land Trust where they’ve graced the stage at the Peace and Love Fest and other musical gatherings. It was at one of these that C. first introduced me to Candler Park and Little 5 Points, areas that have since become my homes within the city. My other more constant homes are a loft built within the same warehouse where the gymnast balances in the rafters and a wooden house my husband built right across the railroad tracks where trains pass like an industrial river through the night.

C. has been active with Atlanta’s arts underground for almost two decades. However, his recognition as a key element of this scene occurred less frequently within Atlanta than within its far rural outskirts, where the warehouse sits at a crossroads pivotal to the South’s defeat in the Civil War. When he first moved his scenery business here, he was an anomaly with long dreaded hair, tie-dyed shirts and a utility kilt. Now, locals ask him to run for mayor. He’s become a regular part of the landscape around here, like one of the hearty wild flowers that spring up beside the tracks. One of his strengths is to mine the cultural underground for seeds and then plant them in unsuspecting places and people. Communities form around my husband. They gather at the shop, as they have today, for batches of smoked vegetables and chicken. They create artwork and seek inspiration that will help them through bouts of depression, poverty and general transition. They express a spectrum of excitement, disappointment and gratitude. The latest community is stronger than any I’ve encountered to date. They have united over steel—or, more specifically, the way steel can be made to sing.

My daughter beside our "industrial river"

In my mind’s eye, I envision cultural underground communities functioning as webs rather than isolated singularities. A leader emerges who trains, both directly and indirectly, individuals to become potential leaders of their own collectives, which all remain linked in some way to the parent community. The leaders are not at the top of a hierarchy in the traditional sense. Rather, they function like spiders, resting calmly at the center of the web, gracefully weaving and re-weaving connections as needed. If my husband is one of these weavers, then Alberto Roman lives at the center of the web from which C. takes his greatest inspiration. I finally met Alberto for the first time last Tuesday. As seems to so often be the case with me, I was darting out the door. Then I changed my plans. My daughter had an apocalyptic meltdown. My son soiled his diaper. Alberto offered to go, but I insisted he stay and bear witness to the storm of which I am the eye.

According to his Facebook profile, Alberto is a Costa Rica born former substance abuse counselor, probation officer and hospital resource specialist who has also spent decades exploring humanity’s connection to the Divine via his involvement in sacred ceremonies which utilize his experience as an instrumentalist and natural healer. Alberto’s degrees in psychology and philosophy relate to his spiritual work. However, Alberto tells me that his greatest moment of inspiration struck when he was around 9 years old walking to the end of his driveway. He became filled with a pervasive sense of joy that he felt compelled to share. At this point in my blogging journey, I would like to share some of Aberto’s spirit with you. Light a candle & some incense. Prepare a pot of your favorite tea. Then listen to the interview linked below. Motivational speaker and parenting expert Bob Lancer does a fantastic job of helping Alberto articulate his vision for an emerging culture of the natural shaman. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!

Trial and Tribulation: My Take on the Anthony Case

Nancy Grace's propensity for sensational news makes me question her mental stability. As a result, I followed very little of her coverage (and other media coverage) of Casey Anthony's landmark trial. Instead, I checked the highlights after the verdict had been made, and it seems to me that much of America has been swept into a media frenzy and is jumping to major conclusions. Personally, I am caught between A) wishing all discussion of this issue will simply dissipate and B) feeling inspired to provide people with a new perspective on the tragedy. The second tendancy has prevailed, so read on for my personal opinion of the case:

To my understanding, Casey Anthony allowed her daughter Caylee to die in a pool because she wasn't watching her. When Casy found her child, she freaked out, dumped the body in the woods beside her house, made up the story about how Caylee had been kidnapped and then pretty much tried to fake her daughter's kidnapping and murder by going so far as to look up details about creating specific injuries in a frenzy following her daughter's death. She even attempted to place duct tape on her daughter body and then ripped it off in what must have been a moment of clarity, grief and disgust. Casey is most definitely ill. However,a group of jurors deemed that she is not the "party mom" who murdered her child to have more "party time," as much of America has framed her to be, and I believe those jurors are probably correct.

A mother who deliberately harms her children is easily villified. Villifying her can also become fodder for commercialized news & entertainment because people are thinking, "I may not be a great person, but at least I'm not THAT bad. That woman is TERRIBLE." However, if you consider the idea that Caylee did tragically die in a pool while unattended, then this humanizes Casey just a little too much, and makes her seem just a little too relatable to all the moms whose kids have unknowingly slipped out the back door. After wrapping that thought around your mind, think about the familial and social factors that may make a woman actually believe it's better to fake a kidnapping & murder (as Casey did) than to simply report her child's horribly accidental death. The conversation gets very complex, quite sticky, gravely important and not nearly so suitable for info-tainment. The media points to Casey's infamous "party pictures" as evidence that Casey was seeking a party lifestyle. I think they may be just as easily held as evidence that she'd cracked after finding her deceased child and was filling her mind with as much fluff as she could to keep from going more insane with grief. All told, the case really makes for a pretty deep sociological/psychological​ study, but I regret it is just going to go down in history as a sensationalized event.

At a minimum, I think all parents have at least 3 things to learn as a result of this incident:
1. Do not be a person so filled with fear that you turn your life into a nightmare.
2. Pay attention to your children's whereabouts.
3. If you have an above ground pool, remove the ladder after use so that wandering 2-year-olds can't fall in.

That's my stance. Air your thoughts and move on.

Publicity!

Please read my thoughts about education on Kate Fridkis' brilliant blog Skipping School. Please leave comments on the post, and take some time to check out her awesomely original writing about learning outside the box.

Soul Mates, Karmic Partners and Twin Flames

A former student chatted with me this morning about her mother's re-marriage, and I felt inspired to summarize the myth of Soul Mates, Karmic Partners and Twin Flames. Doing so reminded me that this has become one of my "signature myths." I discovered it upon meeting my husband and have since shared it with many of my closest friends. Now, I extend it to you. Here are condensed descriptions of each relationship type. Bear in mind, the myth accepts reincarnation as a reality. As with all myths, you may choose what you believe to resonate with truth and leave the rest. Also, most people apply these descriptions to romantic relationships; however, there is no need to limit them. These terms apply to all close relationships.

Soul Mates: These people are like cosmic classmates. You incarnate together lifetime after lifetime and just seem to "get" each other. This is because you are literally energy vibrating at about the same frequency. You may have greatly different life experiences; however, you approach life with the same basic perspective. You help each other evolve at a steady pace and have few troubles. Everyone has many soul mates. When soul mates unite, they often work closely together to nourish the development of children and/or innovative ideas.

Karmic Partners: These are people with whom you have some specific issue to resolve. Your immediate bond is intense, but the longevity of your relationship is limited. Either you learn from each other, find peace and then go your separate ways OR you realize the issue cannot be resolved at the present time and go your separate ways. You will re-encounter each other, or similar souls, when you are more prepared to learn what needs learning and to heal what needs healing. Relationships with karmic partners can be very rewarding and empowering when past issues are resolved and healed. They become "go to" people in times of need and the kind of "exes" who remain your friends. Alternatively, relationships with karmic partners are prone to becoming abusive and draining. When this occurs, additional negative energy accrues; however, some people fight to stay together out of the mis-guided belief that they have a karmic debt to settle with each other. Allow the relationship to dissipate, knowing that debts will be settled when you are ready and that any premature attempt to "push the river" will only cause greater harm.

Twin Flames: These people originate from the same energy at the same time. Therefore, they represent different aspects of the same person. Twin Flame relationships can be very difficult because you are constantly being forced to face parts of yourself that may make you uncomfortable or ashamed. At the same time, Twin Flame relationships are earth-shakingly loving. Committed Twin Flame partners inspire rapid personal evolution with enough force to significantly change the world.

In the spirit of this post, check out Joan Baez performing her classic "Diamonds and Rust."

Free to Fly: My First Healing Session with Bhima Giri

I lay down upon the bed where my husband received his healing before me. My son slumbered next to me in his crib as my daughter slept upstairs. My stepson son was distant but close within my heart. I waited for a light and was greeted by a fly.  Buzzing, buzzing, he walked along my arms and legs and circled my head. He flew toward my throat opening the chakra there so I could speak honest and true. I twitched but received the gifts of this creature. Energy tense within me began to relax and flow slowly through me as though my life force were being renewed. Blocks cleared in my left leg, right arm and throat. My crown chakra opened wider, and I felt a peaceful calling to step away from what constrains me and to fly free.  A crystal lotus-shaped vase began to glow. A gift from either my husband's stepmother or a former student, I have not thought of it as sacred, but it is what I need, a missing piece for rituals now and later. I take this renewed gift with gratitude and peace that flows through my evolving spirit. Our session marks the awakening of the next stage of a major transformation started four years ago following a fire that stimulated creation in the wake of its destruction. There is love among the ruins. Flowers in the ashes. Beauty in the ugliness. Humor in the severity. Laugh and Be. These are the messages I take with me. My husband called to unknowingly signal the end of our session, his pilgrimage underway on this Solstice day. Today we will walk through a week, physically separate and spiritually united, as we have never been before. I'm thankful to encounter Bhima Giri along my way. Lightening bug in the day time dances around my son. My daughter wakes. Blessings come. And, I recognize the blessings that have always been. Peace. Fire. Love. Power. Release. Kali. Be.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/bhima-giri/white-lotus-activating-try-your-first-healing-session-free/10150221029182945

Visit the link above for more information about scheduling a healing session.

Full Circle: Talkin' Hula Hoops and Life with John Adams

 Above: John's hoops and his cat Duncan

The day before Twilight 2011, my husband C. and I arrived in Athens around midnight with our two youngest children in tow.  Tornadoes had just swept through our corner of Northwest Georgia, and 24 hours ago we’d all been crouched, along with our dog and 70-something-year-old godfather, in our root cellar.  When we crawled out into life without power and internet, we packed our Airstream camper and took to the road.  We had already planned to go to Gwinnett County for my stepson’s birthday, but, instead of turning back after our time at Chuck E. Cheese, we just kept going North on I-85.  Having graduated from UGA in 2004, I had Athens in mind as a destination.  However, I neither knew about the upcoming races nor stayed to enjoy them.  Instead the highlight of my Athens adventure happened behind a Baxter Street strip mall where my husband found a tiny slice of spring paradise and set up a temporary campsite for me and our children while he used the coin laundry facility next door.  I filled my time by interviewing my old friend John Adams, a former Russell Hall co-ed turned hula-hoop maker, and discovered four little nuggets of wisdom. 

1.  Evolution happens.

John says, “When you’re a little kid, you get a plastic hula hoop that is really no good.”  He continues to imply that, in and of itself, this isn’t a major problem because little kids do seem to have a lot of fun with plastic hula hoops.  However, allowing this child’s toy to completely shape your perception is an issue.  In reality, there is a whole sub-culture of hula-hoop girls out there who devote a lot of time and attention to the art of hoop dancing and take pride in showing off the results at concerts and creative festivals nationwide.  John is inspired by watching these lovely women perform.  At the same time, he recognizes that taking such a dualistic, child’s toy vs. serious hoop dancer, approach is limiting.  Free-spirited, fun, flexible, durable and individual are some adjectives that describe both John’s hoops and the sort of personally evolving folks for whom they’re made.   

2. Struggle is over-rated.

John looks at me then smiles slyly.  “You don’t have to exert effort to hula hoop well,” he says.  His meaning is that quality hula hoops tend to keep themselves in motion without people going overboard to keep them spinning.  I think this is a good metaphor for how people choose to live. If you construct a life plan that is rigid and unoriginal, you may have a difficult time keeping it in motion.  However, if you create a life plan that is designed to be personally sustainable, then it takes little added effort to keep it going and reap the rewards. In keeping with this philosophy, John seems open to embracing new ways of living until he finds the one that fits best. 

3. Create your own reality.

 John reveals that his hula hoops are constructed mainly from irrigation PVC pipe and carefully applied alternating colors of electrical tape.  He adds that the internet has been instrumental in helping him make hoops effectively and spread the news about his products.  One may say the accessibility of materials and information comes from a willingness to create new uses for existing things and to openly accept the wisdom that others voluntarily share—two more great practices for balanced living.

4. Be natural.

When I think of John, I remember the guy I met while signing our buddy Nora’s petition to have permanent ash trays installed outside Russell Hall.  He was tough—always kind of angry but still interested in the world and the lives of the people with whom his life intersected, a young man at the center of both teenage drama and early spiritual awakening.  Ten years later, interviewing John about making hula hoops feels strangely natural. Perhaps this is because the motivation behind the work seems so honest and clear.  In addition to citing his girlfriend Christen as inspiration, he simply states, “I saw a beautiful thing in the world and wanted people to know about it, to have it.”  If the inspiration behind all great ideas were so natural and direct, people would probably have a lot more peace. 

To order a customized hoop from John just in time for summer concert season, e-mail jadams3@jsu.edu.