Sacred Space

Seven Years!

2008-07-04T16:54:49Z

Good work, drgovier! We did it! Seven years married...here's to seven more.

stuff and nonsense...maybe I should up my meds?

2008-06-27T18:54:05Z

I had kind of a crappy morning. Most of it brought on by my own feelings of insecurity and guilt and then exacerbated by tiny little things that no one has any control over but still irritate me. And I've got a sick kiddo here who I got sick and you can imagine the level of guilt going on THERE. Ugh. How did I go from loving my life so dearly the other day to wanting to just kick it all to the curb this morning?

This afternoon is going better and I can laugh at my ridiculous attitude. Ah well, we will all get well and next week is the LAKE!!!

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (I've read some of it)
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (again, I've read some of it)
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Happy Midsummer!

2008-06-21T20:19:00Z

And Summer Solstice!

can't sleep

2008-06-18T06:21:47Z

This is the second night in a week that I can't sleep...and I am a champion sleeper. Maybe it was the 20 hours of sleep I got on Sunday when I was sick. But I don't think that's quite fair.

I have submitted all my work for my online ethics class and just have to do a few discussion posts and I'm all done with classes! Now I just have a year of practicum ("internship") which meets once a week plus seeing two to four directees twice a month plus supervision. So...a lot of work but nearing the finish line.

I also started training to become a doula. I found a great online course and then I attend workshops and live births. I should be all certified in a year or so. I would do that work now, but it's a lot of physiology and I'm not awake for it right now. Not awake, not asleep.

I realized that I'm basically learning to become a wise old woman, that's what my degree should be in. A Baba Yaga. I just need a degree in herbology and a few more decades of experience and I should be set. Me and my thirteen little jobs in my little self-sustaining cottage. Hey, if I can live on it, I'll do it!

I was pretty sick on Sunday and am feeling much better but I sound like I've been smoking and drinking for forty years. And not in the sexy way.

Happy (belated) Father's Day!

2008-06-16T12:42:13Z

Happy Father's Day to all my daddy friends! You are loved!

(I was laid out with a 24-hour cold/cough/deathflu yesterday and could not post.)

Happy Birthday neva_butterfly!

2008-06-03T15:27:31Z

I hope you have a lovely day today and also on your "un"birthday whenever you choose to celebrate it :)

Happy Birthday memoryanddream!

2008-05-16T15:05:36Z

May you have a joyful day and a prosperous year!

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T15:46:27Z

to all Mommies!

Happy Beltane!

2008-05-01T16:10:56Z

I place virtual flowers on your doorknob!

Happy Birthday miss_sherri!!

2008-04-19T17:01:18Z

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

early birthday wishes to thedragonweaver

2008-04-11T11:26:06Z

Happy Happy Birthday on Sunday! I will be thinking of you!

(I am going out of town and out of computer use for the weekend.)

bleh!

2008-04-10T23:51:37Z

I am freaking out a little bit. I am breathing. A panic attack? It's okay. Too many revelations are pushing through my consciousness. I have to go to a show tonight and I just need to calm down.

Tomorrow I go to South Carolina for my Vision Quest. I know all this is necessary, I'm just having trouble dealing with it. Deal, Katie, deal! I am dealing.

May this rain wash me clean.

Re-Membering: reclaiming, rewriting, restoring

2008-04-09T20:27:26Z

It's been quite a journey for me so far...

So last November I felt the darkness coming, beckoning me, and instead of kicking and screaming and fighting and resisting, I packed my bindle and entered it willingly. When I crossed the threshold, I could see, like I had night-vision. I was walking through a village square and there were all these little cottages/huts and a fountain and then a stream of women came rushing out of all the cottages, calling my name and welcoming me and telling me how they were so glad I had come. We built a bonfire and had three nights of drinking and dancing and singing and drumming and then we all lounged around and laughed and talked and slept.

When I woke from the bonfire party, it was time to start the actual journey and they all kissed me goodbye and I was alone again. I felt pretty confident since the darkness was already so much easier this time through. I walked and walked and walked in the night. I had to do battle with some viscious night creatures, but nothing I couldn't handle. I traveled to my homeland, where I reconnected with my family of origin and re-membered my childhood.

Then a tornado picked me up and swirled me around and around and around. At first I tried to fight it, I tried to steady myself in the whirling, but eventually I let go and let myself get moved wherever the chaos was taking me. The tornado put me down and before I could even regain my balance, the ground fell out from beneath me.

The ground disappeared and I was falling, falling. It was unlike any other feeling I have had and yet strangely familiar. It was Nothing. Void. Aditi. I thrashed and flailed and sobbed and wept as I kept falling. And then, eventually, I grew numb from the constant rushing wind of nothing. I grew still. Silent. I entered the Void as I entered the Darkness: willingly. I became comfortable there and yet I knew I had to come out. But I had no idea how to get out.

I kept being told to reach out a hand, to ask for help. So from the Void, I reached out a hand, not truly believing it would do any good, but hopeful despite myself. Out of the darkness, a hand appeared and grasped mine, heaving me back onto earth. I felt myself being rescusitated, I felt life being breathed into me, I felt my heart being restarted. It was painful.

Now I am here on the cliff, standing on the earth, aware of the Void, surrounded by the darkness. There is a fork in the road and I have chosen the middle ground, forging a new and unknown path. Good thing I brought my axe.

birchfire @ 2008-03-19T08:25:00

2008-03-19T13:26:17Z

read all about it here

Writer's Block: The Things We Carry

2008-03-14T00:37:12Z

What do you always carry with you?

View other answers

a notebook and pen

Faelyn cuteness

2008-01-30T19:15:28Z

awesome Faelyn-ness:

ME: "red, red, red red red; blue, blue, blue blue blue"
FAE: "pu-ple, pu-ple"
ME: "green, green, I found a box of crayons!"

SINGING TO MOM AS SHE GETS ROCKED TO SLEEP: "mama, dada, kadee, nona"

When her mom gave me a really good "mama" hug: "mama lub kadee"

All her kisses, big hugs, noses and cheeks.

Her big laugh where she throws her belly forward and raises her arms.

I just love her.

Shameless Promotions

2007-12-03T15:37:57Z

If you visit http://handmade-blessings.tripod.com you will find beautiful hats, scarves, bonnets and teas that make lovely holiday gifts for others (or yourself!). The knitwear is made by me and the teas are made by obscurepoet. All items are crafted with sacred intention and are comforting and healing.

No pressure of course! Just an invitation to take a look :)

good mail!

2007-11-18T02:10:39Z

I got my prize from o_my_goodness yesterday! It's a tote bag with the "Something Good" logo cross-stitched (by hand by the multi-talented mrsbrewer. VERY cute and VERY useful...also a good promotional tool, since Chicago will now be alerted to the presence of the Something Good Blog: o_my_goodness!

Thank you so much, Lorna, it's really great and I love it!

neighborhood safety

2007-11-15T14:19:50Z

So far this month there have been three robberies (that I know of) within two blocks of my apartment, two of which were at gunpoint. One happened at 6:30am, one at 3pm and one at 10pm. It's dark by 5pm now. I have to walk home from class at 7:30pm two nights a week.

I don't feel safe.

I'm not scared or fearful but I do not feel safe. I'm aware of my surroundings, aware of who is around me, I don't carry cash.

Gee, I'd like to feel safe walking home. Or walking from my car to my home.

Just needed to vent.

Dun da da DUN!

2007-10-08T22:08:56Z

Happy Birthday mrsbrewer!! Lots of love, lots of blessings!

Alive, tired, planting seeds

2007-09-27T17:17:04Z

I am in school full-time (3 classes). I am nannying part-time (30 hours/week). I am working in the office part-time (9 hours/week). I am starting a business and that takes up a whole lot of time, not to mention brain-space.

I am not really seeing my husband.

I am so tired that each day is a blur.

BUT I am taking a leap into the absurd! I am trying to make money doing what I am good at and enjoy! I am expanding my spirituality! I am full of good ideas for books and projects!

Tomorrow I made my husband take the day off and we are going on a lunch date, most likely to be followed by cuddle/nap date. I am going to sleep in...I haven't slept past 7am for over two weeks now (I know those of you with little ones may envy that wake up time, but I don't have a wee one to make the early hours exciting).

I am leading my first self-created retreat on Saturday. It's called Sacred Knitting: make your own prayershawl. I'm excited and scared. I've kind of been living with this anxious feeling in my tummy for the past couple of months, and I know it's fear. I'm afraid no one will respond to what I have to offer. But I have one person signed up for this Saturday and my sister-in-law is going to come as well. And people are talking about coming to my upcoming offerings, so we'll see how that goes.

I am starting to get some business doing Reiki treatments and spiritual direction, too. That is super cool. I'm doing Reiki regularly again and that makes a big difference in my own energy.

I am really excited that it's Autumn. The colors, the smells, the weather, the food...ah, yes, I am happy. And I'm REALLY excited for December when I will have weeks and weeks of no school. Come December, I will be 2/3 done with my Masters. I can't believe I did it...well, my loans are a good solid reminder :)

So, seeds...grow!

birchfire @ 2007-08-30T10:03:00

2007-08-30T15:03:51Z

Happy Golden Birthday, hssst! I'm sorry that I will be working during your party, but I hope you have a great time!

kids sing the darndest things

2007-08-25T01:03:23Z

So I'm babysitting at a hotel this evening: two little girls, one is 2 and other other is 5. Quite a handful. So I FINALLY get them into bed and for the past half hour I've been listening to the 5 year old sing songs at the top of her lungs, all with hysterically inaccurate words: this old man, twelve days of christmas, part of your world from little mermaid, the entire soundtrack of Wizard of Oz...

"We depeset the lollipop dill, the lollipop dill, the lollipop dill! And in the rainbow the lollipop diiiiiiiiill! We meschumichumu to munchkin land!"

Also "We're off to see the the wizard....because because because because BECAUSE because of the wonderful things he does...hmmmmmmm!" The hmmmmm bit had me cracking up.

She's stopped now and I think they MIGHT be going to sleep...

Indeed.

2007-08-09T20:24:24Z

What Form Would Your Patronus Take? (With 10 Excellent Results & Pictures)

Your Patronus would be a Phoenix!
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Something Good

2007-08-07T20:46:24Z

In celebration of the one-year anniversary of the Something Good blog (o_my_goodness), I'm participating in the writing project.

My "something good" to share has to do with emotional health.

When you are feeling "hard" inside, when bitterness threatens to envelop you, when everything seems like a personal attack, try saying to yourself: "help me soften my heart." Breathe in, breathe out. Rinse and repeat.

And call to mind the Buddhist teaching:
However hard you search for it
You will never be able to grasp it.
You can only become it.