Archive for Philosophy
An Interesting Adventure!
Posted by: | CommentsSunday July 15th, I went down to New Mexico for the Sisters of Honua Grandmother’s Summit. I had cleaned all of the accumulated rubbish out of the car, had the oil changed, the fluids checked, bought new tires, got a wash and wax, and filled it up with gas. It was a wonderful (if a little too hot) day, with the clouds rolling across the blue bowl of sky and very light traffic. I love to take long drives with myself and I hadn’t had one in a long time. The road was smooth, the car road like a dream; though my gas got low quicker than usual since I was using the AC.
At Wagon Mound I stopped for gas and filled her up. Putting the trip gauge back to zero to see what kind of mpg I was getting, I wrote the mileage on the slip, and took off. Humming along the highway, going 80 on the 75 mpg road, the miles melted away as I got closer to Rowe, NM. I was going to spend the night at my friend Winnie’s home. She and I had met when I came to build a labyrinth on her land. She and her husband are truely self sufficient, no power lines go to their home. So I was looking forward to being out on their isolated piece of dessert paradise!
Suddenly there was a loud crack, bang noise! I had never heard anything like it before! Instantly I said to myself “You’ve just blown your engine!”. Then my ‘Carbaby’ began to shake and wobble on the road, and it took a lot of strength to keep her going in a straight line while I slowed down as quickly as safety permitted.
“Maybe I blew a tire?!” I said hopefully.
I was shaking, especially inside…a full adrenalin rush going through me. I turned the car off when I was as far off the road as I could get, rolled to a stop and I just sat there limp, gathering my wits. After breathing for a minute or so, and watching the steam lazily spiral out around the edges of the hood, I relaxed a little when that disappeared completely. Having lived in a dessert, the sunshades went up on the windshield immediately. Black topped convertible in 100 degree weather is a bit uncomfortable after awhile.
OK. Call AAA. Any bars on the cell phone?? Yes. Where am I? Oh yes…I’ve gone 14.3 miles south from the Wagon Mound exit. (So grateful I hit the trip button!)
“We’ll have the truck there in two hours or less.” Holy Heat!
I called Winnie so that she could meet me in Las Vegas, NM at the repair place. Then I sat there. Intermittently cars and trucks whizzed by at 80 or so miles per hour, rocking the car. I opened the windows despite the traffic noise to let a breeze in, and prayed for some more clouds to cover me. Sitting there dripping sweat, I realized that because of cell phones, no one stopped anymore for a car with blinkers on beside the road!
Now here’s the surprising thing – I felt no drama. I didn’t go into the future, and every time I started to, up came the “I don’t have enough information yet” statement. Wow! Have I come a long way! Instead of the old thoughts, I found myself saying “Isn’t this interesting! I wonder what will happen next?” I also hoped it would be soon as I was out of water!
An hour and a half later, I was delighted to find out the tow truck was a comfortable roomy double cab with air conditioning! The driver’s wife was with him, and we chatted while he loaded my car up. I snapped pictures of it through the rear window, wondering if she would be leaving my life altogether. I was so glad I’d cleaned her out! Only my camping gear, clothes, and give-aways for the Summit were in the car. We talked about where to take the car, and I voiced my doubt that a transmission place would be where I needed to go. That was the only suggestion AAA had. I went with the suggestion of the tow truck driver and found myself in the suburbs at a talented home mechanic.
He opened the hood and looked in. “I’ve only seen this a few times in my career!” He said. Then he started pulling walnut sized hunks of cast iron block out of the engine and showing me. The rod had punched a hole in the block. I knew that meant a rebuilt engine. Since I liked him immediately, I asked him to do a quote of rebuilt engine vs bluebook value of my car.
Then Winnie took me to her home! Ahhhhh!!! Nothing like relaxing in the wood fired hot tub, gazing up into a clear dark sky filled with a million stars, unclouded by light, haze or smog! I slept well that night.
After we walked the labyrinth in the morning and packed ourselves into Winnie’s jeep for our week at Taa-naash-kaa-da Sanctuary, we returned to the garage in the ‘burbs. James had my figures: bluebook value $2700.00; rebuilt engine and clutch (no sense doing the engine and not doing the clutch) $2700.00. I rounded it up to $3000.00 immediately. Something always comes up. I was pretty sure I wanted to rebuild the engine, and I also decided to think on it for the week I would be at Taa-naash-kaa-da.
Well, I just put 4 new tires on my car, a new battery, a new top…now a new engine and a clutch? Versus what kind of car I could get for the $3000.00? Hummmm…sounds like a no-brainer to me! 150,000 miles? For a Toyota Celica, that’s only half of its expected life! I said “James, fix it!”
My sisters at the Grandmothers Summit offered me four different rides home to Denver! My oldest daughter was also very generous and kind and immediately told me to go ahead and use her car while she was on vacation. However she came home Monday so I really need mine back. Time to ask James how long it will be.
OOPS! I don’t have his number because I had to get a new phone (the screen was not working right), and somehow it wasn’t on the SIM card?? I had called him on my old phone, but that one was gone. After a few attempts to get a message to James, or find the number on line, I finally used the yellow pages to find the tow truck driver. We talked a minute, then he asked if I was Kate Armstrong! When I confirmed this, he gave me his friend James number.
So I am tentatively planning to return to Las Vegas, NM mid month to get my car. The only ‘flies in the ointment’ are no short block available for my car until next week; and there is the Denver County Fair that I’m part of August 9th – 12th, so I can’t get back ‘on the road again’ until after the 13th. In the mean time let’s add winning the Publisher’s Clearing House money to my manifestation list! YAY!!
True Gifts of the Holidays
Posted by: | CommentsWe never had a lot of money to use for gifts for the Holidays in our family. There have been times I minded that, when I wanted the newest what-ever as a teen, particularly. I also minded when I wanted to go out and buy all sorts of stuff for my children. Now? I have a very different perspective.
Those years of making things for Christmas, keeping the secret of what I was making from others, the small noises behind closed doors that signaled someone was working on something exciting, built an air of anticipation that was palpable. Just like making Christmas in “Little House on the Prairie”, each of us found time to do something special for the others in the family.
Making gifts for the others in our far flung family was also both time consuming and rewarding. One year we made soft stuffed cloth mobiles for the family on the East coast. We lived in the desert at the time and had an assortment of cactus, lightening and thunder, sun, moon, and coyote hanging from a branch. Another time I made pot holders of old jeans padded with an worn out cotton mattress pad and decorated with various motifs: pears, cherries, braid, stars, and apples. Some of these are still in use 30 years later! There were wall hangings, sweaters, mittens cut from old sweaters, and knit scarfs. Some years focused on elderberry jelly, spiced peach jam and various chutneys. There was even the year of homemade Kahlua!
I remember my Mother and Father making screen printed Christmas cards, carved wooden reindeer, and lots of different Christmas cookies. My grown children still ask for the Swedish wreath of sweet dough, raisins, and pecans that was always a holiday tradition when I was a girl. I’ll be making it again this year for Christmas morning! Yum Yum!
In our large family (we are up to 20) there is a premium on creativity. There is a tradition of re-gifting (I loved this, and I hope you like it too) and passing stuff down (younger cousins always love the books, toys, and treasures from older cousins). We also love second-hand stores, unusual clothing, and funny surprises.
This year we are doing something really special. Each of the ‘kids’ is writing a story from the days of the Green Van and my oldest daughter is putting it together with old pictures as a book for each of us. We are so excited by this it has taken on a life of its own! What an exciting project, and what a lovely present! You can’t find this in any store nor get it for love nor money – unless you put the time into it and make it yourself.
And that, my friends, is Christmas! We do get a few things for the kids to play with, and Santa always comes! There is an orange in the toe, a silly game, a special food, and we always hope for the bit of music, the new puzzle, a good book and a warm fire to toast our toes by after a while. The real joy comes from not having to go out shopping, no frantic tally of who gets what, and the steady joy of doing something for someone that cannot be duplicated anywhere else.
Peace, friends! Joy of the season, a joy that comes from the return of the Light after the darkest day of the year! A gathering of hearts and kids and the warmth of remembrance for what has been; a pure wish for what is most dear to us all for the future; and a great love for what is now! That’s what this Holiday season is all about! It has been celebrated since the beginning of our human family, embroidered on by life and times, and still holding true today. Gift yourself with pleasure in the love that is in your life. Create a special moment of surprise for those you love, and leave out a plate of cookies for Santa, and a few carrots for the reindeer.
New Moon
Posted by: | CommentsThe New Moon is a time to set your intentions for the month. The dark of the moon is the pregnant void, the chaos point where all creation starts and all creation returns. This is a time full of promise and possibility. So I like to celebrate this phase of the moon with an eye towards creating the next month and, therefore, the rest of my life.
This morning I awoke excited by the New Moon. I rearranged some stones, cleaned up altar spaces, watered and tended my houseplants, and lit an incense stick and some candles. In the brilliant warm sun streaming through the kitchen window, I wrote a check to myself. The date was now, the name was mine, the amount was “Paid In Full” on both lines, and the signature space was the Abundant Universe. Than sends a very strong intent to the Universe, and no limit on how it is to happen! I put it in a sacred place.
The first 24 to 48 hours after the New Moon is a perfect time to dream the next steps you are taking in your world and on your journey. We are always at a decision point about what we are going to drop from our path and what we are going to bring in to our experience. Moment by moment we decide what’s next. Taking the time to make this an aware process and participate in our life actively is key. Paying attention at this level will change the world.
There has never been a time before when everything moves so fast, or changes so quickly. We need to adopt attitudes and activities that keep us fluid, ones that allow us to re-frame our lives and bring in a new script whenever we need one to take us forward to the next best moment. The New Moon allows me the perfect opportunity to reflect on my next (highest and best) step(s).
This monthly pause for reflection and introspection allows time to assess our jobs, our lives, our relationships, and especially our dreams! The New Moon is when the Dream Seed gets planted. It will either happen through a default program that you have been using for years without thought, or you will interact with your own future by becoming aware that you can. It will either be the same old same old, or you will decide to ‘play’ with the program yourself!
The New Moon: A time for intention, ceremony, visioning, and setting the dream for the next month. Just throw one old thought, feeling, belief, or decision out and replace it with a new vision, a new intent. Only one old one out and one new one in each month, or we will feel overwhelmed! Have fun creating some ways of marking this as a special moment in your life. No time? Take a little pocket notebook with you and simply write what’s in and what’s out on the New Moon once a month. Then notice your life…
