The Muse # 70 party like the squirrel-cat

With most of our family members’ attention focused on an ailing grandparent, summer vacation of  2007 wasn’t all that fun for my twelve-year-old – until he discovered the squirrel-cat. It took a few encounters with this erratic, furry creature before it was clear that it, he, really was a cat and not a squirrel. A very small cat; with a disproportionately long, spunky and permanently fluffed-up, vertical tail.

The cat, it turned out, belonged to the student tenant in the basement studio of the large, wooden 1924 villa with a slightly overgrown yard, which, whenever the squirrel-cat was out, turned into a wild, random combination of a circus and a jungle. My son quickly became intoxicated with this physical apparition of perplexity and wonder, for he could plainly see that there was no leap too bold, nor a stoop too random for the squirrel-cat.

Exquisitely captivating but clearly a most spasmodic of God’s creatures, the squirrel-cat to this day brings its spark, lifts our spirits and enchants our imagination; it has become a rare and valued treasure. During the summer of ’07, the squirrel-cat expressed the celebration and liberation of the spirit that had not been free to reveal itself inside a house of rules, expectations and challenging circumstances. We don’t know this for sure, but we venture to guess that the freedom of the squirrel-cat was the self-evident, God-given manifestation of

no memory
no obligations
no agenda

This, combined with limit-less energy and rainbow–colored glasses that see the world as a circus-jungle, was to be the gift of the squirrel-cat days of that summer. It’s not a recipe for life, but perhaps just something to dwell on for a while, every now and then.

May the spirit of the squirrel-cat be with you as we wrap up the month of many changes called May.

~ Marit.

The Muse # 69 ~ good karma blessing

may this day give you

strength

to lift what needs lifting

beauty

to see what needs softening

peace

to ease what needs solace

joy

to enlighten what needs light.

~ Marit.

“In the depths of our being, in body, mind and spirit, we know intuitively that we are created to love and be loved, and that fulfilling this imperative, responding to this vocation, is the central meaning of our life.”

Sam Keen

May 29   the squirrel-cat
June 5    for the love of picnics
June 12  health and happiness

The Muse # 68 wild ducks ~ and the price of truth

The Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen, wrote several plays about the price of truth. One of them is called The Wild Duck.

The wild duck in the play has been injured by the villain, a man of high society in a small town. He lives the highlife but harbors the secrets of his dirty deed of years ago, for which his friend and his friend’s family pay each and every day. Without his knowledge, his friend, the betrayed, has taken on caring for the injured bird. However, when the son of the villain takes on the role of a truth-monger, it becomes clear that the familiar pain of unseemly lies has become more comfortable and sustainable than the truth.

What is the price of truth? Where is the line in the sand? What is the price of comfort?

Like most of Ibsen’s plays, this one deals with both interpersonal and social dynamics of big egos faltering as they face, or don’t face, the truth. Their lives become a struggle to maintain their identity against the fragility of their own human psyche, or that of others. The conflicts result in dirty laundry being aired in the most rigid and presumably proper sorts of families and circumstances. The battle to maintain outward appearances sucks the life right out of people. Mind you: Norway is no fool for happy endings. Up there in the north-country, reality bites colder than the gale of the North Sea.

The weight of social mediocrity and the personal cost that comes with putting self-righteousness above righteousness; social dogma above mercy and humanity itself, are topics that are unearthed and dissected in most of Ibsen’s plays.

On the backdrop of the current debate of torture and truth, security versus freedom and the voice or tune of patriotism, I wonder what kind of play Ibsen would write if he lived in America today. What is the price of truth? What is the cost of American freedom and the brand of integrity in American democracy? What is the proper tit for tat?

Does government and government officials answer to a different truth than we do as individuals? How powerful is the law, and how good is it at judging truth?

Then again, Ibsen, may have chosen the social milieu of the armed forces in Baghdad and looked under the surface of bravery and the price of bravado, exploring the social dynamic behind the tragedy of the murder suicide in a counseling facility.

Whose truth matters? Every truth matters here, and must be honored, even though justice can never be served in this tragedy, lessons can be learned, as they will have to be, again and again.

The truth itself, as it were, may be our true north, but in life, truth is but a compass or a path. I don’t think anyone can stay on it without falling, loosing track of it and eat some dirt from time to time, and that includes our institutions. It seems like the price for serving truth paid by our soldiers as well as the authors of the infamous torture memos, is justified by the lessons we learn as we face the dark side of democracy: the undemocratic institutions and dogmatic processes (believe me, the army is no democracy; neither are the rigid bureaucracies of many other necessary evils of our society) all of which are required to preserve our democracy in a harsh and aggressive world. The truth behind the methods used to uncover it, is worth uncovering; in a civilization, it is perhaps the most important task of truth itself: to be, or to become, known. The lessons are unpleasant, but critical.

Judgment may not be perfectly just or fair, but judgment needs a voice in a democracy. Who was acting in the service of truth – of power – of liberty? Who was justified in compromising the law? Who was just following orders?

Democracy is messy, but it works as long as it has a voice. Living in a democracy, along with the privilege of freedom and the right to vote, comes the freedom and a duty to listen and keeping our eyes as well as our minds open, even to the most painful of screams and wrongs; especially then. And so, let the legal process in a democracy be the only power that is above any single law, executive order, or bureaucratic breach of contract.

It’s not a fun pep-talk today, but it is something to think about. Sometimes we just have to get comfortable with the uneasy parts of life; it is a good thing that democracy it’s not all black and white.

~ Marit.

May 22 good karma blessing

May 29 party like the squirrel-cat

June 5  for the love of picnics

The Muse # 67 what body?

“Downward strokes are applied to the muscle to remove tension. Then upward strokes are applied toward the heart and circular thumb movements are applied for better blood flow. Pressure points are also pressed to enhance the blood flow.”

I quote this description of Indonesian massage from an internet site about mind-body services and it got your blood flowing before you could say, “apple strudel.”

If you are like most people, you spend the better part of the day disconnected from your body. It is an aspect of being human. To be totally mind-body conscious every day does not seem natural but rather self-centered and self serving.

A solution would seem to be to replace the on-off mind-world/mind-body switch with a more 21st century nouvelle raison (new reason; new truth) where in the background of our awareness, there is an ongoing, pleasing melody, an underlying soundtrack and in-between state-of mind that would run parallel to our sub-conscious and stay loosely connected to the conscious mind at all times.

Wait, we have a contraption like that already: In yoga, they call it breath. Your breath is your inner advocate and it has a great and powerful impact on both the state of your mind and your body. In many ways it is the key to the link between the mind and the body.

Write it on a post-it note: j u s t b r e a t h e

The description of Indonesian massage goes on to say that it is different from western massage in that very little pressure is applied, uses coconut oil, flower essences and is carried out on the floor with mats, on wooden benches or a chair (now that does sound kinky, or is it just me?) More research is warranted. Please report back on your findings.

What is your attitude toward your body: Do you see it as a temple or a nuisance?

Most of us take our bodies for granted until something goes wrong. Or, we wake up one day realizing that it suddenly requires a whole lot more maintenance; it’s all in the fine print in the contract called life. (I had a wake-up call playing racket ball with my 13 year-old this week).

Anyway, it is said massage helps us by stimulating blood circulation, tissues and muscles; plus it is effective relief for people suffering from constipation, heartburn, stress, tension and anxiety. Why wait? Schedule a massage today (Indonesian or any other kind) one for you, and one for your momma.

Happy Mother’s Day.

~ Marit.

“Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
Mark Twain

May 15 wild ducks
May 22 party like the squirrel-cat
May 29 for the love of picnics

“Reveal beauty,
inspire discovery,
create positive energy.”

www.ofwindandwater.com

The Muse # 66 mind over matter ~ being unreasonable: to be or not to be

Fear is something to fear.

Just the thought of that information is annoying. The recent health scare can easily invade the darkest corners of our minds as well as our public spaces. It is true that what we have to fear is fear itself, but that’s not all, now we have to fear our fear of fear as well.

It’s not enough to try not to get paranoid in the face of mysterious, mutant viruses spreading diseases; too much focus on not being fearful is not healthy either. Fear of fear is self-centered, squashed energy and represents a total loss of power which has you end up living like the content of those kitchen garbage compressors: oxygen-deprived, constricted, under constant pressure and in the dark about what really is going on around you. All you see from there is garbage and no light.

Short term fears can serve a positive purpose and actually boost your immune system, but ongoing anxiety can cause all kinds of problems that have been well documented, including depression and runaway inflammation.

What is a healthy dose of fear?

About a bucket-load. The sensation of fear can be as abrupt and as dramatic as a solar eclipse, either putting your body on high alert and ready to fire or leaving you cold and immobile, like a bug under a rock in a cave. While our reptilian-like instincts may tell us to go crawl and hide under a rock, regular exercise as well as a healthy social network is the way to live through a bad spell while strengthening you immune system to boot. Many studies have even found that personal characteristics such as trust and good maintenance of friendships and social networks really do benefit your health. A healthy social network is a network that processes your fears, not the ones that rev them up. You know who they are. Isolation is really unhealthy; you’ve got to find a way to let that anxious energy flow without flowing over. If you have more fears than fit in one bucket: divvy it up.

Think of your family, fiends and neighbors as your bucket-brigade; together they can help you handle a truck-load. Your health as well as your sanity is a matter of communication. Much of the matter of our bodies as well as our minds is communication. So tap into your community as well as your inner voice.

There is an art and a science to controlling your mind. It isn’t as simple as positive thinking. While positive thinking helps, reason doesn’t seem to have much bearing on the basic and most primal, physical level of fear. Positive action has a greater impact on the mind than positive thinking because action helps to release some natural healing juices in your brain. By taking action you also interrupt and re-direct the runaway train of frightful thoughts produced by your brain’s machinery. To relieve anxiety, here’s a plan for your bucket brigade:

1. take a break
2. take charge
3. take action

Take a break by turning off the media-bombardment so you can process and think.

Take charge of your self by doing a reality check and take reasonable precautions.

Take action for others by connecting with family and friends; don’t isolate yourself.

After that, you can let go: there is a time for reason and a time for un-reason, including leaps of faith. You can invent a mantra or say a prayer, or both. Twelve-step programs are not just for alcoholics, acts (and leaps) of faith are not just for the religious. To give your self over to a higher power may be easy for the faithful, but difficult for the realist, atheist or cynic. However, there is solid scientific data to support the common sense of faith. Faith is not about religion, faith is about saving good, reason and will. You see, without faith, reason is much more vulnerable to fear. Faith is about trust and letting go; replacing your fears with a personal connection to something greater than your self.

You may have heard the scientific community talking about it as the God gene: a human predisposition to believe in a higher power. The fact is, it is healthy to put your faith into the light of a higher power. It is an idiosyncratic truth that, in this, larger context, the less important your life might seem, the greater, more meaningful it becomes. The problem is that in operating all rationally, the mind thinks that it is the greatest! However, the mind just knows what it knows. Anxiety can cross wires and interrupt the circuits with more cunning than the mind can think.

Here’s to the mandate and paradox of unreason: Fear rules the mind. Faith rules the heart and your health too.

You choose.

~ Marit.

May 8 what body?
May 15 wild ducks
May 22 party like a squirrel-cat