Yes, the show goes on.

That was the final line from the local news coverage at the Shut Down Vermont Yankee protest march on 3/22/2012

(see http://www.vpr.net/flash/audio_player/audio_player.php?id=36177)

I feel a real shift, and New Beginnings.

Follow strategies for continuing the work to freeze our Fukishimas at Safe and Green Alliance:

www.sagealliance.net

I’m a Wattless Wednesday girl, myself. Inspired by the story of the New Jersey housewives who responded to rate hikes after Three Mile Island’s nuclear disaster with a boycott, I want us in Massachusetts to wake up and do the same:

Make it dramatic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unkH_M-p4hA

Make it funny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3caeR9DdExc

Make it REAL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbCQ7_shMk4

Yes the show must go on… for the sake of future generations.

I am a retired family doctor and a mother of two. I am capable of easing your worries about a child with a fever.

I can go with you to a scary medical encounter as an advocate, help organize your family to take 24/7 shifts with a relative in the hospital, sit down with your family to discuss a new cancer diagnosis

I can come and stay in your home if you are ill, and need support with cooking and cleaning.

I can walk you through medical tests and studies, helping you prepare, help you understand what the tests are FOR and what the results mean, discuss conventional options and alternative treatments.

I can help you create healing space and environments that go beyond the current definition of “health” into REAL WELLNESS.

The Cuban medical system (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjk1ydj3koY) assigns each family doctor 120 families. I am offering the above services as a subscription, in a pilot project for 100 Families. This is designed to supplement not replace your PCP ( I do not prescribe, nor diagnose, nor admit people to hospitals). An individual subscription is $20/month; $30/month for a family. Enrollment is open, and will continue until I reach my100 family goal. In three months, I will report out to everyone (and take feedback on) how this relationship is going.

     For more information, call 413-336-1291

    With their excellent modeling, I move with grace into spaces that used to be beyond my own comfort zone. Barbara has shown me the power of connecting great ”left brain” ideas to Essence. Michael preaches from the heart, standing on a podium with his eyes closed, simply allowing for Spirit to flow through him. Marianne has the power to bring focus and awareness to an issue; she will gently question the client for more clarity before she aligns with them and offers up prayer, calling forth Miracles.

     What I am birthing now is a weaving of left/right brain in myself.

     Suddenly, many of the weird aspects of my life are falling into place. I now know why I was a biochemistry major with a minor in cultural anthropology, all those many years ago as a pre-med student in a liberal arts college. My background allows me to find communicable language for the phenomenon of the physiological shift that I feel in my own body. Now I have the words to ask my clients questions about their own transformation. Not only can I look inward and scan my pineal gland (do you know WHERE/WHAT your pineal gland is?) for health and growth, I can support others in getting clear on their own Awakenings. Cultural anthropology allowed me to wake up to the Old Story/ need a NEW story of Dominator culture, long before others began to speak of the need to Awaken the Dreamer (www.pachamama.org). That science social science background has served me well as I sink into understanding and enthusiasm for Brian Swimme’s  insights on the power of the Universe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE4XdGeduTg), even as I translate it for friends who hear Brian and register a big fat blank…

     “Everyone is doing the best that they can” is my mantra of compassion, as a recovered workaholic, as a recovered (quiet and cold) rage-aholic, and as an overly time focused human being.

     “I am a spiritual being, having a human experience” is my other.

     I take this time, right now to review in awe what has happened to me, since becoming an Agent of Conscious Evolution:

     1. I opened to love, and re-connected with a former fiance (who had broken our engagement). Through the 12 weeks of the course, our relationship deepened. I left a job, and moved in with him., preparing to “Snowbird” together in the Southwest, in a trailer, in the desert. I practiced a ”more sustainable”lifestyle, living with him  in an “off the grid” existence. In October, we became engaged again. Chop wood. Carry water. Much happiness .

     2. Catastrophe, in December. Ten days before Christmas, my fiance broke our engagement, for the second time. This was a great tempering experience for my ego, and an amazing opportunity to move into my Essence. The mantras fed me. Miracles happened at an astonishing rate, erery day.

     3. Catastrophe #2, in December. The 21 year old friend of my 23 year old son fell 200 feet to his death, in a hiking accident in Sonoma, Arizona. My dance ommunity– we who had raised this child together since meeting him in utero, were stunned. I witnessed the finest in us all; and we midwifed ourselves through the worst in us. This death experience became a cauldron of healing for FOUR communites. Complicated issues of religion (the Islamic members of his Morrocan family vetoed cremation; how to get the body “back East to their Brooklyn home from Arizona without paying thousands?),  patterned chaos (can anyone find the actively alcoholic birth father on the streets of New York, in time for the memorial?), and culture clash (five hippie types reassuring the Seventh Day Adventist sister that her brother’s grief over the loss of his step-son needed WITNESSED SPACE and breathwork, not an ambulance ride to the E.R.) all managed to dance together.

     4. Miracles, continue. I moved the last items out of my ex-fiance’s home on December 30th. On December 31st, my blind date with a friend of a friend’s become an experience of The Sacred Couple. We two deeply wounded ones opened ourselves to Essence, and were initiated into priest/preistess space of the Morpho-erotic field. More on that, in a later post.

     5. And finally, there is the circle. I am in communities where children learn circle process at their parent’s knees. At that Brooklyn funeral, attended by Muslims, Jews, pagans, Christians, and atheists, by Morrocans,  African-Amreicans, Whites and Asians, by street-wise Brookly neighbors of the deceased and by wise elders of the Rainbow tribe, we had circle process. Space, for eeryone to see and hear each other.

       What I am birthing now is a deep confidence that we truly ARE the ones that we’ve been waiting for. May this birth process be orgasmic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5bm9-B6Ec4)!

He focused on meditation as a much needed tool for our Winter of Wellness. Listen for yourself, by signing up for the series (free!) here: www.winterofwellness.com

What struck me about this first program was the timing. I just spent Sunday in Brooklyn, attending a memorial service for a 21 year old. This young man died in a hiking accident 11 days earlier. The challenge that this death presented to four different communites of friends/ family was huge. What I witnessed in the coming together of communites was profound.

Due to the quality and complexity of his life, Muslims were brought together with African-American Christians to mourn his loss. Pagans danced with Jews, in a mother’s dance of grief, release, and acceptance. Circle process was used to create a space to share from the heart, where a neighbor was able to tearfully reminisce about meeting this beautiful soul many years ago, while simultaneously confessing that that meeting was actually harrassing (goading for a fight) and homophobic. Another youth shared the peak experience of hiking with our departed one, and seeing the most beautiful sunset of his life. Stories of heart, and healing.

There was tension between the Seventh Day Adventist members of the step-dad’s family, who wanted to call an ambulance when the step-dad finally, after being strong and contained for days, opened his heart to his grief. The counter-culture dance community members preferred breathwork and emotional release techniques. But we all got along, and we were able to fold ourselves together despite differences. Four hundred people came together to grieve this sudden and unexpected loss.

I was quite astonished to hear the webcast today conclude with a parable about a mother who had lost her child. The story went that the wise elder of the community gave this grieving woman an assignment; she was to travel through the village to find someone who had NOT suffered. Of course, she came back with stories of much suffering; some even greater than her own. The exercise had left her with more peace and a feeling that tragedy too is a part of life.

A very painful part of life. I leave the reader with Dr. Dacher’s final prescription to make our lives healthier:

“Find a place of peace and quiet for yourself. Realise others are suffering as well. Come back (from your own suffering) and do loving and kind things for someone else… open the mind and the heart will open”

I give witness that this formula works, and can grow us into better human beings.

Imagine a new (and very old) healing relationship:

I am a retired family doctor and a mother of two. I am capable of easing your worries about a child with a fever.

I can go with you to a scary medical encounter as an advocate, help organize your family to take 24/7 shifts with a relative in the hospital, sit down with your family to discuss a new cancer diagnosis

I can come and stay in your home if you are ill, and need support with cooking and cleaning.

I can walk you through medical tests and studies, helping you prepare, help you understand what the tests are FOR and what the results mean, discuss conventional options and alternative treatments.

I can help you create healing space and environments that go beyond the current definition of “health” into REAL WELLNESS.

The Cuban medical system (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjk1ydj3koY) assigns each family doctor 120 families. I am offering the above services as a subscription, in a pilot project for 100 Families. This is designed to supplement not replace your PCP ( I do not prescribe, nor diagnose, nor admit people to hospitals). An individual subscription is $20/month; $30/month for a family. Enrollment is open, and will continue until I reach my100 family goal. In three months, I will report out to everyone (and take feedback on) how this relationship is going.

My intention is to create a steady income for myself, and to model for other healers a way out of the managed care system.

#2. The “Mermaid Magic” Project

Last Fall, I set up programs for men over 40 (see “Wellness Tips for Extraordinary Men” here: http://www.witchandclown.com/wellness-products/).

This winter is for THE WOMEN. I set up a program for men first, because we women care take everyone ahead of ourselves. I knew that I would not be able to get the women enrolled, if “their men” were not cared for.

Ladies, our time is here!

We will connect on line with occasional red tent like adventures together “face to face and heart to heart”. My goal is to create self-empowering circles of support, and to increase our access to wellness.  Mermaid magic will be a DONATION BASED service; contribute if you can; no women turned away. Pay me what you can, as you are able, and enjoy the postings. Comment as you see fit.

Blog posts/ newsletters related to both projects will begin the week of January 15th.

Give someone you love the gift of loving touch,in the form of a SAFE, boundaried “sensory awakening ritual”. This is a term I learned from Margot Anand, author of several books on tantra and healthy sexuality:

http://www.margotanand.com/

Here’s the basic recipe:
Gather about five items from around your home that represent interesting experiences with the four senses of hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
Here’s some examples:
For hearing: whispered words, a bell, snapping fingers, crinkling paper, a giggle.
For smell: a bottle of vanilla, garlic, a perfume or essential oil, incense or the smell of a match (after extinguishing it!), peppermint
For taste: anything from your kitchen, just let the tasted items make sense as you present them (don’t give your loved one a clove of garlic for them to chew up, if they don’t like garlic)
For touch: a light stroke of a hand, placing items in the hands of your loved one, feathers, sandpaper…

Now that youv’e gathered your items, place the loved one in a comfortable position where they can sit/ lie for about 30 minutes.
Blindfold them.
Begin to offer them the experience of the objects that you have assembled. Use the order listed (hearing/smell/taste/touch) as this reliably WORKS to open the loved one up to a real “natural high” as you help them deepen the experience of being embodied.

Finish the ritual, by removing the blindfold and telling the perosn that you love them.

Use this, with a lover.
Use this, with a friend.
Use this, in a family, adult to child (I did this once, using peanut butter and marshmallows for taste sensations with three 6 year old giggling kids).
This “works” with up to about six people, each having a 15 minute turn.

In a nation of skin-starved individuals, what a special holiday treat!

The national “Occupy Together” movement advises us 99% ers to “keep it smart/keep it non-violent/and keep it going”. Support the movement with smart choices for your holidays, mind/body and spirit.

We Americans suffer from Thanksgiving through New year’s Day from what I call “our Hollow Days”. I saw this each year as a practicing physician. Beginning with Thanksgiving, my work was complicated by an increase in heart attacks (see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22084747/ns/health-heart_health/t/holidays-bring-heart-attacks-along-revelry/), depression, and suicides. Hospitalizations increased, as my hypertensive and diabetic patients fell away from disciplined behaviors that kept them healthy the rest of the year.

We Americans mask our feelings of unease and depression by overeating, drinking, and OVERSPENDING our way through these holidays.

Why do the holidays make us sad? Maybe because we are all pretending that we are happy. Maybe it is all the mixed memories of childhood wonders and family dysfunction that get us down.

This year, our economy is so bad that there is simply no denying it, when December rolls around. Check out how these SEVEN PRINCIPLES of KWANZAA (created to help urban Black families deepen connections and not overspend each Christmas season) might influence your holidays, whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Hindi, Neo-pagan, or atheist. It’s great to notice how the Occupy movement is reflected in each principle, too.

UMOJA: Unity. The occupy movement has us thinking about the collective needs of 99% of us who have not been listened to before.

KUJICHAGULIA: Self Determination. The occupy movement is suggesting that we take back our democracy from corrupt corporate interests.

UJIMA: Collective work and responsibility. The occupy movement is modeling a new kind of horizontal democracy that is very exciting

UJAAMA:Cooperative ECONOMICS. This is the big one for the holidays. Buy local. Think sustainabilty as you make holiday plans (more on that, later).

NIA: Purpose. The occupy movement is framing a conversation about priorities, for the nation.

KUUMBA: Creativity. The occupy movement is a creative response to a national disaster; the loss of our democratic process.

IMANI: Faith. Each day the Occupy movement grows is an example of faith in action.

These principles are especially valid this year as we struggle as a nation to come to grips with some frightening/exciting changes. Americans cannot buy our way out of the mess we are in. That Kwanzaa priciple of “cooperative economics” means that you pay attention to where you spend those hard-earned dollars, this holiday season.

Here’s a couple of suggestions:

Join the 3 50 movement to support your local businesses (http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/locovore-movement-save-economies.html). You remember them? The ones that DIDN’T screw you over, financially? The idea is, if we all spend $50 a month on three local businesses that we value, then we would not keep losing local businesses to big box stores and corporate chains.

Buy local food for your holidays: (http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/eatlocal/). Know where your turkey/hubbard squash or salmon for the holiday meals comes from.

That was for your mind. Next blog will be for your body and your spirit!,

As one of the Rainbow Temple facilitators, I had an insight/idea/suggestion.  Last year, Alisa helped us prepare for a shift in our relationship to our money and our beliefs about abundance. She suggested that all women prepare for the next DOE by saving the money that we would need to attend ALL YEAR LONG, so we could not say” I don’t have enough” one month before the gathering.

I am suggesting that we prepare for next year by using “film therapy” with respect to issues of race, ethnicity, class, and body image.

What a concept!  At my Facebook “Temple of the Healthy Spirit” fanpage, I will be posting links to films, trailers to films, and you-tube clips relevant to films to help us think about these topics with some depth. I will also create a category for this topic, at my website; let’s call it the RRC (race relations commitment) category.

Why this topic and why now? Because London is going up in smoke, as I am writing this on August 12 and we have the same issues to address on this side of the Atlantic.

So let us begin. Start simple. This weekend, a new film is out, called “The Help” (trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GYmhc8Xk8g) Get yourself to the movie. Better yet, take a friend. Best of all, take a friend from a different ethnic/class/ or racial group.

And, if you haven’t GOT a friend who “qualifies”, then that’s a real opportunity for self examination, isn’t it?

Being a sci-fi child was unusual, in my family African-American  artistic artistic. My scientific temperament made me feel the black sheep much of the time.

My geeky tendencies were nurtured outside of my family from an early age.  Max, my third grade science teacher introduced me to atomic theory. I saw a standard drawing of a nucleus, a proton and an electron  and had an epiphany. It represented EVERYTHING. Finding the language of math and science to explore this way of seeing the world was a given for me, from that day onward.

Then there was  ”A Wrinkle in Time”, read aloud by my fourth grade teacher. This mythopoetic story of Meg (clumsy misfit struggling to find her place in the world, suddenly transported  into a great struggle to save Earth from Dark Forces) prepared me to believe in miracles, and in the power of love.

It is with very mixed feelings that I have witnessed the end of America’s space program. The return of the  shuttle Atlantis on July 21– the same day “we” walked on the moon–IS the end of an era. It was an era that started on the wrong foot. A race AGAINST the Russians. The planting of a flag, CLAIMING the moon for “us”.

A poem I wrote in 9th grade still reads true, all these many years later:

“I once heard a Navajo woman,

who was withered,

Like the last leaf of Autumn

Say,

Upon hearing that man had reached the moon,

Very quietly,

Very softly,

‘I don’t think that man was meant to go to the moon’

And I knew that when she died

A small piece of humanity would die with her.

Because she still saw the moon

As luminous power  in a night sky,

As a Goddess, to be respected–

Not a rock on which to plant a flag

Or a dumpsite for discarded LEMs.”

Could the millions spent on the space program have been  better utilized? What were we humans exporting, anyway? How could we simply leave all our junk up there out in space? Was space becoming the new “away” for throwing things away?

About two weeks ago, I was having a conversation with my geeky MIT grad buddy, the product of parents who are both engineers who work for NASA. His defense of a continued need for the space program boiled down to “having somewhere to do the dangerous experiments”.

Hmmm.

Like exploding nuclear bombs? Or biologic warfare tests?

It was not until 1992 that anyone looking like me went into space. Mae Jemison was a dancer, and a doctor, as well as an astronaut. She resigned from NASA in 1993. In 1996, she filed a police brutality report against a Texas police officer, following her arrest for a traffic violation.

That incident alone enforces my belief that we have a lot more work to do  ”down here” before our government gets back to space exploration.

We’ll get there; in the right time in the right way.

With the REAL Right Stuff next time.