Monday, November 24 at The Oaks in Melbourne  AWAKE: THE LIFE OF YOGANANDA –> details here.

Unrelated to this event, local peeps with an interest in Yogananda and Autobiography of a Yogi, please let me know you’re interested. His book was the first that awakened me to matters of the spirit in a way alternative to traditional Christian thought and brought on my first inner awakening.

From tonight on,the moon is waxing all the way to full moon in Taurus on November 7.  The Moon in Taurus wants us to find emotional fulfillment through the simple, tangible things in life, while the Scorpio Sun draws our attention to complexities, intangibles, and mysteries. This is a passionate and creative Full Moon, ripe with possibilities and learning experiences. Intimate relationship matters, such as personal comfort levels and values as well as sexuality, figure prominently now. The Full Moon is a time of culmination and the promise of fulfillment of that which was started at the New Moon. It is an emotional time—a time of romance, fertilization, and relationships.  We were just outside looking up at it.  This is an enchanting magical neighborhood after nightfall, especially bathed in bright moonlight. I might have gotten a moon burn.

I’ve been to the gym only a few times this month.  A headcold made me lazy for a week, then there was the November magazine to get to press, followed by a few days of repair at my rental and a day of running around the courthouse with a pal.  While all that activity is fine, it isn’t a workout and my body knows the difference. My body starts griping if I spend too much time at the desk, too, so I love it when I wake up — even after a physically demanding two days — and want to go to the gym first thing!  After a half hour on the elliptical, I came home to get ready for my new Whirlpool Self-Cleaning Electric Range Model WFE510S0AB to be delivered.  I’ve never had a smooth top cooking surface, so I’m excited to have a new experience.    Continue reading →

Take it into your meditation as an opportunity to practice grace under pressure

In a reading today, Domino was concerned that a former business partner was bringing up old gossip and acting as though it was new news.  What to do when that happens?  Ignore it. Don’t react.  You don’t even know it’s happening.  You have enough things going on in your own life that you have no time to pay attention to someone trying to stir a cold pot.  Consider it an opportunity to practice grace under pressure. Your life is your message. It will pass soon enough. Add no fuel to the flame. Take your attention off the drama and it will drop out of your life. The fact they think it’s about them and can’t drop it shows the issue is theirs. Bless them, for there but for the grace of God go we all.

It’s been a busy and action packed last two days. Yesterday began with a sunrise drive along the river to pick up a pal to help me repair a floor at my rental unit. We finished up just as sun was setting, so I got to see both sunrise and sunset.  I enjoy being a landlord and enjoy doing home repair and handyman stuff.  I’ve got an excellent mentor in that, a friend who owns several rental units of his own and taught me everything I know about how mobile homes are put together and properly maintained.  I’m always stoked when we get to do a project and spend a day together.     Continue reading →

Were you influenced by fairy tales as a kid? Did you, as a result of having heard a particular fairy tale, form expectations about what your life would be like in the real world?  I don’t recall being read fairy tales except for  Br’er Rabbit, the trickster who could talk his way out of anything. By brother loved that story as a kid so I had to hear it every fricken night. This post was going to be about “I never learned anything from fairy tales,” but maybe I did.  It wasn’t the Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty and Handsome Prince stories that enraptured me and made me have expectations in the world.  I grew up with 3 brothers, so I knew “the prince” story was a lie. The brothers were handsome and smooth but they weren’t princes.  They were Br’er Rabbit, tricksters able to talk their way out of anything. I haven’t pondered it until now, but my entire professional career has been about words and spinning information to a particular advantage.  Now, with Horizons Magazine, I spin to a hope to a faithful readership. During a 22 year career as a criminal defense paralegal, I had brilliant mentors in the trial attorneys I worked for. I learned different ways of presenting information to spin it to the advantage of the client.  Continue reading →

On days like today, when a dear friend has taken their final walk and dropped their Earth robes, it’s comforting to know we survive in consciousness after the change called death.

Brian “Salty” Gabor

RELATED: The end of death as we know it

Doing projects in my yard make me really feel connected to the Earth and to my homestead.  Yesterday afternoon I created a natural wall at the entrance to my east property.  After the tree cutters brought their machine through last month, a path could be seen from the street. I didn’t want anyone walking down it and into my yard, so I used bamboo stalks, grapevine, potato vine and oak branch deadfall to weave a natural privacy wall. I don’t prune the wild grapevines here until I’m ready to use them. I move them out of the way and route them along shepherd’s hooks to let them grow long.  I wanted the wall to look very natural and random so if someone glanced in from the street, it would look uninteresting and uninviting.  I began by placing several 12-20 foot long cut bamboo poles horizontally between trees that are about ten feet apart.  The bamboo are about as big around as my arm.  I place them where the trees have forks in their trunks: about head, shoulder  and waist height.  Then I pulled up a bunch of wild potato vine and used it to weave a loose wall in between the bamboo rods.  Next I strategically placed cut palmetto fronds and began weaving the live grapevine to secure them in place.  The vines will cover the branches by the end of year as they grow.

RELATED: Weaving my nature walls

Today I found a small tick on Benny, thankfully it was on the top of his fur. That was enough to send me into a frenzy washing all the fabric in the house. Yes, I just did it last week after my cold, but we’re only talking maybe 20 towels, sheets, blankets and pillow cases. I don’t have fabric furniture and the floors are vinyl tile.  I flea comb Benny when he comes in from woods walking. I put Frontline Plus on the kitties every 3 weeks during warm weather and monthly when it’s cool.  I keep food grade diatomacous earth swept into the corners and baseboards in the summertime.  I seldom have fleas or insects of any kind.   For 30 years I was using local Vegas pest control services, now I do it myself using Ortho’s Home Defense Max, which is safe for the cats.  That’s why I fly immediately into action when I see a flea or a tick.  We are a pest free zone and I intend to keep it that way.  Even when Benny doesn’t do his part.