Author Archives: Andrea

How Timely: A Mother of a Shakti Crash

I’m having a shakti crash after an eventful week. In this context, I define shakti as the life force energy as I experience it within my physical body.  When I say a shakti crash, I refer to what I experience as a result of an overload of sensory input.   Much of my personal time is spent alone in silence and I am someone who likes a lot of empty space, a lot of room between my molecules.  I speak with dozens of people every day and can feel easily overloaded with voicing and listening.  I like a lot of thought time after an experience in order to fully grok it.  I like a lot of still time in between physical exertion times.  I like slow, easy, quiet time spent with friends appreciating The Now.  When I don’t get the quiet downtime, like when I choose to instead hang with fun friends doing adventurous things for extended periods of time, afterwards I get what I call a shakti crash.  

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Which daily supplements I take

I’ve made an appointment with a health professional and I made up a list of all the vitamins and supplements I take so they have it in my file.  I’m narcissistic enough to think you might want to see it too 🙂
…. ABOUT ME:  I eat a mostly unprocessed diet with the occasional can of soup, pasta, crackers or bread a couple of times a month.  Otherwise it’s chicken, fish, some cheese, some tofu, veggies.  Potatoes are my main starch. I keep my fat grams about 40-60 grams a day, no butter, I use Earth Balance.
I eat no red meat, no pork since 2005.
I had my gall bladder out in 2004 after 2 bouts with gallstone pancreatitis.
I got another pancreatitis attack a year later and learned to change my diet, lower my fats, start cooking healthy and stop eating lumberjack quantities of fried meats and bread. My website at www.goddessgrub.com is all about my healthy eating journey.  These are the supplements I take each day for past year or so: Continue reading

January 22 and 29, 9am Ma Yoga Shakti to speak

Ma Yoga Shakti

Ma Yoga Shakti

This Sunday 22 January 2012  Mataji (Ma Yogashakti) will give a lecture from 9 – 10  AM on the topic “Neither Grieving nor Craving.”  On 29 January the topic will be “Where is Peace?”  They will be held in the Temple.   All are welcome to come and listen to Mataji’s message. No charge, but donations gratefully accepted. Continue reading

My Patience Pays Off

A couple of weeks ago I went with a girlfriend who wanted to sell some of her gold jewelry.  I had some I hadn’t worn in years but hadn’t thought of selling it,and didn’t need the money for anything.    We did some research online to learn how to calculate a fair price for scrap gold and then separated it into 10k, 14k and 18k.  We weighed her pieces on my postage scale to get a rough idea of what she had.   Then we called around town and asked who paid how much per gram for scrap gold.  Many would not say.  The price for 14k gold that day was $1604 per ounce and the lowest offer we got was $13 per gram at Sullivan’s Jeweler’s on 192  and the highest was $21 per gram at Kempf’s  and Damon’s.   Genna in Palm Bay offered $18/gram and Orlando Gold Buyers first offered $496 on a bracelet weighing 32.2 grams, talking in pennyweights, then upped the offer for $700 after testing the gold content.  My friend sold her pieces and walked away happy and that was the end of that.   Continue reading

I didn’t miss it before I had it

It’s hard to — after a lot of years without it — to have deep and meaningful conversations with someone every day for months then to have it stop. And there’s no one else to talk about it with except them. So suddenly after not needing it for years, now I miss it. Life is so fair 🙂 Yes — is — that’s not a typo.

It’s been a hectic last two weeks

I just got the February Horizons Magazine to the printer Monday so I get to goof off for a day or so.  It felt good to work out at Planet Fitness for an hour for the first time in days, then I went to the Palm Bay Road Walmart and found my new fave World Market Brown Rice and Flax Seed crackers, in several flavors and also picked up some ground turkey for picadillo.  It was an adventure navigating the store since it has a different floor plan than the one on Malabar Road.   I stopped in at electronics and learned a little about iPads, actually it was a customer who was dressed like I was and buying accessories for an iPad which is why I asked her, knowing she was not sales staff.  I’m getting urges to buy an iPad and I don’t even know what one is really.  Anyway, back in grocery they did not carry the Earth Balance dairy spread I use, and I forgot green olives until I was back in the car.  I stopped at Publix on the way home, since I planned to make my low fat Cuban style turkey picadillo for lunch and for me, the green olives are a must.  I know I’ve been stressed when I look forward to washing and chopping vegetables.  I’ll go outside after lunch and begin picking up all the oak and pine deadfall from the last windy week.  Doing that and stacking kindling is a never ending job around here.  While I’m out there, I’ll check out the squirrels since that’s their time to dance and play in the tree canopy.  Now, into my afternoon.  I so dig my life.

No more fu manchu and goatee… for now

No, not mine

I pride myself on letting my facial hair grow and keeping it trimmed so I don’t look like the bearded lady at the circus. Hair is there for a purpose and I like facial hair on me.  Not all my friends do and when we’re in person, some are quick to point out I could use a tweeze.   I just laugh and let them know I grow it on purpose.  Hey, the hair is blonde and smooth and fine, so you have to be right in my face to even see it.  A good friend and spiritual brother is going through several austerities right now.  An austerity is, among other things, an extreme practice undertaken during an ascetic or monastic period of one’s life.  We share a spiritual practice, so when he did a head shaving, I cut my bangs.  When he removed his beard, I got out the Nair and removed mine.  For a month. I know that sounds like no big deal to most, but I’m very into symbolic practices and sharing this was important.   Continue reading

A taste of what religious fanaticsm brings about

This is what fanaticism brings about

I posted on Facebook a diagram of  a giant hole left by the Christian Dark Ages, with the caption:  “Just think, we could have been exploring the galaxy by now.  This is what fanaticism brings about.”  I got a lot of knee jerk responses and  Nick Ribecca chimed in correctly with, “Easy folks, I believe Andrea is talking about “fanaticism” not common everyday Christians. Remember how we are reminded every day that there are millions of decent everyday Muslims who pose no threat to civilization. But, Holy Wars by those calling themselves Christians, and Jihad by those calling themselves Muslims both wreaked horrific havoc on the world.  The problem is the fanaticism, not the Religion.”

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The White Lie Cake — God is Good!

Have you ever told a white lie? You are going to love this, especially all of the ladies who bake for church events:  Alice Grayson was to bake a cake for the Baptist Church Ladies’ Group in Tuscaloosa , but forgot to do it until the last minute. She remembered it the morning of the bake sale and after rummaging through cabinets, found an angel food cake mix & quickly made it while drying her hair, dressing, and helping her son pack for scout camp.  When she took the cake from the oven, the center had dropped flat and the cake was horribly  disfigured and she exclaimed, “Oh dear, there is not time to bake another cake!”

This cake was important to Alice because she did so want to fit in at her new church.  Being inventive, she looked around the house for something to build up the center of the cake. She plunked in a roll of toilet paper and covered it with icing. Not only did the finished product look beautiful, it looked perfect. And, before she left the house to drop the cake by the church and head for work, Alice woke her daughter and gave her some money and specific instructions to be at the bake sale the moment it opened at 9:30 and to buy the cake and bring it home. Continue reading