I had a mystery solved this week.  I’d suddenly gotten a bunch of new subscriptions from the Sarasota area, and whenever that happens it’s usually because a store that carried them moved or closed. That wasn’t the case this time, simply that some locals were having conflicts with a particular store.  I didn’t want to get into who or why, but their conflict meant more subscribers for me.  I don’t have salespeople visiting all the stores, so I rely on the Horizons readers to let me know where the new locations are.  I’m glad to send Horizons out to any stores as a gift for their customers.  So West Coast Florida friends, I am asking you to tell me where the current metaphysical, new age, or pagan and feminist bookstores are in the Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice areas are. You can email me  horizonsmagazine@gmail.com

For that matter, let me know your favorite local bookstore for spiritual fare, located anywhere in Florida.  Let’s share the Love.

A new Facebook friend posted the other day: “Well, it a new day, time to laugh at our individual and collective seriousness. There is nothing here that cannot be beautifully raised into the light of dawn….who’s ready to let go their version of the ancient hatred?“

I commented: “Hatred and grumpiness is too time consuming for me. I have squirrels to watch and birds to feed. I see the humor in their squabbling amongst themselves. Who wants the biggest seed? Who ends up with the most seeds? From here it’s just comical. For them, maybe not so much.”  Continue reading →

I see I wrote at Tummy Bug, I Can Control My Perception a post that almost mirrors this week’s experience.  Wednesday night I came down with a little tummy ick that had me down for the count for 24 hours. I think it was really the fact that I’d eaten too heavy rather than a bug, but then I had a fever and chills and sweats all night, so who knows?  The body does all sorts of things when it is ridding the body of toxins.  I also see at Getting to know how my body works that reminds me that I’ve been overdoing it with the Chinese food and chicken & rice again, too.  Hmmm, once or twice a year I see I’ve let myself do that.  I’m glad I blogged about it so I could have a record to learn by.

I find what works best for me is to keep my meals light, with maybe a hearty meal no more than twice a week, and not two days in a row, either. I have to remember that at my age and level of physical activity, I don’t need to have a hearty meal – ever.  That also means separating what I eat from what brings me emotional comfort.  I can’t just sit and mindlessly ingest snacks.  I have to remember that bread and rice moves through my system slowly.  I have to remember that if I eat bread or rice, 5 hours later it is still in my stomach.  That is something to remember if I am going to eat 5 hours later – that my stomach may already be half full even though I feel hungry. Continue reading →

The other day I wrote in How to Get Lots Done Even When You Feel Low Energy that I’d woken feeling very lethargic, feeling as though I had 10 pound weights at my arms and legs, and like I was in slow motion, underwater.  Picking up the lawn sprinkler, it felt like it weighed 20 pounds.  Mentally I felt a little foggy but mood wise I felt great.  Every move I made exhausted me, yet I felt compelled to keep moving (and hydrating).  I also felt compelled, at the end of the day, to drive to the market for some fresh asparagus to make an asparagus and mushroom soup for dinner. I’ve learned to follow my cravings, it is my body talking to me.  I had a fridge full of food and felt almost too exhausted to drive, but felt compelled to run out for asparagus.  I made a beautiful light soup for dinner, a seasoned low fat chicken broth with mushrooms and spices and an entire bunch of fresh asparagus.  I nibbled the soup all evening and awoke the next day feeling completely restored to health. Continue reading →

I got lots done yesterday, despite feeling kinda low energy and sloth-like all day.  I woke up feeling kinda like in a dream where your body is going slow motion, and objects are very heavy.  I didn’t know what it was all about, but the day before was the heaviest physical workday of the month for me, at the end of 2 weeks being nose to the grindstone, so I figured I needed to hydrate after all the muscle use, and that was making me feel sore and slow. Whatever it was, it lasted all day, so I ate light and didn’t go into the office Saturday as I had planned.  Day off! Continue reading →

Last night I caught the Housewives of Orange County on Bravo TV and Vicki had a slumber party for the gals. As a surprise to them, she invites over psychic Dougall Fraser who gave them all aura readings. It was pretty funny, since everything he told them he could have learned on last year’s show.  Particularly comical was when he told Tamra she had “a blue aura, indicating truth and wisdom.”  Yes, Tamra who does nothing but diss and lie and connive. Of course, Tamra and Vicki, who invited the psychic, are best buds now and still ganging up against Gretchen.  The psychic of course had a caveat over the relationship Gretchen has now with Slade Smiley. Coincidence I guess since Vicki and Tamra don’t like Slade. Despite Gretchen saying she didn’t want a reading, Fraser had to play to the camera – and to whoever paid him – and give her a very public one. Gretchen has a point when she says in her blog “I don’t want to have someone instill doubt in me about a relationship or my future.” And I think it’s always amusing to hear anyone tell someone what their aura looks like, what color it is and what it means.  Don’t get me started on that. Continue reading →

After a high of about 72 yesterday, it went down to 50 degrees last night, when I thought it was going to be 60 again.  There’s not much difference between 50 and 60 now that I got a taste last week of what 27 feels like. I’d forgotten to glance at the weather channel, but I was in a hurry.  I’d finished up the February Horizons Sunday and had cabin fever from being glued to my desk for 10 days straight.  I went outside and set up a lean-to tent in my west woods, so I could be outside in the open, in nature with the trees.  Out under the stars, where I could be “out of the box” – out of the house of full of wires and electricity and equipment.  No clocks, no phones, no computers.  Yes, I was in a hurry yesterday evening to set up a little camp outside so I could defrag from final layout week.  Nothing relaxes me more than watching the night sky and the small critters make their nightly way up and down the paths in my little patch of woods here. Continue reading →

Don’t risk it

A 62 year old long time friend went to court this month for a DUI – driving under the influence.  She’s not a regular drinker, she doesn’t do drugs, she’s as straight arrow as they come. Christmas Eve she had one glass of wine at dinner with friends, and her slow driving back home got her pulled over.  She did the breathalyzer test and was charged with DUI.  Afterward, we had the talk about don’t get caught driving  – anywhere.  But the week after the DUI, she drove 6 blocks to the laundromat since the one in her building was out of service.  She got stopped. So now it’s a DWLS (driving while license suspended) as well as the DUI.  I wrote on Facebook, “It snowballs! Don’t risk it!”

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Floridians who have plants that died of frostbite this week, do not cut them back now. In a few weeks – after you see new growth on the live parts – would be the time to cut them back. You’ll handicap the plant if you cut the dead looking stuff off right now. What looks dead isn’t always dead.   Yesterday I wrapped my surviving arbicola up in wine colored sheets and indian blankets.  The frostbitten turk’s cap bushes made great frames for draping the fabric over to cover the tall plants. Some good news is that with so many plants dead to the ground, I now see I have hundreds of loquat seedlings, and they are cold hardy to 10 degrees.

With so many plants gone, do I make the choice of being in the Now or prepaving the future?  Can I do both?  Yes, I can do both.    In the Now, my plants under the oak and palm canopy are free of frostbite.  In a few months, everything that was not under the canopy will be back green and strong.  But I also appreciate the soft, dark, blackfrosted leaves that will fall any day now; they have an exquisite beauty all their own, telling of a life well lived, and they will become mulch for the new growth in Spring.  If I can’t see the beauty in the Now, if I can’t look at my frostbitten plants and feel good about them now, then I can turn my thoughts to being hopeful about what they will look like soon.  It’s helpful to remember, when looking at death, that it’s simply a cycle and that Spring always follows Winter. Continue reading →

Everyone has their own agenda for how they want the world around them to work.  The media knows the best way to get people to think and act a particular way is to proclaim publicly that people already think and act that way.  Have you noticed that?  The media is smart.  They know if they can draw enough attention to a particular thoughtform, that thoughtform becomes strengthened and takes on a life of its own.  What this amounts to is self fulfilling prophecy.  The weatherman talks about gloomy skies and rain and we all get bummed out and attract more gloomy skies.  The news anchor talks about everyone pulling out of the stock market, so everyone starts pulling out of the stock market.  Someone publicly proclaims a certain ethnic group as terrorists and… you get my drift.  When people hear it and see it often enough in print that they begin to believe it’s true. An amazing number of voters believe that what they see in the media is accurate.  And that’s what they count on, “they” being the big dollar wielding buyers of advertising, who have their own agenda of what they want you to believe.  And they always want you to believe you need what they are trying to sell you, whether it’s a product or a politician. Continue reading →