Had the most fun with a new friend in the market today. She was visually impaired and needed a little help finding some things. I ended up giving her a ride home a few blocks away and her house number was synchronistically 108. She enjoys walking to the store 3 blocks away, but it means she has to cross 6 lanes of Malabar Road. The crosswalk is right at her house but she said people don’t pay attention. Let’s pay attention.

I’m having fun bouncing on my Marcy cardio rebounder. I can run myself out of breath several times a day without my knee acting up. I like working out at night and especially like not having to leave the house to do it. I like the rebounder better than the treadmill and studies show it burns more calories. I don’t care so much about calories as I do about getting quality aerobic time in and keeping myself strong. Aerobic = activity intended to improve the efficiency of the body’s cardiovascular system in absorbing and transporting oxygen. I’m all about improving efficiency!

I waited a year for Publix to restock the Sultana Stuffed Grape Leaves (dolma) and they never have, so Ifinally got to Middle Eastern Aromas on Babcock Street by FlaTech where they have four different brands and dozens of cans. http://www.middleeasternaromas.com/  The Sultana are my fave canned, I drain them and run hot water thru the can to remove the oil. Most are packed in soy oil. I don’t care for cold rice, so I heat them slowly, which releases more oil I drain off. Then I add a dab of good olive oil, salt, pepper, coriander, cumin, lemon juice. The heat brings out the flavor, even if you’re just heating to take the chill off. Then I take a pita, slice it into 8 pie slices, and wrap each one around a stuffed dolma to eat by hand.

Boy, it is a different world when I wake up at 11 o’clock rather than 4 a.m. I can go right out and do things and not have to wait 5 hours for everyone to get into work.

I keep getting calls about a conflict between several business partners, each with a different story, no one acting particularly conscious.   I wish I didn’t feel compelled to jump into this with them and make everyone come clean and stop the hating and bad mouthing. It’s not my job to do, And everyone is passing along stories that they don’t know are true. All they know is this is what their “friend in the know” told them. And then everyone takes sides.  I have been “betrayed” by my share of “friends” in my lifetime, and each time it happens it just serves as a springboard to even higher understanding. The closer the former friendship, the greater the karmic weight to drop, allowing your balloon to soar higher and higher.  It gets scary when we drop our weights. When familiar people begin to fade from our life, or when friends and lovers betray us, we can tend to see it as being abandoned if we don’t recognize that we were growing vibrationally apart from them for a long time, and this was a blessing in disguise. It can be scary to drop our weights when we’ve grown used to the burden. There’s a difference between what grounds us and what holds us down.

RELATED: Just because something feels familiar and comfortable doesn’t mean it’s good for you

A friend emailed me: “Can you enlighten us on what is going on in the earth’s energy field?  We are feeling strange in a not too pleasant way…  Thank you.   I replied, “Uh oh, I may not be the one to answer that.  I look at things a whole different way.  I know that everything is always evolving and changing and our biggest job in life is to surf the environment we find ourselves in and make the most of it.  I think it doesn’t matter what is happening to the earth’s energy field, that we each are personally very powerful vortexes of energy ourselves.  My experience is that our personal energy can override the prevalent energy of any physical locale, that we are indeed the vortex. That by becoming conscious and aware within this powerful vortex of a vehicle, we learn to master it so that body and mind do our bidding.  Meaning with practice we can discipline our physical bodies to awaken early and sit for meditation and contemplation, and allow us to form habitual patterns to practice our daily affirmations and visualizations and prepaving our happy tomorrows, etc.  Continue reading →

Some people say to me, “you’ve changed… what happened?” and all I can say is, how f*cking far back do you want me to go?

I just spent an hour taking apart my tub and its little tile wall to make it easier for the plumber to see what he’s dealing with in finding the leak that goes through the wall. This is an oversized fiberglass tub that we set up on cinder blocks inside the master shower in 1988 then fashioned a little wall in front and tiled it. It’s like opening a time capsule! Maybe I’ll stick the tub out in the garden instead of a kiddie pool!   Below, I have it exposed and ready to pull out. What you’re looking at here is an oversized tub set into a shower stall space. then it was tiled around and I have pulled off most of those tiles. Ima pull it out and leave a shower space only. Fingers crossed it’s not too much work.

RELATED: I test my shower again for a leak

Consider this when “it just feels right.” Just because something feels familiar and comfortable doesn’t mean it’s good for you. When people go from one toxic or abusive relationship to another, for instance, it’s because that is what feels normal, it’s what feels familiar. Being able to adjust to an abnormal situation isn’t always healthy. Begin training yourself into more daily joy and see what begins feeling good and comfortable thirty days down the road. You’re welcome.

Goddess Art, celebrating the feminine spirit

I’m seeking art that depicts and celebrates women, “goddess art,” “sisterhood art,” art depicting women and women bonding, women supporting women, women celebrating the feminine spirit. If you know an artist who might have art to submit for consideration, please tag them with this post. The painting or artwork will contain 2 or more women interacting with each other. Include a few lines telling what the scene depicts.  Here are our –> art submission guidelines.  Email Andrea at horizonsmagazine@gmail.com

Sisterhood art – art with two or more women interacting with each other