silent thunder

through eternity the present moment abides ever unfolding

Vinegar! Salt! pure awesome.

Thank you for sharing your experience Lost! That's a potent one.

Mirror Lake

not sure how I'll answer it tomorrow, or in an hour even... but in this moment, the sum of my word/thought response to your awesome inquiry is this phrase: resolution/transcendence of the illusion of separate distinction of form and source, while fully immersed in the beingness of a seemingly distinct form in the now.

My love affair with predawn is so selfish! It's all about having a long, soft, slow moving launch into the very yang energy of day. My love affair with water became an obsession when I moved to this arid and startlingly moisture free environment. I deeply sense and love the condensing water in the air predawn. It's a bigger drug than just about any other for me lately. The hours of 4-6 am have developed into something of a lucid temple to me. A temple that embodies the very qualities you speak of in the taoist painting. Full immersion. Total sensory connection. A living, liquid light, resonant temple of motion, mingling awarenesses and soft acceptance of pure being. A temple of quiet totality. When most of the minds and thought/form matrices around me are yet in those last yin hours before waking, this time resonates. Yin, soft, exuding yet inhaling, nothing hurried, nothing left undone... nurturing and condensing... empty and so potent. A temple of liquid light flowing effortlessly into the coming morning and all its cacophonic harmonies of yang. As to your spell... now I know why this thread spiked rather intensely for me... <read me!>. Rather routinely now, I can't escape the tangible sensation of the direct exchange and infusion of the sky... all of it... with the bellows of my lungs. When intention combines in this process... <woof!> I can perhaps somewhat imagine the exchange going on down there near the border with you and your spell... and I deeply admire your connection to your own cosmology and how this emanates into the whole. Gratitude for your endeavors. Your knowing and moving with intention through your own elemental nature is also deeply intriguing. Rather compulsively of late, I'm being reminded and drawn to more deeply investigate and understand the workings of the elements in my own body universe. Do you still offer professional birth charts and analysis to those looking to purchase such services? I think it's time I invested in such, if you, or someone you recommend were available some time. Either way, thanks for you who are, how generously you share here and how you go about just being you. It's deeply appreciated. *deep bow*

Stopping sugar and caffeine were intense for a few days... though, after a several year hiatus to let my system reset, I have lately returned to limited and wonderfully effective use of caffeine. Sugar is such a beast. Just a beast. But when I stopped dairy, now that was really surprising... just how much benefit and how grateful my body was that I stopped taking in the reproductive enzymes from another mammal's endocrine system. There was no let down at all from stopping dairy. It was pleasant and beneficial right from the start. The amount of inflammation caused by dairy in even small quantities in my system was extremely surprising to me. And when I stopped taking dairy, the subsequent side issues that resulted from its presence in my system in additional resistance and tension simply melted away, making all simple actions of my system so much easier, released and open. Inflammation is a real bugger. It affects all other actions through its presence. No sung in my flow when dairy is being processed, seems to be a truth for me. It was a real and truly beneficial awakening for this boy who was raised very firmly in the ridiculously, industrially pushed 'milk does a body good' system of the Dairy States.

I have discovered over the last decade that few things more elevate my awareness into full immersion than the soft lavenders, piercing pinks and the flowing blues on the high cirrus clouds the coming time of year, shortly before dawn here in Southern Cali.

watchful

I love talismans of this nature! Little conveyences of connections and care. This is an area where my mantra of 'just release it all' doesn't seem to apply in my life yet. I'm not one for lots of material grabsies... but talismans of this nature, gifts such as these, hold real energetic value. For in these small things... something of the giver and our connection resonates and thus they are still with me when I hold the gift, or even recall it. Some attachments are still treasured... I'm not willing, inclined, nor yet see the benefit in releasing all of my attachments yet. I'm still using some of them to seemingly great benefit.

Yea, the beers were fun, but the script was the real surprise... particularly in the scenes between the mortal Vlad and the demon/source and why Vlad was seeking the power and power's innate nature. What is a monster and what is a hero? When does the world benefit from a hero and in what ways can a monster save people through people's innate fear of the darkness? Really surprising writing. A man pinned like a butterfly, seeking to alter his surroundings at any cost... with no idea what the real cost, or real value even is.

Batman always turned me off... he strikes me as a pathological sociopath, with unlimited funds.

yea! as in... 'simplify'

media fasting has become a regular occurence for me. I limit my screen time to short bursts. Several years ago, I altered what I ate and drank to shift my body health, started in again on Qi Gong and it worked very well. Then that developed into being more mindful of what I washed my body with and brushed me teeth with to extend benefits. Finally, I realized that far more impacting and important than either of those for wholeness and real vitality... was what I allowed my mind to ruminate on, what waves of thoughts I chose to surf and what I allowed into my mind through media, books, conversations and interactions. As it is now, I have no computer my self any longer, I use my son's laptop for this stuff and on his laptop I have only three bookmarks. Dao Bums, Unexplained Mysteries and Youtube (for music). The only other sites I end up on, are links I choose to follow through conversations on one of these three sites.

yes!~ er... no? but maybe... for sure!

It's awesome you have the inclination to connect more fully with your body and what you eat! Don't apologize for your process. It's utterly yours mate. I'm not judging a bit, except to give you kudoz for being interested in bringing benefit to your life in any way you see fit. I had three beers last night while watching Dracula Untold and it was utter bliss! (and fully unexpectedly, that film is now my favorite telling of the old Vlad tale, i expected it to suck, it was great!).

If I thought physical immortality were an actual possibility/end game of any of my energetic and meditation play, I would cease immediately.

Bluegrass is where it's at! I remember the first live bluegrass I ever heard. My eyes opened wide. My jaw dropped and I said to my inner self. "whoa! what is this?! I didn't know music could do this!"

My Dad had a place in Sarasota. I still vividly recall how vastly different the bird song was down that way compared to anywhere else I've lived or stayed in America. Vividly different bird calls, but I've never spent much time in the South East. Well my friend. The invitation stands. I'm one of those liberal Californians, though I'm tempered. I'm socially so liberal, I'm anarchistic. If you ain't hurting anyone, I'll leave you alone and expect the same in return. Financially, I'm more of a conservative, thinking Govm't should regulate some things due to the unavoidable, greedy, exploitative nature of many folks, but Govm't should not be a Nanny as it is now. I think you'd be surprised at how welcoming Cali would be if you were to hang out... though we'd probably skip swimming. The water temps here are... challenging for most... much more in line with my ancestor's lands in Norway than the unbelievably beautiful waters of your Gulf and Carribean. Cheers mate.

sure does to me as above, so below na?

A great impulse to cleanse the system! Tune the instrument so to speak. Four days seems my bare minimum for a fast/cleanse. Any shorter for me is more like stirring up the mud in a river and swimming around in it, rather than cleansing anything. Day two is generally 'the mud being stirred up' day'. After the final defacation without eating, my body reacts to emptiness and begins to shift processes, the stored up gunk begins releasing and the purge begins. This can be decidedly unpleasant depending on the nature of the soil of the body at the time it's stirred up. Much rest at home, short walks and (for me) lots of warm water, perhaps some ginger/lemon as well, good music, games and pleasant distractions can ease the wave as it crests. Day three and onward, the waters (of my body), if allowed, begin to settle eventually resonating in clarity, bouyancy and many unspeakable qualities of healing, open being and general awesomeness.

Na... You should come have lunch sometime, my friends and my gal will disabuse you of that notion with a plethora of stories of my potent dumb-fuckery.

I'd say the why is because when wee, young marblehead formed his mental ideals of 'normal' and 'beautiful'... piercings (aside from earrings) were most likely not present anywhere in your environment and so, now lie outside what you consider normally beautiful.