silent thunder

I just about spit tea all over my son's laptop on that one... thanks for the laugh mate!

I'll be roasting some Portabello mushrooms on that fire... and the tea is steeping by the pool. Now, who brought the drums and we can get a circle going?

In my industry, we have been using unisex bathrooms for twenty years. And at my wife's last job, in Venture Capital (vomit), their exclusive/executive bathrooms were joint and used by both men and women. The title of this thread is a more palpable concern for me than the projective mind game drama.

Boy you are right on the money with that observation of most folks her in SoCal. It's palpable. If you frequent Redondo Beach in the rain, or the cloudy days, we've likely walked right by each other several times over the last 16 years. I'm almost guaranteed to be there at some point on a rainy/cloudy day, soaking the moisture by osmosis. And hasn't this off-summer been incredible?! The last year I recall this much rain was in 2000, when we moved here from NYC. Several times I have had an opportunity to buy a house inland somewhat, but we have never followed through. Living in Torrance under that marine influence is just too beneficial and wondrous. Sometimes when I'm coming back home in the Summer from the studios.... I'll leave work and it's 104-106 in the valley. By the time I get home, it's 80-85 in South Bay. As I'm driving down the 405 south through the Getty Pass... I can literally watch the digital temperature readout on the dashboard, counting down every 1/2 mile or so. I think if I ever do leave South Bay, it will be for the Goldilocks zone... which to me is 6,000-8,000 feet in the mountains somewhere. Few bugs, higher moisture and moderate temps... with a bit of Winter, but not too much. On a side note: Have you ever been to The Green Temple in Redondo? Vege restaurant that serves amazing tea and herbal infusions along with their inspired menu. Great stuff, and right near the alphabet avenues down near the beach there...

I never realized that about Star Trek and their warp drive engine! I always thought they generated thrust via the Dilithium crystals and anti-matter... so much for my geek card renewal... I'll have to ask to be reinstated now. I recall where I read about it now though. It was in connection with a scientist who claimed to have worked @ area 51. Not Lazar; but this gentleman talked at length in this interview about the saucer we recovered and the reverse engineering taking place on its drive, which was gravity driven. I remember being intrigued by his description of the manner in which the craft could execute these incredible maneuvers that are often reported in sightings, yet at that time, he stated we hadn't been able to make use of the tech because we hadn't figured out how to dampen the incredible shifting g'forces on the human pilots. ps. I do at least still remember that TIE fighters stands for Twin Ion Engine... and the Millenium Falcon made the Kessel run in 12 parsecs.

+1 from me. Well said Liminal.

To claim that anyone has the one answer for everyone seems to me the height of arrogant, ignorance.

One of the most compelling ideas I heard for space travel was to generate a field of gravity. You generate this field in the direction you wish to travel and the ship with you, fall effortlessly to your intended destination.

don't forget... that sometimes in order to advance forward around, over or through an obstacle, we must take a few steps back and prepare to leap. Sitting still and taking stock, or backing up is not failure, it is not wasted... One cannot fire an arrow without first drawing it back. Everything is grist for the mill. Nothing is wasted, ruined, or broken. Though I often feel I am rather bent...

I love science fiction and the idea of space travel, but the idea of getting in a plastic/metal tube for decades of space hurtling does not appeal. For me, I will be going in a rainbow body, or hanging out here working on my rainbow body.

two thoughts: ow. some things can't be unseen. and hmm, so this is how sapiosexuals saw him...

My far sightedness corrected after just a few days sitting with Master Wang Li Ping. I had been using reading glasses for about a year when I attended a 10 day retreat. One evening while reading as I waited for my dinner to arrive, I realized I hadn't used or thought about my glasses for some days. My vision remains clear now, over a year later.

and this... again and again... this

My wife turned that one the other day and I was skeptical to say the least... working in the tv and film biz... I figured, set up set up set up... As I watched though... the energy and seemingly really authentic and optimistic nature of the host really dissolved my skepticism. A great watch and a wonderful message/intent. Good stuff!

I find it is beneficial to cultivate living in the questions and not attach to any answers.

Your last line echoes some words of Shunryu Suzuki that I dearly love. "you are all perfect just as you are... and you could all use a little work>" I just love that.

When working with this herb, I experience increased sensitivity to and awareness of Qi flow. Heightened body awareness/sense of bouyancy that is coupled with, or prompted by relaxation, most noticably in the belly and joints (pun not intended, but always welcome). Intuitive channels become more prominent, as well as intensified awareness of the response to intention. When you use the term correct use, I hear... work with this power when it is conducive/beneficial to my process, not whenever/wherever. My wife has a dissonant experience and will only use this herb rarely. For her, the reaction is one of chaotic energetic bursts, like fireworks, that make settling and relaxing difficult nigh on impossible. I have heard others here describe a similar reaction. Yet we have found in her case, it is the underlying anxiety and existing emotional state abiding in her inner space, that are opened up and brought to the fore by this herb, rather than the herb itself causing said response. This for me has a beneficial upside as I'll explain, but for her, it magnifies her suffering and the brings to light, the things lingering in the fog outside of her mindscape which now are terrifying and severe. She is currenlty in the third/fourth year of the awakening of long buried memories of severe trauma and abuse in childhood. So for her, a tin can being dropped on the floor can trigger the same effects. On that note: I have found with anything that has a psychoactive effect, my mood and mental setting for the few hours prior to use of that herb/medicine/power has more of a determining factor on my experience than the herb/medicine itself. The herb is going to interact with the colors that are on the pallette at the time they join the painting process, so to speak. This herb will open the paths near any latent energies that are hovering, if I've been holding a residual issue, it will likely be brought into focus when this herb is in my system, so I am now prepared for these guests and no longer surprised. This has been particuarly beneficial for me, when working through and bringing up and out, old, hard to reach and reticent emotional packages. There are times when there is something hovering and buzzing just beyond awareness, when I will reach for the cannabis and then go and sit, or busy myself at something engaging the monkey mind, but trivial... the bouyancy will come and the doors open and whatever was hovering will walk, fly or lumber into focus and I then work with it, offer it tea, grin and wave, bid it be on its way, or.... you get the idea. On this, and all subjects really, I assume nothing for others.

welcome back mate... circles within circles na? Good stuff!

*hug*!

I am a master woodworker and a weak musician. I love them both dearly and they each bear a major role in my daily life, and though my proficiency and skill with wood far outstrips my ability with instruments of music, I find they both bring similar depth of value to my life. While my woodworking and metallurgical skills bring much value to society... my music has little value to society, much to me and some to my wife and son (even if only to test their patience). I am a wordsmith and studied with intense discipline... then lived the life of a professional actor and playwright for years. I was a stand up comic as well and brought some laughter to a good deal of folks. I am still a writer, every day, though now mostly philosophy and poetry. I am a watcher and a listener. I am the spawn of supernovae, the result of mass violent disturbances far in the past of deep space. I am a healer. Though as often to trees and shrubs as to humans, cats and the occasional neighbor's dog. I am a painter and a sketch artist. A proficient hiker and nature survivalist. A collector of memories and a distributor of hugs. I am an appreciator of nature and an unapologetic worshiper of clouds and rain, stone and tree, shrub and tall grass. I am an obsessive climber of rock faces and an addict for bolder hopping. I am the deep diving swimmer and lover of rivers and lakes and ocean coral head drop-offs. I am a Father and a husband. Teacher and Student. I still think of my self as a Son, though my parents have returned to source and I am now the elder of our tribe. I am instinct and intuition, rolled up with a good dose of skepticism and reluctant, yet seemingly endless and enduring optimism. It seems often that I am entirely made of faults, loosely stitched together with good intentions. Lately I am mastering sitting still and relaxing. and I am breath. in all those other endeavors, I am breath and this serves all as it comes and goes around and around... all in all, all for all As I breath out, you breath in... again and again. You breath out and I, in... again, again, again. We are all one.

I've never found cats to be selfish... unapologetically authentic is how I would put it. Most cats I encounter and the few I have shared my home with speak often, mostly in images and intent. Others though, are fairly mute, yet, if one has learned their nature and their mannerisms, their silence speaks volumes. All of nature is communicating all of the time. Or it only seems that way to me. I embrace it either way.

That's not my experience with kids. At least not a good portion of them. They are, much like the adults, just trying to find a way through life without encountering too much harm, yet they seem to possess a natural ability which adults have had forcibly modified out of them... the ability to let go, just about anywhere and play. Or just be and explore. What I find so admirable in children, is their natural affinity for shuffling off trauma and hardship and finding themselves playing in the midst of a midden heap, while the adults around them fret and whoa their setting. The beauty of the ignorance of 'not knowing that they should suffer more'. I never suffered the winters as a child, because it was just the way the world was... when my nostrils froze shut waiting for the bus, I didn't cry, I pushed on my nostrils and marveled at the funny feeling.

i LOVE rats! Very beneficial critters.

Such a good point about divorce. I contend there should be laws written to prevent the financial predation of marriage. No one should be financially ruined and devastated for ending a non-healthy relationship.