silent thunder

Dr Anastasia Vasilyeva defying the Strongman System Such character and integrity as is exemplified by Dr Vasilyeva cannot be beaten, or threatened out of a person. It is ingrained in the fibers of their very form, a direct extension of their essence, their act of living. It arises from the very center of their awareness and is unrelinquishable, spotless, untaintable. The fear addicted authoritarians will have only one road of recourse due to their fear. Discredit, silence and then kill her. They lose in all these scenarios. But she pays the price for their fear. Integrity such as hers is so inspiring and the need for it is so infuriating. Such integrity. Such fearlessness. She's leagues beyond them, but unfortunately, likely not beyond their reach. I sincerely applaud her and hope those near her can run interference for her protection. She's been speaking out for some time and should she disappear now, it would be so obvious, she may have a window of opportunity to influence the flow of events. Such courage and character. She gives me hope and inspires me.

I developed an irregular heartbeat while under anasthesia for a minor surgery. For quite some time I had been eating without any concerns, much regard or strong focus and my blood work reflected as much. While consulting heart specialists for treatment, it was discovered that I had high blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure. They recommended permanent pharmaceuticals (as is their wont). I declined, having recently and (synchronistically) just spent time learning about altering blood chemistry and gut bacterial biome structure. I told my GP to give me 90 days to try my method out and if it didn't work, I'd start the pills. I cut out the occasional beer and wine. I cut my meat intake by 50%. I cut out all processed foods, wheat and sugars. I had a smoothie for breakfast and lunch that included: Apple with seeds, cucumber, strawberries, lime with the pith, goji berries, cordyceps, cilantro, mint, raw corn, half a raw beet, 16 oz of distilled water and half an avocado with the pit. Pulverized that in my Blend-tec 3horsepower blender for 2 minutes. This collection of foods focuses on high phytochemical presence (the pith in the limes, the avocado pit, the red juice in the beets, etc) I upped my physical regime but not intensely, I already work in construction and get plenty of physical training while working. After 90 days the blood tests came back and when Dr Guba saw my results he was pretty shocked, all levels dropped well into normal ranges, no pills required, using simple foods (aside from goji and cordyceps) from any farmer's market and cutting out processed stuff. Gotta make sure the strawberries are organic though, as they have a porous skin and absorb any pesticides sprayed on them. Sugar and cheese addiction was the most intense of all the changes. Really striking how much my body craved those two.

Here's a real time video of what we just missed occuring if interested. After hours of inversion, once the splitting of the skin occurs, the chrysalis forms in about 10 minutes.

Nameless transitioned to Chrysalis. After 11 hours of seeming inaction, within the last 37 minutes, Nameless went from an inverted caterpillar to a full Chrysalis. We missed the transition it occured so quickly. But here's her in the end result. So ~14 days from now we'll see if she's made the full transformation...

Monarch update. I'm suspecting that by the time we became aware of them, they were all suffering from lack of food, being laid as eggs on such a spindly and small dead plant. Big Chongus did not succeed in transitioning to Chrysalis. He inverted, but did not initiate transformation from there. Itty Bitty is still Itty Bitty and has not grown a wink since we discovered her, but she continues to forage very slowly on the small shoots near the soil. Nameless inverted and begun initiating Chrysalis formation last night. Usually the Chrysalis forms within 12 hours of the start. Nameless may yet succeed, we'll know by tonight. and our fourth foster... She Who Is Beyond Naming, has fled the pot and is no where to be seen. The reason the old plant whithered I suspect is that I kept it on our balcony too long and did not replant it in the ground. Once this process has played out, I'm taking this new plant down to the open plot between properties and planting it there. Hopefully the neighbor's gardeners will leave it be as the plot is not owned by them.

Gynostemma is one of my all time favorites. Body and Awareness both respond so beautifully to it. Cascade effect of lovely awesomeness. My local source for it died a premature death two years ago and I'm still mourning it. It was a local Tea shop run by an actual Herbalist. She was knowledgeable, adroit, caring and thinking of the scent and flavor of her personal Monk's Blend still causes me to whine that she's no longer in business. In my afternoons sitting there, I witnessed several women come in and praise her for her help in balancing issues they had, through herbs and teas. It was in a neighboring area and out of my usual loop and I discovered it only a couple months before it went under. I guess folks here just didn't realize the potency of such a place. She would host weekly meditations after closing. I've got one other option in Old Town, but they're down due to the virus. This has me deciding it's time to try an online source for Gynostemma though. I hear the call now distinctly.

Well said MuadDib. Gut Biome structure and composition is vital. Learn to support your blood type with your food choices. There's a growing body of research that indicates heart diseases are derived from the presence or absence of certain gut bacteria. And remember that in 90 days, you can rework your blood chemistry and replace your gut biome. I shifted my blood chemistry and gut biome with minimal training and avoided a lifetime of three pharmaceuticals, using foods from my local Farmer's Market. Cholesterol, sugar and blood pressure all reversed out of concerning levels and into normal range in 90 days. The only things my market didn't have were Goji berries and cordyceps for my process. It was so effective, my GP was left gobsmacked at my results. He asked me to write up a detailed summary of my process so he could emulate it in his own home.

The right conversation over a cup of well tended tea can be worth 10 years of therapy. Or even no conversation at all... the smells. the process. such simple bliss! However, in the presence of a truly well crafted coffee... it becomes a lovely catch 22. Joyful either way.

My experiences with my teachers have led to an experience close to what virtue describes. Intuitive self inquiry. Listening to the body's signals, submitting to its innate wisdom are natural, unsought derivatives and progressions of cultivation. The body (and all of Nature) as I experience it now, is always communicating. It's me who strains to hear at times. Through the patience and persistence of intention and of my practice, I have come to calm down and quiet enough it seems, to now readily hear and thus be able to respond to the signals that are always being shared. My former fundamentalist ways with food have relaxed considerably with this listening and experience. But I now have refined my diet to have avoided a lifetime of three pharmaceutical prescriptions for blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels. Far more important now to my overall health, than anything I ever consumed as food is what I allow my mind to consume in the forms of media, news and what i allow my mind to ruminate on throughout the day. Food for thought. Food for body. I find it's either medicine, or slow acting poison. Both will heavily influence the body's path and thus... the mind and my own awareness as well.

boy I can relate to that. I effortlessly experience compassion for humanity at large, with ample flowing love, nurturing impulses and appreciation. But compassion, and love for many individual humans? Well that is still quite elusive and seemingly downright beyond possibility for me, in many situations. Cultivation continues...

The words and sentiments of both Marcus and Epictetus have been arising in my mind in recent months with distinct, potent clarity. So grateful they chose to spend some of their time, investing and relating their thoughts. They've been extremely beneficial to me all these centuries later.

Big Chongus was gone this morning. Figured a bird got him, then something told me to look under the table. He was either climbing back up the wall after falling. Or he was climbing down... and away. Placed him back in the pot and after a few minutes, he'd made a bee line up and over the edge of the pot. Seems he's lookin for a spot to anchor for the Chrysalis stage. And this time, he's gone under the rim around the edge of the pot. Everyone else is still munching.

permittivity

https://monarchjointventure.org/ A link to the Monarch Joint Venture support group for any interested.

So May and June is the second generation of the year's cycle of four generations. We're hosting four members of the second generation of this year's cycle who are making their way North. They are halfway to the year's first destination in Eucalyptus, Monterey Cypress and Pine Groves ranging from San Diego all the way to Santa Cruz. September's brood will live not six to eight weeks, but six to eight months. They will out live the previous three generations combined and will complete the reverse trip South in one go. I have to repeat this bit for emphasis. Here is where the alchemy compounds on top of the Alchemy of total physical transformation from walking/crawler to flyer... to this fourth generation who also displays and possesses magnitudes greater longevity than their forbears. Why not always have Monarchs that live six to eight months? Such precarious seeming balance. Life is such a wonder. That I even have the possiblity of sitting here in awareness, sharing this exprience by typing these glyphs and symbols... and that others across the glove may see and interpret them and participate... How much miracle is contained in one square yard of simple, normal dirt? It boggles my mind in its unimaginable intricacy and simple complexity. Contraria sunt complementa. Opposites are complimentary. Self balancing, co-arising conditions of the aggregates of form, rising from non-form. Awareness at its core. The trip it took three generations to make North, the fourth generation will complete themselves in one go. Upon arrival they will mate, lay eggs and then pass and the seasonal cycle will begin again, responding as it always has, to cues in the climate. As it has for countless eons now. All while maintaining balance with the food chain. Such a miracle... to just be here among this... this... life.

Final count seems to be four. They've all settled in on the new plant and are munching away. It's interesting watching them sever a leaf while holding an inverted downward dog underneath it. They anchor the severed leaf with silk and then hang upside down, their weight causes the leaf to droop over as they sever it, so it ends up covering them while they feed, obscuring them from sightlines. Then they feed from the bottom of the leaf upward at their leisure, starting at the stem in the center... with all the juicy nom noms. The big fella, Big Chongus as my son refers to him, isn't bothering with leaves, and heads straight up to the flower bursts and munches those exclusively so far. Went to the Farmer's Market looking for another, larger plant, but none available. I mulled putting a screen around them, but rejected this, pretty quickly. Our balcony is well covered on five of six sides and besides, nature has its own way. I'm meddling quite enough already with my incessant hanging out, talking to them and photographing them at their dining table and toilet.

edited for contentment.

Unignorable Synchronicity... About half an hour after posting this thread, I hear my wife say... "Aw hey... Monarch in the house. And you just moved your picture..." After logging off I'd just rehung a framed version of the picture in the first post, next to my desk so I could soak it in. I get up and looked over to see this Monarch fluttering in and about our dining room, then back out to hang among the spindly remains of our passed milkweed and then checking out the two straggler twigs who popped up in neighboring pots... and the lavender that's just starting to bloom. She danced around for a few minutes... realized there wasn't any real estate available and headed out. She let me get a bit of video. Couple hours later, I'm passing through to the kitchen when Maya, our short hair female is clearly telling me to check things out on the plant table as she's doing her 'please let me touch it!' dance. I settle in and in a few seconds it moves and I see it. This one is a beast. Looks about ready to make the change. Then while I'm suggesting going to the nursery now and not waiting for the Farmer's Market tomorrow; our son spots a second, in the dirt of a neighboring pot, cruising fast. Not quite as big as the first. By the time I've grabbed my keys, he's spotted a third one, tiny little guy, right next to his face, halfway up our screen door framing. "They're everywhere!" He says in his best Halo Grunt voice and we head out to the nursery, talking about returning to find mom hosting a kitchen covered in caterpillars wearing hats, reading 17th century french poetry to each other, while sipping milkweed tea. So, it's official, we're now a Monarch Foster Family. kizmit. synchronicity. I love life. In the midst of this anxiety and tension... such simplicity reminds me unignorably that Alchemy is always playing out... aware of it or not... and we're all, always a part of it. More to follow...

My son and I were sitting on the porch of a house we rented in the foot hills of Mt Hood in Oregon. This butterfly flitted about us, checking out my son in depth. He held out his hand and it came to rest in his palm. It grew quite still and after a time, we realized, it had passed. We set it in the branches of the bonsai. Just months prior, I had a similar experience while walking up to the beach on my birthday. A night moth, up uncharacteristically in the early morning light, alighted on my palm and died. Like little deaths, life unfolds, dissolving reforming... just as my mind, body and subtle bodies do. When I resist, or try to prop up and hold on... i experience incredible tension, anxiety, wracking pain. As this Alchemy continues to play out some through my intention, the vast majority beneath and beyond it... as through my cultivation and self inquiry I become able to more directly relate to it, i find increasingly i'm able to release radically into the flow of life and simply abide in raw unperterbed presence... there is a wonderous expanding of sense of self, releasing of long held blockages and a sense of bouyancy emerging. muddiest waters left to itself, undisturbed rests in clarity

This is very close to how I experienced the expansion of sensitivity to energetic flows, to grounding of loose energy and the widening of the MCO. It was neither intentional, nor sought out. It played out some months into daily Ting Jue Qi Gong when awareness began repeatedly being drawn and then resting in yong chuan and the bottoms of my feet. The heels and feet had been crackling with hyper electric impulses for some time as the yong chuan opened up through increased flow of the daily form play. Once the body had acclimated to the new flow, a new sensitivity was consistently bringing awareness to the feet as practice played out and then eventually when not practicing, throughout the day while going about 'normal life'. The reflections of this awareness reverberate through my body, through the other vessels. Awareness on the feet now brings a cascade effect, engaging the entire body in light charged and grounding awareness. It continues to play out years later often with no direction by my local mind. Once the pump is primed so to speak... it seems it's a natural function and very little if any direction ever seemed needed by local conscious mind for the process to engage, or to expand. Though i can also willingly engage it by placing awareness there wilfully. Seems like this process is built into the fabric of the practice and is inexorably linked, fed and charged by deep, relaxed breathing and sung. Gently placing awareness on my feet, has become a mainstay grounding and rejuviating practice as years pass, gaining in effectiveness and while the intensity increases, the effect of sung does as well. As wandelaar mentioned, i experience it as a very effective means of quieting a manic monkey mind when I actively use it, though by far, most often it arises of itself, effortless, unsought, yet thoroughly relished. Almost instantaneous evaporation of extraneous and volatile thinking occurs when I rest awareness in the sensations of my feet.

How I miss your presence old friend... but how grateful to have so many of your insights here to revisit. So grateful you shared so generously of yourself... your presence resonates on, through your shared insights. peace

I have it and really appreciate it.

I debated allowing Sheriff to speak. Normally I delete such posts before publishing. Particularly since Zhou does not need me to protect any aspect of his being or name. Invariably I find, whenever the Sheriff starts fanning the hammer, he's shooting himself as often as anyone else. Live and learn eh? Cultivation continues...

Peace