soaring crane

haha, yes, that's it. The cello isn't normally there (and it isn't always so spiffy looking), it's used for small concerts and dance seminars, etc. There's a lot of Tango going on as well. It's a great place for Qigong. The house owners are really cool He has a gardening/landscaping business and she actually runs a huge hand loom, makes fabrics for clothing and pillows, very gorgeous stuff. She's also a Yoga teacher, so the place is well-equipped.

I noticed the peek function, dang. Any way to turn that off?

great, thank you :-) I want to completely evaporate a certain poster ... bzzzzzzt gone. it worked - serenity now!

be still my heart ... mind be still my belly and soul let's laugh a little

I think it takes no greater understanding of 'what really is' to create scraps of paper than to interpret them. Other than that, very nice Simplicity isn't human. It just isn't.

So give me a bite. Not there, silly, over here; Where it hurts so good

Modesty and a friendly smile would be a good start. I mean the teacher's, not your own ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ some more thoughts ... But you should also be modest and smile a lot. Also, it would be good if you were to always go home with more questions than answers. A teacher/guide who has all the answers isn't as valuable as one who ignites the spark of curiosity in you and inspires you to explore your own intuitive approach. A good teacher will be very interested in hearing about your experiences, and perhaps learning from you. Hitler would have been a horrible teacher, whether he were an immortal or not. ha ha

I have an interesting anecdote about the healing sounds. A friend's mother developed the habit of puffing out air through pursed lips. She would do it anytime she had any kind of stress, which seemed kind of normal, but she began doing it all the time and it became chronic. My friend got annoyed with her mother, people would ask her to please just stop it already, that kind of thing. But when I heard her doing it for the first time, it was so clearly the liver sound, letting off steam, that I asked her if there was something really causing her a lot of anger, or pent up rage. And of course there was - her husband, and I won't go into any more details than that. I told her that's why she was making the sound, to cool down the liver, and she actually understood what I meant, with no qigong experience at all. Seems her liver knew what to do to heal and protect itself. Also, this is very nice:

very nice, and you don't have to label it. There are more than two ways to breathe

There's a bit of irony to this story. The (US-based) credit agencies have historically overreacted to negative news in Europe, adding to the exaggerated impression of 'Euro-blight', while coddling their own USA. They aren't objective, not by any stretch of anyone's imagination. But in the end, the US is going to suffer and become weakened from the false positive ratings whereas the EU is overcompensating for the unfairly low ratings, and making itself stronger in the process. You're right in pointing out that a failure to raise the debt ceiling isn't going to throw the US into all-out default overnight, but you also qualified your statement when you wrote 'short-term'. The spiral is in motion and it's going to take a miracle to get it to start turning the other direction. Like a blockage of Qi, the only way to set it truly free is to treat the entire organism. But we don't have any financial acupuncturists available, none that'll be heard, anyway. I say, follow the money. Who's profiting from all this?

I like that. But I would add that, at the end of the end, it's a good idea to do a little targeted, vigorous self-massage to return to the real world.

Roger Jahnke, The Healing Promise if Qi a very, very lovely book, written just for you And there's a used example for $7 at the moment.

I don't know what their problem is (I guess there are myriad causes for the mentality) but I'm careful not to let them drain me. That is all.

Never ... serenity.

was that the challenge here?

Scientific documentation? Teachers should be able to present documentation -- what? Peer-reviewed studies? Doctoral theses? -- before teaching a qigong class? I don't follow that at all, sorry. I think there are a lot of systems precicely because there is no hard science going on here. And I like it that way.

another angle: everything is covered, permeated, by mocrobes of one sort or another (or 10,000 sorts). They're all alive, very much so, and they certainly respond to their environment, perceiving enough to survive not millenia, not epochs, but billions of years on this planet, and presumably most other planets out there. There's a lot more perceiving going on than meet the eye.

ha! Thank you

this is the problem I have as well. I know from experience that I really prosper health-wise on an almost zero-sugar (wheat pasta and refined starches are sugars in my book) fish/egg/vegetable (albeit with plenty of fat) diet; but all that damn shopping, chopping, cooking, thinking up new things to try ... it becomes tedious, and at my most natural, I'm really a snacker. i just want to open the fridge and eat the first thing I see. I don't really want to have to think about my food. (if I were a millionaire, I'd donate all my money except enough to pay for a personal cook). I want eating to be about as exciting as filling up at the petrol station, but I want the fuel to be high octane, so to speak. So... I always have things like antipasti, eggs, avacados, smoked salmon, sardines, hokaido pumpkin, frozen organic berries and fruits, parboiled rice (cook up three days worth at a time), and I don't know what else on hand. Things I can eat at a whim or combine and cook when I feel like it. And lot's of spices to keep it all interesting and varied. I could see myslef tossing salmon, berries, pumpkin and oily stuffed peppers in a frying pan... then cracking a few eggs on top. And sprinkling tumeric and dried habenero on top of it all. And then put that on a little bed of fried rice. Mmmmm yes! It all starts with the shopping, I guess. Omelets (the American style where you make a kind of 3-egg pancake, spread a pile of stuff on one half and the fold it over) are a perfect meal, imo. We buy huge, beautiful organic eggs and go through them like wild aninals. The egg might be the most valuable food on the planet. They're certainly highly sought after in the rest of the animal kingdom.

well, yes, always, from day one, 1776. Or was it 1620? Same difference.

The higher the ascension, the deeper the fall. Maybe the first error is in associating height with value? Power with strength? I think the USA has always been a Nation without roots and the current situation has been predicted many times, based solely on that fact. It's a logical progression. But it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Is this thread still abou the decline of the USA? If it is, I was there not long ago and the anxiety behind the eyes of virtually every person I met was palpable. People here in Germany are stressed out, worked to death and all that, but they're still grounded in the real world. Americans have lost contact to reality. They're floating, like kites without strings. I don't know when it happened but I assume 9/11 played a role.

Puuurrrrr .... I wanted to point out another style coffee maker: Karlsbader Kaffeemachine I don't know what it is in English, but it's excellent. If you see one anywhere, get it, try it. It could also be called the Bayreuther Kaffeemachine (made by the porcelain manufacturer 'Walküre' - in Bayreuth, get it? hehe) Also, hand-grinders are gentler and don't damage the coffee the way electric grinders do: The classic coffee grinder Oh, here's the Bayreuther version

Wisdom of age meets innocent curiosity of a young child. A silly yet daunting grin.

Ordered it!