So Now For the Bucket

Took this test and was surprised, since I have not exactly been, nor am I now, a saint. Since I didn't expect to live this long (60), I'm wondering how it will be to live another 27 years.




Do you want to know? What difference would it make?

In 1970 or so I remember wishing on a star. I wanted to know how my life would turn out, what I would do etc. I actually got an answer. The star said, "What would you do if your knew? Would it change what you are doing now? If yes, then change it anyway, without knowing. If no, then all is well and you are where you need to be.

At that moment the answer was "No" since all was well at that time.

I have always used 'Death as an Advisor' after reading Carlos Castaneda's first book, The Teachings of Don Juan, which came out while I was working on my B.A. in Anthropology. I was actually studying Mesoamerica - a term anthropologists coined for a culture area which spanned the U.S. Southwest down to the northern part of Central America. Like others in my generation, the book intrigued me and I got the bug to study Shamanism.

When I did, I realized that Shamanism as it relates to a particular group of people, is rooted in history, language, geography, culture and ancestry. Traditionally, shamans, healers, or other holy people, were chosen by their community. No one in their right mind would walk in and say they wanted to be one. And, no amount of money could buy you the job.

For me, it was impossible to become a Huichol shaman. I might become a Sicilian one (if such a thing existed - Ha! Ha! or a Ukrainian or Polish one - also part of my ancestry).

Since one one my goals in life was to have a happy death, periodically I would look around at my life and ask myself, "If I died right now, would I have a happy death?"

If the answer was NO then time for a change. If YES, then I kept doing what I was doing.

Since it looks like I've got another 27 years, I think I better look around at my current life and answer the question once again.

Small World

Just got a new book by Pam Montgomery, Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness. I'm reading as fast as I can because this coming weekend I will be taking a 2 day class with her at California School of Herbal Studies. Over 20 years ago, when I lived in New Orleans, I heard about CSHS. I wished I was back in California so I could attend. "Things happened" and I found myself back in California. When I moved into my current home, I had no idea that I was living 5 minutes from the school. The plants conspired not only place to me where I am, but also to provide me with the means to be able to go to classes there. Yesterday, when I went to register for the up-coming class, I told Jason that I had just returned from La Cruz Huanacaxtle and he said yes, he knew it well. He and his family winter near there every year. More and more I understand that finding your true path, is as much about listening and following your nose, as anything else. These days there are many books written about the subject of one's purpose, calling, right work, etc. To some extent, this attention to the subject puts pressure on people to "do something about it". To this end, they buy books, go to workshops, attend trainings and pay people to help them. I too, have done some of these things. Fast approaching 60, I begin to believe that "finding your true path" is inevitable. What else could you do? What the issue actually is - is having the patience and the certainty that it will happen. Not necessarily when you want it to happen, but when it is supposed to happen. Our true path is our life unfolding. How else could it possibly be? Just as we could never begin to control all the functions and actions of our own body, what makes us think we could "find" then "execute" the plan for our life? It's not that I think we have no choices. Rather I believe it is bigger than what our mind can conceive of. There are more beings involved. The plants for example. Maybe they have a plan for us. For my own part, the more I have dedicated myself to my relationship with the plant kingdom, the more my life has made sense and the happier I have been. The evolutionary relationship between plants and animals is extremely interesting. The plants have led, the animals have followed. Without plants making food for us out of sunlight, water and CO2, no animal could live. Think about it. "Little green men" (chloroplasts) trapped inside the plant cells, perform an alchemical transformation of energy into matter. Did they go to a seminar to find the true calling? To see what I'm up to go see my website at www.wisewomenofthewest.com

La Corazon

Here I am in Mexico again. This time to help Glenn with surgery. We are actually in the small town of La Cruz Huanacaxtle at the north end of Banderas Bay where Glenn and La Sirena (his schooner) are in the La Cruz Marina. The town is named for the cross at the center of town made of huanacaxtle wood. It is the perfect place to have heart-related surgery, because being here as a gringo, one sees just what is missing from the culture we come from - The Heart. Despite the fact that these people are being invaded by the new marina (which is being built to dock 500 boats thus nearly doubling the population of the town); the new condos going in; the hotels that are being planned; they are gentle, smiling and caring for us, the strangers that will soon ruin the town. Glenn has been here 4 months and already the locals know him and care about him. When they saw him with his arm in a sling, they asked what happened and seemed to really care when they heard the answer. Children walk freely, unafraid. Their faces are open and innocent. They smile at strangers as if they were family. I feel like an alien sometimes, not because of the way they treat me, but because of my own lack of humanity. More and more expatriots are moving here from the States, Canada and Europe. Will we bring our sickness of the heart with us too? Or will we instead entrain to their hearts which in the long run, are stronger than ours.

To the Land of Quetzalcoatl

I'll be going to Puerto Vallarta New Year's Day .
for about 10 days. Glenn and La Sirena (his sailboat) made it down there after a not-so-auspicious start. His engine pooped out just a few miles out of the Golden Gate and he had to be towed in to his first stop at Half Moon Bay. After spending a day driving up and down the peninsula in my car to find parts (good thing I have one - he got rid of both of his vehicles prior to leaving), he was able to fix her and get her going again. Since then it's been smooth sailing.
Now he's in Puerto Vallarta and I'm flying down for a few days. A welcome change from the near freezing cold we've been having here. We will probably go to Guadalajara for a couple days and another small town he stopped in on the way down the coast and loved. Just finished reading 2012: Return of Quetzalcoatl. Interesting "coincidence" that I'll be going to Mexico. The book really got me thinking. Autobiographical at times, scholarly at times, the author is clearly on a search for meaning and purpose. Lots of information and a great bibliography. I'm taking the crop circle thing more seriously after this book.
In fact I'm developing my own theory about many ancient sites like Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid after reading this book. Another "coincidence": I finished the book and two days later got my latest copy of Archaeology Magazine with the cover story about Stonehenge! Daniel Pinchbeck writes extensively about his experiences in England visiting the ancient sites and crop circles that appeared while he was there. Like Pinchbeck, I have pursued many paths and done a great deal of research on seemingly strange subjects (not to me, but to my family). I have wondered from time-to-time why I have done this. Certainly not to make money, because until now, I have made very little from these pursuits. If anything, what I was learning made it harder to live and work within the current system because I could not perceive any "magic" or "soul" there. I felt called, led by the information itself like following a pied-piper. Pinchbeck writes a lot about how our concepts and structures of time affect the way we think. Since I studied for a doctorate in Mayan Studies many years ago, I was curious about this book because I dreaded one more wacko book on the Maya. To his credit, he includes the wacko and the academic (which to some, may be even more wacko). Perspective changes everything. He asks many questions and gives answers from many points of view without dictating any solution. He does give a convincing argument for both the need for a change of consciousness and the evidence that the change is occurring. My website: www.wisewomenofthewest.com continues to evolve.