Spirituality

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The ASWM Presentation! part 2

Heehee! This stream-of-consciousness stuff is way fun — but I’m almost afraid to re-read it later, for fear I’ll want to bang my head against my desk or something! No matter — the muse rides with me today! :) So! The regular MUNI buses were full but not bad for a Sunday, with lots and…

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The ASWM Presentation! part 1

Hastily typed out in stream of consciousness, while returning from the ASWM (Association for the Study of Women & Mythology) Conference — typing on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) & I’ve still got a head churningly full of wonderful, fascinating, intriguing ideas! Still tremendously gleeful at how well my presentation went too. One of my…

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Workshops & more

Quick updating for my 50 New Things, with more coming soon: Saturday 3/24 attended a “Creative Transition” workshop in Berkeley, focusing on art and dance. Fascinating workshop & lovely location. Clearly I must slide more creativity into my life, to balance the delightful intellectual swamp of doctoral work. :) On Wednesday 3/27 had cranial-sacral massage…

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More new things!

It’s funny… in making up potential things to try for my 50 New Things list, I find myself adding on all the ideas and events I’ve wanted to try for a while, but never got around to doing. Some of them are bigger, like “climb Halfdome,” but some of them are small and simple. I…

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Birthday thoughts

Today is my 50th birthday. Lying in bed this morning, listening with pleasure to the lovely silvery sound of the falling rain, I found myself pondering an alarming dream from last night, where I had to save the life of a feral kitten from a thoughtlessly cruel acquaintance — a kitten I unwittingly handed over…

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Life-Birth-Chaos-Dance: new tambourine!

When I’m stressed or lonely or otherwise not at my emotional best, I find creativity enormously comforting and grounding. My first night here in San Francisco for the CIIS Women’s Spirituality Intensive week of classes, I had made the hotel room “mine” by unpacking and doing a little decorating, but I was still feeling a…

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Snapshots of San Francisco

I’m in San Francisco, the City by the Bay, for the Women’s Spirituality Intensive Week — which actually goes from Saturday to the following Sunday thereafter. It’s going to be an 11 night stay, including all the extra retreats, welcome dinners, and caucus demonstrations. The actual classwork is indeed extremely intense, and my brain is…

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Cave of Forgotten Dreams, pt. 8

Alas, it gets worse. The narrator rambles on in the same demagogic vein about the “mutant albino” crocodiles, ending with a close-up shot of one of the small white reptiles staring bemusedly back at us from where it floats in the water, behind glass. Herzog continues with his inflammatory nonsense, wondering aloud: “When” the albinos…

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Cave of Forgotten Dreams, pt. 7

Closer in to the camera crew on the walkway we see swells of stone that half-shelter the pregnant mare’s niche. Painted on one is a herd of sturdy bison warily watching an even closer bulge of rock covered with a pride of lions. Interestingly, most of the animals painted are at side view, but there…

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Cave of Forgotten Dreams, pt. 6

It is at this point that the absurd scene (mentioned previously) with the spear thrower occurs. Interestingly, nothing at all is said about the greater importance of gathering or scavenging for the survival of our prehistoric ancestors; the narrator mentions only finding spearheads in the shoulder blades of horses and aurochs. The (highly faulty) impression…