Well-Being

Jamie's prompt this week on Wishcrafting Wed - "what do you wish for your health & wellness?"

Quite timely, at the beginning of a new year - double, as this week we left Rabbit & entered the Year of the Water Dragon!

My first thoughts are more movement, healthy food, clearer home & serenity!
Yesterday I picked up my first Veggie share from my CSA. I've eaten mostly local OG veggies & fruit, & try to keep the rest of my food as close to home as possible, for most of my adult life - 40 years!

Our little family (daughter, her family & myself) have eaten Gluten Free for 2 1/2 years, & added mostly dairy free last fall. I experience more energy, healthy weight (weigh about 5# more than I did in my 201-40s), clearer sight, .... it's been great! & contrary to some folks experience, I see 'glue-y' items & am just happy they're not on MY plate!!

Movement - as a kid, I HATED PE - mostly ball sports with guys or 'jock' women teachers. Blagh!! Then in my late 20s, we went to see my oldest niece in Nutcracker - wow!! The next week I began taking classes (from a world class, Russian method teacher, whose 26 year old daughter is now the principle teacher) .... Here's my son Josh as 'Mother Ginger,' from the 2011 Nutcracker, with one of the principle dancers peeking out from under the skirt (my 6 year old grandson LOVES Nora!) Miss Emma insisted Josh keep his beard, tho the red hair isn't his :)

A few years later, I began taking (& later teaching) Tai Chi & Qigong, along with becoming a Massage Therapist.
The last few years I've taken occasional classes, along with my more regular ballroom & square dance, & have been going weekly this winter - so I plan to continue that. AND next week, am teaching my own Chi Based movement class - 'Dragon Dance,' at a local workshop centre. Stay tuned :)

I'm still at work clearing & cleaning my home! Was actually challenging on Monday (1st day of the Chinese New Year) NOT to sweep or clean much (just put the dishes in the sink, & swabbed a counter! - here's a sweet link for activites of each day)
I'm making headway, & it gets easier. Yesterday I cleared off the little shelves beside the kitchen sink (the house I grew up in had these, & my mom always kept ivy on one) .... & put up teapots & various blue & white cups & containers.
Now I need to deal with the stuff that was there!

My daughter said she feels this year of the Dragon is the year I'll 'get your little Breitenbush house back!' when I live with less 'stuff' around me, it's much easier to keep it neat! I have 6 or so bags in my car to take to Good Will, & a few bags for garage sales ....

What do YOU wish for health & well being in this year of the Water Dragon?

WW - What do you wish to Remember?

Jamie's prompt on Wishcasting Wed is "what do you wish to Remember?"

I wish to remember how grateful I am for living on this beautiful, Blue Green Planet, what a blessing it is to be incarnate at this time!!

& for being born & living HERE, in the Pacific Northwest - where we have abundant water, trees, gardens, lovely OG veggies grown 'for us' by our CSA farmers, Katie & Casey For Grandchildren (5 - I am so blessed!), for music, dance, joy, vitality, health, and friends.

I wish to remember how blessed I was to be a wanted & cherished child, raised by parents who enjoyed being parents, enjoyed having ME (as ornery as I could be) & lived simply & honestly. Today would be their 62nd anniversary! (mama died ~ 7 years ago, & daddy 19)

& my daughter just shared a favorite, favorite memory: one sunny afternoon when she was ~ 9, we spent most of the day reading aloud, under the clothesline in our side yard - Anne McCaffery's 'Ship Who Sang' while her bro & papa were off collecting beetles with our Entomologist friend Jim .... 'one more chapter, please??' ...

This is Anne McCaffery's own memory of her son reading from that book for a camera crew: "I think the best story I ever wrote was 'The Ship Who Sang'. It still causes people to cry, including me. When Todd and I were reading it at Brighton, they had a BBC crew filming it. So there were these BBC cameramen hunkered down filming us, and comes the end of the story (which Todd always reads, because I can't go through it without weeping), I saw that these cameramen had tears rolling down their faces."
Anne McCaffery died yesterday, at 85 - may she fly with her dragons (Pern) & sing with the stars with Helva!!

I am blessed!!

What do you wish to remember?

Jamie Ridler Studios posts a weekly Wednesday Wishcasting prompt.

As Jamie says, "Wishcasting Wednesday is a safe haven for wishes, a fertile field in which to plant wish seeds and have them witnessed and tended lovingly. It’s a place where magic begins...Make a wish: Dare to dream."

"What would happen if every week you made a wish?

What magic might start to stir?"

Moon Reflections

Water moon Quan Yin

Sit on embankment & watch
for the reflection
of moon in water
Calm, hint of a smile
was Mona Lisa
as complete as this?

I love the on-line function for our library - a few clicks & I see which books are due, return, renew (once), or reserve a new one. This week I realized in the Holiday busi-ness, I had forgotten to even look at one, shining from the New Non-fiction Shelf. It's a lovely twist of a tale of a daughter's adventures living with her father: "Moon in the Water, reflections on an Aging parent" by Kathy Phillips. Rich images of Quan Yin, in pictures & text, weave with her experiences with dad after moving him to her home in Honolulu.

My own mother spent her last few years with diminishing facilities, perhaps Parkinson's? Some of Kathy's comments remind me of her - "Dad pauses in his meanderings through my apartment & peers at me a long time. Finally he sketches me in: "You're my & Madeline's child!" He doesn't sound sure."

My mom, Lois, would sometimes introduce me - quite eagerly - as her younger sister, Letha. I appreciated that she still knew I was family, & was happy to have us visit. My son would tell us "remind her that the only things she needs to remember are: she loves us, & we love her!"

Observe all dharmas as illusions, flames, dreams, the moon in the water, echos, flowers in the sky, images reflected in a mirror, shadows made by light, magical creations.
Great Prajna-paramita Sutra

'Goon Yum, soy yin-guong' says Kathy's Cantonese neighbor, when asked how she pronounces 'Quan Yin' & 'water moon' . . .

Avalokitesvara - India
Goon Yum - Cantonese (China)

Kannon - Japanese
Qan Im - Thai
Quan Am - Vietnam
Kwansum - Korea (male image)
Chenrezig - Tibet (also male)

Kathy reflects on the qualities of nurturing, & shares little stories of her dad's sewing for her, bringing her food while she studied in her attic room (after her mom's death), telling her 'I'm here if you need me!' She comments this nurturing was, at one time, thought only to be possible in a male; then more recently assigned to the female; & her view of role assignment reflecting cultural beliefs.

I am reminded of a recent series of Soul Collage cards, made by Denise (KaleidoSoul group member), featuring a White Dragon & the communication that came during a visualization:
This dragon has come into your life to help make the warrior side of your Yang lie dormant. He is the protector of your soul.
You have many past lives where you were a warrior and you are at a time where that Yang has been satisfied.
Your future lives will be learning the Yin - the kind and gentle part of your soul. The yearning of the warrior will, in one future life time, subside and you will eventually have both halves whole." (here are the cards: 1st, 2nd, & 3rd)

Whew! I can sure relate to this 'warrior' energy, & time to lay down the sword! In several relationships, I went into 'white knight' mode - defending a couple of boyfriends - when I could have been focusing energy elsewhere!

I enjoy this image of the dragon protecting my soul. Perhaps this is one of the reasons behind my '5 dancing fairie dragons' tattoo - spiraling up arm! I got the tattoo a few years after the last 'warrior to the rescue' relationship - hmm . . .
None of the dragons is white - fine & delicate, they have coloured wings - Earth (red & green) Water (blue & green) Fire (Red & yellow) Air (pale blue) & Sacred Sound, (lavender). The 5 elements of the Cherokee Tradition. dragons aren't whi