Tag Archives: November

SHAKING UP NOVEMBER

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IMG_1628One should not abandon a good habit or routine.  I’m here once again with my morning Chai. My fingers are limbered and eager to tap out their words.  I’m hard pressed to say where they come from.  I never know what will come out. They just do.  They have a mind of their own.

It’s almost 8 am.  It’s still dark, dark out.  I am too watchful of the days and time.  That’s what you do when you are retired.  In other times, I would stumble out of bed at the crack of dawn.  I would dress and hustle out with Sheba for our walk before going to work.  The darkness would be just on the periphery of my consciousness.  In other times I had gone to work sick as I have been lately.  I felt I had to unless I needed life support.  Funny what we can do when there was no other choice.

So have I been whining a lot lately?  Have I turned soft and complaining too much about my lot in life?  I hope not.  I have not meant to.  I am just ventilating, breathing out the toxins.  Don’t pay attention to my negativity.  I am balancing my chi, doing a re-alignment of my chakras.  I am not an expert in chakras or chi.  I rely on my innate compass but here’s a short course in chakras from MindBodyGreen:

The 7 Chakras are the energy centers in our body in which energy flows through.
Blocked energy in our 7 Chakras can often lead to illness so it’s important to understand what each Chakra represents and what we can do to keep this energy flowing freely. Here’s our quick summary:

1. Root Chakra – Represents our foundation and feeling of being grounded.

  • Location: Base of spine in tailbone area.
  • Emotional issues: Survival issues such as financial independence, money, and food.
  • More on Root Chakra healing

2.Sacral Chakra – Our connection and ability to accept others and new experiences.

  • Location: Lower abdomen, about 2 inches below the navel and 2 inches in.
  • Emotional issues: Sense of abundance, well-being, pleasure, sexuality.
  • More on Sacral Chakra healing

3.Solar Plexus Chakra – Our ability to be confident and in-control of our lives.

  • Location: Upper abdomen in the stomach area.
  • Emotional issues: Self-worth, self-confidence, self-esteem.
  • More on Solar Plexus Chakra healing

4.Heart Chakra – Our ability to love.

  • Location: Center of chest just above heart.
  • Emotional issues: Love, joy, inner peace.
  • More on Heart Chakra healing

5.Throat Chakra – Our ability to communicate.

  • Location: Throat.
  • Emotional issues: Communication, self-expression of feelings, the truth.
  • More on Throat Chakra healing

6. Third Eye Chakra – Our ability to focus on and see the big picture.

  • Location: Forehead between the eyes. (Also called the Brow Chakra)
  • Emotional issues: Intuition, imagination, wisdom, ability to think and make decisions.
  • More on Third Eye Chakra healing

7. Crown Chakra – The highest Chakra represents our ability to be fully connected spiritually.

  • Location: The very top of the head.
  • Emotional issues: Inner and outer beauty, our connection to spirituality, pure bliss.
  • More on Crown Chakra healing

I am shaking up my chakras a little.  It is how I get myself out of the doldrums sometimes. I’m shaking them up to the music of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates.  I’ve got the quivers down the back bone, I got the shivers down the thigh bone… I feel my chakras sliding into place, in perfect alignment.

Do what you must to have a good day.  I have to stop complaining about November.  It is a wonderful month to:

  • re-align my chakras
  • simmer soup
  • make baguettes to eat with the soup
  • roast root vegetables
  • learn French
  • Zentangle and doodle
  • work on my short stories
  • work on my Jesus (cross stitch)
  • lane swim
  • plan on spring garden

I think Jesus heard me and sent out the sun.  It is beaming and smiling over my right shoulder.IMG_0769

 

 

NOVEMBER HEART

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IMG_1925I broke routine this morning and put aside my keyboard.  I spent time reading Alice Walker’s Now is the Time to Open Your Heart.

Perhaps November is not the time for such readings – of a woman on a spiritual journey, on an adventure quest, on a search for self.  It is a little disconcerting, for I am such a woman.  I have been on this long and rocky road for many a day, searching for my own lost self.

Our HouseI left my motherland many years ago, not of my own accord.  I followed my mother as she left her house and home.  We left our village.  We left our country and countrymen.  We left the aunties and grandmothers.  We left the cousins.  We crossed oceans and continents to Gold Mountain to join my father and others like him in search of THE DREAM.

Here I am many years later, still in Gold Mountain, still searching for THE DREAM.  I am tap, tapping on the keyboard.  I wonder if anyone can hear my taps.  Is it like Morse Code to them?  Can they decipher my words?

IMG_1886 November is a harsh month.  The cold grey of the sky sends shivers through my marrow. I am not fooled by its watery cool sunlight.  I am wary, on guard against all possibles.  I am warmed by the aromas of soup simmering on the stove.  That is what you do on grey November days.  You bring the warmth of summer and autumn into your house and heart however you can.  All the colours of the garden- the gold of squash, the red of tomatoes and beets, the green of kale – are simmering in the pot.  

 

WORKING THROUGH NOVEMBER

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IMG_1911November is coming in like a lion.  The yard is speckled with snow as I let Sheba out this morning. It is wet, grey and dreary.  I am reminded of another autumn, the time after I came back from a holiday in China.

It was the fall of 2001.  I had not expected that it would be so dreary and so cold.  I had expected that there would be some sunny and warm days yet to come. There would be time for me to put the yard and garden stuff away.  After all, it was still September.  But there was none.  I had to use my hairdryer to thaw out the garden hose from the outside tap.  Greyness permeated my days and being.  I had difficulties with sleep and jet lag.  It was a difficult autumn and year to follow.

Remembering that, I am watchful of myself that I don’t fall into that deep abyss again. Experience is a great teacher.  Routines and healthy habits are great aids.  I pay attention to my inner voice.  I breathe and give myself time.  A nano second can make a difference in how I see and feel.  Sometimes I fake it till I make it.  This is the time for all those would’s  and should’s.  I ask myself, how would/should a reasonable person behave?  In that nano second I ask again, Is that true?

And so, I am living my life best as I can.  I am trying again and again, struggling with all of life, struggling with my outer and inner moral compasses.  I am choosing my well-being and happiness over everything, over being right.  I’m deciding on what is best for me in the long run.  It is a difficult tug of war for my puritanical mind.  It is hard to compromise.  I’m trying hard to be kind to myself and others as well.  It is not easy but practice does make for better.

I AM making for better.  I am getting up, dressing up and showing up every day.  I am tap, tapping out the words.  They are showing me the way, lighting up this grey dreary morning.  There is no novel in me yet.  Perhaps I am afraid of letting it out.  But I am working hard.  I am still working towards my goal of 1000 words a day.  I’ve accomplished the 500/day for the month of October.  I can stretch and reach a little further this month. It’s a good way to chase the blues away.  And I’ve found help from Henry Miller via Brain Pickings this morning.

“COMMANDMENTS

  1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.
  2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’
  3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
  4. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
  5. When you can’t create you can work.
  6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
  7. Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.

  8. Don’t be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.

  9. Discard the Program when you feel like it—but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.
  10. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.
  11. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards. ”

Perhaps I can write my own manifesto in this dreary month of November.  I can adopt Miller’s motto:  “When you can’t create you can work.”

I am so grateful and appreciative for the support of friends through the Internet.  Likes and comments mean a lot – most especially during this time of coughs, sniffles and I feel sorry for me.  I try to r reciprocate in kind.  There are great communities out there.  It is wonderful that we can reach out and ‘touch’ each other, no matter how far away we are.

IMG_1896There is light in these grey days of November.  I can shine despite the darkness. So let me share a little glow here. I zentangled this little chameleon from a template of Ben Kwok’s that he so generously shares on Ornation Creation. What a great group it is, too, sharing and showing their work and giving encouragement to others.

 

How is November treating you?