"Handle With Care" Synchronicity

I don't know what's in the stars, but it's been a month of "everything is going wrong".  Or another way to put it would be that it's been one of those "lessons and learning experiences" months.

I returned to Tucson to find my mother with health problems.  A tooth went bad and had to be extracted.  The roommate/caretaker was impossible to live with, and I had to very gingerly and diplomatically find a new home for her, which ended up being expensive, although it ended well.

Or so I thought until I learned that the room she was in, the one she always had the windows and curtains closed in with the in-room air conditioner running..........was the same room she was chain smoking in, because she didn't want me to know she smoked.  My best room now smells like a bar................ever try to get deeply embedded cigarette smoke out of a room you rent to people who are often sensitive to smell?  It's an ordeal that involves painting every surface with a special sealant, and then re-painting, as well as renting an expensive ozone cleanser machine. Whew..........

So  last week I was surprised when I went to my car (in a parking lot) to see a pile of latex gloves all around the front of my car.  Latex gloves?  I picked them up, not being a person who wastes things, threw the mass into the back of the car, drove off.  But the sight of that pile of gloves on the parking lot by my car was so strange I couldn't help wondering if it had some kind of "symbolic value". 

A week ago a guest arrived who was going to stay a month in my guesthouse in the back.  I've always had such friendly experiences with the people who've stayed there.  But as soon as she moved in things got strange.  She complained, complained, complained, she sulked, she glared at me when she walked by, she said the neighbors were intrusive and noisy.  Since she paid in advance  I bent over backwards to appease her. I apologized several times for neighborhood noise.   I gave her 1/4th of the rent back in cash "for her inconvenience".  I told her I'd refund all if she wanted to find something else, and was told she had no where to go and was "stuck".

Then she took to blasting a radio toward my fence, to "get even" with the neighbors (who are very quiet). It took some talking down and  placating to deal with this, in the course of which I learned that she believes she is stalked by an invisible enemy, that no one believes her, and "they" get to her wherever she goes, including putting poison in her car every night.  After I talked her into calmness (and got the radio off), I retired feeling very sad at the endless suffering of this woman, who needed meds and help I could not provide,  and also frightened for myself, my other guests,  and my property.

With much careful effort, I managed to get her to leave without violence - handle with care, indeed, just like nurses must handle patients who are "infectious".  And I learned something about myself, and the need to not react and become "infected" by her emotional and psychological insanity.  Gloves are to avoid "infection", which means, reaction.

Last, I've spent the past day cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, the space this sad woman inhabited, which she left in bad shape, along with the challenging room the clandestine smoker left behind.    The gloves came in handy not only as metaphor, but literally. 

Terry Pratchett - Choosing to Die

 

"It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life"

"The trouble with having an open mind is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."

 

Terry Pratchett

I have always loved Terry Pratchett, who, like Ursula Leguin, has provided me with such wonderful worlds to investigate, laugh about, and learn from in his prolific writings.  He  is so beloved in England that he became Sir Terry Pratchett. Sir Terry Pratchett is the acclaimed creator of the global bestselling Discworld series. He’s the author of fifty bestselling books and his novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen. He’s the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, as well as being awarded a knighthood.  In December 2007, Sir Terry announced that he’d been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and he has campaigned and donated $1 million to Alzheimer’s Research UK.

In this documentary Terry Pratchett discusses his Alzheimer's and how it is slowly eroding his life and his talent. He meets others with medical conditions which will inevitably lead to a prolonged, painful and above all undignified death and asks the question "is it better to end things early?" There are few answers here. Pratchett has spent his life inquiring into every cultural assumption, and his film is no less a genuine mission of inquiry as he faces his own situation.  He takes a frank look at a subject most shy away from.

I try to keep my blog on the light side, or at least, the political/mystical side, but sometimes I don't know how to write away my personal troubles.  For five years now, my brother Glenn has been in a vegetative state in a nursing home, the result of a brain stem stroke in 2008.  I am also responsible for my mother, who, thankfully, is in an assisted living facility, and slips away into a cheerful, if confused, dementia.  Although I comfort myself with the idea that "brain dead" means no consciousness, and he's not in his body anymore,  to be honest, Glenn's one good eye opens, sometimes you would swear he's looking at you, his mouth moves.   How do you deal with that, the thought that he may be conscious sometimes?  If he is, I can't help him.  My other brother will not legally allow me to remove life support, and if I pull the plug, I would become a person who is legally considered a murderer.  And so I go talk to him, tell him he can leave this world, tell him not to be afraid.  I wish I was a medium, or had the faith of a priest sometimes.

 Sir Terry's film is somewhat related, and a hard film to watch.  Most people will turn away from having to think about such things, and I don't blame them.   The Romans believed in honorable suicide - when someone felt their meaningful life was over, they would hold a party, invite their friends and family, drink the best wine and favorite food, reminisce and give away gifts.  And then they would slit their wrists, leaving this world among the people and things they best loved.  For myself, it seems a much better idea than to end up like the people in my brother's ward.  I had a friend who, faced with incurable cancer, chose to take all of his saved up pain meds.  I respect his choice, and my only regret is that he wasn't able to gather his friends around to say goodbye when he did it.   I have my own living will, and perhaps, if I'm  faced with something like Terry Pratchett,  that might be my choice as well. I don't know.

http://youtu.be/slZnfC-V1SY

Guest House

During the winter and spring I support myself, and am able to keep my house,  mostly by renting rooms to women visiting Tucson, and occasionally the renovated Airstream trailer in the back to both men and women.  If I'm feeling especially lively, everyone gets breakfast, but not always.  I never expected I'd be making a living changing sheets and making toast, but it's been a blessing, a lot of fun,  and I've met some great people, including people from Paris, Tasmania, and Helsinki.

I really appreciate the site that I work with, and others like it.  In this time of big boxes and vast corporations, it's great to see small enterprises, and resource and skill exchanges, still around, even thriving.  I think it's the wave of the future, at least, I hope so.

And you never know what kind of haven you might be providing, what effect, if any, your presence or art or stories or garden, or even the books lying around that you haven't read in years...... might have.  And, of course, the other way around as well.......which reminded me of this poem by Rumi.

The Guest-House

 
This being human is a guest-house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you
out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Say I Am You: Poetry Interspersed with Stories of Rumi and Shams,
 Translated by John Moyne and Coleman Barks,  1994.

The Wind Sculptor from Holland

Dutch Wind Sculptor Creates New Form of Life!

What shape
waits in the seed of you to grow
and spread its branches against a future sky?
Is it waiting in the fertile sea?


David Whyte

 

I posted about this amazing artist several years ago, and felt like sharing his work again.  I have to thank my friend Charlie Spillar for this BBC Video about the Dutch sculptor Theo Jansen and his "Strandbeests". 

  I'm in awe of his vision!  I wish I could see this new evolutionary creature make it's way back to the sea in person!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSKyHmjyrkA

Cats...........

Lucy and Lulu demonstrate symmetry

Walking Dogs...........

Walking Cats........

Dogs making friends

Cats making friends

And of course, Henri the Existentialist Cat's thoughts about the approach of Halloween:

Energy Medicine Conference in Tucson November 8 - 10

 Sometimes synchronicities can happen in funny ways........it's as if our thoughts go out and get a response in the Big Conversation with instant gratification! I was grousing to myself because a Conference I want to attend  costs a lot to travel to and attend.  To tell you the truth, I can't afford it.

So I was pleased to learn when I opened my email about a fascinating conference coming up soon in my own home town in November........and the Producer has made a point of making it very affordable, recognizing that many people who work in the field of alternative healing are,  not unlike artists, often "financially challenged".

Two of  Tucson's own visionaries,  Dr. William Tiller and Dr.Gary Swartz, will be speaking.  If you register before the 20th of October, it's only $99.00 for the full three days.  I'm excited!


http://www.naturaltucson.com/TUCS/October-2013/Understanding-the-Science-of-Energy-Medicine-Conference/

Understanding the Science of Energy Medicine Conference

Dr. William Tiller

The Science, Spirit and Health Symposium is holding their second annual conference, "Understanding the Science of Energy Medicine" , from November 8 through 10, in Tucson. The symposium intends to take a sizeable step in taking Energy Medicine further “out of the closet” and into the mainstream, featuring Dr. William Tiller, who appeared in the film, What the Bleep Do We Know? and University of Arizona scientist Dr. Gary Schwartz, as well as other nationally and locally known presenters, researchers and energy medicine practitioners.

The film, The Living Matrix, and the keynote address of the 2011 ISSEEM Conference on Energy Medicine’s History and Future by Bruce Lipton, a cellular biologist and author The Biology of Belief and Spontaneous Evolution, will be screened, as well.  Tiller will present: The Experiments that turned Orthodox Science on It’s Head! and Schwartz, author of The Sacred Promise: The Energy Healing Experiments, will present: The Energy Healing Experiments.

Art Giser, founder of Energetic NLP, will speak about "What You Absolutely Need to Know About Your Energy Field." Dr. Melinda Connor, a neuropsychologist and internationally recognized researcher, will present: "How Music Heals Your Brain".

Earlybird pricing: all three days for $99 until Oct 20. Register at NewGroundEvents.com. For more information, email JoshuaDanHorner@yahoo.com.

This article appears in the October 2013 issue of TUCS

Kandinsky on Art, Art as Magic...............

 

Kandinsky on painting (1903)

"Painting is an art. And art is a power that should be aimed at developing the soul.  If art does not do this job, the abyss that separates us from God is left without a bridge. The artist owes his talent to God and has to settle this debt. To do this, he has to work hard, know that he is free in his art but not in his commitment to life. Everything he feels and thinks is part of the raw material with which to improve the spiritual atmosphere around him."

"The Magician stands with his arm raised in the classic gesture of inspired invocation.  He draws the white light of universal energy (the Above) through his  skilled hand, his will, and then through his heart, to manifest on the physical plane (the Below).  As his creative energies manifest, they are broken into the "rainbow" components of the physical world in all of it’s lovely diversity.The Mage is an artist in every sense of the word, for his magic arises from a skilled and disciplined understanding of the tools he has to work with, his intention, and connection to the infinite realm from which all manifestations originate. The Magician card urges you to remember that you are the artist - the  Mage - of your life."

From "The Rainbow Bridge Oracle"

              The Card Deck may be ordered from:  www.rainewalker.com -   order form  

To purchase the accompanying book visit:  

THE RAINBOW BRIDGE ORACLE:  A Divination System

All artwork is copyright Lauren Raine MFA (2013)