Recording the Crystal

"I'm always doing things I can't do, that's how I get to do them."

                                         Pablo Picasso

I'm learning to record my songs. Some of the old rules of recording no longer apply today because we can do so many tracks and tricks.  Now we have all the million dollar recording studio stuff in our ipad and what not, and really anything we can think of, we can do. All the fancy bells and whistles can be applied after the fact, and can cover over a multitude of musical boo boos. 

So what is left, besides the infinite sea of choices and freedom? It is like the mote of dust around which what is to be the snowflake forms. It is the essence of the song, the spirit of the song itself.

When we record, we call that the crystal.  

Capturing the crystal is much like catching the wind in a bottle. It needs to find the musicians in top form, warmed up, in sync with each other, and familiar with the song. But it also requires a certain hard to describe something...

The musicians need to be in a particular mood of really feeling the song. Embodying the song, listening to its meaning. And feeling particularly inspired just then. The first run through of the song is usually the crystal, and it helps to have not played it in a good while. This, despite the need for familiarity, so it's tricky.

 And special!

The crystal then becomes the center of the recording, around which other parts are hung, like winding a ball of yarn. In some cases, the other parts added later replace bits of the crystal even to the point that, in some cases, the original crystal cannot be heard at all.

But it is there! There remains a pattern. A spirit.

This Now

"This moment is a gift. That's why we call it the present"-?

I was feeling out of sorts, out of balance. My world was spinning. I needed to find center. So I did a little prayer asking for help.

Immediately the voice of Higher Consciousness spoke to me. "Take a centering breath". So I did, assuming that would be the solution to my plea for help. It was. I felt centered and balanced. The voice continued, "See, it is easier to stay centered than to hold yourself out of balance". It was true!

I then took down this song, writing as fast as I could:

​This Now​                      

This now is the only now

This now is the only one there is

In this now, you can return to balance and peace

This now, you can be free

Long ago, you may have been lost

Long ago, you may have gotten hurt

Long ago, you may have been confused

But from now on, you can be safe here, in this now

You have been released!

Today is the first day of the rest of your life

So take this little moment

To take a deep breath

Reorient in the present

In which we stand

Under the smiling stars

Of a loving universe

Forever free and home in the now

 

 Now is the first moment

in your infinite adventure

through the rest of all time

You can always get back to here from this now

This now is the only now

This now is the only now there is  

sunheart.org

I did not have to change a word!  I later discovered that the 'one breath centering meditation' is a real buddhist technique especially good for us impatient westerners! And I have found it to be quite true that it's easier to stay centered when I am balanced than to try to do anything in a state of imbalance.

Our brain thinks of the present moment as lasting about six seconds, three before now, and three after now. That's about how long a centering breath takes. Try it now!

​

The Circle of Gold and the Pyramid of Money

"Earth's crammed with heaven." Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Years ago, Ram Dass's guru smirked and giggled as he scanned Ram Dass's future. "Women and gold!" he cackled. The part of the story about women can wait.

 But the gold part came waltzing into my life one day in Southern California where I lived in my palm frond hut by the beach. Dear friends that I considered to be very New Age, pure, and spiritual came through town with a magic "circle of gold".

This Circle of Gold confirmed what we all knew, which was that the universe was abundant with all good things, and all you had to do was ask, and you'd 'manifest' gold or whatever you wanted. Just send $50 to the first person on the list, and five names down the list, you would be inundated with money in the mail.

Ram Dass was in on this, so everyone knew it was cool, right?

True to the promise, a few short weeks later, I was showered with lots of letters containing fifty dollar bills, which was really cool! 

But soon after I began to hear back from those were the last ones to join this game and could not find anyone else to recruit, because everyone they knew already had bought in. We all looked around and sort of realized that endless growth might not be so unlimited. (Ram Dass had to publicly apologize to the community. See "Egg on my Beard", New Age magazine)

Recently I have seen that this pattern is in the whole world. Endless exponential growth may not be the only way to prosperity and well being.

 What has algorithms of endless growth? Our money system, with its need for relentless growth (to repay debt set to always grow a little faster), and the cancer cell. 

The time in nature for rapid geometric growth is early life, childhood. It is a phase of life, not a permanent pattern. 

We could structure our money system to favor conservation, sustainability, and care instead, by tweaking with interest, incentives, and other things. That would be more in harmony with the algorithms of our Shared Earth, more along the lines of a perpetual motion machine, as long as we don't destroy it in our childhood phase...(for more in depth discussion, see Sacred Economics)

Nutmilk

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

-R. Buckminster Fuller

Good things about nutmilks:

     Nuts are the best fatty food to eat, healthier than oils and dairy.

      And it can be made fresh, and raw, with enzymes and vitamins intact. 

       You can make it at home in five minutes.

         Eating more nuts and fruit helps overweight people lose weight.

          And it will cost you less money than dairy and the various milk substitutes.

           Additionally, there is no un recyclable aseptic packaging to send to the landfill. 

                  Nut milk is really easy to make!

All you need is a blender, and for some kinds of nut milk, a strainer. Just put a cup or less, not more, of raw, or also soaked, or soaked and dehydrated nuts in the blender and spin them up with no added water, stirring once or twice with a chopstick. Next add a few splashes of water and blend to a smooth cream. 

Next, if you plan to strain your nut milk, thin it to the consistency of milk and strain. If it is thin and well blended enough, it should easily pour through a metal strainer leaving little pulp. You can use a metal strainer or cheesecloth, or even a special nylon bag. 

                 Strain first, then flavor. 

Now, you can add a pinch of salt and sweetener, if desired, and spice to taste, if you are using any. I use maple syrup and vanilla, but honey and cinnamon are also nice. Some recipes call for stevia, or dates. Try different flavors or enjoy the nut milk as it is. You can also add this to your baking or any recipe calling for milk or cream. Sometimes I also put in probiotics so if I keep the nut milk around for a few days and it starts to turn, it turns in a good direction. 

The really awesome nut cracker here has no trouble even for macadamia nuts! (here's a link)

You can leave it thick when you add flavorings if you do not plan to strain. I usually strain almond milk, but cashew and macadamia nuts never need to be strained. Walnut, your call. So when you have a nice, thick cream of nuttiness, you can add crushed ice to make melty ice cream, or water and ice to make a shake, or thin it down to milk. Enjoy!

(In case you can't eat nuts, here's a link to homemade oat milk:)http://ohsheglows.com/2013/01/10/homemade-oat-milk-easy-fast-cheap/

Othering

"There are a you and an I, and there is no mine and yours! For without a you and an I, there is no love, and with mine and yours there is no love but “mine” and “yours” (these possessive pronouns) are, of course, formed from a “you” and an “I” and as a consequence seem obliged to be present wherever there are a you and an I. This is indeed the case everywhere, but not in love, which is a revolution from the ground up. The more profound the revolution, the more completely the distinction “mine and yours” disappears, and the more perfect is the love". Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love, Hong p. 266

It is the job of every two year old to figure out what is me and not me, learning all the differences and distinctions between things and other things. It does help one to navigate around the world of things to know which ones are good to eat, safe, and so on.  This is called discerning.

But now I am well past two in years, and in me the practice of discerning has become judging. This is 'othering'. This habit of judging others has become solitary confinement for my ego. It has become  isolating, automatic and limiting. 

I cruise around the world gawking at the weird assortment of humans in my path, getting little ego jollies feeling superior for this and that little flaw I spot. This of course covers over a feeling and habit of feeling inadequate and inferior! These things usually appear in pairs of opposites, two sides of the same coin.

The flaws of others irritate me the most in one or other of the following cases: either I just quit doing the thing that I am judging in someone else, or, I still do it too! The roots of the impulse to judge do reveal that we are not really all that separate, else we would not be interested enough to bother to compare and judge. We identify enough with others to compare, before driving in the psychic wedge.

 A boy who grew up on a farm remarked that he and his friends formed deep loving bonds with the pet animals, but the ones who were destined to become food were hated and regarded with contempt. They had to 'other' the food animals or they would not be able to eat them later.

Maybe as I raise my consciousness enough to behold the ways we are not separate, the othering impulse will begin to give way to compassion. Maybe I will realize that if I had had all of the same experiences the other person had had, I would do the same thing as them. Perhaps I will then have a glimpse of 'inter being'.

Play Like a Tree

Let's play like a tree! 

Ok?!

Right now, if you can, get up, stand up.  Stand behind your chair and rest your hands lightly on the back of it...relaxing your breathing, relaxing your arms and allowing your weight to sink down to your feet and on down through your imaginary roots, down to the earth, on down, deep.....

Your leaves have fallen or are almost gone, and you stand bare in gray misty wet air as light diminishes all around. This cycle is winding down. Is there anything else you want to let go of? 

Let it go with the out breath and take refuge in the roots, in the warm earth. Everything is food to someone, and the Earth can compost and reuse all that you release now. 

     (from the Be Like a Tree Book, late fall portion of the tree dancing meditation)

Now is the season to hunker down in the warm dark of sheltering structures and to be nourished on the harvest of the work of the past. It is the time of being intimate with the creatures you live with, and at peace with oneself. A natural impulse now is to take space and time resting, cocooning, recharging. 

"darkness within darkness, the gateway to all understanding"

-(http://mattpaul.org/ from a translation of the Tao te Ching)

"Be with those who help your being."-Rumi

Is this a fearful thought, being quiet or alone curled up by the hearth of the fire within?  Do you catch the urge to run out shopping now like everyone else just so you can be too busy to be alone in the dark of the year? It's no wonder we hang up lights and sparkles to shoo away our fear of the dark days. It's ok. Hold hands with someone. But sometimes we find buried treasures in the dark boxes of the year, in the roots. Just being in the present with ourselves and each other. A gift.

Healing Money

"This world economic "crisis" is also the proverbial "opportunity".  It is great way to open up a new conversation.  We can reconsider all of our previous ways of relating to money, sustenance, sharing, and caring.  To revision how we are connected." (from The Love Economy, 2011)

If you are older, do you remember the promise of twentieth century modernism, that technology would imminently free us all for lives of leisure? (We would also be flying jet back packs, boarding shuttles to the moon and other marvelous benefits.... )Yet although technological innovation continues apace, we seem to be busier than ever, almost frantic. 

All the while, this "progress" gnaws away at the fabric of Earth's life support system, the shared home of us all. And our awareness of this gnaws away at our conscience.

What happened?

Why does everyone seem to be fighting, er, competing, for not quite enough? Why in a world that is abundant with sustainable sources of supply is there so much worry and obsession about money? Have you ever considered why everyone, even the super rich, are stressed out about money?

These questions burned in my heart for years. But I was missing one important piece of the puzzle. I did not understand economics and money, and I was under the impression that it was only experts who could. Even they did not agree, so how could I ever hope to understand?

What if you're not BAD?! Could it be possible that we are not individually and collectively greedy, destructive, and basically bad?! Could it be that the way the money game is set up is the problem? This is indeed the case, Charles Eisenstein explains, better than I can, so check out his books. (Here)

Money is meant to be a neutral tool to bring our beautiful visions into the world. Sacred Economics seeks to clarify our understanding of what went wrong with money, and how to heal it. 

"It is said that money, or at least the love of it, is the root of all evil. But why should it be? After all, the purpose of money is, at its most basic, simply to facilitate exchange—in other words, to connect human gifts with human needs. What power, what monstrous perversion, has turned money into the opposite: an agent of scarcity?"- Sacred Economics, Charles Eisenstein 

His work is giving me ah ha's and insights that are changing my life and rippling into the future.