Gaia Community: Entheochef's Blog

Pear Heaven

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:30:04 -0000

I have a friend named Beaver, who tends to a pear orchard. A few years ago, in a package of some Hemp goods that we bought from him, he included a little baggie of some dried pears. Pears have always been my favorite tree fruit. Their sweetness, regardless of which variety I've tried, is such a passionate kiss in every bite. Trying them dried was like an AHA! moment for me. It not only affirmed my Love for this mystical fruit, but it took that Love to another level.

On my journey to Pear Heaven, I need to let you know that Duncan is a dumpster-diver's paradise... So after getting the dehydrator, I've had a pretty steady supply of dried pears. On a couple of occasions we've gone dumpstering and have come up with a volume of Pears.

It's amazing what grocery stores will throw away! Think about it for a second. We visit 2 stores in Duncan, BC and get a lot of the produce we need. There is most always more than we can take.... There are thousands of grocers in British Columbia (then extrapolate this to nationally) who, similarly I'm sure, throw away volumes of (varying degrees of) fresh produce.

Then if one includes foodservice scraps from restaurants, hotels, clubs etc.... Is it any wonder that food costs so much? And then secondly... How come there are people starving?

While visiting with Sarah on the evening after our massive Pear score, she shared a recipe for Pear butter. Of course! (i could feel an AHA! moment coming on...). Her recipe involved a lot of spices and such but we opted for straight Pear. We washed and cored them, then put them through the Champion juicer into a pot. They spent the day reducing and when I smelled them this evening (only moments ago, really) it was sniffing bliss! I could smell the sugars beginning to caramelize. I can't believe I waited almost an hour from that first sniff until having a taste just now and

O.M.F.G!!!!!!

or whatever other kind of uber-expressive net-emo symbol that would indicate something approaching Nirvana or....

That spoonful of brown mush has got to be the most perfect sweetness that has ever graced this tongue.

Heaven???
if there is such a place,
exists in the taste
of a spoonfull of Pear
reduced over medium-to-low heat
for most of the day....

after all that, i'm reducing it some more. it's in the oven at about 300. Can the bliss get better than this? we'll see.

When we Make Love

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:17:12 -0000

When we make Love,
I feel...

It's like the Universe is speaking
Through our Spirit United.
It feels like home,
Loke a dark pathway lighted.

...Like there's a choir somewhere
Inside our soul
That bursts out into passionate song.

When we make Love there is no wrong,
Anywhere in the world, it seems.
Everywhere is at peace
And growing moreso every moment.

When we make Love...
I feel like i'm being awakened to something new,
And that the world that I knew
won't ever be the same:

Like when I learned to ride a bike
or to tie my shoes or read
...Like every time I pray.

When we make Love
and join in these passionate moments
of intimate play,
this forever, so real,
I feel...

oh! how I feel.

driving

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:29:41 -0000

I am home. Having arrived on the island shortly after noon today.

It's feeling really great to be back in the familiar new space of home. As we're building our life here on the coast, there's really no place I'm interested in being other than here. "Back home" in Ontario, I felt very alien as I whisked through a flurry of connections with friends and family over six days (my sister is now married, a good friend is about to give birth!!! Grandma's dog was put down and my dad is looking really old...we're all going through so many changes and it's all so amazing...AniccA) on our way to a brief four day holiday at the cottage in Sauble Beach on Lake Huron-Michigan.

Then it was on the road again. The bus left Toronto on Saturday evening at five and arrived this morning in Vancouver. OOF! The trip across the country on a Greyhound bus is challenging at the best of times but even moreso whilst almost eight months pregnant. laura's discomfort was apparent (why she didn't try cannabis...it transformed the challenging into trippy for me). I'm amazed at her resiliance and her beauty. We were both amazed at how incredible was sOMa's demeanor for the journey. He was frustrated with anticipation a couple of times and crearly bored a couple of others but slept pretty soundly and quite a bit.

I was tripping out on no sleep... that and the cannabis! I'm heading off to bed pretty soon and am really excited about sleeping more than two hours in a stretch. It does something to general perception to be awake for long periods. Dream world and waking life meld into something pretty interesting and worthy of further study. I'm not finished with bustrips across the country for this reason alone, though i've got absolutely NO desire to leave the island in the immediate.

Perhaps a bustrip to the north coast....

Walking toward You

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 07:36:05 -0000

From this distance… a Knowing.

Struck, like the sound of a soundly shut door. I set out through the park full of thickets grown big like trees, and grass and glorious lake-front. On my way to no-place in particular ~~ to the street. It’s lightly misted in this clouded day: fresh, bright.

In the distance: a fuzz

…or it could be exhaust. There are many vehicles about but this seems more specific, not quite the ripple of heat emitted by the warm engine of a tool of motion. These ripples, these rhythmic ripples that have almost got a sound and that most certainly carry a beat; still though, oh-so chaotic. In follow of the knowing, I’m flattened already by a fascination and adjust my step to carry the beat of whatever it is You’re expressing.

From this distance it’s deep

and I’m focused and aware. The rhythmic ripples approaching, with sudden sparkles of colorful vibration swimming through the air ~~ apparently in my direction: almost claw-like but more as nurturing roots of a pale yellow, then of a glistening silver to a deep green that scream”WELCOME!”, from this distance and still the ripples: a more distinct pattern erupting, very vibrant, very true.

At this distance, stopped

by a signal our species has created to manage the motion; there’s still quite a distance quite rapidly diminishing as you remain in approaching, and WOW! I sense that there’s a smile as the ripples manifest themselves as physical. The welcoming root systems complexify stunningly, grasping, approaching toward me and I’m taken, embraced and stopped, lost in wonder at whether you know just what you’re doing. Still, you’re chaos in motion and

from this distance… I go

stumbling into the intersecting street drunk with excitement and wonder, now as a closer pace adjusts that’s different, more immediate and familiar; yes, that is a smile: that’s a white slice in your dark face, your features are forming…

From this distance it’s clear

that you’re floating, as am I, in this thing called a body. Your happy eyes sparkle and giggle and sing while the waves that you emit are embracefull and caring. I’m most truely caught up in the colorfull bouquet of energy that you’re expressing.

At this distance: the catching of gaze then the magnificent rays of your being slip right into me to dance around my soul as we stroll closer to together to knowingly exchange a smile and “Hello!” with well-wishes, rapid at this disappearing distance as we pass, this fast connection lasts then snaps at synapse…

but we both turn to follow, quickly reclaiming that space,
and reach out with these bodies to share empassioned embrace.

We're Naked

Thu, 01 May 2008 05:39:41 -0000

This morning, you roll from your sleep-space, reach out with your busy, delicate hand and touch me softly on the shoulder, then the face and I'm certain that I smiled. I awaken happy and filled with the sound of your laughter--your hearty giggles. Stirring, still smiling and watch as the covers fly away and WE'RE NAKED!, it's morning and a whole day ahead. WE'RE NAKED! and I jump up running to win the race to the toilet but you're faster--you've been awake longer--and i'm sssstill dreaming on my way to the table by the sink where there's a joint, some water and a tapedeck, a lighter and a candle, so I play while waiting for the facilities.

"don't you dare light that joint 'till i'm done peeing."
"Are you almost done peeing?"
"Yeah."
"I'm lighting it. First toke my turn today Love" ...click...fssschhh

"Good morning! Good morning!" It's the Beatles, they're making noise as the chillin' cannabis flower smoke drifts softly into the air. I hand off the spliff as you leap from the peespace, grab it with grace and i take my place on the potty with pleasure; release with pleasure the stored liquid of a night full of dreaming. Yeah.

"Yeah... I had a wild dream just now."
"Prophetic?"
"No, I don't think so, I don't know, maybe."
"Tell me."
"Let me get off the can first. Can i get a toke?"
"Here, do you want to take a shower?"
"No. Um, I want to sit by the window."

I hop from the toilet and grab the blanket from the bed on my way to the sliding-doors window,

"What are you doing?"
"Do we have any really dusty powder?"
"...There's the dust in the bag in the vac in the closet. I'll get it"

,place the blanket on the heater by the door, turn around and YOU'RE NAKED!, I'M NAKED!, WE'RE NAKED! and i pass you the joint and you hand me the dust and i open the door to the third floor balcony and this sunny Saturday summer morning.

"It's certainly not the weather of my dream...Shit! where's the fan"

The fan's in the closet, I run over to get it then stop where you're standing to kiss you a kissy-kiss; you kissy-kiss me right back, put the joint in my mouth then turn it on high.........

"Yeah."
"I'm quite cooked. Nice bud!"
"You want this, last tokes?"
"Yeah"

Your strong, strong fingers clasp at the tip of euphoria, I stand by the window, the dust in my hands, you point the fan at me smiling, the dust starts-a-flying! all around all around, outside and in, it covers the Lovers and the room that WE'RE NAKED! in.

"Do you see the way it's swirling around?"
"Yes."
"Imagine it to be a cloudy day and there was this swirling around and we didn't have these walls, only thin air around us, and dust, like this, swirling all about. come, sit on the heater"
"It's really dusty"
"It's quite an effective effect."
"Sure"
"This was the end of the dream; what i just woke from. clouds of swirling dust with myself and everyone with whom i'd ever connected--although i couldn't see them for all the dust--we were all in this dust, being quite comfortably so, on the warm space all around us. It was very peacefull.

"Before that we were all at a huge party being thrown in Central Park in New York City celebrating the day of the Apocalypse. Everyone in the park with bands playing on a big stage. I guy came on between sets saying things like 'Great to be here all together isn't it?' and 'Okay folks we've got forty nine minutes to be alive like this', etc..

"We partied and partied like it was the end of the world, not a care in the world, just reverence, REJOICE!! (WE'RE NAKED! and it's GREAT!!) And the MC came on and told us 'two minutes to go', we all quietly counted down noticing smoke trails of missiles over the city.... then, masses of swirling dust carried us all and everything else away.

In a totally
pleasant
fashion

we all still hung out and relayed and expressed that 'wow this is a pretty wierd or interesting sensation' and 'Not at all what i expected." with lots of 'Grooovy!' and 'Ohhh yeahhhh.......':

(...sigh)

You turn off the fan, light up a smoke and sit back silently on the pseudo-sofa as the dust settles subtly all around us and WE'RE NAKED and in Love in a filthy room. You've got tears on your face but you're so happy it feels.

"That must have been beautifull"
"Yeah, quite something. Feels a little melancholy now. Perhaps it's that i'm having cravings for the feeling already. Beautifull is almost vague. I don't know Love. Yeah."
"Good dreaming." You hand me your smoke.
"Good waking up with you."

You smile, spring from the heater onto the bed, into your robe then right out the door with a thumbs up, no words just a giggle and I'M NAKED and alone with your cigarette, a mess in the pad, with a hot beverage and the whole day with you on the way.

Nettle Miso Gravy

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 06:51:32 -0000

3cups (or to desired thickness) Nettle Decoction (see recipe)
3Tbsp butter (or other fat or oil)
3Tbsp Kamut flour
2tsp Miso

(you can try a mirepoix too but it's not especially necessary... there's LOTS of flavour already)

lightly toast kamut flour
melt butter in saucepan over medium heat
add lightly toasted flour to create the roux
mix in the miso and allow to simmer gently for a minute or two

slowly add Nettle reduction, a third-cup at a time. mixing it in and allowing it to boil before adding another cup. continue this process untill the gravy achieves your desired thickness. for last night's dinner, i think it was about three cups.

The flavour of this gravy will vary depending on the miso and the strength of the Nettle infusion.

Last night's gravy was remarkably robust and also deliciously subtle.

Nettle Stem Decoction

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 06:43:42 -0000

I've been harvesting a quantity of Nettles and drying the leaves to "cut and sift" and sell for tea. It's quite a venture and it feels so amazing to be on this journey. I'm feeling guided by Sister Urtica and all of the ideas that we are generating on this quest.

When the Nettles were small, I just dried them, stems and all in the dehydrator. Now that they are big and I'm harvesting more than I can process in a day, I'm using a screen and baseboard heater system.

And I've found something extraordinary to do with the stems.

RECIPE
3-4 Lbs Nettle Stems (I wear rubber gloves when I'm handling mass quantities)
7 Litres H2O

Boil the Nettle stems in the water for several hours. The more the merrier! If you have the patience for overnight.....

Strain out the spent stems and then lightly simmer or even subtly steam reduce the decoction. This can be done "to taste". The first time I did it, I reduced it incredibly. Subsequent decoctions much less so; by about half.

The ensuing liquid is pretty versatile. I've used it as stocks for soups with amazing results. laura uses it as part of her smoothie every day. It is such an iron-rich brew.

Alchemy

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:30:59 -0000

This...
is
Alchemy...

Love in solution
Morphs according to
The conditions that we choose,

As the mix magically becomes
This mystic elixir;
Our paradigm.

An unknown elemental state.
A taste of being
We beings attracted, excited

With the warming of our brew.
This is...
Always new:

An infusion
Of experience
And time.

Urtica Mystica

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:48:46 -0000

An immense amount of my current time is being spent with Nettles. Stinging Nettles at that! (Urtica Dioica) If I'm not harvesting or processing them, I'm thinking about how many different ways I can bring this bounty to the masses. I'm on a pretty serious Nettle mission this year. Last spring sort-of kicked it off but the abundance of Urtica this spring has affirmed it:

I'm going to make my living and support my family with Nettles!

Nettles are a plant. In the same class as Mint: Magnoliopsida - or Flowering Plant. It grows pretty big and is a common and abundant "weed". The young shoots look similar to Lemon Balm or Mint or Catnip but a little more aggressive... rigid, angular. They have the highest iron content of any plant and are sooooooooooo delicious. when these young shoots are steamed they taste incredibly sweet. almost like blood. No need to salt or to season in any way. YUMMM! They also are superb in pesto or in scrambles.

The best thing about Nettles though is that they're free! If you find a patch, you can tend to it and it will thrive and feed you and your family for years and years. I'm guessing that by this time next year I will be cultivating them. Perhaps even in greenhouses. I've been pretty passionate about plants and about Nettles specifically for many years. It feels like I'm being told that it's time to turn that passion into a comprehensively sustaining passion.

Nettles are pretty all-over the place in bushy and fieldy places. Go find your patch today!! just make sure to be mindfull (even wear gloves until you learn how to grab them) while you're cutting them. In my opinion it's worth it to get stung, just to see how it feels. It's more difficult to intentionally get stung though. It's a really surprising thing that happens when you accidentally brush up against the plant. Kinda like a little electric shock. Then, depending on how severe the 'bite' the affected spot will go through some fascinating sensations for the next several minutes, hours, days. it may even produce a mark or some redness.

Im wondering if we can use the Urtica sting to access mystical realms. It wouldn't surprise me and it's certainly food for thought as I explore all things Urtica these days.

I probably talk about Nettles, Cannabis and Fungus forever so deep runs the passion for these magnificent beings.

Nettle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...

Nettle is the common name for any of between 30-45 species of flowering plants of the genus Urtica in the family Urticaceae, with a cosmopolitan though mainly temperate distribution. They are mostly herbaceous perennial plants, but some are annual and a few are shrubby.

Tell Me

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 06:47:16 -0000

So how about you tell me
About the warm Sun's Moon-swoon along
The small of your back tonight:

How the whisper of light, quiet as a wonder
In a sea of shouting feelings
Feels,

While you stand in Love, laughing
At the whirlwind of a world
in such Motion,

Cacophony!....

Tell me anything!
Tell me, quick as
You can stand--
I can't stand not knowing
Much longer than this.

The way we shudder in embrace:
A testament to this wonder.
Shhhhh...

We'll quietly fall away
Into this brisk
Unfolding dream.

Stinging Nettle Soup Recipe

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:12:47 -0000

So pleased to have found a rambunctious patch of Nettle goodness nearby. It will provide our growing family with an abundance of nutritious greens in the months ahead. Today's harvest, much like yesterday's, was largely made into this amazing tonic soup:

Chef MyKLove's Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) Soup

1 Large Onion
1 Bulb of Garlic (10ish cloves)
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1Tbsp Virgin Coconut Oil (optional)
2lbs tubers and/or roots
2lbs Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) tops
1 Gallon Pure Water
1tsp sea salt (to taste)

I sautee the minced Garlic and diced Onions in EV Olive Oil until they're translucent, throw in the coarsely chopped tubers/roots (today was Parsnips, ytd was Potatoes) and the Nettles which I've sliced up with scissors. I fry this mix about 'till the Nettles begin to soften slightly... not too long, and then add the gallon of H2O. Pshhhhhhhhhhht! Get it boiling and then simmer for fourty minutes. About halfway through, I stick in an electric handblender and randomly chop it up. I haven't tried yet but it would probably cream up nicely.

The rest of today's harvest went into the dehydrator.

Oh beLoved Nettle! It feels especially wonderfull to have an abundance of this ally with us ... and especially this early in the spring.

Happy Equinox!

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:37:14 -0000

What did you do for Equinox? I know it's kinda late, what with Easter just having passed and all but I really feel inclined to write about the experience of this March Equinox day. It was a pretty special day... it's been pretty busy since. Happy belated Equinox!

I'll Start by saying that the Blisstians, who've been staying with us for a couple of weeks now, have bought themselfs a Delica. I'm SO excited for them and eager to get one for ourselfs. It's going to be their home for the rest of the spring into summer as they stay at the OUR Ecovillage in Shawnigan. This in itself is pretty exciting too as it means the'll be staying close by for a bit longer. Just across the Lake.

They got the van the day before and on that special Equinox day, we awoke and, after a hearty breakkie, we piled in and headed out onto the logging roads... because we could. We found a great little spot that's part of the Koksilah River Provincial Park and set out to explore the river.

We evacuated the van and began our exploration of the wood quite randomly. I was first out and walked right on in to pee while others meandered about at their own pace. The trees in this part of the park are pretty big. The canopy begins quite high up. It feels quite vast. The Koksilah river provides a constant rush of sound and excitement while slicing through the forest to the ocean. It moves pretty rapidly these days.

sOMa found me getting sticks together for the raft he spoke of building. We observed a little swarm of water striders on smal calm beachy spot of the river. Then sOMa went off by himself for a bit and found the Blisstians a little up river. laura and I followed behind a little, in Love and out in the nature (wink wink! :o) and found that Christian was walking in the frigid water, exploring the painfull healing energy.

This sparked discussion about the merits of immersion in frigid waters as a healing exercise. It was mentioned that the key was to stick on dry clothes immediately after and one would become warm. I was very intrigued and while Blair was getting half-naked to wet her feet, I was getting ALL naked to immerse my body.

The water was SO SO COLD on my legs...painfully so. It was about thigh-high where I was exploring. I Shook out all off the heebie-jeebies and plunged straight down into it, head and all, somewhat fetal and I floated for about a second, maybe two then plunged right back up and out and OH MY FG!!! It's so cold stepping out and to the rocky bank. I shuddered excitedly and so full of adrenaline and rubbed my arms and quickly felt the warm air and it was all really great as I warmed up in the sun over a few minutes.

Christian went next. Right by where I went in he got down on his back, keeping his head above the water and floated for a couple of seconds, squealing and excited as he made his way out.

I went back in again. I stayed down for a little longer than the first. It was more clear the second time. I had time to hear the river and to feel the sting. I found that there was something eerily compelling about staying in the water. It was an innate knowing that I could find the place that I'm looking for with Aya and other plant and fungal allies. It added a dimension of bliss and glee to the experience that went beyond the simple challenging of bodily limitations. Felt kinda like I found 'church' again.

Well, sOMa went in (but couldn't immerse fully) then Blair and after, laura, beautifull belly and all, both dove full-on into the deep spot. And each quickly ran from the water, brimming with sacred excitement. A complete and brilliant communion...

...presque.

As we were making our way back, Blair stopped with Sequoia for a sip and I joined. Koksilah tastes really fine.

After such an event, we went for some Hot beverages at the local cafe and roastery, on our way to Tyler and Leah's for an equinox pot-luck and fire and circle: A perfect cap to a most magical day.

Since then, my life experience has been markedly different. Not unlike my experience with Daime. I've got an incredible desire to do this again. The next time however, to dive in a-la laura and Blair. There is a strong pull To make this part of some practice. I think that with the right crowd, it may be possible to find authentic and communal mystic states of consciousness... using nothing but water and the body.

Moist

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:29:56 -0000

Moist
Outside, the fog clogs
The crickets' bows. They know
To be winding down now anyhow.

The soloist who remains:
At play with a simple serenade
Into the thick and magical misty night.

Inside, Lovers' quiet breaths breathing
A mystic aria into brief instants of silence.
Tonight's chorus: a melody of coyote at prey.

Dry

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:26:22 -0000

I Love the food dehydrator. Since picking it up at a thrift shop a few weeks ago, it has given me an abundance of interesting and nourishing fun-and-play. I Love dried bananas as a sweetener with granola or in energy balls. Having banana chips around anytime for snacking is a SUPER treat! Apples, grapes, pears, potatoes... right now there are crackers on the go and my mind is reeling with the possibilities.

It's really super-handy because I've found that a lot of the dried fruit that's available in stores has had sugar or oil or other things added. I'm so excited to dry cranberries WITHOUT SUGAR!!! And herbs and mangoes and strawberries and... beer! The next batch of potatoes are going to have sea salt on them. My favorite so far though has got to be pears. Pears also happen to be my fave tree fruit. There are so many varieties and most of them look like they're pregnant. The grainy mushy sweetness of a pear is so yum. It's perhaps this quality that leads to its paperiness upon dehydrating. Whatever it is, they're so great!

All this is re-kindling in me the sprouting bug too. Sprouted wheat berries and garbanzo bean mush dried into crackers is something I tried long ago, with the oven. The dehydrator will make them an easy go. Sprouting is quite related to gardening which has been an important process for me lately. It's a lot of new in this new abode with a lot of the old mixed in too: Old patterns are surfacing in interesting ways all the time... sometimes to positive and beneficial results.

This is a rainforest. What's referred to as the 'Wet Coast' of Canada. And while it is true that for a good part of the year, South Vancouver Island is a very wet place, it is also true that for the four-ish summer months, it's traditionally hot and dry. Like a desert dry. Like the well here where we live in Shawnigan commonly dries up... Like, strangely enough, it did just today, during the rainy season.

It's given us an immediate wake-up call about conservation. With our house in Ontario, water conservation was an important issue for us as well. Except that it wasn't about lack of it coming in, it was about the system of disposal's capacity.

I feel the quickening
do you feel the quickening?
It makes me wonder seriously...
How much time we've got like this...

Now that we have a dehydrator, I miss our juicer.

sOMa

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 06:05:58 -0000

Sweet chocolate beverage warms
Our bodies. With every thick sip,
Magic yummy smiles
And Love, create

This!
In now and in then, we wade,
In moments only just lived;
Living as eternity

Along with all of
The other eternities we play.

"Tell another story Pa," you say,
Grasping at understanding this place
In the language that I'm showing you;
Putting it all together in the way
That best suits you.

So we share and we grow
This universe together...

And when the chocolate is gone,
Our warm bellies cuddle comfort
And glee, we
Quietly slip into slumber.

Dream,
Sweet sOMa
As you see it fit
Love.

Drips Subtleties

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 07:54:47 -0000

a link to the original post....

This nightscape
it
drips
subtle
phenomena
from its inky star-speckled depths:

insight and
resonance
and Light and

I'm just sitting here,
skipping stones of unlimited wonder
across a vast, everwaving wave of 'what if?'
into...

...

...

this

nightscape
drips subtleties
into the quiet space of mind
onto its reflection for a
fast refraction back
to understand it
in a way that
dayscape
seems to
lack.

This

tool of
understanding
I wield from space of mind
of openness and viscous
clarity, as I can
be it, with all
that we've
created to
distract
from...

...

...

this.

A Prayer

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:13:02 -0000

In fairness to the birds,
It’s their world we’re tromping through
And birds will be birds… allways… it’s true;
Whatever that may look like
To someone like me or you.

Now in all fairness to we,
It’s our world they’re sharing too
We do belong here, me and you,

In all that this Earth brings:
Be it the bounty of bird calls in ecstasy
Or the soaring of wind through wings

If only we could claim what little we really need
Instead of practising in worship of things.
May we all find the precious balance required
So that ALL may glory in all that’s transpired
And we ALL may fully become one being

On this journey through enlightenment
Whatever exactly that may mean.

Into the Mystic

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:01:33 -0000

We were born before the wind......

On our way to Mystic Beach, we stopped at Jordan River for a peek at the surf. There were several people out on the point catching some pretty decent waves but alas, by the time Leah got out there, the wind had picked up and blown it out. Meanwhile, I scoured the beach for big stones for the firepit, hauling twelve up to the van. We then piled back into MO and continued on for a few kilometres to the trailhead for Mystic Beach.

The trail to the beach is built through second or third growth forest. Very hilly terrain as it makes its way along the coast over a pretty great little suspension bridge and finally down a massive fallen old growth log that has had 200(at least) feet of stairs chiseled out of it. We could hear the wind grow more pronounced as we approached the beach. The forest seemed to thin a little as we got closer and the noise of the waves crashing in was more apparent.

From the stair-tree, we were blasted with continuous wind for the rest of our adventure at the beach. A very windy day. The beach is pretty small with a nice sandy part and big sea-smoothed boulders well-scattered about. The forest stretches up from the beach steeply and begins in some places as high cliffs... under which there are some really special caves.

Tyler told me how incredibly different this beach was only a year ago before the wind storms. There are places where several feet of sand has been obviously displaced... pretty suddenly too. Mother Nature is a potent force.

As witnessed too, by the massive waves coming off the ocean. While I squattted in one of the caves (right by a delightfull waterfall waterfalling away... right under the mossy spot), essentially underground, I could feel the earth rumble with the force of a few of the larger waves.

Also younger than the sun...

As we got onto the beach we were blessed with some chance breaks in the cloudiness of the day. We watched Sun poke through here and there and soaked in the glorious and songful rays. We ran and climbed and romped around over to the rockier area. The tide was out some, so there was much room to get around and explore.

It was over past the camping area, by the large cave where sOMa was surprised by a quick wave and he jumped to get out of its way, On his way to see the sea foam that was blowing about. He recovered quickly but it was the beginning of the end of fun-ness for him as the intensity of the wind, coupled with the abundance of wet was beginning to discomfort.

He started but then decided not to join Tyler and I as we continued up the beach for a little more discovery. I was boulder-hopping while Tyler was going around the huge rocks when he suddenly startled a Golden Eagle with its fishy lunch. He screamed and I saw the eagle as it landed. The bird was cautiously standing its ground as I approached. I got off the boulder and went around the way Tyler had gone, not being sure what had just happened, he guided me through the carnage. We were so carefull and then energy was so tense between the eagle and us. We were maybe twelve feet apart.

Then laura Leah sOMa and Chance started on their way toward us, with Chance the good dog leading the way. As he came closer, the eagle appeared to not even notice the dog. Chance even got right up to the bird and sniffed it. Tyler then distracted the dog from the fish and still, the Eagle stood its ground and protected its meal. But, as sOMa and the girls got closer it got fidgety and eventually took off right over our heads and perched on a tree sticking out from the cliff just up the way. It grabbed the tree with its beak as it struggled to land on the precarious perch.

laura handed me the camera as they began to make their way back. Tyler and I followed the bird for a bit and got some pics and then went beyond that to where it really rockied-up and we were treated to some massive mussel beds... On our way back, when we got to the spot of the standoff, we startled a couple of crows and the fish was pretty much polished off.

The mist began to rain on us just as we were leaving the beach.

The hike back out was arduous. I carried sOMa up the big hilly parts but couldn't manage the whole way and he had a pretty rough go of it. Tired, wet, hungry, pooped....

The next time we go, I hope it's clear to see across the Juan de Fuca straight to the Olympic Mountains. But whatever it is, it's sure to be Mystical.

sOMa

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 07:19:07 -0000

When we scream 'till there's
No sound left in our lungs
Only to feel the ricochet
Of exactly how loud we could get;
The magic of connection.

Then to collapse into
The enlightenment of laughter
Each in turn and together.
Your eyes afire with the light of
Continuous discovery,
My eyes moist in the pulse of
Joyfull perental glee!

As we explore
The more
That exists
When we
Expand and

The more
That Love
Is made of.

food/spirit

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:27:38 -0000

I've only done one cleanse, The Master Cleanse and I've done it five times, the first and the most recent being the most succesfull attempts.. or communes, if you will. I was drawn to it from first hearing about it by how radically different it is from "the norm" and that it would be probably the most challenging thing I'd attempted to that point. it was, though a Vipassana meditaion course has since surpassed it.

Stanley Burroughs seems to be coming about this idea of cleansing as a spiritual practice. The book was a fantastic read and I felt well supported by that alone. Almost like a bible. being non-religious for my adult life, I can now understand more experientially the notion of a bible. this little yellow book is preceded 'biblically' for me by "Healing With Whole Foods" by Paul Pitchford... though not in quite as radical an experiential way.

Taking the leap into such an endeavor as the master cleanse is an act of faith. Trusting the powerfull creative force of the universe to take care of things while you journey into radical unknown territory is akin to any mystical journey.

As I get to know my body on a more intimate level~as the cleanse progresses, I notice more clearly how habit-patterns are so well entrenched. I begin to feel a lightness that comes from breaking those bonds. it's like, as the body is getting cleaner, the pathways for cognition are becoming more like the superhighways they're supposed to be. There's a fogginess that clears (many many times over... many many layers of fogginess) and this human machine that I embody suddenly feels like a really well oiled and tuned device that is so well connected to the "primal matrix". This usually happens at about day eight...

are you able to describe the process?

on goals

I would like to do an extended commune with the master cleanse (at least) once a year. the next time I want to do 20 days min... mebbe this summer.

I would like to pick entheogenic mushrooms in the wild and eat them in their natural habitat.

I'm in a pretty carnivorous diet right now and it needs amendment. I've stopped smoking tobacco after 17 years only four months ago and since have gained about 25lbs. I look GREAT!!! right now but am concerned it won't stop... and if I keep eating all the free meat I can at work.... definitely a dietary goal. I was 170 as a teenager and it was too heavy.

As an adult I've had a mostly vegetarian diet with meat phases scattered throughout. While, up until I was twenty I ate meat at least twice a day. I think I'm a lot less terrified as a middle-aged adult than as a young adult. Diet could certainly play a key role in that. A recurring theme throughout journals is the need to clean up the dietary and lifestyle.

It feels like I'm getting cleaner all the time. (I was in SUCH HUGE denial about how filthy smoking was!!!) The last four months have been incredible and I'm excited for being in the current we're in.

There is a guiding force. I won't waste time trying to name it. I'll just trust it... and what it moves me to do...

on benefits

If I try and think what my life would be like without doing what I do in relation to diet and spirituality, I firstly can't totally get my mind around it but then, it seems a life that is drab and mundane... at best. I don't know at all if I would be alive if I wasn't living this life.

The downfall, but not in all ways a challenge, is that my spiritual lifestyle is technically still illegal. This is the truth for many plant-Lovers out there. Herbalists included.

But whatever! The payoff is huge. The biggest benefit is that it feels like i am getting it. Like total liberation (or whaever you want to call it) is within my grasp. Whether this is simply an opportunistic... who knows. I do know that i'm really excited about what it feels like in a body growing old... but i'm not attached to it happening either... simply trusting.

so how about you tell me your story?