back to school

It's not fair! it's still summer, the cicadas are buzzing, it's hot and the pool is empty. My girl has begun last year of high school (sec 5 in Quebec, Gr 11 elsewhere); my son has started 2nd year of Cegep (2 yrs of college pre-university). They've bought their books, and binders and pens, their favourite pencil leads, done their own laundry, shopped for new clothes (altho thank god the school uniform from last year still fits, and the shoes!)

My tall gorgeous daughter who loves to dance, doing all kinds of auditions, stressed about getting on to the competition teams in hip hop or jazz ballet....beginning an Ayurvedic diet this week to help her bones and her health.

My tall gorgeous son who is driving himself wherever he needs to go, buying his own textbooks, marvelling at the cost of things. Booking his own orientation counsellor appointments, figuring out his next steps, without much advice or help from us.

And I am at home, negotiating, organizing, getting estimates, approving prices, buying furniture, planning our first major move in 12 and a half years, since the beginnings of grade school for my son. Packing up the likes of a five bedroom house, and emptying all its cupboards (soon, very soon).

All I want to do is lounge by the pool, savour the heat. Fall coming usually inspires me into action, but the crisp cool days are not here yet. We are jumpstarted into fall with school schedules, but far from sweater and loafer days.

sigh, this menopausal cycle is spiralling me inwards and out of words.

I love my collages, the cards I am making, the pastel colouring I do occasionally. And I love looking at the clouds. The dreamer in me wakes. The sky is my companion. and the sound of Om resonating from my stereo grounds me and soothes my agitated mind.

too much thinking makes the system acid, said the ayurvedic consultant. OK, maybe singing, swimming and meditating will make me more alkaline.....

happy weekend,
musemother

Harnessing the Power of Menstrual Blood

The Globe & Mail in Canada ran a story on the uses of menstrual blood for stem cell research. Click on link below:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080819.wstem19/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home

August 19, 2008 at 4:12 AM EDT
A team of researchers from Canada and the United States has taken an important step toward harnessing the healing power of menstrual blood. ...

Wouldn't it be wonderful if scientific research could demonstrate what native americans have known for a very long time, that menstrual blood is full of generative properties, life-giving and life-enhancing. Mixed with water and poured on plants, it apparently feeds their growth.

Instead of being seen through the eyes of superstition and fear as a polluting element, we can begin to study the 'blessings of the curse', as Susan Rako sub-titles her book, No More Periods.

"As yeast is good for dough, so is menstruation good for women." says a Talmudic scholar.

"Menstrual blood is the only source of blood that is not traumatically induced. Yet in modern society, this is the most hidden blood, the one so rarely spoken of and almost never seen, except privately by women, who shut themselves in a little room to quickly and in many cases disgustedly change their pads and tampons, wrapping the bloodied cotton so it won't be seen by others, wrinkling their faces at the odor, flushing or hiding the evidence away. Blood is everywhere, and yet the one, the only, the single name it has not publicly had, for many centuries, is menstrual blood. " Blood, Bread & Roses, How Menstruation created the world, Judy Grahn.

"Several Native American cultures consider women in menses to be at the HEIGHT of her powers. For instance, the Lakota tribe would not permit a menstrual woman anywhere near warriors or healers. They believed that menstrual blood was so powerful that just the presence of such power would weaken the strength of warriors and interfere with a healer's ability to heal. The menstrual blood serves to purify, to cleanse, renew, and it prepares the woman for higher spiritual accomplishments. The Yurok, and Lakota tribes practiced monthly rituals by retreating into MOON lodges with other menstrual women. There they celebrated the power of their menstrual blood.

SO, at the height of my power, through the ebb and flow of life, giving and life-sustaining blood that flows through me, I isolate myself from the mundane petty distractions and instead focus inward. Thus CALLING VISION for MY PEOPLE. Simple. Get it? Indeed I do feel more creative, more artistic, more insightful, and with each monthly cycle I become more in tune with my connection to nature, thus accumulating a greater store of spiritual energy. ERGO, when I menstruate, I don't see it as negative darkness or as a curse. Instead I prefer to view the process in a more positive, healthy attitude: it is a natural, sacred connection to the cycles and rhythms of the earth.

Menstrual blood is LIFE GIVING and LIFE SUSTAINING. There are also native tribes that would return the sacred life-giving blood back to the earth. They would sit over seeds and let the sacred blood flow directly on the seeds or on newly planted seedlings, which INDEED DOES give the seeds growing power. I add here to any who are asking, What? That is sick! NO, NOT sick at all. For an experiment I suggest using INSTEAD menstrual cups to collect the powerful blood into a jar. Fill the remainder of the jar with water then use the solution to water your plants. Be sure to use plain water on other plants for comparing the difference. IT IS AMAZING how powerful menstrual blood is. Of course it is NOT a good idea to disclose this to most people because our current culture has deemed MENSTRUAL BLOOD as disgusting and gross. BELIEVE ME, MY PLANTS are so healthy it is amazing. (taken from www.mum.org)

nameste,
musemother

summer ease and rest

Summertime...and the living is easy :)

if I let myself go, some days I would just be as lazy and slothful as my cats sunning on the porch...

in yoga today, we held a lovely chest opening pose, a restorative pose, while lying on a bolster

it felt wonderful to lie there for many extra minutes, our instructor letting us dive deep, let the heart be opened, while she read us some inspiring lines from a book of poems

dive in and in

then at relaxation, I felt myself sinking deeper and deeper again, into a very peaceful resting space,

I did not want to get up, so I lay there while they chanted OM

I did not want to move, and it felt good to relax into this need for rest

It's been busy with the house/designer/contractor/quotes and decisions re our move in November to a new house so I haven't played this week with my mandalas, except to colour one in while practising a new song for the chorus. I looked at the soul collages and pasted some pictures in to the family committee card, but did not spend a whole morning with it, as I have been doing.

I love to sing, and when I feel deeply rested like today, then highly energetic, like this afternoon, no song is too high, or too hard to sing. Mardi Gras...he was there at the Mardi Gras....

so enjoy the blissful warm days of summer, even if it's raining more than usual, maybe the earth is cleansing herself, filling the coffers deep with that lovely, wet, resource.

enjoy the time you have whether at work or play,
dive in and in,
musemother