Yab Yum is finished.

Finishing a quilt is often bittersweet.  It means I can move on to whatever new ideas are churning in my mind, but it also means a completion of the lessons learned during the process and a time for reflection.

 Like most people I tend to cling to ideas and habits and I change along with my quilts and when they are finished the work has taught me so much.

The idea for this quilt started long before my hysterectomy, but the energy to do it came after.  I knew going in I was looking for a new way to perceive life.  A new direction.  I wanted to have a clear root chakra and change the patterns that caused me to be sick in the first place.  This quilt was the catalyst for that.

Now that it is complete, I've been contemplating whether I am changed.  Have I birthed a new me?  I gave myself a year and a day to complete the cycle and looking over the past few months and the lessons I have integrated into my daily habits and thoughts I have to say, "YES! A new me is beginning to surface."  

I am changing.  

We are all changing - constantly.  

Every moment is a new moment and the opportunity to shed the old patterns are being learned and new habits and ideas HAVE formed in me.  

I AM birthing something new.

I often say, birthing is never easy.  It's freaking hard work - physically, mentally, emotionally. 

In reality I really didn't enjoy the being pregnant part of having children.  My body is so small and I felt totally out of control of my body and honestly, my body didn't feel like my own (because I was sharing it with another being).  Everything was changing inside and out.  Pregnancy was the hard part, birthing was the hard work and the final push to new life which has only brought me joy and abundance. 

This is how I am feeling right now. 

I've been gestating - pregnant and here I am today. 

A new woman. 

Changed through the love and lessons and ready to move forward with new patterns and ideas.

I haven't reached my year and a day and I still have plenty of gestating to do, but thanks to the lessons I've learned over the last few months and a commitment to seeing change in myself and my life I am well on my way!  I may never reach the birthing I seek (whatever that is), but I've found joy and gratitude in the process which is all we can really ask for.

I've got 4 quilts in me right now bursting at the seams! (Gotta call myself out on that pun!) So stay tuned!  

Bring on the new medicine! 

Bring on the new lessons!

I made a slide show from the beginning to end with all the photos I've used over the last few months. It's pretty cool to watch it develop this way.  It's only 3 minutes and PLEASE, feel free to share.

See you tomorrow!

Monkey Seeds

A good friend of mine who only recently returned from India stopped by my house to visit. He told me his tale and exploits of his journey with all the energy and electricity you would expect out of a westerner in a strange land doing strange things eating strange foods and the such. Upon his departure, he with only the best intentions stowed upon a small brown bag of monkey seeds. I was both grateful that he thought so much of me to smuggle such a contraband through customs and god knows what hiding places and also a bit puzzled at why he would go to such great lengths. "Thank you," says me, "Bright blessings on your house this day."

I should not bore you with the planting and germination process that goes into monkey seeds, but it is not complicated as monkeys are not complicated life forms.

Moving on to the now. In this now, I have a life. I say life because they are present in the yard and in the house. They stow away in the cars, in bed themselves in every aspect of our life. I'm sure there is a Buddhist lesson on compassion or impermanence somewhere here, but for the life of me, I cannot see it. All I see are monkeys. Lots and lots of monkeys.

They all didn't seed out at the same time. No, there are monkeys of all different sizes and more possibly still in a state of germination. The small ones mostly fell pray to the cats, but cat tummys are only so large and can only hold so many monkeys. The small ones quickly grow to become big ones. If you have never been in the company of monkeys or heard the myth they throw feces. Well, it is true to the fullest. It is true monkeys love nothing more than hurling feces at just about anything moving or stationary. I think there is no evolutionary mechanism going on. It is just good fun to throw feces and not just their feces, but all feces; dogs, cats, and even your feces if you are not quick with flush and disposal. I would make here a reference to monkeys and bad room mates, but I will leave the bad roommate reference to children. Children even though messy have a redeeming quality about them. Monkeys do not. You would not have this many roommates at one time and let us hope not this many children.

Given our families spiritual and moral philosophy we don't kill. We eat meat, but we don't kill. I now realize the hypocritic aspect of this philosophy, but none the less, we don't kill, except scorpions and mosquito's.

So with natural selection and time and patience our only tools, we persevere alongside the monkeys. I guess there is the Buddhist lesson, patience....

HUBB