Friday chicken

Reflecting on both the hard and the good in the week that was…

Hello, week: we are here.

{a breath for being here when we get here}

Thank you, week!

This is the 398th week in a row we are chickening here together….

or “checking in”, if you prefer to enunciate.

What worked this week?

Being a detective and investigating/solving mysteries! This was more fun than problem-solving, and also I learned that it can be done from bed, which is useful when you can’t get out of bed. The best part of being a detective of course is naming the mysteries, and here were some of mine….

The Mystery Of The Missing Hat (Literal)
The Mystery Of The Missing Hat (Metaphorical)
The Mystery Of When (and Whence!) to Fly
The Mystery Of Many Happy Returns
The Mystery Of What Would A Pro Do
The Mystery Of The Fluffy Robe
The Mystery Of When Do We Shower
The Mystery Of The Missing Piece/Peace
The Mystery Of Seattle

Another good thing about mysteries is that they work on the principle of fractal flowers — any clue about one helps solve the rest of them.

I also learned many interesting things while in detective mode, for example, that the mystery of the missing hat is actually the mystery of I Find It So Hard To Take Care Of Myself Unless Some External Source Is Giving Me Permission To Do It…

Next time I might…

Give up sooner.

Naming the days.

I’ve been naming everything lately, it’s incredible what a difference a name makes. I name each day and then read them together at the end of the week like an incantation of sweet clues.

This week was the week of maps and passages, and here were the days:

Surprising ease. Entry. Hero of this story. Recovery/New moon. A new start. In my power. Trust more.

Upcoming biopic if it were based on this week…

Stupidest Curse Ever

If you feel drawn to comment on aspects of my week, I will take love, hearts, breaths, pebbles — I do not need advice or cheering up, though presence and sweetness are always welcome

8 breaths for the hard, challenging and mysterious.

  1. This week was miserable in every way, and I have no desire to enumerate all the ways. It was just awful. Goodbye, week. A breath for this.
  2. My birthday curse kicked in a full day early, and everything I set up beforehand in the hopes of neutralizing the curse just backfired so hard. Like in The Truman Show when everything conspires to keep him from getting off the island. Everything conspired to keep me from doing anything for my birthday other than crying alone in my empty house which was the only thing I didn’t want to be doing. A breath for me.
  3. So much distress, despair, discomfort. A breath for presence.
  4. As if the birthday curse wasn’t enough, a streak of five nights in a row of TERRIBLE dances, including one night where I left after ten minutes because it was already so bad that I couldn’t stay in the room anymore. A breath for ease.
  5. The night before my birthday: nightmares all night long. The night after my birthday: awake until 6am. A breath for rest.
  6. The time I got stranded in early evening and there were mysteriously no buses scheduled until 5:30am (see: birthday curse) and no cabs available (see: birthday curse), and was screamed at by a very disturbed person. A breath for safety.
  7. Ugh seriously everything was miserable and I was miserable, and I can’t be in my house because there is loud construction next door featuring banging, drilling, yelling and terrible music! And I don’t have anywhere to go, and it’s all the worst. This week was like wandering through a confusing landscape where the only signs say GTFO but they don’t have any information about how or where. A breath for miracles and doors.
  8. Inhale, exhale. May all misunderstandings and distortions, internal and external, dissolve in love if not in laughter. May peacefulness prevail. Trust-more love-more release-more receive-more. Goodbye (and thank you), mysteries and hard moments of this week.

8 breaths for the good, reassuring, delight-filled.

  1. The bnb I ended up hiding in to escape my birthday curse was very cozy and sweet. A breath for safe houses.
  2. The beautiful far-away cowboy had flowers delivered to my porch for my birthday, with a sweet note, both of which I’m pretty sure broke all of his rules of being a cowboy. It was really lovely, and flowers do in fact make everything better. A breath of love.
  3. Hey, when things are terrible, I know how to walk away and remove myself from the situation. This is a skill I haven’t always had. A breath of thankfulness.
  4. Sometimes when all signs point to GTFO, you have to make big changes, and maybe that’s exactly what’s needed. A breath being redirected.
  5. Many wonderful friends texted kind loving things on my birthday, and even though I was not able to respond because I was a disastrous mess of a puddle of a non-functioning person, it is a very sweet thing to have this outpouring of love and affection, so yay technology, thank you. Extra thank you to the vicar for these comforting words: “hey, now the miserable week is closer to complete, and say what you will about time being a son of a bitch…sometimes its steady mechanics help.” Yes, they do. A breath of thankfulness.
  6. Repeat from last week: Taking care of myself to the best of my ability, and this counts. A breath for practice.
  7. I am finding the good inside of the hard. A breath of gratitude for my training.
  8. Thankfulness. Treasure in the form of my former housemate coming over just to give me a hug, a trip to the spice shop, learning new things, being done with old things. Everything is okay and so much is good. Nothing is wrong, even when I want to believe it is. Now is not then. All Timing Is Right Timing. Thank you for this grand adventure. A full breath of deep appreciation in my thank-you heart.

Sparklepoints, superpowers, salve, fake band of the week!

Current ops and forward movement!

Steps on the Studio Op, and The Fountaining. Moving the Wild Wild Nest op back into R&D. Operations Jubilation and Wild Montage are ongoing. And The Wild Convening is was a disaster but we are rescheduling. Thank you, fractal flowers.

I am bestowing vast quantities of sparklepoints upon myself like a fairground stripper, and you are welcome to do the same for you.

Superpowers I had this week…

Last week I asked for the powers of Perfect Simple Solutions Reveal Themselves To Me and With The Greatest of Ease, and two of them found me.

Powers I want.

I still want new dance friends to go dancing with: All The Right People To Play With Show Up, or the superpower of Just Right Companionship. And this might need to happen in another city, because it’s not happening here.

(Hilariously, a few hours after writing this, I ran into a dance buddy I don’t see that much who said “hey we should go dancing together way more often, let me know where and when!”)

And mainly I want the superpowers of glowing wild, trusting my panther self, finding good exits.

The Salve of Wild Glow.

These invisible salves are distributed here by way of internet magic. Help yourself! Take it in a bath, as tea, a cocktail, whatever works for you. Not only is there enough salve, there are also enough ways to receive it.

This salve returns me to my fierce fearless animal power, the part of me who knows how to stalk and bound and be wonderfully ALIVE.

Side effects include feeling tough, energized, powerful, steady, and remembering that you are strikingly beautiful because you are of the earth…

Playing live at the meme beach house — the Fake Band of the Week!

My brother and I make up bands, which are all just one guy. The Meme Beach House is the venue.

just-one-guy

This week we also have a Fake Movie of the Week, via a very entertaining conversation with former housemate about how funny it is that a company would a) choose the name Puritan, and then b) proceed to make sleep products. We imagined that these items would chastise you to be more productive and cast away sloth, which led to an animated film featuring Tom Hanks, it takes place on an island and is called Castaway Sloth

Please meet this week’s band, which produced the sound track to the film of course:

Thinking While Axlewrapped

Thanks to Carolina Sloan for that one. Their latest album is Just Half A Million, and this band is just one guy.

Photo taken just for us in Lubbock, TX by Jesse — thank you!

TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS!

We are doing some reconfiguring and Congruencing, and the shop will disappear soon, so if there was something you wanted to buy, go ahead and do that before it’s gone. More explanations about [reasons] to come, but it’s all good stuff, and if something is speaking to you, this is a good time.

And this is the last chance to acquire a pack of stone skipping cardsPASSWORD: sweetdoors — because I’m moving out and won’t have anywhere to store them or the shipping materials, so get them this week! And while you’re at it, sign up for the not-exactly-a-course where we embark on establishing a loving playful practice of self-inquiry, to access previously-hidden gems of internal wisdom and whatever else we might need. Dates coming soon!

How was your week?

Come play in the comments. Share something from your week, take a breath, or just say hi! No rules, my format doesn’t have to be yours, we’ve been doing this every week for years now and there still isn’t a right way.

Everyone belongs. We let people have their own experience. We’re supportive and welcoming. We lovingly refrain from giving advice.

And of course it’s always okay to comment under a made-up name, whether for play and delight, or in the interest of Safety First.

Wishing you a glorrrrrrrrrrrrious day, a restful weekend and a happy week to come.

Shabbat shalom.

It’s fine if it’s not Friday anymore. There’s complete chicken amnesty — jump in whenever you like. Blowing kisses to the Beloved Lurkers too!

The Fluent Self