Ronda Snow's Blog, page 22

Merry Monday – Giant Rubber Duckie

 

 

Merry Monday is my project for the next year. Once a week, every week, I intend to find one thing – one tiny little thing that brings a smile, a giggle, or a fleeting moment of admiration. The act of delibertely finding one thing once a week that makes you happy will help you think in those terms the rest of the time, too. You start to habitually look for delight rather than disappointment. I’ve only been at it a few weeks, and it works! Would you like to join in? Leave your weekly delight in the comments below for all to share. Or, if you write a whole post about it, link to this post in it and the  pingback willl show so we can all see your blog post too.

Merry Monday to all!

 

Heads up Norfolk! Something splendid your way comes!

I heard on the news a few days ago that the big inflated rubber duckie sculpture that made its North American debut here in Pittsburgh is on its way to Norfolk, VA. Lucky Norfolk!

We went to see it. No photo could do it justice. It’s one of those things that was an experience, as cliche as that may sound.

I loved the thing. The artist captured something special somehow. These toy ducks are so common, almost unseen to adult eyes – but there is no denying it when it is this giant. The look on this one’s face was so placid, so content, so calm, so happy that it was impossible to look at it and feel otherwise. That’s just the surface layer. Add to that the pleasant weather, being on the rivers, a crowd of children clutching thier own duckies, and the energy of the people. It was simple pleasure and and a feeling of contetment so thick you could cut it with a knife…but would never dream of doing so. The goodwill was palpable. The energy of the place, time and people was valuable far beyond the art itself. It WAS the art itself.

Heads up and hearts open Norfolk. Something splendid your way comes.

The Other Kind of Quackery

Would you knowingly go to a doctor that you knew disregarded your feeling? Would you want to be cared for by someone who thought of you as a walking data set instead of a person? Are you nothing more than lab numbers?

There is another kind of quackery: where compassion and humanity are omitted from healthcare in the name of science.

That is just what some people would have you believe is best medical practice. It’s stressful to be sick, and those who are most vocal against holistic health care seem to forget that little fact.

There are several articles on Klout.com, slate.com and others screaming against Reiki, Aromatherapy, Reflexology and other “alternative” health practices.

They are wrong.

There are several key points being missed, not the least of which is that people are not machines. There is far more to health and healing than hard science numbers. Quality of life is important. Emotional state is important. Simple human compassion is important.

Screaming against things that have clearly helped people cope with illness and a journey back to health (no matter how you crunch the numbers) hardly speaks of compassion. The angry, bellicose “should be removed” hateful tone of these articles do nothing to help healing. I would not put my health in the hands of someone with that kind of tone and attitude.

True enough, many peer reviewed studies are not well-designed studies. I know. I read lots of them to write my tiny dissertation for my online college of ill repute…and they are poorly designed but the bias isn’t in favor of Reiki, quite the opposite. The biggest failure of scientific studies in the field of Reiki is that they OVER compensate on the side of “science”. They go to such great pains to control and double blind the study that they render them useless by through the  enourmous confounding factors that those controls introduce. The vast majority of studies are either done by scientists with no understanding of what Reiki really is about or by Reiki practitioners with poor scientific study design. That is precisely why I designed my dissertation to try and bridge that gap, a little bit, with the nonexistant resources accorded to such studies.

What all that means, bottom line, is that people aren’t sacks of numbers. No, Reiki isn’t going to magically make your cancer disappear, but it can help deal with emotional trauma of having cancer (and having to deal with a belligerent, cold, broken health care system). No, Reflexology isn’t going to magically cure Irritable Bowel Syndrome, but it can add the element of simple, kind, human touch to the scientific treatments. No, aromtherapy isn’t going to suddenly cure depression…even the most cutting edge medication can’t do that. But aromatherapy can help bridge the 3-6 weeks it takes modern antidepressants to fully begin their work.

We can use the truely effective parts of Holistic health (the majority of true traditional healing) and the more compassionate parts of Scientific medicine (it’s in there somewhere) and create a “C”, a best-of-both-worlds zone in the Vinn diagram of healthcare.

The best, most compassionate thing we can do for the ill is to offer them the best of both worlds, not limit the healing experience to studies and numbers.  Humans are more than that…and the healing experience must be more than cold science and cruel quackery. The energy spent denouncing one healing method or another would be better spent harvesting the best of both worlds to lift up healing process, and make it better than the sum of its parts.

 

 

Happy Happiness Day

Today is international Happiness day.

The United Nations speech has it right…happiness is fundamental, human and necessary. It isn’t about denying the ills of the world or the stresses in your life. No compassionate person would deny or minimize your real pain. Happiness Day isn’t about a blissed out happy-helmet denial…it is about working to solve the real problems that exist and move closer to happiness.

In the meantime, take a short mental respite and just be happy. Yes, everything may be terrible right now, but you have official, UN sanctioned permission to take a few minutes and just be happy in spite of it all.

http://www.un.org/en/events/happinessday/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM

Smells Like Springtime to Me

The vernal equinox is tomorrow. Even though the sky is a bit grey and things are a little blustery at the moment, it is for real springtime.

Spring brings to mind cleaning, fresh starts, renewal. Visually, we might think of flowers – but when it comes to springtime and aromatherapy, my nose turns to the citrus family of scents.

Citrus oils are antiseptic, clensing, and mood lifting: the perfect combination for shaking off the dust and cabin fever of late winter.

Spring can be busy. Diffusing the scent of Bergamot (a mediterrainian citrus best known for flavoring Earl Grey tea) is a classic for stress relief without any sleepiness or loss of physical energy.

Lemon is a classic for cleaning. Believed to be one of the most antiseptic oils…and one of the most commonly used scents in commercial cleaning products…the phrase “lemony fresh” has become synonymous with clean. Lemon boosts the immune system to help fight off late season cold. Nothing clears feeling of negativity and lifts the energy in a room the way lemon does. Lemon is one of the most broadly useful essential oils, and a basic must-have oil for anyone who interested in using real aromatherapy. If you are using lemon for scent, or for lotions and topical use* it is important to get good quality, cold pressed, thereputic grade oil. For general cleaning,a less expensive oil is fine. 20 drops lemon oil, 10 drops peppermint oil, 2 oz water and 2 oz of white vingar shaken well in a spray bottle makes  a refreshing, natural, nontoxic general purpose kitchen counter cleaner.

Orange works much the same, with a milder quality to the fragrance. If lemon has too much ‘snap’ or crispness, then orange is a good alternative. Both lemon and orange scents can help support a happy mood, orange is less giddy and euphoric, for a more balanced lift to the mood. Orange is nice as a single note, while lemon is excellent in blends.

Lime is a less well-known citrus scent, but has all the same qualities as its more populare cousins. Lime eases stress and anxiety like bergamot, lifts mood like orange, is antiseptic, immune boosting and cooling like lemon.

Slimming down for swimsuit season? Grapefruit is a vitamin packed low calorie food, but the scent of grapefruit oil has a reputation for reducing appetite. I’ve heard anectdotes of dieters keeping a small bottle of the oil with them to take a sniff to curb apetite between meals. Grape fruit is also a classic for oily skin scrubs and some acne uses*.

Add a little vanilla to any citrus or citrus blend for a mellow, “tropical paradise” kind of blend.

Citrus oils are refreshing, uplifting, and a perfect match for the busy spring season. Citrus smells like spring to me.

*Never use essential oils full strength on the skin unless directed by a professional. Always dilute oils properly in a inert oil, lotion, or other carrier. Some experts don’t use citrus oils in the skin at all. I use them sparingly as part of diluted blends. The IMPORTANT thing is to never use citrus oils on the skin right before going into the sun. The could cause sensitivity and a sunburn, even if you use sunblock over top. If you use any products with real citrus oil in them, don’t use them for 12 hours before going outside. 

Tao Tuesday – Chapter 41

Every Tuesday, Amy Putkonen posts a chapter from her version of the “Tao Te Ching” on www.taotechingdaily.com and invites everyone to comment on the chapter. If you’d like to participate, please link to her post in yours, and then link back to your post from hers so we all can read your post too.

Great people listen to Tao attentively

and live accordingly.

Average people listen to Tao

and are one moment aware,

the next moment unsure.

Below average people listen to Tao and ridicule it.

If they did not laugh, it would not be Tao.

The illuminated way seems dull.

The quickest path to Tao seems slow.

The straight path to Tao seems rough.

The highest virtue seems like a great abyss.

The purest things seems tarnished.

Abundant virtue seems lacking.

Solid virtue seems frail.

True reality seems uncertain.

The perfect square has no corners.

The perfect vessel is not yet finished.

The perfect music is without sound.

The perfect form is without shape.

Tao is hidden, unnamed – yet always brings fulfillment.

When I do a Tarot reading, I look at the cards in context, not just the cards traditional “meaning”: its position within the layout, major vs minor arcana, upright vs reversed - that sort of thing.

This is one of those chapters in the Tao Te Ching where a little bit of cultural context comes in handy. As a modern-day egalitarian, I all but get a rash at the class labeling that seems to be in the language of the Tao Te Ching at times. But remember the context. Although not the Caste system of India, Ancient China was still very class and rank conscious. Putting the basic concept in the context of our culture, I think of it more in terms of maturity (not calendar age) or “place in their path” of spiritual learning. I see this as a comparison within the individual, rather than comparing the individual to everyone else. The path of spiritual growth and wisdom starts with a focus on the physical above all, and progresses to a focus on the spiritual above all. This reminds me a bit of something Sting, the musician, said in an interview once. I forget the exact quote, but it was something along the lines of as he has gotten older, he focuses more on the intangible because the intangible is what is real.

The next section, as is typical of the Tao Te Ching, a layering of practical advice over top of an esoteric insight. The first lines can be understood in terms of Gong Fu or Kung Fu…but not the martial art kind. Wushu is martial arts…Kung Fu is mastery of anything through effort over time. It takes Kung Fu to master Wushu. It takes Kung Fu to become a doctor. It takes Kung Fu to become good at whatever you do and with Kung Fu you can do almost anything. Kung fu is a quality in the work of someone who has that kind of mastery.  Da Vinci’s paintings have Kung Fu.  So does Shakespeare’s writing. So does Grandmother’s apple pie and that movie that took your breath away. Anything can have Kung Fu.

Developing a life following the Tao takes Kung Fu. The words and lifestyle of a Sage has Kung Fu. There are not short cuts to it. It seems like the  dull, slow, rough, tarnished, uncertain way of doing things, but in the end, it is the only Way.

Less obviously, I think this section also celebrates the beauty of imperfection. In Japan’s Raku pottery, unique flaws and little imperfections are most prized part of the style. So much so, that sometimes they are deliberately added. It takes great skill to make a deliberate glitch look natural and genuine.

The final section continues this theme…only the idealized potential has perfection while it is, hmmm, how to say this…

Only expectation and the idealized potential has perfection while it is still unsullied by actual manifestation. No real thing can live up to its imagined but unrealized potential. At least not in everyone’s eyes. The perfect square is the square that has not yet formed: It has no corners. The perfect music has not yet sounded. But when it does, it rings out with a beautiful imperfection.

And the Tao encompasses them both. The Tao holds both the unformed and still-perfect square, as well as the beautifully imperfect one, corners and all. The Tao is hidden, un-named, yet brings everything. It houses the perfect, the beautiful, and manifests the real in all of its beautiful imperfection, thus fulfilling everything.

Merry Monday – Random Acts of Couponess

Inspired by the Scattered Life Collective and other “prompts”, allow me to introduce “Merry Monday”. Each Monday I plan to find one thing that makes life a little nicer, that sparks a moment of the warm fuzzies…any little thing that gives me delight, makes a happy moment, or makes me glad to share planet Earth with whateveritis. Please feel free to comment below about what makes your Monday Merry. If you want to create a whole blog post, just add a link / pingback to this post, and it should show up below as well. 

I just saw the sweetest thing at the grocery store. Coupons tucked on shelves, right on top of the product it was for. There weren’t for anything I was buying, but for things right next to them. It had “random act of kindness” written all over it.. They clearly had been torn from a newspaper. It wasn’t just one. One for mashed potatotes, another for window cleaner, another for cinnamon rolls, another for cereal, all throught the store. Rather than throw away coupons that were un-needed, they were left as anonymous gifts for anonymous others. Makes me want to do the same thing. Reminds me of a something poet Sahm King blogged once…he would print a poem on a plain piece of paper – no name, not even a fancy font.  Nothing but the poem itself – and leave them in random public places with the intent of bringing a little random art and poetry to who-knows-who, who-knows-when.

While I can’t leave random coupons at your grocery story, I’ll follow Mr. King’s lead and leave you with a random poem instead

Oh me, Oh Life

from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (exerpted recently in Apple advertising)

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

 

                                       Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

Q&A: Minor Arcana Cards

Please: If you have any questions at all about Tarot, Aromatherapy, Reiki, Meditation or Natural Health, please don’t hesitate to contact me. The number and email are on the right hand side of most pages – or use the contact form below. If your question is a general interest one…like this one…then I’ll answer it for free as a blog post like this. If the question is too personal or complicated for a blog post, we can arrange a private “ask the expert” question, an e-mail consult, or a full in person Natural Health Consult if you like.

 

Q: What does it mean when a Tarot spread is all minor arcana cards?

A: Each Tarot reader is a little different in the way they use Arcana in a reading. Some don’t give it much weight at all, and focus as much on the cards position within the spread (the meaning of a cards place in the pattern of how the cards are placed on the table).

For those who aren’t so familiar with the Tarot deck, it is divided into two sections, the major and minor arcana. The minor arcana is in turn divided into four suites, like the modern playing deck. So in Tarot you have a total of five categories…the major arcana and the four minor arcana suites (cups, coins or pentacles, wands or batons,  and swords, depending on the particular deck). “Arcana” simply refers to old or obscure knowledge. You can see how it is similar to the word “arcane”.

When I do a reading, I consider the arcana under the “general pattern” of the spread as a whole, not with regard to each individual card. Arcana can be a small, overall clue, but not much more.

I read major arcana cars as symbolizing big, stage-of-life lessons, big decisions that need to made, or big changes that are in progress or on the horizon.  If a particular group of cards has more major than minor arcana, I read that as symbolizing a lot of learning energy, even stress. It can symbolize a time of learning, change, stress, or personal growth. Of course that is no surprise to someone who is looking for a reading to ease stress.

I think of minor arcana as being the day-to-day decisions and changes. I like to call them the “Granny Advice” cards…the little hints and helps to live a good life. If a reading is mostly minor arcana, then I read that as being in a calm, steady, no-drama sort of place in life. Or, if things are stressful now, this may symbolize closure in progress or on the horizon…that things have peaked and may be leveling off.

Arcana plays a small role in the overall message of a reading, but not an overly significant one. Think of the statistics  of it. Minor arcana cards outnumber the major ones by around 4 to 1, so the chances of any given reading having mostly minor arcana cards far outweigh the chances of any given reading being mostly major arcana. Minor arcana is the norm…readings with mostly major arcana are the flag waving attention-getters. That is how arcana plays a role in a reading to my way of thinking.

Scattered Life Collective 14 March 2014

The Scattered Life Collective is a diverse group of bloggers inspired by Cynthia Lee to share a look back at their week – resulting in a collective celebration of life’s little pleasures. You are welcome to participate, using her format or your own. Link to Cyntia’s post, then visit her post to link back to yours. I like it because it is a great source for book, tv, food and music ideas!

Hard to believe we are back to another Friday!

On the Kindle: Still doing that combo of “Starry Nights” in hard back and reviewing the Smashwords Style Guide on the Kindle.

On the ‘Net: spent some time exploring Kahn Academy and World Science U. Looks like fun to me, actually. As much as I could spend hours watching the Brian Greene vids on WorldScienceU.com, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. My daughter is learning some of the tougher stuff in algebra right now. The last time I did algebra was in a shockingly early part of the 1980s, so I want to do a little review so I can help her with homework if she needs it. Also set her up with her own account. You know how that goes…watching a video on the computer is WAY better than having to listen to your mom, for cryin’ out loud.

On the TV: Isle of Wight music festival on Palladia. Watched one of the Glostonbury Festival’s recently. It might have been 2013 – Blind Impala did “Elephant” and I totally ear wormed on “Trying To Be Cool” by Phoenix. I think that was the one with Friendly Fires “Hawaiian Air” and just wall to wall goodness.

On the menu: We missed fish fry last week for some reason that escapes me – but it looks like a go for tonight. My inner bratty teenager wants to wear a t-shirt that says “I’m just here for the food”, but it really is good food. At least one week in the season they have a seafood bisque that knocks your socks right off.

Out the window: Ah, spring in Pittsburgh. It’s true what they told me when I first moved here … if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute. No wonder it is potholepalooza out there. Depending on the mud, am thinking of doing tai chi in the yard instead of heading out to the gym. That’d be nice for a change.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend. Happy Pi Day!

Tao Tuesday – Chapter 40

On Tao Te Ching Daily, Amy Putkonin posts a chapter from her version of the Tao Te Ching every Tuesday, and invites fellow bloggers to comment on the chapter. Links to all the participating blogs are collected on the Tao Tuesday post there. You are welcome to participate too. Just link to Tao Te Ching Daily in your post, then add a link to your post on the Tao Te Ching daily post. I like to experience the chapter, comment, then read the other comments to expand that initial understanding. I hope to see your post there

Tao is the movement back to source.

Yielding is its way.

The Ten Thousand Things exist from being.

Being exists from non-being.

As concise as it is, Chapter 40 reflects two of the core ideas in Taoism: “Only the empty cup can be filled” and “Life is movement, stagnation is death”

Without the state of non-existance, the state of existance wouldn’t have any meaning – just like light is meaningless without dark, up without down, and every other dynmic, balanced, relative opposite there is. I love that Amy uses a picture of Einstein on her Tao Tuesday posts…especially in this case. It is all relative – opposites owe their existance to each other, and existance owes itself to non-existance. Pretty brain – bendy, wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey kind of stuff, as Doctor Who fans already know

“The Tao is movement back to source” hints that not only is everything relative, it’s in motion. If everything stayed put…then movement would cease, life would cease.  In the grand scheme of things, in the greater truth, things move toward non-being as much as things move toward being. If everything shifted to positive, then negative would cease and positive would in turn cease to have meaning. The converse is true as well. All things come to be from non-being (some might call this the “void”) . If there was no void, then the stuff that is loses all meaning…and in some essence, looses its life and existance.

If everything returns to the void, then nothing exists…IS stops, and the void becomes all-there-is…the void becomes what IS, and the idea of nothing or no-existance disappears. Without the opposite of being, non-being ceases to exist as well.

At a very fundamental level, the Tao teaches us of dynamic opposites. The beauty of Taoism is expressing such fundamental truths in clear, obvious ways. Taoism can speak big truths in few words. This chapter is an excellent example of that.

 

Not Sure How to Get Started on a Fresh Start?

Not knowing what to do next is a very stressful thing. Sometimes it is hard to even figure out how to figure out your next step.

So how do you manage that particular kind of stress?

I know this sounds very woo-woo and fringe element – but the human heart isn’t always a mainstream scientific thing. When it comes to a happy life, the answer isn’t the same for everyone. When it comes to human problems like setting goals or finding purpose behind what we do, it helps to have lots of different problem-solving skills – even the fringy woo woo sounding ones.

For me, one of the most helpful things to do is to tap in to the right hemisphere of our brains, not just the logical left one. That means venturing to the part of our brain that recognizes patterns, speaks in symbolism, and thrives on intution. That means fringy woo woo things like Tarot and other symbolic “oracles”.

I think oracle is a bit of misnomer. It needs modernized (that’s why the name “Modern Oracle” on my tarot blog). Tarot and all those other fringy fortune-tellers are really just tools for tapping into some of our more under-appreciated thinking skills like pattern recognition, symbolism and of course, intuition.

Reading is a left-brain activity. Intuition is a right-brain activity. For me, the perfect brain storm comes from using both…reading (and writing) a Tarot session. They don’t call them Tarot readings for nothing!

At the very worst, a reading is a few minutes of yucks, chuckles and entertainment. That alone can ease stress for a moment or two. At best, a reading will spark an idea – an idea that lets you set a goal, make a plan, solve a problem. That, in turn, relieves some of that stress we were talking about at the beginning.

Give it a try. Let me write something special and unique just for you to read. If you are having trouble starting to find a fresh start, why not give an e-mail tarot reading a try. Click HERE to order. I always strive to give readings that are clear, kind, professional, ethical, affordable, inspirational, positive and fun!

Click HERE to read today’s Tarot post about new beginnings