Doh, After Thanksgiving Doldrums

With the exception of one particularly wonderful year when I had my first baby , the first few days after Thanksgiving are always kind of apathetic.  I'm not depressed, no...I have way too much to be grateful for to be depressed.  I don't have the "blues".  There's no big letdown of wishing I had lots of money at the end of the month so I could fight the crowds at the malls.  Am I the only one who thinks it's a silly tradition to have a big sale the day after you've spent your last dime on yet more whipped cream? Why can't Black Friday come after the 3rd of the month?  Anyway, this attitude of mine is something more subtle, easily blamed onto laziness, too full of a tummy or general sloth.  It's the doldrums.

Having the doldrums is when a person is in a state of inactivity or stagnation.  It usually looks like a person is dull, listless and bored.  Hmmm.  That does sound depressing in a sense; but I stick to my premise that I'm not depressed....I merely Look like I might be.  Plus, doldrum-ishness is a very temporary state of being.  I'm sure that once I get all the tryptophan out of my system, catch up on at least one more heaven-sent nap, and start listening to my grandson sing Christmas songs, I'll snap right out of it.

I have the added bonus of being creative to drag me out of my corner of the sofa.  Colored pencils, markers and collage pieces are calling my name.  I think that instead of getting started on some Christmas-y project, I'll work on my pin-up girl project some more.  I am trying to draw in the fashion of the 1940's & 1950's pin-up girls....with the twist of having them be much thicker with more weight, curves and softness.  Sort of like a sexy me.   

Hey!  That's it.  I can feel my doldrums melting away like cheap milk chocolate.  No worries about presents and gift wrapping.  No thoughts about too much pumpkin pie with mounds of whipped cream.  Just sexy me and my creativity.  

I love the world inside my head!!!! 

Day of Absurdity

My calendar shows that today is Absurdity Day.  I think that's awesome!  I love being absurd and seek it out as often as possible.  To be honest, I may be an absurdity magnet.

In my opinion,  life is more fun when approached from the point of view of absurdity.  Because of my appreciation of silliness and foolishness, I can laugh at mistakes I've made and will no doubt continue to make.  I can smile when I think about the time I forgot how to use a bottle opener.  It prevents me from crying when I've gotten lost just blocks from my house at night.  Appreciation of absurdity helped me keep an open mind when my teenage daughter shaved her head, grew a mohawk and died it pink.  Love of absurdity is what made me think this same daughter was talking about her hair when she asked me what colors she should pick when she got married.

I think we should all celebrate the absurdity in our lives!!!!!

Concealed, secret, hidden, mysterious

Today is Occult Day on the calendar.  I know, I know....you'd think it would have been on Halloween. Concealed, secret, hidden, mysterious...These are all words to describe the occult.  Here, where I live in El Paso, the Day of the Dead is celebrated as a way of respecting people we love who have passed away. But it is no longer celebrated solely on November 1 & 2 (All Saints Day & All Soul's Day).  Probably because of commercialization of the "holiday", the decorations are often seen throughout the year.
This makes me very happy because I love the liveliness of the colors, designs and topics.  Celebrating death makes much more sense to me than fearing it. After all, if I really have faith in my spiritual beliefs, then there is nothing to fear, right? Buddhist philosophy encourages meditation on death, preparing one's spirit for one's  eventual death.  My personal spiritual beliefs are eclectic and include a foundation of Catholic religion and a growing curiosity about Buddhist philosophy. So I have the Catholic faith that there is a heaven, God deciding if I've been a good person and a better place to go when I die. And I believe the Buddhist teachings that heaven and the ability to achieve residence in heaven is within me. When death has touched my life, I have seen it as more of a reason to be grateful for the time spent with the loved one, a reason to celebrate them being out of pain and on their journey finding their way to heaven.

And for fun, to join in the wonderful weirdness of celebrating death:  my drawings of Day of the Dead sugar skulls.

Creating My World Peace Day

Today is World Peace Day.

While I understand & respect that the world is certainly not at peace, the focus of this post is not on the 2 wars the U.S. is currently fighting, nor any of the other conflicts occurring around the world.

Violence in all its forms hurts us all.

This message is one of many future posts about my personal journey toward a peaceful life.  It is about creating my own personal world of peace.  That sounds pretty selfish as I review that last sentence; and I freely admit that I am selfish when it comes to "creating my life".

 As happens for most people, peace has not come easy for me.  And the times it did show up, peace came at the high price of me pretty much shutting down and shutting out the noise of the world.  I discovered I was good at withdrawing into myself and only showing others the happy person that made them feel comfortable.  I suppose most of us do this in one way or another.  Ironically, I'm one of the world's worst liars with a horrible poker face.  I plainly show my emotions on my face...unless I'm hiding from them myself, that is.  Today there is no need to go into the reasons why peace has eluded me.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that giving energy to the reasons would only propel me backwards on my journey.  I found a great quote today on Twitter.  Sadly, it was not attributed to its author so I cannot give credit where it is so richly due:

Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.

I've read many good books that have helped me put the past where it belongs; including "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, "Seat of the Soul" by Gary Zukav and "The Art of Happiness" by The Dalai Lama.  I have reread them many times, finding myself in a different place on my journey each time.  Particularly when reading "Seat of the Soul" I find that I can open the book to any page and start reading; finding the messages relevant to whatever situation I find myself in at the time.

Thankfully, I can honestly say that I feel more at peace now than at any other time in my life.  I meditate every night and sometimes during the day.  I have long conversations with God and feel comfortable waiting in the silence for answers.  I visualize being somewhere safe and secure as I meditate.  Lately, I've gone back in my memories to the nights when my great-aunt Myra would cradle me in her lap while she rocked me in her giant wicker rocker.  She'd sing gospels and pray fervently while rocking me so far backwards I was certain we'd tip over.  I was about 7 years old or so.  As precarious as that sounds, I felt completely surrounded by love knowing that Aunt Myra would never let anything bad happen to me.  So now I lie down in the darkened room, close my eyes and put myself back in her soft, ample lap.  I smell the lavender powder she always wore.  I hear her singing & praying and I can almost feel the smooth, thin skin of her ancient hands.  And I feel safe...warm...youthful...safe...and at peace.

 Thank you Aunt Myra