As the veil thins . . .

   Note:  This blog entry is informed by my spiritual beliefs, which are somewhat eclectic, but primarily nature-based.  I invite you to take what works for you, reject what emphatically does not, and perhaps give a little thought to the ideas that lie somewhere in-between.

Halloween or Samhain (pronounced “SAH-win”) is approaching.  Pumpkins are for sale at all the markets (whether for pies or carving or both), and various decorations associated with the holiday have been clogging the stores since Labor Day.  Samhain has long been a time when it was believed the veil between the worlds becomes thin, allowing our ancestors to return to the world of the living to give us help and advice.  People set out lights to guide them in the form of hollowed-out root vegetables, and put out food as an offering.  Now those helpful spirits are portrayed as ghosts and skeletons, the hollowed-out vegetables are pumpkins, and the food is the trick-or-treats we give to the children who come to our doors.

As the veil between the worlds thins, messages may come to us in a variety of ways.  Some people consult their tarot cards, or other means of divination.  I’ve heard of many instances where people suddenly smell a scent associated with a specific person who died, yet there is no obvious reason why that scent should be present.  The thought is that the person is letting you know they are there, and watching over you.  Sometimes they contact us through a favorite song unexpectedly heard, or a visual clue that makes us think immediately of them.  Another method is through our dreams, which is often my source for information from my Higher Self, or even from ancestors.  After my mother died, she visited me two or three times in my dreams, with messages that were relevent to my current life and helpful.  There is a different quality to these dreams, and it is obvious to me they are not from my subconscious, or my brain making sense of the day.

For the past couple weeks my dreams have become more vivid, and sometimes disturbing.  I realized this was probably because the veil between the worlds is thinning, and these are messages for me.  But some have not fit the usual categories of messages from ancestors, or from my subconscious, or general “house-cleaning.”  I have long believed that in the spiritual world there is no time or space (how else could God or Jesus or whomever hear all those prayers and give them individual attention), but in the past year I have begun to understand some of the ramifications of that belief.  I believe in reincarnation.  So if there is no time or space in the spiritual world, all my lives are happening right now.  They aren’t really “past” lives, but rather “other” lives.  So, as the veil thins, my Higher Self (which is how I think of my one soul that contains all those lives) has the opportunity to let me see some of those lives in my dreams.  I believe this can happen at any time of the year, but is perhaps easier around Samhain. 

This morning I had a particularly disturbing dream, the sort of thing a Freudian analyist would have a field day with.  I checked in with my Higher Self and found out that, yes, this was a glimpse into another life.  I responded in three ways: (1) I asked my Higher Self to convey my deep sorrow and apologies to the other person who appeared in my dream, (2) I was able to feel compassion for the history that caused my self in that life to behave as he did, and (3) I realized that life was one of the reasons I am a rape crisis volunteer in this life. 

I share this with you now, because I suspect others may be having vivid and sometimes disturbing dreams during the weeks before and after Samhain.  They may be visits from ancestors, or perhaps from other parts of your Higher Self.  I encourage you to pay attention to your dreams, and to consider them as chances for healing and self-understanding.  Above all, I wish you healing.        Namaste.

[The illustration is the Six of Pumpkins from the Halloween Tarot, art by Kipling West (1996, U.S. Games Systems).]

Hwy 101 thru Klamath CA

   I’ve been commuting regularly between Crescent City and Arcata, CA, for seven years now (ranging from one to four times a week), so I know that stretch of Hwy 101 pretty well.  I’ve also noticed people Google some interesting topics (WordPress shows the links people use to get to blogs), and thought someone, somewhere might appreciate this information. 

When you drive through Klamath, CA (in Del Norte County), the posted speed limit is 55 miles per hour.  Be aware, ALL of Klamath is a “speed trap,” from the bridge over the Klamath River (south end of Hwy 101) to Wilson Creek Cove (north end of Klamath, at the foot of Last Chance Grade).  The California Highway Patrol has someone working that stretch of Hwy 101 more often than not (though they choose about four or five different places).  You can probably get away with driving 58 mph or maybe 59 mph, but if you drive faster than that and the CHP sees you, you are sure to get a ticket.  So relax, put on some music, set your cruise control (if you have it), and PLEASE don’t tailgate the person in front of you who is doing 58 mph — they might be saving you from getting a ticket!

And since we are talking about that area, I’ll mention what locals call the Bypass and the Low Road.  A few miles south of the Klamath Bridge (at the Del Norte/Humboldt County Line), there is an exit from Hwy 101 called the Newton B Drury Parkway (to the Prairie Creek State Park).  The south exit is a few miles north of Orick, where the twisty two-lane part of Hwy 101 widens to four lanes.  The Parkway used to be Hwy 101, but it winds through redwoods and created a bottleneck that could be easily closed during a Winter storm.  Many years (and much money) went into the creation of the Bypass, which everyone now sees as just being the four-lane portion of Hwy 101 that goes over the hills.   IF you are interested in saving gas, or avoiding some steep grades, or are riding a bicycle, or driving at night once the weather has begun dropping below freezing (and want to avoid ice on the Bypass), or want a good look at some of our beautiful redwoods, please take the Parkway.  It is actually shorter, but the speed limit is 45 mph, and during tourist season (April through mid-November) there are apt to be people going slowly and walking across the road (at least during daylight hours).  It is a beautiful drive.  Yes, it is twisty in places, but was once the regular Hwy 101 with lumber trucks on it, so should be okay for most motor homes and trailers.  Sometimes after wind storms they close the Parkway (because of branches or trees across the road), but if that is the case there will be a sign at the foot of the off ramp saying as much.  

IF you are trying to make time or have no patience, please take the regular Hwy 101.  It offers some beautiful vistas, and gives you plenty of opportunity to pass vehicles as needed.  Just be aware the pass is about 1,480 feet, and from October thru April may have snow or ice (depending on the weather). 

Cookin’ with Gas!

    Does anyone else remember the phrase, “Now we’re cookin’ with gas!” ?  According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (17th ed.) it means “To meet with success, do well.  The phrase is often used in the exclamation ‘Now we’re cooking with gas,’ denoting that at last satisfactory progress is being made.  It emerged in the USA in the 1940s” (p.311).  [BTW, Terry Pratchett wrote the Foreword for this edition.  :-)   ]   However, I use it in the title of this blog entry because now we are literally cooking with gas.

Some time ago, our electric stove top broke.  I’d learned to cook with natural gas, and up until about 14 years ago had cooked with it or propane.  There are techniques to cooking with gas or electricity, and I never felt comfortable with electric stove tops.  For instance, once the rice comes to a boil, you can’t turn down an electric burner and have it immediately drop to low heat.  Anyway, when the electric stove top broke, I invested in a lovely, five-burner propane stove top (above).  But when I contacted the local propane gas companies, neither had anyone who would come out and hook it up for me . . . unless I rented one of their big tanks.  Previous experience told me I’d be better off with a couple smaller tanks I could refill myself, so I looked for someone who could set that up for me.  No one wanted the job.  Since I have respect for what a mistake with propane can do, I wanted someone who knew what they were doing — not a friend’s friend who “does stuff like that.” 

Time passed.  I got really good at cooking for two with a 2-burner hot plate, oven, and microwave.  Even managed a couple dinners for six (no mean feat).  But this Summer I became determined to get that propane stove top hooked up, even if it meant getting one of those big tanks.  I spent several weeks clearing brush and a place for the tank.  Decided I’d better be sure how close it could be to the house, and how long their refill hose was, so I contacted Blue Star Gas.  I spoke directly with the man who does their installations, and he said a big tank would be a waste of time and money — I wouldn’t use that much propane in a year.  How about getting a couple small tanks and installing them next to the house?   My jaw dropped — guess I just had to wait for the right combination of people and circumstances.   

Two weeks later, the man from Blue Star Gas installed my little tanks and the stove top.  I didn’t have the electric pilots operational until yesterday (when the electrician took care of that connection), so I used matches at first.  The first night I cooked stir fry (the wok wouldn’t fit on a hot plate) and a big pot of rice.  Heaven!  Then a big pot of soup, into which I threw in everything I knew both of us like in soups.  Put in a bit more barley than I needed, so it became barley soup, but it was gone in two days (yum!).  The second big pot of soup was black bean soup — I ate most of that one, but that was okay.  I love homemade soups, because I don’t have to worry about MSG or a lot of salt.  A couple nights ago I fixed a sort-of skillet stir-fry with pieces of pork, onion, garlic, celery, corn, and misc. herbs, then served it over rice.  Yum, again!

According to feng shui, the more working burners you have in a kitchen, the more prosperity will come in.   (Eventually there will be a long strip of mirror behind our stove top, “doubling” the number of burners.)  I do know I enjoy being in the kitchen again.  Am not a gourmet cook, and I jump at the chance to eat at favorite restaurants, but there is something so satisfying about cooking a delicious, nutritious meal for those you love (or even just for yourself!).  This propane stove top just made that act much easier, and much more enjoyable.  My life feels more in balance now.  All because “we’re cookin’ with gas!”             

“Making Money,” by Terry Pratchett

   Terry Pratchett is my favorite author.  He is English, intelligent, makes great puns, is a master at satire, and has the best eye for what people are really like of any author I’ve ever read.  His genre is technically fantasy/SciFi, but the novels he writes could be set in any time or place.  The Discworld novels take place on a flat world, carried through space on the back of a giant turtle (shades of Native American legend), and are populated with humans, dwarfs, trolls, vampires, the undead, witches, wizards, and a variety of talking animals (to name just a few).  Thing is, you’ll be reading along and come across a character you KNOW in everyday life — but in this story it happens to be a troll or whatever.  Law enforcement people love his stories about the Night Watch, because that’s how it really works.  Psychology types are apt to find Granny Weatherwax’s “headology” very familiar, and she’s a witch.  The City of Ankh-Morpork is run by a tyrant (Lord Vetinari), but the bureaucracy is familiar to anyone who’s ever worked in (or dealt with) government.  Pratchett is fantastic at anthropomorphic characterizations — Death is a favorite character in many of his books, and leads you to ponder how an “idea” can be changed or created by belief, and exactly how the concept of morphic resonance works.  It is not necessary to read the Discworld books in any specific order (though they do refer to each other).  Pratchett’s early books were not set on Discworld, but carry the same mix of humor and awareness of how people work.  He puts his same talents to use in writing books for children (”Where’s My Cow?”) and young people (”The Wee Free Men”).  Before I switch to writing about his latest book (”Making Money”), I also want to mention how impressed I am that when you send an email to Pratchett with a compliment or comment, he answers personally.  And rather quickly.  I suspect he remembers what it is like to be an average person who enjoys a good book.  That’s part of what makes his books so good.

“Making Money” is about a crook, Moist von Lipwig, who is put in charge of the Royal Bank and the Royal Mint of Ankh-Moorpork.  He has already proven his talents with the Post Office, and now he is given the task of revitalizing the banking system and general economy.  Thing is, people like von Lipwig, so he is able to talk them into trying new things before they have much time to think about it (a true confidence man).  Lipwig likes to live on the edge, riding the adrenaline of danger.  Which works well, because in “Making Money” he has the richest family in the City very angry with him, he gets a letter from someone who knows his criminal past (most of the City doesn’t), “he’s got to spring a prisoner from jail, break into his own bank vault, stop the new manager from licking his face, and … find out where all the gold has gone” (from the jacket flap).  If I tell you more, I’ll spoil the fun of discovery.   :-)   

I can recommend any book Terry Pratchett has authored — that’s how much I enjoy his work.  He’s also teamed up with Neil Gaiman (”Good Omens,” which I sincerely hope gets made into a movie), and Ian Steward and Jack Cohen (”The Science of Discworld” and “The Science of Discworld II,” two of the most interesting science books I’ve ever read).  We’ve gotten to where we will even buy books in which all Pratchett has written is the Forward (”The Leaky Establishment,” by David Langford), on the basis that if he likes it, it is probably good.  (It is.)   Pratchett generally comes out with two books a year, and “Making Money” is his latest.  Read it.

PS         For those who are Pratchett fans, who is your favorite character?  (I’ll give my answer after someone else comments.)    :-) 

Rain (finally!)

   This weekend we finally got some good, soaking rain.  While other parts of the U.S. have gotten too much rain, we’ve had a very dry Summer.  There was a time when you could tell newcomers to Del Norte County (CA), because they were the ones watering their lawns during the Summer.  People who had lived here a few years knew that you could let the lawn start to go a bit golden, but we’d get enough rain over the Summer, and early enough in the Autumn, to make it green again in no time.  About ten years ago, that changed.  We didn’t water our lawn, and there wasn’t enough rain to keep it from actually dying.  Dandelions moved into the dead patches, and it hasn’t been the same since (though dandelions do stay green with less water).

I moved to Del Norte County in 1976, when the average rainfall was well over 100 inches a year.  Several months would go by when there was rain every day.  (And those weren’t El Nino or La Nina years.)  Things slowly began changing, and now the local newspaper acts like it’s a big deal when we get over 80 inches of rain in one year. 

A few years ago I took an environmental science class, and we talked about the distribution of deserts across the globe.  A lot of factors go into creating a desert, such as mountain ranges, weather patterns, and sometimes degradation of the environment (usually by humans).  Most deserts occur in two belts around the Earth, one slightly north and one slightly south of the equator.  I can’t remember all the details, but it has something to do with the heat of the equator rising from the Earth and then curling back down upon it on either side.  What is interesting, is that over the last 25 years scientists have noticed that these belts of deserts (or the potential for becoming a desert) are growing wider, moving farther away from the equator.  That means the “typical” weather of Los Angeles is moving north, toward San Francisco.  It may also be a factor in our area getting significantly less rain than it did 30 years ago.

I enjoyed the rain today – staying indoors, lighting the pellet stove, reading books, cooking a meal.  Am happy to see the rain washing the trees and bushes, and hopefully greening the lawn.  I may not be as content if it continues for several weeks.  But I remember what the weather used to be like, and am concerned about continued changes . . .