Different stages of being drunk...

Like Cinderella: You come back home, have lost a shoe, and in ragged clothes.
Like Bambi: Your legs refuse to do as you want them to, and your head feels like the size of a beach ball.
Like Sleeping Beauty: You sleep in a hundred years.
Like Snowwhite: You wake up with seven unknown men in your bed.
Like The Little Mermaid: Your feet are glued together and smells of fish.
Like Little Red Riding Hood: You wake up with your grandmother in the same bed as you.
Like The Emperor's new clothes: You wake up naked in the gutter to see the croud point at you.
Like The Ugly Duckling: You wake up with a cohabitant - but it's not your own... This one is much more handsome...
Like Superman: Your body is both red and blue, and people whispering sounds like loud cries.
Like Scrooge: You wake up, have a larg pile of money but no trousers.
Like Hans and Grätchen: You can easily find the toilet by following the trace of the nights vomitting...
Like Pippi Longstocking: You wake up between a horse and a monkey and find your purse full of money.
Like The Big Bad Wolf: Your breath is so bad you can blow a house over.
Like Christopher Colombus: You don't know where you are, or where you're headed, but the government pays for it.
Like The B-Brothers: You wake up the next day and have brought things with you back home that you never wanted, or know why you took with you...

Learn as long as you live... a story

The True Sound of Truth

An old story speaks about a similar problem. A devoted meditator, after years concentrating on a particular mantra, had attained enough insight to begin teaching. The student's humility was far from perfect, but the teachers at the monastery were not worried.

A few years of successful teaching left the meditator with no thoughts about learning from anyone; but upon hearing about a famous hermit living nearby, the opportunity was too exciting to be passed up.

The hermit lived alone on an island at the middle of a lake, so the meditator hired a man with a boat to row across to the island. The meditator was very respectful of the old hermit. As they shared some tea made with herbs the meditator asked him about his spiritual practice. The old man said he had no spiritual practice, except for a mantra which he repeated all the time to himself. The meditator was pleased: the hermit was using the same mantra he used himself -- but when the hermit spoke the mantra aloud, the meditator was horrified!

"What's wrong?" asked the hermit.

"I don't know what to say. I'm afraid you've wasted your whole life! You are pronouncing the mantra incorrectly!"

"Oh, Dear! That is terrible. How should I say it?"

The meditator gave the correct pronunciation, and the old hermit was very grateful, asking to be left alone so he could get started right away. On the way back across the lake the meditator, now confirmed as an accomplished teacher, was pondering the sad fate of the hermit.

"It's so fortunate that I came along. At least he will have a little time to practice correctly before he dies." Just then, the meditator noticed that the boatman was looking quite shocked, and turned to see the hermit standing respectfully on the water, next to the boat.

"Excuse me, please. I hate to bother you, but I've forgotten the correct pronunciation again. Would you please repeat it for me?"

"You obviously don't need it," stammered the meditator; but the old man persisted in his polite request until the meditator relented and told him again the way he thought the mantra should be pronounced.

The old hermit was saying the mantra very carefully, slowly, over and over, as he walked across the surface of the water back to the island.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer, The Invitation

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you tryly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Copyright published by HarperSanFransisco, 1999

11th September 2001

Where were you the 11th September 2001? What did you do? What did you wear? I bet you remember...!

I lived in Bali. I rented a nice house in the ricefields in Ubud, the cultural center of Bali. I was living there together with my Balinese boyfriend, Komang. It wasn't a big house, just a bedroom, a bathroom a kitchen and an outside area where we had a sofa and a couple of chairs. My boyfriend had a television, and a DVD-player. He used to watch all kinds of lousy standard movies at any time of the day. We could rent like 5 films in the afternoon, and he'd watch them all before going to bed. I usually fell asleep after the second film...! I remember being fed up with the TV being on at every time of the day, and asked him to turn off this lousy movie when he turns toward me saying that it's not a movie. 'It is happening right now' he said. 'It's on the news right now!' The TV screen showed thick smoke flowing out of the first tower... then a plane came into the picture, and I could see it hitting the second tower. It was about ten o'clock local time, we had just gotten out of bed, only made a cup of strong morning coffee...

I was wearing a sarong like I always did in the morning. It was a morning ritual, slipping into my sarong, making coffee and sitting looking over the ricefields listening to the songs of the world around us. The quacking from frogs, ducks and chicken, the wrooms of motorbikes, cars and scooters, the howling of the dogs, the thump of coconuts hitting the ground, the shouting from people, the crying of babies, the laughter of girls and boys, the whistling from the wind playing in the palmtrees... etc...

This morning, all sounds were gone. Only the horrible pictures and the silent screams from all the people inside the twin towers were echoing in my brain. A high pitch note ringing without end... a silent cry from the angel of mercy...

Good fortune or just incredibly lucky?

Friday 1st September, I took my bicycle for a ride in the forrest close to where I live. I also had a couple of plastic bags with me, just in case... (of something)... ( I often do things 'just in case'... and usually when I've felt like bringing something 'just in case', I get use of it...!) Like this friday. I had taken these plastic bags with me, and when cycling in the forrest, I came by lots of mushrooms! Unfortunately I don't know their english names... but I found R?dskrubb, Kantarell, Rimsopp, Steinsopp and kremle. All of them good for food, if prepared the right way. I am not an expert in these mushrooms... but I found someone on my way that could help me sort out the poisonous ones. Later on, I picked some more. It was this time that I found Kantarell, the most delicious mushroom we norwegians know about. I was so astound that I found some, that I lost track of time, space and everything! After having picked the ones I found, I trodded on... suddenly realizing that my digital camera was missing... I had taken it with me to take photos of mushrooms I wanted to recognize for later. And now it was missing... You might know how you walk the forrest when looking for mushrooms... without sense of direction. So how could I possibly find my camera again? Where had I lost it? Suddenly I remembered being so surprised to find kantarell, that I had to take the chance of me having put my camera down at this spot, and happily walked off with kantarell in my plastic bags, and no camera around my wrist... But how could I possibly find this spot again!? Well, I had to try... and I don't know if it's my good fortune or just my incredible luck that I found the spot again... And guess what... My camera lay in the sun, glimmering like a sparkling diamond! I couldn't believe it! But there it was, and happy again, I kept sweeping the forrest for edible mushrooms...!

Then. Last weekend, it happens all again! My camera gets lost. I believe it might be stolen, but asks anyone who has been in my presence the last couple of days if they have seen my rucksack (where my camera was). Nobody could help me. I report it to the reception desk, and give them my name and telephone number, just in case... Yesterday, I'm about to call my insurance agency to report my camera stolen. But my mobile phone rings... and guess what! It's the reception lady... telling me that my rucksack has been found... and my camera is in it...!

So... is it good fortune following in my steps, or have I just been incredibly lucky?? I don't know... and I guess I shouldn't question it too much either... I only hope it will continue!!

Mabon or Autumn Equinox, september 23rd 2006

So, in the cycle of decline,
the Autumn Equinox is at harvest time,
of those ideas that you first planted
last Autumn at Samhain.
It is a time of balance,
a time of reaping,
a time of equality.
What is at that balance point in your life?

May the fruits of your labors of this cycle
serve you well
as the light turns towards the dark half of the year,
and the death and rebirth of a new cycle
at Samhain.

Blessed Be!

by sig lonegren

Mabon, or Autumn Equinox is the time in the autumn when the day and the night is equally long all over this planet of ours. This year it happens the 23rd of september. At 04:02 GMT time. Astronomically this means that for all of us living on the northern hemisphere of our planet, our days will consist of more dark hours than light ones, and for the people on the southern hemisphere, the days will consist of more light hours than dark ones, since the sun is moving to shine it's light below the equator. Many people celebrate this day, as it symbolizes balance between light and dark. The Autumn Equinox is one of the Four Quarter Days of the year. It marks a major mid-point between Lughnasad (represents the start of the harvest and is also called Lammas) and Samhain (marks the end of the summer and the beginning of the new fertility year). It is probably mostly celebrated amongst pagans and wiccans around the world, but it is also marked off in the calender of some countries. The Holi/Holy days around this time reflect this reality. In the United States, Labor Day - the first tuesday after the first monday in Septemer - marks the beginning of the Autumn Equinox season. Labor Day recognizes the value of those who labor, and it gives them a final fling at the end of summer. In the United States and in many other countries the celebration takes place and are called Thanksgiving.

Wiccans and Pagans celebrate the aging Goddess as she passes from Mother to Crone, and her consort the God as he prepares for death and re-birth. At this festival it is appropirate to wear all of our finery and dine and celebrate in a lavish setting. It is the drawing to and of family as we prepare for the winding down of the year at Samhain. It is a time to finish old business as we ready for a period of rest, relaxation and reflection. Mabon is considered a time of the Mysteries. It is a time to honor Aging Deities and the Spirit World. Considered a time of balance, it is when we stop and relax and enjoy the fruits of our personal harvests, whether they be from toilinj in our gardens, working at our jobs, raising our families, or just coping with the hussle-bussle of everyday life. The Sun enters the sign of Libra, bringing balance and harmony but also change and transformation. It is time to take action and move into a new energy phase to balance the outer world with the inner world. It is a time to release the past and move forwards, a chance to be clear about what it is you want to do now, and prepare for Winter.

As I said, it is a time for balancing but also for reconciling opposites and to see them as part of the whole. Everyhing co-exists together and we need both sides in order to be balanced and whole; the seen and the unseen, the known and the unknown, creation and destruction, death and rebirth, materialism and spirituality. Here at the Autumn Equinox, celebrate your whole selves, your masculine and feminine aspects, your conscious and unconscious, the active and the receptive, your light and dark sides, your fortunes and your misfortunes, your young self and your old self - and all aspect of the cycle of life. Celebrate it all, the good and the bad. Honour the changing season which brings a chance to start again.

The sap in the trees and plants is moving down now. This is the beginning of root energy and brings sleep, rest and renewal. It is a chance for all of life to go within and re-enter the dark womb of the spiritual world. This is the balance between the outer journey and the inner journey, which provides a strong foundation for our lives. It is a time for long-term planning and incubation. The seed ideas we plant now will re-emerge in the Spring changed, transformed and strengthened by their time in the unconscious.

Activities of Mabon: Making wine, gathering dried herbs, plants, seeds and seed pods, walking in the woods, scattering offerings in harvested fields, offering libations to trees, adorning burial sites with leaves, acorns and pine cones to honor those who have passed over.

(Info taken from "Sacred Celebrations" by Glennie Kindred on Gothic Image Publications 2001, http://www.wicca.com/celtic/akasha/mabon.htm and http://www.geomancy.org/quarter&cross/autumn_equinox.html)

mystery

It's a mystery
why sometimes the solution
to a problem
has to hit you over the head
repeatedly
before you are finally able to see it