Today is Towel Day!

 

For years, I had a Bloom County cartoon on my refrigerator. One of the characters was holding a towel, crying. The caption was “So long, and thanks for all the laughs.”  I cannot say I “mourn” Adams. I can say that I am very very glad he lived and wrote.

I have never met the bout of depression that could compete with “The word “yellow” wandered through his mind in search of something to connect with. Fifteen seconds later he was out of the house and lying in front of a big yellow bulldozer that was advancing up his garden path.” in Chapter One of The Great, the Immortal Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

I have carried a towel in my car since the 70’s when I first read the book. It used to be a brown one. When I got a green Subaru Forester, I upgraded my towel. I’ve been carrying that one for years. It got some Sun damage sitting in the backseat of the Toyota, but it is still quite serviceable. I will be carrying that one today.

My towel is out for Douglas Adams.

Long may he live!

From   http://www.towelday.kojv.net/

You sass that hoopy Douglas Adams? Now there’s a frood who knew where his towel was. You are invited to join your fellow hitch hikers in mourning the loss of the late great one. Join in on towel day to show
your appreciation for the humor and insight that Douglas Adams brought to all our lives.

What do I do?

Carry your towel with you throughout the day to show your participation and mourning.

When do I do it?

May 25th.

Where do I do it?

Everywhere.

Why a towel?

To quote from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you - daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is
also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”

 

On Santa Fe

My roommate just asked me something that nearly everybody asks me at some point or another:

“Have you ever considered living in Santa Fe?”

After I said, “Absolutely not,” I gave her my Santa Fe spiel:

While I totally love visiting there - I like the people and it feels good there, there are 3 things that would keep me from living in Santa Fe:

NUMBER 1.  I don’t like adobe.

Did you know the building code in Santa Fe requires it?

And it isn’t just the adobe - it’s the whole dry, desert feel of the thing. I am in love with my mountains, my streams, my lakes and yes - the Colorado snow! I like a more lush feel with my dry air. That sounds contradictory, but Colorado is high desert. What that means is I get the pines - evergreens - the ever-greenness of the trees no matter what the season and with or without the snow, but the air is dry and it doesn’t grow the fungus and mold critters that make me sneeze my little watery-eyed head off when the humidity floods the air with moisture above about 20%.

So, my shorthand for all of that is:  I don’t like adobe.

NUMBER 2.  I don’t like Georgia O’Keefe.

Again, O’Keefe is a fine painter. I’m sure she is a fine person - I just don’t want her paintings on my walls or in my local coffee shops. I’m perfectly happy to see her work once in a blue moon or when I visit Santa Fe. Nor am I a big Chuck Jones fan.

Another decorating note, I’ll lump under this one is that I don’t much care for American Indian decor. Yes, I know. I still have those Mexian blankets that I use on the bed, but not because I really love them - it’s because they are warm! I basically don’t care for dead animals, bones and furs all over the place. (Glancing quickly around my new home to see what my roommate has. Okay, no skulls - this works. I love how my roommate decorates.)

And last, but not least:

NUMBER 3.  

IF green sauce is the default on my Mexican food - I’M IN THE WRONG STATE!!!

*ahem*

said the Texas Girl from Fort Worth.

That said, I’m looking forward to spending a weekend in Santa Fe with my friend, Joy.

Love,

Stacy

Garage Band Teacher? I Don’t *Think* So!

Alright, Tribe,

I’ve been writing my personal friends list about my latest foray into education. Some of them get it, but some of them write back with “Why do you need another degree?”

In the back of my mind, I hear echoes of pre-pubescent teenagers whining, “Mom, do I have to go to school?” every morning at the breakfast table in some 60’s sitcom. You know, Beaver Cleaver or Eddie on the Munsters.

Do you know how hard it is to grow up LOVING SCHOOL?

Think about it:  what’s “your thing?”

Do you paint? Play music? Fiddle with electronics? Swim?

Yeah, those were electives! Almost nobody was forced to take those subjects. I don’t do any of those things. I sing. In choir. At church. Which is a whole ‘nother story.

But everybody was forced to go to school 5 days a week, 9 months a year for about 12 years!

Many of you hated it. Some of you were neutral about it. A very precious few of us LOVED IT.

Remember? We sat in the front of the classroom. You called us Teacher’s Pet. We answered all the questions and chatted with the teacher like we cared. WE DO CARE.

I can’t help it that you were made to do what I love to do. You have my sympathy.

But when I tell you I’m going on with my plans to get a doctorate, it’s like I’m practicing for the World Series, the Thingamy Cup, the London Symphony. You know? 

I make A’s like falling off a log. I’m a student. That’s who I am. That’s what I do. I would love to be a teacher, too. Yes, I’ve been a teacher in many ways. I’ve taken more new age psychology meditation you-name-its than you can shake a stick at. I’ve hoped to work into teaching BreathWork, NLP, ISP, tantra and many other things. Did any of those work out of me? No. For whatever reason, no, they did not.

I am reminded of my dear friend, Peter, who in high school was well on his way to becoming a famous violinist. Peter once asked me, “Stacy, why is it that I really love the British rock bands, but I just can’t seem to get into the American bands?”

I hardly had to think twice about it. “Peter, the British mommies made their little boys take music lessons. They are grounded in the classics and it shows in their music. Listen to the Moody Blues, and you’ll see what I mean. American bands are made up of guys who bought a guitar out of their Coke money and set up in the garage to play with their friends.”

There’s nothing wrong with American garage bands. There often is something unique and fresh about artists who are self-taught.

Hell, Ian Anderson, musical genius of my favorite (yes, British) rock & roll band, didn’t take flute lessons until long after he became famous for playing it. I heard that one day in a radio interview. His daughter took flute lessons and one day she came in and said, “Daddy, you’re holding it all wrong!” Out of the mouths of babes, and all of that, but he said her information corrected fingering problems he’d been having for years. Imagine that.

Well, I’ve been holding the flute all wrong, apparently. Wisdom University just wasn’t doing it for me. I’d like to get my own foundation in the classics of my field. I want to research. I want to write. Right now, I’m hoping to write a dissertation on mysticism and religious experience. I’m investigating a few different programs, but I’m primarily interested in Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. In the process, I’ve found that Rice in Houston, and The University of Kent at Canterbury (yes, England)  actually have programs in mysticism. I dont’ know why, but neither of them sings to me the wqy GTU does.  The first place I heard of it was in Rabbi Lawrence Kushner’s author bio in the back of Kabbalah: A Love Story.  (Amazing book on many levels.)

I’ve been asking friends, and receiving the catalog and finding out where and when to take the GRE.

I am going to need to learn two new languages.

I can hear the *gasps* from my readers.

Pipe down out there!

I love language and while Spanish is the only one I can claim fluency in, I think it will be a relatively do-able thing to learn French, German, Hebrew, Latin, even Aramaic, if that suits my course of study. I can do this. It’s my thing.

I’d like to stand before a group of college students and look out on the sea of faces (even if some of them are asleep) and say, “My name is Stacy Clark, and I’m the new Professor of Mysticism. I’d like to get to know you.”

Do you have a tissue?

It’s a lifetime dream. I want this. And I’m willing and eager to take the steps to build a firm foundation in those teachers and writers who went before me. This is my passion. I’d like to do my best.

I was 5 years old when I first marched my little self into my mother’s bedroom, and stood in the doorway to tell her, “Mommy, I want to be a teacher.”

I’m 48 years old. I’ve done a *lot* in my life. I want to do this now.

Love,

Stacy

Solar Return

My birthday is December 19.

I checked in here to find that I haven’t written anything since I started dating the new man the last blog refers to. Nothing new about that! Now, I have written - to him. And some of that is Good Stuff ™.

I’m pretty sure that a solar return is judged by the point at which the Sun returns to the same position in the sky when you were born. So, eventually, that can even be on the next day. His birthday is December 20, 2 years after me.

We both have that Sun conjunct Galactic Core thing that Eric Francis and Philip Sedgwick have been talking about so much. Jonathan Cainer mentions it, too.

I know they keep saying it’s big and there’s a chance of connecting with what I’ve always wanted to do with my life - and I just don’t see it yet. I want to. I’m watching for opportunities and I’m not sure what it means yet.

Of course, maybe astrology is just one big self-painted sign that means only what I correlate after the fact.

In any case, wish me a Happy Birthday next week if you like.

Love,

Stacy

http://www.tk421.net/lotr/film/fotr/05.html

[Under the party tree, the other Hobbits are gathered.]

Hobbits: “Speech, Bilbo! Speech!”

Frodo: “Speech!”

Bilbo: “My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles and Proudfoots.” [cheers]

Old Proudfoot Hobbit: “Proudfeet!”

[Hobbits laugh. Bilbo waves dismissively.]

Bilbo: “Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday!”

Hobbits: “Happy birthday!”

Hobbit: “Happy birthday!”

Bilbo: “Alas, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits.” [cheers abound.] “I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”

[There is a dead silence from the crowd. They gaze at each other blank-faced, trying to figure out if they were just insulted. Gandalf smiles.]

Bilbo: “I, uh, I h-have things to do.” [fidgets with the Ring behind his back. Whispers to himself] “I’ve put this off for far too long.”

Bilbo: [to the crowd] “I regret to announce — this is The End. I am going now. I bid you all a very fond farewell.” [whispers to Frodo] “Goodbye.”

Can Lightening Strike Twice?

I think we all know that it can and does.

It’s like what Steven says about what we call “patterns.” Our minds evolved to notice the unusual. That way, when we saw something unfamiliar we could decide whether to eat it or run before it ate us.

We see the foreground, which is actually the unusual occurrence and miss the background, the common and usual.

That seems to be why many people say things like “life is hard.” Noticing the unusual, it would look that way. But we can truly come up with far more examples of how easy life is, if we really look. Our teeth grow, our hearts beat, we are fed and housed and clothed and loved - most of that happens most of the time without us having to stress and labor over remembering to take the next breath. Lately I’ve been working in an office that serves people who are diagnosed with what is called severe mental illness. (I don’t know that I agree, but that’s what it’s called.) These people are fed, housed, clothed, medicine is provided, and guidance, and opportunity to socialize. I believe the clinic serves about 200 people and this is only one location.

Anyway, yes, lightening can strike twice.

Last year Lori gave me an 86 Honda Accord for $10, virtually free. I sold it to pay for the last bit of my trip to Ireland. When I returned, I used Joy’s car for several months, combined with the Eco Pass from the job I held earlier that years. Then, just before snow season, Adam gave me his 83 Toyota Corolla for nothing because he had just bought a new car.

I’d say lightening - 2 free cars in one year and the use of one and a bus pass - struck at least twice, maybe 4 times there.

This year, a man who had a crush on me for 35 years called. We checked out the possibility of a relationship for the past 5 months. Truth is, it wouldn’t really fly.

Last week, lightening struck again.

Another beautiful soul has joined my life who wants to share living with me. Form of this TBD.

I’ll keep you posted.

Love,

Stacy

“Love is the law. Love under will.”

Harriet the Spy

This morning on the bus to work I took some notes in my spiral about blogs I wanted to write. Looking up, I noticed the high school girl with long blonde hair, wearing a red NERV t-shirt, a very sleepy look and an iPod, watching me. Suddenly I felt like Harriet the Spy taking notes on all of her friends.

Really, I wasn’t! 

So I asked if that was a Neon Genesis Evangelion t-shirt, got a brief yes and a smile from her and went back to my note-taking.

One of the notes was about how calorie counting is counterproductive to my weight loss.

I think it’s like trying to play Hearts. I could never play to lose tricks! I keep wanting more of them, more to count. So much for calorie counting. It’s useful for the Calorie Restriction Longevity Diet, but I’m going to go about it via another route - planning my eating differently and not counting as I go. That way it won’t just add up and add up, like it did last week.

Love,

Stacy

Simple Treats

You know, when you do without a lot of “stuff,” simple things can be quite a treat.

For example, typing with a real, ergonomic keyboard - in my lap! On my own PC! At home! In a real house!

This time last year, I was traveling Ireland, at the end of the money I had available, frightened for no really good reason, but not able to see past the end of my nose because of the tunnel vision fear induces. I had sold the car I had been given and most of what I owned, in order to visit Ireland, my first foreign trip off the North American continent.

I learned 2 things that I would prefer to do differently next time: travel with a companion and have a fuller purse to travel with.

Reviewing the year since then, I notice that lots of big maybe’s happen in my life. I tell everyone about them as I am making my choices, and sometimes people get confused - including me.

So, this cup of lapsang souchong tea, with just the right amount of Silk French Vanilla soy creamer and maple syrup, enjoyed from my own comfy computer chair, at the desk I found by the side of the road in Atlanta, GA (another maybe that only lasted 3 months), is a simple treat.

I suspect that somewhere in Texas, a village is . . .  no, wait, what I mean to say is, somewhere in Texas, an older man is wondering why the act of calling to “congratulate” me on another of a slew of run-of-the-mill temp jobs with which I am managing to pay my bills did not land in a good spot with me. I think the reason is self-explanatory from what I have already said.

But I am happy to be near the mountains, in a warm home, with warm kitties and a lovely roommate ( who has a computer-savvy boyfriend who is the man to thank for my ability to type on this formerly defunct PC again!).

I’m just going to soak for a while in how supported and well-treated I am.

Many blessings and much love,

Stacy

“Peace in our minds and in our lives is a cause-effect relationship.”

                                   - Stacy Clark

Peace Now - Inner Peace Thoughts for 9/11

http://advancedmeditation.com/cmd.php?Clk=2095310

Hi,

Just in case some of you want to know about this . . .

Please Pass It On to Others!

The Call is Thursday 9/13

Do you know Gay Hendricks? He’s written over 30 best-selling transformational books — books about relationships, breathing, manifestation, even golf!

Gay is are offering an upcoming teleclass that I’d like to invite you to attend at no charge.

http://advancedmeditation.com/cmd.php?Clk=2095310

Here’s Gay’s message about the class:

   When I was in Boulder recently, I had dinner with an old friend,    Steven Sashen. He’s one of the best “system thinkers” I know. If you want to know what REALLY makes something work, or how to make something more powerful or efficient, he’s your guy. He and I are teaming up on a new meditation course that will be offered via teleseminar.

   Steven is a longtime meditator. And when he turned his systems-thinking scope on meditation he discovered something that truly impressed me, a set of insights and practices that I wish I’d had 30 years ago. (Some of you know that I’m a longtime  meditator–in fact, I haven’t missed a day of meditation since 1973. So, anything that fine-tunes meditation is right up my alley.)

   If I’d had Steven’s insights and techniques, I think it would have accelerated my practice and my spiritual growth by years. He’s taken people who are new to meditation or who couldn’t make it work  for them - he’s even worked with teenagers and homeless people–and after just a few minutes of instruction, they’ve had experiences of peace, and deep spiritual insights that take most meditators decades to find.

   Steven’s techniques work well for advanced meditators, too. If you already have a meditation or spiritual practice, you can make an almost instant leap to a new depth and expansion.

   With Steven’s techniques you don’t need to stop (or even slow down) your thoughts and you don’t need to take time out from your busy schedule. You can do them practically anywhere.

   I could tell you more, it would be better for you to experience it yourself. So, I’ve arranged a way for you to do that.

       Go to http://advancedmeditation.com/cmd.php?Clk=2095310
  
   When you get to the site, fill out the registration form and I’ll let you know about an upcoming free teleclass where you can discover for yourself how easily you can find deep body relaxation, greatly expanded awareness, and real inner-peace…even while the kids are demanding your attention or work is getting nuts.

   I hope you’ll join me for this new and exciting opportunity,

   Gay Hendricks

http://advancedmeditation.com/cmd.php?Clk=2095310

The teleclass is going to be really fun and interesting and there’s a chance to get a $400 gift. I hope you can make it, too.

presented by Garuda, Inc.

Have fun!

Love,
Stacy

“It is no sign of mental health to be well-adjusted to an insane world.”

                 The Dalai Lama

Next!

Some of you know what a Rules Girl is. By and large, I am a Rules Girl.

And when a relationship doesn’t work out, what does a Rules Girl do? She suits up and shows up. We cry if it is warranted, then we dry our eyes, realize it’s best to know now, rather than later, and move on.

Reality is much kinder than our thinking. Thank you, Katie.

“You move totally away  from reality

when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer.”

- Byron Katie

I really didn’t have the kind of romantic illusions that a man who has had fantasies of me since we were 12 would have. After only 3 months, I had nearly nothing invested. Just a lot of phone time with a friend.

I’m fine.

Next!

Love,

Stacy

“If I think you’re my problem, I’m insane.”

                               -Byron Katie

That Dream May Come True

Hi y’all,

I had to share Eric Francis’ words for Paul, who is a November 8, 1958 Scorpio and myself this week. It’s perfect, if you know the story. He has loved me for 35 years. And you all know how I feel about love & marriage.

Next week we will take the next steps toward being together and see how it flies.

What I read here is that our mutual dreams of living and teaching may work together. We hope to pool our life experiences and share them with others, writing and teaching . . . and living. 

And yes, we both realize nobody needs us to teach them anything. We just can’t seem to stop. We’re having that much fun!

www.planetwaves.net

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
This week’s eclipse of the Moon in your empathic sign Pisces has helped put your priorities on the right track. Indeed, you were in danger of becoming so focused on work and achievement that you nearly forgot your deeper calling as a passionate, creative person. Yet these traits, of your soul as well as your personality, are newly unveiled. You are free to take risks you would not have dreamed of the past few years, and this will help you on what promises to be an intriguing, challenging path for the next few years of carving out a special place for yourself in the world — a place among your friends, your professional colleagues, and among those whose ideas and visions help shape life on our planet. These may come in small ways, but be on notice, they may come in rather large ones as well.
 
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
The main attraction of the year has yet to happen, but it’s drawing you toward it with all the intensity of the Galactic Core, where it occurs: a conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto in Sagittarius. If you feel like your life has been leading to a deep breakthrough or a revelation; if you feel like you are slowly coming into inheritance of some deep spiritual truth, but on the most personal level; this is likely to be it. That being said, most people miss these things as casually as missing a city bus. What can I say? Well, this is about you, but it’s not entirely about you. As Saturn moves into Virgo, punctuated by a dramatic solar eclipse, remember that your true calling is service. To perform your service, you must be exceptionally self-aware, yet constantly connected to the golden thread that weaves together all people, all cultures, and all humanitarian ideals.
 
 

Love,

Stacy