Coconut Oil

Here goes another experiment. Coconut oil for my damaged hair. I'll let you know if I see any results. My hair has become damaged to the point of breaking in in the last year. I don't know the cause. I'm doing nothing differently as far as product or styling. The only change has been water. I'm hoping the 2 inches cut off yesterday and this product will be the cure! 

Any lengths! 

Why a Bunny?

My Sonshine asked and found out online and wanted to share:

Dear Yahoo,

How did the Easter bunny become part of a religious holiday?

Cindy Spring Valley, California

Dear Cindy:

We hopped around the Easter History category in the Yahoo! Directory, and then returned to the front page and searched on "easter bunny history" to dig up the dirt on this rascally rabbit. As it turns out, the Easter bunny has a long history as a pagan symbol that predates the Christian holiday. In fact, our sources suggest that early Christians purposefully co-opted the pagan hare to popularize their own holiday.Quite a few pagan cultures hold celebrations in the spring. It's the time of year when plants return to life after being dormant all winter and when animals mate and procreate. These festivities celebrate the renewal of life and promote the fertility of crops, animals, and even people, which was important in these agrarian communities. The Saxons believed in a maiden goddess of fertility named Eastre or Eostre (Oestre in Latin) and honored her with a spring festival. Hares and rabbits were considered sacred to Eastre because they are notoriously fertile animals. In the second century A.D., Christian missionaries tried to convert northern European tribes. To help make Christianity attractive, the missionaries turned pagan festivals into Christian holidays. The pagan Eastre festival occurred around the same time as the Christian celebration marking Christ's resurrection so the two celebrations blended into one, rabbit and all. Over time, Eastre became Easter, and the symbolism changed as well. Instead of the Easter rabbit symbolizing fertility, the rabbit maysymbolize an innocent, vulnerable creature that can be sacrificed, similar to the lamb. To Christians, these innocents are tokens of Christ and the sacrifice he made. The Easter bunny we know today was influenced by German traditions dating back to the 1500s. German children believed that theOschter Haws (a magical rabbit) would leave them a nest of colored eggs at Eastertime if they were good. Pennsylvania Dutch settlers brought this tradition to America in the 1700s. On a related note, eggs have long been a symbol of rebirth and thus associated with spring celebrations. In the 600s, Pope Gregory the Great forbade the eating of eggs during Lent (the 40 days proceeding Easter), and this helped make eggs a special treat at Easter. Many European cultures also have old customs of decorating eggs and giving them as gifts.

Who Do I Write About?

The Thing About Fear is.....

It sucks...but besides that....

Fear is paralyzing.

Fear is debilitating.

Fear is cunning.

Most of all it makes manifest the very situation it fears.  

That is the thing about fear.....

Starbucks

Note to self and a PSA to others....

Enjoy the music in your earbuds in your own head. Dancing and singing because you enjoy the tune so much you can't contain yourself doesn't amuse others in Starbucks.

Who knew?

I wonder if they would appreciate me more at Dunkin' Donuts?

The Book



"The book" was assigned an ISBN today!  What a bittersweet moment.  I turned in the workbook, Living in Consciousness, to the publisher on the due date, March 1.  I finished up my edits and put it away the night before.  It was a challenge not to open and fiddle with it again that morning, but at 10:10 AM I said farewell and sent it on the way.

I say it was bittersweet for a couple of reasons. 

First, I have been writing something since I could hold a pencil.  From the first diary my mom bought me when I was in first grade to the journals I kept throughout my drama-filled teen years and into the items I began creating as a professional...there has always been something I was "working" on.

Thursday when I was finished I cried.  They were tears I couldn't explain.  Contributing author, Tyrone Carrington, kept telling me to be happy for the completion.  He also said I could look at this as a beginning rather than an ending.  I am happy.  I was near giddy.  Perhaps, feelings hard to explain.  The duty and ownership of daily writing as the most cathartic event this bleeding author feels can't be put into words.  It was as if birthing a child.  A child carried for years. 

This isn't the first piece of work I have had published but I dare say it was the most emotionally labor-intensive.  Possibly because of the involvement of Tyrone. 

I've known Tyrone for two years and care for him in a way I have very few.  In addition to listening to and recording his emotional journey through doing the work the questions in this workbook unfolded for him I began doing my own work, as well.  Part of that journey for me has been healing that involved my relationship with Tyrone.  I needed and wanted but wasn't fully aware of what that journey would unlock. 

Bringing the workbook to publication also meant an ending.  An ending of many days and hours of interaction with Tyrone.  I knew the day would bring that ending when we began but as it crept closer I felt the weight of hesitation as much as the excitement of relief.  I found myself with thoughts like, "it will never be the same again as it is now" and "I am not sure I want this interaction to end".  I love that man dearly and will forever be changed from knowing him.  Handing our diligent work over to Kendall-Hunt for publication was as if I was handing the entirety of the relationship over. 

Such as it felt, it was.  As my unconsciousness created without my consciousness being aware, we both allowed this to be a goodbye of sorts.  The journey was intense, more intense than I could have imagined, but worth the miles.  I am a better person than I was when I began that journey, and that, I suppose, is all I could have asked for. 

ISBN:  978-1-4652-1977-0