The art of finding the high road in the dark
2 1/2 (almost 3!) months ago we, here at Gaia's Garden, welcomed Wyatt Owen into our lives at home and here at the store. Let me say that it has been an eye opening experience for me!!
I have let things slide in the months leading up to the birth of my second son and in the two months since; for that I apologize but never fear!! I am back on the game and feverishly working to catch back up and stay on the ball of informing every one of up coming events, classes and sales.
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Every year, I pack up the car and the girls and head to Denver for the International New Age Trade Show. Row after row of vendors, inspiring speakers, author book signings, great entertainment and the special mix of metaphysical retailers makes this weekend feel like coming home!
One of the things I love about the trade show is the opportunity to meet the vendors and their representatives in person. Being a small store, it’s important to me to know the people behind the products we carry. I want to see how they treat the people who wander into their booths. I want to see how they treat the children that come by (and of course, we have our own barometer of that in Tristan!). I want to see how authentic they are, how bored or excited. I want to feel their energy before I decide to spend my money! Now I’m home, waiting for the orders to start rolling in, and I have our customers on my mind! How do you feel when you walk in our door? Do we make you feel welcome? Do we treat you like the special person you are? Many of you have become our friends, but have we left anyone out? Do you feel like you know us? For the Stout family, Gaia’s Garden has always been about more than just a store. It’s about building community and making connections. It’s about the people who cross our threshold, whether it’s one time or a hundred! Let us know how we’re doing! First off, I would like to say that this whole "blogging" thing really
is not my style. I think that I am more of the physical kind of person. That and I feel like it is just one more craze out there...well, if Mary and Joe are doing it, then you better get in line and jump on it! Got to keep up if you want to stay with the cool kids... ppphhhhssss! Yeah, I can honestly say I have never been one of the cool kids! Besides, what do I really have to say that anyone would care to hear? This is the inner mind workings of a crazy, middle-aged woman who, by the way, feels very strongly that with every passing day what once passed as a semi-functional brain has been down graded to a "holy crap I think I remember how to breathe, but let's not get too carried away because the day is still young" brain! Although, the road to self-improvement, fighting the good old grow- your-soul fight, the decades spent slushing around in the muck of my own humanistic flaws, and last but not least, searching out the darkest possible corners of my own shadow self, could prove to be quite humorous and entertaining to those of the dark and twisty way! Which brings me to one of the about 60,000 passing thoughts in my single, functional brain cell, in the two whole peaceful, quiet, waking, grown up moments in the week that I might actually sneak in.... Where is that moment, you know the one, that one single moment when you hit that sweet spot, meditative, veil opening, hey this is a direct line to my own inner soul/ universe/ higher being? Why does it seem like, in all the times of trying to keep up with the cool kids, I can not seem to find my own inner ya? Hmmmm, I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I'm thinking.... Maybe for now, until the Universe stops speaking in German or I find a translator (and he better be cute! Just putting it out there!), the best that I can do is just do my best. I'll keep reaching for the sweet spot and plague the internet with my all too crazy, dark and twisted inner brain cell's ranting (better out than in, right?)! For now, Falowla (and yes, it's supposed to be spelled with the "low" already in it!) Friday was a dark day, suffused with anger and fear, while our country waited to hear if our government was going to shutdown. The news media fueled the frenzy with suggestions of what would happen if a compromise couldn’t be reached. Hundreds of thousands of people nationwide wondered and worried over the impact a shutdown would have on their lives and the lives of their families and friends.
The outlook was bleak here in our part of the world. Being part of a military community means that your life is connected through love, family, friendship and business to the soldiers stationed here. Most of us tend to feel fiercely protective about the men and women who serve to protect us in these unstable times. Most of us know and appreciate the many sacrifices that these soldiers and their families make for us. Most of us recognize how little these soldiers get paid to put their lives on the line in foreign countries far from home. So when the soldiers were told that they would receive a half pay and then no pay, life looked very dark indeed. Everywhere, people were doing the math and coming up with an impossible situation. What kind of choice is it when you have to decide between food for your family and a roof over their head? How do you fight an unpopular war while worrying about how your family will survive back home? How do you hold your family together alone and penniless while your spouse is too far away to help? At the last minute, a compromise was reached, at least for now. Disaster has been averted. All these families, and all the people connected to them, can breathe again. I choose to believe that if the worst had happened, we, in this community, would have reached out in love and support to help the families affected. I choose to believe that communities nationwide would have reached out in the same way. Call me Pollyanna if you want, but when disaster strikes, we Americans figure out a way to pull together for the greater good! In the darkest hours, let’s all remember to let our light shine as a beacon so everyone can find their way. - DQ My search for the high road is very similar to Rabbits. Except, not only is it dark but there are stone mines everywhere. On a daily basis I am either getting pummeled with stones, tripping over stones or faced with seemingly immovable boulders in my life that I have to make a decision to “accept”, take another path or blow it out of my existence. Through much of my life it seemed that blowing it out of my existence seemed the thing to do. I mean first of all, if you make it nonexistent in your reality, then you can send your feelings along with it. If you can’t experience it with your senses then you don’t feel so connected by it. Blowing it up is simply just the easy way out but definitely takes us clearly off of the high road path and puts us right back into the ditch.
So my struggle is facing what needs to be dealt with and responding to it without the “warrior way” of thinking. Especially since my “warrior way” seems to just blow up in my face. Unfortunately, I forget to step out of the “closet” before unleashing “Zena-sized” mushroom clouds of destruction. The only outcome of that seems to be irritated “closetins” and self- inflicted wounds. Ah, the path to the high road. It’s not as easy as it sounds. I think I will stay in the closet at least for now before I am forced to embark on that journey again. At least in the closet there isn’t too much to cause you to have to hit the high road. - Xena Have you ever had one of those days where no matter what you do, the high road seems out of reach??
Let's be honest here, on a day to day basis we're all walking a very thin line. Dancing on the tightrope as we strive to 'take the high road' and not lose our footing down in the muck when life throws an obstacle in our way! So what do you do when the universe is taunting you with all the things that get under your skin and leaves you wondering what exactly the point of it all is? To make matters even worse someone just hit the lights!! Now what?!? You're stranded in the dark with no idea where that pesky high road has wandered off to and oh by the way, watch out for all the little mines that have littered your path, threatening to blow you back into the muck! -Rabbit |
AuthorThis is a collective collaboration from the "inner closet gang" as well as some guest bloggers! Archives
January 2012
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