Love in the Missed

Love in the Mist. Northern California

May is a time when the Love in the Mist bloom. This year warrants a slight change in how "mist" gets spelled. In the heart of Beltane- a season for blossoming and rapid growth out and up, so many of us are confined, turned inward to watch and partake in limiting ways we aren't yet used to. 

We are missing and we are missed. And...we are blessed to be together...digitally.

Pixels Apart

In the past months I've done religious gatherings, cocktail parties with friends (+ their cats and their custom virtual backgrounds), singing circles, choral and academic graduations, and a wide variety of dance and fitness (and bellydance) classes all via Zoom.

Virtual cocktail night

I have missed my musician colleagues terribly, summer camps are canceled and being replaced by open mic sessions. I'm learning to sing and perform for the camera now (in March, I was learning to handle a big band behind me covering up my mistakes--Miss them!)

I know privilege while I'm living (singing) it. 

Say a prayer and keep making a donations to organizations helping those making our world go round, bringing food to our table, keeping our water and power flowing, collecting our garbage and recycling and continuing to bring goods to our lives. 

It is a time to honor and recognize the people who may lack rights due to immigration status, people who may have no paying working, or who have no voice because they cannot vote. People who have lost their income due to the pandemic, people who on top of some of that may also lack freedom if they have crossed our borders fleeing violence and seeking asylum. For those in our detention centers, their health and lives may also be in danger due to inadequate health protection. It's massive and horrific and enraging.

Artifacts and the Art-full Acts

Despite physical distances, now is the time to bring people together for causes like the above but for ourselves and spiritual sustenance too. Doing that in virtual form is what I've done for over a decade. I slightly rewrote We are Familiy by Sister Sledge and invited everyone to join me in singing the gently adjusted lyrics. It was good. I am grateful and it gave me and some others some fulfillment. 

Remember your adaptations!

Music stand(ing desk)

Let's Get Dark

This time for our society has aspects that are both dark and light, we need to record all of it so we can look back on this time. Some of us will be forever changed by our society which is all at once adapting, unifying, and dividing. I did an interview with the local TV station about some of what I'm experiencing. 

 Sports are dark...

Play has gone dark...

What is familiar is upside down right now. Embrace it:

Upside down, feline fine. 

In her short life, my daughter has lived through drought, fire/air quality crisis, and now a global pandemic. She's feeling 2020 in all its glory and aptly selected this cake for her not-in-person birthday. 

Fallen ice cream cone salted caramel cake, Love at First Bite

Power of the Scream

Not many people are giving voice to the power of the scream these days either. All the airtime for compassion, empathy, patience, tolerance, understanding, communication, be a good boss, don't expect people at 100%, distraction, not everyone's circumstances are the same- enough! It's exhausting. 

Channel it, give yourself a good place and time to scream, see where it takes you. Harm no one.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Center the light around yourself. Breathe in. Breathe out. Now scream your freakin' head off for as long as you have air for (singers! let's GO!)

Have a listen to Fantastic Negrito's:  Bullshit Anthem Take that bullshit, turn it into good shit (or at least shit that makes YOU feel better), 'cause there's a lot to be angry about! 

Okay, I'll Stop Screaming for Hope Sourdough

The sourdough craze continues. A galfriend cranked out bread sooo crusty the outer pieces could slice your throat on the way down (even having been chewed); on the inside the dough was sooo chewy and supple. 

It was a carbohydrate symphony of contrasts AND a foil for life in the now.

My secret story of "sourhope" is as follows. Years later, the scientists found that those who had eaten sourdough during the time of COVID-19 were immune and could only conduct random acts of love and kindness for their fellow planet-sharing neighbors. The teenagers started baking and feeding all the forgotten people that didn't have access to the bread, or even to enough food. The eaters and bread believers were able to save the others, even the gluten intolerant. (Little joke there...about tolerance...okay yeah, bad taste...add butter).

Now my husband is actually nursing some starter. I mean, yeah, what is anyone doing with those "to go" cup lids right now anyway? 

As I scrub the starter drips off my old cabinets, I begin to think there is a distant cousin to sourdough starter that Gene Rodenberry discovered back in the late '60s. See the resemblance?

The Horta on the mining planet. I can't get the starter drips OFF my cabinets or floor! No kill I. 

No matter what we do, we have to keep playing for change, with change. I wish you luck and reslience in your effots to ride the waters of change right now without being crushed by them. Every time I listen to this video, my heart bursts with joy and gratitude!

Till I reach my highest ground
No one's gonna bring me down
Oh no
Till I reach my highest ground
Don't you let nobody bring you down (they'll sho 'nuff try)
God is gonna show you higher ground
He's the only friend you have around