I believe all writers are listeners and watchers from an early age. What we listen to and watch possibly shapes the kind of fiction we will write. I thought about elaborating on this, but my words began to sound almost judgmental. I don’t want them to be. I think any artist’s path has its own reason that isn’t mine to judge.
In my work in progress, I have two listeners and two watchers. I didn’t intend for it to be that way, it happened organically. I try to step aside and let them travel their own paths, too. This is one of the surprises and satisfactions of rewriting a thirty-year-old manuscript. I have learned, and that’s better for them.
From The Relax Deck, I pulled the “Freeing Time” card:
Many of us live as slaves to time: rushing off to work, then hurrying home again, with precious little free time to do anything else. We should remember, though, that seconds, minutes, and hours are illusory, for the clock is a human invention. On weekends and during time away from work, take off your watch and do things as and when you wish. This will allow your body to re-establish its natural rhythm and make you feel more relaxed.
Can’t help it that this makes me laugh. Replace “take off your watch” with “put down your phone.” Then someone remind me: What are weekends?
I was attracted to this stone at Body Mind and Soul. I picked it up and saw the label “healerite.” New to me, but all good. I like healer stones and crystals.
Later, when I researched it, I found that the stone is a lime green serpentine used for regeneration, luck, and healing. It’s supposed to help with emotional stress.
Needed it!
I highly recommend that you follow your instinct when picking up or buying gems, stones, and crystals. Get the names if you can, or search online sites for photos that will help you identify them. Even if you know the name, follow up with a little research and contemplate the stone’s purpose in your life.
Don’t forget to clear and clean your stones and crystals! There is ample information online to do that, too. (And Body Mind and Soul will give them a quick clearing as you purchase them if you want them to. LOVE that store so much.)
I can’t stand the edgy feeling the bookcases in the living room are causing me another day. It’s time to arrange the books properly. Top two shelves on the left: complete.
Otherwise, the great fiction alphabetization has begun.
…a few hours later, ETA: BOOM! Done.
Gay and Lesbian, Rock and Roll, Mystery, Science Fiction, Religion, Philosophy, Politics, Metaphysical and Healing. Order has returned to my Universe.
…and the next day I realized I must have been listening to too much hippie music, because my Mystery shelves were not organized AT ALL. FIXED NOW.
Funny that mysteries use only one bookcase plus a tiny bit on the top shelf of the next bookcase. It’s because I have dozens, especially in series, on my Nook as ebooks instead of owning hard copies. Plus all my Stephanie Plum mysteries are in the library and not in the living room. They now take up more than a shelf by themselves.
I don’t know why this button makes me laugh so hard, but so be it.
Early afternoon one day, Jim and I were sitting in the office drinking coffee and talking when I spotted a female cardinal under one of our trees. Jim turned around to watch for her and was rewarded by the sight of her mate in his gorgeous redness. He’d never seen a cardinal “in person,” so hey, Houndstooth Hall is like a nature preserve. (We won’t talk about the sighting of the palmetto bug about the size of the cardinal…)
The day we went to Body Mind & Soul, I was studying the shelves of Tarot and other cards to see if anything caught my eye–and the animal spirit guide deck did. There was an open box for interested shoppers, and when I turned the deck over, the card on top was the Cardinal. Jim and I locked surprised eyes; Debby spotted an unopened deck; and Jim made a gift of it to me. Now I need to learn how to read and lay out this deck in my leisure time. (ha ha, leisure time, so funny)
One of the days that Jim was here, he, Debby, and I went out to lunch at another new-to-me place, House of Fries, who makes up in burger tastiness what it lacks in ambiance, proving once again that my parents were right when they stopped at unprepossessing eateries on trips because “that’s where the best food is.” While we were there, Debby said it sounded like the restaurant had hacked into my phone’s playlist, which currently leans heavily toward One Republic and Imagine Dragons (from whom I borrowed the title of this post). I told them that while Tom and I were on our trip, I realized that something I’d done to the phone had muted the sound on the car stereo, and Tom said, “It’s okay. We just missed a lot of Coldplay.” Shortly after that story, the restaurant played “Viva la Vida,” so maybe Debby was right. Thieves!
Among other things we did that afternoon was visit our favorite Body Mind & Soul. It’s a seductive store for me because of its serene atmosphere and the beauty of everything there and how invitingly it’s displayed. I want to BUY BUY BUY. As long as I can find one item that entices me and focus on it, I’m usually safe. This time it was a lovely selenite wand in a pencil shape. First, I love pencils, and second, I love the look and feel of this delicate form of gypsum. And I love that when I bought it, the woman checking me out took out her chime (a somewhat larger version of my own) and cleared the crystal. No merchant has ever done that for me before. Nice touch, BM&S!
There are lots of places to read more about the metaphysical properties of selenite on the Internet–GOOGLE IS YOUR FRIEND. For me, it’s already started being a self-soothing tool for excessive tension in my neck and shoulders and a thankfully brief headache.
I guess this post is sort of a thank you note to Selene, Greek goddess of the full moon, for lending her name and energy to selenite. I do love the moon. And I love the memory of shopping with Debby and Jim.
“Some days it felt like she had to work hard not to be cynical. It could be that she was tired to the bone. It could be that she never felt surprised by people any more. She’d had many years to see the best and worst of them, but it was their predictability, finally, that had worn her down.
Still, every night around dusk, she took the tools of her profession to the same spot outside the fenced park where the vendors gathered to wait for the tourists. She set up her table and covered it with the beautiful cloth a friend had brought from her travels in India decades before. The colors had dimmed, but in the light cast by the period street lamps and her candles, that didn’t matter. The fabric was just exotic enough to lend authenticity to the service she offered.
She placed her crystals and wands strategically on the table and took her cards from their scrap of silk. A stick of nag champa and a cleansing ritual, and she was ready for business. Until the first clients came, she could observe at leisure. She noticed the skateboarder, whose name she didn’t know, and his dog Milly. Some of the others didn’t like the skateboarders, but she’d long ago stopped being quite so precious about the marketplace. Skateboarders, musicians, beggars, shamans, or charlatans–there was room for all of them. Besides, Milly was a beautifully behaved dog and her young man was always polite. His eyes were intelligent and had a bit of mischief. As far as she was concerned, the world needed a little less meanness and a little more mischief.
Behind her, on the other side of the little park, she heard the cellist and the violinist begin. She closed her eyes for just a moment, breathing in whatever good energy there was, and then heard a sound she’d never thought to hear again, certainly not in the middle of the city. She tried to process the clamor of people’s reactions to what they’d heard, then opened her eyes just as the skateboarder and Milly hurried by. He tossed her a pouch and said, ‘Hold on to that until I find you again.’
She felt a moment of confusion and then, magnificently, wonder. The night was suddenly full of surprise.”
From Spyro’s novel Scorpio’s Deck.
I take photos. I write. My volunteer job is taking photos of rescued dogs and cats transported by the rescue group whose records I manage. Since working and volunteering don’t leave me a lot of time to write, I’m spending 2017 borrowing from what these dogs and cats are writing. They said it’s okay.
How is it possible that in all the times I’ve been to New Orleans, I never knew about the French Quarter Gem and Lapidary? Tom and I stumbled into it by accident. Actually, we didn’t stumble into it. We found it and I pressed my nose against the glass kid/candy store style, and I think they opened a few minutes early to stop me from drooling on their window.
Seriously, if you love stones and crystals, do NOT miss this place when you’re in New Orleans. The staff is wonderful, the merchandise is amazing, and the jewelry they make is extraordinary. I could have stayed there all day and been happy. Tom and I came away with a couple of new friends to take with us on vacation.
