The Invitation ~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for,and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul, if you can be faithless and therefore be trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it's not pretty,every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon," Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

- Oriah Mountain Dreamer,Indian Elder

The Path

* * *

If we look at the path, we do not see the sky.We are earth people on a spiritual journey to the stars.Our quest, our earth walk, is to look within, to know who we are,to see that we are connected to all things, that there is no separation, only in the mind.

-Native American, source unknown

Sky melds with water
as the day drifts into sleep
greets night in passing.

No more waxing at the Y ~ my lost post

I decided to wax my body again because I love the way my skin feels afterwards. Plus I don't have to shave for quite some time. So I intended to wax my brows, armpits, arms, legs, etc. It all went fairly well ( ok.. lol. my right arm pit was a bit painful ) . Normally ,when I shave in the summer, I shave every day. Or every other day. It's a ritual thing from the old ways. Now, in the winter, I have to remind myself to shave because I rarely wear shorts or dresses. Or maybe it is because I'm usually in an office or place of business and not outside roaming in the sunshine.
So there I am... thinking about how oddly erotic waxing can be in a slightly painful way.... when it became time to wax at the Y... my hair was fairly short so no worries there. I started at the edge of my inner thigh. OMG, the pain! LOL it came from the first and last strip of my inner thigh....STOP! STOP! Stooooooop!

It was at that time that I recalled Bear sending me a joke a few months ago about a girl going to beauty college and waxing herself . I remember lmao ... as well as recalling the first time my legs were waxed1000 years ago ( took hair, skin and almost everything from there to the bone! lol.. ok so I exaggerate a teensy bit! but the blood flowed and I couldn't wear my cowgirl boots!...)

Anyway, you'd have thought someone bit me a multiple # of times.. or gave my inner thigh hickies all the way down... looked like a river of blood ran underneath my skin...all I have to say is it freaking hurt! So... til my bruises and my memory fades..I'm going to say no more waxing at the Y! Pass me my straight razor , please! Sometimes, the old ways are best!

For winter's rains and ruins are over,
And all the seasons of snow and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossum the spring begins.

from Atalanta in Calydon
Algernon Charles Swinburne

why vegetarian ?

I choose not to eat meat, poultry, fish. That is a personal choice based on my own personal reasons. Yet, if I was going to eat meat... I would eat elk, deer, bear, antelope and moose. But , "Wait..." you say... "that is still meat. What's the difference? Meat is still meat!"

On one hand you would be right. Yet, the differences are there... and show up in the flesh.


You have just dined,
and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed
in the graceful distance of miles,
there is complicity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson "Fate", The Conduct of Life, 1860



"In the US we have big corporations that raise a lot of our meat... be it beef, poultry or pork. These animals are contained in lots, in pens; where space is a premium. These animals are kept together in cramped quarters; they often live in their feces, have unmedicated sores or other health problems, or live in cages that are stacked cage upon cage. They often live with a dead animal or two as well. Babies are weaned very early... either headed for an early death or a cage with others the same age. Animals are fed hormone- and antibiotic-fortified feed. How healthy is that for them... or for you?


The vast majority of meat, milk, and eggs in America comes from factory farms, which hardly resembles bucolic family farms many Americans envision their food comes from. Instead, they are part of ‘agribusiness,’ where animals are mass produced for the slaughter house. And in the agribusiness, financial profitability takes priority over treating animals humanely."

U.S. Congressman Jim Moran (VA), 5/20/03


Then there is the trip to the slaughter house... where animals are crammed into trailers... and only the strongest survive the trip. The weak end up as bloody masses on the trailer floor. One time, I saw this double decker trailer full of horses heading to slaughter , over turn. Have you ever heard a horse scream in pain? A foal neighing in panic only to be drowned out by the rest of the horses scrambling to get to their feet? How many broken legs? It did not really matter since as long as they had 3 they could still stand til they arrived at the slaughter house. Animals are shot in the head with a bolt that is suppose to stun them. Stun them? Maybe... but it sure doesn't stop them from feeling... horses are raised up... tied by their back leg.... throats slashed.


Captive bolt stunning – A “pistol” is set against the animal’s head and a metal rod is thrust into the brain. Shooting a struggling animal is difficult, and the rod often misses its mark.

Electric stunning – Current produces a grand mal seizure; then the throat is cut. According to industry consultant Temple Grandin, PhD, “Insufficient amperage can cause an animal to be paralyzed without losing sensibility.”

Ritual slaughter – Animals are fully conscious when their carotid arteries are cut. This is supposed to cause unconsciousness within seconds, but because of blood flow through the vertebral arteries in the back of the neck, some animals can remain conscious as they bleed for up to a minute. Additionally, Temple Grandin, PhD notes “Unfortunately, there are some plants which use cruel methods of restraint such as hanging live animals upside down.” This can cause broken bones as the heavy animal hangs by a chain attached to one leg.

Each year, large numbers of chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese reach the scalding tanks alive and are either boiled to death or drowned. How clean is that scalding water? Are they in there long enough to truly kill the germs? *

So what is the difference between domesticated animals and wild game?

Wild game lives in a natural state of being. They are not force fed drugs. They are not living their whole lives in nasty environments, or tortured on the path to death. Hunters generally shoot them and that's that. I know some hunters occasionally need to take a couple of shots. But, they do not drag out the killing. Unlike some of the people who upon slaughtering cows... often find the cows to be alive when their legs are being cut off. Good hunters are humane. And the telling difference? Is in the taste and smell of the meat.


The question is not,
Can they reason? nor,
Can they talk? but,
Can they suffer?

Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals & Legislation, 1789


*Why vegan