Should a Goddess Divest?

Should a Goddess Divest?

by RM Allen, 10/22/2013

The scene:

The prep school has a 1.1 billion dollar endowment fund. Tom Steyer, an alum from 1975 (who is worth 1.4 billion) visited one morning to speak to students and trustees to ask them to divest from fossil fuels. Tom said “climate change is the biggest issue of our times”, and “we are being kicked around by the fossil fuel companies.” That night the school hosted a panel discussion.

The players:

On the panel were: a trustee, the student council president, two activists from 350.org, and an environmental lawyer. The school president moderated. Many students and teachers attended. The panelists spoke for and against divestment for 45 minutes, then audience questions were taken. I brought my notebook.

The viewpoints:

Trustee: He has presided over many green projects at the school and in personal life. Feels same as Harvard “endowments should be used towards the mission of educating the students, not as social leverage”.  They have 28 funds with average yield of 8%. He does not believe they can find 28 fossil-free funds, and that the yield would drop if they did. A large part of endowment is specifically designated to fund financial aid, thus would impact students.

Student Council President: Feels it a moral imperative to do something. A financial aid recipient herself. Does not want financial aid impacted. Feels school should affect change through other pursuits such as funding clean energy projects.

350.org Reps: Ask trustees for freeze on further fossil fuel investments. Ask to divest over a period of five years. Divestment goal not for the financial impact to fossil fuel companies, but part of a broader strategy of creating a social movement to affect political change. Rogue industry has outrageous business model and must be stopped. Risks of inaction may be catastrophic, this is the moral thing to do.

Environmental Lawyer: Must begin transition to clean energy, we are all consumers. Industry is not paying for their externalities. Industry lobbyists undermine, erode, or squelch every law and bill via deep pockets. Divestment is a small but shrewd blow to the industry, eroding its credibility and removing its social license.

Students and Teachers: Why teach us to be moral citizens, funded by possibly immoral activities? Tom said this morning we could get similar yields from other funds. Can school prepare report on exactly how much invested in fossil fuels for later discussion?

Bottom-line: What Should a Goddess Do?

My Goddess sisters, there are many valid points in this debate. But Mother Nature says DIVEST, and she says it in the form of weather and crops. Begin now. Look into sustainable funds like PAX and transition your life to carbon-neutral in five years. Stand up for your inner Goddess. Your grandchildren will thank you.

Mother Nature says DIVEST from fossil fuels
Mother Nature says DIVEST from fossil fuels

A Goddess Goes to the “Common Ground” Fair

Orgasmagical Note: Sept COMMON GROUND Fair edition

 

SIMPLY: Green, Artsy, & Spiritual fun

 September 2013: COMMON GROUND Fair Edition

Happy Autumn Equinox my goddess sisters!

Green: Any Goddess within 200 miles of Unity, Maine must attend the annual MOGFA.org  “Common Ground” Fair in September at the equinox featuring: Herb Tent, Political Action Tent, Solar Zone, Livestock Zone, Farmer’s Market Zone, Fiber Zone, and way more! Here is the map/website http://www.mofga.org/TheFair/Areas/tabid/105/Default.aspx. So packed with crowds on Saturday, try going on a Friday instead in 2014.

Artsy: Most beautiful fruit at the fair was the Moon and Stars Watermelon. Van Gogh would be thrilled! Pictured here.http://parkseed.com/moon-stars-watermelon-seeds/p/05481-PK-P1/  I am going to try to grow some next summer.

Spiritual: September 22 begins our descent into the darker, more restful days when you can get a lot of spiritual reading done by the warming fires. After we finish up the harvest that is!! Yesterday I cleared off the tomato plants, and took many green ones too. I got a whole red wagon full!  Summer ends, the harvest begins to be pickled and canned, and extras  given away. Zeus and I went to a great Fermentation/ Kraut workshop at the fair by kraut guru Sandor Ellix Katz. Here is his wildly popular website and  book. http://www.wildfermentation.com/

wagon donation to food pantry 2013

CAPTION: Wagon load of extra veggies donated to food pantry!

Keep on growing, goddesses!! 

RM Allen, author of NH Goddess Chronicles series

 

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How to get the books! $14.95 at Amazon.com New Hampshire Goddess Chronicles: Light Your Torch (vol.1)or New Hampshire Goddess Chronicles: Scorpion in the Desert (vol. 2), Water Street Books in Exeter, Circles of Wisdom in Andover, (to write a check email info@nhgoddess.com)…..  or only $2.99 on Kindle (vol.1) or(vol. 2)

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All Kale the Goddess

All Kale the Goddess

Dec 2012 by RM Allen, author of The NH Goddess Chronicles series

kale salad recipe goddessKale. What is that weird cousin of lettuce, all gnarly and rubbery and atomic green? Tracey Miller knows. Last summer, Tracey gave me a big bundle of fresh kale and said it was super good for me. I am not much of a cook, and this was the first time I ever held raw kale in my hands. How should I prepare it?  I looked up a recipe for kale chips online, and made them. I was addicted. They tasted and crunched like a bag of thin chips. But they are really good for you. Imagine that, guilt-free chips!

I ate the whole bundle in one sitting. It was like eating the whole bag of chips, which I have always wanted to do.

Last month, Tracey invited me to sit in on a cooking class she and Kathy Gallant were giving at Kathy’s all local food restaurant, the Blue Moon Evolution in Exeter. (Last time I was in a cooking class was in Home-Economics at Essex Elementary in the 1970’s.)  Posters around town had notified me that Tracey was running a cooking series for moms this fall as part of her FoodAndHealthForum.com series. I didn’t know quite what that night’s class was about or how skilled the attendees were supposed to be. So I wore my apron there, to at least look like I had a clue coming through the door. It turns out I didn’t have to actually cook, just watch. And eat. Yay! One of the dishes was a kale salad. All dressed up and delicious. All hail the goddess Kale!!

The next cooking class in Tracey’s Food and Health Forum is about eating healthy for the holidays and is on December 3rd, 2012 at the Blue Moon Evolution. You can still sign up. This year she ran all cooking classes in the forum. Last year she and Kathy brought in national speakers for the forum, who spoke on topics like food GMO, monoculture farming, and the local food movement. The speakers present, and afterwards you all eat a locavore meal together and chat. I attended the one by Ben Hewitt, author of The Town That Food Saved, and I was particularly struck by his words about raw milk. One of the best parts about attending any of the events in the forum is the people that you meet there. Tracey and Kathy are providing a forum for like minded people to get together and exchange ideas around holistic wellness; personal, societal, and global. Rock on sister goddesses, I salute you!

Recently I have been purchasing kale at Market Basket from the same company I buy my bags of baby spinach from. Actually, Olivia’s brand comes in a large plastic tub, and she now offers baby kale. Baby kale is a lot easier for the average person to understand. It is small and flexible, and attractive – kind of cute actually. You can eat it raw in salads, roast it into chips, or throw a handful in your soup. My favorite preparation so far is something easy that I bring for lunch at work sometimes: steamed chopped asparagus (cold) on a bed of baby kale, drizzled with Annie’ brand Goddess dressing (with tahini) and crisp organic smoked bacon crumbled over the top. The kale is hardier that lettuce or spinach, and can stand up to being dressed for hours without wilting too much.

Tracey and Kathy will bring next to their Food and Health Forum  a class on eating healthy for the holidays on Dec. 3rd. Check this website here to see, or to get health tips, or watch a video on how to make kale chips. All kale the goddess!

The Whey of the Goddess

The Whey of the Goddess

by RM Allen, www.nhgoddess.com   10/1/2012

“Little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet (a stool), eating her curds and whey.” We have all heard this nursery rhyme from 1805. Why would they let the poor little thing eat spoiled, stinky, curdled milk? The thought always made me gag. Thanks to the Dr. Weston A. Price.org food foundation, I have a better understanding of this now.

She was eating raw milk, not pasteurized. Live milk, not dead. Dead things stink. Live milk is still loaded with live pro-biotics, and a lot of them. Modern goddesses know that certain yogurts have pro-biotics added back into them, and we look for them in the market. Here is a general Wikipedia notation on the most common pro-biotic *:

Lactobacillus acidophilus (Latin meaning acid-loving milk-bacterium) is a species in the genus Lactobacillus. L. acidophilus is a homo-fermentative species, fermenting sugars into lactic acid, and grows readily at low pH values (below pH 5.0) and has an optimum growth temperature of around  99 °F.[1] L. acidophilus occurs naturally in the human and animal gastrointestinal tract, mouth, and vagina.[2]

If this good gut pro-biotic bacterium occurs naturally in us, then why do we need more? Because we have killed them off with bad-gut guys in these days of processed foods and anti-biotic drugs. There is a war in your belly, and insidiously it crawls like a spider to other places and pops up in many disguises, like auto-immune and inflammation. It would seem that food is the root cause. But never fear, because we goddess have the mega-goddess Miss Muffet and her secret weapon: whey. Go Miss Muffet!

How can you get whey, and what will you do with it? Simple! Here is how I do it.

Go to a health food store, or even the organic aisle of the market, and get some raw yogurt. Get a small funnel, line it with a cone shaped coffee filter, and rest it in a deep coffee cup or jar. Spoon in raw yogurt, and cover with a loose lid of sorts. Leave in your fridge for a night or two. In the morning, you have curds and whey. Curds? Think Chobani, think cheesecake, think yum. Fold this thick curd out of the coffee filter and spoon some fresh fruit or real maple syrup over it. Or put it in a bowl and mix it with garlic or bacon bits for a cracker spread. Yum.

But even better is the liquid whey left in the cup. There are hundreds of uses!   In In this cup in your fridge, is an elixir of health known by all traditional peoples for thousands of years for lacto-fermenting food. Do not be afraid of the word ferment (I was). Here is what Wikipedia says in general:

Food fermentation has been said to serve five main purposes:[11]

  • Enrichment of the diet through development of a diversity of flavors, aromas, and textures in food substrates
  • Preservation of substantial amounts of food through lactic acid, alcohol, acetic acid, and alkaline fermentations
  • Biological enrichment of food substrates with protein, essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, and vitamins
  • Elimination of anti-nutrients
  • A decrease in cooking time and fuel requirement

Naturally preserve, enrich, and detox your food with this innocent looking whey you now have in a cup! (Simple – and y’all know I love Simple.)

It is powerful simple science for you and your family. Soak grains in water with 2 T whey overnight to remove anti-nutrients that contribute to Celiac’s and make the grains more easily digestible and bio-available. Same with legumes. Add a splash to soups to draw out nutrients. Preserve carrots, krauts, beets and more. Conjure up cordials and spirits. There is a deep spirituality in your relationship with food. Honor, cherish, and obey. It is the Whey of the Goddess.

*(When you are ready for a wealth of documented scientific info, begin here at WAPF:  http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/enjoying-little-miss-muffets-curds-and-whey  )

RM Allen is the author of the New Hampshire Goddess Chronicles, a fun and informative series of goddess guidebooks swirling spirituality, simplicity, and sustainability back into women’s bodies  – one goddess at a time. http://www.nhgoddess.com

It’s Time To Make the Triple Goddess Elixir of Beltane.

Beltane is just an eyelash away.

One Beltane 21 years ago, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl with rosebud lips.

This Beltane will be the first time that I no longer share a roof with my baby girl (and her sister too). The boat of the Crone has come through the mist to stop on my once comfy shore, where my old home is now too big for me, thus niggles me with daily discomfort. The Crone asks me to embark. I get in the boat, and she pushes it away from the shore. I cry for a long time. She silently guides the boat onward.

We land, and somehow there is only one of us in the boat. She is me, I am her, the Crone. But I am still the Mother that I once was too. And I am still the Maiden I was once as well. I am a triple goddess now, and it is jarring: I don’t know what to do, what to think, even how to be. The first page of this new chapter throws my off balance. My mind lays fallow and I just breathe.

The three of me ascend up to a small loft with a crimson wall. A wooden Buddha sits quietly, bathed in the crimson. He looks up at me, and smiles. The loft feels like a red tent temple, nested in a canopy of maple trees. The salt lamp in the corner casts a warm glow, as does the wood stove over by the small couch. A fancy stainless steel electric tea kettle hums on the kitchenette counter, its electric blue “on” switch twinkling at me like one shiny blue eye. Through a French door awaits a tiny white bedroom with sheer white curtains that barely diffuse the southern sun. An inviting puddle of sunlight spills across the white down comforter on the small bed. An egg-shaped moonstone rests on the nightstand. I hear it whisper to me “Welcome home.”

Outside in the driveway, there sits the little silver car of the man that owns this property. The license plate reads “Zeus.”

So this is where the next chapter begins. I like it!

+++++

Quick -Beltane 2012 is an eyelash away: it is time to make the Triple Goddess Elixir of Beltane! Attached is herbalist Susun Weed’s recipe for a spring vinegar for women. I am going to use it on my salads this summer. (It is actually an ancient Chinese recipe that calls for maiden/chickweed, mother-wort, and crone-wort, and apple cider vinegar – see attached recipe sheet, or go to http://www.susunweed.com ) I find the maiden and the crone outside my door at work, the mother I find out by Zeus’ compost pile.

The three of me are all here, and always have been. Wisdom might be setting in…

Beltane recipe

The Joy of Nettles (so what if they sting)

The Joy of Nettles (so what if they sting)

by RM Allen June 2011

I used to be scared of nettles. They hid in the tall grass and bit my ankles when I was a child, like a monster under the bed. Now I am in love with nettles. Especially the sting. I seek it out. I linger with it like a fine wine.

In early June I went to herbalist Rosemary Gladstar’s Sage Mountain Center for a class on identifying wild plants, and then cooking them in the kitchen. My official term for this is foraging. How I love to forage! I drove all the way to Vermont for this class to hone my foraging skills. Of course it rained… but that was ok because it kept the black flies away. Did you think foraging was easy? It is more like a booby-trapped game of hide-and-seek; one has to be up for the challenge, with all the necessary gear and knowledge.

Rosemary is a sweet, small woman with long dark hair, and is known as the “godmother of American herbalism”. This rainy afternoon she was imparting her knowledge to a group of 25 of us aspiring herbalist or foragers, who had journeyed from all around the New England region. She stood in a yellow plastic rain poncho, bright yellow rain boots with a rooster print, and a delightful crayola purple felted cap that came to a jaunty point at the top of her head. This pixie hat then trailed down in several strands from the point, past her slim shoulders, where they ended in colorful pom-poms. She looked for all the world like a woodland sprite as she flitted through the mountain woods at the edge of her yard with glee, informing us (such a wet, grey, and bedraggled group) of the names and stories of a great many of my weedy friends.

I have weedy friends already because this is not my first time around the block on what is called a weed-walk. I have been on guided walks with my local herbalist Rebecca Ross of NH, Wild Foods I have Known…and Eaten author Russ Cohen of MA, and famed American herbalist Susun Weed of Woodstock,NY. Each time my knowledge grows. On this particular walk I really wanted to see Rosemary’s nettle patch. And lo, what joy -it was a beauty! A circular patch, about the size of my living room, flowed from the edge of her driveway, and down the hill off into the woods. I immediately walked over, bent down, and thrust my wrist into it. I was on a mission to get stung, and get stung good. Why?

Because the sting of the nettle (it feels like a small bee sting) causes a rush and a flush of blood. Blood rushing to an area cleans it out and supplies it with fresh nutrients. The stung area will rise into a small welt, itch for a while, buzz for hours, and still be a little sore in the morning. Which is all good, because you know it is working. It helps swollen joints, and my wrist tends to be sore from too much mousing on the computer at work. I managed to get about a half dozen welts, and I could feel the blood rushing in. Yay! Mission accomplished.

Thus stung, we moved into the kitchen for the cooking class, and guess what? Nettle was the food of the day. Are you surprised at this? Why would one want to eat a food that stings? Are foragers crazy thrill seekers? No. (Well maybe a little.)What happens is that the stinging goes away in the cooking. The nettle has a line of very fine and soft hairs under the leaves and along the stem. It is not the hair that stings, it is the acid droplets on the hair.

cooking nettles
John, RM Allen, and Rosemary Gladstar in her teaching kitchen!

Rosemary stood in a teaching kitchen that reminded me of Julia Child’s set up, and assisted by her apprentice John, brought out a huge basket of nettle tips. She dumped them into a blender and made nettle pesto (she called it Nesto) the same exact way one would make basil pesto. I really was afraid that since it wasn’t technically cooked I would get stung in my mouth, or at the very least feel a slight numbness, but I did not. The taste was out of this world! She also cooked up: a thick stew of nettle, onion, garlic and potato; a nettle, cheese, buckwheat and wild herb casserole; wild herbs and ginger spring rolls; dandelion and rice seaweed wraps; and also chopped up all sorts of weeds and tossed them into a giant bowl of traditional salad greens. We feasted!

Nettles are one of the best things you can ingest. They are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and amino acids – and exceptionally rich calcium and vitamin A. Ancient Roman records show that nettle was the most widely cultivated crop in the empire. It is still a cultivated crop in many parts of the world. Not only is it a powerhouse food, but the durable stalks can be used to weave ropes or clothing. Indeed, you can eat your food and wear it too! The soft tips are the yummy part, and those can usually only be had in early spring. Otherwise, you can get dried nettles and make a strong tea to reap the benefits all year round. Or you can chop fresh nettles in season, add a little water, and keep them in the freezer.

As it is early spring and prime nettle time, I foraged around back home here in NH to try to find some growing in the wild. And I did! Only three plants, not sure it rates official “patch” status, but I know where they are and I will keep them safe. Joyfully, I will occasionally pay a visit to my hairy friends, and get a wrist flogging. Let me know if you need a flogging too, and we will oblige. Isn’t that what friends are for?

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Hello sister goddeses! If you enjoyed this blog please sign up for my monthly (small & simple) Green Goddess Orgasmagical eNewsletter by sending me a note to say hi   info@nhgoddess.com  Thanks! ~RM Allen

Respect The Pie (excerpt from New Hampshire Goddess Chronicles)

The intersection of spirituality and sustainability
The book cover

Respect the Pie

by RM Allen

(excerpt straight out of my 2011 book, New Hampshire Goddess Chronicles, available at www.nhgoddess.com)

Well, that was quite the spiritual experience. But I would not call it religious. Religion seems such an outdated word to me, full of dogma and rules. Religion is like a pie, and true spirituality/love is the sacred space in the center of the pie. That is my philosophy.

You don’t understand? Well, let me expand! Simply put, imagine a pie cut into pieces and still warm in the baking dish. The many, many slices represent Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Native American Spiritualism, Wicca, and etc., ad infin. Then there are the folks who find it own their own through Perennialism, or a twelve-step program like AA or by having a near death experience, or maybe a freaky out-of-body-experience. They are all slices too. And let us not forget the fence-sitters who say, “I don’t know what it is, but there is something out there.” They are a slice too, as undefined as they are. At the very center of the pie, all the pieces touch. That is the sameness. Right where the pieces touch, this is what they all have in common. What is the common factor?

Recognition of a benevolent creative force.

In other words: recognition of Love/Energy. This benevolent creative force is all you need. It goes by many names: God, Allah, Buddha, Awareness, Spirit, Magic, “Something out there,” etc. Forget about all the other tasty and various pieces of the pie with their singular crusts. The crusty ends can get caught up in dogma, discrimination, arguments and wars. At the very center, at the warm core, all slices aim are the same thing, they all meld into one. They all come from the same place. Love is the center. Why not skip the human imposed dogma, and the various holy texts and names, and get right to the heart of it? 

Respect the Benevolent-Creative-Force pie, but stay away from the crusty edges and head for the softly vibrating center. Each slice of pie is a different path to walk to arrive at the same spiritual destination. None is the only way, none is the wrong way. Each slice does work in its own way, if you walk that path to the sacred space in your heart, honestly and openly.

Walking to the center of each slice brings you to love, which gifts you with peaceful personal heaven/enlightenment.

True spirituality is love energy. Simple.

John Lennon was damn right when he said “All you need is Love.” 

(and now a worksheet for you to ponder) 

*TORCH TIME 2: Use your flame to bake a pie. Gather only the finest ingredients. Create your own orgasmagical recipe:

Meet the goddess: Nemetona is the Celtic goddess of Sacred Spaces. Make your own sacred space both inside and outside your heart. This is the oven where you will bake your beautiful pie. Go to that softly vibrating place often. 

1. What slice of the religion pie is yours, if any?

______________________________________________________

Are you happy with your piece of the pie? __________________________________________________

2. If you could change it, what would it look like? Write three traits of your custom religion pie.

___________________________________________________

3. List three small steps your inner goddess can do now to remake your current piece of the pie into something warm and delicious.

_______________________________________________________

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Hello sister goddeses! If you enjoyed this blog please sign up for my monthly (small & simple) Green Goddess Orgasmagical eNewsletter by sending me a note to say hi   info@nhgoddess.com  Thanks! ~RM Allen, author (www.nhgoddess.com)

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Carbon-Climate Zombie or How Will Your Life look at $10/gallon?

Carbon-Climate Zombies
By RM Allen, www.nhgoddess.com

Bill McKibbon stood head and shoulders above me. Literally. He is a tall man, and I am a short woman. I stood on my tiptoes for this photo! But Bill also stands head and shoulders above most people in terms of climate change knowledge. In terms of climate change knowledge and dissemination, he is a global giant. He has written many books on the subject, and has mobilized many to heed his call to action via his website www.350.org
In May 2011, I went to the first annual New England regional UCC “Green” Conference in CT, in which Bill was the keynote speaker. Here is Bill’s message, in a nutshell:
There is 390ppm Carbon in the atmosphere now, rising 2ppm annually. The recommended level is 350.
Carbon is saturating the air from our poor industrial habits (food, transportation, waste, etc), combined with deforestation (trees absorb Carbon)
The extra Carbon in the air makes it moister; this destabilizes the 350ppm climate as we have known it for the past 10K years, and results in frequent extreme weather incidents (droughts. floods, winds, hail, etc)
The Carbon air also makes the planet hotter; we are now 1 degree hotter than the past 10K years. This measly 1 degree makes polar caps melt, which makes it way to you in increased sea levels. Meaning that houses and even entire island countries will be underwater in 10 years or less (see Maldives)
Because of the big problems with violent weather and rising waters, we are seeing the beginning of interruptions in services like power, food, and goods & services. Nothing like a drought/flood/hurricane/ tornado/tsunami to wipe out your crop or throw your nuke plant offline or crush your house and highway.
Hmmm, this all sound dire, and it is. But as you sit there reading this, you personally are thinking you are still OK and everything seems fine to you -well unless you live near devastations like Fukushima, or Katrina’s New Orleans, or in a recent Southern tornado zone. But it is coming closer to you. Yes, like a crazy zombie from a bad horror film it will just keep coming no matter what you shoot at it. Big Oil and their paid puppet, the US (not your local) Chamber of Commerce, will keep the carbon-climate-zombie coming so they can make record profits.
I think about myself. I haven’t been affected, have I? Well, the hundred year flood did come twice to Exeter in the past few years. I had to dig a swale to divert the river that suddenly appeared in my backyard. My car did suffer $7K damage during a freak hailstorm in Exeter, NH a few years ago. I saw the hail. They were the size of softballs. They sounded like a freight train, and then I also heard glass breaking everywhere in the house.  It sent me running into a closet in the basement, where a nervously farting Boston Terrier joined me.
That was a small local disaster in NH, but what about global disasters? Have they affected me? Now that I come to think of it, yes. The earthquake/tsunami in Japan has reached me in the form of delays, as various messages on my computer tell me. How odd. I didn’t even know I had a Japanese connection. I am more global than I thought.
What else do I not realize about where I get everyday items? Can you say Big Agra? What would happen if there were a carbon-climate-zombie induced drought in the middle of this country? Interruptions in my food supply. There would still be food, but the price would skyrocket. What would happen if the carbon-climate-zombie ate up the big electricity grid which powers my condo? Again, there would still be power eventually, but the price would skyrocket. What about Peak Oil? (Peak Oil is the notion that the glory days of finding/using oil are over and we are on the decline of supply- but the producers will not tell you, they will only jack up the price. What will your life look like at $7, or $10 a gallon?) Combine oil interruptions with Peak Oil, and you have gone Mad Max. And this math only works with a planet that is 1 measly degree hotter. Double all of it when we reach 2 degrees: at 3 degrees it is Planet of the Apes vs. Mad Max!
So, what to do in the face of this carbon-climate-zombie that won’t stop coming until he has eaten you up? The answer is simple. Very simple. And healthy for you on many levels: physically, emotionally, spiritually, and economically. And actually kinda fun!
The answer is to go local. Be green, which is the same thing as going local. Support local food, local power, local communities, and local businesses. Work and shop where you live. Save gas. Slow way down on your beef & pork consumption: buy from local farmers. Meet your neighbors and make friends. In this way both you and your community become resilient when the carbon-climate-zombie comes banging on your door. And being green & local, and transitioning to a more self-supporting economy will actually keep us from heating up the planet further. That’s a win-win that sounds good to a green goddess like me!
I don’t’ really know what to do more than I am doing right now, but I am going to look on this website that Bill and his Massachusetts Transition trainer friend Tina Clarke suggested www.TransitionUS.org  I suggest you look too, or even buy the book “The Transition Handbook” which shows you how to go from oil dependency to local resilience. A book that shows us how to use our own creativity to swim through a big bowl of ugly and get to the boom shaka-lucky side!

Stay tuned…

*****

Hello sister goddeses! If you enjoyed this blog please sign up for my monthly (small & simple) Green Goddess Orgasmagical eNewsletter by sending me a note to say hi   info@nhgoddess.com  Thanks! ~RM Allen, author (www.nhgoddess.com)

The Translucent Path 2011

The Translucent Path

by RM Allen, 2011 www.nhgoddess.com

Greetings sister goddesses!

Have you ever sat one full year with a single word and explored every aspect of it? I did, and you can read it here! Below is the text of my article in the Apr/May edition of Inner Tapestry.  The style of writing is very similar to that of my book; The New Hampshire Goddess Chronicles. Later I will post excerpts from the book, but for now, check this out!

Enjoy!

RM Allen

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My poetic friend, Tara Wrobel, wrote an inspiring piece, A Meeting of Opposing Ways, about two paths meeting in the woods. One path was her private self, what gave her joy but she hid from others, and the other her public self. She stood at the point where the two paths met and felt the emergence into her authentic self.

Another path was written about by poet Robert Frost he wrote in his The Road Not Taken: “ two paths diverged the woods, and I – I took the one less traveled by.” Most of us are familiar with Frost’s taking the authentic path, and all the difference it made for him.

Then there is also the long brown path made famous by the poet Walt Whitman, a man who was in touch with his Divine Feminine. This “long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose” is featured in his spectacular Song of the Open Road, which has been a favorite of mine for many years. I like to think of Whitman’s brown path as a metaphor for life. As I progress on my own orgasmagical spiritual journey. I visualize a long brown path, lit only by a goddess torch.

The goddess torch I speak of is a symbolic light, held up high, to light the way on the dark and misty path we journey to become our authentic selves. The torch illuminates hidden truths and treasures and other boom-shaka-lucky things. We are not alone on this path, no not at all. We travel with other women we meet, and sometimes men too. We are all searching for the Divine Feminine, our inner wisdom, our inner goddess. Sound familiar? The more we search on this winding path, the stronger our flickering light becomes, and the more we emerge into our authentic selves. There are many helpful tools and resources and people hidden along the way.

One of my annual tools is to pick a word-of-the-year in early January, and explore it for the next twelve months. By the end of the year I hope to be able to sum up my findings in one short sentence that rings true for my particular essence. Last year I found that Gratefulness produces abundance. The year before I found that modern day Humility is voluntary simplicity. These findings are now part of my DNA, as is anything you sit with for an extended period. My word for 2011 is Translucent. Where will it lead me?

Are you ready to pick your word-of-the-year? First you need to think about possible words for a few days. These words must be in a certain category, which is “things I am deficient in.” Ouch! Who said this was going to be easy?

Allons, let’s go. Are you ready to step onto the winding and shadowy brown path with us? Coming to light will be introspective tools and resources, hidden in the nooks and crannies of the path. Appearing will be things like; labyrinths, meditation, happy places, shamans, wise-women, herbs, books, Artist’s Way morning papers, Zentangles, prayer touchstones, spirit guides and sister goddesses. And much more! You will see what you were meant to see. And sometimes it will be scary.

Scary? Yes, you will have to face your fears head-on. For example, what are my fears if I were to walk a more translucent path, if I were to let the private me and the public me merge into one true self? I can think of a whole list of sucktastic things; fear that I would lose my job and therefore my home, fear that I would disappoint my mother by being a different religion other than that which she prefers. Fear that my boyfriend will see me as a rigid feminist and break up with me. Fear that my kids will think I am a little odd and not love me. Fear of strangers invading my private life at inappropriate moments. The list goes on.

You start by making a list, too. Then we will have the next twelve months, in between fun romps on the path, to sit and stare down these fears. They will end up irrelevant, like they always do, and in the end it will all be for the emergence of our highest and best self. And this will make the world a better place too.

But there is always that self-induced drama in the middle of the process, which is so sucktasticly uncomfortable. Why make ourselves swim through another big bowl of ugly, when things are okay as they are right now? Why? To get to the shore of outrageously-happy, of course! To rest on a driftwood log of peacefully-Zen, and breathe the clean air of at-one-with-the-Universe. To dance drenched with Belovedness and joy around the bonfire of the Divine Spirit.

Allons, ready? Come just a little closer… Whoosh! Your torch is now lit. Watch out for your hair, the sparks are flying all around us in a smiling golden shower. A most excellent characteristic about fire and light is that you can give away all you want, and you never have less for yourself. The flame of my own Divine essence now combines with yours in a celebratory dance. You are now initiated, and you emerge as a goddess of your particular Divine essence. Step boldly onto our long brown path, leading wherever you chose. Welcome! Enjoy your adventure, Beloved.

  http://www.innertapestry.org/articles/april-may-2011/820-the-translucent-path-2011.html 

RM Allen is a green goddess who lives simply in Southern New Hampshire and works in a very traditional church office in a quintessential New England village. She holds a masters degree in business communications and is on orgasmagical spiritual safari. The combination of all of the above contributes to her fun and unique writing style, which is inspiring to her sister goddesses. She is the author of The New Hampshire Goddess Chronicles from Peapod Press. Order the book for $14.95 at www.NHgoddess.com

 

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Hello sister goddeses! If you enjoyed this blog please sign up for my monthly (small & simple) Green Goddess Orgasmagical eNewsletter by sending me a note to say hi   info@nhgoddess.com  Thanks! ~RM Allen, author (www.nhgoddess.com)