Vday 2009

I am taking a pause to think about Love on this day.

I have felt the Love this year...
Love in hope and hope in Love at Obama's inauguration.

and today on Vday I feel the Love from my family, my friends
I feel Love in the creation a new Cosm at upstate NY, my home ions ago.

A friend of mine from college sent this saying:

Love comes when manipulation stops;
when you think more about the other person
then about his or her reactions to you.
When you dare to reveal yourself fully.
When you dare to be vulnerable.

Dr. Joyce Roberts

There is something about Maya

Photo above: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/photocredit/achievers/ang0-007

Photo below: http://www.mercurynews.com ((AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File))

There is magic in dem words.

There is liquid truth that seeps slowly into my being and bewitches me.

I am reading Maya Angelou's collected biographies once again. The first time I read them, I was a young college student still trying to master the English language. Maya's powerful prose was more inviting than intimidating, reassuring me that being a woman is a universal experience. She is a powerful teacher and her lessons come within her personal stories, 

her wisdom flows like comfort food for a hungry heart – mine.

Once again I find myself drawn to her voice, 

unable to put the book down - a whopping 1000+ pages of pure Maya gold.

Thank you, Phenomenal Woman!

Phenomenal Woman Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them,  They think I'm telling lies. I say, It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. I walk into a room Just as cool as you please, And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees. Then they swarm around me, A hive of honey bees. I say, It's the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Men themselves have wondered What they see in me. They try so much But they can't touch My inner mystery. When I try to show them They say they still can't see. I say, It's in the arch of my back, The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Now you understand Just why my head's not bowed. I don't shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing It ought to make you proud. I say, It's in the click of my heels, The bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, The need of my care, 'Cause I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Maya Angelou

OBAMA !!!!!

Reading in the tropics

I have managed to gobble down a few books since I arrived.

- "Equador" by Miguel Sousa Tavares was very appropriate for a first reading in the tropics and a much appreciated trip in time back to our years in S. Tome.
Although I had not read anything in Portuguese since "Budapeste" by Chico Buarque in 2005, the language was practically irrelevant for me here so easy was the flow of this book.

- "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith was a delight indeed. I had no expectations for this book and was very pleased with the gracious and witty Mma Precious Ramotswe the first lady detective in Botswana. I am looking forward to reading the other books in these series.

- The next book on conspiracies was an eye opener. A little full of facts and figures that were a little boring but their connection of the real stargate with the shamanic practice was just down my alley. I now want to read Jeremy Narby's "A Cosmic Serpent".

A New Life

We are finally here and I am connected again to this cosmic web.

A new life, a new world !!!
It is all so new but it feels so familiar as if it was meant to be,
a place already visited in dreams.

Sekondi, a small village 4 hours from the capital Accra,
a far contrast from "chichi froufrou" Scottsdale Arizona
without the material wealth but with a rich soul.

Let this rainbow be a sign of the myriad of possibilities that awaits us here.

Phenomenon

I am reading "Shaman, Healer, Sage" by A. Villoldo. 

I decided that I want to read all his books in the order that he wrote them. After "The Four Winds" and "Return to the Island of the Sun" which are about his personal journey, this book is more of a summary of the teachings he received while on that journey.

I am fascinated by the similarities between the Inka's perception of the Energy "body" and the Indian, Tibetan teachings as well. Although the later mention 7 chakras, the Inkas go a step further in describing the 8th and 9th chakras.

I took a break from the book to watch a movie and I have since watched two that somewhat related to what I have been reading ... weird coincidence. 

The first, "Phenomenon", is about an ordinary man that starts perceiving the energy that connects us all after being struck by a flash of light and as a result starts having extraordinary powers, it turns out that he has a large tumor in his brain, nonetheless, he becomes a deeply spiritual being that honors the connection between all things.

"Youth without Youth" is Coppola's latest movie which drew a lot of not so positive reviews but that I enjoyed without fully understanding it. There is are a myriad of metaphysical subjects including time travel, transmigration of souls, the ego or double ... and a lot more interwoven as in a dream where:

 - "the king dreams that he is a butterfly dreaming that it is a king ..."

(Image: Stock photography - Chakra, Wheel of Life with silhouette of woman in lotus position"

Calabaceira

This fruit that I sucked and had as juice and  "fresquinhas" in my childhood has made it out of the cob webbed corners of my memory and into the limelight !

Scientifically known as adansonia digitata, and commonly known as baobab tree, calabaceira, imbondeiro, this fruit is now being paraded around the EU as a "super food"- high in antioxidants, twice as much calcium them milk, 6 times more vitamin C then oranges ... and the list goes on.

This new found celebrity food will soon be featured in smoothies and cereal bars and appear in your supermarket as jam. (BBC article).

Well, no surprise here. 

Our environment contains all the nutritious foods required for our survival, and if the dry areas of Africa where most of these baobab trees are found have such "miracle" food, it's because those areas do not have diets consisting of a glass of milk or fresh OJ for breakfast !!!!

Viva calabaceira !!! 

Well and veludo, jambre, cinbron whose scientific

 names I am still trying to find out.

For more great foods of Africa check out the series: Lost Crops of Africa II at The National Academies Press (with lots of free books online by the way)