.:|:. Dove Love’s .:. Points and Passions .:|:.

:)

By Dove, www.TarotwithLove.com  Okay, so I’m kinda getting this idea from Oprah and her “favorite things” show, which I must admit (as much as I like Oprah), I would never invest in.  Like…  I saw a quick blip of her show recently and she had on one of her favorite lounging outfits, very pretty.  “Just” about $200 for the top, and $200 for the bottoms (as I vaguely recall).  “Do-able” she says, regarding this price tag.  LOL, uh-yeah, okay ;) 

Anyway, so I was hanging my laundry today :) and was realizing how much I like my wonderful drying rack, which I’ve had for a million years — one of my very best “investments.”  I usually just hang my “delicates” and other nice clothes on it, but I’ve recently started even hanging my towels and “grungies” — my loungewear :) — on it.  It amazes me that I can hang two full loads on this thing.  The dryers at my apartment laundry don’t work — oh, they are fully operating, they go ’round and ’round — they just don’t actually dry the clothes, lol   I’ve spent about 3 hours and $2 or $3 dollars trying to get one load dry…and still toted damp clothes back up to my apartment.   Yep, this drying rack is one of my favorite things :)  Money and time saver.

From that realization, I decided to do a little list of some of my favorite things and this can also serve as a gratitude list :)   So here ya’ go:

1)  My wonderful drying rack!  I’ve had this puppy for at least 15 years.  I used to shop from a plethora of high-quality catalogues (Spiegel, Pottery Barn, Hold Everything…) and I think I got this baby from the Hold Everything catalogue.  I think one of the many reasons I like it is, it’s cute :)  Very cute.  And that’s important to we Libra people :)  It has sort of a star shape (one of my fav symbols) — the “arms” and “legs” are true to the star shape, but no proportionate pointy “head” :)  The way I set it up (it’s adjustable), it’s about 4.5 feet high and a little over 3 feet wide (but can go much wider).  It’s what I’m assuming is enamel-coated (white) steel, because it is surely very high quality.  It still looks like new except for a bit of scraping of the coating around the “hooks” that hold the arms into place.   And, as indicated, I load it down with wet clothes, towels and such.  I put shirts and other items on hangers to make even more room — and those little rungs have held up, no bowing even after all the use.  That’s why I think it’s steel.  All the rungs still welded tight in place.  I’m pretty sure I paid about $30 for it all those years ago.  I haven’t seen it in any catalogue or elsewhere since purchasing it.  I wouldn’t sell it for 100 bucks, lol :)  Love my drying rack!  Yay! ;)

=====================

=======================

2) Cuisinart Convection Oven.  I bought it about ten years ago to wean myself off the microwave, which I gave away.  It’s wonderful.  You can bake a potato, broil some fish or other meat, cook the little frozen entrees, make toast to perfection, heat up a muffin or whatever…  I’ve lived here for three years, I’ve never used my large oven.  I sometimes forget those microwave things still exist.  After ten years, it does make a little “I’m old” noise while it’s doing its thing, heh, but I still love my little oven.

3) Okay, this is actually a recent purchase — rare for me, ’cause when I purchase, I try to make it one that I won’t have to repeat for a long, long time :)  But these little jewels are called “Klean Kantenes.”  For toting water.  I love them, for a lot of reasons.  Cute :)  And very lightweight.  I had been toting my water to work in glass (very heavy!), so this is a wonderful new thing for me.  I recommend the flat-top caps.  Also, I was not happy when I first drank water from them, because there was a metallic taste (they’re stainless steel), but I hoped that was just the initial “newness.”  And sure enough, it’s no longer an issue — either I’ve gotten use to that taste (doubtful) or the “newness” wore off.  I carry three of the 18 oz size to work, I also have a 12 oz that’s good for toting juice or almond milk in my lunch bag.  I got them at a discounted price since I bought several, but, as I recall, they range from $13 to $20 — something like that.  I noticed the site where I purchased them went up on price right after I got mine.  These are wonderful to have, especially if you’re concerned about the plastic taste and leaching…

4)  I was just thinking today how much I love my little baby crockpot (one/two quart), perfect for single people.  I’m not Hattie Homemaker (at all), so I don’t like to cook, but I gotta eat healthy.  I think it’s so cool how you can just put meat. veggies and seasoning in this little pot, turn it on, go about your business, and at the end of the day, a yummy meal.  So awesome :)

5) This I also recently got, a Fit Ball — there are several different names for it, stability ball, etc.  I never dreamed I would like it so much.  I play on it more than I do the actual exercises…  I especially like arching my back on it, feels sooo good!  And sometimes I sit too close to the TV while sitting on it — if I don’t have my glasses on ;)  It makes a great ottoman too :)  Oh, and sometimes I bounce it (fun to bounce!) just to bug the neighbors downstairs, LOL! Just kidding!! ;)

6)  Okay, one more.  I’m only 5′2″ so I have a couple of these wonderful wood step stools.  Ya’ know, they don’t fold up or anything, they would also make a nice planter ;)  But, they look nice, they can blend in with the decor.  I have one in my living room and kitchen area, and one in my walk-in closet.  Use ‘em almost constantly for top-shelf stuff.  And, in case I forgot to mention it, they’re cute ;)

========================

=========================

This and so much more that I’m grateful for… And as per my gratitude part of this list, I’m so grateful I no longer feel a desire for an excess of stuff, and having honed down in that area so much in the last several years, I can now see what I truly love and appreciate.  Minimalism is good stuff :)

Hugs,
Dove

===========================================
Dove’s Art    Dove’s Posts At-a-Glance    Dove’s Tarot Website

By Dove, www.TarotwithLove.com  Okay, I just realized it’s not still morning … so that makes it even wilder, lol ;) 

 The “Wolf” totem is coming to me (have seen “wolf” around me several times in the last day or so)…  I was just now reading on a site about Goji berries (healthy exotic berry), cacao-covered ones, which sounded particularly yummy.  And then my mind started wandering…thinking about the late (very late) breakfast I’d just enjoyed.  I was having passionate thoughts about my grapefruit, lol   Wondering what others might think of my thoughts.  I looked up and saw “wolfberry” right in front of me on the Goji page.  It says the wolfberry is a larger version of the goji…  Anyway, I took that as another wolf sighting :)  Maybe an encouragment to share my thoughts.  I’ll  do another post for Wolf Totem interpretations.

I’ve recently greatly altered my diet.  I used to be vegetarian, and then for a time, “vegan,” and up until recently I referenced myself as “almost vegetarian,” still eating very little animal products.  This type of eating has done me no favors, and I’m so grateful that I’ve finally come to my senses in that regard — and most especially grateful for my coming upon this special blog on this topic. 

I feel my vegetarianism (which spanned a lot of years) has been another version of my decade of starving myself via anorexic behavior in my twenties.  I’m intuitively getting the “vegetarianism” was a mask of that continuing, when I had thought I had overcome it. 

Now, I’m beginning to eat healthy, organic, REAL food — organic meat, eggs, raw-milk cheese, oh-ma-gawd delicious healthy butter…  I never woulda thought, but I (and I think most of us do) truly need these foods to be healthy.  Not the screwed-up variety of them, which most of us eat, but the real deal, as Nature intended…  And I’m seeing my health improve — finally — with the addition of these wonderful foods…and realizing that grandma and grandpa ate these foods, and did just fine and dandy on them :)

So here are some, um, more of my wild thoughts :)  I used to cringe at holding a package of red meat.  It’s still not my favorite thing, but I’m seeing differently now.  I always bless and thank the animal that it was, but it’s not that animal anymore.  Although I do think that our food, even after processed and all that “refining” still has some “life energy” to it or it would be of no value to us whatsoever — and, of course, a lot of our food today is like that.  But the core of the animal, it’s spirit (yes, animals, all things, have “spiritual” energy), is no longer in the meat.  Meat is just a material thing now that was designed by Nature to further sustain our lives, and the lives of other animals.  But it is still a gift from that animal…  If it was gross, bad or wrong for me to eat it, then it would not be healing my body…  What more would be an indication that this is aligned with Nature?  Animals eat animals, nothing wicked or evil is a part of that.  But how that animal may have been treated prior to its sacrifice to sustain another being’s life, there is often much “evil” in the mainstream process of that.  But that’s another topic.

And then I was thinking about balance, and how we hold on to our extremes…  And how raw foodists avow that their diet is the best because the foods are “alive.”  And that sounds good to me, but is “alive” all we need?  How do we know that too much “alive” isn’t a good thing? :)  If our lives were always totally, totally about love, would we really be “getting it”?  Both the understanding and the love? :)  Don’t we need to experience a dab of the “hate” to understand how amazing the love is?  Do we need a few healthy “dead” foods to balance it all out? :)  But let me put an emphasis on “healthy,” I don’t see most mainstream food as healthy — very “dead,” but also infused with “poison” on a variety of energetic levels.  I don’t feel my body wants or needs any of that.

But this post was actually spurred when I was enjoying my grapefruit :)  I love grapefruit.  And I know a fresh grapefruit still has a lot of ALIVE energy in it.  (And lotsa Vitamin C, yay!)  Vegetarians have no problem eating a grapefruit, and yet it has more alive energy than a piece of meat, I think.  Alive!  Vibrating with aliveness — and I think that means “consciousness” :)  So what keeps it from knowing I’m eating it??  :)   From our limited thinking, wouldn’t that seem more cruel than eating the “dead” foods?  See?  Wild thoughts, eh? lol

And I know how everything takes on energy, how we continually exchange it with everything around us.  So I’m eating my grapefruit, enjoying it out the wazoo :)  I’m taking in  its energy, it’s feeling mine…so I’m having this delicious, vibrantly energetic dance with my grapefruit, lol! ;)  And I’m thinking, can my grapefruit feel this?  If it can, then it’s feelin’ a lot of joy and gratitude :)  That must be fun for the grapefruit too…even though it’s dying in the process.  Was this ritual something the grapefruit lived for, came about for, looked forward too? :)  Hmmm.  Death and joy intermingled… And then thoughts came of the short lives of butterflies, and bees …   They come and go lightly through that doorway that is death/rebirth (same thing) … all just part of the “flow” that is this magical life on Earth :)   Hmmm, maybe the butterflies and bees…and grapefruits, and wolfberries, know something we don’t ;)

Peace,
Dove

===========================================
Dove’s Art    Dove’s Posts At-a-Glance    Dove’s Tarot Website

By Dove, www.TarotwithLove.com  I just came upon a poet’s blog, the title was something about pie.  I was remembering a fun thread at another site where the rule was you had to respond with a rhyme.  So I’m gonna make this my “official” must-rhyme thread :) 

 I already squeezed the last drop of creativity outta my brain with the response on the poem-pie blog :)  so I’ll start this thread with the response I posted there. 

So whenever I feel a rhyme comin’ on, I’ll post it here.  All rhyming responses welcome :)

==============

Ah, it’s after midnight, geez
Just had mustard and raw-milk cheese
Some dark chocolate to chase it
There’s something…I need to face it
But I’d rather surf and eat instead
I don’t really wanna go to bed
And then, oh-my, what do I spy
A blog of fine poem and fruit pie
No peach-n-crust for me at this time
But I have indeed enjoyed the rhyme :)

Dove

===========================================
Dove’s Art    Dove’s Posts At-a-Glance    Dove’s Tarot Website

By Dove, www.TarotwithLove.com  The otter is such a little sweetheart.  She’s one of my totems, of course, lol ;)  And her energy is one of my favorite things about me — the otter, she loves to play :)  I think I’m a puzzle to people at times, for one, because of this strong energy in me.  That is, I can be very child-like playful in one moment, but very sage-like or serious in the next moment. 

My “life path” number is 11 (calculated from my birthday), which reduces to the 2.  The 2 represents the High Priestess in the Tarot, and I align with the characteristics of that archetype.  But in calculating my birthday another way, the total is 20 (which also reduces to the 2) and the 20 in the Tarot is the Judgment card.  And since my birthday brings about that number, this archetype is also “mirroring” me.  In the Thoth Tarot deck, this card shows images of both a child and a sage :) 

I like being the child more, lol ;)  And in looking at this image it seems to be saying that the sage is coming through the child without the child even being aware of her sage-ness, heh  I can relate to that.  Often I re-read stuff that I share on here, and I learn much from it too :)  To me, that’s an indication that it’s coming “through” me, not from me.  The child’s image, on this Thoth Judgment card, is very large.  He has a finger on his mouth in a seeming moment of wonderment or curiosity.  It shows the sage image within him.  Ah, and maybe this image is also telling us how potent our moments of child-like playfulness are, that we are ripe for harvesting wisdom in these light and playful (peaceful) moments :) 

Anyway, as mentioned in other posts, you can see the overlapping…  Back to the Otter totem :)  I love her,  she very much helps me along the rocky roads and clearly helps me balance my more “serious” totems, like the crow and the owl. 

Via Google, I scavenged a few interpretations of that sweet otter baby …  see source links below.

Peace,
Dove

======================

Otter Totem

There are two kinds of Otter, the river and sea.  Delightful creatures to watch in the wild otters have a strong curiosity exploring every nook and cranny they can find just to see what’s there.   Their curiosity reminds us  that everything is interesting if looked at from different angles.  They know how to float on the currents of life enjoying the beauty that it holds. Their relaxed attitude reminds us to laugh with life and not take things to seriously. They offer us the gift of  laughter, trust and playfulness.

Otters are agile and fast in the water. They are often seen floating on their backs with their paws extended out of the water,  sliding on their bellies playfully, or performing acrobatic maneuvers. Water has long been associated with the emotional energies in man. Otters glide through the emotional ups and downs of life with ease and can teach us how to do the same. They represent the creative, nurturing energies that live within us and show us how to honor them.

Otters are excellent parents and care for their young longer than most other marine mammals. They enjoy the company of other otters and are rarely seen alone.  Those with this medicine benefit by living on or close to the water and find comfort in group interactions.

The otter is very talkative.  When frightened their calls take on an erie piercing sound similar to a baby screaming. They have few natural enemies and are not afraid of humans.  During the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, otters were one of the few creatures that would allow humans to hold them without putting up a fight.  As the oil was wiped from their bodies the otter would lie very still in the arms of the one caring for it, unafraid and trusting.

When otter appears in your life it is asking you to let go of worry and pain, lighten up and enjoy what life has to offer.  Trust your inner knowing , develop trust for others and embrace the world with excitement and enthusiasm.  Life is what we make it.  The otter shows us how to create a joyful future. All we need to do is follow its lead.

Source: http://www.sayahda.com/cyc3.html

========================

Otter:
This animal symbol represents female energy, and her elements: water and earth. The Otter also symbolizes healthy play, balance and “go with the flow” attitude. Those with an Otter as an animal totem attract love, harmony and grace into their lives.

Otter Animal Totems Facilitates:

• Understanding deeper subconscious messages or interpret dreams more clearly
• The ability to hone in on psychic or spiritual messages
• Encouragement to bring play to our every-day lives
• Living life openly and joyfully, setting aside jealousy, envy or mind-games.Source:  http://www.whats-your-sign.com/water-animal-totems.html

==========================================

Otter is woman medicine, and teaches us the beauty of our female energies. It is Otter that brings forth our ability to allow others into our lives without doubt, jealousy, or fear.

Source: http://www.tarotstar.net/totem_animals.htm

===========================================
Dove’s Art    Dove’s Posts At-a-Glance    Dove’s Tarot Website