Quiet

I'm always a bit relieved when the holiday season is over. I get kind of let down by the process of taking down decorations and putting them back in the basement (we can't put our tree out to recycle until 1/6, so it looks like I'm being a good Italian girl and keeping things up until Epiphany - so we're still enjoying the sparkly things). Despite this though, its nice to get on to "normal life" and try and continue to keep the holiday feelings alive for a while.

The Gabrielle Roth book thus far is a lot like "Sweat Your Prayers", only its branched out a teeny bit from just touching on the rhythms of life. In the first chapter she talks about how so many of us are separate from our bodies but that it results in unhappiness/stagnation, and she suggests that our bodies *are* who we are. In the next chapter she's talking about emotions, and how often times we don't allow ourselves to experience the full range of emotions that are out there (resulting in unhappiness or stagnation). I really liked this quote on page 60:

"Feelings are neither positive nor negative; they simply are elemental forces in our life energy with their own vibrations and functions. They are essential to our health and well-being. Essentially, fear protects, anger defends, sadness releases, joy uplifts, compassion unites. [these are the main emotions she seems to touch on in the book] Fear is close to the surface of our self, anger is rather deeper, sadness and joy are progressively more interior, and compassion emanates from our profound center. Each is a level and a vibration of energy that needs to flow freely for us to be really engaged in the present".

I'm looking forward to feeling and experiencing the new year, and am foreseeing a lot of changes in different areas. This is kind of sad, kind of scary and kind of exciting at the same time. As I say about many things when there are a lot of complicated feelings involved and I don't know quite how to put them into words: "it will be interesting to see what happens".

Choices

Mmmm, what to do tonight?

It would be nice to make it a pampering night, and do my nails (Brian got me one of those bubbling water foot soak things, and a nail dryer), take a bath and read. It would also be nice to go to Ceremony and wear that new 50's style halter dress w/ cherries on it that I got at Hot Topic yesterday for $9 on clearance (whoot!) - yay for gift certificates! I also picked up the 'Dangers Untold' Labyrinth shirt that I've been eyeing for 2 months, and a cute polka-dot bra and panty set there (I've been on a vintage/cheesecake kick lately). It would also be nice tonight, to watch some Buffy on DVD or some other movie that we've been meaning to see. It would also be nice to sew. I should also clean up my craft room a bit - I need to put away christmas gifts, wrapping paper, and find a place for last semester's school books on my bookshelf. I also wanted to spend some time working on my website and loading new songs on my Ipod . . .

Ah decisions, decisions. What would YOU do with a free Monday night? I'd like to be able to spend some of this time chilling with Brian of course, too. :) God I love free time, I feel so decadent!

Tomorrow night I'll be meeting up with a high school friend for dinner after work. I haven't seen her in over a year and I really missed her!

Speaking of HS friends, there is a commercial on WFNX for the Waltham New Year's Eve concert - its weird hearing friends' songs on the radio (they play Waltham songs through the whole commercial, even when they are talking about the bands that are playing at the Middle East Upstairs - Waltham is headlining downstairs - and even when they are talking about some other bar that's also mentioned in the ad). It mentions something about "Giving Rick Springfield a run for his money", heh! I'd love to go but we have other plans . . . there will be opportunity to see the boys later. I can't wait to pick up their new DVD - I'm curious if you can see me or any of the friends I've gone to shows with in the live footage :)

Gabriel Roth, cont . . .

The next chapter is on the mind, or knowing. Here's a neat quote from page 92:

"We are, for the most part, far away from any sense of the sacred roles we play in each other's lives. Mothering is regarded as childcare, a job others can do equally well or better. Fathering means being the often absent chief executive and financial officer of the family. The self-determination of our adolescence is routinely dominated by parental and societal pressures. Maturity is hard to achieve in an immature culture. And the final cycle of life, its consummation in death, is much more often disparaged and avoided than appreciated and embraced".

She discusses how these roles or phases of life influence what we know intuitively, which in turn influences our choices and emotions. Roth goes on to examine each one of these roles/stages in depth and gives exercises for the reader to use to further examine them.

I'm definitely finding a lot of value in this book - though I'm skimming a bunch when its just (again) reviewing the rhythms and how to dance through them.

Jewlery making tips

For those crafty people out there, does anyone know of a good source for beads? I'm looking for cheap crystal-looking ones (teeny ones, and teardrop ones).

Also, any tips on what kind of wire works well for crown making? I'm going to be trying to make a decent Arwen Ceremonial Crown from Return of the King - for pix go here and scroll to the bottom: http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Elf/Arwen/Green.htm

Thanks in advance!