Welcome to a World of Spiritual Harmony

I had almost eaten at the Japanese restaurant at Newport on the Levee several years ago. This time, in advance of seeing Star Trek for the 2nd time, I actually did.

The atmosphere, decor, ambiance is really wonderful. Simple clean lines in everything, dim lighting, peaceful after the busy-ness of the valet / courtyard area. We started, of course, with edamame. Soy beans cooked in their pods, which you squish into your waiting mouth. So good we ordered another bowl.

Mary ordered lots of sushi, most of which we shared. I ordered the avocado and ginger salad, and the stewed vegetables (none of which mama used to make), which were the side dish with a meat entree. It was all excellent. The hit of the evening was the plum-basil sushi roll. Beautiful color, and exquisite just-sweet flavor. The rest of the sushi sorted itself out by who liked which the most. The plum-basil required care to make sure we each got the same amount.

Definitely a treat. So after a frazzled day - do yourself a favor and head over to Aoi!

I keep a deck of Medicine Cards - all about animals - on my bedside table. Used to draw one every day, now draw a new one every now and then. Fox had been around for a long time, and as I walked by the other day, saw that the crystal on top had moved - so I put Fox back in the deck, shuffled a little, and drew another card. Fox again!

So I decided to re-read the spiritual descriptions of fox ‘medicine’ in the Medicine Cards book and in Animal Speak. Last time I read Fox in the Medicine Cards, what drew me were the words about taking care of family. This time, Camouflage leaped off the page. In Animal Speak, the keynote is Feminine magic of camouflage, shapeshifting and invisibility. What Ted call the cycle of power is nocturnal, dawn and dusk.

Have you ever tried, at a party, just pulling your energy back into yourself? A great way to watch what’s going on, and see what’s up with everyone else. Then when you consciously release your energy again, folk will say ‘When did you get here?’ and ‘I didn’t see you come in.’ It’s always fun to do that, relaxing and invigorating as well.

And being invisible occasionally right now will effectively give me more time. Which seems like a great idea, as I’m working to finish a book. So if you don’t see me for a bit, I may be home working at the computer. Or I may be standing right beside you at that party, just camouflaged.

The first birthday present I gave myself this year was registering for EarthSpirit Rising, to be held at Xavier June 12 - 14. Subtitled A Conference on Ecology, Spirituality & Living Economies, EarthSpirit Rising was invented by Imago, an organization which has grown organically over the years, working on just those themes.

Enright Avenue in Price Hill has become an ecovillage through their work, with much of the street now occupied by Imago members who share the common values of living simply and well in harmony with the earth. The Imago Earth Center on Enright feels like a different part of the planet altogether, and deeply in tune with the pulsebeat of the earth.

The conference itself, intended to be an inspiration for ecological change, will be sustainable and green. For instance, participants are asked to bring along their own cloth napkins to reduce waste. The food will be innovative, simple, creative. And the program includes sessions and gatherings to nourish us body, mind and spirit.

If you ‘are eager to be in the forefront of the movement to heal Earth and craft a new model of being human on our fragile, beautiful planet home’, then Cintas Center at Xavier the second weekend in June is where you need to be. www.earthspiritrising.org

It has been such a long time since I’ve binged on mysteries. I ready every kids’ mystery in the Springfield Public Library before I was 9 - so it was always a genre I loved. Then I worked my way over time through all the greats- Agathy, Ngai0, Dorothy. Fewer and fewer mysteries over the years. About 5 years ago, I read all of the Elizabeth Peters mysteries about the Peabody-Emerson family in Egypt, and I’ve dabbled with Sr. Fidelma and others.

Suddenly I’m back, with Sharyn McCrumb as my main writer. I’m reading now what I’ve discovered is the last Elizabeth MacPherson. That idea was too much to bear, but I’m still not ready to ready any of her really scary horror story mysteries. So I got into my library account this morning, and found 2 really weird sounding mysteries - Bimbos of the Death Sun and Zombies of the Gene Pool (isn’t it awful what an addiction will make you do? : > ). Plus a number of anthologies she’s contributed stories to.

Maybe I’ll be through this phase before I run out of those.

I have not figured out yet how I feel about The Republic of Tea’s choice of packaging. I love how it looks, slender cylinders with beautiful art, holding 50 tea bags at a time, and usually less per bag than the standard cardboard box of specialty tea. Plus there are lots of white teas and green teas - all my favorites.

I usually buy it at Joseph-Beth, sometimes at Bigg’s. But lately I’ve been bothered by the wastefulness of all that packaging. The lid is metal and plastic - mixed materials, so it can’t be recycled. I thought the cylinder itself was as well. So I emailed them, said I loved the tea, but couldn’t bear all this material being tossed every time. On the cylinder, they encourage re-use. But after 7 or 8 are used to hold small cluttery things like paperclips and push pins, what do you do with the rest? The customer service person replied very promptly, letting me know that the cylinder itself is steel - no mixed materials - and thus can be recycled.

My relief lasted for about a day. Steel? Every cylinder? Going into landfills? Ugh. I did start taking the paper labels off and putting them in the paper recycling basket. And my left-brained office is in Camp Washington, where homeless guys who have gathered their recycling pass several times a day. So I put the steel cylinders out on our planters for them to pick up and sell for income.

But that’s still not very satisfactory. The next reply was that I can buy from their website refill bags for the tins. So there’s the cost in carbon and dollars of shipping and handling, and still there are only going to be so many times before that steel ‘tin’ is grungy and will have to be replaced.

It doesn’t feel like there are any really good choices here. I expect I’ll wake up one morning knowing what to do next. But I’ll bet it won’t be to keep buying these teas.

Another fun treat for the birthday weekend was going to see the production of George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company on Friday night. Following another very enjoyable dinner at Sung Korean.

It’s becoming pretty much a tradition - if the play is at the Shakespeare, then dinner is at Sung, which is catty corner through the block. I love their vegetarian pancake - big enough to share with the table. And then the stone bowl (Dolsot Bibimbab), super heated and full of great veggies, rice, tofu (or several other choices), with an egg on top. Every now and then I make another choice, but those two, plus green tea, make me very happy!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Shaw play before - Just checked Wiki and I’m pretty sure that’s true. Knowing he was an Irish playwright was enough to make me sure I’d like the play. It is a stitch - another battle in the war of the sexes, although more with chocolate than bullets.

Jeremy Dubin as Captain Bluntschli is superb - one of the best roles I’ve seen him play. He is always good, seldom one of the stars. His fear, exhaustion and nerves as he climbs up the wall and emerges into Raina’s bedroom are palpable. And his calm sanity as he deals with Raina’s over-the-top family and fiance are a treat. The humor throughout the play - both physical and verbal - is a treat. I had a great time - you will, too!

I love birthdays! Start them weeks early, and they end weeks later. And I’m almost always guaranteed perfect weather, being born in late May! This one is less running around than most, more enjoying and working in my own garden.

Brian and the boys and I did go out to brunch at The Hideaway in Northside. The food was excellent and creative, the service less so - likely because friend Greg Flannery had just done a review for the Enquirer about their brunch, and the place was busy. Greg’s review was also why we headed there, once we realized that Slim’s no longer offered Sunday brunch.

I did manage to see a total of six friends while eating an excellent huevos rancheros and their great breakfast potatoes. The boys both went for French toast, and Brian worked his way through a salad and an assortment of sides. Good food in a great place to hang out.

Now I’m back in front of the computer - having promised myself that this is another New Year’s, and I’m going to work every day on one of the several books I have going, and finish it. This one is about dreams - how useful, fun, helpful, supportive and inspiring they area. I am going to Just Do It!

I had the hummingbird feeders up from the garage, rinsed them off, got out the measuring cup and the organic sugar - then decided it was chilly, and that I’d wait until I saw a hummer before making the nectar. Sure enough - 5 minutes later I did! He was literally in my face when I went out the door. What a treat they are. I had the feeders filled in less than 10 minutes.

The organic veggie garden is almost planted. As the lettuces droop when the heat rises, kale plants will take their place. (New lettuce will be planted in late August / early September.) The herb garden is now together. We’ve just gotten started on the impatiens - only one bed is totally finished. The begonia bed always looks like it could use a few more plants.

The day lilies have been getting ready earlier each year - tall enough now that they’ll be putting out stalks soon. Used to be they’d bloom in early to mid July. I’m thinking they’ll be all done by then this year.

There’s still and always a lot to do in the garden - but I love this time of seeds and plants and the very beginnings of all that burgeoning growth. What a celebration of life!

I’ve long felt that the really dangerous drug is alcohol. Drunk driving kills, and some guys get aggressive when drunk, leading to murder and especially rape. Whereas with pot, everyone sits around glassy-eyed, giggles, eats Doritos and brownies and just goes to sleep. If they’re driving, they’re dangerous - otherwise, not.

Alcoholics cost us a fortune in medical costs for their badly-abused livers and transplants. No similar downside to pot. Seems like a good idea to me to make pot legal and then tax it like crazy.

Polls have shown the shift, and since generational perceptions differ, it’s only a question of time - same with gay marriage.

In the meantime, folk are pushing the envelope in different ways - and the Emerald Initiative is one I read about today, asking colleges to set pot penalties no higher than alcohol penalties. The sponsoring group is SAFER - Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation. Certainly a creative title. The mere fact that such a group is formed, and is making the news both signals the shift and begins to deepen it.

That’s good news as far as I’m concerned. My basic belief has long been that pretty much everything should be legal - and that we don’t really need any of it to get to that good-feeling place.

There are a lot of terrific magazines out there, responsibly printed with soy inks in recycled paper, great stories, positive and earth saving messages. I just can’t get myself interested in any of them, try as I might.

When I sit down to read - or more likely, prop myself up with pillows and read in bed, after I’ve finished communicating for the day - I’m ready to lose myself in a book, or perhaps catch up with the Enquirer and every six weeks or so, CityBeat.

Somehow, magazines, no matter how wonderful, really don’t have appeal for me any more. Ode is terrific, and I barely even look at the headlines. I subscribed because I wanted to support their efforts to present positive messages and material. Body + Soul I get free, for clients to read. The cover says it’s got all the right articles about whole living, and I expect it does. Vegetarian Times has beautiful covers, so it makes it to the top of a stack on the coffee table. And Tennis I’ve been a subscriber to for centuries. Seldom read it now unless Roger Federer is on the cover. Cincinnati Magazine makes it to the coffee table, too - and if any one sitting on the couch is interested, I easily pass it on.

Not to mention all the magazines in racks all over the place. I probably bought 30 or more last year when the Obamas were on every cover. It was great to get an overview of what’s out there, and how the formats and content have changed over the years. That was evidently all I needed to catch up on.

Because even when they’re magazines on topics I care about and agree with their point of view, I don’t pick them up. Whatever switch there is in my head is turned completely off. I wonder why - but not enough to work at figuring it out. Probably multiple answers at multiple levels of importance - but really not important at all. I’m content to let that mystery remain.