SuperBloodMoon in Crystal Clear RI

Tonight marks my last night in Rhode Island…for awhile.  I’m headed back to Texas in the morning – not directly, mind you!  I’ll be making some stops at my friends’ once again.

If there’s anything I believe in, it is universal timing…which makes the SuperBloodMoon so incredible for me this evening.  I know there are people all over the world making memories this evening, and I’m privileged to be a part of that.  SuperMoons always bring change with them.  Lunar eclipses excite people – it’s a fantastic synergy.

On a much lighter note – enjoy this comedic clip from Bill Nye and Amy Schumer on “The Universe”:

Now I must get back to enjoying my last moments.  It’s been Rheal.

Love & Light,
Lindsay

A Girl Walks into a Bar…

That girl happened to be me, and that bar, the Grey Sail Brewing Company, right down the street. They do this fantastic beer tasting all the time where you pay for a glass to take home and get five poker chips – each worth a tasty half-refill of whatever brew they have on tap you’d like to try.  Stephen and I love this place.  He can also fill up his growler with Captain’s Daughter (like 9% abv) and take it home for a ridiculously reasonable cost.  But enough exposition, there’s a New England bar joke to be had here!

I walk up to the bar, place my poker chip down and the bartender meets my gaze.

“Cream ale, please.”

The guy next to me at the bar immediately butts in with, “You from the South?”

“Wow, I don’t have an accent, and I haven’t even busted out a ‘y’all’ yet…how did you know?”

He, in true rapid-fire New England wit, quips, “You said ‘please’…to a bartender.”

“I’ve never been so proud to be a Texan.”

Over the weeks here, I’ve been amazingly surprised just how noticeable my Southern-bred manners are.  Every time I check out at a store and say, “Thank you” to the employee upon receiving my receipt, I get a sideways glance.  In fact, the entire process of exchanging goods and services with anyone is very unnatural to me here.  It’s quiet.  There’s never a “Thanks for shopping at ____”, or “Have a nice day”, or anything other than “That’ll be $____”.

You could say, New England’s manners leave me a little “deflated”.

As a general rule, people in New England are no-nonsense; they get to the point and don’t waste time with pleasantries.  They speak their mind and don’t worry about offending others.  Although there’s a certain freshness to this approach that I admire, I don’t see myself abandoning “Please” and “Thank you”s anytime soon.  I’ve taken this girl out of Texas, but y’all ain’t taking the Texan manners out of this girl.

Love & Light,
Lindsay

Quarter of the Way: Setback & Translation

Today marked a pretty major setback for me in regards to my Gong – and just in time for my “Hooray, you’re a quarter of the way there!” chant.  I strained a muscle in my abdomen and am quite physically incapable of performing a push-up or plank.  I faced a crossroads:  admit defeat and begin again when you recover fully / fight through it, possibly harming your body further, in the name of sticking to your guns / just “skip” those activities on your Gong until you recover.

Well, frankly, I didn’t like any of those options.  I’ve never put myself or others in harm’s way for the sake of a cause.  I’m no health practitioner, but I do practice “First, do no harm”.  But before making a decision on how to handle this pitfall, I had to take a step back and consider why I started this Gong.  In reviewing, I ultimately reinvigorated and refocused my efforts – which was the best 1/4 reward I didn’t even plan for.

I found these inspirational words today from Blue Sky Healing Arts that helped me along my way:

Nature works in cycles. We have seasons, years, days, hours, seconds, etc. Even the healing process has a cycle, a definite rhythm where some days you feel energized and other days you feel tired. This is natural cycle.

The Gong…is a rhythm in your Mind as well as in your Body. Our minds, respond to cycles, to having a beginning and an end, to a “goal” or “season”. We do this every day. It is natural.

The AMA knows that it takes 100 Days to change the neuron paths in your brain, It takes 100 Days to release buried trauma and habits that do not serve our well being. The fun thing is, we do not have to know what the habits and traumas are. They release when we start to cry, laugh. see pictures, hear music etc while we practice, or even later during the day…

Remember that if you miss one a day during your First Gong, you must start over again. This is because:

1. When you stop, you lose rhythm and so weaken your Chi.
2. You have lost your focus on Intention, on your Self…

The Gong…is your Mind Rhythm, your Goal, Your Intention, your loyalty to You. Your Body responds to a Goal, a Rhythm and your Intention. We go to sleep at night, we wake up in the morning. We breathe in rhythm. We breathe in, then we breathe out. That’s how we stay alive!

My intention and loyalty to myself physically is to commit to a muscle building and toning exercise that I can build upon each day.  I am currently unable to continue this practice due to muscle strain.  Rather than losing the rhythm, the cycle, the discipline…I decided to transmit it elsewhere within my body.  Keep with the intention and rhythm, but augment the practice.  Until such time as I am able to continue abdominal exercises, I have translated my physical determination to my legs.  Squats in place of push-ups and wall-sits in place of planking.

Am I displeased by this setback?  Absolutely.  Is it keeping me from achieving my ultimate goal?  Absolutely not!

Love & Light,
Lindsay

Missing Home & Such

I’m rounding the corner to the end of my first trial run up here in Rhode Island and it’s pretty bittersweet.  I’ve had a wonderful exploratory time on many fronts: personal, professional and in love.  I am excited to return home for a month or so to tie up loose ends, make some good money with my Lagniappe family and spend more quality time with my loved ones back home.  But first, I’ve got three full days of quality work up here – hooray!!!

I’ve had a string of fairly unnatural self-doubts this week, and most likely they’ve been brought on by the upcoming change.  I can’t help but be anxious.  I can’t help but know I’m still in the process of making a giant life-altering change that I cannot possibly know the outcome to.  This is unknown territory and that’s scary – but nothing worthwhile in life ever came easy, right?

Although, I must admit most of the most fulfilling moments of my life thus far have come exceedingly easy.  Auditioning and subsequently working with Lagniappe has been one of the most influential catalysts in my adult life.  It introduced me to the Whatleys, who I can’t help but identify as a second family to me.

Chris did wonders for helping me realize my unique talents and gifts to the world, and empowered me to help others through those gifts.  Lauren and James were two of the best roommates a girl could ask for in one of the hardest times of my life after a not-so-pretty break up.  They brought joy and confidence where I could previously only see darkness and despair – not to mention, a couple of wonderful furbabies which always do wonders for mood-boosting.  And Jon was simply the best boss ever.  Hilarious, never breathing-down-my-neck but always encouraging me through his own brand of devil-may-care, renegade badass.  He molded and shaped me into a saleswoman to be reckoned with, and taught me one of the most valuable lessons no one had ever ingrained in me before: Always follow your path and do what’s best for Lindsay.  If an offer comes about that’s better for you – take it.  Be loyal to yourself.  

And I’m proud to say I’ve done that.  I’m also proud to say I can’t wait to hug Texas and all of the beautiful Texans I love so dearly – hard.  I’m heading out early Monday morning, so wish me happy trails!

Love & Light
Lindsay

Keep Calm Vibe On

Today, I completed a second round of Orgonites and opened my first Etsy shop: Keep Calm Vibe On.  Y’all, I can’t tell you how excited I am to get out there, brand myself, and spread some positivity through creativity.  What a fulfilling day!

I’ve come up with three unique forms of Orgonite I have yet to see elsewhere online, and I take that as a huge personal success.  Two down, one left to create!  These shells below were all hand-picked from the very tip of Cape Cod, MA – Provincetown.  Made with lots of love and cleansed in the healing waters of the Atlantic Ocean (conveniently 10 minutes away from my house), I’m extremely pleased with this batch. 🙂

I’ve also implemented a personal mission statement with all of my work.  That is, to “gift” an Orgonite from every batch to the environment.  Cell phone towers, transformers, polluted water areas, nuclear power plants, etc. are all perfect candidates for this gifting.

Please check out the Etsy shop, and “like” my page on Facebook.  I appreciate the love and support I’ve received thus far, and I can only foresee those positive vibes spreading!  A million thanks, y’all!

Love & Light,
Lindsay

Creating Art, Spreading Light

Today I completed my first batch of Orgones and I’m very pleased with the end product!  Since it was my first time working with resin I was both nervous and anxious how they would turn out.

After a lot of research and personal experience decided to craft my first batches with Unakite as my crystal of choice to complement the quartz.  The vibration from these crystals is strong, and their natural ability to protect from electromagnetic pollution produced by cell phones, TVs and computers made it an obvious choice.  Also, I love the marble of pink and green present in these stones.  The scrap metal I was able to get my hands on has been perfect for crafting as well – copper, aluminum, iron, magnesium, boron carbide & manganese bronze.

Perhaps it was a bit of homesickness, but I felt a giant spark of creativity I felt when I opened Stephen’s fridge to find “Tex-Ice”, a Texas-shaped ice tray.  I asked him sweetly, “Ummm, would you mind if I used this?  You may not get it back – but then again, you may.”  He did allow me to use his ice tray as my guinea pig and to my surprise, he’s been such a wonderful support for me in this creative process.  Yesterday afternoon, when I finally had completed all my wire-work and began casting the resin he asked, “When do we get to see em?”  I told him the resin had to sit for a day.  His response was akin to a three-year-old, “But, I want them noooooowww!”  Warmed my heart to the very core. ❤

Without any further ado…I’m so freaking excited to present my first collection: Deep in the Heart of Texas

If you’re interested in one – there are 10 in this first batch – please contact me on Facebook, by phone, email, or comment here!  Red / Orange / Yellow / Gold / Light Green / Dark Green / Blue / Purple / Pink / Black heart color choices.  This first batch I am offering 50% off to those of you who I know & love for a few very important reasons:

• I appreciate the support of friends and family, and before I unleash upon Etsy, I want to reward that support.
• My resin-to-metal ratio is too high.  I’ll fix this in subsequent batches.
• Y’all are my word-spreaders!  I can’t wait for the reverberations!

Love & Light,
Lindsay

20/100 – A Meme-tastic Day

It’s time for another check-in on my Gong.  20 days down – that’s 20%!  There have been a number of changes/improvements in my life I’ve noticed and also gained some great insight on my motivational strengths and weaknesses.  Let’s delve in:

1. + I can do a legitimate (non-girl) push up with grace.  There’s also the inklings of muscular definition inching its way through my arms.
2. + Planking is no big deal.  I can now manage 1:30 – 2 min sets with ease; I honestly never saw that coming.  I expected to do :30 to :60 second sets through the entirety of this Gong.
3. + Perhaps as a culmination of both 1 & 2, my midsection is developing an immense amount of strength.  And although I don’t have a great definition breaking through, I have eliminated quite a bit of the extra bits hanging around my middle.  Which, considering the delicious food and beverage I’ve been partaking of whilst living with my man, I take that as a huge accomplishment.
4. + Water. Is. Good.  I now crave it!  I’ve never been a great water drinker.  I grew up on diet soda, and it was a hard fought battle eliminating it from my M.O. over the years.  Anticipating this, I began my Gong fixing tea every other day or so in order to gulp down some water with flavor.  Now, I carry around my Limu Original bottle of water nearly everywhere I go, and drinking a liter in a day is a piece of cake.
5. + I am so glad I included say “I love you” and connect with someone every day to my Gong.  It’s helped me deal with homesickness, and keep at the forefront of my being those things that are truly important in life – the relationships that mean the most to you, and the ones you have yet to fully realize.
6. – In recent days, I’ve had a LOT going on, and I’ve had to rely on the last few hours of the day to knock out everything on the Gong before calling it a day and climbing into bed.  Sometimes this has put me in a really sour mood.  For instance, when Stephen and I got home from Walden Pond the other day at like 11pm, I found myself resenting him for being able to plop into bed immediately upon arrival when I still had so much to do.  Tough shit!  It’s my accountability to myself – I set out to do this, and it’s my responsibility!
7. – Procrastination is a giant vice of mine, and it’s reared its ugly head slowly but surely as I journey through this process.  I find myself, more days than not, waiting until those later hours in the day to get it all done.  An ex of mine had a similar problem with housework.  He only felt up to doing any of it if I was participating.  I get it, dude.  I get it.

Love & Light,
Lindsay

Walden Pond is for Lovers

So, yesterday afternoon when we arrived at Walden Pond both of us were immediately taken aback… Stephen I both had a sort of idyllic idea of super-intelligent hipsters and aspiring novelists hunkered down reading and writing around the pond while naturalists and hippies hiked around the trails.  What we found was families, visitors and Massholes trekking down to the pond with their pool noodles, swimsuits, towels and coolers.  “S’pose we found the gol-dang swimmin’ hole”.

Next, before crossing the road from the parking area to the pond, they had a reconstruction of Thoreau’s cabin…
Please note the construction, bright orange “Pond –>” signs, and sandwich board announcing upcoming events.  To say we were disappointed at this point is a great understatement.  We discovered that the park had been closed for three hours prior to our arrival because it had reached capacity and parking was no longer available.  We sucked it up, buttercup, crossed the street to the pond and set out on the trails in search of the actual location of Thoreau’s cabin.

I adore this picture of Stephen.  At this moment, he started to get giddy.  He said, “This is why I was looking forward to coming here for – just look at these trees!”  Yes, Stephen.  Yes indeed.  We navigated our way halfway around the pond to a cove where the cabin site was located.  Unfortunately, all that’s remaining is some markers noting the original construction site, but it certainly lifted our spirits.

But perhaps most impressively, when you take a step outside the “door” of the cabin…this was Thoreau’s view:

Breathtaking, indeed.  And, I must also note, it was around this spot we were able to find some hipster literati nestled in the trees with a good book.  We continued hiking around the pond through the trees until I saw a clearing down to the pond and a small collection of balanced rocks.

Around this area of the pond, the cove, there were less families and more twenty-to-thirty-somethings enjoying the views.  We came across many dudes who, like us, had not been informed this was a swimmin’ hole and had regretfully not brought their swim trunks.  So, they worked with what they had and were walking the beach after a nice swim in their boxer briefs.  Not one to let boys do anything I can’t do, I set out to have a little dip of my own.  I loaded Stephen’s backpack with my electronics and jewelry, derobed, and went for the most fantastic swim of my life.  The water was SO. CLEAR.  I could see well past my feet out in the middle of the pond.  Truly amazing!

Stephen came up with the wonderful idea that since we had spent all day in nature, the only natural reaction was to head to Dave & Buster’s in Providence on the way home for dinner and video games…you know, to re-acclimate ourselves to real life. ;p  There was only one problem…my bra was soaking wet, and had no probability of drying on the 45 minute drive.  After he scolded me for literally “airing my dirty laundry” out the window on the highway, I opted to place my bra cups over the vents in the car.  Stephen joined in on the fun by maxing out the heat and airflow, effectively turning the car into a dryer-on-wheels.  I’m happy to say we made it to D&B without any embarrassing wet circles showing through my white shirt.  Innovation and determination for the win!

Love & Light,
Lindsay

Just a Minute Man before Walden Pond

When we arrived at Walden Pond early this afternoon, we were greeted by many gated/roped off park entrances and delightfully informative signs that proclaimed “Walden Pond State Park Closed Until 3:30pm”.  Google was no help to answer my questions, because the area has almost zero reception.  I actually found this refreshing…but not at that very moment.

We left and ventured down the road about 10 minutes to Minute Man National Historical Park, which was surprisingly cool.  This park leads you down Battle Road, the trail from Lexington to Concord that Paul Revere road to alert colonists of the impending attack as well as the path of the British soldiers.  I have no pictures from this part of our journey.  But I do have this tidbit for you…  Paul Revere did not in fact proclaim “The British are coming!”, because our American forefathers were British as well.  Rather, he alerted his fellow minute men and militias, “The Regulars are coming!”.  Odd.

We finally made it to Walden Pond around 4pm.  And here’s where the picture part of my day will begin, and the writing will end.  I’m truly exhausted, and wish to write more about the experience tomorrow.

Love & Light,
Lindsay

That’s Crazy Talk

Today I was part of the studio audience on Crazy Talk, booked through a casting agency in NYC.  First off, so freaking cool that I can even possibly consider taking a booking like this.  Secondly, I’m really starting to get a taste for just how close everything is up here.  You cross state lines every hour or two…I mean, that’s just unreal for a Texan gal!

If you haven’t heard of this show, you’re not alone – I hadn’t either!  It just premiered September, 14th and is filmed in the same studio Maury and Jerry Springer are – if you look closely in the background, you can see the brick tiles from Jerry’s set… LOL!  Crazy Talk is like Tosh.O for reality TV.  Two reality stars, Tanisha Thomas of Bad Girls’ Club and Ben Aaron of New York Live (however, I must also note, he’s best known by his stupidly hilarious dance walking fitness viral videos) highlight the most bizarre, most hilarious, and most outrageous moments of recent reality TV and tell jokes.  Simple, straightforward, fun, and I’m super-surprised this niche show hasn’t been created already.  

The coolest thing about being a part of their audience is you’re actually on-stage with them and always on camera.  Since I unknowingly and serendipitously wore an aqua dress that matched the stage perfectly, they kept placing me directly behind Ben/Tanisha, so I should be pretty dang visible.  We shot three episodes for week 6…so I’m guessing the week of October 19th is when they’ll air?  Texans, the show is on KDFI at 10 & 10:30 nightly.  If you see it before I do – TiVo/DVR that shit, I wanna seeeeeee!  I’ve even made you a diagram below so you’ll know exactly how to spot me:

I will say, after a long day traveling and laughing my ever-lovin’ ass off, I was beat…and the last thing I wanted to do when I came home was 9 minutes of plank and well over a handful of push ups for my Gong.  However, I knocked ’em out in record time, and I’m now enjoying a mimosa as I write this.  Last thing on the docket is some bedtime reading.

Tomorrow, Stephen and I are taking a long-awaited journey (for both of us) to Walden Pond in Concord, MA.  I can’t wait to bask in the majesty and (hopefully still!) simplicity Thoreau found so intriguing back in the 1800’s.  Looks like you’re in luck, TBagg…yet another picture-filled post coming tomorrow! ;p

Love & Light,
Lindsay