Emily and Loiosh
They’re become Bestest Friends. They beat the crap out of each other and chase each other all over the house — mostly Emily chasing Loiosh, which is pretty funny because he’s three times her size.
There are quieter moments, though. Like when I point the camera at them when they’re playing like mad. And they immediately stop.
…who, us? We weren’t doin nothin.
O hai!
Posted on November 2, 2011 by Kate | View this Post | 1 Thought So Far - Why Not Add Yours?
Emily’s Settling In
…in fact, I think she’s gotten pretty comfortable here. What do you think?
Big yawn!
Smiling kitty.
Posted on October 31, 2011 by Kate | View this Post | 1 Thought So Far - Why Not Add Yours?
The RV Hunt Continues
I went out to look at a local RV a few weeks ago, and it was Too Big:
Then I drove up to Kentucky to look at another one, and it was Too Small:
Which was kind’ve a shame, because I really liked the second one. But I needed more space, and so do my kitties.
I’ve been looking locally, and I’ve found one that might be Just Right:
(Click on the picture for more!)
It’s slightly (by which I mean SIGNIFICANTLY) more expensive than what I’d been looking at…but I’ve determined that I’d rather take out a loan than buy an RV so old that I’m likely to have to fix a gazillion things before I even go anywhere. There’s a lot I’m going to have to learn anyway and I’d rather not add ‘RV repair’ to that list any sooner than it’ll happen anyway (and even with a newer RV, even if I bought a totally new one, there’s gonna be repair at some point.)
Wish me luck!
Posted on October 26, 2011 by Kate | View this Post | 5 Thoughts So Far - Why Not Add Yours?
Sweet Green Apples: Working Out
Working out. Exercise. Important things. Also, dirty words these days. But last week, I gave it another try.
Somehow I’d forgotten the sheer joy of lifting weights. Serious ones, not just the little six-pound free weights I bought a while ago. The good pain of pushing myself past what I think I can lift; the sweat bursting out all over my skin and the sweet smell of it. Pushing the breath out of me to push for just one more rep. The stretch and ache of my muscles between each set. The clang of the weights against the rest, until I remember the trick of easing them down. Shaky, trembling, I stand and balance against the weakness of my overstressed body, pace and drink until I steady up for another set.
I pushed myself far too hard with the weights, of course. It’s been far, far too long and I had no idea where to even begin, how much I could expect myself to lift. So it was too much, of course, and when I was done I could barely lift my spoon to eat dinner; holding the bowl as well was nearly too much. And two days later I still ached.
I hurt, and I know it’ll only get worse. But it’s the good pain, the one that means I’m doing well by my body and even though it hurts to do something as simple as put on my coat I relish it, revel in it. How could I have forgotten the sheer joy of this pain?
If you like this series — and the sort of everyday awareness I’m talking about here — you can find more of it here.
Danielle Nelson of Life Unconstrained and I will be teaching a month-long course on Everyday Awareness, just in time to get you through the too-busy holidays.
Posted on October 18, 2011 by Kate | View this Post | Add your Thoughts
Send a Note a Week Project
How often do you get something you like in the mail these days? Usually it’s bills and ads. Or ads and bills. Either way, yugh.
So I’ve been sending notes. Physical, paper notes. That I need to write with a pen. And use a stamp to send. Takes time for them to get there, too. Who wants that in an age of email?
…plenty of people, it seems. Everyone I’ve sent something to has at least enjoyed it, and most of them have written back. Some of them have written back with rather more enthusiasm than is, possibly, necessary, but I’m not gonna say I mind.
…I decided to admit defeat on that one (though I was tempted to ask my mom to engrave a letter for her…). But it really is a joy, choosing notecards or postcards, or making my own. Picking a pen in the colour I want, with the right feel for the paper. Tracing each letter carefully (or hurrying, and having to cross things out instead of just hitting ‘backspace’!). It makes you think; or at least it makes it obvious when you haven’t.
And then getting a reply in the mail. Opening mail that’s a joy to read (and sometimes, like above, a joy just to look at). I don’t keep much in the way of physical possessions, but I have a small stack of real, physical notes and cards I’ve gotten from people, and I cherish them.
It seems to make for a deeper connection, sometimes. A card is a physical sign of the love I have for the person I’ve gotten a card from, something to hold to when I’m having a bad one. I’ve got a few on my meditation altar, as reminders. I like just looking at them.
Buying handmade cards to send is fun, too — I like supporting fellow artists, and I’ve found a lot of beautiful, creative cards and postcards out there. Check out these, that I got from Diana at PrettyCoolShops (with Chocolate expressing his opinion).
So I’ve been sending out a note a week — postcards, notecards, sometimes whole letters — and I’m loving it.
Who have you got to send a note to? Would they appreciate it? Give it a try. Write it out, even if your handwriting is crappy from never getting used (believe me, mine is). Go and get a stamp, and send it. I bet you’ll enjoy it. And I bet whoever gets it will be just chuffed as hell to actually find something pleasant in the mail.
Posted on October 3, 2011 by Kate | View this Post | 6 Thoughts So Far - Why Not Add Yours?
Life on the Road
This is old news for some of you, but it’s time to tell all y’all about it.
See, I have a Plan.
I’m gonna buy a bus. Or RV. Or something. And I’m gonna move into it, me and the cats and the computer and all the herbs. And I’m gonna live wherever the heck I want.
This makes sense, I swear.
For several reasons, but only one of which is the really big one.
- I could tell you how it’ll make my life easier. I have friends and family all over hell AND creation, and I don’t see any of them often enough. Because no matter where I am, most of them are too far away.
- I could talk about the festivals and events and shows that I can’t do because they’re too damn far away, and I don’t have the money/don’t want to be away from home/Chocolate that long.
- I could say that I can, because I work online, because I sell at shows everywhere.
But simply and at the root of it, I love traveling. Being on the road. Into the distance, off to the next adventure, the journey not the destination. I want no destination. I want all destinations. And I want to GO GO GO.
Because there’s so much out there that’s beautiful, O my best beloveds, so much to see, to go, to be in, to BE. And here I am stuck here.
It’s not that I’m stuck in Tennessee, particularly. I’d be as stuck in Pennsylvania or Colorado or anywhere. It’s that I’m stuck here, wherever HERE is, I am stuck, I cannot move.
Yeah, I can pack up the car and Loiosh and go, but then I’m away from my Bumper and my Emily, my desk with everything Just So, my stuff which alas I still need some of. I’m tethered, and soon enough I’ll have to go back, and it’s always too soon.
But if I bring it with me…
Like a snail with its home on its back…
Chocolate, my sweet Bumperkitty, is always there.
I sleep always in my. Own. Bed.
(Which really does make the sleeping easier.)
I’m always at my. Own. Desk when I am blogging or twittering or whateveritisthatIdo.
If I run out of soap, poof! I can run home and make more.
Cos it’s right there.
All not-very-much-that-I-own is right there with me.
That’s been the goal…
…of all this decluttering. The smaller vehicle I fit into, the better gas mileage, the easier to drive, the more places I can get to more easily.
That’s been the goal of expanding my online businesses, because it’s not just Om Shanti Naturals, now, there’s more to it than that (and more about that soon)…
That’s been the goal of the planning and plotting and RV-hunting and money-saving I’ve been doing for more than a year now.
And that’s why I’m posting this — it’s not just telling all y’all what the Plan is, it’s me putting it out there that this is what I want to do, and I need an RV for that, and it’s time to manifest that RV into my life.
(Although the decluttering, now, that has its own merits.
The less stuff…
…the better it is…
…the lighter I feel, the less to clean, easier to find what I’m looking for, less to trip over…
But those aren’t the main reason. The less stuff, the easier to take off, to take flight, to GO.)
What are you running from?
I got some answers to that question.
- From? Must I be running from? Perhaps I am running TO.
- Perhaps I am running from a Life of Quiet Desperation*
- The third answer has some rude words, so I shan’t spell it out here, but if you really REALLY think I’m running away, c’mere, I’m'a tell you a couple things.
* Perhaps you might recognize the quote. Look at your life. Really look at it.
Here, have a hanky. I know. I’ve been there. I know you’re feeling stuck where you are. YOU CAN GET OUT TOO. I promise.
But more about that later.
I am running TO.
I am running to adventure, to freedom, to my people, my land.
I am running to my family (who I will get to see far more often this way.)
I am running to life and living it.
It’s time to GO.
Time to GO.
But how?
I have Plans. And plots. I’ve done a crapton of research. Whatever objection, whatever ‘but that’s impossible because’ you’re about to give me, I promise you, I’ve thought about it.
I’m not going to give you the details now. There are too many. Too much is still up in the air. And the details aren’t what this is about anyways.
This is about me, getting this out to the Universe.
Here is this. Here is me. I am wide open, waiting to see how this will happen. If it’s not quite like I envisioned it, that’s how life is, isn’t it?
But it’s time. It’s to to get on the road. Time to travel, to spend time with the people I love. Time to go.
Go and see, go and breathe, go and see the world, smell it all, breathe it all, hike it all, climb it all, see it all.
A disclaimer of sorts.
I know some of you think I’m nuts. Some of you envy me (YOU CAN DO IT TOO! GO DO IT TOO!). Some of you don’t want me to. Some of you are afraid.
That’s okay. This is not your life. This is not your plan. You don’t have to do this, unless it’s what you really want (and if it is, let’s talk!).
It’s mine. It’s time to go.
Posted on September 19, 2011 by Kate | View this Post | 25 Thoughts So Far - Why Not Add Yours?
The Key to Happiness: Stop Caring
(Okay, this could be ‘stop sweating the small stuff’. But seriously that is SO DONE. So: Stop Caring.)
But caring is important!
I hear you. You’re sitting there going, wait, what? Stop caring? But if we didn’t care, didn’t have our passion, our lives would be meaningless!
And I hear you. When it comes to what’s important to you, your passion, you have to care. You’re going to care no matter what else you try to bury yourself in. So telling you to stop caring about that would be foolish and useless.
I ain’t telling you to stop having your passion. Stop Caring is a tool like any other. You don’t use it on your passion, any more than you use your rechargeable drill to drive nails (and if you do, come over here a minute and let me smack you one).
…right, so what’s it for, then?
Seriously. Purple.
Stop Caring is a pretty useful tool when you use it in the right place, though. Want an example? Last winter I bought shoes. They’re comfortable as crap. They’re pretty. They weren’t terribly expensive. And they’re purple.
And as soon as I got them home, I got upset, because I realized that I had one (1) pair of socks that didn’t clash HORRIBLY with purple.
And I whinged and I grutched and I was cranky about my beautiful new shoes. For two days. And then I realized, okay, I could take them back, or I could be whiny and let them sit in my closet except for when that one (1) pair of socks is clean, or I could Stop Caring, and wear them with whatever the hell pair of socks I like, and be happy.
…after that the choice was pretty easy.
So there’s your tool. Use it wisely.
Use it wisely?
Yep.
Oh, you wanted some examples? Have a few:
Out of basil for dinner? Don’t get upset. Stop Caring, and chuck in some parsley instead. (Yes, you can even make parsley pesto if that’s your kink. It’s pretty tasty.)
Walking the dog, and he just doesn’t want to go the way you meant to? Stop Caring. Follow him. He might just take you somewhere awesome you hadn’t known was there. (This is a lesson I’ve learned very well, having a cat on a leash.)
Dressing up for a wedding, and that top that was going to be perfect is in the wash? Stop Caring. There’s something else in your closet that’ll work just as well. And in the end, what you’re wearing isn’t that important. The important thing is that you’re there.
So what is important, then?
Tasty, tasty gravy.
Here’s the meat of it: You’ve got your passion. That’s what’s important. Everything else? Is gravy.
So take what’s important and look at whatever it is that’s bothering you through that filter.
Is it about your passion? Does it have anything at all to do with your passion? Is it five miles away from your passion, down a side road that you don’t want to drive on for fear of your entire suspension coming out in a great ugly mass? Then honey, it ain’t what’s important. Stop Caring.
But what if I don’t know?
Don’t know what your passion is, yet? Still defining it? Still have not the slightest damn clue? Stop Caring about things. Random things that annoy you. Things that stress you and bother you. If you Stop Caring about them and they slide away, that wasn’t your passion.
But if you Stop Caring about a thing and it’s still a problem? If it itches at your skin and drives you buggy that whatever it is isn’t Just So? There’s your clue. It might not be pointing right to your passion, but it’s a sign pointing you towards what it is.
But my (Mom/best friend/boss) says…
Yeah, you should hear what my Mom says. (Hi Mom!) To heck with them. They don’t know what your passion is. They don’t know you like you do. You say they mean well? Of course they do! That’s what makes them hard to ignore. But it’s your you, and you should do what you want with you.
Am I saying it’s easy to take what Society (in the person of your Mom/best friend boss) says and chuck it? HAHAHAHAHAHA no. It’s hard as crap.
It takes practice. You need to think about it. You need to work at it. Sometimes, you’ll just need to go and do something (or not do something) in a way that you think you kinda won’t like, but will find out in the end that it didn’t matter so much, so you can Stop Caring about it.
Do it anyway. It gets easier with time. And the less energy you spend carrying around what others want you to be, the easier it’ll be to Stop Caring about what doesn’t matter, to put all of you towards what’s really important to you.
Posted on September 9, 2011 by Kate | View this Post | 14 Thoughts So Far - Why Not Add Yours?
Crap Free, Guaranteed.
Crap free? What does that even mean?
Ever read the back of your shampoo bottle? Only you couldn’t, really, because you couldn’t pronounce half the things on there. Sodium lauryl sulfate? Selenium sulfide? What the heck are those? And why am I rubbing them on my head?
I didn’t know, either. (I’ve found out since then, and the answers weren’t reassuring at all.) But I decided that if I didn’t know what the heck was in it, I didn’t want it on my skin.
Turns out that what goes on your body is just as important as what goes in it. There are a lot of people these days who are paying a lot of attention to what they eat — and that’s awesome! But what you smear on your skin has just as great an effect on your health.
Garbage on, garbage out
Your skin is, in fact, the biggest organ in your body. Didn’t think of it that way, did you? I mean, it’s just your skin. It keeps you inside and everything else out, right?
Except that it’s actually far more complex than that. Your skin lets sweat out, right? So it stands to reason it’ll let things in, too. Rubbing Ma Cobb’s Joint Liniment on your aching back wouldn’t do you much good otherwise, would it?
So what you put on you is pretty important. But how do you know what’s safe? There’s lots in the news about things that are safe to eat, but not near as much information about what is and isn’t safe to smear on your skin.
That’s where I come in. And that’s where Crap Free, Guaranteed comes in, too.
So it’s all natural, right?
I only use ingredients I know are safe. They’re natural. Many of them are organic or wildcrafted. They’re the highest grade I can find. And they’re all tested — on me, not on the cats! — before I put anything made with a new ingredient in the shop.
Turns out that just ‘natural’ isn’t enough, though. Remember sodium lauryl sulfate? It’s considered perfectly natural by, well, just about everyone, including the FDA. Know what? So are plenty of things aren’t good for you.
And SLS isn’t either. That’s why I don’t stop at just ‘natural’, and why my guarantee says nothing about ‘natural’ either.
There’s nothing wrong with ‘natural’ — don’t get me wrong! It’s a good place to start. But you’ve got to include safe and good for you and not made with awful craptastic stuff, too.
But if ‘natural’ isn’t enough…
‘Natural’ is where I start when I choose new ingredients — but I continue, too, with research into each ingredient’s safety, effectiveness, and environmental impact. And I only pick the absolute best of the best, taking all of that into consideration.
Because I only want to be selling you what’s best for you — yes, even when it’s more work, even when it costs me a little more, even when taking a shortcut would sure hell be a lot less work. Because this is what I believe in, my dears, this is my passion, this is where it’s at for me, is making sure that what I’m selling you really is that good.
All of that goes into my guarantee, and right here is where it all gets real —
Crap free. Guaranteed.
Posted on August 31, 2011 by Kate | View this Post | 4 Thoughts So Far - Why Not Add Yours?
Ross Quarry, Knoxville
Today was going to be ‘finish up a project for my boss’ but since it’s actually not a billion degrees and steaming here in K-town, I decided on a spontaneous hike.
I’ve been to Ijams Nature Center before (check here, complete with cute possum pic), but it’s been a while, so I headed down that way. And found that they’ve recently added a bunch of new land to the preserve, including a couple of old overgrown quarries.
As any of you who know me the slightest bit know, I couldn’t resist.
Alas, I only got one picture of the quarry itself that wasn’t entirely awful, and I’m still not too thrilled with it. But I spent probably an hour clambering around on those rocks, getting muddy and dinged up and moss-covered and really, really happy.
I wound up laying on the rock off to the right (it’s kinda behind the trees) for a lovely semi-nap. Didn’t actually fall asleep, but I spent some time staring vaguely off into the inside of my eyelids for a while, and that’s a wonderful thing.
Then, there were flowers.
Eventually I want a camera that takes really good macro shots, but in the meantime? These’ll do.
I end with the perhaps-traditional ‘road into the unknown’ shot.
…kinda makes you want to keep going, doesn’t it?
Posted on August 29, 2011 by Kate | View this Post | Add your Thoughts
Meet Emily!
It was less than a week ago, I think, that I posted that I wasn’t keeping any of the kittens.
…y’all stop laughing.
I mean, look at this face.
Look at the sleepy eyes!
Her black paws! (Also, the patience with which she lets me wiggle her around. Although she doesn’t hesitate to roll her eyes at me while I’m doing it.)
She is perfectly content to lie on the bed with me, purring, and be Serene. I love her serenity.
And her startled expression here. ‘Why do you do this?’. Plus black paws! And spotty belleh! And patience!
She is tiny and beautiful and I love her SO much.
In other news, this morning both kittens started playing again — Jet’s been trying to catch flies all over my bedroom, with a notable lack of success. Emily jumps on his head every once in a while, in passing. And thanks to a generous donation from a friend, Jet will be able to go to his new home fully vetted — shots and all!
He’s still waiting for a home, so y’all speak up if you want him, or spread the word if you’re already full up! We now have guaranteed transport for him all the way up to Buffalo, if necessary, and I suspect we could get him across the border into Canada around there, too.
Posted on August 26, 2011 by Kate | View this Post | 7 Thoughts So Far - Why Not Add Yours?