Honoring Myself
What a foreign concept this has been.
Archive for the 'Open' Category
Woodman and Soul Food. Little Animus
It has been so long since I have done any creative writing. Journaled any dreams. Marked my scholarly progress/process. What a bummer. It helps so much more when there is someone to write to, as if I weren’t enough to write for myself. When it keeps coming up for me how important that is.
In working hard to get a workable thesis idea all summer, my research for just the right text to work with has lead me back to my center. The place where it is about my quest for self-knowledge, healing, and mystery. I’ve been on a long round-about.
Conscious Femininity: Interviews with Marion Woodman is not that text, but I found this book through that that text. Woodman is a Jungian psychoanalyst. She writes about healing through conscious embodiment, awakening the sacred feminine, the sacred matter that is our body, the house of the soul. The legacy of the patriarchic culture has been a drive for power, for perfection, disembodied intellect, achievement, go go go, bigger better stronger.
Linda and I had talked about this from a different angle, but we talked about it. How I go go go, burning it at both ends, until I get sick. This is Woodman’s claim. Go go go, striving for perfection and identifying with archetypes (as opposed to healthily relating to them) makes us sick. Sick in the psyche, sick in the physical vessel. Expectations set to be the “best,” setting out to please those who set the expectations, ignoring the needs and wants of the little old soul, perpetuating this cycle over generations. Ouchie. For more than this brief, vague sketch, see Woodman’s book. It is worth it.
The antidote: Slowing down the pace to a more natural rhythm. Feeding the soul with metaphor: art, nature, dreams. When school starts I will be working 6 days a week. I will need a creative outlet more than ever. I want to come back to writing, for me, and for no one else. Except you, anonymous reader, who may be visiting this space. For me to continue this process, I need to keep writing down my dreams. And to let go of the need for presenting this, them, and everything, perfectly.
Food Obsession
It is remarkable how much I enjoy the food that I enjoy. I think that I may be a bit obsessed. The contrast between the alkalizing diet and the SCD (Simple Carbohydrate Diet) that I am following in my quest for healing has provided me with a sense of profound gratefulness for the items that are available to me. There are very few shortcuts available to me, which is fine, because I am a capable cook. I am eating wholesome, hearty, well-rounded meals, and loving it. Even while I am eating, I scheme about the delicious meal I will have next.
Here is what my day of eating looked like today:
Breakfast: smoothie with banana, yogurt, and cottage cheese. (The yogurt I make, extra fermented (24 hours) so that all the lactose gets broken down into a more simple sugar. Extra-ripe banana, and dry-curd cottage cheese.) A couple of poached eggs, and fruit juice jello (grape).
Lunch: a home-baked chicken breast seasoned with sage, steamed asparagus, a salad with red-leaf lettuce and a home-made red wine vinegarette with dill and red onions.
Snack: a piece of you-guessed-it, home-made almond bread with almond butter (store-bought, can you believe it) and honey. Mmmmmm, sweets, my favorite.
Dinner: Home-made chicken soup. Buffalo meatloaf with home-made ketchup (has to be sweetened with honey, and no weird starchy ingredients like xanthan gum) and cauliflower mashers.
Thank goodness for left-overs of I would never leave the kitchen because I’d always be cooking.
Since starting the diet I have learned how to make my own practically everything. The best items so far have been almond bread (guess what, I ground the almonds to make the flour) and honey-sweetened strawberry jam.
Bees, I love you. Please stick around and pollenate the flowers and make delicious bee vomit here on Earth for a very long long time.
Best Friends
Best friends are there for each other.
They stay in touch.
They share their joys and sorrows with one another
Cheer each other up when they are down.
Can say anything to one another
Make each other smile
Air out their grievances with one another
and mend their shortcomings or misunderstandings.
They are honest
fair
supportive
They keep you honest
and keep you fair too.
Unfortunately,
sometimes they disappear.
They must be then relinquished from their obligations
It’s sad,
but life goes on.
It always is what it is, isn’t it?
Nina Lois is a graduate student at the University of Colorado at Denver obtaining a Master's Degree in Humanities with a B.A. in political science. Her passions are broad when it comes to the human condition. She is deeply interested in philosophy, psychology, environmental and social justice, peace studies, music, nutrition, tradition, and progress. 
Upon her imminent graduation, she wishes to contribute to the health, wealth, and happiness of the community through involvement, writing, and research. For goodness's sake, love the body, cultivate the mind and a garden, and feed the soul!
Thanks again