First All Out Praise Poem

I love the praise poem form and have never used it. I wanted something to wake people up on Sunday afternoon and make them glad they were not outside on what will be a gorgeous day so I thought I'll praise them and give them an opening unlike anything they would ever imagine for a "Literary Afternoon" in Yelm.
The praise poem is a sacred invoaction type of literary genre for the Yoruba people of western Africa. It is also in many other peoples traditions in Africa. The bottom line is it should make you feel. I hope to increase the satisfaction in the afternoon, the vision of the people who make the Blue Bottle happen every day and especially this day. I wish it to increase our happiness.




Song of Praise for the Blue Bottle





I see Genius at the Blue Bottle

I lift my pen, I tap the keys, I drink my tea to the genius
Genius at the Blue Bottle

Holy Michelle extends her generous spirit
Her spirit reflected in glass the color of healing for the genius
Genius at the Blue Bottle

Praise be blue, be it sky, bird or tarp; the color is Stellar’s
Around us in the bottles that held the nectar of the gods
Decanted in toasts to genius
Genius at the Blue Bottle

Glory to the baristas who call us by name and remember
What we had to do yesterday when they ask us today
How’d it go? That is genius
Genius at the Blue Bottle

Bounty to every mouth, mind and pocketbook that has opened
In these rooms – Genius!
Genius at the Blue Bottle

Abundance to the people who set the table and welcome us in – Genius!
Genius at the Blue Bottle

Blessings to ones who make a place for meetings and groups and minds – Genius!
Genius at the Blue Bottle

As we sit, dance or stand in the embers of those that have passed through here
Sit, dance, stand and kick.
Kick up the embers, add some new fuel
Fan the flames for this moment you are Genius
Genius at the Blue Bottle



Ah, free wi-fi is always genius.
I lost 4 pounds this last week. I finally lost my withdrawal headache when I stopped for a cuppa coffee between WW and rehearsal for the Moonlighters. I told my healing partner that I had joined WW. This after two weeks that have been buried in his health and nary a word spoken of my project. I bet I would have weighed a pound or tow less if I'd been able to take a shit before weigh in. I wonder how much the average shit weighs...I can't bring myself to google that right now.

Riding Rough Shod

ROUGHSHOD
I think I'm going through caffine and sugar withdrawal. I was thinking it was just sugar this morning when I woke with a full head headache then I started thinking that I hadn't had any caffine for a day and that probably feeds the pain. Yesterday I went without sugar for the first time in I don't know how long. I didn't realize it until this morning when I tried to figure out why my head hurt so bad. I didn't put a little sugar into my morning cereal yesterday nor honey in my tea for the second half of the day. I have stopped the chemical sweetners for some time now. Then I started to realize that I had no caffine yesterday and that must assuredly add to the stress on the body. I did have a balance bar yesterday and that must have some kind of sweetner in it. Oh well. High fructose corn syrup I bet.

I have been watching a lot of the "Dog Whisperer" in the last 10 days. I have been seeing my self as pack leader over the body. It is an easy analogy for me right now. When I walked I saw that I am whole. I am the god and I have allowed my body to rule me, I want to write "let my body run roughshod over me." I'm looking up the origin of roughshod. It's so graphic.

adj 1: (of a horse) having horseshoes with projecting nails to
prevent slipping

So, it's a deliberate thing in horses. I must call it a deliberate thing in the human usage too.

To ride roughshod, to pursue a course regardless of the
pain or distress it may cause others.

I add to that, the damage it may cause to yourself.

SHODDILY ROUGH



Now I must know where shoddy came from as opposed to shod. Which brings us to
SHODDY
Noun 1. shoddy - reclaimed wool fiber
wool - fiber sheared from animals (such as sheep) and twisted into yarn for weaving


Another thing I had no idea of when I sat down to write this today.

Week two weigh in-Sugar and Caffine withdrawal

ROUGHSHOD



I think I'm going through caffine and sugar withdrawal. I was thinking it was just sugar this morning when I woke with a full head headache then I started thinking that I hadn't had any caffine for a day and that probably feeds the pain. Yesterday I went without sugar for the first time in I don't know how long. I didn't realize it until this morning when I tried to figure out why my head hurt so bad. I didn't put a little sugar into my morning cereal yesterday nor honey in my tea for the second half of the day. I have stopped the chemical sweetners for some time now. Then I started to realize that I had no caffine yesterday and that must assuredly add to the stress on the body. I did have a balance bar yesterday and that must have some kind of sweetner in it. Oh well. High fructose corn syrup I bet.

I'm digging weight Watchers because I can eat anything. If I want to lost weight I have to keep the points at my target or below. We weigh in today and I think I'm going to do well again. Gotta love this early part of the plan where you get big big weight drops each week. I dropped 6.6 last week and I hope to do the same today. There I said it. Plus in my focus this morning I had a wonderful vision of the god that I am taking dominance over the body. I have been watching a lot of Dog Whisperer and seeing my self as pack leader over the body is an easy analogy for me right now. When I walked and I said I am Whole I saw that I am whole. I am the god and I have allowed my body to rule, I want to write "let my body run roughshod over me." I'm looking up the origin of roughshod. It's so graphic.

adj 1: (of a horse) having horseshoes with projecting nails to
prevent slipping

So, it's a deliberate thing in horses. I must call it a deliberate thing in the human usage too.

To ride roughshod, to pursue a course regardless of the
pain or distress it may cause others.

I add to that to yourself.

Shoddily Rough


Which brings us to
SHODDY
Noun 1. shoddy - reclaimed wool fiber
wool - fiber sheared from animals (such as sheep) and twisted into yarn for weaving





Another thing I had no idea of when I sat down to write this today.

Don't forget to write

I lost the job at KGY but sheer blockheadedness. I was so flat in the interview. I wonder why? Probably because as much as I would like a full time job I didn't want to work 6 days a week playing lame music on an off shift. Hmmm...it was definately about the money and benefits but I didn't know what the benefits were and the money absolutely was bad. I am moving in the absolute right direction.
I have fucked around the last hour doing nothing really. Playing solitare and goofing on facebook. I want to be different so I must be different.
My face looked slimmer last night in the bathroom mirror. First WW weigh in day tomorrow. I have been very conscious of my eating and the only time I was off the wagon was tres de mayo and even then it was perhaps within the guidelines. I have to read up on my stuff and try to get my food tracker stuff together before tomorrows meeting.
I'm going to go for a walk with Judy now and brush my teeth while i'm doing deep knee bends. I must try to add something else to the routine that I will do.
I think that I am simply out of shape with brain damage. I can do something about both of those things.

The Party’s Over

April was National Poetry Month and I engaged in a discipline with a poetry blog to write a poem a day (PAD). The blog host would put out an arbitrary prompt and we would all write on that prompt. The cool thing is they figure 700 people wrote every day or almost every day.
Keeping a writing discipline that long with such a random twist to it set up a new neural net. Like any new neural net I can run with it or trash it and go back to what was. In all things I endeavor to go forward. I think it will help with my big project (BP).
BP status check today: I felt springy on my feet today. I went back to the toe stretchers. Now wait. Before I go into the minutiae of my BP routines I keep being struck by the lesson of the PAD. Writing in a challenge made me healthier. I know that being challenged mentally is where new neural pathways come from and I certainly was doing something I hadn’t done before-writing under a stranger’s direction for 30 days in a row. Even though I didn’t write every day’s poem chronologically and I had a couple days that I was either stymied, busy or bagging and I didn’t write, I didn’t quit.
Every day I do a variety of disciplines in pursuit of the BP but I don’t do the same physical things every day. I don’t even do the same walks every day. I usually don’t have the energy and/or balance at the same time to do any more. But in April I was working on my garden stuff so doing a little bit of lifting or planting most days and then at the end of the month I came up with doing deep knee bends while brushing my teeth. So for at least 4 minutes a day I started rolling up and down the wall with the balance ball so it’s several times a day. I need that kind of consistency. I also had a couple extra writing gigs so I was out of my routine and not couching in a book or the tube. I also started using this device that stretches my toes apart and straightens them out.
One more addition to the mix has been the addition of an accomplice in the last month. This is a chance to dissect the buttons that get pushed and trace them back to my youth and to unpack all the garbage I have been stuffing. It is very liberating.
A month of new disciplines seems to have helped to shift my other disciplines in to a different place.
I am whole.