A Day of Restructuring...

Hi Everyone

Well, today was one of restructions things outside and inside me. I had been working with my own concept of internal balance, which Dan Millman talked about in his book, The Laws of Spirit. Today was the next baby step in making it so. Changes are never easy nor are they usually fast. They happen in increments.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
This morning, going out to the green house, here were some beautiful purple morning glories right next to a caladium; I just loved the arty situation of flowers with leaves.


Yesterday I realized I had to get all out ‘flood’ stuff out of my hogan which is where I used to meditate, do my daily yoga and do drumming. It has been stacked up to the gumstumps with nearly 1,000 books.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
As I started my walk tonight, I saw this 'big bird' in the sky above me.


Getting up this morning, I got my coffee and went to pull weeds in my ‘flood’ garden which I’d let go too long. Being on your hands and knees with Mother Earth is always productive, calming and meditative to me.

I had just got my gardens and greenhouse plants watered and set for the day when at 9:20 a.m., the electricity suddenly shut off. I called APS immediately. And they said they didn’t know what had caused it.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here is our hero--the APS guy--climbing our light pole to check out the transformer that blew.


I detoured to weed my garden because there was no electricity to do anything else with. It was time well spent. I went back at 10:20 a.m. and called APS again--and they were nonplussed. I got a lot more firm with them and demanded to know where the outage was and when could I get service back once more. It is hot and high humidity here--and we’re sweating bullets.


Copyright EIleen Nauman
As I rounded the turn at Maryann's place to start up Cardiac Hill, here is what met my gaze....

I called our neighbor who said he had electricity. At this point, I figured out transformer blew. He came up and was kind enough to locate the outside switches and threw them to see if the breakers had just flipped--they had not. About that time, APS showed up. Our neighbor, who is the soul of goodness and helpfulness (he had helped us move out all our valuables from the house during the Dec/2004 flood), went up to talk with the APS. This was all going on while Dave was gone, and my neighbor knew a lot more about electricity than I did--and I was grateful for his offer of help. It just goes to show that having good neighbors is a blessing in itself. And we have some wonderful ones like him and Mark/Sue.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Half way up Cardiac Hill, on the left, was this beautiful golden carpet that had sprung up over night! We've had weekly monsoons and they have acted like our normal winter rains for the Spring wildflowers. And here they were! Just showing once again how alive and how responsive our desert is to rain. Amazing!



Dave got home about 10:45 a.m. and I had already shot Linda’s jewelry with my Nikon D-70 SLR digital camera. I had them on a one gig card but with the electricity out, I couldn’t do much but wait.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here's the carpet of golden flower extending from the bank on up into the slope of Deer Mountain. Dramatic color and life in less than 24 hours! Who sez deserts aren't alive??!!!


The electricity finally came on at 11:30 a.m. and it was a blown transformer that had to be replaced. I made the most of this intrusion by just moving with my own, internal flow even though outwardly, it looked blocked. I still got things done. I even trimmed our star jasmine vines back along one of our walkways by the greenhouse, cleaned up a lot of old, dead leaves and swept the tiles clean. A lot got done even with such a shift/change in plans. I’ve always been one to go with the flow--and if one door shuts, another will open--guaranteed. And I got a lot done as a result without losing time or gnashing about the loss of electricity.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
I have been walking by this Juniper that has always been growing this way since we came here in 1989. And today, for the FIRST time, I see a huge bunch of Desert Four O Clocks blooming beneath its branches in the side of the clay bank! Isn't that something? Really beautiful. And, the tree reminds me of people--we may be out of balance, but we keep on growing anyway.



After lunch, I opened up the hogan, enlisted Dave’s help, and we started trundling box after box of books up to my new office. We had to put the painted shelves into the bookstands and this took nearly all afternoon. My books were in disorder and I needed to alphabetize them by topics. We didn’t get it all done--but it’s a start and that helped me a lot. Sometimes, change is good, feels good and helps us to clear our own path before us.

Another thing I wanted to accomplish today was photographing Linda Metzler’s jewelry.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here is Linda Metzler's 'heart necklace' which I just love. Her new ensemble is called "The Elements" and this represents the green of the ocean. You can view more of her incredible work on her blogsite which has a link below.

If you love hand created, innovative, magical jewelry (one-of-a-kind) just go visit her blog to see some of her incredible work (which is for sale) at:

Raven Wind Designs

Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here are the 'heart necklace earrings' that go with it. They are gorgeous!


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here is the "Bear Necklace" from the Fire Element of Linda's collection. Bear medicine is about the ability to heal not only yourself, but others.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here is the Fire Element Bear Necklace set.


Many of these things have been waiting on the back burner for a long, long time. And, free will choice invoked, I decided that by cleaning up and getting my hogan back to the way it was before the Dec/2004 flood, I would return to my spiritual roots of meditating and doing yoga daily.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Another monsoon gift of a wildflower popping up over night are these lovely, fragile looking Ground Cherries.


It’s always interesting to me to see where I detoured and took a fork in the road and walked away from my roots. Why do we do things like that? Distraction, in part. But also, being out of balance; in an extreme position. All things in moderation, as Millman says in his book. Easy to say, of course, tough to do. But I was bound and determined to physically manifest such a difference today. And I did. And I feel pretty good about it. It’s a start. I hope by early next week, to do a thorough cleaning on my sacred space and then get down to the serious task of self-care-taking and doing my meditation and yoga daily.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
This was a dramatic Thunder Being over the Mogollon Rim above Sedona near sunset; quite dramatic and having the anvil shape, a perfect photo!


We all lapse. We all fall away from something that works for us. And the reasons are as important and varied as their are people on this earth.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Mark usually passes me and Rocky on the way to Sunset Point on his ATV. Here he is stopping to say hello. You can see Carly, the Chijuaha in the left plastic milk carton and Prancer, his black and white dog, in the right one. Of course, Rocky is coming up to tell everyone hello too!

The key is in knowing when you’ve lost something good, something that brought you balance--and having the gumption to go after it, retrieve it, and get it back in good, working order inside one’s self again.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
As I climbed the last hill that would take us to Sunset Point, here was the 'fingers of light,' the slats of sunlight shooting through the clouds. It reminds me of halo of Mother Earth. Or maybe like you'd see a halo around Mother May's head...showing that all things are sacred and to be honored in the moment.


Oh, yesterday, synchronistically of course, an email came to me from Nikon. And you just wouldn't believe it--I just sat at my computer and roared with laughter! On the email was a Sharp Shinned Hawk head--close up and gorgeous. And next to it is this add for a NEW Nikor lens, 70-300 mm zoom lens--due out in October,2006. You know how I've been pining away for years for a zoom lens? To get close ups of all the wonderful birds that I see such as my beloved Turkey Buzzards, the Sharp Shinned Hawk in the vineyard the other night, the hawk that landed on the juniper near the road and was eating his dinner--but without a close up lens, I couldn't see enough to get a good picture.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here's Mark/Sue's doggy, Carly. She's just such a love. Usually, I have Milkbone doggy biscuits on me--but I ran out--so they didn't get anything tonight. Gotta go do my Sunday shopping and stock up on them! I love giving them treats.

Well, I drooled, salivated, whined and wished. And then I thought: darn it! I'm worth it!!! So, after saying no to a zoom lens since 2000 when I bought my D-70 Nikon, I went over to amazon.com and looked to see how much it was.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006 Here is one of our other neighbors who happen to be driving out of the canyon--Bob--and he saw all of us gathered up on Sunset Point and stopped to say hello. What great neighbors we have.

I cringed at the price--but darn it--this was a great lens--not too bulky or heavy and something I could easily carry at night on my hikes. So, I ordered it and decided not to worry about where the money was going to come from.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here is the reverse sunset--pink clouds over House Mountain and Echo Canyon. This was a wonderful sign to me--the pink of the heart chakra--about love and loving one's self and being in harmony from within. I found it a wonderful blessing.

The Universe would see that I had what I needed in order to buy this lens. And, it is on pre-order and I'm supposed too, according to the email, receive it via UPS right at the end of October. What an early Christmas gift!!! :-))) I'm happy I've done it. This is something I've wanted so long and so often that now that I've made a choice to get it--I wonder why I didn't do it years ago? I will now, soon, be able to get some incredible close up shots of my beloved relations. I am excited!


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
And here is tonight's sunset...8.12.06

In Spirit.....