Eight-legged Tales....

Hi Everyone!


Yesterday was one of those days that you just find magical, shocking and chaotic. As you recall, we started the day off with a green rattlesnake calmly lounging on my mother’s red tiles at the bottom of her stair steps. It was fortunate she didn’t go out the front door and onto the sun deck and step down those stairs. Usually, she goes out the back door, thank goodness. And her cat, Mozart, who is fourteen years old and doesn’t have a clue that a snake could hurt him, didn’t amble dumbly down those wooden stairs, ether.

And Dave was ten feet away, throwing gravel out of the pick up onto the road surface because the weekly monsoons were making it a little muddier than usual. If the snake had slithered off the red tiles, it would have head directly beneath his pickup. And there was the chance as he leaped out of the bed, of landing near enough to get bit by it--and he’d never seen it go beneath the truck.

Lots of luck yesterday.

And after we put the snake in the snake bagger and released him, I thought the day would begin to wind down--but it didn’t. Which is why I’m using today’s blog to cover other incidents and events that occurred after I posted the July 20th blog!

After my hike, we buttoned up for the night by last minute watering on certain plants, closing up the greenhouse, getting the horse’s fly mask off, feeding her and locking her up for the night. There’s a lot of little chores around her before we can really call it a night. And usually, by that time, it really is dark!

As I was finishing up last night, I heard our two resident Great Horned Owls hooting to one another just across Oak Creek and near our house. It was nice to heart them. The female has a more melodic, softer hoot and the male has a longer, more dramatic and stronger hoot. It’s easy to tell them apart. I was wishing I could get photos of them, but the trees along Oak Creek are thick and profuse, not lending itself to find these two largest owls in the USA. Instead, I enjoyed their night calls to one another.

After listing the blog, I got ready to go to bed. It felt great to get the sweat and salt off my skin with a wonderfully hot bath. Sweating is such a normal thing in Arizona at this time of year and Dave can go through two or three t-shirts a day--just perspiring. Plus, we are having the hottest July on record--ugh--and that doesn’t help either.

I was walking quickly through the house to go to our bedroom. I zoomed down the hall and as I made a quick right turn into my book room, there on the ivory carpet was--

-- a tarantula!!

Yep, there he was. Looking terribly out of place on our ivory nubby carpet. I screeched to a halt, nearly falling over myself when I spotted him in the middle of the room.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Now, put yourself in MY place and you saw THIS on your carpet! What would YOU have done??!!

“Now, what are you doing in HERE?” I asked him, putting my hands on my hips.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here's another angle of our 'friend' who visited us last night...think about that at night and you wouldn't see him on the way to the bathroom.....

He just sat there. A very young tarantula, he wasn’t really as big as the ones I see outdoors all the time on my hike. But, he was big enough to cover the palm of my hand and I don’t have small hands.

And then I wondered: Oh, geeze, how long has been in OUR house??!!!


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here's our friendly neighborhood Tarantula who dropped by for a visit!

That was an uncomfortable question and I had no answer to it--which was even more uncomfortable. The only other time we had a tarantula come inside our home was shortly after we moved in. Dave was vacuuming the living room rug by the window. He moved some curtains aside and this huge golden abdomen female tarantula fell off the curtain. Dave let out a yelp, jumped six feet backward and couldn’t believe his eyes. The female tarantulas are golden bodied and are HUGE compared to their male counterparts. And this one was a grandmother--she could easily sit on a dinner plate and cover about 2/3rds of it with her 8-legged circumference!

It was me who found a bottle with a wide mouth to place over Grandmother and then gently and carefully slide a piece of cardboard beneath it to carry her outside. Tarantulas are very gentle spiders. They are very smart, too. As I think I said before, if you startle or scare the beejeusus out of one--it can leap SIX FEET in ANY DIRECTION. So, you stop and think about THAT possibility for a moment before you approach one.

They could leap on you and you’d be shrieking, screaming,flailing around and leaping out of YOUR skin if that happened!

Tarantulas rarely bite. And they are not poisonous, nor can they kill you; so those are all good things to keep in mind when dealing with one.

Also, Tarantulas survive mostly through their FEET. Their feet, all eight of ‘em, are highly sensitized to motion, vibration, taste, smell, and feel. Yes, Tarantulas have eyes and they can certainly see, too. But it’s their FEET that are their life and survival, really. That’s why, when one must capture one, you really want to be very careful and gentle with their little footsies...all eight of ‘em...

I told the male Tarantula to stay where he was and went to the pantry to get my glass and cardboard. Dave came along, in disbelief. “Doesn’t this stuff ever end tonight?” he asked. I laughed. I got my camera--made darned sure the card was in it this time because I was not going to allow two opportunities slip through my hands today....I’d lost shots of the beautiful green rattlesnake to no card in my Nikon.

Not this time! I double checked my camera and then took several shots. The Tarantula was not bothered by the flash of the camera, nor was he feeling in the least threatened. If they are feeling threatened, they stick their abdomens up in the air. But, he just sat there on our ivory carpet letting us take pictures.

When I was done, I told him mentally that I was going to have to carefully capture him in a large plastic cup--and that I would not hurt him--and that I’d release him out our front door. I knelt down quietly next to him--off to the side. And then I put the plastic glass over him, taking care not to mash, accidentally, one of his eight feet. Once that was done, I was even more careful sliding the cardboard beneath the mouth of the glass.

Once the cardboard nudged one of his feet, the Tarantula immediately ran up into the glass. It was easy, then, to put the cardboard over the end, tip it on its side and then carry him outside. The glass is fairly large and you can see my hands on either end of it. The ribbing on the glass magnifies the Tarantula, but you can still see him in there. He’s really a small one, considering everything.


Copyright David Nauman 2006
Here's my capture glass and I'm holding our visitor up so that can see through the plastic.

Outdoors, in the dark, I put the glass on the ground and took off the cardboard from the top of it. Tipping the glass up just a little, the Tarantula slide out and onto the ground. Again, he did not stick his butt up in the air as a threatening gesture. Nope, he just ambled off in Tarantula speed like nothing had ever happened to him! Tarantula’s walk in what I call ‘slow motion’; their legs are so long and hairy and they remind me of a ballerina moving one foot at a time. I never tire of watching a Tarantula walk; they are so graceful.

Of course, in bed that tonight you being to wonder: just how LONG has that Tarantula been in our house? The cats have, in the past, carried in a lot of lizards, small to large, a coach whip snake (that was fun to catch as he slithered in and around our couch!) But never a Tarantula. We know that Grandmother got in because we’d left the sliding screen door on the creek side open to our sun deck. I believe this one got in through another sliding screen on the sun deck near our spa--the door had been left ajar for a couple weeks for one of our cats, Bandy, who liked that way out of the house instead of through our cat door at another part of our home.

And laying there, you think: geeze, Tarantulas are active all NIGHT. They sleep in the day (which is why you’d never see them or find them in the house). And they come out at late dusk, when almost dark...which is what this one did. Luckily, I found it in the middle of the carpet--really hard to miss!

And then you think: getting up in the middle of the night to pee...and what if you STEPPED on him? I always ran to the bathroom, which sat across from the bedroom with the book room in between...in the DARK! I knew it by heart. However, the idea of stepping on a Tarantula you were not expecting to being the house--oh geeze!!!! They are so LARGE. And they have an armored exoskeleton so I can’t even begin to want to think what kind of cracking, crunching noise that would make--not to mention--to kill the gentle giant. I don’t know if I’d be more upset on stepping on one or killing it!

Your mind runs rampant to the fact that your bedding hangs on the floor....and what if the Tarantula was in our bedroom, crawled up that loose bedding and then was on OUR bed where WE slept! That kept me awake most of the night! I love spiders but not having a big, hairy giant come in slow motion to crawl over my arm, across my head or under the covers!!

And we really don’t know how long that Tarantula was in our house....


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here are some of our orange Cana Lily shortly after our 20 minute monsoon in the canyon today...everyone was singing and saying thank you for the rain!

I do have one more Tarantula story....we actually had three visits from them so far, since living here. Dave and Grandmother was a whopper. I heard Dave’s shriek half a house away! I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so shaken up, hahahaha.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Our colorful clown-faced Caladiums loved the rain. They were just stretching their little stem necks to get some of those life-giving drops of liquid.


The second time was at night...before we had a second bathroom built. I had to pee and it was around three a.m. as I blindly, half asleep, made it to the bathroom just off the kitchen. I didn’t bother turning on the light because it would wake me up. I sat down. There was moonlight streaming through the frilly curtains at the window to the left of me.

Something caught my attention. Dave had a wooden magazine rack where he placed his favorite reading material. I saw something dark sitting on top of the books--less than two inches from my thigh. Blinking several times, my eyes bad because I’m blind as a bath without my glasses, I squinted at the dark blob on top of the books. What was it? The moonlight got stronger as a cloud passed it and then, my eyes got huge. There, on top of the magazine rack, was the biggest male Tarantula I’d ever seen (then or now....). It was the size of my fist! And there was less than two inches separating him and me.

Now, consider this: you’re on the pot. And just where do you think you’re going to do in the middle of your business? And what if the Tarantula gets threatened? I’m only two inches away and there’s a wall on the opposite side of the spider. So where do I think he’ll leap if agitated? Why, on me! I sat there, frozen and contemplating my black bathroom humor of possibilities if this monster of a spider wanted to take one angling step toward me--he was so big that two inches was nothing and he could easily pick up one of his hairy, thick legs and touch me without really even trying.

I was stuck in more ways than one. I sat there talking mentally to the Tarantula, telling him I meant him no harm and would he please remain quiet and stand still? I didn’t even reach for the toilet paper dispenser which was less than six inches from where he sat, and a little above him. I did not want to startle him. What to do? What to do?

I was fully awake by now. WIDE awake! If i moved,it might startle the spider and he’d leap. Most likely in my direction since the wall was there. Where would I leap too? Not many places. If I leaped off the toilet and straight ahead, I ended up in the bath tub! My only way out was to the right and the bathroom door was open. And that’s the only way the spider could leap, too. The bath tub curtain was across the tub, so the spider, I’m sure, could see it as another wall. Nope, only one place to leap--at me--to the right.

I must have sat there for a good five minutes debating my options. A part of me wanted to jump off the toilet seat and race away. Another part said: “Dumb move,Eileen, you’ll rattle the spider and he’ll jump at you....”

argghgghhhhh! What do you do when your biggest desire is to RUN and you can’t? A toilet seat feels like being imprisoned. The bathroom, already small, feels like it’s closing in on you and I could hear the drums beating in time as the walls closed in around me....funny how at 3:00 a.m., your drowsy creative mind unravels all this scary stuff. To be rudely shaken out of deep sleep to see this giant spider two inches away from your thigh....well....you get the picture!

Finally, I couldn’t bear it any longer. I told the Tarantula I was going ease very quietly off the toilet seat and slowly move toward the door. Forget the toilet paper. Forget flushing the toilet. Forget standing up straight, too. If someone were filming this, I’m sure I looked like a slug oozing off the toilet seat very, very slowly. One hand was gripping the counter for balance. The other hand was pulled as far away from Spidey as I could get it. Time felt like it was holding its breath. I moved at a crawl, hoping that I made no sounds getting off the pot. I was hoping the toilet seat wouldn’t creak, either.

Like fog sliding down over a rock, I slid off the toilet seat in a mid-crouch, my pj’s around my ankles and thinking I was going to trip over them and kill myself anyway. I could see the headlines in the paper: Woman Falls off Toilet Seat and Dies In Fall....

The Tarantula could leap at ANY time. I knew that. I was scuttling along, my pj’s twisting around my ankles and making it difficult to inch forward hardly at all. I was in dire straights of tripping and falling flat on my face! My knuckles were white as I gripped the counter, still in my toilet seat crouch position. I thought: “Boy, this Tarantula's getting one hell of a scope of my butt!” I could not pull my pj’s up for fear of startling the spider and him leaping at me. I started giggling half way out of the bathroom imaging the huge,bulghy white, fleshy view the Tarantula had of me! What must HE be thinking? Was the newspaper headline going to read: “Tarantula Killed In Gas Attack By A Human...."

Somehow, I waddled, creeped, and awkwardly, like a duck caught up in duct tape, shuffled out of the bathroom and into the hall. The Tarantula was still sitting quietly on top of the magazine rack. Whew! Relief shot through me. Quickly, I grabbed my pj’s and yanked them up to my waist. I made a beeline for the big capture glass and cardboard that I kept in the pantry.

The Tarantula was so big he woudn’t fit inside it! Drat! By this time, of course, I had flipped on the bathroom light and poked my head cautiously around the corner to make sure he was still there. Yep, he was.

Wide awake now, I had to go out to the service porch to find a huge quart plastic jar with a wide mouth. I brought it back. The Tarantula wouldn’t fit in that, either! Double drat!

Muttering, completely awake now, I went stalking and prowling like a dog on a hunt around our house trying to find something large enough to capture this bathroom intruder. I finally settled on a one-gallon red plastic bucket. Somehow, I was going to have to encourage the spider into the bucket--but then--he could leap out of it, too. I brought along a towel large enough to throw over the top of it.

All this maneuvering and figuring out took me until about 3:30 a.m. and by the time I let the Tarantula loose out in the moonlight of our orchard, I was so wide awake it was senseless trying to go back to sleep. So, I stayed up, made myself some early morning coffee and read a good book. When Dave got up the next morning around seven a.m., he wanted to know what I was doing out in the living room at this hour reading. Boy, did I have a story to tell him!!!


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
This is the first time I've seen veils of rain from Thunder Beings at sunset--a gorgeous fuschia color!

The hike out of the canyon tonight was monsoons all around us. Earlier in the day, we got a good 20 minute soaking! And as I hiked up and out tonight, more rain. It felt delicious against the heat. By the time Rocky and I got up to Sunset Point, we were in for a wonderful surprise! I hope you enjoy the photos!


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
This is a panorama shot. The veils of rain from the Thunder Beings are turning pink because the slant of the sun is below the horizon. It is just an incredibly beautiful shot--I've never seen rain veils at sunset turn colors...lucky me...I got to experience it tonight!


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here's an earlier shot with the sun going down--looks like an 'eye'

In Spirit....

ASTROLOGY: Chiron Return at Age 50!

Hi Everyone!

One of my athenians said she was going to have a birthday shortly and would turn 50! That is known as the Chiron age. And 50 becomes a turning point in many ways, in our life.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Well, I think this is appropriate for tonight's topic! Buzzards are about dying and they symbolize the carrying of the soul to heaven or the Other Side. Here they are at dusk, high on the wall of Echo Canyon, circling. They do this often. When the sun comes up, they open their wings and allow the sun to dry them off. Then, they take off on individual sky trails and the clan of about twenty doesn't see one another until they come back to our canyon at dusk to gather and sit together as a family. Often, it's as if they are joyous at seeing one another after being alone all day and they circle and 'play' in spirals of updrafts. It's beautiful to watch. I hope you can see them in this photo!

And synchronistically,magically, guess who showed up on my mother’s red tile step that leads up to her sun deck and into her mobile home while I was writing this? Why, a green rattlesnake, of course!! And Mercury being retrograde and me being a Gemini (Gemini’s and Virgos are always doubly dogged when Mercury,their ruling planet, is retrograde--we’re more or less brain dead during those times...duh....), I grabbed my trusty camera once Dave got the snake bagger equipment--but there was no card in it. So, I snapped photos of the snake being released up at Dead Man’s corner, about 1.5 miles from our house, and no photos. Drats. Well, that will teach me to always put the card back IN the camera and don’t leave it laying on my desk near my computer.

Anyway, I had gone out at 5:15 p.m. tonight to tell Dave, who was putting gravel from the truck in front of my Mom’s house, on the road, that there had been a tornado warning for the Sedona area--and we’re only eight miles south of Sedona. As I told him, I started to go around the truck to run up to my Mom’s stairs to tell her. I screeched to a halt. There, laid out was a beautiful green rattler about 2.5 feet long and it had seven rattles on its tail. It was just laying there and wasn’t fussed up or rattling because of the noise or us being so near it.

I called Dave immediately and told him to run and get the snake bagger kit. He handed me the shovel because I didn’t want the rattler to get away. And sure enough, the snake started to move and I had to put the shovel between it and the slats between the stairs where he was headed. That did get him upset and he rattled and coiled and flicked his black tongue. I kept telling it telepathically that we weren’t going to hurt it and waited for Dave to arrive.

Snake Dave, as we call ‘em, put the gentle jaws on the back of the snake’s head and expertly put him in the double muslin cloth snake bag. I got the keys to the truck and started it. Dave wrapped the bag and set it in the truck bed and off we drove!

Up at Dead Man’s Corner, (this is a 90 degree bend in the dirt road where you cannot see who is coming) we parked and I peeked inside the bag. The rattler was climbing the sides and wanting out. So, Dave obliged him. We took more photos and let him slither off over the edge and down into a nice rocky ravine where he can live in peace without human encroachment.

I laughed on the way back to our place when I told Dave I was writing about ‘wounds’/Chiron and the fact that Chiron got severely wounded by the Hydra, a 9-headed snake/dragon with its poisonous blood. And who shows up? Why, the most poisonous rattlesnake in Arizona to reflect this!! I just love it! I feel such harmony when we’re talking about something and nearly instantaneously, it is reflected back to us through Nature. Helluva phone line if you asked me!

I’m bummed there are no photos...but it wasn’t meant to be. And by the way, this was NOT the rattlesnake we found in the horse barn last week, either--it was much darker looking, much bigger than this one. So, we keep watch out for it too--but it has not been back into the barn...but we stay alert...


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
On tonight's two mile walk, I was hoping to find some flowers in bloom because of the two monsoons we've had in the last two weeks. All the Chaparral is in bloom. They have five petaled flowers. You can see that they are making the little green seed pods after being pollinated.

Back to wounding and Chiron!

In order to understand what Chiron is, we need to know three things. First of all, Chiron is the name of an asteroid out in space that is used by astrologers when they cast a natal chart for a client.

Chiron is also known as the Centaur constellation up in the sky--but has no impact directly on the Chiron Return (50 year orbit around the sun). So, don’t confuse the constellation with the asteroid! Astrologers use the asteroid.

Thirdly, Chiron is a myth from the time of the Greeks and without knowing the myth, you won’t understand about your Chiron return, so let’s look at one website that has an excellent way of putting all of this into a fairly digestible chunk to swallow--and then we’ll get on with how all this impacts us at 50 today, in the 21st Century.

Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
What do you see out on the desert? Anything? The desert is very good at camoflauging things. You learn to develop a different set of eyes as you walk in it. To your right is the Desert Four O'Clock plant!

THE MYTH OF CHIRON:


Chiron In Mythology
Chiron was known as a wise teacher, healer, and prophet. Chiron's father was Kronus (Saturn) and his mother was a beautiful nymph named Philyra. Kronus was a harsh, devouring father god – and he met the nymph Philyra while on one of his many searches to find and then destroy his (at that time) baby son, Zeus.

Upon seeing Philyra, Kronus was instantaneously was filled with desire (i.e. he got serious case of the hots). But the nymph Philyra did not share in his feelings and desires. So Philyra turned herself into a mare in the attempt to flee the desirous advances of Kronus. But Kronus likewise transformed himself into a stallion and thus was able to consummate his overwhelming desire to mate with the nymph, Philyra.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here's what you would have missed if you had been not looking real hard. Walking the desert and really seeing things you must be grounded and focused. Aren't these beautiful? These are Desert Four O'Clocks. They open up at dusk, stay open all night and usually, around nine a.m., are closed back up. That way, they can weather the heat of the day and take advantage of the coolness of the desert nights. These flowers are completely dependent upon rain. They did not bloom this Spring because we had no rain. But, two monsoons two weeks in a row--and here they are! Our road is like an avenue paved with them on the northern side of it. There are huge moths, about the size of hummingbirds, that pollinate them and they go whizzing around and you'd swear you're getting dive bombed--but you really aren't.

Initial Wounding
By the time Chiron is born, Kronus is gone. Philyra, upon seeing her newborn son Chiron (obviously a centaur - half man and half horse), is so disgusted and appalled that she rejects and abandons her child. That's the really bad, tragic news for young Chiron…. Abandoned and rejected by his parents, the very ones who should have been there to love and nurture young Chiron.

The redeeming news is Chiron was then adopted by the sun god Apollo. (Time and chronology in Greek Mythology is often a little... er… unusual – since Kronus was Apollo's grandfather and Chiron's father. So Apollo is actually Chiron's nephew. So go figure….)

Upon becoming Chiron's foster parent, Apollo (god of music, prophecy, poetry, and healing) taught Chiron all that he knew. As a result, Chiron became mentor to the sons of kings and many of the most famous Greek heroes, including Jason (of the original Jason and the Argonauts), Asclepius (who became a famous healer in his own right), Achilles, and Hercules.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
If I hadn't been keeping a keen eye out, I'd have missed this important gift from Spirit tonight: a Red Tail Hawk feather! There it was, in the middle of the road! I was amazed! It was very old and pretty tattered and beat up by the weather over the years, I would estimate. It must have fallen out of our Red Tail years earlier up above on the hill above the road and tonight, it found its way to my feet. We consider feathers messengers. So, indeed, a pretty important message will arrived in a day or two to me, I'm sure.

Second Wounding
Speaking of Hercules (Herakles, for you Greek mythology purists)... Hercules tragically plays the next starring role in the saga of how his mentor Chiron came to be known as a "wounded healer."

Second Wounding
Hercules always seemed to be at odds with the centaurs (and it was eventually to be a centaur who destroyed Hercules). During a skirmish with a rowdy bunch of centaurs (who were all scattering and heading for the hills) – Hercules carelessly, accidentally wounded his friend and mentor, Chiron, in the knee with one of his arrows. The arrows Hercules had chosen to use on this particular day were arrows coated with the blood of the monster Hydra
(Hydra (mythology), in Greek mythology, nine-headed monster that dwelled in a marsh near Lerna, Greece. A menace to all of Árgos, it had fatally poisonous breath and when one head was severed, grew two in its place; its central head was immortal. Hercules, sent to kill the serpent as the second of his 12 labors, succeeded in slaying it by burning off the eight mortal heads and burying the ninth, immortal head under a huge rock. The term hydra is commonly applied to any complex situation or problem that continually poses compounded difficulties.--ENCARTA RESOURCE ).

Arrows coated with the blood of the Hydra were known to cause painful wounds that would never heal. And being an immortal, Chiron having a wound that would never heal was a way serious problem.... Chiron would never be able to heal from the wound caused by Hercules, and being immortal he could never die...

Catch 22...
And so after a long passing of time, with no relief, the wound caused Chiron much severe pain... Hercules (who had been the one responsible for wounding Chiron in the first place) then worked out a bargain with the gods.

The Deal
Here's the bargain that Hercules worked out... The Titan god, Prometheus, had been chained to a rock by the chief ruling god of Olympia, Zeus. Being bound to the rock was Prometheus' punishment for the crime of stealing holy fire from Olympia and giving the holy fire to humanity.

Each day (some versions say every other day) the eagle was sent by Zeus. The eagle would come and eat Prometheus' liver. At night Prometheus' liver would heal itself. So the eagle would come back again the next day for his daily liver snacks.

As stipulated by Zeus - Prometheus could only be released if (and when) an immortal offered to go to Tartarus (i.e. a Greek version of hell) and take his place. Going to Tartarus would mean the immortal was giving up his status as an immortal and would die.

The immortal (but wounded) centaur, Chiron, agreed to take the place of Prometheus in Tartarus. So when Chiron traveled to Tartarus, he was eventually able to die. Upon Chiron's death, he was finally released from the painful wound that would never heal. Chiron was then honored with the constellation of Centaurus.

Chiron In Astrology
In the birth chart, Chiron reflects the archetypal energies of the shamanic wounded healer and teacher who potentially lives within each one of us. Chiron's placement in the birth chart reflects an accidental wounding we received (most often, but not always, in early childhood). This Chironian wounding is an injury to our instinctual nature and a wounding of trust.

The wounding was generally brought about as the result of a stupid, careless, thoughtless accident... so normally there's no one who can be blamed with purposely, intentionally, maliciously wounding us. The wounding was generally done by someone close to us... someone we thought well of and trusted.

So the wounding is a wounding of trust... And, further... a Chironian wound is an injury that will never, ever totally heal. We learn, suffer, and grow from dealing with this sensitive area of wounded instinct and trust... but the wounding will never totally heal and go away.

This Chironian wounding can, later in life and after much personal struggle, then become a special area where we can help others by sharing our healing and teaching abilities.
SOURCE: http://astrology.about.com/library/weekly/aa031300b.htm

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?

There are several things that occur on your 50th birthday that astrologersr call your Chiron Return. It takes this asteroid in the asteroid belt, fifty years to make one circuit around the sun. Most of us have one Chiron Return, although we can have two if we live to be one-hundred!! For some people, it’s a time of release, freedom and celebration. For others, it’s a dark cloud on the horizon that is menacing and threatening. Still, for others, it’s a time of deciding what to do with the rest of your life! You will find yourself somewhere below.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Looking East over the canyon wall, there was a beautiful dying thunderstorm; and I loved the play of light with dark in the dusk sky.

1. Have you noticed how many men die of heart attacks at age 50? It’s an amazing number! Or, you hear of a man or woman (friend, relative, spouse) who succumbs to a chronic disease at this year in their life?

There’s a reason for this--and one that is totally avoidable in my opinion as a medical astrologer who has done thousands of charts, worldwide, over the years. Those who do not address and work through their wound(s)--whatever they are--then they’ve not fulfilled their learning contract to work on said wounding....and so the wound ends up crippling them for the rest of their life (just as Chiron was shot in the knee with the poison tipped arrow and could not die...but suffered terribly on and on...) until they do die from it, eventully...but it’s usually a long, slow descent to dying.

We need to define ‘wound’ here. In the astrology info above they say it’s about trust. But if you look at Chiron’s mythology....it was about stupid Hercules, the teenage dolt who is all hormones and no brains...accidentally shooting his mentor and teacher. We can say that one of your parents may have accidentally put you as a baby or young child, without thinking...into some situation where you were traumatized (fear/shock/ect)...and were wounded. This wound burned into your soul, even if your unthinking parent didn’t realize it...they will soon enough. Or, it could have been a kindergarten teacher. Or a care giver at a place where children too young for school are kept during the day so both parents can work--and the caregiver did something just as unthinking to you. Or, it could have been a grade school teacher--same type of situation--unthinking/distracted/not grounded--and you paid for it with being wounded as a result.

And we all know we all get wounded. Wounds, to me, are like a poison or a toxin within us that we need to discharge. The sooner the better. We all know we WILL get wounded because that’s the name of the game down here. If we aren’t wounded, we don’t struggle, grow, learn, become stronger despite the wound, and mature despite whatever odds are sitting/blocking us. It is more important we know WHAT our wounds are. Not who did it--although we will have to work through that, too, and learn to try and forgive them if we can. Sometimes, that is possible. Sometimes, it is not.

So,we all got wounds! The wound could be abandonment issues (just as Chiron, as a baby, was abandoned by his mother because he was less than perfect, i.e., half horse, half human), trust issues, selfishness, narcism, jealousy, competitiveness, humiliation, lack of self-esteem, victim mentality, abused, sexually molested/raped, rejection, caregiving, anger, lack of belief in abilities, ect.,ect.

And the person who has AVOIDED dealing with their wounding for fifty years--well, the jig’s up at fifty from an astrological viewpoint. And people take on a chronic illness to give them the time to focus on what is eating them up from the inside out....or what darkness is within them that has been infecting and destroying them from the inside out. Chronic disease always gives one a long, long time to sit and think and work on things they wouldn’t ordinarily if they were health. It’s a path some choose to take. One way or another, our WOUNDS to get our attention. It just becomes then, a question of how they get our attention. You can ignore them until fifty and get good and ill to deal with them at this time, is one way.

I sincerely believe if these people had realized that their wounds don’t go away just because they suppress or repress them, they’d have started working on them a soon as they ‘got it’ that a wound can bring on disease. No one likes to be sick. And having a chronic illness is the pits. But it is a heavy duty teacher and it will change us. The second way....

3. There are those who have been working through their wounds from the time they received it/them. To me, this is the smart decision to make. These people may get therapy, for example, to help them work through their wounds. Or, they be conscious of their wounds and make a conerted effort to heal them. Another example would be someone who was abused as a child. As they grow up, they see they are becoming just like the abuser parent. They make a choice NOT to be like that and do not take out the abuse pattern on anyone--rather--they make up their minds to change and not be like that. By the time they are 50, they have usually worked through the bulk of it (but this does not mean they’ve worked through all of it), so they are going to have good health until the day they decide to transit this place and move on (die).

4. Another phenomena takes place at age 50: We realize we are no longer immortal. In our youth, we think we’ll live forever. Actually, we don’t ever think about getting OLD, much less, DYING. At 50, we realize all of this in a pretty heavy, in-your-face realization. How we adjust to it really depends upon a ton of things like your view on life, your belief system, whether you’re a glass half full or half empty kind of person. At the most positive, this is a kick in the butt to start up the second half of your life and have a lot of fun doing things you wanted to do earlier--but could not due to a lot of other responsibilities like making a living, getting married, having children, raising them, ect. At some point, you kick the kids out (hopefully at 18) and you get on with YOUR life, then!

5. If you’ve been working diligently on your wounds and you hit 50, then you usually get a hiatus/rest for awhile....but generally speaking, around 58 to 60, your second Saturn Return (another blog another time), you get a chance to work on that worst wound once more. And usually, in a 2.5 year period, you will be challenged with a situation/event/person that will trigger that wound fully so that you can finally clean it all out, get rid/discharge the rest of it, and then at around 60-61--really be able to truly enjoy the rest of your life--sorta like a cosmic party ongoing until you decide to transit! I the multi-headed hydra (i love this 9 heads...) raises its head at you one more time, take the bull by the horns, or the dragon by its horns, and deal with it like you did the rest of your wounds in the past. You will be successful and then you can move past this last bit of discharge.

6. Your Chiron Return also makes you realize what you have done in your life by looking backward over it. And, it makes you realize what you have not accomplished and what you want to do before you transit this plane. Often, at age 50, many people quit their day job and move into a hobby or another career they REALLY wanted, but didn’t think they could ever have. They may retire. They may get divorced. They may get remarried. They may move. They will do something big to change up the quality of their life and lifestyle. At 50, it looks feasible and so people make these huge turns on their path to head in a new, vigorous, exciting and rewarding direction with their life! Many menopausal women get out of the house frau routine and cut loose and plug into their awesome creativity. That may mean starting up a cottage business, or a big business, or some creative pursuit or going to college or....the list is endless!

You should look forward to your 50th birthday! It’s a great place, after living here a half a century, and good to look forward to see what you want to do with the other half of your life!

HOW CAN I KNOW IF MY CHIRON RETURN IS GOING TO BE GOOD OR NOT?

You can hire a professional astrologer. They can plot, via the ephemeris,where Chiron is at in your natal chart. By looking at the aspects (mathematical distance) between Chiron and other planets or positions in your chart, you can get a very good idea of what you’re Chiron Return is going to be like.

I suggest the following professional astrologers:

Rosemarie Brown

Gracee Verte

Gail Carswell

You can't go wrong with any of these professional astrologers. They can help you plot your course with your Chiron Return and even plan a party for it and yourself!


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Our sunset tonight

In Spirit....

ASTROLOGY: Mercury goes Direct July 29, 2006

Hi Everyone!

My mother is an astrologer and naturally, as a child, I would pick up her books and try to read them. I’m sure not much of it stuck, but I did pick up her love of the science. I ended up making medical astrology my career path. There’s many types of astrology, but medical is the most complex because it involves three different disciplines that you must be proficient in--in order to be a medical astrologer.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
This is the 'full' photo from last night's spectacular--and lucky--photo I took! I made some copies of it for my neighbors, George and Mark,and they just wowed over it, too. The photo was shown this morning on Channel 15, Phoenix, AZ, on their morning show! I was asleep at the time, but Dave, by luck, happen to see it!

You have to know medicine and have some training in it. I got my medical training by being an EMT, emergency medical technician, plus taking courses in biology and physiology and anatomy at Kent State University, Stark County Campus in Ohio. And, you have to know nutrition. I ended up using Kent State and Akron University for 2.5 years trying to understand vitamins and minerals. I used to have a dozen books in their technical libraries, surrounding me as i read, tried to understand the heavy science language and figure out what they were saying. This study birthed my book, Medical Astrology, which was one of the first books I ever sold. And that was in 1988. It’s still in print and I own the print rights now. It is sold around the world, is in Portuguese in Brazil, in Dutch for the Netherlands and there is software available in Russian, English and Spanish on it as well. That 2.5 years of study paid off in so many ways.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
This is our ever present, wonderful, powerful Chaparral plant (bush). Because of the two monsoons in our canyon, it has burst out in yellow blooms. This plant gives off a very medicine-like odor when rain strikes it. I love this photo because it shows how alive and beautiful our desert really is.



Then, you have to be proficient at astrology. You’re wrapping three major disciplines into one. And there aren’t many medical astrolgers in the world. Just a handful, but they are brilliant people and most have written books on the topic, as I did.

Tonight, you get to see my astrology facet of myself. I will write articles from time to time and post them here and on my website, medicinegarden.com. I feel we can use astrology as a tool--you don’t have to believe in it to get it to work for you. So, stick around and read my articles and see if you see that planet’s energy at work in your life or not!




MERCURY IS GOING DIRECT on July 28, 2006

by Eileen Nauman





Copyright 2006 Eileen Nauman
All Rights Reserved




http://www.medicinegarden.com
http://www.whatflowerareyou.com
http://www.talesfromechocanyon.blogspot.com

Email: docbones224@earthlink.net

Permission to share with friends.

Permission must be gotten from me to post on any website.




HOW DOES THIS MERCURY GOING DIRECT AFFECT ME?

Mercury is the ruler of communication. I would strongly urge all of you to go the http://www.medicinegarden.com and find useful articles in our ASTROLOGY DEPARTMENT.


WHO IS AFFECTED DIRECTLY ON July 28, 2006?

Mercury goes direct on July 28, 2 006 at 21 degrees of Cancer 04 minutes (opposite sign is 21 Capricorn 04) at 5:40 p.m. PDT. This means CANCER people with birthdays July 12th through the 16th, with July 14th as the most affected day, are involved in this planetary movement. This includes not only Cancer folks. By opposite sign, CAPRICORN, those most affected are born between January 8th through the 13th are involved with January the 11th, being the most affected.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here is a Turkey Vulture, one of the clan of fifteen that live half the year in our canyon. To my surprise, he flew VERY close to me. Here he is coming in for a landing on a nearby Juniper tree!

WHO ELSE CAN BE AFFECTED IN THIS DIRECT MOTION?

Anyone with planets between 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23 degrees of any sign, are affected by this. Or if you have your ascendant or midheaven is at one of these degrees, you will be affected. The most affected degree is 21, and that is the degree that Mercury goes direct on.

MERCURY DIRECT AT AN IMPORTANT TIME IN THE COSMOS

Usually, Mercury turning direct is pretty ho-hum. There’s little impact seen outside of those directly affected by it from a degree/sign standpoint. However, this July, 2006, is a horse of a different color and you may want to take advantage of this seemingly chaotic month. July isa relatively ‘quiet’ month transit-wise, with the eclipses taking place in September, instead. With Jupiter having gone direct on July 6th, the pressure is off finances for now. And most of July is cleaning up debris in our personal and professional life. A big ‘catching up’ time, if you will.


I see that Mercury going direct shortly before this event is preparing us. For what?

Global Shift

Mercury direct requires we be grounded. And if you don’t know how to ‘ground’ here’s a quick, easy way to do it on the day that this Eclipse occurs so you can take full part in it: Visualize beautiful silver tree roots gently entwining a couple of times around each of your ankles. Visualize or see the tip of the tree root going down through the center of each of your feet. See this tree root then moving 100 to 200 feet down into Mother Earth.

Now, that’s easy enough to do! So be sure to do it. Take time out on July 28th to be quiet, meditate, use your Vesica Piscis circles. Working with this symbol on direct and retrograde motion of planets can be profound and wonderful.

We are having a lifetime events continuing to occur between now and 2012.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here is the buzzard! I was about twenty feet away from him. It was an amazing synchronistic event. Why? Because buzzards simply do NOT get near humans. They stay far, far away from us! I was amazed and I knew the buzzard, who is one of my spirit guardians, had a message for me. I walked quietly to the edge of the dirt road and looked down at him. He looked up at me. I asked him what message he had for me and he told me. I thanked him and took his picture. He never flew off! I've lived in this canyon since 1989 and never seen a buzzard roost this close to the road, to humans and human traffic. What a magical event!




WHAT MERCURY DIRECT MEANS TO US

Here's a list of some of the things you can expect from a Mercury going DIRECT. Keep in mind that they won't all happen to you! Just one or two, usually. However, if you have a natal Mercury in conjunction with the transiting (daily motion of a planet) Mercury, then your life is going to be strongly affected by that retrograde!! The only way you can find this out is to contact an astrologer and have them look at your transits to determine this. Rosemarie Brown is our core faculty astrologer and you can "hire" her to do this for you. Just contact her at: starrose@sedona.net or http://www.rosemariebrown.com.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT?

First of all, any LIES, DECEPTION, FRAUD and trying to hide pertinent and lifesaving information to the public, is going to be EXPOSED. Particularly watch the ‘shadow’ week before Mercury goes direct. This would be July 21, 2006 through July 27, 2006, or what I refer to as the ‘shadow time’ before it goes direct. Lots of information will bubble up to the surface.

Any type of transportation, which falls under Mercury, can be a target during the time it was retrograde; subways, busses, planes, trucks, and trains. We all need stay watchful during this time; especially the last five days before it goes direct. We are in the ‘shadow’ time right now, and that makes it more intense than usual.

WHAT OTHER THINGS CAN MERCURY DIRECT DO?

1. Expect to be decisive on your part--or on the part of others. People have been muddling around, hesitate, or won't be sure of themselves under a retrograde. Making a decision during a Mercury. direct transit--whatever they decided to do will remain as such. It will not change. Men and women will no longer be miscommunication. One is speaking Chinese and the other, French!! Well, now they at least will be speaking the SAME language. Partners have had to really work at saying what they really mean because assumptions will no longer abound during this time and what you say is how how you meant it. Big-time communications snafus will no longer complicate your life on a personal and professional level. No more foot-in-mouth disease as Mercury turns direct!!!

2. Signing a contract, agree to something, buy a car/boat/house/animal or start up a new project under a Mercury Direct is fine. I would advise you to wait at least a WEEK until after Mercury is direct to do this. The contract will be honored. The car you bought will turn out to be fine (no lemon)!! The boat will not have problems, structural or otherwise. The house you bought will not be a "money pit" and the owner did not reveal all the problems the house had--but you inherited them!! The animal you bought (dog/cat/horse or whatever) will not have some real 'hidden' problems that you could not see upon first perusal or inspection.

Projects begun after Mercury turns direct will turn out as expected. No hidden surprises or changes.

3. You can buy mechanical things, appliances, computers, software or anything else like that during this period--they will work right!

I might add that this a time when mechanical failures finally stop happening. DISK CRASHES which were commonplace will stop. Thank goodness!


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
This was a chameleon sunset. I'm going to put several photos of it up as it changed remarkably in content, hue, color and cloud changes.

4. It's okay to travel long-distance during a Mercury direct because Mercury is the ruler of travel by any conveyance. There will not be delays, equipment (like a plane or car) will break down during this period. Travel won't try your patience during this period. Equipment failure is finally ebbing away. ANY type of equipment--not just computers.

5. Mercury rules our thinking processes. Believe me, folks, we are finally going to be able to think clearly or coherently. We become less forgetful. You won't get lost in traffic or lost in a shopping center, and you'll remember where you put something. Things that got LOST and MISPLACED big time, will suddenly and inexplicably--show up! Our orderly thinking returns. Our minds quiet down. Insomnia is no longer rampant.

6. Delays--on everything, are finally over! You're not late for an appointment. And no one is going to lose your appointment! The company promised it would be there on a certain day--and it will be there--on that day! Under a Mercury. D, it will be there, when promised. People will show up at the right time. The punctual schedule is back in vogue. You'll be on time--there won't be unexpected delay on the freeway/turnpike, or the other person arrives on time.

7. Your mind is returns from La La Land and else the nuts and bolts of everyday life/demands/things, returns. Your concentration returns and you don't have to struggle to focus, concentrate, retain or remember.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Sometimes, the sunlight arcs up below the horizon at just the right angle or there is particles in the air (as from the smoke from the California wildfires) and you get remarkable color changes minute to minute.

Gemini and Virgo sun sign people are ruled natally by Mercury, tend to get more upset over Mercury Retrograde periods because they're such picky perfectionists and they really do expect their lives to go like clockwork and God forbid they be late for an appointment--HORRORS!! For them, it's a major crisis if that occurs. For them, Mercury retrograde periods are discombobulating because they can't be perfect or strive for that near-perfection for three weeks, three or four times a year. If they can 'get over' this need to be perfect or always on-time, then it's not such a stressful period for them :-).

Now, Virgo’s and Gemini's can rest, take a deep breath and stop feeling like someone stole half their brain. Even though they are not affected directly by this particular Mercury going direct, they still get influenced by it “just because” it is their natal planetary ruler.

WITH MERCURY GOING DIRECT YOU WANT TO...

1. Finish up on something--Mercury Direct is a wonderful time to wrap up projects, attend to details, and yes, clean up your messy desk, reorganize things, it will all fall into magical place now, shortly after the retrograde motion is over. Your telephone starts ringing, email flow increases, faxes are more numerous , and generally, a period of quiet is over and the frantic activity replaces it.

2. If you have a project that has lain around a long time and you just never got around to it--now is the time to look at it more closely and decide if its worth your investment in time and energy--if it isn't, during this time, you'll more than likely drop it permanently--or get serious about resurrecting it or completing it--successfully!

3. Lies, deceit, cheating and sneaky actions by others or yourself, will come to light during a Mercury Retrograde period. It's the the long arm of Karma unveiling such negative things. If you think you duped someone--wait--during this period is when it will come to light and boy, will you be caught 'red handed'!!! Or, if someone said something behind your back--it will get back to you during this time frame. Or, if you were in some way cheated, duped or lied to, you will find out about it now. All these possibilities came to light; now with Mercury going direct you have a clean slate, so to speak. Anything hidden, has come to light and now it's time to get on with the forward motion of your life once more. Look at the Enron debacle and the guy who manipulated it financially spilling the beans about the TRUTH of went on and how they bilked hard working people out of their entire pensions. He just died under a Mercury retrograde, interestingly enough...

4. Your daily routine is back-so, "go with the flow". You'll be less day-dreamy, less spacy, more....of 'something'--so just go 'there.' This is a great time for outer/external experiences. It's wonderful for doing external work. You're a lot less inclined to want quiet, to be alone, or do meditational types of things (which are internal work and energy)..

5. This is a great time to start new projects of any kind--big or small. Wash the windows! Paint that cabinet! Start that brainchild project that has been there silently asking for completion. Dust that room! Take down the spider webs!

Best of all, life gets back on a more or less “normal” routine or “rut” that many of us cherish. When Mercury is retrograde, it all goes in the toilet and gets flushed. Now the Cosmic Toilet of Life is back on line and we can breath a deep sigh of relief at least in that quadrant of our lives! Routine is back. Constancy will return. So will our sanity for those of us who feel like our rut got ripped out from under us. Let’s hear it for the humdrum of life. We get it back on July 28th up to a point.

OTHER HELP, OTHERS TOOLS AVAILABLE FOR YOU....

We do not go through life alone, although I know, many times, it sure feels that way. If you could realize that Great Spirit is always with you, and that you have an army of guides (guardian angels to some) that are there, too, you aren’t alone. There are many ‘tools’ out there to help increase your evolutionary rate and to take advantage of such a special release of energy that is coming our way shortly. If you are drawn to one of these ‘tools’ by these counselors, please take advantage of their services before the eclipse and initiation.


HELP TO MAKE THE MOST OUT OF MERCURY GOING DIRECT


I don’t believe we have to SUFFER (at all) through a retrograde or direct period. The people below are, in my opinion, the best in their particular business and are skillful catalysts to help people to help themselves. Utilize the eclipse in the BEST and most healthy of ways....check out this group and choose which tools resonate most strongly with you and contact them. You won’t be sorry you did! And, with this July 28th Mercury coming up, this is an OPPORTUNITY to off load our wounds, get in touch with what is strong or weak within us--and fix it. So, this is a fix-it-up time. Take advantage of this enlightening period of time!


ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELORS:

You can engaged the services of the medicinegarden.com’s professional astrologer and find out. Our own Rosemarie Brown is a natal counselor. Just contact her at: starrose@sedona.net. Her website is:

Rosemarie Brown

If you are wanting to move and aren’t sure where or you have a place in mind, but aren’t sure if it’s “right” for you, they have locale information available. If health is your consideration, both are trained medical astrologers. Or, Gail Carswell at rockdoc@mindspring.com. Or, Michael Foltz at solardoc@mindspring.com.

I'm sure one of these three professionals will be able to shed considerable light in what is going on in your life and the many choices you have available to you to institute and use. Better yet, visit their website:

Gail Carswell

, for more information on all the services they provide.

UN-CONFUSE YOURSELF DURING THIS ECLIPSE

NEED A “Coach”, some serious therapy that gets to the “heart” of your angst or what you’re wrestling with? We recommend Rosemarie Brown. Please contact her at:

Rosemarie Brown

or by email at: Rosemarie Brown

VOICE ANALYSIS--THE MISSING NOTE

I’ve had my voice analyzed by Ani Williams and I can tell you from personal experience that we all have a “missing note” in our life. So what? Well, consider this. Without this missing note back in our life, we aren’t working off of 8 cylinders. We’re working on 6--or less! Please go to Ani’s website for more information. This is a life-changing “tool” that you should include in your personal Pluto transformation kit.

Ani Williams

or contact her via email at: songaia@earthlink.net

SPIRITUAL UPKEEP RENOVATION: NEED A SHAMAN?

Gail Carswell, Michael Foltz, Grace Verte (GraceVerte@Netsedona.com), Karen David (KDMystic@aol.com)

Karen David

and Rosemarie Brown are all trained shamanic facilitators who can help you through your spiritual transformation. For more information on Soul Recovery and Extraction, go to:

SRE Chapter

and then contact one of them for further help!

FOR CARE OF BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT: HOMEOPATHY

Our favorite classically trained homeopath is Yolande Grill of Cave Creek, Arizona. She does long-distance case taking by phone and I consider her one of the best we’ve got in the USA. So, don’t delay! She is also a shamanic facilitator, as well. Get a hold of Yolande at: y.grill@att.net

Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Same sunset, but look how it has changed! I love the layering look, the different colors, like a torte cake, in this photo.

In Spirit....

WRITING JOURNAL: An Author’s “voice”--What Is It?

Hi Everyone


We often hear this term bandied around, “An author’s voice,” but few people really understand the complexity of this simple statement and what it really means.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here is the storm I saw on the Western horizon as I came upon Sunset Point tonight. A beautiful, fully formed Thunder Being! And as I watched, magic began to happen....




I taught writing for many years at two universities in Ohio (adult education program) and I taught my students how to dissect a writer's ability from the sentence structure he or she used, to word choices chosen, to length of sentences, and into bigger considerations such as dialog, characterization, plot and so on. I wanted to show them they could do this because I believe writing--at least 60% of it, is TECHNICAL and can be taught to anyone. Now, the other 40% is not something you can teach--it is each person's individual creativity and talent that must be folded into this 'recipe' for success . And that 40% is your VOICE.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Tonight was the night for me to take some great photos of Thunder Beings and lightning bolts! What a night for a hike and what a reward!

What does this have to do with ‘voice?’ If you can analyze HOW you write, this is a part of determining your voice. But, it’s not all of it! Sometimes, to find your voice or get a feel for your voice, you can look at some of your favorite writers works/books. Remember; what you love to read, you will most likely write like that, too.

This technique of dissecting a writer from a technical standpoint gave my students a lot of confidence in themselves. It also showed them that how they wrote might be reflected in the work of a favorite author they loved to read. And of course, that comparison between their fledgling writing attempts and that of a published author’s book showed them they were on the right path with their own work in developing their voice! So, evaluating, observing and dissecting authors work is a good thing for an aspiring writer to do.

You end up matching what you are struggling to write and comparing it to what has been written and published by someone else. I call this the ‘skeleton’ of a book. What we do is lay bare, the bones upon which the author has dressed this skeleton, so to speak. And often, you find keys or ways that the published authors are employing that are excellent writing techniques that you can incorporate into your own writing to broaden and deepen it toward publication. This does not mean you’re copying another authors work!! Iyyyyiiiiyiiiii! Don’t ever do that! Instead, see HOW an author developed something and then take the skeleton or foundation of the analysis and turn it into your own copy and expression for your own book.

Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
This Thunder Being put on quite a show and as the sun sank lower, the horizon began to turn pink and it was stunning!

Another thing I liked to mirror in my students (these were usually adults, not 20 somethings...) was finding and defining their 'voice'. Voice, to me, is your natural, raw talent. No one can give this to you. It's already there just waiting to be discovered within you. What you can do is realize what it is and then ride that horse into publishing sunset, so to speak.

A good way to find your voice (and most aspiring writers have trouble with this one) is to see WHAT you love to read. Chances are--what you love to read is what you will love to write! This is a simple rule--but a powerful one to never forget.

For example, take what I like to read. I love action/adventure/suspense/love stories. That's part of my 'voice.' I read writers like Ernest Hemingway when I was in my teens and I simply fell in love with all his books--and I still love them to this day. Now--don't take me wrong here--I am NOT saying I write like Ernest Hemingway! (oh...if only...hahahaha) I do not. What I liked of his writing, by analyzing it, was his taut, short, packed sentences that conveyed so much in such a little amount of space. He always wrote about adventure. He wrote about action. He wrote about love....sigh....usually lost love....but hey, he was a guy and girls love happy endings and I prefer writing happy endings for my characters!

Your voice is also about what drives you to write what you want to write. It is an emotional underpinning fueling your passion, your obsession, if you will, to write a certain type of book. Let’s take some examples: There are writers whose voice are: light,fluffy reads. Others: humor. Serious, heavy, dark reads. Others: murder mysteries, historicals, fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, adventure, erotica, suspense....and the list goes on and on to be defined by your Voice.

We can say Voice is defined by what you love to write. That’s another part of it.

And you can break down your Voice further. For example, some writers are heavily narrative writers--that is to say--big blocks/chunks of print, lots of internal dialog with the characters and not so much external dialog drives their books. There was a time back in the 70’s and 80’s when this type of serious, heavy narrative was in and selling like hot cakes.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
This Thunder Being was a wonderful show-off! He began throwing bolts and secondary and third bolts...so that if I held my camera still enough--with noseeum's biting my arms and face as I tried not to breathe, tried to be very, very still....until the bolt occurred and I snapped it!

But, the writing worm has turned, so to speak, and now writers who love to put external dialog instead of a preponderance of blocky, external narrative in their books, are ruling the roost presently in publishing. That is what is selling. That is what readers want to buy.

Which are you? Are you a studious, deep, digging internal dialog and narrative type of writer? Or, are you a springy, vigorous external dialog writer who wants their scenes to snap along with jaunty speeches from their characters?

Ideally, the writer should know if she is more narrative or dialog oriented. This is a part of your natural expression or voice as you write your story. One is not more correct than another. However, aspiring writers need to know what publishers want and if you go through a paperback book and simply eyeball it visually, you’ll see that dialog is probably 60% of the books nowadays, and 40% narrative. As I said earlier, in previous decades, it was just the opposite. But, one thing a writer can count on is change in the publishing arena. Always.

Voice is also how you ‘dress’ your scenes in your chapter. A scene is comprised of who, what, where, when, why and sometimes, how. You must answer all these things within a scene. Some writers are detailed oriented down to the type of buttons worn on a suit coat of a character. Other writers skim the little details but hit the big moments and focus on that, instead. This is part of your voice, too. At one time, way back, historicals were full of nit-picky details...so detail oriented that you got weighed down in massive narrative and description. For writers whose Voice went naturally in this direction, they were bought and did well in those decades. For other writers whose Voice was devoid of a lot of heavy narrative detail, they were not bought.

No question that details are important in a book. But which details? And how much do you reveal and feed to a reader via the characters in the scene? Again, this is part of your Voice.

Voice also embraces topics that you love to write about! What you love you will write well about; and so you should write what you not only know, but what you love to share with others. Topics are part of your Voice. What are your favorite topics? Make a list. These are the things you should be writing about. And if you do, then your Voice comes across to the reader as authentic. And readers WANT to read books that glow with an inner life of their own. And they do if the author is listening to her Voice and chooses a topic near and dear to her heart.

The old saying, “A writer can never write outside themselves,’ is very, very true. If you, for example, jumped on the Fad Train (as I call it...) of writing vampire books and your heart really wasn’t in writing about vampires...well....guess what? Your Voice (that inner enthusiasm) is going to fall flat in the book. And if it even gets past an editor and gets published...the readers will easily note this. This is what I call an DOA book--dead on arrival to your editor’s desk. And if he or she doesn’t stop it...and it gets to readers...well, trust me, they will vote with their money next time another of your books comes out--because they won’t get burned twice on a DOA book. So, listen to your Voice. Listen to what moves you, drives you, enthuses you--because all of your emotions are wrapped up in every word you write. And your book glows with life. And your readers come away feeling satiated and fulfilled...plus, they feel they spent their hard earned money wisely--and will look for your next book with great eagerness.

Now, I couldn’t write a vampire book if you gave me a million dollars! It just isn’t in me, or a part of my Voice to write about these creatures of the night. It is not a topic that pushes my button to want to write abou them. However, if you want me to write about the magical, paranormal world of Native Americans, of which I live in...well, then I’m more than ready to throw my Voice into writing such a book. And I know it will be a vigorous book, alive and full of life. That way, I know I won’t disappoint my readers. Part of VOICE is, “to thine own self, be true.”


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
I got lucky again--another bolt of lighting!

Voice is also how you write what you write. We’ve dissected parts of it above. But there is still an ephemeral part that defies words and observation. Part of this is the storyteller in you. If you have great storytelling genetics like the Irish, who spin great stories, or Native American, or come from a family heritage where stories were not only embraced, but past down through the generations, this will serve you well. Your Voice has a family tree of heritage behind it--and while this might not seem important to you (and you go: “So what?”), this can imbue you with longevity in the field of writing. THAT is important because once you get your foot in the door and get your first book published, you want to be able to stay there and move up through the ranks to best seller some day. So, Voice/heritage, can give you stay-ability, the endurance to handle the rough and tumble career as a writer, and not only survive but thrive in it as well.

Voice is also about having something to say. Some people might call this an ‘ax to grind,’ but it doesn’t have to be that serious. For example, your Voice and interest may revolve around making quilts. In your stories, quilts show up! Or, perhaps your love of quilting will bring you to create a family saga about a quilt or series of quilts down through the generations of a family. You might want world peace and believe deeply in this. Your stories might well revolve around plots about people who keep destroying peace or how peace takes root in places where it was uprooted. In other words: you, as a writer, have a MESSAGE that comes through your soul and into your books whether you realize it or not. And smart the writer who analyzes herself and knows what this message or messages are. Why? Because it’s a part of your Voice! Writer, know thyself....


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
If you only knew how hard it was to get a lightning shot. If you don't have a tripod and your F-stop open...you rarely get them...I had my Nikon in my hands, my elbows on my knees sitting on my favorite lava rock and tried to time the shots in hopes of catching a bolt...here's another one...

Voice comprises many elements of you as a human being. We can define it, look at it, break it into individual parts, analyze it and find out what makes you tick as a writer. But...no one can give you Voice. Everyone HAS a Voice whether they choose to use it or not. No one can copy your Voice, either (so this ought to eliminate all the jealousy and envy that some writers hold against other writers....). No one can compete with you because their Voice is not exactly like your Voice. Voice is not a technical thing. It is an individual human being thing. You were born with it, you’ll die with it. No one can give it to you and no one can take it away from you!

And once you find your 'voice' you can improve upon it, expand and deepen it with time and maturation. I feel the most successful writers (who are not necessarily best sellers--but I do include them in this comment, too) are writer's who are like chameleons: they change with the flux and flow of what readers demand or want.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
And gifts come to those who are patient enough to wait....and here's the photograph of a lifetime for me--it happened tonight--and it's a PERFECT photo of a lightning bolt--the colors, the frame of the storm against the blue of the dusk sky..I'm sending this one to Channel 15 television station down in Phoenix,Arizona tonight--sometimes they show shots like this...so we'll see just how lucky I am!

In Spirit....

Gardening as Meditation and Reflection Upon Ourselves

Hi Everyone!

I love gardening. But then, I was raised with gardens as a natural part of my life. One just did not have a garden!! When I was very young, I was out there struggling along the rows and pulling weeds as my mother directed. To this day, we refer to our mother as “the weed queen.”

And as a child, I didn’t really like weeding a garden. It was a chore. But an important one. If we didn’t have a huge garden with lots of veggies in it, we didn’t eat. And going hungry was always a possibility in my day...so big gardens that were weed-free, were in.

Besides, my mother came out of the Depression Era and during World War 2 they had “Victory Gardens”--every family in America should have a garden, the government said to the masses. Made sense--shipping vegetables from foreign countries to us by sea was cut to a minimum by the Nazi ‘wolf pack’ submarine hunters and so a lot of food we normally got by sea into our country, was denied us for five years or more.

Gardens became ‘popular’ as a result of World War Two, I suppose. My mother, nearly starving during the Depression, understood that a garden meant living, not dying. It might sound dramatic in today’s age of too much of everything--where half our population is obese because we eat the wrong foods all the time....but my mother’s generation went through hell and survived it because of gardening and the food they brought to the table because of their diligence and work. She can even remember walking along the highways looking for beans to pick up and bring home to cook for dinner during the Depression Era.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
This is our main garden. You can see it is fenced with window screen, plus a wood frame around it to hold it into place along with bird netting on top of it. This is to keep the birds out, the peccary/Javalina/wild pigs, skunks, racoons and deer so that we get some of the food we've worked so hard to grow. This is a WEEDED garden and you can see the plants are healthy and maturing.

I grew up with a grateful eye on gardens. And when I settled down and got married, I tried to have a garden no matter where I moved--and we moved plenty. And even though I was not starving, nor was the threat there, I just enjoyed getting down in the fresh, damp earth on my knees and sinking my hands into the rich, loamy soil. I also had evolved my attitude toward weeding as well. After all, a vegetable plant had a better chance to grow to its maximum if the weeds were removed.

I can take that last sentence and apply it to a human as well. And this is where a garden is a wonderful reflection on all of us...

We all have ‘weeds’ in our life. Do we root them out? Do we remove them? Do we even acknowledge they are there? Or that it is a weed and therefore, a block, to our development? Gardening has taught me a lot about how human nature overlays Nature. What I see reflected in Nature, I see reflected in us two-leggeds, and vice-versa.

Weeds can be anything that stops you, blocks you, minimizes your individuality, shuts out or creates walls where you cannot grow, stretch or become who you are--or go where your dreams are calling you to go.

Who are the weeds in your life? Is it a parent? A sibling? A neighbor? Your boss at work? Who is stopping you from becoming all that you can be?

I classify weeds in two ways when it comes to human beings: internal weeds and external weeds. Of course, in a real garden, there are only external weeds, but us humans are far more complicated and like to make things much more complex for ourselves than any plant spirit ever will!


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here is my 'flood garden' down by Oak Creek. The sand washes into our property during flood times and deposits it right where you see the garden at. I have to add compost to enrich it; otherwise, it would be 100% sand! And here, you can see, this garden is UNweeded. I have two gardens and this is the smaller of the two.... I don't get the time I need to keep them both weed free....but this is a great example of weeds literally (or figuritively) taking over here or in our lives!

External weeds are people or situations or events in our life that in some way, halt our growth and slow or stunt our maturation process.

For example, you work for a boss who always expects more and more out of you, but can never praise you for what you’ve done already. A thankless job weed.

Or a neighbor who likes to turn up the radio and blare it across the neighborhood without thought, sensitivity or care that none of the rest of you want to hear what he or she is listening too? An insensitive, selfish weed.

Maybe it’s a teenager you’re struggling to raise and they don’t have a clue about anyone but themselves and their little corner of the world. A narcissistic weed.

A spouse who isn’t pulling his or her share of the nasty jobs around the house even though both of you are working full times jobs. A lazy spouse weed.

A loud mouthed person who is shouting into his cell phone--who doesn’t have a CLUE that no one wants to hear the conversation and could care less what he’s saying--but he doesn’t get that his voice is traveling half a mile away. A cell phone talker weed.

A person who hates another simply because of the religion they choose--and its not the same one they have. A religious intolerance weed.

Someone who is jealous of you, snipes, back stabs or gossips to hurt you because of such an unreasonable emotion. A jealous weed.

Teenagers in general who are too lazy or selfish to go out and get a job and earn the money to buy what they want--instead of always expecting the parents to dole it out to them because they deserve it. They don’t realize how much hard work goes into every dollar they are given. A spoiled child Weed

People who make judgments before hearing the ‘rest’ of the story, or the ‘whole’ story after hearing only one side of it. Or, they’ve never heard of the old saying: “Walk a mile in their shoes...” A judgmental Weed.

When a person dislikes another person because the color of the skin is different from their own. A prejudice weed.



So you see, we have lots of external weeds in our lives that clutter the garden of ourselves that is trying to grow despite them.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here is the main garden, another view and you can see some of the other veggies we grow: corn, fennel, beans, pole beans, peas (already harvested), tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, sweet and hot, spinach, dill, cinnamon basil, lemon basil, italian basil, common sage and two types of parsley. This is a WEEDED garden.

Our internal weeds are a lot more difficult to eradicate--much like bermuda grass getting into a garden.... Did you know that Bermuda Grass grows sixteen feet below ground? And even if you pull it at the surface, why, it just peeks back up a week later in the same place because the roots are so deep that you will never be able to completely get rid of them.

Some internal weeds are like that for us. And we may struggle half our life, or maybe all of it, with a particular weed.

Some examples of internal weeds are ‘messages’ we get imprinted with as babies and young children. We all get them no matter how much a parent tries not to brand or stain our lives with such things.

We are told we shouldn’t lose at whatever sport we play as a child. “A competitive sport parent weed”

Parents smother their children, are too protective of them, and don’t allow them to trip, fall, and pick themselves up. “A smother Weed”

Getting the message that you are a failure or a loser, and you will never amount to anything in your life. “A failure weed”

Making you feel humiliated or ashamed of yourself. “The lack of self confidence Weed”

Placed in a severely dysfunctional home of drug addicted parent(s) where you are neglected at a early age. “A failure to thrive Weed”

Being told over and over again you can’t do something and you finally believe it. “The I can’t do it Weed”

As a baby or young child, you were molested and so you ‘armor up’ to protect yourself in your world where no one came to your rescue . And many who have this terrible experience, end up obese . Fat becomes the ‘armor’ so that you feel somewhat protected from this dangerous world you must continue to live in. “The armor Weed.”

You can see the insidious, unconscious messages of our internal weeds are probably more damaging over a period of time than our external weeds. However, we all have a little of both types of weeds in us. The trick is in first, recognizing the weeds. What are they? Who are they? And then deciding to eradicate the weeds from your life, one by one--just as you do in a real garden.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here is the main garden, another view and this is of bush beans, sweet bell peppers, pole beans and down at the end, tomato plants and parsley.

I suppose you could throw toxic poison into a garden to kill the vermin, pests and weeds, but then, you are actually poisoning the soil, the ground water below, not to mention, the vegetables growing there. I don’t believe in using pesticides or herbicides. I believe in tackling these things from a natural and Nature perspective.

I see people throw toxic things on their external and internal weeds all the time in desperate hope of killing them off. They are called cigarettes, alcohol, recreational drugs, gambling, comfort foods, to mention just a few. And none of them work and our weeds just keep growing and just keep choking off the naturalness of who we are more and more over time. And weeds can keep us from finding out and exploring the treasure of ourselves--which is why you want to pull these weeds out of your life. The path to self-discovery can be a wonderful round trip but you’ll never take it if the weeds grow up around you, strangle your forward motion and entrap you.

And I should make clear here that you can't just pull a weed parent out of your life permanently. Nope, you have parents for as long as they live! What I am saying is that you have the ability to control and put into place, healthy boundaries with such a parent, friend, spouse, coworker or whatever, so that they are no longer stopping you upon your chosen path of development in this lifetime. There probably are days with 'weed' people in our lives, we'd just love to yank them out and toss them into a compost bin--but that doesn't happen in real life. Sometimes, we can put distance between us and them. Sometimes that distance is called a boundary. So, some weeds are always going to be with us....the question then becomes how to deal effectively with them so they don't stop us from growing and maturing.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
The UNweeded garden...a reminder of our lives at times...

Weeds not only suck up water meant for the vegetable that is growing in the garden, but they also steal the nutrients from the soil around the roots of it, as well. The vegetable is then cheated in two ways. But there is a third way, too. The weeds can get to be so many and so profuse and overwhelming that it can blot out the sunlight the vegetable needs in order to thrive.

We are like that too. The water is symbolic of our emotions. If some weed around or in us is sucking up the emotions that we need to support ourselves in a healthy way, where does that leave us? Without positive emotional support, we will wither and die, quite literally. Oh, it might take time....maybe years...even decades....but it does shorten our lives and take away the joy of living, not to mention our natural growth as well.

The soil symbolizes our family, our heritage, where we came from, and who we are deep down. If weeds are stealing our natural nutrients, imagine what it is doing to us on an unconscious level! Without proper ‘food’ and nutrients, a plant surely is stunted in its growth and certainly unable to produce the amount of veggies or fruit that it could, if it was getting fed like it should. Weeds can cut you off from your roots, your family, where you can not only derive strength, but knowledge, support and a cheer leading section to boot. All these things helps us to thrive and grow to maturity--to be able to produce the maximum of our own, unique, creativity in this given lifetime.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Here is another view of our weeded main garden. Dave puts down the red tiles as walkways so I can stay out of the mud. I can place my knee pad beneath me and stay relatively un-muddy and still get to my weeding duties--and it takes a good hour a day for one garden just to keep up with the new weeds! You're looking at my 'herb' patch where there are two types of basil, dill and fennel, plus sage growing.

Sunlight is the attention we all need from others. Everyone needs a pat on the head every once in awhile. We need encouragement. Help. Support. And people who believe in us even if we do screw things up terribly and make some gawdawful mistakes. People in our lives who like and love us, help us to thrive and inspire us with hope and that connects to our internal faith in ourselves. Without sunlight, or people like this in our lives, a plant will die. And a human will wilt into depression and hopelessness, even suicide. So, you see, you may be someone’s sunlight in their life....


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
This is a pot of Caldiums at our front door. I love their unique colors! They always remind me of people--each one beautiful and each one different!

Like I said, Gardening is a Meditation for me; an instructive one. It is reflective of us. So, how many weeds do you have in the garden of yourself? Or, are you weed free?


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2005

In Spirit...

Friendship

Hi Everyone!

Friends...what would we do without them? Not much! As I said in an earlier blog, you can’t choose your family--but you CAN choose your friends.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
On our walk tonight, Dave came with us--a rarity--but fun! We found this poor, dead Coachwhip snake on the road. I moved him off to the berm where he couldn't get run over some more.

Actually,that’s not a true statement. We do choose who we incarnate with into any given lifetime. Agreements are drawn up between us (i.e., the players on the stage or this lifetime we’re in) long before we ever move into a physical body to be birthed back into this third dimensional world of ours.

And many times, chosen family is there to help teach us and educate us on certain aspects that our soul is wanting to learn about or experience. And so, with that promise, we can see that family’s are not the best or most healthy place for most of us--or at least, for some of us. If you come out of a dysfunctional family, you know what I’m talking about.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
Monsoons surrounded our canyon tonight as we walked. There was lightning, rumbling thunder and as we topped Cardiac Hill--a rainbow!

And if you were fortunate enough to have a non-dysfunctional childhood (few are...but they ARE around....) then that still doesn’t mean that you’re best buds with your sister or brother, or particularly close to your parent(s), either. Families are always a mix of disparate chemicals...sometimes like oil and water...and you just end up not getting along with some of them, or perhaps, having a favored one over the others. That is life. That is being a human being.

Enter FRIENDS onto your stage of life....

They are your life preserver, for lack of a better explanation. And at first, you may not realize their importance in your life. Or, if you were in a dysfunctional childhood, one friend might have been your life raft to survive those rugged years and move beyond it--and move out of the house at eighteen or so...

Friends are people that you DRAW to you energetically. And there’s all kinds of friends. Some can be healthy for you and others, toxic. And some really aren’t friends at all--rather--acquaintances found in the sphere of your environment of work/career/business or play time.

I need to give my definition of ‘friend’ because if you ask ten people what friend is, you will get ten different explanations!

I see and treat each friendship I have like a marriage. If I feel good, positive, healthy, happy and enjoy this person, I will work slowly but surely to create a relationship environment with this individual--man or woman. And I try to treat them as I’d like to be treated--the good ole “Golden Rule” here, applies everyday with my friends--just as it does to my marriage partner. To me, there is no difference.

And a friend is someone I can trust completely. I know they aren’t going to tell tales or tell my secrets or my business/personal life to anyone else. They will hold it --and me-- sacred and secret. Just as I will do the same for them. We all need a confessor in our life. And sometimes, we have a number of them. I feel women need to verbally release what is bothering them more than males do--at least--that is my observation and experience. For me, just being able to TALK and share what is bothering me with a friend, is cathartic, healing and takes the pressure out from within me and dissolves part of it. And my friends are people I trust with the inner sanctum of myself.

For me, a friend inspires one’s trust--and it works both ways. TRUST is a foundation principle for me and a potential friend who I eventually allow into my private life and world.

And I have to say here that if you are ‘famous’ or ‘rich’ that this makes the process even more sticky and confusing. Why? Because if you are ‘famous’ then there’s plenty of people who want to orbit such a power structure to in some way, selfishly take advantage of it--through the person who owns the fame and/or money. These are not friends. These are wolves in sheep’s clothing--wanting something from you that you may not want to give them. Yet, like beta wolves, they slink into your life, rolling on their belly, exposing themselves to you in hopes of getting something from you. It could be the use of your name if you’re famous, as an example. Or defraud you of money by claiming to be poor or needy. There are thousands of things such a person wants from you, and certainly too many to list here. This is a blog in itself, and I don’t want to get off course from my focus on friends. The point here is that all people entering your sphere may not be TRUE friends....rather, wanting something from you or just ‘acquaintances.’ Or, they can be business contacts or associates; but still, they are not ‘friends.’

An acquaintance is just that. I may share something in common with this person, such as a career--but that’s all. I may find no serious or deep connections with them other than that. And while I can be pleasant and perhaps helpful to them, or vice-versa, they are not allowed into my inner personal life where privacy and sanctity are so highly valued.

I don’t allow my family into my deep, private, inner parts of me. It just is what it is. Call it personality differences. We are more apt to reach out and trust people like ourselves. And that may or may not mean you are in the same career slot, either. Depth of friendship goes way beyond career--although career can be the ‘reason’ you meet. But after that, the rules of engagement change remarkably--they broaden and deepen with time and age, like fine wine between the two of you.

Friends is a two-way street to me. I want to not only listen and HEAR what they have to say, but be a ‘witness’ to them and their travails and successes just as they are with me and mine. And friends don’t try to ‘fix it’ if you’re in a bind or wrapped up in a tangled problem. If I ASK my friends for advice, that is another story. But if I don’t ask, they don’t go around being Ms. or Mr. Fix-It, either. Sometimes, just having a shoulder to lean on, to cry on, to talk to, is the perfect thing to happen.

Friends never gossip on or about you. They don’t tell stories about others to me and I don’t want to hear about them, either. It is one thing to discuss a third person who might have a problem, and talk about it in order to see how we can help them, support them or do something positive for them. It’s quite another to take whatever that person says and just talk about it for the pure gossip factor. If I want to take something a friend said and pass it on to another friend, I ask for permission to do so. That is respectful. That is respecting their space, their sacredness, their privacy and gives them the opportunity to respond and decide--I don’t do it for them. And I want the same courtesy extended to me.

Friends, for me, hold a sacred, private, vulnerable space within myself and my life. They are the only people with whom I feel safe enough to be my silly, human self and I don’t have to worry that they’re going to be shocked, disillusioned, disappointed or in some way, judgmental of me. I can screw up with them. I can make mistakes. I can forget. I can do all the human foibles and they love me enough to understand and forgive.


Copyright Eileen Nauman 2006
On the way home, in the vineyard area, Dave spotted this male tarantula starting his nightly walk to find something to eat.

They hold the ‘raw meat’ of me as a human being in their hands. That’s a pretty heavy responsibility ! And yet, I do the same for them. And I don’t see it as a duty. I feel higher than a kite that they would allow such trust to develop between themselves and me. I see this act as the ultimate gift between two human beings. So, it’s not a terrible duty, but one filled with Grace, joy and lightness. Because I love them, I WANT to do this for them. When you do things out of love, they always turn out all right in the end. And I do love my friends, unequivocally.

There’s many types of love...another blog ano