i've been settling in to this new place: reorienting and reconfiguring STUFF and "what am i doing here?" now i've gotten to the point where i remember it'd be nice to make new friends and community! duh!

i haven't been doing much with children, other than really enjoying Amanda, the 8-year-old granddaughter of my housemate, Fred. she is AWESOME.

in terms of dance, i attend "sacred sweat" (AMC) as often as possible, occasionally contact improv. i've started taking african dance classes thursdays, which i LOVE (kicks my butt in a totally good way), and i'm considering checking out one of two kundalini yoga classes on mondays.

i'm still working with the interplay leadership program, trying to incorporate the wisdom offerings of its practices into my daily life. i'm excited we've started discussing forming an interplay performace group!

i've also joined the playback theatre troupe (what!? they are so good! i have so much to learn, and i am honored). i haven't performed with them in public yet, but i'm looking forward to that with a little more practice, and we just did a volunteer's orientation at a prison in Marion, NC. wow! we'll be performing for/with folks there occasionally; another incredible learning experience and challenge!

i'm grateful to have these experiences which are honors, challenges, and learning esperiences.

i just visited my parents' house in tennessee where i grew up. the land there is so beautiful... it is like visiting a grandmother or sister or a twin in a form other than human. just being there was like a massage of some subconscious part of my being. i got to go to the river (which I LOVE!) and the waterfalls (skinnydipping! must become a yearly practice, at least). ach! shooting stars and mountains changing colors and crickets who don't have to compete with traffic or the hum of electricity. mmm.

i'm also working on creating art to share and sell/barter and shift my source of practical sustenance... and i'm looking forward to attending the LEAF festival for free as a volunteer!

blessings amidst the cooling air and changing colors

okay, so for the record, i have to add these compliments, older but among the favorites:

"joy, you still have the same spirit about you as when you were 4 years old."

"you're just normal. everyone else is wierd." (maggie gets credit for this one.)

"you're so special...you chew your food."

yesterday evening
i recieved two memorable compliments:


"you have one of the greenest auras i've seen in a while!"

and

"you're worth TEN bowls of chili!"

ha...

i just had a great weekend. this past week, padma stayed with me (and brought her sweetie-friend). now she's gone back up to pittsburg to get her stuff and kitties and move down here! she found a job and living space and it'll be great to build our friendship, and maybe live together in the future. the week was a little stressful, me picking up more of her job-house-urgency than i needed to. but it ended well. and saturday i went to my first company Playback rehearsal! and an informal InterPlay session with my new friends from the retreat. then sunday morning i went to a 5Rhythm "Sweat Your Prayers" sacred dance session. awesome! then a contact improv class/jam that night. Yummy! so this weekend, i tasted four new very yummy movement communities i'm so honored to be joining. so reassuring.

this week i'll check with my former-construction-worker-current-massage-therapist-and-practicing-buddhist friend from InterPlay about living and bartering with her. she's two miles from downtown, as opposed to the one mile i've been walking from the house-sat. but hey, still a good deal!

Meditate for peace, tranquility, happiness, joy, and bliss. Feel the energy of the Sun and Moon, the universe, all planets, all gods and goddesses, saints and sages, all good people, all kind people, all grateful people. They are all radiating their energy to you, and you are receiving peace. Fill yourself, and take a part out of the universe and its nectar. Just meditate that the petals of the flowers are being showered on you, throughout the heavens, by all the saints and sages, holy men, gods and goddesses. People of dignity and grace and virtue are showering blessings on you. We are blessed by Guru and Gurus and by all those who came throughout time and gave the message of God. They are all radiating their light to you and you are vibrating under that radiation.
Meditate and feel that the lotus of the heart is turning upwards, the fragrance is spreading all around you, and that you can smell a special smell of you, a fragrance of you. Feel the kindness of those great ones who attuned their lives to righteousness. Feel that they are in you, are around you, are by your side, and that the radiance of their auras is filling up your mind. Focus your eyes at the tip of your nose, and feel that the power of the universe is coming into you. Now radiate, and feel that all that radiance is making your life in this body transparent, and all opaqueness is vanishing. You are becoming transparent. Inhale deep….exhale.

© The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan

wow, at least one blue moon has passed since i've dunked my head in a computer screen.

it's been quiet here and hot outside so i've stayed inside putzing around. i was so tired yesterday after y’all (maggie_hess and james) left. i slept well. maybe i've got some little transition blues and maybe i'm getting slight pms. i think my emotional body is wondering what i'm doing alone and with no immediate agenda, like i don't really know where to start. i haven't had much energy and haven't felt like pushing myself, though i'm doing the essentials like packing, cooking, and coordinating for my trip. i'm really glad i'll be going to an InterPlay event right away, because that's why i came and it'll remind me of that. also, i'll meet some other asheville residents, and some potential peer/friends.

i've enjoyed snooping into some of meg's music and books, and am (not surprisingly) especially drawn to the interplay books. i think i really scored a treasure in studying it. it's the body-spirit experience-based praxis/philosophy i've been looking for. god knows i'm particular; i'm so glad i found something i can honestly invest myself in. i've shirked approaching seminary because it strikes me as spirit through the mind without a full appreciation and integration of the body. so imagine my delight to find this movement form that has a theological awareness behind it. listen to this message from co-founder Phil Portman's book "HAVING IT ALL: Body, Mind, Heart, & Spirit Together Again at Last":

"InterPlay takes the best from art, church, and therapy. It playfully reintegrates body and spirit through new ideas and practices and is dedicated to community building, artfulness, fun, and transformation for anyone."

art, church, and therapy. YES! my three FAVorite things! co-creating beauty and meaning, spiritual community, and healing! and to join them in one moment, how glorious!

anywho, i've written myself into an inner smile (one interplayer's definition of "joy"), which i think appropriately signs my name.

love

that's what i'm working on at work, though i'm currently at the library. the crap sandwich is a tapir bone so smashed and weathered... i'm almost done. usually i can get online over lunch break. but recently i've been broke and getting sick... so i'm tight on time. i want to write and share! i have backlogged blogs, some unwritten. but getting my brain, saved files, the internet, and time all in the same room takes some work. and i've got to eat and go to tai chi. so...

until then, love.

Yo.

Lotsa updates here from the Paleontology Burrow on lunch break. The crunching is my green beans, fresh from the Bristol TN/VA farmers' market last weekend. So let's start there. The Rhythm & Roots Reunion ROCKed and my Booty ROLLed. And oh. It was delicious. The Carolina Chocolate Drops took over the throne with a standing ovation. Yay for the little people! New, young, and being the voice of i'm-not-dead-yet-i-think-i'll-go-for-a-walk for the tradition of African-American old-time string bands. They made me dance like an obsession. And they like to crack the pavement, too. Maggie and I danced with them to the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers, who played "Cornbread and Butter Beans," one of my favorites: "...eatin' greens and makin' love and dance 'til we're not able..." Later in the evening I made two hardcore dance buddies, Micky and Melissa. We're gonna start some serious dance mischeif up in these parts, and I cain't hardly wait. Oh baby oh. We danced to Railroad Earth for several hours straight and I even got into the hoola hoops. Feels like I haven't danced like that since I came to this planet. Sigh...

And THIS weekend, I get even more boogy-yum! I'm going to the Moving Stories, Healing Stories retreat (along with Liz) in PA. It may be the Jubilee Troupe's last good deed in this life. I've put work into it over the past year and yet it has its own life and will surprise and treat even me. I just know it will be good, so I won't try to anticipate how.

And finally (for now), I'll get back to my YAY new job here in the Fossil Site Lab, gluing my smushed tapir bone back together. Peace.

Here's a link to view some of Mom and Dad's photos from our trip to Korea.

I invite you to view the following photo album(s):

Korea Trip

Here's how:

http://www1.snapfish.com/getimageforshare/p=328301156974577727/l=122951847/s=56819473/t=ARR/g=61319630/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

1) Visit the link below to access my photos on Snapfish.

Steve's photos

2) You'll be asked to type in your name and email address and then
choose a password. This ensures the privacy of my pictures and also
sets up your own password-protected account on Snapfish.

If the link above does not work, highlight the link below using your
cursor. Then copy and paste the link into your browser address
window and hit the "Enter" or "Return" key on your keyboard.

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=328301156974577727/l=122951847/g=61319630/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

3) If you'd like, you can easily order reprints or enlargements of
my photos, right from Snapfish for as low as 12¢ each -- every
day! Just click the "order prints" button while viewing my photos to
place an order.
*First-time customers only.
http://www.snapfish.com/infothreefree/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Traveling in Korea, I started reading They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The true story of three Lost Boys from Sudan. One thing that struck me during the international conference on reconciliation was how much major conflict takes place simultaneously all over the world. It doesn't wait for me to understand one before starting another. Anyway, what impressed me from these true stories of survivors of the violence in Sudan was not so much the tragedy of any one event, but how these boys adapted to the quest for survival over the years...and how they both struggled with and retained a sense of humanity.

Alepho

Benson