Hello All of You!
Wow, it's been about a month and a half, and five pages of this thread have gone by, since I last wrote in, although I've been checking in and reading it whenever I get the chance. We seem to have gotten hugely busy lately, but I'm finally deliberately sitting down and making the time to write in! Despite not posting in a while, I think of you all frequently, and I greatly value being a part of this wonderful group!
As others have noted, it's pretty difficult to catch up on this thread after not posting for a while, so I won't attempt to do so this time around. I see that it might be an adaptive response on my part to start writing shorter posts, instead of my usual mini-novels, in order to stay a bit more connected and caught up on this thread! For me, that's possibly easier said than done, though!
My latest news is that, quite synchronistically, a couple of weeks after Ron and I were inspired to take a silk-painting class and practice the techniques we'd learned, we found out that a new co-op art gallery will soon be opening just down the road a bit from us, and that they were looking for local artisans to join. Ron's shown his stone sculptures in galleries before, so he wasn't intimidated by the idea like I was (I've always been an artist at heart, but, I'll admit, spent many years in hiding).
However, with Ron's encouragement, I joined Ron in showing them both of our work, (including our recent silk hoops and scarves, plus older art we'd each done and had sitting around -- my hand-bound books and handmade paper, Ron's stone clocks and beaded earrings, as well as some small abstract acrylic paintings we both regularly sat down together and made in the evenings for therapeutic purposes for a phase) -- and they accepted all of our stuff! Hurray! So we've really stepped up our art creation in the past month or so in order to have a backlog ready for when the place opens (though I'm not sure how much will sell or how fast). So far, the site of the gallery is being completely remodeled, but hopefully it'll open soon! And perhaps if we gain momentum and produce a lot, we can submit stuff to other galleries in the area too. I'd never dared consider it before, but if it were possible to eventually create art full-time and for a living, now
that would be a dream job!
I've also continued experimenting with the henna, and for now, I've settled back upon a little darker coppery auburn as my favorite shade for the time being (as my latest avatar reflects).
Speaking of birds (
Sandy, I'm sorry to hear about Boyd -- who I'll bet probably still remains connected to you mind-to-mind and heart-to-heart even from the nearby trees outside --, plus those rainbow lorikeet pictures were great; and
PP, that's a pretty amazing story you had about the eagle in the road) just yesterday, we had our own really interesting encounter with a large bird: a large turkey vulture landed in a tree overlooking our back-porch deck and proceeded to spread its wings out full length and remain perched in that position for at least two full minutes, looking down at us! We hurriedly took pictures through the window with our digital camera, got a bad picture the first time and had to try again. As if waiting until we'd adequately captured the photo, s/he lowered its wings right after we'd snapped the last picture, then flew away shortly thereafter! It really seemed like a positive omen! Here's the photo we got:
I looked up the turkey vulture on line, and it turns out that several species of birds, such as cormorants, pelicans, storks, herons, and hawks, in addition to vultures, do these "spread-wing postures" in order to regulate their body temperature, dry their wings, and such. Interesting!
Plus, the turkey vulture is apparaently a very powerful Native American power totem. One website I found said, of this bird:
"It glides effortlessly on the winds, soaring to extraordinary heights while using little or no energy ... The scientific name for the Turkey Vulture is CATHARTES AURA which means GOLDEN PURIFIER because as it goes about it's lifetime business it purifies the landscape and environment in its own natural way, ensuring the continued health and life of other living things. The Vulture is a promise that all hardship was temporary and necessary for a higher purpose ... Vultures live and work together, both in cooperation and friendliness. They communicate with friends and neighbors when they find something to eat. They let the others know where the food is. And when there is a big feast they communicate with neighboring flocks in distant roosts. Also, Turkey Vultures that range within California Condor habitat areas, when they find food they will go to the Condors and lead them to it ... Unlike the needs of nearly all other living creatures, vultures do not kill. Their prey either dies or something else kills it." Wow, despite the negative connotation of the world, "vulture" in our mainstream culture, the symbolism of this seemingly-unfairly-scapegoated bird is actually very positive!
Have any of you bird-lovers seen the documentary, the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill? If not, I'd highly recommend it. It's a great story of this homeless street musician that befriended a flock of wild parrots living in San Francisco -- the birds (cherry-headed conures) apparently at one time escaped from a pet shop or some such thing, but the flock stuck together and inhabited a region of San Francisco called Telegraph Hill -- it's a great story, with a great surprise ending too, which I won't give away. Here are a couple of YouTube links to the trailer and an excerpt:
Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBDqwkgjW6g
Excerpt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OMiVruHMPA
Another cool little occurrence worth mentioning is that as we were driving by the site of the under-construction art gallery the other day, a pick-up truck pulled in front of us with the license plate 4U77777! How cool a prompt is that!
This idea of all us 11'ers getting together on 11/11/2012 sounds awesome! I've never been to Sedona or that part of Arizona, but I've heard that it's really cool, and an energy vortex, as others of you have noted. Just to throw in a little more info on the area, I've also heard that the road between Sedona and Flagstaff is rather twisty and mountainous in areas (must be beautiful, I'll bet!), and at high altitude, so it's possible there could be snow and some potential adverse driving conditions there that time of the year. I know this doesn't phase lots of people, but it's just another piece of data to add to the pot (and one that I always consider when traveling, being a bit of a wimp about driving in the snow, I'll admit! That's one of several reasons I was so glad to move from Colorado to California!)
I also keep synchronistically learning about cool events, businesses, etc., lately that all turn out to be in Ashland, Oregon, also on the west coast of the U.S., and just recently, I also read that it is yet another energy-vortex area, like Sedona, and Mt. Shasta as has also been mentioned. Most likely it'd be pretty rainy on the Oregon coast in the winter, though. But it is certainly fun for us all to keep brainstorming about! I love the idea of saving up dimes and pennies in a can in advance for the event -- that really works; even after just a few months, I've sometimes taken in a jar of coins that I've been accumulating to the bank to cash them in, and it'll turn out they've already added up to like $100 worth!
Well, I gotta get going and get some more stuff done before its time to make lunch! Guess I didn't do too great at keeping this short, eh?! Oh well!
Much Love and Blessings to All of You,
AquaDeb
P.S. - I was trying to add emoticons into this post, but for some reason it's only letting me put them at the end this time! Probably the Universe's way of getting me used to writing these posts a bit more quickly!
That is a good site that I found quite by accident while looking for a Lorikeet picture. The Lorikeet was the first Australian bird I saw on the way home from the airport when I first arived in this country. It blew me away with it's brilliant and even colors. 
thank goodness you flow with words....
Arazona here I come 2012 in November at 11:11am surely we can bring this together?????
Is it a popular vacation destination?
Since she is native to this country and so quickly found her own kind, I have great hope that she will have a happy life as a wild rosella. 
so cool to see you and I love your new aviator you look great and the gallery opening it's all happening!
it hurts... I agree with Sandy's original idea this thread needs to be saved and printed, hey PP you and me would have so much fun just saving our post 
totally..
as Children of the most high and sit on our throwns in the Kingdom of Heaven 🪽 
I want to go now!!!
