Supporting effective & meaningful personal growth through spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical balance.
It's just us (wild) folks.
America's dog; the coyote!
(Let's stop killing them!)
These are such good quotes that I just keep them
here to remind me of some wisdoms I may forget day-to-day. So, I may
add to them now and then but in the main, just leave them to keep my
brain happy. c
"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing." William James
"Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have."
Garrison Keillor
"I was determined to spend my life seeking Truth while being spared the company of those who claimed to have found it." (attributed to) John Henry Faulk
'I don't know, I just work here."
Joseph, Beautiful Painted Arrow, Real (in response to any spiritual inquiry)
"I am a member of 'The Church of There's-Something-Going-on-Here!'" coyote
He was constantly narrating his own actions in a writerly way, in his head. "I had the lonely child's habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued." George Orwell
(Me, Garrison Keillor & George, and probably a million
other
writers on the planet. )
"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing." William James
"Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have."
Garrison Keillor
"I was determined to spend my life seeking Truth while being spared the company of those who claimed to have found it." (attributed to) John Henry Faulk
'I don't know, I just work here."
Joseph, Beautiful Painted Arrow, Real (in response to any spiritual inquiry)
"I am a member of 'The Church of There's-Something-Going-on-Here!'" coyote
He was constantly narrating his own actions in a writerly way, in his head. "I had the lonely child's habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued." George Orwell
Coyote's
Cards, original photographs on beautifully lithographed cards with
envelopes. Bob Clancy has created a fully functional page for us. Just
Click-the-link!
(All Spirit Earth Path ceremonies are in Bold!)
November
23rd, Thanksgiving Sweat Lodge, 5 PM (See Note below.)
26th, Men's Circle & Conception Circle, 6 PM
December
10th, Men's Circle, 6 PM
24th, Men's Circle, 6 PM
31st, New Years Eve Sweat Lodge, 5 PM
"We're Managing Wildlife"
the Trappers say;
We say:
Ban Trapping,
And "Manage" Trappers!
• • •
Help us support these activist organizations:
The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
www.nmwild.org
...and ProjectCoyote
www.projectcoyote.org
Notes
(From Coyote)
The Evolution and Dissoluttion of the BMS Colorado Fairs
Fed up with Football
A Note and a Rant
Note from Seneca (4 BC-65 AD
We Are Still Young....and Foolish
Where Have You Been All My Life?
Considering Beginnings
A Hobby
Return with me
I Usually Avoid
Just Say No!
What's in a Name?
Men's Page
Men's Health, Mine anyway!
Once again.
You Americans and your Guns!
Background Checks, the Political Manipulations
Fall Out
Books
Before all my filters and boundary’s were put into place I was a lot more accepting of differences….so I must have been about seven when I was wider open than I subsequently became. (I am opening again now I notice.)
Back then I’d listen to just about anything on the radio (our only exterior form of home entertainment). Indicative of one area as an example was that I loved country music (the Grand ol’ Oprey, Sons of the Pioneers…) and an obscure radio program called “Lum and Abner”. It was a strange little peek into what we called “Hill Billy” country, a story about the happenings at the “Jot-em-down store” located at some back country crossroads in the Appalachians ( a word I’ve never been able to spell).
Time and I moved on and most of that was lost to me, BUT! I must add here, lately I’ve caught a few of the “Lum and Abner” shows on XM radio and found them, at the very least, charming……and then I came across a little book in our local library. I was looking for a bio, any bio for light but informative reading and happened upon “Running on Red Dog Road” (Drema Hall Berkheimer). Subtitled, “And other perils of an Appalachian Childhood”. I was immediately not interested…BUT! I looked at the first two pages and scenes shot by Dorothea Lang and images of the thirties dust bowl, and tumbled down coal towns and the movie “Matewan” (a must see by the way) and Ludlow, Colorado….all of these came sneaking in past my censors so I checked it out.
Even when I got it home and after checking out a few more pages, I didn't think I’d dive into it….Appalachia….just not interested……and then I did….and then I was….and then I fell into Drema’s story telling…..and I found all the humanity she storied about……and I will just say this right here, I fell enough in love with all those people, people I could have cared less about before Drema’s revealing of them, so much so that I decided to try to contact her to thank her for the gifts of this story……and then I found out that she had died just one year ago almost to the day that I had finished her book.
This isn’t the end of the story however.
I found out about her death at the web site of author Kathleen M. Rodgers, a friend of Dremas' and I emailed her about my experience of Drema’s book and next thing I know she has called me and we had a long conversation, which included sharing tears, about Drema’s story telling. There were a number of small miracles embedded in that conversation and I’m sure I will write about them one day soon, but right now I will just sum all this up with a little quote from “Red Dog…”,
“Grandma had warned us that those places were just as crooked as a rattlesnake and we had no business whatsoever going anywhere near them and she’d better not hear tell that we had or we would be plenty sorry and we should mark her words because we’d have her to deal with when we got home and make no mistake about that.”
“So, that’s where we headed.”
I was seven again, and this book opened all those doors into rooms I hadn’t visited for a long, long time. You might like a visit as well.
PS: Yes, yes "Lum and Abner" were stereotypes of Appalachian people and can be seen as making everyone from the area seem simple. Well, I never believed that entirely, Minnie Pearl notwithstanding.
I once met a guy from Appalachia in a punch press plant I was working in and he built a stereo amp for me from scratch. It wasn't pretty, but it sure as hell worked. Nothing "simple" about him.
(This was not a coerced disclaimer. Just thought I'd add it in.) c
I no longer look back by counting years, it's now all about blocks of time we call "decades". So, decades ago I read Paul Horgan's "The Great River"(the Rio Grande) and decided, a few weeks ago, to pick it up again. It's a thick book, not just in the number of pages, but in information about, the Southwest, the America of the mid 1800's, the nature of Americans (whites) Mexicans, Indians, humans, what stagecoaches were made of, how battles began, the Mexican-American war, Santa Fe, D.C., Pancho Villa, James Polk, the nature of the cowboy and his relationship to his horse......too much to list, way too much. This is one incredible book. (won the Pulitzer) I can't recommend it highly enough. Should be required reading for anyone who cares about how we became the U.S.
Path of the Puma. We live in Mountain Lion country here in north-central New Mexico. In the twenty-five years we’ve been here we’ve seen three, one big one and two smaller. We have been extraordinarily lucky. Some people, even those given to lots of hiking in the back country may never see one in their lifetime that’s why some call these elusive animals “ghost cats”. But they DO see us. If you are in mountain lion country you can bet you are being watched, not as prey, they much prefer deer, but certainly as presence.
Jim Williams book is a great read, all about the puma, panther, catamount, mountain lion in all its beauty and its importance to the survival of the entire Wild in both North and South America. This book is another worth-your-time read with very fine photography to boot. It follows the mountain lion’s range from Canada to Patagonia and tells the story well. Don’t pass it up.
Check out Michelle Obama' book "Becoming" and you'll soon know why it's a best seller. Her style is open and accessible, just as she is. This is a marvelous read and a sad reminder at the same time –––– knowing what we had compared to what we have now.....well, what can be said?
• • •
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval is a rare blend of prose poetry and history, specifically the history of black women from about 1870 to around 1935. In other words, from the end of slavery into the middle of the jazz age…..an escape from the violence of the South to the oppression of the North.
It’s an unblinking look at the officially sanctioned and unsubtle racism that black people seeking freedom from the overt racism of the South found in places like New York and Detroit, the escape from the plantation to continued subjugation ……an examination of the foundations that were laid, despite best intentions, for the construction of black ghettos. About how poor equals crook in the minds of cops, judges, social workers*, and politicians and how black people in particular were, and are, set up as targets of suspicion and mistrust.
Saidiya Hartman is the author and she is a genius when it comes to story telling, touching your heart, and telling it how it is. (A black specialty as far as I’m concerned.)
*This is also still going on. (One of these times I'll tell my experience of a local, New Mexico, food stamp office visit.)
“Everyone loved sunsets. The light lost its sanity as it fell over the hills and into the Pacific¬––––it went red and deeper red, orange, and even green. The skies seemed to melt, like lava eating black rock into great bite marks of burning. Sometimes all the town stopped and stared west.” (p-129 in “House of Broken Angels”) Who wouldn't love to have written that paragraph.....and that's just a tiny taste of the kind of writing Luis Alberto Urrea produces time after time in his masterful works of both fiction and non. Of those I've only read, Hummingbird's Daughter, Queen of America, & The Devil's Highway (couldn't finish that one, too painful). Urrea is one of our great masters.
• • •
After the politics of Truman I was ready for something totally different.....I found it in Fredrick Backman's, "Britt-Marie Was Here"! It's a novel which begins with;
"Forks. Knives. Spoons. In that order. Britt-Marie is certainly not the kind of person who judges other people. Far from it. But surely no civilized person would even think of arranging a cutlery drawer in a different way from how cutlery drawers are supposed to be arranged. We're not animals are we?"
Etc.
And this is the way this wonderfully strange book ambles along....and then moves in another beautiful direction....or directions.
You will love this one. (Even if you're not a dedicated novel reader.)
• • •
Just a short look at a book I finished this week (this is why I'm not getting any of my own writing done....but I AM trimming trees after all so it's not like I'm slacking off). This book is Red Cloud, a bio of the Sioux Chief by Robert W. Larson. It's a good read and a very clear description of the times (mid 1800's to early 1900's) and this important Sioux presence.
By the way, I also want to plug any book by Mari Sandoz who was a genius of a writer about so much in the west and the Great Plains....and the Indians of course. Read anything by her and she will take you there both in time and in language. Some readers back in her day (mid 20th Century) didn't like the fact that she did not romanticize the Old West...quite the opposite. Another writer whose work is worth your time.
Do NOT pass this one up! The title might seem to predict a dry read about self-help tricks, but that is not the case at all. This one is well written, a first person narrative about how to change how we both perceive and experience what we keep believing is reality. If you invest time in reading anything over the next few weeks, make it this one!
• • •
• • •
Movies (& TV)
• • •
23rd, Thanksgiving Sweat Lodge, 5 PM (See Note below.)
26th, Men's Circle & Conception Circle, 6 PM
December
10th, Men's Circle, 6 PM
24th, Men's Circle, 6 PM
31st, New Years Eve Sweat Lodge, 5 PM
"We're Managing Wildlife"
the Trappers say;
We say:
Ban Trapping,
And "Manage" Trappers!
• • •
Help us support these activist organizations:
The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
www.nmwild.org
...and ProjectCoyote
www.projectcoyote.org
Notes
(From Coyote)
The Evolution and Dissoluttion of the BMS Colorado Fairs
Fed up with Football
A Note and a Rant
Note from Seneca (4 BC-65 AD
We Are Still Young....and Foolish
Where Have You Been All My Life?
Considering Beginnings
A Hobby
Return with me
I Usually Avoid
Just Say No!
What's in a Name?
Men's Page
Men's Health, Mine anyway!
Once again.
You Americans and your Guns!
Background Checks, the Political Manipulations
Fall Out
Books
“Hi
Hitler”…..yes, you
read that right, “Hi” not “Heil”. Author Gavriel D. Rosenfeld explores
both Hitler the man and the myth and Nazism, and this is a wide ranging
journey through books, movies, the internet, fiction, fact,
fantasy…..for example, he examines the obsession with the what-ifs of
history. Does it even serve to bother with this undertaking? he asks.
An interesting response to this is to wonder if the Nazi government
would have continued to function without Hitler at it’s head? One
answer says “yes”. The machinery was in place, the German population
supported it, so after a time it didn’t matter who stood at the wheel,
so assassination would not have stopped anything. (Would impeachment?)
Was Nazism a singular experience of the time(s) or is its venom always present in humanity ready to poison a civilization at any moment?
Lots of questions like this and he’s not trying to reach conclusions as much as deal with ALL the possibilities.
It’s not dull by any means. In fact, it’s absorbing.
Written in 2015, it needs an addendum under the current circumstances……for obvious reasons.
It’s a good thing I didn’t get hold of Roger Welsch’s book “The Reluctant Pilgrim, A skeptic’s journey into Native Mysteries” before writing my own, ("Becoming Coyote, A Journey of Enlightenment…Mostly".) because I would have been accused of plagiarism (by me at least).
Chapter after chapter in Roger’s book parallel my own, not word for word, but at least concept by concept. I DID borrow, actually quote, one of Roger’s ideas. It came as a result of a phone call to him which might have taken place right about the time he was writing “Reluctant…” about 2014 or so. In that call, a rare one since Roger is phone-call adverse, he told me his granddaughter had commented to him that she thought he was a “…..member of the church of ‘There’s Something-going-on-here.’” (How did I get his number? Obviously the result of “Something-going-on-here!”)
When Roger related that to me I immediately recognized that that was exactly the “church” I belonged to and that the idea of Something-going-on summed up my thinking as well. I’ve used it ever since. (Thanks Roger!)
I’ve tried to contact Roger, even re-opened my Facebook account temporarily only to get in touch with him (I don’t “do” social media) but to no avail…so I’ve let go of the idea.
“Reluctant” is a good one and if you are seeking any kind of spiritual path, this is the read for you….ESPECIALLY if you’re a skeptic.
Was Nazism a singular experience of the time(s) or is its venom always present in humanity ready to poison a civilization at any moment?
Lots of questions like this and he’s not trying to reach conclusions as much as deal with ALL the possibilities.
It’s not dull by any means. In fact, it’s absorbing.
Written in 2015, it needs an addendum under the current circumstances……for obvious reasons.
It’s a good thing I didn’t get hold of Roger Welsch’s book “The Reluctant Pilgrim, A skeptic’s journey into Native Mysteries” before writing my own, ("Becoming Coyote, A Journey of Enlightenment…Mostly".) because I would have been accused of plagiarism (by me at least).
Chapter after chapter in Roger’s book parallel my own, not word for word, but at least concept by concept. I DID borrow, actually quote, one of Roger’s ideas. It came as a result of a phone call to him which might have taken place right about the time he was writing “Reluctant…” about 2014 or so. In that call, a rare one since Roger is phone-call adverse, he told me his granddaughter had commented to him that she thought he was a “…..member of the church of ‘There’s Something-going-on-here.’” (How did I get his number? Obviously the result of “Something-going-on-here!”)
When Roger related that to me I immediately recognized that that was exactly the “church” I belonged to and that the idea of Something-going-on summed up my thinking as well. I’ve used it ever since. (Thanks Roger!)
I’ve tried to contact Roger, even re-opened my Facebook account temporarily only to get in touch with him (I don’t “do” social media) but to no avail…so I’ve let go of the idea.
“Reluctant” is a good one and if you are seeking any kind of spiritual path, this is the read for you….ESPECIALLY if you’re a skeptic.
Before all my filters and boundary’s were put into place I was a lot more accepting of differences….so I must have been about seven when I was wider open than I subsequently became. (I am opening again now I notice.)
Back then I’d listen to just about anything on the radio (our only exterior form of home entertainment). Indicative of one area as an example was that I loved country music (the Grand ol’ Oprey, Sons of the Pioneers…) and an obscure radio program called “Lum and Abner”. It was a strange little peek into what we called “Hill Billy” country, a story about the happenings at the “Jot-em-down store” located at some back country crossroads in the Appalachians ( a word I’ve never been able to spell).
Time and I moved on and most of that was lost to me, BUT! I must add here, lately I’ve caught a few of the “Lum and Abner” shows on XM radio and found them, at the very least, charming……and then I came across a little book in our local library. I was looking for a bio, any bio for light but informative reading and happened upon “Running on Red Dog Road” (Drema Hall Berkheimer). Subtitled, “And other perils of an Appalachian Childhood”. I was immediately not interested…BUT! I looked at the first two pages and scenes shot by Dorothea Lang and images of the thirties dust bowl, and tumbled down coal towns and the movie “Matewan” (a must see by the way) and Ludlow, Colorado….all of these came sneaking in past my censors so I checked it out.
Even when I got it home and after checking out a few more pages, I didn't think I’d dive into it….Appalachia….just not interested……and then I did….and then I was….and then I fell into Drema’s story telling…..and I found all the humanity she storied about……and I will just say this right here, I fell enough in love with all those people, people I could have cared less about before Drema’s revealing of them, so much so that I decided to try to contact her to thank her for the gifts of this story……and then I found out that she had died just one year ago almost to the day that I had finished her book.
This isn’t the end of the story however.
I found out about her death at the web site of author Kathleen M. Rodgers, a friend of Dremas' and I emailed her about my experience of Drema’s book and next thing I know she has called me and we had a long conversation, which included sharing tears, about Drema’s story telling. There were a number of small miracles embedded in that conversation and I’m sure I will write about them one day soon, but right now I will just sum all this up with a little quote from “Red Dog…”,
“Grandma had warned us that those places were just as crooked as a rattlesnake and we had no business whatsoever going anywhere near them and she’d better not hear tell that we had or we would be plenty sorry and we should mark her words because we’d have her to deal with when we got home and make no mistake about that.”
“So, that’s where we headed.”
I was seven again, and this book opened all those doors into rooms I hadn’t visited for a long, long time. You might like a visit as well.
PS: Yes, yes "Lum and Abner" were stereotypes of Appalachian people and can be seen as making everyone from the area seem simple. Well, I never believed that entirely, Minnie Pearl notwithstanding.
I once met a guy from Appalachia in a punch press plant I was working in and he built a stereo amp for me from scratch. It wasn't pretty, but it sure as hell worked. Nothing "simple" about him.
(This was not a coerced disclaimer. Just thought I'd add it in.) c
I no longer look back by counting years, it's now all about blocks of time we call "decades". So, decades ago I read Paul Horgan's "The Great River"(the Rio Grande) and decided, a few weeks ago, to pick it up again. It's a thick book, not just in the number of pages, but in information about, the Southwest, the America of the mid 1800's, the nature of Americans (whites) Mexicans, Indians, humans, what stagecoaches were made of, how battles began, the Mexican-American war, Santa Fe, D.C., Pancho Villa, James Polk, the nature of the cowboy and his relationship to his horse......too much to list, way too much. This is one incredible book. (won the Pulitzer) I can't recommend it highly enough. Should be required reading for anyone who cares about how we became the U.S.
Path of the Puma. We live in Mountain Lion country here in north-central New Mexico. In the twenty-five years we’ve been here we’ve seen three, one big one and two smaller. We have been extraordinarily lucky. Some people, even those given to lots of hiking in the back country may never see one in their lifetime that’s why some call these elusive animals “ghost cats”. But they DO see us. If you are in mountain lion country you can bet you are being watched, not as prey, they much prefer deer, but certainly as presence.
Jim Williams book is a great read, all about the puma, panther, catamount, mountain lion in all its beauty and its importance to the survival of the entire Wild in both North and South America. This book is another worth-your-time read with very fine photography to boot. It follows the mountain lion’s range from Canada to Patagonia and tells the story well. Don’t pass it up.
Check out Michelle Obama' book "Becoming" and you'll soon know why it's a best seller. Her style is open and accessible, just as she is. This is a marvelous read and a sad reminder at the same time –––– knowing what we had compared to what we have now.....well, what can be said?
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval is a rare blend of prose poetry and history, specifically the history of black women from about 1870 to around 1935. In other words, from the end of slavery into the middle of the jazz age…..an escape from the violence of the South to the oppression of the North.
It’s an unblinking look at the officially sanctioned and unsubtle racism that black people seeking freedom from the overt racism of the South found in places like New York and Detroit, the escape from the plantation to continued subjugation ……an examination of the foundations that were laid, despite best intentions, for the construction of black ghettos. About how poor equals crook in the minds of cops, judges, social workers*, and politicians and how black people in particular were, and are, set up as targets of suspicion and mistrust.
Saidiya Hartman is the author and she is a genius when it comes to story telling, touching your heart, and telling it how it is. (A black specialty as far as I’m concerned.)
*This is also still going on. (One of these times I'll tell my experience of a local, New Mexico, food stamp office visit.)
“Everyone loved sunsets. The light lost its sanity as it fell over the hills and into the Pacific¬––––it went red and deeper red, orange, and even green. The skies seemed to melt, like lava eating black rock into great bite marks of burning. Sometimes all the town stopped and stared west.” (p-129 in “House of Broken Angels”) Who wouldn't love to have written that paragraph.....and that's just a tiny taste of the kind of writing Luis Alberto Urrea produces time after time in his masterful works of both fiction and non. Of those I've only read, Hummingbird's Daughter, Queen of America, & The Devil's Highway (couldn't finish that one, too painful). Urrea is one of our great masters.
• • •
It's such a drag that we lost Ivan Doig. He left us
in 2015 and left
behind in incredible legacy of wonderful writing that always leaves me
wondering at his skill as a prose-poet and wondering why I even try to
write anything. (Yes, I know I shouldn't do this
destructive-to-my-own-writer-skill thing, but.....I mean Ivan Doig was
someone apart from any ol' writer, and I read a lot of them.
Here's just a tiny example taken from "Mountain Time" (1999) His main character is meeting a woman at the airport. (Her name is "Mariah" by the way.) so he writes, "There. Announced by the hair." Now any other writer would have said something like, "Then he spotted her." or "He couldn't miss her red hair in the crowd." But not Doig. In just five words we can guess she's probably a red head with a massive amount of hair.
In the next paragraph he says, "Mariah, all footwork and grin, cut a sharp angle through the concourse crowd." We already know a lot about her just with that little description.
Doig. An amazing writer.
I first came upon him in "The Whistling Season" and then, "This House of Sky". I haven't read all of his stuff (his "Bartender's Tale" was just so/so) but these last two are certainly tops!
Frankly it's hard to enjoy another read after one of his. Have to take a bit of a breather so as not to be let down by what may be a "flat prose" writer.
Just finished David McCullough's "Truman". What a contrast to today's insult to our country (and the World). I wonder how long we have to wait for the final chapter to this pathetic and nightmarish "joke".......(we've had enough of the punch line.)
Here's just a tiny example taken from "Mountain Time" (1999) His main character is meeting a woman at the airport. (Her name is "Mariah" by the way.) so he writes, "There. Announced by the hair." Now any other writer would have said something like, "Then he spotted her." or "He couldn't miss her red hair in the crowd." But not Doig. In just five words we can guess she's probably a red head with a massive amount of hair.
In the next paragraph he says, "Mariah, all footwork and grin, cut a sharp angle through the concourse crowd." We already know a lot about her just with that little description.
Doig. An amazing writer.
I first came upon him in "The Whistling Season" and then, "This House of Sky". I haven't read all of his stuff (his "Bartender's Tale" was just so/so) but these last two are certainly tops!
Frankly it's hard to enjoy another read after one of his. Have to take a bit of a breather so as not to be let down by what may be a "flat prose" writer.
•
• •
Just finished David McCullough's "Truman". What a contrast to today's insult to our country (and the World). I wonder how long we have to wait for the final chapter to this pathetic and nightmarish "joke".......(we've had enough of the punch line.)
•
• •
•
• •
After the politics of Truman I was ready for something totally different.....I found it in Fredrick Backman's, "Britt-Marie Was Here"! It's a novel which begins with;
"Forks. Knives. Spoons. In that order. Britt-Marie is certainly not the kind of person who judges other people. Far from it. But surely no civilized person would even think of arranging a cutlery drawer in a different way from how cutlery drawers are supposed to be arranged. We're not animals are we?"
Etc.
And this is the way this wonderfully strange book ambles along....and then moves in another beautiful direction....or directions.
You will love this one. (Even if you're not a dedicated novel reader.)
• • •
Just a short look at a book I finished this week (this is why I'm not getting any of my own writing done....but I AM trimming trees after all so it's not like I'm slacking off). This book is Red Cloud, a bio of the Sioux Chief by Robert W. Larson. It's a good read and a very clear description of the times (mid 1800's to early 1900's) and this important Sioux presence.
By the way, I also want to plug any book by Mari Sandoz who was a genius of a writer about so much in the west and the Great Plains....and the Indians of course. Read anything by her and she will take you there both in time and in language. Some readers back in her day (mid 20th Century) didn't like the fact that she did not romanticize the Old West...quite the opposite. Another writer whose work is worth your time.
•
Here is a very important
read; "How
to Change Your Mind, What the new science of Psychedelics" teaches
us
about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.
(Michael
Pollan)Do NOT pass this one up! The title might seem to predict a dry read about self-help tricks, but that is not the case at all. This one is well written, a first person narrative about how to change how we both perceive and experience what we keep believing is reality. If you invest time in reading anything over the next few weeks, make it this one!
• • •
My own book, "Becoming
Coyote, A Journey of
Enlightenment (Mostly)" is
not quite as "important" as Pollen's BUT! it's NOW available and is it
worth the read? After 14 edits I never want to
see it again.......however, you might like it and my
writer-editor-publisher daughter (Winter) says it's "...really good."
and it DID get good "reviews" from a couple of pre-publish
readers....so there you go.
It's thick enough (400+ pages) to make a good door stop and has a very nice cover.....which, for some obscure reason, I can't get to load here....? It beats any over-the-counter sleep aid and has no horrible side effects. (so far)
Anyway; it's $20, which will cover book, envelope, and postage. (No, not available in a "Kindle" edition or on Amazon so rare to begin with....and I'll sign it too!)
It's thick enough (400+ pages) to make a good door stop and has a very nice cover.....which, for some obscure reason, I can't get to load here....? It beats any over-the-counter sleep aid and has no horrible side effects. (so far)
Anyway; it's $20, which will cover book, envelope, and postage. (No, not available in a "Kindle" edition or on Amazon so rare to begin with....and I'll sign it too!)
•
• •
If you can find it
(at Amazon or your local library)
get ahold of "New Mexico: Voices in
an
Ancient Landscape"
by Douglas Kent Hall. I read it and found three as gifts for
other NM
lovers. This is a classic! First published in '95 it's a bit dated when
it comes to some of the views of the people interviewed, but it's a
fine piece of NM and Southwest history.
• • •
“In the absence of fact, myth rushes in, the kudzu
of
history.” What a great line. It was written by Stacy Schiff of whom it
is said, “Even if forced at gunpoint, Stacy Schiff would be incapable
of writing a dull page or a lame sentence.” For proof read her "Cleopatra, a Life".
What an epic work! This is not a book you can rush through, not if you
want the full benefit of Schiff’s hard won knowledge about this “last
empress” (as described by Schiff).
PS, She just finished a second, not a sequel, and it's every bit as good as Matchbook. She's on a roll. That book, When I Knew You, is now available too.
•
• •
Winter
Desiree's book "Matchbook"
is detective-fiction.....not a genre
I usually read...BUT! this is one fine piece of reading and as one of
the comments on the back cover notes, "You will not be able to put it
down."...well, that's for sure. Don't pass this one up, my daughter has
written one FINE story.PS, She just finished a second, not a sequel, and it's every bit as good as Matchbook. She's on a roll. That book, When I Knew You, is now available too.
Movies (& TV)
We never darken the
door of a commercial movie house, we just stream
'em from Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Acorn. So no "New Releases"
here...but these come highly recommended from a couple of old movie buffs.
By the way, for the first time in a long time we actually tried watching a show on commercial TV, "Madam Secretary" (the best topical political drama since West Wing) seemed worth coping with commercials to see. It's intelligent and on-the-mark but the commercial interruptions made it extremely frustrating to watch. We'll just await its placement on Netflix. I don't know how anyone can suffer through watching ANYTHING on regular TV.
By the way, for the first time in a long time we actually tried watching a show on commercial TV, "Madam Secretary" (the best topical political drama since West Wing) seemed worth coping with commercials to see. It's intelligent and on-the-mark but the commercial interruptions made it extremely frustrating to watch. We'll just await its placement on Netflix. I don't know how anyone can suffer through watching ANYTHING on regular TV.
• • •
"The Good Place" is
lots of fun and throws in some "thinking" as well (I've had to watch
some episodes twice to really "get it". Nothing lost in a second view.
Like "Frazier" the intelligent writing holds these episodes up well. )
Doc Martin is back on Acorn. Great show on every Thursday eve.
Another "great show" returns on Acorn, "Miss Fisher's Mysteries" This is a classic, don't miss it.
"The Bookshop" is the story of a woman trying to open a bookshop in a small English town ca. early 60's. Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy, Patricia Clarkson, & cast. A fine story. (Amazon)
"The man who invented Christmas!" Yes, it's a story about Dickens, cleverly told by a cast of Brit. stars.....a really heart warming story about writing the book (A Christmas Carol of course.) Need your spirits lifted? This is the movie to see. (Netflix)
"Rumors of Angels" with Vanessa Redgrave. Heart felt and magical....likewise, Collateral Beauty with Will Smith and a fine cast. Both of these are about death of a loved one (a mother in the first, a child in the second) and both are very well done. (Netflix)
Binge watching:
Don't miss "The Politician" on Netflix. Season 1 available now. (I know, this is classified by the TV gurus as a "kid show"......but it's plain to see it's aimed at sophisticated kids.....like us!
Doc Martin is back on Acorn. Great show on every Thursday eve.
Another "great show" returns on Acorn, "Miss Fisher's Mysteries" This is a classic, don't miss it.
"The Bookshop" is the story of a woman trying to open a bookshop in a small English town ca. early 60's. Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy, Patricia Clarkson, & cast. A fine story. (Amazon)
"The man who invented Christmas!" Yes, it's a story about Dickens, cleverly told by a cast of Brit. stars.....a really heart warming story about writing the book (A Christmas Carol of course.) Need your spirits lifted? This is the movie to see. (Netflix)
"Rumors of Angels" with Vanessa Redgrave. Heart felt and magical....likewise, Collateral Beauty with Will Smith and a fine cast. Both of these are about death of a loved one (a mother in the first, a child in the second) and both are very well done. (Netflix)
Binge watching:
Don't miss "The Politician" on Netflix. Season 1 available now. (I know, this is classified by the TV gurus as a "kid show"......but it's plain to see it's aimed at sophisticated kids.....like us!
Yoshi 'n Doug
Mug shots.
(Bottom four not dead yet.) >
Kierkegaard came up with two concepts that are commonplace to us today: one is "subjectivity," the idea that we all perceive the world — and "truth" — differently; and the other is the "leap of faith," that faith is not possible without doubt. “One must doubt the existence of God to have faith in the existence of God. Belief without doubt is just credulity.”
(*Actually it was Oscar Wilde)
| Dick Prosapio, MSW, aka Coyote; ceremonialist, psychotherapist (recovering), writer (Intuitive Tarot, Becoming Coyote) drummer, photographer, dancer, and leader of experiential workshops for 30+ years. Co founder of; The Foundation for Common Sense©. | Elizabeth Prosapio, BFA, RMT, aka Raven; leads WildWoman weekends, is co leader of The Long Dance and Shadow Dance, leader of Woman's Spirit Weekend, a (very) fine artist and massage therapist and co-wrote Intuitive Tarot with Dick. (US Games pub.) Elizabeth is available for "Soul Face" drawing (more info by contacting her) and is also the co founder of; The Foundation for Common Sense©. |
For more information on any event listed, contact us at:  coyotecall@spiritpath.net raven1680@gmail.com |
Spirit Earth Path Raven's Email: raven1680@gmail.com |
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Last
updated;
6 AM, November 19th, 2019.
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