A Little Mythology

 I ran across this in Barbara O'Neal's book, The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue about the goddesses Hecate: 

Hecate completes the goddess triad of the Maiden (Persephonje) the mother (Demeter) and the wise woman (Hecate). She walks between the seen and the unseen world but resides in neither, carrying a flaming torch so she can see where others can’t—into the human psyche.

She is accompanied by her dog (or horse), her sacred animals, and offers her magical protection in times of danger. If you have that sense of foreboding sitting in your solar plexus, it may be that you are standing at a crossroad and are unsure about where you need to go next.

Rest assured that Hecate is walking alongside you, carrying her torch with which to guide you.”

--www.goddess.com.au 

 

 

I questioned O'Neal's use of the goddesses, not as sorcery, but as representations of the stages of a woman's life, maiden, mother and wise woman. Perhaps that is why it stuck with me.

The Present Doesn't Predict the Future

Find a little sweetness and pass it on.

 

 

The future never comes because when it's here, it's today. 

 

Today is fresh, new, beautiful. I want to believe it's a fresh start. Since I'm writing this, I can say whatever I want. If you want to listen to me, come on in, it's a great day to be alive.

 

About aging, what can I say? I got so excited when I began reading Christiane Northrup's book, Goddesses Don't Age, and thought, Wow, we need this. We need women encouraging each other to be strong,  not to accept standard views, to stay ageless."

 

We can't really be ageless; the body goes on with its changes, but our attitudes affect that, and our attitudes can be ageless. We can stop saying things such as "At my age." We can stop giving our age entirely.

 

When someone asked my mother-in-law her age, she would say, " I forgive you for asking that personal question." I thought I was following her example, but a doctor's office is different, isn't it?

 

Once, I gave my age to my Naturopath. I figured she knew anyway, but she hadn't done the math or even looked at the number. I don't know why I gave away that information, except we were talking about my recent birthday. 

 

She whipped out a Polst page--I didn't know what that was, but I soon learned that it is an advance directive of what I want if a medical team finds me unconscious, or not able to speak for myself.  (It stands for Provider Orders for Sustaining Treatment)  I was totally insulted. 

 

A Polst is a good idea, but at that moment I knew that she saw me differently. Before, we were contemporaries, but now I'm older. See, people, even doctors, judge you by your age.

So, people, we need to stick together. We need to encourage each other to live in an aura of agelessness. 

 

That's my desire.

Breathe--The Easest of Exercises, and Pet Your Cat--a Stress Reducer

Obi petting me.

Put aside the cares of the world for a moment. Put aside the house that needs to be cleaned. Take a moment to be you.

In my first blog post, I mentioned that I was three pages into Christiane Northrup’s book Goddesses Never Age when I became excited about creating this blog. We need a place to talk about how it is to be 50 and beyond, or coming up on it, and the issues and concerns that swirl around us now. 

Perhaps with that extra testosterone we are getting, we are more able to put aside the BS. Maybe I'm missing my women's group, where we talked about anything, our feelings,  hurts, emotions, spiritual path, and our body parts. They all work together, and when you squelch one, whatever the issue, it will squirt out someplace else.

Although my motivator of this blog, Dr. Christian Northrup, said that when she comes up a group of women having an "Organ Recital," (Not a musical instrument) she moves on, we will talk about organs here. But not in a gleeful way, like sharing how much we suffered in childbirth to get sympathy from those who have yet to experience it.

 “Let’s make it easy to be healthy and happy.”

I hope the word holistic or “Mind, Body, Spirit" doesn’t become cliché, for it is thrown around like peanut shells on a bar floor. Holistic means it's all working together, which is the way the body works. I am sensitive about using the holistic approach, for my husband has had health issues for the past year, and we have gone to one "specialist" after another as though the body is divided into zones.

Okay, here is what I set out to talk about today before I got carried away:

 The Breath.

 And the Lymph System.

You know about the circulatory system. The blood has a pump, your heart. Yet your cells are bathed in lymph, which has no pump and relies on body movement and deep breathing to move it.

Of course, breathing is automatic most of the time, but if you include some deep breathing and hold that breath, it will help move the lymph through your body, thus giving your cells more oxygen and washing away waste material and dead cells. As a result, you will have more energy and vitality.

Lymph contains many substances, including proteins, minerals, fats, damaged cells, cancer cells, and germs. The movement of the lymph can wash them away. Lymph also transports infection-fighting white blood cells (lymphocytes).

 A study on chicken cells kept in a clean substance—like lymph—caused those cells to almost achieve mortality—well, 30 years instead of 11.

Plasma passes from your blood into the lymph system, where it bathes every cell, providing oxygen and nutrients and removing waste material, dead cells, and such. Close to the heart, it is absorbed back into the blood, where the waste is removed and dumped from your system. 

Two things move the lymph: body movement and deep breathing. So, take a few deep breaths on purpose. (If you are sitting at the computer, stop, breathe in one for second, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 2.)

Remember the ratio: 1-4-2

You can double of triple those numbers. Inhale for  inhale for the count of one, two, three, four, hold for 16, exhale for 8.

 4-16-8--same ratio.

 If you feel strong, go for 6, 24, 12.

That feels good.   

Try this breathing exercise 10 times a day for 10 days and see if your energy isn’t more incredible.

See, it’s easy, breezy, beautiful. 

I'd love to hear how this breathing exercise works for you. Share your experiences in the comments below.

 Or, what do you want to talk about?