Letterboxing

Whenever I'm searching for something on Google I always end up discovering something totally out of the blue like this intersting hobby called Letterboxing It's sorta like a treasure hunt where you leave your personal stamp/cards to be stamped by another and sent to you.....errr I think....still reading about it. It became popular in North America after the hobby was featured in Smithsonian magazine. It looks like their is a box hidden at the Huntington Library where I just had tea the other day and one at my fave icecream shop! Hmmmm. Looks like I gotta do a Spumoni run! ETA: Your personal stamp must be handmade and carved onto a pink eraser.

Today I found this book in the twopeas gallery today that I thought was awesome. It's called Women Who Love Too Much Starbook by chatty. Makes me want to start stamping.

Just wanted to add....I smell a mouse in here.(Sniff sniff)The Disney kind. ;)

Was just on Burberry Girl's new "Some Like It Hot" blog and heard about the Ron Howard DaVinci Code movie trailer....which of course isn't working for me. :( I can't believe I have that book sitting in a NON READ box of books! I'm bumping it up tonight. It should be interesting because I'm familiar with the Louvre and the South of France. I've seen the stunning Mona Lisa there, she has her own room and have explored the castle and have snuck into places I shouldn't have been in like this dungeon-like room I found walking down a-seemed like a 5-story spiral brown brick/stone? staircase. Then I took a train to the South of France~the most magical, enchanting place in the world. I wonder if they are filming there? Alfred Molina is in the movie....whom I love! Why am I suddenly craving wine now :)?
You know what's funny? Whenever I see Ron Howard I always think of his brother Clint (Gentle Ben). I hope he~Ron doesn't give his brother a part/scene in the movie like he USUALLY always does! Clint is actually a nice guy. He shared his joint with me at a Bowie concert once. All I see maybe is Clint playing the dungeon ogre at the Louvre! LOL I suddenly don't feel like wine anymore!

Want to see my new jacket I got from The Southwest Indian Foundation ? I highly recommend getting their free catalog. I love their stuff!
It has a bit of "scrap appeal" to it. Off to retrieve DaVinci...

Can you believe its been a year since the tsunami?! It seems like I was JUST watching Oprah's tsunami special months ago! Hope everyone's holidays went/is going smoothly. Someone on 2peas posted a (Haley)"What is the strangest thing you received for Christmas"? thread. I thought it was funny that some people received Febreze. I posted that what I found strange was what I DID NOT receive this year. No See's or Old Navy fleeces!!! The staples I count on every year to recycle! The strangest thing I received was 800 pages of "The Unknown Story M*A*O" WITH "Becoming Madame Mao." My brain is going to implode. I'm actually looking forward to reading them, though....next year.

I already redemed my $100 gift certificate I received from my fave SBing store. Still have a $200 + $50 certificate from Robinsons/May, $60 from Nordstrom, $25 from Lady Footlocker, $50 from Mervyn's, $25 @ Starbucks. I have to return a bunch of junk too. There should be a SWAP site for unwanted gifts where we all can trade our stuff with eachother. There should be a "Have you seen me?" page where we can post a pic of our treasure and hopefully get answers as to what store carries it.

Last week I picked a totem for the new year and I picked a powerful one~Jaguar/Xi. Well, I decided to go with "baby jaguar", more my speed. I don't think I have the attention span for being conscious and being in stalking mode 24/7 required for Jaguar. I did some pretty daring stuff last week too that I normally would not do! I put on my "Jaguar skins" :) and attacked some new tasks.
Jaguar Medicine:
Understanding the patterns of chaos
Moving without fear in the darkness
Facilitating soul work
Empowering oneself
Moving in unknown places
Shapeshifter
Psychic sight
Seeing the roads within chaos
Keeper of the circular time continuum
Gatekeeper to the Unknowable

The Grateful Dead

This is a tag I made (tweeked on) to match a GD lunchbox I found at Big Lots for my cousin John, the Deadhead from Hollywood. I filled it w/mini Jack Daniel's bottles and a gift certificate from Tower Records. I still gotta run out and buy a gift for his cat Bianca.

One of my weekly Kabbalah emails I recieved is also titled, "The Grateful Dead": We all have moments when we don’t know if we can go on. Whether it’s a personal crisis or simply worrying in bed during the wee hours of the morning, we feel as if we’ve reached the end of the line.

It is during these moments we need to call out to the souls of those who have passed before us. Specifically, to the souls of the righteous.

I am sitting in a hotel in Warsaw, Poland, as I write this tune-up. My parents and I are living out one of our lifelong dreams of speaking to Kabbalah students throughout Europe. Europe is like Disneyland for a kabbalist, as many of our ancestors studied and revealed their greatest secrets in this land.

In the short time here, we’ve visited the burial sites of the Baal Shem Tov, Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk and a dozen other tzadiks (righteous people) I’ve referenced in my books and previous tune-ups.

Now, you might be wondering why we’re visiting graveyards.

What happens when a person dies? The Zohar explains that metaphorically they reach the other side of a glass door where they realize that death is not the big deal we make it out to be. During its lifetime, the soul feels trapped within the confines of the body, and it longs to travel freely again. Death is its liberation.

When we speak of the soul of a righteous person, we are talking about a person who mastered their negativity and completely devoted themselves to helping others. When they die, they realize that there is no better place to help people, as they are no longer limited to helping people only in their immediate surroundings. They can be everywhere at once.

My family and I need the assistance of these souls now more than ever. Though we have a lot to be thankful for, we also have a long list of things yet to accomplish. I know I have so much left to do in this world, and I can use all the help I can get. I think we all can. We can get this help from the kabbalists who have come before us.

But change doesn’t take place in this world without desire. So we satisfy the desire by traveling a great distance to visit burial sites, which The Zohar explains is the closest we can get to a soul. And we contact the righteous by using the Hebrew letters, or lighting a candle, or quietly saying their name and asking for their support.

In this week’s Zohar portion, Abraham’s wife Sarah dies, and he purchases burial land. This location ultimately goes on to be known as the Cave of the Machpalah. The Zohar tells us that this cave is the portal between this world and the next, through which souls travel after leaving their bodies.

This is an indication to us that during this week we are able to establish a stronger connection to those other souls who have already passed on. So, if you are having trouble beating an addiction, or you are looking everywhere for your soul mate - or whatever it is that is weighing down on you - know that the righteous want to help you. Just as it gives a parent pleasure to nurture their children, it pleases the righteous to nurture us.

You can contact departed souls by scanning TheZohar or looking at the 72 Name below and talking directly (in your mind or out loud) to Rebbe Shimon or any kabbalist. And you should know that you are not limited only to the righteous. You can reach out to anybody on the other side that is close to you.

Practice this dialogue every day for the next seven days, and you will open the channels for the rest of the year. But don’t expect to hear and see lightning. Just quiet your doubt, open your heart and allow the souls to come back to life.

Remember, your eyes don’t perceive everything around you. Departed souls are standing right there in front of you, now, waiting for you. Go to them…


I am very well aware of this! I don't pray as often to some family members (fathers side) anymore cuz they think its funny to turn on my TV and radio at 2am in the morning! Grandparents are by far the best to pray to. They are always there even giving advice in dreams. I'm grateful to my grandmother for having come back to say good-bye to me/and my entire family the week after she passed because I know now that there is an afterlife. One person I haven't seemed to be able to contact is a childhood family friend, David, from Washington~Mercer Island who commited suicide 2 years ago. I think I'm going to visit his grave and pray for him. It's a Jewish cemetery so I wonder if I'd be able to decorate there. In the early 90's I also was haunted by recurring dreams of a grade school friend of mine being ran over and killed by a car. I later ran into a mutual friend of ours at a mall and she was telling me how they both went to Mexico to celebrate their 21st birthdays and Hilda was hit and killed by a car. Uh! Those horrible midnite calls made to their parents from Mexico must have been horrible! Hilda told me in a dream to send her mom an angel. I think I might do this anonomously, send her mom a package through the mail. I know I'm a freak! I have friends in high places! :)

Today my mom's friend invited my mom and I to the Huntington Library & Botanical Gardens for "Holiday tea". I guess it was sort of a mommy & me gathering because her daughter came too. I really don't care for her daughter because she is one of those people that are always ON...like a child actor, I guess, that sucks all your energy out. She was a 80's Rose Queen and prom queen and has already taught HER daughter how to do the "screwing in the light bulb wave." The tea they raved about was OK...I've had better. It was called "Gold Rush." They served us scones, cookies, and horse-radishy tea sandwiches that were OK. I was a little disappointed there was no coddled cream. I was fantasizing about the Chili-cheese tots from Sonic the whole time. BUT the gardens there are beautiful esp. the Japanese one. I felt like ditching everyone and escaping into the Zen garden.


They have an unusual collection of roses in their Shakespeare Garden. This one is called "Gourmet Popcorn".

And "The Green Rose"......

This one is called, "Jude the Obscure"....
Last year Jane Goodall was at there and I missed her. I wanted to take my cousin there but we missed her. :( His birthday is in Spring and I was thinking of taking him to the chimp sanctuary in Palm Springs to have Cheeta, the chimp artist paint and autograph one of "his works" for him. I keep telling my cousin/G0dson Chris that there is an artist I want him to meet!

I'm back in! :) after being locked outta my blog. Thankyou peeps from "Blogger Help." Wow....whatz been goin on? Christmas shopping, HOF scrappin, my dad just moved next to my favorite SB and craft store and old neighborhood, the Tamale festival in Indio, I'm digging Dr. Wayne Dyer's book, "The Power Of Intention."(He quotes Carlos Castaneda a lot.) And Tookie is going to be killed in a little while. I think everyone is exaggerating the "big riot" to take place tommorrow comparing it to the Rodney King riot in 93. People are worried about the gangsters coming to their homes to terrorize them. I don't think people are aware that there have been riots approx. every ten years in this country... since the beginning.....before all the gangs. Hopefully its not that time again. Interestingly 93 was our first multicultural riot. Kinda funny people think that death is the bigger punishment. I have a feeling if Tookie is really interested in stopping gang violence I think he can continue his work from "the other side" more successfully. That may be the bigger plan for him. You know I even bet his victims will be there.....having forgiven him long ago. He will be free now...really.....I don't believe in hell. Well, here on earth...this is the only hell there is. When girls are kidnapped to become sex slaves, tied to bed posts to be raped by numerous men, who have stakes driven through their heads so they can "die slowly" for some pervert psychopaths "during the act" because its a "turn on" to see her body violently shake. Babies/INFANTS being sold for sex. Children dying of starvation every day. So go ahead and give me your fake fundy cartoon hell ANY DAY with flamin' red devil and all. I'm not afraid. There ain't no way but up from this joint. RIP it's 12:01