Friday, October 11, 2013

Colorado Springs Photo Essay

I love taking pictures from the road.
Colorado Springs has been deemed one of America's most livable cities by at least two national publications and it is easy to see why.  Nestled against the bosom of the Rockies, beneath the towering Pike's Peak, it is home to a very diverse and eclectic community.  Open, artistic, progressive, Colorado Springs and its neighbor Manitou Springs are rich in color, art, outdoor activities, cultural riches, and natural beauty. 

Waterfalls, magnificent caves, ancient cliff dwellings, Pike's Peak, museums, Garden of the Gods, and a million places to walk, hike, bike, ski, camp, or view wildlife. 

Today, we are at the Crystal Kangaroo campground, just up the mountain from Manitou Springs.  There are bears up here, thought I haven't seen one yet.  I did see their scat and tracks this morning, though. 

We haven't been to all the sights yet, but we did visit Garden of the Gods, which is visible from our campground. The perfect place to write about my Kokopelli characters--Keenai and Lolula are both wandering in the story right now, searching for the village on the plains, the village of Buffalo Running.  But Lolula passes through here, and Keenai entered the prairie up closer to where Denver is now.  This land is indeed full of spirit, as the word "manitou" means.

Catt at the Ghost Town Museum.
We also spent a morning at the Ghost Town Museum.

Rick conversing with the artsy elk.

Gypsy fortune teller machine at the Ghost Town Museum.

The Gypsy Fortune Telling machine told me I would be successful, to guard my health, and that my life is undergoing a great change.  Pretty close to the actual.  I love synchronicity!

Goofing off at Super Target.

Rick getting in touch with his Viking pioneer ancestors at the Ghost Town Museum.

Rick playing Sisyphus.
 Strange speed limit signs in a Super Target parking lot.  Really?  Half miles per hour?  Is anyone's speedometer that accurate?



It is time to get ready for the Celebration BMS Fair today.  More photos to come later!


Thursday, October 10, 2013

Photos as Promised



After Loveland, we visited bookstores all over Denver, then "landed" at the Flying Saucer RV Park.  


This sunset on Bear Creek was wonderful.  The sound of rushing waters after the dry and empty landscape around Loveland was very renewing.  I would recommend this campground, except for one thing:  when we tried to stay a second night, we were told our RV was too "old" and we had to leave.  Apparently, if one doesn't have enough money to purchase a relatively new $100K RV, one is not welcome here!  The impression they gave us was that they rented to us the first night because we arrived "late" (4 PM), and they felt sorry for us.  They made an exception because we were only staying the one night.  I suppose if we stayed longer, the property values of the trailer park would go down!!!!

Instead, we ended up moving south and camping in Chatsfield State Park.  This was a bit pricier than we would have liked.  It was $6 per vehicle just to drive INTO the park, then something like $28 for the night.  Also, the showers were pay showers!  Twenty-five cents for three minutes.  Now who the hell wears pockets into the shower to keep quarters?  And how convenient is it to put a quarter into the shower every three minutes?  It would take me three minutes just to get the right temperature. Also, the lights in the restrooms were motion-activated, so if you sat on the toilet longer than three minutes, you ended up doing your business in the dark. No more Colorado State Parks for us. 

But there was some pretty scenery there.

Entrance to the park

Lakeshore at Chatsfield


Morning on the lake

Morning fog

Prairie dog town

Prairie dog

Prickly Pear

The cats enjoyed themselves.

The structure over the lake.

Sunset

The next day, we headed south toward Colorado Springs. We stopped along the way at Castle Rock to visit a bookstore, but never found it. There was this logo on the street signs and we could not figure out what it was supposed to be.  A roadrunner?  An eagle?  Feel free to suggest a guess.

What is that logo?

Castle Rock

And the mountains were getting closer!

We also made a short side-road trip when we got off to get a beverage and realized it was easier to take the two-lane road than it was to turn around while towing the Ranger.  And we discovered a lovely little mountain town.

Closeup of the building front--The Depot at Palmer Lake

Parked at Palmer Lake

The Depot at Palmer Lake.

The view from Palmer Lake.
We arrived at Colorado Springs by midday and checked into our new home:  Goldfield RV Park.

It's a little sparse; there is really no room between sites on this side to open our canopy or put up a picnic table.  But it is close to everything we needed (six blocks from the bookstore) and they had a very nice shower house, laundry facilities, and a dish-washing area. 

Once we were set up, I went to visit the store and was very pleased.


Celebrations is a beautiful center with three houses linked.  The center house is the bookstore itself.  the house to the right (not seen in this picture) is offices for readers, healers, etc., and the house on the left is the community room where the workshop was held.



The workshop was a lot of fun and once again, I learned some new perspectives on the Psycards.  I love learning from my students.

On Friday, I gave readings all day, and Saturday was the book-signing from 1-3.  The turnout all the way around was gratifying and the folks at Celebrations are wonderful!  I am hoping to come back to Colorado next June, visit more stores with classes, etc., attend INATS (International New Age Trade Show), and return to Celebrations for another weekend!



Since then we have been sight-seeing in the area.  I will share more of those photos in the next blog post!  Right now, I have to go take a shower, and bug out for our next campground:  Crystal Kangaroo in Manitou Springs, then back to Colorado Springs City Auditorium to set up for the BMS Celebration Fair there this weekend.



Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Colorado Recap to Date



Visits to bookstores in Denver yielded multiple sales and good will.  Our appearances at Celebration Metaphysical center were wonderful, instructive to me as well as my students and my readings went well.  We also sold a number of Psycards products and the bookstore and I both made money from very happy customers.  I am now living the idea that abundance can be obtained by giving to and sharing with others and does not require acquisitiveness, competition or greed to be made manifest. 

Visited all the other bookstores in the Colorado Springs area yesterday, as well as Manitou Springs. We secured our place for next week at the Crystal Kangaroo Campground, high above Manitou Springs, with an incredible view of the Garden of the Gods, and the valley below.  From just below Pike’s Peak, Fountain Creek runs down through Colorado Springs to the Arkansas River south of here. 

Day before yesterday, we visited Garden of the Gods, and I plan to drive through it again a couple more times before we leave in eight days.  We are signed up to attend the Celebration BMS Fair at the Colorado City Auditorium on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 

One of the remarkable things about Colorado these days is its move toward the legalization of marijuana. Although not legal yet to buy or sell, it is legal to possess.  I rarely indulge—I don’t like the way it makes me feel—but my husband enjoys it, and I have never had an objection to the recreational use of drugs as long as it is responsible and discrete. 

At a pizza parlor Rick made a joke about getting some grass.  The waiter discretely gave us a “guest check” with the following note on it (I’ve changed the names of the people and the streets because I don’t want anyone to get in trouble):

“Gallery M13, Cimarron & Cucharros ? Across the street from Booking Brothers Café, on top of the Dirty Dime Bar. Thurs-Sun 4:20-12A.  Tell TK Julio sent ya.”

I had to laugh because it all seemed so surreptitious, like getting the address for a speakeasy.  Rick called it a “smokeeasy.”

SPIDER VISITS

In Celebrations bookstore this weekend, I encountered small spiders twice, and again this morning when I went to work on my paperwork (update the database, record sales, etc.).  So what is Spider trying to tell me?  From Stephen D. Farmer’s Animal Spirit Guides: 

Spider is the opportunity to access your deepest wisdom, and make it part of your daily life. Be careful of any traps or ruses.  Open your mind to the infinite possibilities before you. Don’t limit yourself to the mundane world, but explore other dimensions and realities.  Write creatively without limits, allow yourself to be inspired by Nature.

Perfect!  True.  My mediumship abilities seem to be growing.  Rick’s as well.  Yesterday, I opened an account at Wells Fargo (at the behest of my spirit guides, believe it or not), and the young man who has now become my personal banker purchased a Psycards System after Spirit gave a small demonstration.  

While I was sitting at his desk, I was seized with a coughing fit.  I have found (ever since a shamanic journey in January of 2012) that sometimes just before I get information or an experience, I will get these coughing fits.  I think that sometimes it may be that a spirit is trying to speak through me. 

So I had this coughing fit at the banker’s desk and I told him that I had a spirit trying to come through for him.  Rick piped up and say, “His grandmother.”  I had at that very instant felt a grandmother spirit.   

Then I said, “What about the bicycle?  The blue bicycle?”

Our young banker friend replied that he had recently purchased a blue bicycle. 

“She says that she wants you to think about her when you ride it.” I told him.

“My grandmother just died a couple of weeks ago,” he told us.

“Well, she wants you to think of her, and to be careful.  Is it a mountain bike?  Because I see you outdoors, bicycling alone, and she worries about you.  Be careful and think of her when you ride.”

He was quietly amazed and moved.

“Thank you.  That means a lot.”

So, spontaneously, in the most unlikely of places (like a Wells Fargo branch in a grocery store), Spirit finds a way to come through.  And I am learning, slowly, how to interpret the impressions I get.  I am learning the symbols used (roses are love, different colors mean different kinds of love), and learning more and more every day to trust myself.  That is, trust my Self—my Higher Self, through which Spirit flows and brings in information and communications.

Spider is also spot-on about the writing.  Since being here in this area, I have been working on the Kokopelli novel.  I love those moments when the land speaks to me, when I can get inspired by its rich variety, its power and grace.  Those are the moments for me when poetry is born.  I am very much looking forward to working on Kokopelli next week after this next fair, when I myself am “up high among the yellow rocks, where only the wind and the eagle speak.”

Today is dedicated to updating paperwork and the blog and I will process pictures later today or tomorrow.  Look for the photo essay shortly!

The Relaxed Place



10.05.13

It’s funny.  Now that the anxiety has evaporated, there is a kind of empty space where it lived.  And I caught myself tonight trying to find something to fill it, in an undercurrent kind of way, like just beneath my conscious awareness.  Then I realized I don’t need anything to fill it.  That space is where peace lives.  Where relaxation lives.  Where feeling safe lives.  I’m still teetering in the trust place, but leaning more and more to the trust side of the issue.  

I am feeling good in a deep way, a way I’ve only tried to imagine but have not experienced, except in rarefied moments, never for any sustained period of time.  And I’ve been feeling this for five days now.  Prosperity is arriving.  The dark days of poverty are truly over.  And I can FEEL that. Even though part of me is afraid to believe it, it is a part that is growing smaller.

Why is this?  I don’t know.  Because it is true? Certainly that is a big part of it.  Because I always feel better when there is money in my pocket?  Also true.  Because at a deep, deep level I feel that I am indeed on my correct path.  Because I am beginning to embrace my own woo-woo in a more than an intellectual way.  

10.06.13

One of the things I’ve learned is that it is hard to be grateful for what you have when you are frightened, locked in fear or anxiety.  

Now that the fear is subsiding, the gratitude is flowing in along with the actual sense of relaxation.

Went to Garden of the God today, very important to the Kokopelli novel. And all along the exploration was the feeling that I will be here again. 

So here’s the plan. 


  • Albuquerque/Santa Fe next.
  • Then through Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon and on to Las Vegas.
  • Then back to Phoenix for a month or six weeks. 
  • Then PHX to southern California, starting in San Diego and working our way up the coast through January and February.  Last week in February makes Seattle the destination.  For the AAWP conference with Spalding folk.
  • Next June, attend the INATS (International New Age Trade Show) in Denver and make June a Colorado tour with all my new bookstores.