Kill the Blues and Your Pocketbook Too

Well I'm back at it again. That age old remedy that women are so fond of using to cure a case of the blues. I went shopping. At Amazon.com!

This past week, along with a lot of the US population, my government rebate hit my bank account. :) Yes, I now have a little extra cash. Part of me wonders how we are going to end up paying for that later, but I loathe political commentary and discussion almost as much as I hate shot needles, so we aren't going there. I promptly put the money in my savings account. Now I've spent about a 3rd of it. On what you ask? Silly question. Books of course!

For a while now I've been wanting a New Zealand Prayerbook. It's all JS's fault. If she hadn't posted that beautiful prayer from it when I needed it so much, I'd never have known the darn book existed. When I realized how cool the book was I went looking around for one. Those things just never go on sale. There seems to be a standard price for them which is about $31. The other day I was telling my friend Susan that I thought an apartment blessing by Robert, my priest, might help me fend off the blues when sitting at home alone. The reason this place gives me the blues is another long story but I got that idea from two sources at once, my PC and my own heart. So I'm planning on having one in the not too distant future. And Susan told me there was a lovely house blessing service in the New Zealand Prayerbook. So now I had another reason to get it. And suddenly I have cash! Oooohh! Google and find the cheapest prices, there were none, so Amazon.com here I come.

Once at the Amazon site I promptly located the much desired book. Yes, I'd checked out the local bookstore too. It had way too many books and not enough info. Amazon offered free shipping. When I looked down the page for shipping details and other stuff (always read the fine print from the editor/publisher), I discovered it was also sold with a celtic book of some sort. Then I remembered when we had that wonderful celtic book sale at Church after the service by Reverend Newell.


There had been a Celtic Daily Prayer book. And if I remembered right, it had Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Eucharist, and communion in it. So with dreams of doing a Celtic version of Morning Prayer I went looking for that one too. Amazon had it and low and behold, it was on sale. At 30% off! Now it's in my shopping cart too. Yay! I can do all kinds of prayers and healing services. It didn't seem to have any Celtic House Blessings but I'm sure something can be adapted. One of the reasons I selected this particular book instead of another one by a well known author is because it is by an entire community and seemed to have some extras in it. By all means go and check out the look inside that Amazon gives.


Then I remembered that good Sir Paschal, had suggested The Artist Way as a book to inspire and help one maintain an air of creativity and spirituality. So I went looking for that too. I found lots of versions but one was The Complete Artists Way. This one had 3 of the books and when I looked inside there were lots of small chapters and exercises too. So, of course that was put into the shopping cart too. It also was on sale. By now my total is well past the $50 mark. I told myself I should pay my bill and leave. But my sensibilities told me I had one more necessary purchase to make.


For the past few weeks I've been carrying my beloved digital camera around in my tote bag taking it to work with me. I'd not been able to find time to wander outside to use it but it was there nonetheless, building the good habit of taking my camera with me at all times(Thank you, David!). The bad thing about that is the tote bag was filled with all sorts of stuff and not a safe place for camera view screens. So I badly needed a camera case. That too is available from the font of all shopping mavens. Searching for a proper camera case for my Canon PowerShot, I found too many extravaganza's with lots of extras I didn't need, and very few real cases until I typed in the model. Then I had 5 choices of which 2 were cases, one of which was out of stock. The instock one was leather and promised to fit my model. But it had no photos. The unavailable one looked exactly the same but in a different color. Oh well, I looked anyway. It had pictures, uploaded by a past customer. And it was the exact same case but in blue. Mine will be gray. It was also available used for about half the price. So of course it is on order too. Now I'll be able to attach the camera to my belt or something suitable and protect it from mishaps while having it available. I feel good about that.

So you think I might be done shopping? Probably not! I need some milk products from the grocery store and I have a really cool 15% coupon for Barnes & Noble, plus a membership, and there is surely a wonderful next book in one of the various werewolf, or vampire series I seem to be so fond of reading these days. That will probably be my next stop. Besides, it's right around the corner from Bath & Body Shop and I just happen to be out of soap. On top of that there are some awesome movies I want to see, among them are Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones 4, and Spiderwick Chronicles.

And I've got still more blogging to do. A while back Terry tagged me for a meme I've not gotten around to. So that's next on my list. You can't say no when it's a friend. Then David suggested that because my dad is writing his memoirs on the web site of the 100th Bomb Group (yep, a genuine first source for you history buffs, just look for posts by Bill Kennedy) and I mentioned that I'd run link trainers when I was in the Navy that perhaps I could write a post on that. So I've said okay to that too. Looks like I'll be busy for a while.

Update on the cold cure thing

This morning I followed my friend Susan's suggestion and Googled the Echinacea Ginger Syrup. The only place I could get it was from the manufacturer. The syrup doesn't cost that much. For 4 oz. it was $11.21 USD which was cheaper than I paid for it at SunHarvest last time I could find any. Their shipping at first looked horrible until I found the US Priority Mail. That was under $7 so I will get well when the syrup arrives. The manufacturer is Nutrition World which is based in Florida. I didn't like their website much. No descriptions of the product. No offers of catalogs. The McAfee site rating gave it a red banner due to links to places which have spy wear. Nevertheless, they just sent me an order confirmation email. Checkout was encrypted once I reached the point of paying. It wasn't when I entered shipping info. So I hope this turns out ok. If you like their stuff maybe you can find it in a store. If you have had good experiences ordering from them please let me know. I could use some reassurance on this one.

Last night I went to bed about 7 pm and stayed there till I had to get up this morning shortly after 5 am. Hopefully that really long sleep will do a lot towards my energy level. In the meantime I am running behind in my reading for my classes because of this cold. So if I am in any of your prayers please add that to the litany about me. Thanks.

Peace, Hope, and Joy!

Walking Stick

The walking stick arrived yesterday. The picture of it is the last one I got from the artist before he mailed it to me. I think the artist did a good job with the woodburning images. You can clearly tell it is a "greenman" and the celtic letters look nice. The stick is just over 5 feet in height and will fit in my car for travel. Along with it came a set of papers describing the efforts that went into making the stick and also how to care for it. I am pleased with just about everything. If I had one thing that I would like different it would be a slightly thicker walking stick. This one is just fine though. It will work for walking and lots of other stuff.

Because he was so professional, I am going to put a link to his web page here. He goes to a lot of effort and provides a lot of services. If you like the idea of a custom walking stick please don't hesitate to check him out. He does good work.

Symbols and self-definition

A few days ago I went on a trip with a friend to the Cibolo Nature Center. This is a beautiful place with a nice walking trail and lots of trees. My friend, who is a nature photographer by trade, brought along two very good cameras and let me have one to play with. It was a Canon. It had a lens on it which could go near macro, telephoto and wide angle. I was impressed. I wasn't so impressed with the results of my artistic efforts. Even with less than great photographic results I had a lot of fun.

Near the end of the trail we came across some sotol cactus which is native to the southwest. The stem of the blossoms makes a long thick staff which, when cut and dried, is incredibly light and very strong. Experienced hikers value it highly as a walking stick. I've wanted one for a long time. My naturalist friend gave me an old one he had. I grabbed hold of it and promptly got a hand full of splinters. Ouch! Restoration efforts on my part didn't improve it much.

Going online I found a place that made walking sticks from sotol and customized them with wood burnings and other decorations. What was promised was a walking stick that was a work of art which would be personally meaningful to the recipient. After discussing possible repair of the stick we decided that it was too far gone to be worth the effort. So I started the process of purchasing one.

This artist really gets into making the stick meaningful for you. Tell him your favorite symbols and he will put them on the stick. Picking out personal symbols was a great experience. In doing so I learned about myself and what I value.

We started with my name in Celtic letters. Those were beautiful and I have a little Scottish and English in my ancestral history. Another reason for the Celtic is, my church seems focused on those symbols of faith, renewal, and spirituality. Often they represent the connection between God and nature. Untamed, natural places have always drawn me.

Keeping with the God in nature theme I wanted something that embodied that in a very strong way. We settled on a greenman image. You can find that on lots of pagan pages but the Christian church uses it as an ancient symbol of renewal. To me it looks wild and powerful. My father and I used to sit on our porch and watch storms blow in. This was a special time for me. Feeling the electricity in the air and seeing the wind whip the trees I'd get excited. I still like to do storm watches. When it starts to rain I open the windows of my home to let in the cool, damp air that's being created as God washes the world. It makes everything around me feel new and good.

The artist had some Native American symbols on his page. From his "soul-catcher" sticks I chose a strand of beads. These will be seven in number and mostly green which symbolizes healing. I am asking for a few lavendar ones for spirituality.

Now I am waiting for my stick. Creation will take 6 days. He promises to send photographs along the way to show the progress. I am excited. If this turns out well I will post a link to his web page here and elsewhere.

So what did I get from that? Well, the reminder that nature inspires me and makes me feel alive was good. It is an area where I can enrich my life by trying to spend more time in it. Defining my values with symbols was part self-reflection part creation. When you define something you give it form and direction. Having done so for my stick I feel I have also done that for my life. Knowing what you value and think of as good gives you an image of yourself to love. Knowing that God loves me is good but; if I don't love myself, if I can't hold onto what he sees in me, I can't hold onto the belief in God's love for very long. The first hard knock would cause me to slide away from that knowledge. So I think that defining myself in good images will help me hold onto a loving image of myself. One I think fits in with what God sees in me. And if I can love myself as God does, unreservedly, then I will be able to stop focusing on myself and start focusing on others.