bliss warrior

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was dark. It was so dark it was pitch black. This story is about anger, revenge, karma, love lost, unrequited love, deceit and meat pies. And it is bloody.

I loved this movie/musical. Johnny Depp was amazing, as always. Helena Bonham Carter was beautiful in a ghostly, sexy way. Her face mesmerized me the entire film. Her wardrobe and makeup was magical.

Grays, blacks and deep reds blanket the film. However, there is a short time where there are bright blues, white and sunshine making you long for the characters to stay there.

The thoughts, emotions and flow of this story seem otherworldly, in a different dimension. The songs added an intensity and chill that made it all the more incredible.

After you see it, meet me at Mrs. Lovett's and we will share a meat pie. (me, laughing wickedly)

how might your life have been different if there had been a place for you...a place of women, where you were received and affirmed? a place where the other women, perhaps somewhat older, had been affirmed before you, each in her time, affirmed, as she struggled to become more truly herself.

a place where, after the fires were lighted, and the drumming, and the silence, there would be a hush of expectancy filling the entire chamber...a knowing that each woman there was leaving old conformity to find her self...a sense that all of womanhood stood on a threshold.

and if, during the hush, the other women, slightly older, had helped you trust your own becoming...to trust it and quietly and prayerfully to nurture it...

how might your life be different?


from, Circle of Stones
picture, www.flickr.com/photos/16473016@N04/1775906320/

a woman in her kitchen, pouring tea slowly into cups standing in a circle on a round tray...slowly...slowly...listening to the sound of the liquid as the cups filled...a slender stream of fragrant steaming tea...knowing that each woman waiting in the next room in a small circle listened, each one, also, as the tea was poured, knowing that the quietness of the pouring and the warmth of the cups held between each pair of hands made a difference, was somehow important...knowing that this moment and this way of living out this moment was significant...that it made a difference in the meaning and experiencing of life.

a difference in the experiencing of life...a woman pouring tea, knowing this difference, trusting the knowing, enabled, by her trust, to pour even more slowly...listening to the tranquilly flowing liquid...listening...listening...

a woman in her kitchen...


from Circle of Stones, Woman's Journey to Herself, by Judith Duerk

a couple of friends have recently posted about hope and holidays and how sometimes you can be in a dark place, a depressing place, a place of despair. this place tends to manifest itself more easily during the holidays and this has been something I have struggled with for many years.
I guess the holidays started going south for me when my parents divorced - the agony of a child being worried about the parent they aren't spending time with on thanksgiving or christmas is just wrong on so many levels.
then, I started seeing that "the reason for the season" was basically forgotten and the obsession of shopping for gifts, decorations, food and more gifts, decorations and food took over otherwise normally functioning people.
then, I began to question this "reason for the season" and started believing in a more universal spirit of love. this new found belief has not gone over well with dad and the questions start in early december..."are you planning on going to mass this christmas?" "are you going to be going to midnight mass with the family?" "merry christmas, did you go to mass?"
over the past 4 years I have done a lot of growing. at this point in my life I realize that I am who I am. I dont know anything. life can and will change without consulting me. I can fight this journey or I can look forward to the unknown, each day.
I have a mantra  ~shine up now, the darkness is over~  a woman I consider to be a wise oracle once said this to me and I will never ever forget it.
as the lovely baby bellied schmoopy put it ...darkness is not the end of your story.
shine up my lovelies, the darkness IS over and 2008 is going to rock.

My mother-in-law passed on to the spirit world when my husband was only a year and a half old. So, I never had the pleasure of meeting her, getting to know her, learning from her, watching her mannerisms to compare them to my husbands or feel the warmth of her hugs.
My husband and I know she is with us; we can feel her presense. She comes to my husband in dreams and I feel her in my kitchen the most--of course, she is trying her best to teach me to cook for her son!
Today, she would be seventy-one years old. This morning I quietly sang Happy Birthday to her while I laid in bed waiting my turn for the shower. Tonight when I got home my husband had bought a cake. We talked about what kind of cake would be her favorite. Would it be chocolate, strawberry or coconut? We decided on chocolate.

Happy Birthday Carmela, we love you and know you are here.

tonight on my way home from visiting mi madre...I got my groove on to Carly Simon.

it is finally cold here in dallas and I am loving every incredible second of it. I got in the car, turned on the heat, the heated seats and opened the sunroof. there I was groovin' to Jesse, singing my lungs out, being a freak, playing the air guitar in my own little world.

I would highly recommend a dose of this behavior and gettin' your groove on to Carly Simon's Jesse. Here are the words but reading them doesnt do it justice, you have to hear it.

Oh mother, say a prayer for me
Jesse's back in town, it won't be easy
Don't let him near me
Don't let him touch me
Don't let him please me

(chorus)
Jesse, I won't cut fresh flowers for you
Jesse, I won't make the wine cold for you
Jesse, I won't change the sheets for you
I won't put on cologne
I won't sit by the phone for you

Annie, keep reminding me
That he cut out my heart like a paper doll
Sally, tell me once again
How he set me up just to see me fall

Chorus

Jesse, quick come here
I won't tell a soul
Not even myself
Jesse, that you've come back to me
My friends will all say "She's gone again'
But how can anyone know what you are to me
That I'm in heaven again because you've come back to me - Oh Jesse!

Jesse, I'll always cut fresh flowers for you
Jesse, I'll always make the wine cold for you
Jesse, I can easily change my mind about you
And put on cologne
And sit by the phone for you

Jesse, let's open the wine
And drink to the heart
Which has a will of it's own
My friends, let's comfort them
They're feeling bad
They think I've sunk so low

Jesse, I'll always cut fresh flowers for you
Jesse, I'll always make the wine cold for you
Jesse, I will change the sheets for you
Put on cologne
And I will wait by the phone for you - Oh Jesse!