Clarity, Spirit, and A Very Funny Film

I just saw this film called Forgiving the Franklins. I had no idea what this movie was going to be like. I just picked it up on a whim. All it said was "religious comedy". It turned out to be fuckin awesome! I really don't want to say anymore about it and possibly ruin the fun of you discovering it for yourself.

To add a note to the last blog, I should mention why I started doing longer meditations. The quick answer is I am trying to find clarity in my life. I would like to have no doubt about the choices I make in my life. Having no doubt is somewhat different from being unable to admit another life path is also valid. I just want to be sure the path I choose is absolutely the best for me. I want to KNOW that this life I choose is perfect, and that my choices are truly mine.

Some people have problems with clarity in their lives, some don't. Daily meditation is, for me, a way of letting go of the clutch on attachments to any ideals that no longer fit me. So far it has been wonderful. I have already had overwhelming moments of peace, calm, joy, and quiet. These moments seem to be independent of thought. They are times when I can just feel, and just be. They allow me to trust in reality ( and myself), by experiencing the moment fully. I guess this is where Spirit starts to have a voice through us.

A time for meditation

I've taken on a new routine for meditating. I have decided to attempt a shift from random often sporadic meditations of rather short length, to longer ritualistic meditations at designated times. I at least want to try this routine for a two week period. This is at the recommendation of Ram Dass, in his book Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook.

I added a few photos here. One is of the new meditation pose I'm trying out, I believe it is the half lotus. The other photo is of a string of meditation beads Jen made for me out of some beads our friends gave to us.

Just what is meditation? Ram Dass writes "For surfers it is the moment when they come into equilibrium with the incredible force of the wave. For skiers it is when the balance is perfect. When our skills fit the demand perfectly, then there is no anxiety. Then we have proved ourselves. Then there is nothing left to do. In that moment our awareness expands." I think this is an incredible explanation. I love how simply he states what it is he is explaining. It's as if he has said this a thousand different times in a thousand different ways and this is just the billionth attempt at a perfect explanation.

Balance, equilibrium, no anxiety... What moment is this for a Naturist? Speaking for myself, I imagine standing on the edge of a cool river with the sun bouncing off of my naked body. As I stand there in the sun, totally at peace, the warm breeze of the late summer afternoon blows gently by. On the bluff next to me are a small group of happily naked folks laughing and sharing tales, and sipping cold microbrewed ales. It is the start of a great afternoon as I head down for a nude swim in the river. This is the Bliss of a Naturist. This is being in the moment. The feel of the wind, the water, and the sun are Divine. There is nothing left to hang on to. Just be.

For any readers out there, I would love to hear from you about your meditative Naturist moments! Namaste'.

Mystical Sex and Magical Sun

Life is wonderful! Life is incredible! (In case you had forgotten!) The weather has been INCREDIBLE here for the last few weeks; it's almost like summer! Sunny everyday, clear, and warm if your'e in the sun. It would be good weather for nude activities here, such as: gardening, frisbee, skimboarding, and hiking. Anything really, as long as you keep your heart rate up a little bit and stay in the sun!

The only "official" nudist site in the area is College Cove. I haven't been going there lately, since I am also a Naturist, and I will usually avoid sucking down a few gallons of gas in the pickup if I can. Not to worry, I have instead been opting for a good deal of incredible magical (and nude, of course) sexual sessions with my wife! This has been wonderful. We get to spend hours together in the nude in the middle of Winter! This topic isn't really discussed in Naturist magazines, probably for family appeal and to win society's acceptance of "non-sexual nudity". I think this is great, and totally makes sense, but it just makes ME want to write about it even more! We're all adults here, right? Adults have sex, whether they are nudists or not!

I wanted to show some photos of JenEric Brewing Co's California State Fair 2008 Homebrew Competition first place award for their Duckbeaver Oatmeal Stout! We brewed the beer ourselves, in our own kitchen. Pretty sweet, it turned out to be the BEST IN THE STATE!!

I recently found an incredible resource for Nudists and Naturists called Skinbook! I haven't had much time to explore it yet, but as you can guess it is very similar to Facebook or Myspace, only it is "nude friendly". I have been struggling to find resources for Northern California Naturists. So I finally created a group on Facebook with this name. So far there are only two members, but I hope it will grow! Calling all Nudists! I list a few resources on there, and encourage others to do the same.

If I get thinkin about it too much (not good), I can get a bit down about the state of nudity in this country. It would be easy to feel isolated, subjugated, different, misunderstood, etc. about having to have a "seperate" Facebook of our own. Is nudity so weird? I don't think so, but maybe I have some realizations to work through. To me, nudity is natural, it is the only way, it is peaceful, spiritual, playful, fun, and relaxing. To others, what is it? What else could it be? Do other folks walk around and look at a small sparrow or a blue jay and shake their head? Do they invision a smart looking business suit on these little birds? A swimsuit? Do people want to cloth other species, or just humans? What the fuck? Maybe in time, I will get some much needed perspective on this subject. I really hope I do. As it stands, I just get mad when someone (or a group) disallows nudity in any way. I'm workin on this. Any ideas?

Nude at last!

Nude on the beach, in Humboldt county, in Winter? Nahh, probably not a great idea. Nevertheless I spent several days picturing myself there, on the beach, nude. This probably has a lot to do with all the incredibly sunny days we've been having! Having finally gotten a free day to bike to the local nude beach (College Cove), I decided against it. Why? Well, I decided I didn't want to spend four hours out of the day biking there and back. Plus, the fantasies I'd been having about biking to the beach had been me nude cycling there. I had to come down to reality, this wasn't going to happen, unfortunately due to our current laws and perceptions by people. Who knows, maybe someday I will get out there, and just go biking in the nude!

I had resolved myself to a non-nude day. I could still go get some sun by walking into town. I wandered around for a few hours, looking at books and stuff, before I headed back home. Once home, I got the idea to try something I'd never tried before- transcendental masturbation! That's a word you don't hear everyday! I had heard of this in Betty Dodson's earth shattering title Sex for One. After I read the chapter on combining masturbation and meditation, I quickly began to experiment. I ended up having a wonderful one or two hour (not sure which) masturbation/meditation/trance/sleep session! I had several orgasms, and I think I fell asleep once. After I was finished, I was SO relaxed for the rest of the day, and into the next, it was unbelievable! What an incredible way to spend an afternoon! And to top it all off, I realized that I was in the nude for most of the afternoon without even trying to find a place to be nude! Sweet, a new naturist activity- transcendental masturbation!

The Good Winter and Polyamory

I think a Good Winter, is one that can be enjoyed in the warmth of the indoors, nude. An easy way to do this is by heating up the house with a little batch of brew on the stove! Yesterday I brewed an oatmeal stout called Duckbeliever. It's a variation on our Duckbeaver recipe, which has won first place at the state fair. This version should be a bit more intense, it might even bring in some coffee notes, along with a little more maltiness. I'm really looking forward to trying it!

This blogging thing seems to lend itself quite readily to rants, venting, and straw man arguments. Well, I will not except myself. I've been feeling a rant coming on about polyamory. I have been reading about this subject recently, and find the ideas to be revolutionary and amazing. When talking about polyamory I just mean having more than one intimate relationship, sexual or not. Many of us do this without knowing it, but others restrict themselves unnecessarily.

This morning I was reading a chapter from Polyamory: The new love without limits by Dr. Deborah M. Anapol. She makes an analogy between the early pioneers who sailed to "the edge of the world" back when it was supposedly flat, and the people who choose to explore polyamory now. I think this analogy could not be more appropriate. I think that polyamory is way of loving or existing whose time has come. We need to drop the old models of relationships, and sail to new lands, leaving the old behind. Or, we could believe that the world is flat... But it isn't! The world is round, and we don't love in a bubble. Everywhere we go we love people. We talk to them at the store, the street, a friend's house, online, and anywhere else possible! It's hard to have an interaction with someone without some bit of Love sneaking in there. To deny that love exits everywhere is to die, and to sell ourselves VERY short. Love is what Paulo Coelho writes about in The Alchemist as "the language of the world". It is in all things, and through it all things communicate with each other. Some folks might refer to this as God, or Energy, or any other term you wish. I realize Deborah is referring to "intimate relationships" in her book, and that what I am talking about here is perhaps a little different. Oh well, sorry Deborah.

What if there were no intimate relationships? What if there were only intimate moments? I mean, really we only have the term "relationship" to distinguish ourselves in society. But does this really make an accurate representation of a life lived in exclusive intimacy? I don't think it does. I think intimacy just happens, it may be consciously sought out and created by people, but I don't think that it is an exclusive thing. It reminds me of this place my parents would take me as a kid on Thursday nights, called The North Woods Inn. It was a restaurant with fake snow on the roof in Pasadena. Every Thursday night they would give free "all you can eat" peanuts out to everyone, and let them throw the shells all over the floor. The whole floor was just covered in peanut shells. I used to love it. I thought it was so much fun. Peanuts shells were everywhere, no one would deny that. But would some deny that love was everywhere? This was many years ago when I was just a kid, but I am certain that love was everywhere back then too. Once you start to think of love being everywhere, you start to envision it everywhere. It is what holds all cells together. It also enforces our social connections. It bonds us to things we may not even be aware of. If only everyone could see Love so clearly as they do the peanut shells on the floor! Then we would be getting somewhere!

One more analogy for the road! It's like that old expression "When a tree falls in the woods...". Does it make a sound? Does love make a sound? I think it does, sometimes louder than others, but it always depends on our ability to LISTEN. I want to hear. Do you?

A new sign and This borrowed life

A new sign went up today, to let anyone walking up to our door know that our place is clothing optional. This gives me a chance to answer the door in the nude occasionally, since the sign gives them the option of knocking for nude or clothed. Two knocks is for clothed, and three knocks is for nude! We'll have to wait and see how this pans out in REALITY over the next few days!
What an incredible beautiful day it was today! Driving along the coast from Arcata up to Smith River was truly awesome. It was actually sunny and clear out across the ocean! I got to get out and do a little "work" by discussing a few potential test sites. (This would be where we plant trees to see which ones grow the best in a given area- I work for a local timber company.) The rest of the time I was just crammed in the back of a pickup truck lookin out at the beautiful day. The best part of the day was when my boss let us take a side trip to the Alexandre eco-dairy! We were on the lookout for fresh grass fed beef, but they were all out. But, we stocked up on their open pastured eggs, and butter from grass fed cows. What a nutritous treat!
Riding in the backseat of the truck gave me plenty of time to think. Overall, I'd say my thoughts were of "this borrowed life". What I mean by that is that the truck I was in, the bodies of my coworkers, the plastic dashboard, the sun, the ocean, and the sky... They are all borrowed! We are here in this life, and then we are gone. Poof! Afterlife or no, this life is surely on loan to us. Each day is a sweet, divine gift, wether we are able to realize it or not. Permanece, holding onto things, stinginess, clingyness, and possessiveness are all very dangerous habits. They are kind of like "my precious" if you are familiar with Lord of the Rings. You just can't hang onto that stuff in this life! We live in a natural world, where there is a cycle of life and death going round.

Remembering a sunny season

It doesn't seem so long ago that I was hiking nude in Redwood National Park. The wind was warm, and the pools along Redwood creek were cool and refreshing. Now that we're soaked in more rain than the soil can handle, I guess Winter has finally settled into our spirits. Three more months or so of Winter, and then Jen and I are off to Ukiah for a couple of weeks of intensive training for the Pacific Crest Trail! I'm sure the start of Spring will be fantastic and full of fun new energy- alive and everything sprouting!
I just got out of my weekly Science of Mind meeting in McKinleyville. After a brief meditation, we delved deeply into the first chapter of Ernest Holmes main text. One topic was the name for spiritual energy we all prefer. Some like God, others Godess, others like It, Spirit, Energy, etc. The point was really that it's all the same thing! All the different religions of the world may not agree, but when looking at them from the outside it's fairly easy to see that they are basically similar.
Jen is preparing this week for a trip to Chicago to be in the Oprah audience. She couldn't be more excited! I think it's great she has this opportunity. Her mom has been calling the Oprah show hotline to try and get tickets for SEVEN YEARS!!! What a chance for her to get out and see the world! I'm looking forward to hearing of their adventures when they return!

New year (almost)

Hello! Welcome to one of my first blog entries! I didn't set out with a particular "agenda" for this blog, but I'm sure one will carve itself out of the digital bits of the internet world. I look forward to writing about all the things life has to bring. Among them, I'm sure I will be writing about the adventures of my wife Jen and I, brewing beer, playing forester in the woods, naturist musings, nutrition/health tidbits, and Pacific Crest Trail infatuation!

Well, this year is off to a slow crawl so far. Jen and I are looking forward to a real New Year's celebration at the end of this month- the beginning of the new lunar year. This "Christmas" was a first for us, in that we didn't celebrate it for the first time in our lives. We decided instead to celebrate in accordance with our beliefs- we are not Christians. Thus, we have celebrated the seasons as well as the lunar cycle. Our "Christmas" was as joyous as ever, but it was in the name of the Winter Solstice!
We just received in the mail our awards from the California State Fair Homebrew Competition! It was only last May that we won first place for our DuckBeaver Oatmeal Stout! Since we were unable to attend the awards ceremony, we have been anxiously awaiting the awards arrival! The arrival of the awards has inspired us to brew again. We will be brewing up a few batches this winter for the coming State Fair. Stay tuned for brew updates!
It is the time of year for sleeping (preferably naked!), and sleeping a lot! Jen and I have been reading a book called Full Moon Feast by Jessica Prentice. We have been realizing how out of whack our systems are compared to how they would have been hundreds of years ago. The author writes about how our bodies are "fooled" into thinking it is a "perpetual summer" by having artificial lights on everywhere we go. It is the dead of winter, and I can't seem to sleep more than eight or nine hours a night. I guess historically 12 or 14 hours a night would be more like it. My body is too in tune with the light bulb, the tv screen and the computer monitor to be in harmony with the seasons, the stars, and the moon.
Maholo for now, and thanks for reading first!