the woodland ninja chronicles

closing time

2007-05-02T12:09:00.000-04:00

This blog is being erased. Please go to:

www.PhilosopyRoad.blogspot.com.

Thank you.

time to retire

2007-03-27T10:16:00.000-04:00

Dear Reader,

First, thank you for reading.

Many of you know I write two blogs: this one, and Philosophy Road. Recently I have had several people ask, why the two blogs?

In permaculture, we say that if you have to explain yourself, then it's usually due to poor design. So, yes, my blogs are poorly designed.

Philosophy Road was supposed to be Phil's and my joint-blog effort, mostly narrating our learning process and life in the yurt. This was a poor design from the start because Phil has very little access to computers, and also a little less computer know-how. So, I've tried to keep the distinction, but it's also turned into just me writing two blogs.

So, after a week of stress and wanting to cut corners off every facet of my active life, I've decided that I will retire the WoodlandninjaChronicles blog, and switch all my efforts to one blog - namely PhilosophyRoad.

I've had this blog a year now, and my life has taken some turns, and I've been joined as one with Squirrel. So, I let this go. Read what you like, skip what you don't. I'll start transitioning, and probably delete the whole thing next week.

So, for further blogging by Heidi, and maybe sometimes Phil, go to:

PhilosophyRoad.blogspot.com

Again, thank you for following along.

Signed,

the WoodlandNinja

2006-11-02T14:50:00.000-05:00

2006-10-19T13:39:00.000-04:00

strength

2006-10-19T13:29:00.000-04:00

2006-10-13T14:30:00.000-04:00

I look for God in every creature, but sometimes I find Buddha instead.

Sing it, Nina

2006-10-04T14:12:00.000-04:00

My baby don't care for shows
My baby don't care for clothes
My baby just cares for me
My baby don't care for cars and races
My baby don't care for high-tone places.
Liz Taylor is not his style
And even Lana Turner's smile
Is somethin' he can't see.
My baby don't care who knows
My baby just cares for me.
Baby, my baby don't care for shows
And he don't even care for clothes
He cares for me.

My baby don't care
For cars and races
My baby don't care for
He don't care for high-tone places.
Liz Taylor is not his style
And even Liberace's smile
Is something he can't see
Is something he can't see
I wonder what's wrong with baby?
My baby just cares for
My baby just cares for
My baby just cares for me.

(Thanks to Wiggy for the soundtrack, to Kelly for the amazing pictures, to Nina for having a voice like that, and to my baby for everything.)

Turning and turning in...

2006-06-29T15:45:00.000-04:00

At the post office, I mailed off the invitations. It's certainly a big one to check off. Then, it reminds me that marriage, any permanent relationship, should be a journey and a process, no an end in itself, not a destination. So, these beautiful invitation-announcements are adding to the steps we take toward each other. Solidifying the dream into reality, anchoring our spirits in the physical world. Now, what I know, others will gradually understand and believe. Even the wedding, sacred ceremony that it is, is still just one step. It is as crucial and vital as the tender mendings that happen after we misunderstand each other, wounded and tired from a long day's exhaustion. One day folds into the next. The promises are celebrated, but also should be the fact of remaining. Another day folds into the next. What do I do to build this in strength, to ground it in heaven and earth? Take another step.

I want to be brave enough to dream aggressively. I have believed and acted from the stance that all my dreams can come true. Only recently have I let the voices of doubt, fatigue, and burn-out influence my answer to the question of "what's next?" Make no decision that is motivated by fear, I also said. (None of these being my own original thoughts.) Were those lies that I bought? Or is there truth to grasp, to follow, to hold however loosely? Does that mean you can live, one dream at a time, at the cost of the rest of your life? If so, does it matter? Even if it does cost all, maybe dreams are what is left living for, for your dreams come from that seed the Creator planted in you. Your job was to hold and nurture that seed into a tree to feed and shelter others. This should be the outcome of following our dreams, even at any cost. We deny those who would be fed by our dreams when we fear to follow them where they might lead.

We need to stop being afraid, stop trying to account for any variable or disturbance in the dream-plans.

Sara's quote, abbreviated from Calvin: If we are deceived, we are all the more responsible, both for being deceived, and for acting out of our deception. So I pray for the veil to be lifted.

Could it really be so hard, to run after our hearts' calling? Aren't we building on and discovering our community all around us? And do we not love this earth that has welcomed us with snow, sun, and rain?

2006-05-01T19:52:00.000-04:00

Today in the mail I received a box containing not one, but three wedding dresses. Both Toby (the cat) and I realized the rarity of this event. He envied the empty box while I twirled and swirled in each dress individually. It is the perfect way to select a wedding dress: wearing one's sheepskin slippers, tossing your bathrobe out of the way so you can see the mirror, feeling the new May-day breeze wafting through the open window.

It's as hard to imagine what my "big day" will be like in September. It's hard to imagine what the rest of my life will be like. But for now, I am content to fold the beautiful rejected dresses and close them up in a box, and to take my favorite, my dream-day dress, and hang it in the closet after I brush off the cat hair that already accumulates on the hem.