Strikes Two Woman

This small story, told by Pretty Shield, a famous Crow shaman, is about Strikes Two, a powerful woman shaman and warrior who rode out bravely against Lakota tribesmen who attacked her village. I want to be her!

I saw Strikes Two, a woman sixty years old, riding around camp on a gray horse. She carried only her root-digger, and she was singing her medicine song as though Lakota bullets and arrows were not flying around her.

Then I heard her say, "Now all of you sing: 'They are whipped. They are running away.' Keep singing these words until I come back."

When the men, and even the women, began to sing as Strikes Two told them, she rode straight out at the Lakota waving her root-digger, and singing that song. I saw her, I heard her, and my heart swelled, because she was a woman.

The Lakota, afraid of her medicine, turned and ran away. The fight was won, and by a woman.

My Inner Spartan

I recently became entranced with the movie "The 300", and found myself watching not only that movie, but also "The 300 Spartans" (a 50's film) and a history channel special about it. At first, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't stop thinking about it. And then I remembered that when I was about 7 years old, I heard a story about a Spartan boy and I remember thinking that I really wanted to be that boy. Here is the story:

Spartan children were taught stories of courage and fortitude. One favorite story was about a boy who followed the Spartan code. He captured a live fox and intended to eat it. Although boys were encouraged to scrounge for food, they were punished if caught. The boy noticed some Spartan soldiers coming, and hid the fox beneath his shirt. When the soldiers confronted him, he allowed the fox to chew into his stomach rather than confess, and showed no sign of pain in his body or face. This was the Spartan way.

I wonder now how deeply my life was shaped by this vision of what courage and fortitude look like. I was 7 years old... and I wanted to be that boy! I think that maybe I am that boy on many levels. And I wonder how can I save that boy and at the same time honor and safeguard his strength and determination, his courage and his success.

Going to the beach!

I was researching pictures for the post about the salt water flush, and I found this. Isn't it beautiful? I want to go to the beach so bad that it makes my heart ache!

Clearing out the crap - literally!

In my ongoing internet search for ways to feel better in my body I found this:

The Salt Water Flush

Drink an oral salt water enema upon arising. To do this, add 2 level teaspoons of uniodized sea salt to a quart of lukewarm water (the one-quart juice bottles in which most organic juices come work very well). Shake well, then drink the entire quart. It's also good to massage the colon as well. Make sure you use uniodized sea salt; regular or iodized salt will not have the same beneficial effect....

... I am so sorry to do this to you, but this post has been moved to my new website, shirleytwofeathers.com, and can be found in the Alternative Therapies section, here: Clearing Out The Crap - Literally!

The Coconut Diet

Today I have been researching Candida Diets - since mine has been such a disaster. See My Candida Diet Disaster. And along the way, I found this little gem:

The Coconut Diet
Coconuts are a way of life for millions of people around the world today in tropical climates. Known as the "tree of life," the wonderful fruit of the coconut palm is rich in specific fats that have incredible health benefits. Traditional tropical populations that consume a lot of coconut oil are seldom overweight, and traditionally have been free from the modern diseases that afflict most western cultures.



The Coconut Diet picks up where traditional diets fail. Low-fat diets don't work. The body needs a proper balance of good fats, but in recent years traditional, healthy saturated fats have been substituted with harmful transfatty acids in the US food industry. We now know that these harmful transfatty acids that are found in most vegetable oils are not the healthy oils they were once thought to be, and they are considered one of the major culprits in modern diseases and obesity. The Coconut Diet replaces these highly refined harmful fats with one of the healthiest fats known to mankind: coconut oil.

I found the coconut diet website pretty interesting. And (if they are indeed true) the success stories sound pretty good!

Interestingly, Virgin Coconut Oil is related to not only weight loss, but to such things as increased metabolism, helping sluggish thyroids, increased energy levels, killing Candida and yeast infections, improving cholesterol levels, clearing up skin infections, killing viruses, improving digestive health, and more!

It sounded too good to be true, so I checked some other sources. At Web MD, and MedicineNet, I found mostly positive stuff, and then I realized that it was the same article in both places. So.. I looked specifically for information about whether or not coconut oil really is effective against candida. And found this article at the Public Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. What is really interesting, is that when I was at the grocery store buying "real food" for my candida diet, I saw a bottle of virgin coconut oil, and was really drawn to it. I opted not to buy it because it wasn't on my list, and my budget is so limited. But, now I think I'm going to try it.

I'll keep you posted and let you know if I have the same results as this person:

Theresa - "This Diet Has Given Me Renewed Energy and A New Life! I have been taking a tablespoon of coconut oil three times daily with meals. Taking the oil with my meals seems to give me a “full feeling” a lot faster. My sweet tooth has practically vanished—and this is from someone who should have bought stock in Hershey's long ago! Ironically, facilitating weight loss was my main reason for trying the coconut oil diet, but with all the wonderful benefits I am experiencing, the weight loss aspect almost seems like an afterthought.

About three days into the routine, I had an energy rush on a Saturday morning that kept me going until well after lunch. I can’t believe how much I got done that day! My mental state of mind seemed to be much sharper. I was able to focus on the tasks at hand without getting sidetracked. I was not exhausted at the end of running my errands, which included traipsing around a huge mall. It seemed like I was practically running, rather than the leisurely walking that was formerly my habit.

In addition to my energy level, my mood has been very stable—no up and down mood swings—even with the onset of PMS! My husband commented yesterday on how soft and silky my skin felt, and I have not used any lotion since I started taking the oil." ~(from the Coconut Diet Forums)

My Candida Diet Disaster

So, about a week ago I started a candida cleanse using an herbal supliment to eliminate candida and a probiotic supliment to replenish the "good" organisms. In addition to the suppliments, I went on a "cleansing" diet that basically consisted of no sugar, no yeast, no cheese, no refined flours, no coffee, no caffeine.

Giving up coffee and sugar at the same time has been one grueling experience! I have brain fog, head aches, depression, fatigue, brain fog, head aches, depression, fatigue... Did I mention brain fog?

These are the foods on the "do not eat" list:

• All sugars and sugar-contained food including table sugar, fructose, corn syrup, honey, molasses, maple sugar and date sugar.
• All white flour and white flour products.
• All yeast-containing pastries, breads, crackers, pastas, etc.
• All cheese except ricotta, cottage and cream cheese. Artificially sweetened drinks and food products.
• Avoid alcoholic beverages.
• Avoid all fruit juices, fruits (fresh, canned, or dried) until yeast is abated. Fresh lemon or lime may be used in water, or as a substitute for vinegar in salad dressings.
• All coffee and tea (even herbal). Except pau de arco tea.
• Chlorinated tap water.
• All processed meats such as bacon, sausage, ham, hot dogs, luncheon meats, corned beef, and pastrami.
• Old leftovers. If food has been in the fridge for more than 3 days, do not eat it. Leftovers may be frozen.
• Obvious fungus foods: mushrooms, blue cheese, etc.
• Peanuts and peanut products: peanut butters. Use almond butter.
• All vinegar-soaked products or vinegar dressings: pickles, pickle relish etc. Lemon juice may be substituted from vinegar in recipes.
• Brewers yeast B vitamins made from yeast, yeast breads, pastries, cracker and pretzels that contain yeast.

It's harsh isn't it? What a shock to my system! People at work were practically begging me to stop it because I was so obviously impaired! (brain fog - remember?)

So now I have a refrigerator full of healthy food that I don't have the energy or the mental capacity to prepare. It's a conundrum!

I think that maybe I took on more than my body could handle. It occurs to me that it would be a good idea to back off a little bit. I don't want to admit failure or defeat - so I think I'm going to regroup, cut my losses, and formulate a new plan. In the mean time, I'm back to the caffeine (so I can think), but staying off the sugar (because I don't want it to all be for nothing).

Here's something for a real couch potato!

Here's something cool I found at Towards 2012. I think I'm going to make some lawn furniture like this. I got the "how-to" from Ready Made Mag and I have included it here along with observations and comments of my own.

Before you begin, figure the dirt you need by multiplying the dimensions of the couch you plan to make. That would be the "length" x "width" x "height". Next, locate a suitable spot. Think it through because you won't be able to move it once you've got it done. Clear the area of grass and weeds until you have level ground, then sketch the shape of the couch into the dirt with a stick....

... I am so sorry to do this to you, but this post has been moved to my new website shirleytwofeathers.com, and can be found in its entirety on my Hey It's Me blog, here: Here's something for a real couch potato!

What does your name mean?

I was fiddling around today, following links, looking for cool mandala art and over the top pictures for more cool pictures... when I stumbled into this little place on the world wide web.



Here are the results for my first name: Shirley

• Although the name Shirley creates an active mind and a restless urge to explore new ideas, we emphasize that it causes a superior, interfering expression whose favorite expression is "I know."

... I am so sorry to do this to you, but this post has been moved to my new website, Hey It's Me, hosted at shirleytwofeathers.com, and can be found in its entirety here: What does my name mean?

I got a toy for my blog!

It's a virtual tiger! I think he's kinda cute, don't you? If you click on the "more" button you can get food out and if you put the steak by his mouth and click, he'll take a bite out of it. LOL.



Ok, I know it's dumb...
I just wanted to be 7 years old again so I could rethink my goal of emmulating that spartan boy! Besides, I think my granddaughter will love him.

My Etsy Store

I was on a website today, and I noticed that they had this really cool widget with their Etsy stuff in it. So, I dashed over to Etsy... spent an inordinantly long time trying to remember my user name and password. Finally got that figured out, and went in and looked at my store.

I hadn't been there in a really long time, and was surprised to see how nice it looked. I think I was expecting cobwebs and dust and stuff... Anyway, I then uploaded 2 new mandalas, and found the script for this cool little widget. I'm going to put it in the sidebar over at Mandala Madness.

So, what do you think? Is it cute or what? Doesn't it just make you want to BUY one?

Cool Folk Art from India

The Goddess Kali, isn't she spectacular?

And check this one out! Such power!

These are Madhubani paintings. Madhubani means "Forest of Honey". I think they are just incredible. If I had money, I'd buy one of these for me for my birthday! Instead, it looks like I'm going to try to copy some of them and see how that goes. They don't look that hard to draw - and maybe I'll end up with more new and cool paintings.

Look what I managed to do!

Check this out! I asked for a review of one of my blogs, and here's the reply I recieved.

Hi Shirley,Your web site review of "way cool pictures" will be posted on Tuesday the 18th at 6 am. It will be there for the whole day. I would like to wish you continued success with your blog. We enjoyed it. Phil Matson your-relevant.com

Isn't that cool?
Here's the email I sent.

On 9/12/07, SHIRLEY GIBSON wrote:
I was hoping you would find the time to post a review of my blog.
It would be deeply appreciated.

My name is: Shirley Gibson
The name of the website is: Way Cool Pictures
The URL is: http://waycoolpictures.blogspot.com/

This is a picture blog. New images are uploaded daily. There are funny pictures, adorable cute animals, odd houses, interesting art, amazing nature photos, etc. Something different every day.

The coolest thing about Way Cool Pictures is that: Nothing offensive is ever posted . I put all the offensive, over the top, shockingly ridiculous and raunchy stuff on More Cool Pictures ... and then combined the two together in One Cool Picture After Another.

Thank you so much for reading my email and considering my blog for a possible review.
Blessings,
Shirley

Creating banners for Sandra

Today I have been working on banners for a website that a friend of mine is putting together. This is my favorite one so far. Once I get a feel for the way she wants the web pages to look, and after we decide on the banners and the landing page, I'll probably be making some buttons.

I'm not really an expert at web design, nor am I all that proficient in photoshop, so I went looking for tutorials and found some great tutorial resources over at Dennis Plucinik's blog on E-commerce and Web Design. He has free photoshop buttons for download, a long list of photoshop tutorials.

Other resources for tutorials include:

• tutdesk
• dr-photoshop
• deviantart

I made a sale at Cafe Press

I made a sale at Cafe Press! How cool is that?

Here's what I sold. It's an I Love to Paint Sticker.

Now, admitedly it's a cool design... but why doesn't it say "I love to paint"? That's just stupid! I have a whole bunch of designs with this same image - all tagged with the title of "I love to paint" and not a single one actually says that ON the item itself.

Clearly, I need to get in there and redo a whole bunch of stuff! If I can sell that sticker, with no advertising, and it doesn't even say "I love to paint" on it... then I can sell the rest of the cool stuff once I get the words on there and the design advertised.

So, interestingly, instead of being happy and excited about making a sale - I'm freaking out and embarassed that the item I made wasn't even better than it is. And that's just dumb! Maybe even as dumb as NOT putting "I love to paint" on the acual items!

I think this calls for a six pack of beer and a movie! maybe even two movies!

I did it!

Hey, I did it!
I am now a "Micro Lender" at Kiva.

How cool is that?

Maria Caicedo is the person I am lending to. If you want to, you can check out my profile page.

Pain Free with Abraham Hicks

From The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent by Abraham Hicks

• It is natural for my body to be well.

• Even if I don't know what to do in order to get better, my body does.
• I have trillions of cells, with individual Consciousness, and they know how to achieve their individual balance.
• When this condition began, I didn't know what I know now.
• If I'd known then what I know now, this condition couldn't have gotten started.
• I don't need to understand the cause of this illness.



• I don't need to explain how it is that I'm experiencing this illness.
• It doesn't matter that it got started, because it's reversing it's course right now.
• It's natural that it would take some time for my body to begin to align to my improved thoughts of well being.
• There's no hurry about any of this.
• My body knows what to do.



• Well-Being is natural to me.
• My inner being is intricately aware of my physical body.
• My cells are asking for what they need in order to thrive, and Source Energy is answering those requests.
• I'm in very good hands.
• I will relax now, to allow communication between my body and my Source.



• My only work is to relax and breathe.
• I can do that.-I can do that easily.
• This sensation of pain is an indicator that Source is responding to my cellular request for Energy.
• This sensation of pain is a wonderful indicator that help is on the way.
• I will relax into this sensation of pain because I understand that it's indicating improvement.



• My body is flesh and bone, but my body is also vibration.
• The way my body looks and feels is a result of my vibration.
• My body is as it is right now, and that is alright.
• My body is continually changing, and that is alright.
• My vibrational offering affects the changes in my body.



• Physical decline is about vibration, not about passing through time.
• It is possible for me to pass through time and improve my vibration.
• Physical decline is neither natural nor necessary.
• I do not have to wait for others to know this or demonstrate this.
• I can begin now, or whenever I choose, to demonstrate this.
• A shift in my vibration won't give me instant physical evidence.



• A shift in my vibration will give me instant emotional evidence.
• Once I achieve a vibrational shift and stabilize there, I'll see evidence.
• I'm willing to shift my vibration and wait for the physical evidence.
• Feeling better emotionally will be adequate evidence for now.
• Finding and maintaining positive expectancy is wonderful.



• I can feel my body benefiting from my new found ease.
• I can feel the stability of my physical body.
• I can feel the life-giving qualities of my new Energy alignment.
• I can feel that I'm coming into Energy Balance.
• I can feel how much my body enjoys my Energy Balance.



• All is well with me right now and getting better still...

Me at Southpark

I found a nifty little website with a really cool tool that allows you to create your own Southpark persona. I had a lot of fun playing around there. And so now I'm sharing. The link is: http://www.sp-studio.de/

The instructions on how to save your person are a little bit confusing. Basically, what you have to do is use a screen capture to grab the image, and then you have to take that screen capture image into a graphics program and crop out your little person. Which is a lot easier than it sounds.

On your keyboard somewhere there should be a key that says "print screen". Press that key when you have your person just how you want them to be. Nothing will happen when you press the key. Then open up a graphics program like Paint, Microsoft Photo Editor, Adobe, Paint Shop Pro, Gimp, whatever graphics program you happen to have. Once you get the program open, you may need to open a "new" file, at which point you can "paste" your image.

I'm sure that's about as clear as mud.

But wait... there's more about me!

We are all in this together -- by ourselves.
~Lily Tomlin

A small (ok, maybe it's not so small) personal history:

I was born in Ecuador SA, where my parents were missionaries. (more about that can be seen here if you are interested). When I was 17 I ran away from home (Cali, Colombia) and ended up in Kansas City, where I lived on the wild side in communes and flop houses, practicing "free love" and pretty much embracing the "flower child" lifestyle. Eventually I settled for less, and got married, raised children and ended up living a rather mediocre and unsatisfactory life.

To stay sane, I practiced transcendental meditation and spent a lot of time taking care of chickens, dogs, ducks, flowers, children,cats, rabbits, and whatever else came my way to take care of. I took care of everyone except for myself. Then, I had a series of miscarriages, planned a number of suicide scenarios, had a dream that I saw God, and then woke up realizing that I was done with life as I had been doing it.

I enrolled in the toughest dog training school in the midwest, and learned how to confront my fears under the strong arm and eagle eye of former army marine drill sargeant Frank Catania. It was the most terrifying 6 weeks of my entire life, worse even than being sent away to boarding school at the age of 5. But I got through it, and for several years, worked as a full time dog trainer. I trained a lot of dogs. It was very hard work, and almost very satisfying. Key word being "almost".

Being self employed allowed me to explore all sorts of different things, and during this period of being financially secure (still married - albeit unhappily)I delved into Native American Spirituality, studied Reiki became a Reiki Master, and a hypnotherapist, walked on fire, dug up crystals, visited shamans, had visions, worked in the dream time, read a gagillion books, and discovered that I was an artist.

And then I got divorced, my financial security immediatly disappeared, and so I got scared, and went out and got a "real" job and embarked once again on a life of not quite doing what I really wanted to do, and not quite being who I really wanted to be. I did continue to practice the native american spirituality, and I did continue to pursue shamanic training, but I rarely found time for art, and I spent most of my time trying hard to convince myself that I could be "good enough" and looking for that reassurance in the eyes of other people.

I hated my job.
I hated it so much that I wanted to throw up, literally, whenever I thought about going to work. I made elaborate suicide plans. I went to counseling. I hated myself almost as much as I hated my job. The therapist wanted to put me on medication. I refused. She said, "but Shirley, if you had cancer, wouldn't you take medication for that?" and I said, "no, if I had cancer I would be happy, and I would die." That's how bad it got.

A number of interesting things happened after that conversation. I quit my job. Found a job I really loved. Lost that job when business took a nose dive. Was unemployed for almost a year. Got into very bad financial situation. Realized that I was getting old. Fell into a terrible depression. Was immobilized for months. Finally, I found a job doing the worst possible thing with the worst possible schedule for the least amount of money. It occured to me that the job was going to actually kill me. It occured to me that I didn't care.

To satisfy my sister, who was worrying about me, I started an art project. Middle of the Night Art. Every night at work, I would draw and color a "mandala" of what the inside of my heart looked like. It was the most intense spiritual work I have ever done. I decided that I didn't care if the pictures were stupid. I decided that I didn't care if I was stupid. I decided that I didn't care what other people thought of me. I quit looking into other people's eyes for validation.

Life sucked. I sucked. And that was OK.

One day, I watched The Lord of the Rings and decided to change my life altogether. I decided to pick out who I wanted to be, and just act as if I was that. I decided to recreate me in the image and likeness of my best me, which would have to (of course) also include the image and likeness of the worst me. And that's what I am working at right now. Finding out how to be at peace with the best and the worst of myself, the best and the worst of life on earth as a human woman.

From other facts we may run away, but after every consciously or unconsciously maneuvered escape, we find ourselves back where we started, with ourselves on our hands.
~Harry Emerson Fosdick

Still talking about myself

He flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.
~Stephen Leacock

"Leap"
by Shirley Gibson

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.

~Agnes de Mille

"Flow"
by Shirley Gibson

Personality is not so much like a structure as like a river - it continuously flows, and to be a person is to be engaged in a perpetual process of becoming.
~Harry Emerson Fosdick

-oOo-

This is my flow,
my leap after leap in the dark:

Way Cool Quotes, Mandala Madness, Question of the Day, Way Cool Pictures, The Prosperity Project Green Dolphin Studio, Green Dolphin at Cafe Press, Gospel Missionary,

-oOo-

Talking about myself - again....

Hmmm.. what shall I say about myself? Well, I am an intensely creative person. I love working on big impossible projects. And I get insanely bored with routines and stuff that happens every day - like dishes, and laundry, and full time employment.

Writing about myself is always just.. well intimidating. Let me see.... I am an artist currently exploring gypsy magic. I am also a Reiki master, a shaman, a mother, and a grandmother. I am currently working on a number of seemingly totally unrelated internet projects.

My art can be found at Green Dolphin Studio and also at Mandala Madness at Etsy . I also have a store front at cafe press where you can find a lot of cool stuff with my art on it.

I have been working with some friends of mine, exploring various approaches to prosperity. We blog about it at The Prosperity Project and if you are interested in joining us, we would be delighted to have you. So far we have tried prayer, acts of kindness, feng shui and decluttering, Steve Pavlina's million dollar experiment, a Ganesh mantra to remove obstacles, and putting God First. We are just finishing up 30 days of "Gratitude", and have not yet decided for sure on what's coming up next. It has been a life changing and awesome experience.

I have been exploring and practicing Gypsy Magic and made a little blog site to share the spells I have been using and my experiences with them. It's been a lot of fun.. and works really well for me, although I do not update there very often. Come see it, and try a spell or two.

My parents were missionaries in Ecuador South America. And I grew up there, and in an effort to assimilate and make sense out of that experience I collected my dad's photos (he is an awesome photographer) and made a line of greeting cards from them. I am now working on getting a little website made and in the mean time, when I have time, I am blogging the images and other stuff from my childhood at The Gospel Missionary Message, while at the same time creating cool stuff at yet another cafe press shop. This one is the Gospel Message at Cafe Press.

You might wonder how it is that gospel missionary and gypsy magic are both projects that I am deeply immersed in.. I wonder that too. One of the things that I constantly struggle with is that my core beliefs are often seemingly in direct conflict with one another.

This has been a big struggle for me until recently. And I have been able to resolve it in a way that really surprised me. I happened to take an online test just for fun, to see what my religion was. When the answer came up that I am a Buddhist, something delightful happened. I decided to be a Buddhist! And now, whenever life gets troublesome, or stuff happens, I just remember that - Oh yes, I'm a Buddhist. Life is suffering! But it's an illusion, so it doesn't matter. And then I smile, and breathe, and laugh at myself, and the troublesome stuff just dissapates. It's been like a miracle for me.

My sister has been adding some really awesome poetry to my series of mandalas, and I have uploaded some them here for you all to enjoy on my blog here at Zaadz. I have also made a small website them, and for all things mandala that interest me. It can be found at Mandala Madness the blog. And I have been blogging my favorite quotes at Way Cool Quotes, and tons of really neat pictures at Way Cool Pictures.

So, I don't know what else to say except. Hello and Goodbye..
And that reminds me of an old Gypsy saying, the english translation goes something like this:

Go with God!
Stay with God!
Go, for God's sake!
Stay, for God's sake!
By God!

LOL