Random thoughts

Wow, I feel like shit. I've been saying that a lot lately, haven't I?

Happy birthday to bob_jiggity!

I keep dreaming about my late grandfather. Not sure what that's about. The dreams are entirely harmless, I was pretty close to him, he seems fine--I'm just not sure why he's showing up all of a sudden.

My silverjewelryclub.com purchases have started rolling in, and they're actually pretty nice. Although, when people tell you they're smaller than they look? Believe them. ( Here: pictures adjusted for approximate actual size )

Getting sort of interested in chakras, which isn't helping the jewelry buying. Basically, I view astrology and that kind of thing as 1) fun and 2) interesting metaphors to help you visualize what's actually going on and work on self-improvement. Like, nominally I'm a Sagittarius, but I've always wondered why a good bit of the free-wheeling profile doesn't fit me. Then I find out that I have a Virgo ascendant. So now, whenever I get overly perfectionist, for example, I like to joke that "my Virgo is acting up." And I keep that in mind and try to work around it.

So I'm looking at chakras, and I'm realizing that they're basically a series of metaphors for aspects of our lives. Like, "all the other chakras depend on the health of the first chakra, the root chakra" = "if you're not physically healthy, it's going to be hard to work on anything more psychological until you get that in order." And... I think I'm not doing so well on that first chakra. But somehow, "I want to work on my root chakra" sounds more optimistic and more pro-active and generally less baggage-ridden than "I need to exercise more and lose weight and be more confident in person." You know? The "chakra" version doesn't carry all this societal baggage with it. It sounds more like you're doing it for something deep within yourself that isn't even about whether other people notice or not. And therefore you're also not setting yourself up to fail with all these fears and expectations. I like that. So, one of the first things I bought for myself was a little garnet pendant (root = red). I don't know if gemstones actually have "powers," but I do believe in the effects of color on the mind, as a visual stimulus if nothing else, and garnets will remind me to work on it.

So: how do I "stimulate" my "root" (SHUT UP)? "Physical exercise and restful sleeps, gardening, pottery and clay. Red food & drink. Red gemstones, red clothing, bathing in red, etc. Using red oils such as ylang ylang or sandalwood essential oils." Bathing in... Countess Bathory? Is that you?

On the upside: Oils? Hoooooo boy, do I have a lot of those lying around.

( Linkspam, including Lost and Harry Potter )

Oh, and I forgot to mention: I set up rosehannah lo these many moons ago as a Black Ribbon journal. If I do end up doing anything NaNoWriMoish with it, all that will go there. I'll probably friends-lock it, so you'll need to join it, as it's a community and not just a single-user journal, so friending it alone won't give you access. (Why a community? Same reason as m15m: allows more users to friend/join.)