Musings

What if there was an environmental property tax?

I am not a morning person. Never was, never will be. That’s not to say that I haven’t tried. For years, I stumbled out of bed before the sun woke up — to get into the bathroom first; to swim (I was a competitive swimmer in my youth); to take the early classes; to get into work before the traffic got heavy. I went to bed at a ‘reasonable’ hour to get at least eight hours of shut-eye. I did all those things to mesh with the rest of the world.

I stumbled upon the app Relax Melodies a couple years ago somewhat by accident. At the time, of all the apps in the genre, it had an overwhelming (perhaps 100 to 1) number of reviews and positive ratings than its nearest neighbor, so it was kind of a no-brainer to try it out. Like so many others, after a few minutes of playing around with the free version, I went right back and bought the premium version. Within a week, I had it on all my devices: iPhone, laptop, desktop, iPad.

The truth is, I haven't stopped taking pottery classes yet. I'm now about half way through my third 8-week session and already working out my schedule to allow for more. I am able to get to the studio on Tuesdays and Saturdays to spend between 6 and 8 hours a week with this new obsession. Yes, I would spend more time at it if I could.

I wasn't going to do it this year, but I signed up for NaNoWriMo again this year. This is because last week a new story popped into my head and I feel compelled to write it down. I've only a vague idea about where its going, but it is another one about Sarah and the strange houses she encounters. The working title so far is, The house that George Built. This is really back story, about when Sarah first realizes she has paranormal intuitions. Of course, it's all a part of the family curse, but then what isn't? At any rate, I expect to have fun with it.

After just one pottery class, I've decided that there are many similarities between throwing pots and writing stories. Both are addictive. Both take a lot of practice time and effort to become accomplished. The end result, when done well, is engaging on many levels. There are, however, some significant advantages when learning the craft of clay versus that of writing.

After moving to East Hartford in the late '70s, my friends and I stumbled upon a pottery studio. Being a very part-time dabbler in clay and always interested in any kind of craft, we stopped into the shop. Not only was the work awesome, but the studio offered lessons. I vowed that one day I'd take lessons there and set up my own studio sometime. I had taken some ceramics classes and any time I did, I just wanted to do more of it.

I've never given channeling a lot of thought. It seemed like something other people did out of a desire for attention or something. To open yourself up for channeling, and I was not worrying about whether it was a true possibility or a convenient way to make daydreams seem self important, seems risky. In essence, as I understand it, you are allowing some other entity to use your physical connection with this reality to convey a message. In it's most benign form, that is. You have to wonder about the motives of someone wanting to do that. The someone being channeled, that is.