Putting one's rocks under the moon

HaPpY nEw yEaR, eVeRyOnE!

i am quite pleased to be with you again, at least in spirit. The Billies have come and gone from their 18^th annual Heartwood New Year’s gathering, and a wonderful time was had by all, not least by your favorite correspondent. And it pleases me no end to tell you that my love-life may be taking an interesting turn.

i was talking about that guy Sky (at left in a photo from last August just before he left on a bike-camping trip, the same one when he found his kitty-cat Ghost) to a friend in the sauna the other day, explaining a few of the things that make him such an extraordinary individual, and one of those things is his unusual open-mindedness. What an amazing thing it was that we could have a relationship for as long as we did, as special it was, despite the 23-year age difference. And then it hit me: although we have kissed several times, and once did something a bit more than that, our relationship was almost totally non-sexual. And the next thing that hit me was: he was still friends with me, even though he quite obviously wasn’t attracted to me in that way. And i felt flattered, and even greater appreciation for this dude. But i've gone on and on about this guy long enough i guess. Thanks for your patience everyone. You'd understand better what i'm talking about if you got a chance to meet the dude. Body of a 24-year-old with the mind and heart of a much older man .. clearly someone who's lived many, many lifetimes.

Anyway, here’s the interesting turn to which i alluded. i mentioned last month having spent some time during last year’s Billy gathering with a guy named Rosario: he’d spent a night at my place which was quite delightful, and we were looking forward to seeing each other again this year. When i’d asked if he would be staying at my new and improved bachelor pad (Hedon’s Eden), he replied, “at least for one night.” Well, LSS, he ended up staying all four nights, and we both just loved the time we spent together.

Rosario is 39 and works as an occupational therapist in Santa Rosa, about 2½ hours south of here. His family is originally from Goa, in w. India, but he has lived in the US since an early age. He is handsome, and quite a few of the girls on campus were in a swoon when he was around! In fact, Mandy (a chef) was telling me in the store this afternoon how much fun it was when Rosario volunteered to work in the kitchen one day: while they were doing food-prep, he had shown her some dance-steps, and they were both singing along to old Michael Jackson tunes. So it was a nice surprise that when the phone rang just then, who should be on the other end but him!

So he’s tall, dark, handsome: brown eyes and an ever-present smile. Thinks of others. Politically aware. Intelligent, good sense of humor, etc. etc.

Well i won’t go on too much more, other than to say we are looking forward to seeing each other again, probably Jan. 12-14, when i next have a 3-day weekend. This last Heartwood gathering was his tenth, and he loves this place, so he might very well come back up here. But i don’t know Santa Rosa at all and usually look forward to opportunities to get off the mountain, and so i might very well go down there to visit him. i’ll keep you posted. Please keep me in your prayers, that i remember to take things slowly (i haven’t been very good at this part in the past), and allow things between us to develop organically, if they are meant to.

Another nice thing about the Billies’ visit was that i got in 7 hours of Swedish massage, spread over 4 sessions. At $60/hour, that was a nice little chunk of change i earned to pay down my debt. My first repeat-customer was also my first paying customer: a Billy from last year’s gathering who remembered my work and called a few days before the start of this year’s gathering to make an appointment! Word-of-mouth brought in the rest of the clients.

i had a 45-minute talk with Scott and Kathy yesterday, and i asked if they had made any resolutions. Scott said no, he didn’t make them at New Year’s; if he felt a need to change he could do that at any time of the year. i said that i used to feel the same way: why wait until the new year to make change, but had later realized that i am very much the kind of a person who needs deadlines. i found that i never made resolutions at any time of year! So i’ve gone back to making them at this time of year, even if it is what everyone else is doing! So here are some of mine for 2007:

go to the sauna twice a week
train for Avenue of the Giants marathon May 6
run a marathon with Mike Morone
pay off all debt
save money for trip to wedding on Kauai in August
give one hot stones massage per week
give one Swedish massage every two weeks
get one body-work session per week
make an altar
start reading and this time finish A Course in Miracles
get published in the Sun

Wondering by now what's with the title: putting one's rocks under the moon. Well, that's what i was doing a month or two ago: New Agers like myself believe that the waxing moon discharges a subtle energy which is beneficial in different ways. So some of us doing Hot Stones massage try to remember to put our rocks out a few days before the moon is full, so that our clients can also share in the good energy that the rocks soak up. i had to laugh when i was lugging my rocks out to a spot where they would get maximum exposure: it was such an obvious sign of how much i've changed over the years. If anyone had told me even five years ago that i'd be involved in such an activity, i would've looked at them like they were completely bonkers!

Anyway, that should hold you all till next time. i hope your New Year is filled with everything that your heart desires, and that serves your highest good. Peace!

ps - If you are American, please call your Congressperson THIS WEEK, and demand that they support the impeachment of George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell.

Politicians thought it was proper to impeach Bill Clinton over a friggin' blowjob in the oval office, so they now should not hesitate to impeach this lot when the consequences are so much graver, for the lies that they have told which have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, for starters. The desecration of the Constitution -- legalizing and exporting torture, the cancellation of habeus corpus -- is next on my list for why these five must be brought to justice. Please, do it for the sake of the country you would like to live in. Do it because it's the right thing to do. Do it for your kids and your grandkids. We can make America the kind of country it used to be, but only if we hold the feet of our Congresspeople to the fire. They're not going to be brave enough to do it on their own.

If you're unsure about who represents you in the House of Representatives (who alone have the power of impeachment; the trial would take place in the US Senate), go to Congress.org and put in your zip code. Then call the office and ask them their position on impeachment: if not, why not. You'll probably reach a machine; leave your number and ask them to call you back. Encourage others to do the same, this week and next. We need to put pressure on Congress right now to make it happen.