Post Holiday Post

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this blog post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs).

I had a pretty spectacular long holiday weekend, following a pretty spectacularly long work day prior to it. On Thanksgiving Thursday morning, I prepped some food for the family feast later in the day (starting at noon at my folks' house). This comprised baking a couple of vegan mock turkey roasts along with some assorted vegetables. We also had some pies, ice cream, and whipped cream in the freezer that we took along to my folks' house.

When we got to my folks' house, my sister and her family were already there. We set about heating up food and then ate it, followed by some board gaming, before heading home. Friday was a super chillaxed "do nothing"day at home, until we visited Deborah's son's family in the evening for more board gaming. A blizzard arrived on Saturday, resulting in another totally chillaxed and laid back day, punctuated only by the occasional shoveling of snow to create a path across our back deck to the yard, so that our dogs could do their business occasionally.

Sunday morning necessitated a snow blowing session. The snowblower started up easily and I made short work of the approximately one foot of fairly fluffy snow. Later in the morning, Deborah and I went to the gym - by way of some errands - to lift weights for 30 minutes. I had GUPPY EFFECT duo band practice in the afternoon with Stefan. Then I just chillaxed some more.

How was your holiday weekend? Leave a COMMENT below.

Fin.

Happy Bad Karma Day

Hi Readers!

I hope you all have a Happy Bad Karma Day (aka, Thanksgiving), if you celebrate it. Although many people don't like to hear or acknowledge it, I am not known for ignoring the elephant in the proverbial room. Fact: There is a lot of historical trauma, suffering, and oppression embedded in ("baked into") this American holiday. It's rooted in colonialism and racism.

That doesn't mean you can't have a happy Bad Karma Day. In fact, you should intentionally do so. It's really the only way to practice forgiveness, honor the oppressed, and heal the cultural wounds symbolized and recognized by/on this day. That being said, one way to honor the oppressed and heal the cultural wounds (and be happy) is to choose not to engage in the oppression and suffering of sentient beings...like turkeys (Oh, yeah...I am really in the sh!t now!). I encourage you to intentionally go vegan for the holiday, knowing full well that the culinary conventions of this day are potent and most people won't be able to rise above them. This is not weakness, don't get me wrong. It's just that tradition is a potent emotional driver for a lot of people, and we all know from Psychology 101 that the emotional brain overrides the rational brain just about every time the two come into conflict. Plus, most Americans have been acculturated since birth to accept the notion that slaughtering millions of birds on one specific Thursday of every year is totally fine and normal...maybe even patriotic(?). It's weird though, no?

If you choose to accept my challenge and go vegan today, be warned...this may free your mind and the side effects of that can be profound (it untethers you from blindly accepting cultural norms and narratives, which can be mentally and emotionally destabilizing, especially if your entire identity is defined by external social cues - in which case your ego completely evaporates and your consciousness "disappears"). But it also liberates your conscience. Once freed, that genie is difficult, if not impossible, to return to its bottle. You join the ranks of the unconventional and non-comforming. That can be scary.

Here are some tips, if you want to accept the karmic rewards of going vegan, if just for the day. You can still completely stuff yourself on plant based foods (which tend to be lower in calories, on average). You can cook a plant based roast, such as the Gardein vegan Turk'y Roast. Consider making a vegan side or main dish, like this African Sweet Potato Peanut Stew (which I will, in fact, be bringing to my family's Bad Karma Day celebrations today).

I'm not going to entertain counterfactuals like "I could never go vegan" or "I need meat in my diet." You do you. I'm just saying, good karma comes to those who detoxify and disentangle themselves from bad karmic forces, of which today's holiday is definitely one. I said what I said and I'll own that.

In other news, today is in many ways no different than any other day as far as self care and positivity. In about five minutes, I'll get my Peloton workout out of the way, then move on to prepping some Bad Karma Day food, comprising: aforementioned sweet potato stew, apple pies, vegan roasts, and mashed potatoes (using vegan butter and oat milk). I already knocked off my DuoLingo Spanish lesson and moved the three bags of water softener salt to the basement (putting two of them into the softener salt basin). These may seem like mundane and commonplace things not worthy of mention. Counterpoint: In Buddhism, enlightenment comes through intention and mindfulness in simple daily activities. Choose to be hyperaware today.

Blessings from the (secular) Church of BWJ!

Fin.

Hex

Hi Readers!

I had to put a Hex on a privileged white woman today. I was at the Willy Street Co-op out of necessity - well aware that it's a bit of a haven for the privileged undesirables. I was hoping to score a vegan pumpkin pie for Bad Karma Day (aka, Thanksgiving). I went to the pie section of the store and said woman was standing there right in front of the pies, perusing the options and taking up a LOT of physical AND emotional real estate (if you know...you know). No crime in that, and it's not what I had to Hex her for. However, it was pretty clear that I was waiting to peruse the pie options too after she was done...and she took literally FOREVER to make up her mind about what pie she wanted. That alone would have been worthy of a mild Hex. But then, after she had been there farting around for like five minutes already, she parked her shopping cart right in front of the pies and walked away. Just...walked away...no explanation given. It was clearly some kind of passive aggression, no question about it.

But nope! Not today, Karen. I pushed her cart right out of the way and put the full Hex on her disappearing form right then and there. No one knows how the Hex will manifest itself in her life. But it won't be good for her. 

In other news, it's a light week in the realm of marriage and family therapy. I think a lot of my clients have the week off and their minds are on other things besides having therapy. I have a couple of therapy clients today, and a few more tomorrow. Then, I have Thursday and Friday off, to celebrate Bad Karma Day with my family.

I'll end with a reminder that it is essential to your mental, physical, and spiritual well being to disenfranchise social and mainstream media (SMSM) from your life as soon as possible (but definitely before January 20, 2025). It's increasingly clear that SMSM compromises rational thought and emotional well being. It programs you to focus on negativity and black/white thinking. The key to well being is positivity and realistic thinking. But the latter cognitive processes are harder to do, especially when resisted by the opposing forces of SMSM. Our emotional brains are wired to focus on negatives and simplify everything into binary black and white choices that are easier to understand. The SMSM companies know this well, and they actively engineer their platforms to amplify negative messaging and addict you to grievance. If you think that sounds like a conspiracy theory, don't take my word for it. Watch THIS. You can do a simple experiment to verify this too...just go read any comment thread on any SMSM post online. It's toxically negative and extreme! Or if you doubt the addictiveness of SMSM, try quitting it for a week. Or even a day. Not so easy, huh?

There is no place in anyone's life for SMSM. However, it's your choice. All I can guarantee is that fasting from SMSM will make you happier and, frankly, a better person.

Anyway, have a great rest of your week!

Fin.