Seeing is Believing

Yesterday, after a late night, I, for some reason, woke up around 5am and just couldn't go back to sleep. So, within an hour, I got up and walked down to the beach/lake, my favorite spot. I sat with the geese and goslings and watched the lake wake up. Then I went to dining hall for breakfast. I haven't been getting up in time for breakfast much lately, so it was a lovely change.

I sat alone - also totally new for me - and looked out the window while eating my yummy breakfast of biscuits and (non-meat) gravy and eggs and oatmeal. And, feeling inspired, I wrote a little something on the back of a piece of paper I found.

After my peaceful breakfast, still feeling sort of slowed-down-in-a-good-way and very inspired, I meandered slowly back to my dorm, stopping in the garden to take pictures and really SEE the beautiful poppies that have been blooming, stopping along the road to look at the different tall grasses and ivy growing, stopping to look up at the sun and feel it getting hotter and hotter.

Once back at my dorm, totally exhausted but fulfilled, I slept for as long as I could before my 2:30pm work shift.

I just found that piece of paper from breakfast. Here's what I wrote:

I'm seeing thru new eyes now. Today.
I see food as amazing & tasty nourishment for which I am so thankful.
I see people as incredibly interesting & necessary parts of life.
I see the weather as a welcome variable.
I see the bees & the ants & the spiders & the gnats & the mosquitoes NOT as annoyances to be avoided, per se, but as beautiful, diverse things that make life more interesting.
I see the trees - I've always loved trees - I see the trees as luscious evidence of the beauty & change in life. Green and shading today; bare & slumbering tomorrow.
I see the breeze. Yes, I SEE the breeze & I revel in its power, its sweetness, its softness, its comfort.
I see the pain in my body now as evidence of my life, that I've lived, that I continue to live.
I see angles, lines, circles, light, dark, bright colors, various whites, dark shades.
I see crispness. Everything's crisp & clear & lovely... & -well- just OKAY.
I see.
- written 5/27/08 (7am)

Everyone Poops

Let's talk about poo.

Yep, I said it: P Double O, Poo. Feces. Waste. Doo-doo. Poopy. Excrement.

Whatever you wanna call it.

Here at OI, when a toilet is stopped up and needing a hard-core plunge, we call it a Code Brown. Sometimes, if they're particularly bad, I might change the name to a Code Black (in the case of some major splatter all over the wall) or Code Red (it's a womanly thing). But so far, I'm happy to say that they haven't been that bad - So Far. In fact, I often end up calling them Code Beige or Code White, if you know what I mean.

But let me tell you a few itty bitty tales about the various Poopies I've encountered here at OI. First let me preface this by telling you I've been quite pleasantly surprised at how Funny it all becomes, especially when you're dealing with it day-in and day-out. I have had some of the best, most abdominal-working, eye-watering bouts of laughter while dealing with these various Code Browns. It makes me feel like a kid again.

One of the dorms that workshop participants stay in has proven to have a particularly high ratio of Code Browns, compared to other locations around campus. So I've taken to calling it the Chocolate Factory. This never ceases to crack up my friend/co-worker Jess, I tell ya.

One time, while she and I were working together, we responded to a Code Brown in said Chocolate Factory, and what we encountered looked and sort of "acted" more like Meatballs than, well, um, Ka-ka. One of the meatballs took a shinin' to the outside of the plunger and wouldn't let go. And it's still a shock to me that there was NO 'Code Yellow' at the scene, since Jess and I were laughing so hard. Seriously, to this day--weeks after the fact--all I have to say to Jess is "Meatball", and we both fall into unrelenting childhood-laughter for at least 5 minutes.

So, how's abouts the opposite end of the spectrum, you ask? Well, there's something about the good good food here that seems to make some/most participants have what could be called Loose Stools but what I am choosing to call MudPies. This particular form of feces sticks to the porcelain and won't move. So, that means it's a job for -- heroic drumroll please -- HOUSEKEEPIN'!

One day, one of the newby Housekeepers, a cute petite young lady from New York City named Hannah, called me over to the quite large Ladies' Room under Main Hall, where large-attendance workshops take place (in Main Hall, NOT in the restroom!). This, for example, is where the Jivamukti yogis had their month-long trainings, which just ended recently. And I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet but wherever those J's "went", there was no flushing. I don't understand this rule or why it's part of the J doctrine, or whatever, but it seems to be the case.

Alright, so Not Flushing is Not THAT big of a deal when we're talking #1. It aint pleasant but it's usually not too too awful. However, when we're talking #2's,... especially when compounded by the fact that these people have been doing yoga all day, every day, and eating cookies and peanut butter sandwiches at every chance they got (which seems to be the case, according to my colleagues in the cafe), it just leaves a yucky, sticky, HEAVY, Thick mess for us Housekeepers to deal with. [Whatever happened to the ol' adage: "If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down"?]

So, anyway, at Hannah's beckoning (while giggling), I went to the Ladies' Room. (I was working in the men's bathroom at the time.) H. just simply pointed at a stall. Upon swinging the door open, I found a very substantial Mudpie , stuck on a sort of levelled-out 'shelf-like' part within the toilet. Bad design, I say. Of the toilet, not the poo, since obviously we don't "design" our poos - although wouldn't that be an interesting concept?
But I digress.

So, out of laziness and possibly a little entrepeneurial spirit (or stupidity), I didn't go get the toilet brushes we carry around on the golf cart for these types of situations. Nor did I go get the plunger; this did not require a plunging.

I bombarded the dark pile with some of our citrusy cleaner from a spray bottle. And I flushed. Nothing happened. It didn't budge. And while I definitely want to be eco-friendly and conscientious, I knew I needed to weigh this mushy anchor down in order to get it to shift down-water. I really just wanted the rush of water to carry the poo on down the line, rather than just whirling up the poo smell into the air.

So I tore off some TP, flushed the toilet, waited for the water to go down most of the way, dropped the wad of TP directly onto the Mudpie, targetted the concoction with my citrus spray, and waited to see if, on the next flush, it'd go down.

Well, this process continued for, oh, say, at least 10 flushes, paper wads and continual citrus piercings--all interrupted periodically by me jumping out of the stall to breathe some fresh air and re-adhere my t-shirt collar up over my nose. Oh, and all the while, H. was just giggling away, not even trying to help.

I really wish, however, that I'd counted the number of paper-citrus-then-flush maneuvers I pulled on that one mudpie. I mean, seriously, if that person - whomever it was - had simply sat further back on the toilet so the poo would land in a better location within the toilet, or if that person had just taken the time to really truly flush right away, I then would not have had to waste all that paper and water (from flushing) and time and energy! I mean, that mudpie had seriously become a form of glue, like a lead-based glue or something, onto the porcelain bottom of the toilet.

But alas -- Dun-de-duhn-duhn (perky organ playin'...) -- we Housekeepers took care of it. And I must admit I seriously felt Victorious when that mudpie slowly slid its way down into the deep toilet tunnel, and out of sight. Victory was mine!

So, anyway, moral of the story is Flush your own damn poos so someone else doesn't have to.

PS: There will be NO pictures posted in relation to this Blog entry. Phew, I bet you're relieved!

Disclaimer/Source: Everyone Poops is the title of a children's book that can be found on Amazon.com

Oneness

Tonight I finally made it to the "class" or "session" called Deeksha Oneness Blessing. A man named Luc (from French Canada), who happens to work in Maintenance this season, performs the class/blessing.

It was very interesting. Very all-encompassing. Not evangelical at all. Just plain ol' goodness.

I can't say what, if anything, I feel after the blessing, but I'm thoroughly intrigued.

I know I'll be reading up more and more on the subject, as well as going to more of Luc's Deeksha Blessings.

It certainly can't hurt!

Got Talent?

Last night, there was a Talent Show for staffers. Amazing talent, all around. Thoroughly entertaining, seriously. And no, I don't mean politely clapping out of obligation or sympathy. I mean, serious cheers and clapping and laughter and smiles for each and every diverse performance.

This EVEN included a "performance" I was pitted against from the beginning. Let me preface by telling you about the performER. His name is Anthony. He considers himself a Floral Sculptor, NOT a floral designer. Get it straight, ok? I've heard he's really famous in NYC - lives there when he's not here.

And most of you know I LOVE flowers and all things FLOWERY, right? So, you'd think I'd like this guy, right? Well, I've had some less-than-friendly encounters with him around campus so, despite my tendency to think all people are good and that my impressions of my encounters with him must've been just all misunderstandings, I guess I sort of WANTED to have 1 more reason to NOT like him.

And at first, I felt I was right on track with this predisposition. As he began his performance at the talent show, he announced, into his Janet-Jackson-style headset microphone, "Get ready for something beautiful." Oy, I thought - How arrogant!

Then, at the push of a button on his headset, on came some ambient techno music. The edge of the stage, which he was standing in front of, was lined with several bunches of flowers and foliage, one of each kind in each vase. As he took long, ballerina-style strides, all pointy-toed and dance-hands, in front of us, I must have rolled my eyes - at least inwardly.

But, that being said, I have to tell you that, within five minutes or so, I was completely enthralled. What he did, while, to some, it might seem a bit contrived or much-ado, WAS indeed Beautiful. I dunno: I just GOT it.

Vase by vase, in very elegant, controlled motions, he grabbed an entire bunch of branches or flowers. He'd shimmy the branches in the air overhead as he glided over towards a beautiful glass vase in the center of everything. He would then stab the branches into the vase, one by one. He dipped and curled curly willow, tops first, into the central vase, making a sort of underwater sculpture. He held stems of purple puff flowers from their very bottom, shook them ever so slightly while raising them up in the air, and then speared each one swiftly into the vase, all in perfect proportion to everything else.

I honestly don't know how long the performance lasted but I think it was probably 10 or 15 minutes. And I wasn't bored for 1 minute!

In those moments, my judgment, my criticism, my hurt at being rebuffed by him during a quick conversation days earlier on campus, all that was just wiped away, wiped clean.

I GOT it. I GOT that he had an incredible talent, that he's one of the lucky ones who has found his passion and made it his life, and is doing more than making a "living" in the process. I GOT that what he did WAS indeed ART, and for him, it was also Philosophy and Culture and just totally Natural.

While I was impressed by most all of the fabulous performances on the night of the Talent Show, I was most SURPRISED by my reaction, my response to Anthony's piece.

I wish you could've been there, seen it. I don't think everyone had the same response as I did, but I know that everyone, on some level, had a great appreciation or respect for it.

I truly enjoyed it. Truly.

Rainbow People

As I walked up to the Dining Hall for lunch on this beautiful sunshiney spring day, I realized there was some sort of "to-do" going on. Everyone lounging in the grass, sitting at the picnic tables, and standing on the steps to the dining hall was looking up and pointing at the sky.

What was all this broo-ha-ha about, I wondered.

Just then, as I approached them all more closely, I overheard someone shouting "Look, there's a rainbow!"

But this was no ordinary rainbow. It was a full-circle rainbow surrounding the sun. I've never seen anything like it. I've seen double rainbows (in Colorado) which I thought were fascinating. But never a FULL CIRCLE.

And as the revellers around me continued along with me up towards the dining hall staff entrance, somebody said, "Oh, but if there's no end of the rainbow, then there's no pot of gold."

That saddened me. It put a negative spin on something very remarkable.

Me, I like circles. Everything's a circle. The circle of life. Coming full circle. Circles are complete, nothing dangling.

So a complete-circle rainbow means that it has No End.

That's my take, on this sunshiney day, anyway.

Child At Play

The first work-period's part-time staffers arrived today. I, for a short part of the day, was a Buddy - which just means I carted a few newbies to their respective tent sites, helped them get settled, and pointed them in the right direction(s).

After dinner, there was a "session" called NEW GAMES. I thought it was going to just be a game night - sort of like Bingo or board games or whatever - so we could meet and bond with the new staffers. But instead it was all about PLAY. Fun, child-like play. The kind none of us do past the age of, say, 12. (That's so unfortunate and sad, really.)

So we basically goofed off in a guided but fun way, we did funny improvs in groups or in a circle, we talked in jibberish, we did the wave, etc. And it was so fun! I was sweating and laughing the whole way through. The kind of laughing that you don't even realize you're doing until you're trying to breathe but you're really laughing instead... The kind of laughter that you see in children when they're running around in circles chasing each other and for whatever reason they're laughing their heads off the whole time. That's what it was like.

And when the class was over, many of us stayed behind with 3 cheapo beach-balls - just kicking and passing and hitting and spiking the beach balls. A couple people were pulling totally ballet-like maneuvers, like a partial split in the air with an ending flick of their foot just in time to hit the descending ball. It was silly and fun and laughter-making.

We should all do this more often! If I could PLAY like that more often, and not feel silly or judged or weird, like how it was tonight, I'd never need to go to a gym. But I'd be seriously happy AND fit.

I just wish there were more outlets for ADULTS to PLAY like that.

I think that's why I always loved so much the birthday parties we've had for my neice(s) and nephew(s) at Pump It Up. When I've gone to those kiddy birthday parties, I turn into a small child, running up the ladders, whizzing down the slides, running around in circles, breathlessly giggling.

I really wish someone would open up an adult-oriented place like that - a place for grown-ups to go and get their inner child running around and laughing!

For more information on this practice of PLAY--in particular the theory/philosophy of Original Play--go to www.originalplay.com. Also, to see what Omega has to say about PLAY, go to OI's website.

Anyway, having the new staffers here on campus has yet again changed the dynamic here. Yet MORE people are on campus, but it's a new energy. Also what's different is that I'm now sort of a "veteran" or at least I'm no longer a "newby". And that's a great feeling, I must say.

Today's Vocabulary List

Below are this week's Vocabulary Words - these are words that have proven to be very common during my Omega Experience so far. Some of these terms, I knew before but some I did not.

Jivamukti - see www.jivamuktiyoga.com; also word on the streets is that they do not flush toilets (no matter if it's #1 or #2) in order to conserve water - I'm just sayin'!
Kundalini - see www.yogatech.com
Intent / Intention - see what About.com has to say about Intention
Hatha - see what Wikipedia says about Hatha
Yogini - see how Wikipedia defines it
Mindfulness - see www.mindfulness.com
Manifest - as in 'If you put it out to the universe that you need something, you will manifest it'; also as in 'Because our golf cart's brakes are failing, we need to manifest that we'll get a new golf cart.'
Negative Space - usually used as an artists' term, this could mean many things
Clothing Optional - Used in relation to the goings-on in the OI sauna; honestly, it's a very laid-back, liberating environment in the sauna - great conversations happen in the sauna too
Moon Cup (or Diva Cup) - an eco-friendly alternative to tampons or pads; see the MoonCup brand site and DivaCup site
Transition Day - Fridays and Sundays, when workshop participants arrive and depart, thereby requiring rooms to be re-set
"Code Brown" - Omega code terminology for a stopped up toilet needing to be plunged (by none other than Housekeeping)

Below are some new-fangled terms either I've created or the creation of which I was witness to:
Flintstoning - For example, when the golf cart (named Squeaky) is trying so hard to get up a hill, the driver often fears she's going to have to "Flintstone it" -- i.e., use their own feet to push/drive the cart
A Broom & a Spritz - Housekeeping slang, pronounced w/ a posh British accent; just another term for Spot-Cleaning the Bathrooms
Chocolate Factory - Whatever dorm currently has recurrent "code browns"
Fruitcup - Female genital area (I can't take credit for this slang)
Vegetable Platter - Male genital area (Again, credit belongs to someone I was talking to here at Omega about the aforementioned Fruitcup)

Grief vs. Remembering

This weekend, the world lost a great artist, a fabulous friend, a fun soul: Scott Fertig, who I am fortunate to call one of my best friends.

I am very grief-stricken by this loss and terribly concerned for my other good friend, his wife, Carolyn. But the fact is that the memories of my times with Scott are so fun, so full of light and goofiness as well as bizarro deep conversations, that I have A LOT to hold onto. A LOT!

It's purely selfish to be sad he's gone - but of course I am. All who knew him are.

The important thing, however, is that he's out of pain now - and I feel that For Sure. And he's having his funny conversations and his giggle-fests with someone else, somewhere else. That makes me happy.

Scott, you were & ARE loved, wherever you are. Thank you for the time we had with you. I love you & miss you. Keep on giggling, my Scottito!

To see the art Scott gave to the world, go to his site at www.scottfertig.com

Today's stats

Hours Worked: 6
Steps Taken: 10,176

Conscious Kindness

In the Sanctuary (building) tonight I had the great opportunity to sit for a Talk given by Zev Kedem, who survived the Holocaust, including Auschwitz, as an 11-year-old boy.

Many of you know that everything having to do with Jewish persecution, Holocaust, and the atrocities of the Nazi Regime have always gripped me strongly. Even as a very young girl, whenever I'd stumble upon a black and white documentary on tv that had ANYthing to do with this subject, I'd be rivetted and absorb it all.

So, tonight, when it was posted on our staff classes board that he's staying here on campus for a while and was going to speak, I knew I had to go -- no matter how tired I was from today's Transition Day (our roughest work days).

Granted, after tonight's experience witnessing Zev Kedem speak, with a twinkle in his eye, as he relayed the oddly positive parts of his horrendous holocaust experience, I can't say that I will ever again bemoan any work or life situation I have -- because it's NOTHING compared to what he, and so many others, experienced.

Let me set a bit of the atmosphere for you, of tonight: The Sanctuary is a quiet beautiful cozy venue up on a hill in the woods overlooking most of the Omega campus. It's usually the home of early morning and early evening meditation sessions.

Everyone sits on meditation cushions and if you choose to, you can usually find one of those cushions that has a little back support. But basically it's hard to get or stay comfortable - at least for me... and probably for most people.

Even considering this potential fidgetyness of the seating arrangements, added to my real fatigue and back pain from a hard day's work, combined with the fact that I have to be up at 6am for work tomorrow, Even knowing all that, I barely took my eyes off this 70-something-year-old man for the 3+ hours he spoke.

With an eastern european accent (mixed with highly educated Oxford English), he sat in a chair before us, habitually smiling the most gentle yet mischievous smiles, and weaving the extraordinary tale of his encounters with bizarre chance, horrifying circumstance, and enduring wit.

I wanted to hug this man, to just be near him. But mostly I just wanted to thank him for taking his time to tell us his story -- and for having lived thru it so beautifully.

If any of you have ANY interest in an amazing story, and wish to gleen the positive message(s) from it, feel free to google Zev Kedem and read. That's what I've done tonight. And if it helps stoke the flames of your interest, he happened to be on the very Schindler's List that Steven Spielberg made famous in a film by that name.

One of the important things to remember, in my opinion, is that as atrocious as most of us think the Holocaust of the 1940s was, holocausts are still happening, even today -- Darfur, for example. One of the things that has always stuck with me whenever I'm learning about history and the Nazi Holocaust is that I am totally dumbfounded and appalled that human beings - whole groups/countries/societies of people felt it was OK and maybe even Good to totally de-humanize, torture, and ruin other human beings so systematically and cruelly. And yet, it's still happening today! This boggles my mind! We all turn a blind eye -- or should I say "a comfortable eye". We just want to stay in our comfort zone, to not interfere too much, even though we know crazy-bad stuff is happening to men, women, children, families, communities, spirits throughout the world.

After his talk tonight, one of the intimate group of 30-or-so people sitting on cushions around him asked Zev what we could do in this world, with our lives, to make something positive out of something negative. He simply talked about energy - I think meaning "intention" - just putting positive energy out there. Basically, I believe he was saying, to tune into and facilitate "random acts of conscious kindness" (I believe those were his actual words).

So, I hope anyone reading this might think a little more about taking a breath when they feel anger or frustration. Just take a moment. And maybe turn it around to a moment of Kindness instead.

This is the kind of message OI seems to be all about. And that is why, I think, I feel so at-peace here, so happy here. And I do hope this sort of things spreads. I really do.

http://www.oskarschindler.com/20.htm
http://www.auschwitz.dk/zedem.htm
http://www.greatertalent.com/biography.php?id=206
http://www.thepost.ohiou.edu/archives/archives/100997/top.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av7f2ZfrGvs

Stats for Today

Hours Worked: 5
Steps Walked: 7,576 (before 5pm)

Preparing for T(ransition) Day at OI

Here's what the inside of the Housekeeping garage looks like, stocked with towels and linens for all rooms:


View of the Housekeeping garage rafters, full of stored bed spreads, etc.

Prepping kits full of the specific sheets, pillowcases, and towels for each room we have to re-set on Transition Days...


The "kits" then go into these "cages" temporarily until the actual Transition day (Friday or Sunday) when we will cart the piles of kits to the rooms/cabins/housing in order to change out the beds once a guest checks out, to ready for the next guest checking in:

Walkabout

It's almost 2pm, I slept thru breakfast, I start work in 30 minutes, and EVEN with that being said, I've already walked 2142 steps or paces today, according to my Race for the Cure walk-ometer thingy, many of those UPhill.

Anyway, thought you'd like to know.

PS: For today's evening shift of work, I might not walk too too much because I'll be on a golf cart for the big trips around campus. Still, Fridays and Sundays (at work) make up for any snippets of non-walking we may do -- it's not only walk-arama on those days, but we're lugging a big wheeled cart full of supplies on those days. Yes, up hill too.

I had the luscious pleasure of getting a massage last night and then hitting the sauna for about an hour (intermittently of course). The massage was AMAZING, both because I needed it so badly and because the massage therapist was great. He actually jumped up on the table with me, and used his knees and then his feet (yes, walking/standing) on my hips. I'm a bit sore today - but no more so than I was before from all the kinks I had going on, before he worked them out.

I honestly have to go back to him again SOON. Very soon.

But for now, I'm off to work - my first evening shift, like I said. Should be interesting riding Squeaky (the old, tired golf cart) in the dark.

Love and broccoli,

Nicole