Excited!

Many of you already know what an amazing, powerful, and magical teacher Sherri Winston is. She's nationally renowned, has changed the lives of so many people I know (one of whom lives with me), and I feel humbled and honored to have her at MY HOUSE teaching her classes this coming week.
We'll be arranging transportation from Porter Square daily for those who need it.
Here are the details:

Friday, November 21, 2008 - Sunday, November 23, 2008
Presented by Sheri Winston CNM, RN, BSN, LMT
Teacher & Counselor of Wholistic Sexuality * Founder of the Center for the Intimate Arts

More Info: www.IntimateArtsCenter.com

For Singles, Partners, Men & Women – For Everyone!


SexCraft – Hands-Off Arousal & Sexual Energy Skills Friday, Nov 21, 7pm – 10 pm

Learn how to come without using your hands (or anyone else's) - using breath, movement, sound, intention, imagery and awareness to expand your repertoire of what's possible. Experience more pleasure, increase your own arousal, dance with your sexual energy and develop your orgasmic capacity. Come, get ecstatic!
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Vaginal Ecology -An Owner's Guide to Care & Maintenance Sat, Nov 22, 10 am – 1 pm
The basic information class that all women should have gotten when we were 13 years old, but it's never too late to learn – prevention, maintenance, imbalances, infection, natural remedies & more.
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Seven Chakra Orgasm – An Ecstatic Meditation Practice Sat, Nov 22, 2:30 pm – 5:30 pm

Use breath, sound, movement, imagery and intention in a rousing sexual energy meditation. Allow waves of pleasure to flow through your body & open you to full-body ecstatic orgasm.
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Maps of the Clitoris (for Men & Women) --The Truth Will Surprise You! Sun, Nov 23, 11am – 2 pm

The clitoris is just the tip of the volcano! There's more to the female genitalia then meets the eye - find out about the network of structures responsible for female sexual pleasure. We promise--if you don't learn something new, the class is FREE!
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Prices: 3 hour classes: Pre-registration: $35-40-45. At the Door: $50/person
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Exploring the Mystery of Female Sexuality – For Men Sun, Nov 23, 11am – 6 pm

Guys, help your partner reach her full orgasmic potential & reap the benefits. Understand the key to freeing the wild goddess in your bedroom - your partner will thank you in all the best ways.
(Includes & requires the morning Maps of the Clitoris class). Price: Pre-registration: $75-80-85 At the Door: $90

Special Series Price: 4 classes $120 (Men's Class counts as 2)


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Registration: www.IntimateArtsCenter.com

Office@IntimateArtsCenter.com * (518) 755-4414


Sheri Winston CNM, BSN, RN, LMT
Teacher & Counselor of Wholistic Sexuality
Gynecology Practitioner * Nurse-Midwife * Massage Therapist
Founder & Director: Center for the Intimate Arts
Office (845) 338-8325 * Cell (518) 755-4414
PO Box 3184, Kingston, NY 12401
JuicyGoddess@SheriWinston.com
IntimateArtsCenter.com AKA SheriWinston.com

I had a car accident

Yesterday, at a 4-way intersection, I got whacked by a small, fast-looking Datsun. The neon-lit, double-spoilered, fancy-painted old car came to an astonished screeching halt, leaving behind a part of its bumper lovingly entwined with my bumper. The Datsun and my van stood staring at each other, the two bumpers on the pavement in between like a thrown gauntlet.
Silence.
Two guys came out, beefy young Brazilians with pained expressions. Although they spoke no English, I was led to understand they didn't like me very much at the moment, and I gloomingly realized that we have a communications problem. One of them handed me a phone. A translator, who shows up at the scene a few minutes later.
Several things become clear: The guy is an illegal alien, has no insurance, is concerned about the consequences of the accident.
I looked at both, and realized that in spite of their earlier belligerence they're both sweet guys, good natured and heartbroken about the car. "Just go" I told their friend, "I'll tell the cops some car hit me and ran, I'll deal with my insurance company. I'll say I never got the plate number".
They all conferred, and asked me to follow them, they want to do something about the van.
So I followed them to a 3 family home in Dorchester which seems to have about 100 loquacious Brazilians living in colorful harmony. There was a smallish shop in the back that they asked me to drive into.
They served me the best salty fish I've had in my entire life, taught me some capoeira, and made me feel welcomed and even loved. I gave some massages, and have never met with such astonished appreciation before.
I left 2 hours later, feeling full of warmth and love for these wonderful people. My van once again had a bumper, and even if not perfectly placed it was good enough for me.
So tonight I'm going there for some Brazilian shindig that sounds sort of like ecstatic dancing which starts at midnight. I hope to pick up some Portuguese.
Leaving now, can't wait! I love these people.
Thank you, Universe!

Edited to add: I was wrong - not ecstatic dance but something called Maculelê; wiki doesn't do it justice: It's danced with sugar canes, not sticks, and with machetes, not long knives. Alas, no grass skirts. The machetes are coated with something that makes HUGE sparks when they strike each other. Awesome displays of athleticism and grace! Grisha - you would love it.

And thank you for the concerned e-mails and replies to the post - I'm completely unharmed.

So it's over

As some of you probably know, Erica and I have parted ways and she's looking for a new place to live. This has been very drama-free, amicable and relatively smooth. We're still the best of friends, still cuddle, and still call each other silly names and give each other wedgies. Well, maybe not the wedgie part, but the rest is quite true.
Once she leaves, she can spread her wings and I can spread mine; we'll be there for each other if a wing breaks, even if not quite the same way as before. If anything, it'll be healthier. The sadness over the breakup phase is behind us, joy is ahead.

I've often said that if I could do my life all over again, I would in a heartbeat; but I must say that this chapter was one that I would probably keep mostly intact, because there was a lot of richness, love, growth, and caring in this relationship. We've had some adventures, some misadventures, some dizzying ups and depressing downs - just like everyone else. But there was also magic, and wonder, and growth. I came out of it a better person, and nearing the New Year I'm filled with gratitude for 4-1/2 amazing years.

If you invite one of us, you can invite the other; there is really nothing negative between us - in fact we're better friends now, perhaps, than we've been in some time. It's good to know that It's Time, to know when it's healthy to move on, disengage the crutch, spread the wings without bumping the other, and let the joy in. I can't wait to meet her next boyfriend or girlfriend. Or to meet mine, for that matter :)

Watch out world, we're coming. Separately this time, but with zest and joie de vivre that is being renewed in both of us. And, boys and girls, I will now try to sleep with ALL of you... Hehehe.... OK, now I'm just being silly. Which is what all of us should be ;)

Anyway.
I love her, as I love all of you who are reading it. Happy New Year to you all, and may we all blossom and manifest the best in us.

xoxoxo

Gift Exchange - my turn

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Oscar the cat predicts patients' deaths

This is a truly amazing article! I was remembering, while reading it, that in Burma it was believed that the souls of the departed lived in the bodies of sacred cats before moving on to the next life. I'm fascinated by cats, and love the Egyptian deities such as Bastet, the goddess of home, sunrise, music, dance, pleasure, family, fertility and birth. And let's not forget the legend of the little kittens who were thrown into a river to drown: Their mother wept and was so distraught that the willows on the bank felt compassion and held out their branches to the struggling kittens. The little kittens clung to them and were saved. Ever since that time, each Spring, the willow wears grey buds that feel as soft and silky as the coats of little kittens. Thus, these trees were called "pussy willows."

But anyway, here is an amazing article, the link to it is: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070...death_cat_2
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By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer Wed Jul 25, 5:19 PM ET

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.

"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses.

After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He'd sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours.

Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof. "This is not a cat that's friendly to people," he said.

Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill

She was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call. While observing one patient, Teno said she noticed the woman wasn't eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near.

Oscar wouldn't stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor's prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient's final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.

Doctors say most of the people who get a visit from the sweet-faced, gray-and-white cat are so ill they probably don't know he's there, so patients aren't aware he's a harbinger of death. Most families are grateful for the advanced warning, although one wanted Oscar out of the room while a family member died. When Oscar is put outside, he paces and meows his displeasure.

No one's certain if Oscar's behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him.

Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has read Dosa's article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying.

If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it's also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.

Nursing home staffers aren't concerned with explaining Oscar, so long as he gives families a better chance at saying goodbye to the dying.

Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his "compassionate hospice care."

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Science writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

New England Journal of Medicine: content.nejm.org/

Can't stand Greenpeace!

Commentary by Captain Paul Watson

First they launch a campaign where Greenpeace activists eat whale meat, then they show up in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary to offer aid and assistance to the damaged Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru and now the Greenpeace ship Esperanza has berthed in Yokohama, Japan with a message for the Japanese people.

And that message is that they love Japan, but please don't kill whales in the Antarctic Sanctuary and oh, by the way, we have no connection with, and we condemn the activists of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Gee, I wonder what happened to the aggressive in their face media savvy hard hitting environmental organization that I co-founded way back in 1972. Back then we shut down whalers on the high seas and equated eating whale meat with cannibalism.
Greenpeace is wrong when they say there is no connection between Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd.

Not only am I a co-founder of Greenpeace and Greenpeace International in 1979, the ship we confronted the Japanese whalers with is named the Robert Hunter, also a co-founder and the first President of the Greenpeace Foundation. In fact the late Robert Hunter is THE founding father of Greenpeace and without his vision, there would be no Greenpeace Foundation today and all those hired crew on the Esperanza would not be so well paid and sitting down to their steak and seafood dinners on the Esperanza each day. (Greenpeace ridicules the vegetarian menu of the Sea Shepherd ships)

This year I had Emily Hunter on the crew of our ship the Robert Hunter. The daughter of Robert Hunter was also joined by Rod Marining, another co-founder of Greenpeace.

What was really shocking is that none of the crew on the Esperanza appeared to have even heard of Robert Hunter.

Despite this, Sea Shepherd provided Greenpeace with the daily coordinates to find the Japanese whaling fleet. They took their time arriving, having stayed in Auckland milking the public for donations as the Sea Shepherd crew undertook high profile confrontations with the whale killers. The Greenpeace ship Esperanza arrived just in time to make a show of offering assistance to the damaged whaling ship.

And now they are in Japan. For the last few days they have been whining about the fact that the Japanese refused to allow them to dock. The issue was that the agent they had hired had withdrawn his services in protest. Officially they were allowed to dock and they have. But they got some ink out of the incident.
Sea Shepherd would not be allowed to dock and we would not be expected to be allowed to dock.

The difference is that Sea Shepherd is a direct threat to Japanese whaling interests and Greenpeace is not. The other irony is that New Zealand and Australia deny docking privileges to the whalers so why would anyone be surprised that the Japanese would retaliate.

Lets hope that the Japanese don't appeal to Australia and New Zealand to be treated the same way Japan is treating Greenpeace. We don't want Japanese whaling ships docking in New Zealand and Australia.

I wish Greenpeace all the success in the world in their efforts to initiate a "debate" over the whaling issue in Japan. It's their money and they can spend it how they see fit although I anticipate lots of debates in the sushi bars accompanied by large volumes of sake.

They can all toast their hosts, eat whale meat to show they are not opposed to Japanese culture and they can come together on the one thing they disagree with and that is both the whalers and the Greenpeacers condemn Sea Shepherd.

And so they should, because we are a threat to both. The only thing making more money off whaling than the Japanese whalers is the Greenpeace Foundation. Last year Greenpeace brought in tens of millions of dollars from their millions of members to "save the whales".

There is lots of money in saving whales if you invest the money into direct mail campaigns, television and internet advertising and door to door solicitation campaigns. That is where Greenpeace funding primarily is directed - towards raising more funds in order to pay the wages and the operating expenses of what has become one of the largest feel good organizations in the world. Let's face it Greenpeace has become the generic environmental organization and people feel when they join Greenpeace that they are part of the solution and not part of the problem.
This is somewhat similar to when Pope Rodrigo Borgia once promised heaven to large donors to the church. It's now special ecological dispensation.

But the fact is that the strength of any movement lies in diversity and it is the diversity of tens of thousands of small grass roots organizations and individuals that is making the difference. As activists struggle in the field financially, the larger organizations rake in hundreds of millions of dollars pretending to address the issues but not wanting to rock the boat for fear of offending part of their donor base.


I know of what I speak. Not only am I a founding director of Greenpeace, I was also a Board member of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006) and I saw incredible waste of funds and a smoke and mirrors approach of appearing to address problems but not doing very much at all.

The best way to tell the difference between the Sea Shepherd approach to whaling and that of Greenpeace is this: When Greenpeace shows up in Antarctica, they film whaling and buzz the whalers in inflatable boats. The whalers simply continue whaling looking at Greenpeacers as a minor annoyance. When Sea Shepherd ships show up, the whalers stop the killing and they run.

When people ask us why we don't have video images of whales being killed our answer is that since 1977, the year I left Greenpeace, I have not seen a whale die. I saw plenty of whales die when I was with Greenpeace and I was forced to watch frustrated and helpless as the whales screamed in agony and died in their own blood and we were forbidden to interfere.
Greenpeace accuses Sea Shepherd of being violent yet in 30 years of operations we have not injured a single person nor have we had a single crewmember seriously injured. We have not been convicted of a single felony. Greenpeace has had numerous felony convictions and they have had activists killed and injured.
But Greenpeace is desperate to appease the Japanese and towards this end they are condemning the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as an eco-terrorist organization and trying to convince the Japanese whalers that there is no connection between Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace.

There is a connection and that is the fact that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is the original Greenpeace Foundation the way it was before the six figure executive salaries and the thirty million dollar luxury ships that they can no longer afford to lose.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is not interested in touring Japan, sharing whale meat and sake with whale killers and we are not interested in entering years of fruitless debates with the Japanese public over whaling. The majority of the Canadian public is against the seal hunt yet it continues.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is interested in simply upholding international conservation law by directly intervening against criminal whaling operations.

We are not interested in protesting whaling or profiting on the save the whales movement. We are interested in only one thing and that is shutting down the whalers.

If Greenpeace wishes to condemn that objective and to condemn our interventions, that is their choice, but that kind of approach is not going to save a single whale but it may get some drinks bought for them in Tokyo this week.

www.seashepherd.org/
www.seashepherd.org/news/med...23_1.html
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I once was very active in Greenpeace, but really all they ever do is raise money. NOTHING else. And they raise a LOT of money; I should know, I did a lot of it myself.
Greenpeace is no longer a group to be proud of; Sea Sheppards are the real activists, the guys and gals who put their very lives on the line to save what little nature is left on this planet.

In Israel

Still in Israel, and the ancient, tragic beauty of the land is stunning. The pace of life is so much faster here, everything so much more intense: Emotions run hotter, conversation is more fluid and loud, people drive like maniacs, and if you fall while walking down the street everyone around will help you up, brush you up, collect your things for you, and inquire, 100 times, if you're OK.
Your neighbors know everything about you, and you know everything about them. It's normal to come into someone's home, walk to their fridge, and help yourself to something.
I grew up here, but forgot how much I forgot...