The French Quarters

Thanks so much for all your beautiful comments and emails.....it was really nice to hear from so many of you! It is comforting knowing so many people care. Thank you. Dale or Darryl...you can tell me what this flower is I am sure...just thought it was so friggin cool looking.

Things are progressing well here...I am immersed in my first certification course now (Ayurveda Oil and Body Treatments) and absolutely loving it. We have been taught alot of theory thusfar but yesterday we got to experience our first massage as recipient and practitioner. All I can say is WOW! Essentially what it is doing is stimulating the lymph, and energy meridians in the body and moving it around and out. There is alot of releasing done, sometimes tears, sometimes dizziness or other reactions but its all about moving the stale or negative energy. The oils applied are specific to your body type (dosha) and the essences added are to help in bringing back balance to the body. Interestingly, there are no men allowed in class but as a graduate I have the option of offering this to men or women with my own practise. There are so many principles to this medicine and varied forms of treatment such as the body treatment I am currently studying, but I will be taking a more intense component to this medicine in March. Included in the course is the practise of daily cleansing routine which includes scraping your tongue, washing your eyes with Rose water, flushing a mineral saline solution through your nose with a Netie pot and applying oil to your entire body after dry brushing your skin. It takes awhile to get used to all the morning rituals but the effort is so worth it....you feel so incredibly clean and it lasts throughout the day. You can brush your teeth or wash your face but this does such a deep cleaning to all digestive systems of the body and leaves you feeling so fresh. (there are 41 digestive systems in the body in this medicine and the tongue, eyes, skin, gums and nose are all part of them). Something that fascinated me about this was that for years I have had a runny nose in the morning and never felt it was allergy related, it just felt like congestion. I was using the Netie pot and my instructor, Lalita, was guiding me through the proper technique and we discovered I had a blockage there on both sides. She told me that it indicated on an emotional level that I had problems receiving and also self worth issues which have been my thoughts for the better part of my life. It was a huge revelation to me of how our thought patterns will manifest themselves into congestion or blockage in our bodies and then eventually to disease. I am kicking both of those thoughts to the curb or seashore, but very respecting of how incredible the wisdom of this medicine is....what a fantastic tool to have. The Bliss treatment (oil therapy) are what the course primarily encompasses and it is divine and transformational...no other way to describe it. I am so excited about offering this when I leave from here and start to open up a business of my own. It is such a loving thing to do for another person.

Thing are picking up around the Sugar Shack; I have had 2 more neighbours move in and they are both coincidentally staying for an extended period of time. We have gotten to know each other in passing and sat together at dinner the other night. Micheal,one of the campers, said that our area was the coolest in all of Coconut Grove and I agreed....then I suggested we should name our street. He said our street was so cool that if we were in Louisiana, it would be the French Quarters....and that name stuck. I found a huge peapod from one of the trees here and got some white paint from the Barambian construction crew and made a street sign for us and hung it by vine from a tree. ( see pic) It just made the place a bit cosier for us all and put a smile on our faces.

I have been thinking alot about community lately, so much of what we do here is community based. We are all working towards the same goal, helping each other voluntarily and having our own designated duties. No one is better than the other, we all eat the same foods, follow the same rules and respect each other. No one passes you without showing respect of some form, either with a smile and a hello or saying OM (meaning respect). I had a bad morning the other day and one girl I have befriended picked up on it and put a coffee mug with a flower outside my tent. It picked me up so high, a couple days following she put more flowers in...no words needed to be spoken by her, she just knew what I was going through and was offering a quiet, dignified respect for my releasing of emotion. There is no theft here, no graffiti, no abusive behaviour, no fancy clothes, no foul language other than a Canadian chick uttering cuss words on occassion. But really, there is something big to rediscover here.....to get back to knowing our neighbours, to opening up our homes and hearts, offering our services or skills to those in need. The season of Christmas is soon upon us and my holidays will be different than anything I have ever experienced before here. I sense it may be extra special because there is no flashing lights, inflatable yard ornaments, excessive spending, angry shoppers, materialism and stress. I am thinking of small things I can make or give to a few favorite people here, nothing much...just a simple homemade jesture but from the heart.

I am really happy, so excited about what the next day will bring and lapping it all up. I will do another post before or around Christmas.

One Love

Sherri