Redneck Shaman

I was talking with a friend the other day.  She's a very smart, motivated and talented lady.  I admire her greatly. She mentioned something in particular that made me think.  She said she once took some time off from the world. We all need to do that.  In this fast-paced world, we have forgotten how to just be.  Words like self-care and other words are bandied about and it can get confusing. The concept is a simple one.  You can't take care of anything else unless you take care of yourself first.  You have to be able to feed yourself, make messes, clean up your own messes, learn what makes YOU thrive as a person. If you aren't thriving, if you aren't well-balanced, you cannot begin to nourish another and be any kind of real help to them. I think many of us get caught up in taking care of others before we learn how to take care of ourselves properly. There's a reason kids are supposed to go out in the world.  There's a reason they have ...

What the hell happens to men in New Orleans?  I swear to you some juju gets into them in that City. Maybe it isn't just men.  Do you realize what we do for some plastic beads? This gives me a lot of faith in humanity that we would show our chests and all kinds of other depraved things..for some 25 cent plastic beads.  And they probably are like penny plastic beads. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, don't get me wrong.  But seriously the first time I went with my husband of 20+ years he changed into a different person. This fella, who has not cared for gew gaws the entire time we've been married, bent over and picked up some beads that were laying on the ground, covered in God only knows what, and presented them to me like they were made out of the rarest diamond. And they were broken, to boot. He held these things out and expected me to worship him for the God that he was.  And, you know what I did?  I took those nasty beads, twisted ...