Jaime Mathis and The Words

Back in the 1960's it was not uncommon for farmers to employ dowsers, or water witches , when choosing spots to drill a well. My dad Jim recalls watching dowsers follow their forked rods during his summers at great uncle Elmer's farm in Molalla, Oregon. Dowsers held the y shaped forks in upturned palms with the root of the stick facing the sky. When water was near, the root would incline downwards. Dad showed me this with the dowsing rod he inherited from Elmer years later. I guessed it made sense, using something that was living or once living, to point out the location of a life-giving substance. However, I was not expecting to have my 15 month old baby perform the same function on our trip to the Languedoc this summer. We arrived in Carcassonne, France for an 11 day stay in Vernet-les-Bains at the foot of Mt. Canigo, sacred mountain of Catalonia. My plan was to visit as many of the portals in the Venus Magic Square as possible and experience the ancient energies. To

The Finale You've put words on a page. Thousands of them and hundreds of lines. Take a minute to look at the word count at the bottom of your screen. Yes. You did this. And just like standing on top of a mountain after months, perhaps even years of diligent practice and conditioning...after you snap your photo, you have to return to base camp or risk hypoxia, exposure or death, depending on the heights you have ascended. Finishing the first draft of your first book is likewise exhilarating so snap a picture! Then put the camera away and come on back because life still needs you to participate in the next phase. There is a phrase in Vipassana meditation that becomes a mantra over the ten days of silent meditation . It Rises and Falls . The meaning is meant to remind the meditator that whatever the sensation, thought, feeling, or physical experience, it will eventually end. In the West we say, "This too shall pass." Everything is temporary, the only permanent thing i