Wonderland Weekly #11

Weekly wordy wanderings welcomed on Wednesdays.

Wonderland in the Media:

Does anyone remember this? Disney channel’s Adventures in Wonderland. I loved that show at one point in my childhood. 

Quote of the Week:

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’

I might take a hiatus from Wonderland Weeklies for a while. Just forewarning you. They aren’t working for me right now, and I feel like I need to think about them and improve them somehow. I’ll still try to post something at least once a week, however.

🙂

HAPPY (belated . . .) TOWEL DAY!!

Yesterday was Towel Day and I meant to post about it last night but then I forgot. 

Sigh.

So today I just want to mention it I guess.

Besides. Every day should be a towel day. 😉 Don’t Panic.

And check it:

http://towelday.org/

There’s a website.

Also, check out this article. 

Age of the geek, baby.

 

Wonderland Weekly #10

Weekly wordy wanderings welcomed on Wednesdays.

I forgot to do this last week. I’m not really sure what happened, but I didn’t realize until Friday that I hadn’t done a Wonderland Weekly. Whoops. 

Oh well, sorry about that. 

Anyway, this week is kind of exciting. There is a new Wonderland adaptation, which I have mixed feelings about, but here’s the trailer for ABC’s new Once Upon a Time spin off. What do you think?

Quote of the Week:

“If you don’t know where you are going any road can take you there.” ~Lewis Carroll 

A Cheshire Grin

People notice my smile. Apparently it is a wonderful smile. I don’t know why, but it’s true that many people, from complete strangers to friends, comment on it. I’ve even had people comment on my Cheshire grin. Apparently I smile mischievously on occasion.

Yesterday in ballet I was thinking about smiling. Teachers always try to remind you to at least look pleasant while you dance in class, and breathing and smiling are two things they often give as corrections to the very concentrated students. Moi included.

I used to have smile contests in my ballet classes when I was in high school dancing at a local studio. I almost always won, or tied for first with my friend Sarah. It wasn’t hard to do because dancing was so much fun.

Then I went to college for dance, and I realized how serious it was. I realized how behind I was and how hard I needed to work to reach the level of everyone else. I stopped smiling. 

Smiling in dance class felt wrong. If I was to prove how dedicated I was and how hard I was working, there could no longer be smiles. It was still fun. It is still fun, but it had to at least look like serious stuff. 

I am very concerned with what other people think of me, and I’m trying to correct that, but it’s a process. So the idea that my teacher thinks I’m not serious about dancing is unthinkable. I wonder how many other dancers are like this. I was looking around class yesterday when our teacher said to smile and no one did. (This also incites a bit of peer pressure in me.)

Why? Why not smile in class?

I miss those days of smile contests at the barre. I miss allowing myself to light up while expressing my passion. I’m still afraid that I’ll come across as the opposite of a serious dance student, but there is plenty to be serious about in this world. Dance is life, and life should be happy, and I want my smile to last in this place longer than I do.

`All right,’ said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone. ~Lewis Carroll

Down the Organic Raw Vegan Rabbit Hole . . . with an organic raw carrot.

I had the absolute pleasure this evening of going with a friend to see this guy speak at a local vegan and gluten free cafe. It perked my interest because it was posted by a girl I don’t know in a Facebook group I’m in for nerdy things. I’m vegan. I have been for about nine months now, and recently, very recently, I’ve become fascinated by the raw food phenomenon.

So when a fellow nerd posted about this man coming to speak about how he turned his health around full stop by indulging in a raw organic vegan diet, I was intrigued.

He didn’t disappoint. He was very interesting, full of information, and a lovely spirit. But when he mentioned going down the rabbit hole it really hit me how incredibly applicable the experience was to my blog and to my life.

Question Everything. It is amazing to me how I can still be surprised that culture is lying to me. Society is an insane animal. I read Daniel Quinn’s book, Ishmael, almost six years ago, when I was freshman in college, and it was just the tip of the iceberg for me starting to question what I thought I knew. And those questions are everywhere. 

I question the education system. Or really any system, especially ones funded by government.

I question religion.

I question food and healthcare, especially as of about a year ago.

And I also question my questioning.

Dave the Raw Food Trucker (the guy I went to see tonight. If you didn’t click on the links, sorry to keep you in suspense, but I really wanted you to click them and see him for yourself) talked about this one doctor who apparently shows up on a quackery list. (I didn’t realize such things existed.) This got me thinking. You do have to be careful. I try to be open minded as much as possible, but one of my fears is actually of being too open minded.

There are conspiracy theories out there and I’m afraid I’ll fall for the wrong ones. A healthy dose of skepticism never hurt anyone, did it?

But what Dave was saying makes sense to me. I think when it comes to health and bodies, there is still a ton we don’t know. We are lied to for sure. Scientifically speaking, logically speaking, there are things that don’t make sense about the rationale of doctors and health care providers and the FDA and the AMA and all those other initialisms (Google chrome needs to talk to the Vlogbrothers, it thinks initialism isn’t a word). There is a money thing there. There is a power thing there. And there is a receptive thing there. (For example, I am sensitive to energies, as are some of my friends, but other friends of mine are closed off to them, don’t believe in them, etc. So energy work might not help them, but it does help me.)

But physical bodies aren’t all the same. And there are things we don’t know about history. Even our short little human history. So to say that one sort of diet is the best thing for everyone is like saying one sort of shoe will fit every foot perfectly. (News flash shoe companies, one size 7 does not fit all size 7s equally!) Or that the same pair of jeans will flatter my butt as well as yours (insert similar news flash for the jeans companies). Or that blue looks great on all skin tones . . . you get the idea.

What I really liked about Dave was that he kept reiterating (and whether this was for legal purposes or because he truly thinks like this, I can’t say) that he was only speaking about his experience and that “We the People” should be allowed to view the information, the whole honest information, and decide for ourselves. 

To which I say: Amen, brother. That’s all I’m asking for.

 ‘There is no one right way to live.’ ~Daniel Quinn

Ebb and Flow

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.” ~Douglas Adams

 

The Moon moves round the Earth. Everybody knows that, I think. And the Earth moves round the Sun. So, we all know we’re spinning very fast on this giant thing that has things spinning around it as it spins round other things all in this huge galaxy.

I think that everyone has heard at some point about tides being caused by the position and thus gravitational pull of the Moon. And I think most people have heard that our bodies are made of some largish percentage of water. 

So then, I think it makes sense now to say, if gravity affects our oceans, then it must also be affecting us. And if the moon’s changing position is what makes high and low tides, then what is it doing to our bodies?

Now, I didn’t come up with this, and I don’t actually remember where I first heard it, but it makes sense, right? 

So in dance class, when I suddenly can’t turn, or balance, or, heck, even stand up straight at the barre, it makes sense to me that there must be something different about my physiology that day. There is something different about the way I relate to the world every moment.

It’s no wonder we’re all constantly changing and growing and learning. The whole world is changing around us at different speeds and sometimes unnoticeable rates. We are just trying to keep up.

 ‘I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.’ ~ Douglas Adams

Wonderland Weekly #9

Weekly wordy wanderings welcomed on Wednesdays.

Wonderland in Media:

Thanks to a quick google search and the resultant blog post here, I discovered this this week. Enjoy. 🙂

Quote of the Week:

“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,’ says the White Queen to Alice.”

 

Well, I had a crazy week. How about everyone else? It was good though. Good things are happening in my life. 

May you always choose the right pill, and never be afraid to venture further down the rabbit hole.

Wonderland Weekly #8

Weekly wordy wanderings welcomed on Wednesdays.

This Wonderland Weekly is going to be a bit different.

Because today is Beltane!!!!! 😀

It’s May! It’s May!

Last year, I made May Day baskets and treats for my friends and family and it was a wonderful day and I realized that Beltane is my second favorite holiday, Samhain being the first.

This year, I spent the last weekend out of town, have had some exciting things happening the last few days, and was mostly surprised that May is already here. So I haven’t prepared anything.

I did however make a “fairy garden” with my mum this weekend, so I feel like that is something. The veil is thin and it is a good time to share happiness with the fae folk and other spirits. It’s a beautiful day as well.

Mine is in the pinkish pale, my mum’s are in the red pot and the ceramic wheelbarrow. Aren’t they cute? It was very fun to play with these.

I also think I’m going to check out a Beltane festival this weekend, where the theme is, believe it or not, fae! So I want to take this WW to wish everyone a joyous and blessed Beltane, May Day, or Calan Mai, whichever best suits you, and I hope you let loose and have fun. May you have much love in your life, no matter your path, and don’t forget our little friends either. 😉

Quote of the Week (surprisingly not from Lewis Carroll, but I think it quite suits him anyway):

“Sometimes nonsense makes the most sense.” ~Cassie Nightingale (The Good Witch’s Charm)

On The Good Witch movies, I really liked this.

Also, I love to listen to this song today.