Mmmm...Pomegranate Raita

I made Pomegranate Raita yesterday to soothe my throat. Yogurt, those little ruby gems of pomegranate seeds peeled out of the shells like crystals from a vein in the earth, fresh mint, dry roasted and ground cumin, coriander, clove, pepper and salt to taste. Yum! Easy on the throat. Then, I went to see the French film 'Mia and the Magoo'. It is an animated film with a little girl trying to find her father, and these magickal creatures called Magoos who have holes in their heads, and then in their stomachs, and can't think straight until the damage is repaired. Makes you think about damage to the energy body in a new way.

Later, when I got home, I opened Mick Wall's book on Led Zeppelin to a discussion of the album "Presence" and the 'object' on the cover, the little obelisk with a hole in it. Jimmy jokingly called it 'the present' because there was nothing present. I think I have a hole in my belly that needs to be filled, and this movie about the Magoos guarding the Tree of Life filled some of the hole in the strange way...

Today I saw "Song From the Southern Seas" by Pesn' Juzhnykn Morej in Russian. A beautiful meditation on race hatred and it's resolution through love. A shadow theatre character kept asking to be released from his grief and memories so that he could be free to be like a child again. I find myself wishing for this too. The practice of Bound Lotus is bringing up so much painful stuff that I thought I'd already laid to rest; the layers of pain are so very deep. I had no idea how far down the roots ran...

And this movie, a fitting end to my experience of the St. Louis Film Festival, made me feel a longing to visit the Russian steppes. I've been mistaken for being Russian before, so who knows. My maternal grandfather's family was supposedly either Moorish or Russian, which upset my racist Danish grandmother when she found out. So much meanness over race and religion. She didn't like the fact that he was a Mason either.

I walked in the park with a good friend, who truly is the love of my life, and we stood under the pavilion in Forest Park gazing at the night sky. We talked about our parents. His father is Palestinian and moved to the U.S. to get away from the war and the rich grape vineyards that were taken from his family after 100 years, because he wasn't Jewish - basically. A spade is a spade is a spade. How do you right the injustices toward the Jewish nation by hurting the Palestinian Muslims? Is there an answer? I get so tired of hearing the rationalizations...

Sitting for Bound Lotus brought a calm peacefulness while opening the right side of my body; mind-numbing, almost agonizing pain as I opened the left side. I was crying the words to the Ray Man. How can both sides of the body be so different when they are the same? How can people be so different when they are the same?

As I sat for my mantra practice as a practicing Hindu, I listened to several ragas I found on iTunes, and a song by Moroccan Spirit. Lo and behold, my pain in both my neck and my throat dissappeared!