It's been a very long, very full, very interesting day...And oddly enough, with the exception of the supermarket this morning, I've seen at least one person (and in once case, three different people) I know everywhere we've been... and all but one of them were big 'mos!
Although the actual day is Monday, it was Ma's "Birthday Saturday" today (since we do that... celebrate on the closest Saturday)... and it was also the Body Mind & Psychic Expo... so we had lots and lots to do...
For the first time in a number of weeks I actually got up nice and early and tidied the house up a bit and was more or less ready by the time Ma got down here... and yes, she correctly identified the box her presents came in...
But I didn't let her open it right away since we had shopping to do...
Shopping, blah blah, forgot the milk, blah blah...
When we got back gave her her present to open. It got a little meta for a moment or two as well, where I was taking photos of her taking photos of her presents. But she quite liked everything, although she probably remembered about half of it anyway from when it was bought.
Once we were done with the presents and the unpacking and whatnot we headed on off to the Body Mind & Psychic Expo.
I swear that the participation rate is dropping off each year... there weren't as many stalls this year compared with last year... and I know that last year had less stalls than the year before that, etc, etc. But all of the stalls we usually end up spending some time at were still there, so I can't really complain.
As always (at least for the past couple of years) our first port of call was Shiona at the Spirit Guide Portrait stand, and once again both Ma and I whacked our names down on the sign up sheet and then wandered off to take a look around before our session.
We both (well Ma first, and I kinda followed along) got sucked in by the Nana May's Magic Hands stall and stood there "washing" our hands with salt and essential oil... but my hands have been soft and silky all day, so it's good stuff. Which of course led to us both buying the little bitty "sample" size pack... I'm going to try it on my feet, see how that goes.
And it was while we were wandering around that I started to see people that I know, or used to know.
The first two were somewhat expected... I saw them both at last year's Expo... firstly the chubby little mo I sometimes see while we're out shopping who I used to know back in the dim dark early years... the second was the guy doing Celtic inspired spirit guide portraits (we'll call him Dane for the purposes of ongoing continuity), who looks different this year... still older than me and kinda haggard, but thinner and still a bit shaggable.
And then there was Spike. To be honest, I'm only about 95% sure it was Spike... but the nose was right, the height was right, the eyebrow piercing was right, and it felt like him... a 25yo version of him, but still.
But I didn't say hello... I could have, I saw him twice, but at no point was I put in a face to face situation with him so I figured it was enough to see him and know that he was okay.
I also think that the proportion of crazy people you need to avoid eye contact with was higher this year... and not just people behind the stands. It was a little bit of a weird energy all over to be honest.
Then it was time to go and see Shiona...
(This is actually the low res phone pic of the finished artwork, I'm going to take a proper one tomorrow when it's light... UPDATE: The better quality version can be seen here...)And for the first time ever, I actually had more of a question to ask... nothing terrifically specific, but I've never asked any question about the here and now before.
I've already mentioned before that I feel like there are a couple of crossroads coming up on my horizon, and while I know what I probably want to do with both of them, I just wanted some addition ideas about clues to watch out for along the way.
The results of that question were interesting...
First up, I've always said that it appears that American Indians spend an inordinate amount of time acting as spirit guides, and if I kept doing this long enough I'd end up finding out about one. And here he is... Spotted Horse.
This was a very different spirit guide portrait experience though... the previous two have been very frenetic from her perspective, and I know that especially last year she didn't even stop to talk to me about it beforehand, she just said she had to start drawing it.
This time, perhaps because I had asked a question she spent some time talking through it with me before she started, and it didn't seem like it came through completely fully formed this time... she mentioned the horse at the beginning but he was more vocal to start with.
The funny thing was that the first thing she said, she didn't actually "want" to say because it was essentially that "you already know this stuff and we've told you and yet you still ask"... which, to be honest, is very me anyway.
She also said that I didn't trust my own response because in the past (past life wise) it has been a life or death choice that's had to be made, but this time it isn't... this is essentially the time when I can screw up a bit more because the mistakes aren't gong to be the end of the world (okay, not exactly that, but that was the idea).
And while I picked the same dark blue/indigo paper this year that I have for the other two portraits, this is the first time she hasn't started off with orange/ochre chalk. She did pick it up... but stood there with it in her hand and then put it down and picked up the green chalk, and essentially did the whole thing with green, yellow, turquoise, black and white.
Turns out the green was supposed to represent growth, although she did say she misconstrued it to being about healing when she first saw it as green, so that was an interesting look at her mental process. But the green was also supposed to be the light coming from the future (again, that's a little bit fuzzy, but it was something like that, and that's also why they were both looking off to the right like that).
Essentially the "signposts" I asked about aren't so much signposts as they are about knowing the answers and asking for confirmation...
She did say that I should follow my passions... but, really, that's New Age 101... and Ma said afterwards that when she said that she touched her chest (heart) and then her stomach (gut)... so not just following my passion with my head, but also with my heart and my gut.
She suggested that I use this spirit guide for meditation, write down my two choices on pieces of paper, mix them up and imagine riding with him, feeling the freedom and then I'd come to a fork in the road and make a decision while riding, and then that would be the paper to choose.
The other thing she said that was interesting was that while riding and having to make the choice, I couldn't stop riding because not making a choice was actually a choice.
She also said that I could ask this guide to show me past lives as well...
After she was done with me it was Ma's turn, and Ma also had a different kind of reading... whereas last time I think she asked a specific question, this time she was much more general.
And Shiona said that there was an Egyptian voice there, but not fully formed, and that Ma and I had had a past life together around that time... which Ma said she hadn't really considered before, but I was very much "well dur!" (she also said she could draw both that version of both Ma and I together in the same portrait... next year though... and that she'd only charge us one fee because we had "good energy"... although the fact we've been back for 5 different sessions at this stage probably didn't hurt either).
But she also mentioned Ma's "higher self" which sounded interesting, and Ma ended up going with that... on bright pink paper.
As Shiona started I couldn't help but think "so Ma's higher self is a vagina?" just because of the shape she was drawing... turns out, not so much, obviously, the finished product was very groovy, very wise woman.
I figured she was pretty much done, but then she drew in these white circles which turned out to be "pearls of wisdom", which sounds a little tacky, but made sense in the overall thing.
After we said goodbye we did another circuit of the place and picked up various bits and pieces. As I've done the last couple of years, I had to go to the stall with the crystal animals... after all, I had a horse to look for.
I did want something in Dalmatian Jasper (because, you know, spotted), but they didn't have one... so I settled on a horse just in a brown stone, but afterwards I saw a horse pendant in Snowflake Obsidian... but I figured I'd already made my choice and would have to live with it... but there was a little voice in my ear telling me I should ask to change over, which normally I wouldn't probably have done, but I decided to listen to the voice and they let me change it over no problems.
Ma bought a couple of bits of jewellery, we bought some fudge and pretty much called it quits.
We called off to get my dry cleaning (and some milk), then came back to my place to drop off the portraits, spray them with fixative and decided that I ride down to Glenelg for food was a plan, but Ma wanted to call in at Marion to pick up the handbag she ordered last week... and since it was her day, I just went with it.
I did happen to see another mo I used to know while we were searching for a carpark though.
Fortunately Marion was only a flying visit, and then we were off to Glenelg...
When we hit Jetty Road, we were considering heading to Chips, the groovy fish and chip shop which had the Toy Soldiers flying fish mural on the side... and when I looked as we went past, I realised there was a new mural... a new unfinished mural.After we'd parked, we went to take a look... and who should be there, on a ladder, finishing his purple deep sea diver... yep, Benzo. So I met Benzo just before my birthday this year, and Ma met him just before hers... weirdness.
Anyway, we didn't stay long, just long enough to say hi (not sure whether he actually remembered me from the Street Dreams thing or if it was one of those "I know I know you" moments) and snap some pics and then we wandered off to see if anywhere else seemed worth visiting for lunch. Although by that point, given that all I'd had to eat all day was a Cheesymite Scroll first thing this morning... so I was about ready to eat my shoe.
Once we'd done a lap up and down Jetty Road, we ended up back where we started at Chips and had a very tasty late lunch (potatoes and stuffed mushrooms to share, a steak sandwich for Ma, and hamburger with the lot for me)... very, very tasty... and led to a very fully belly.
And that was about our day... very long, but very interesting.
Of course the next three weekends aren't going to be much shorter since we've got all the Cabaret Festival stuff coming up...
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