...or at least all in one spot.

My new online friend Billy Hammett's blog is Publexicon.  He has just posted the first in a series of writing tips. Billy was a professor of writing for twenty years, so he knows whereof he speaks. The tips made me smile, so I'm sharing them.  Here are a few of the tips that went 'yeah!'

--When you get a rejection slip, correct it for errors in grammar, spelling and usage. It will boost your ego.
--Make up fifty words that don’t exist—but should.
--Pay attention to your thoughts while you shave, stand in line, clean fish, etc. You can learn more from life than reading books on creating believable plots and interesting characters.
--Buy a how-to book and throw darts at it so you don’t take rules too seriously.
--Talk back to the people on TV (preferably when no one else is in the house). This will give you attitude, first cousin to narrative style.
--Turn the sound off altogether on TV (editorial note: or a movie!) and make up your own dialogue. 
--Always record or photograph graffiti. It will give you insight into the human psyche.   
--Collect one piece of junk a week and write about it.
--Go to yard sales and observe the dregs of other people’s lives.

Read the rest of the story-in-the-making  here

Oh my gosh! This is the funniest thing I've seen in a month of Sundays (what does that colloquialism mean?)

Sent to me by my friend and former boss, Bob S.  Thanks, Bob...not quite sure what you meant by saying this might have been made of me...

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The second cutest video this week:

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This is a video of 9 month old Ethan that falls over laughing...from tearing up paper.  I can't really tell if it's Ethan's laughter or his dad's delight at it that tickles me so much.

I sat and watched this about 3 times this morning, laughing uncontrollably myself.

Thank you, Ethan...whoever you are! May life continue to tickle and support you in laughing at it!

Technorati Tags: humor,children

Posted Saturday, November 15, 2008 6:22 AM by Beth Patterson | 1 Comments

Filed under: youtube, humor, laughter, children

This is part 1 of 3 posts on redefining giving. Cross pollination between the for-profit/donor sector and the non-profit world is not only good but increasingly vital.

Part 2 will be about who is it we give to, anyway?  It will be posted November 17.

Part 3 will be some creative small-dollar but high value gifting concepts, websites, stories.  It will be posted November 24.

Yesterday in my office in a medium sized non-profit, I had a hallway conversation.  It didn't mean much at the time, but as I've been thinking about this topic and preparing to write, the snippet came back to me. 

The conversation basically went like this:

Beth: I'm not buying anything for holiday gifts.  If I give something it will be hand-made or something practical and/or locally grown (like organic honey, dried lavender or homemade wine). 

S: Homemade is good--that's what I always do!

Beth: I know, that's why we always like your gifts during our Secret Santa/Harry Hanukkah office tradition!

S: (sweetly demurs, but smiles).

Beth: Matter of fact, I'm not buying anything at all right now besides food and gas.  And I hope I never do again...I know that is not possible, but the desire is not to consume--I have all I could ever need, barring replacing or fixing some things as they wear out (like shoes).   I want this consumer crises we're in to end my personal consumer crisis forever.

S:  Really? Hmm.

flickr: fluential

honey bee and lavender getting it on, like non-profits and for-profits could...

This kind of discussion/decision is not good for 'the economy'.  Retailers in my city will be hard hit, and many of them who are hanging on for the hoped-for holiday buying will go out of business because there won't be much buying. 

And if there's no buying/selling, eventually the non-profit sector runs out of support, as most of our donation dollars come from a few larger donors and corporate sponsorship and a lot of smaller donations from individuals and small businesses.  When the stock market falters, the foundations that give grants are eventually impacted as well, as they give out a portion of the interest received from the capital they are gifted with to help non-profits provide services.

I've just spent the last month working furiously, with furrowed brow and disturbing dreams to help balance the budget of our non-profit, due to an expected 30-40% decrease in donations for 2009.  There's nothing like working on the numbers, foreseeing the impact on staff that you care about and a cause that you have fought hard to expand to drive home the wisdom: we have to do this differently.

I don't have any answers, but a few questions coming from standing above the fray a little.

While we have been successful in building a balanced budget for 2009 for our organization, it's at best a  precarious balance.  The success or failure of our organization lie in 3 arenas:

• the organization making sure our core business is lean and green; how we go about doing our business is going to have to be ever-more efficient.
• donors that realize that when we say we rely on them, we mean it.
• meeting our customers' needs. We have many customers: the children and families we serve, our community partners who refer to us, and our donor base are primary ones.  How do we best serve the diverse and changing needs of our community, including our donors, in an contracting environment?

The reason the tax codes have allowed for non-profits (or not-for-loss) organizations to be given non-taxed money is that it's supposedly a wash in the eyes of the funding streams and gives the system some sense that it is caring for the less hardy or fortunate in our communities. (This doesn't include churches, as they are tax-exempt for other reasons.) 

The simplified version is this:  If the government had to purchase the services that are supplied by non-profits they would likely spend considerably more to do so than the free-standing non-profits fund raise. So it's an assumed win-win for the government, the donors, the community and the non-profits (not sure which order that list goes in!).

Without going off on capitalism, the tax system or other inflammatory issues, I'd like to speak to the issue of non-profit fundraising and the giving that fuels it. 

After spending most of my career in the non-profit world, I know a few things about it.  One is that many non-profits are not good at being grateful and seem to assume that people give money for all the same reason: altruism.  While most do give for this reason, there are many other reasons, and the cause for giving may be determined by multiple needs of the donor. 

Altruism is based on the idea that in giving we receive, a cross-pollination in basic form.  In that mutuality, there's something that flows between the giver and the receiver that may or may not be tangible.  Included in the almost innate desire to help others is the need to feel good about that giving, and the need to feel that our carelessness, our desire to look the other way, our need to have our lives not impacted by poverty, addiction, abuse and despair are being balanced by our giving.  So in essence, we are often giving to mollify some deep pain in our heart around family issues that span generations, or other deep-hearted issues that we can only deal with on a surface level.  (See part 2 next week for more about these issues.)

I am so good with all that! Sheesh, we're human and we need a way to get some relief.  What I'm also thinking is that we need to pull on something other than altruism to get us all through this economic dark night.

While I'm no g-man and I, like most people, feel that the IRS is a necessary evil, I've been wondering about how the tax system might be set up to allow the non-profits and the for-profits/donors to form a more perfect union.

There are already special tax code-driven donations such as the charitable remainder trust and the charitable lead trust, allowing the donor to give the non-profit/charity either the principle or the interest from an amount of money.

Definitions from wikipedia:

Charitable trusts may be set up during a donor's life or as a part of a trust or will at death (United States)

Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRT) are irrevocable structures established by a donor to provide an income stream to the  income beneficiary, while the public charity or private foundation receives the remainder value when the trust terminates. These "split interest" trusts are defined in §664 of the Internal Revenue Code and are normally tax-exempt. A section 664 trust makes its payments, either of a fixed amount (CRAT - annuity trust §664(d)(1)(D)) or a percentage of trust principal (CRUT - unitrust), to whomever the donor chooses to receive income. Normally, the donor may claim a charitable income tax deduction, and may not have to pay an immediate capital gains tax when the CRT disposes of the appreciated asset and purchases other property as it diversifies its portfolio of trust property. At the end of the trust term, which may be based on either lives or a term of years, the charity receives whatever amount is left in the trust. Charitable Remainder Unitrusts (CRUT §664(d)(2)(D)- paying a fixed percentage) provide some flexibility in the distribution of income, and may be helpful in retirement planning, while Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts (CRAT - paying a fixed dollar amount) are more rigid and usually appeal to much older donors unconcerned about inflation's impact on income distributions who are using cash or marketable securities to fund the trust.

Charitable Lead Trusts (CLT) make payments, either of a fixed amount (CLAT - annuity trust) or a percentage of trust principal (CLUT - unitrust), to charity during its term. At the end of the trust term, the remainder can either go back to the donor or to heirs named by the donor. The donor may sometimes claim a charitable income tax deduction or a gift/estate tax deduction for making a lead trust gift, depending on the type of CLT. Generally, a non-grantor lead trust does not generate a current income tax deduction, but it eliminates the asset (or part of the asset’s value) from the donor’s estate.

If the trust has qualified under laws such as Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c), donations to the trust may be deductible to an individual taxpayer or corporate donor.

What a great idea these 2 initiatives are! They are capitalistic and altruistic at the same time. What I've been ruminating about is: why aren't we as a society set up to do more of this type of investing in the work of the non-profit sector, this cross-pollination? Why does it have to be 'estate planning' that brings people to use these kinds of tax-shelters and important assists to the non-profits?  Why can't these be set up for smaller amounts that are not currently in use--and make them revocable after 5 years or so, if that is the donor's wish.

Can we change the tax codes to help the  community/donors more actively invest in the non-profit world, where there is more than good will and community services that come from the partnership?  I'm convinced that there's a way, if the non-profit is solid and excellent at managing and investing funds that these partnerships could  produce funding for both the donor and the non-profit.  

Here's an article from the Association of Fundraising Professionals. It's about the resilience of philanthropy and how giving we are as a nation and how we continue to give even in our fear and distrust.

While we'll always be a generous people, we may need to get smarter, get into 'bed' with our non-profit and for-profit neighbors, in order to sustain both the services our community needs and the income to help our for-profits and donors thrive. Cross-pollination is a very good thing!

These are just some ideas swimming around in my brain--they may be budget-addled ideas, but they have some sound basis.

Would love your input.

http://www.afpnet.org/content_documents/resilient_philanthropy.pdf

An Open Letter to Barack Obama

By Alice Walker | Commentary from The Root

Alice Walker on expectations, responsibilities and a new reality that is almost more than the heart can bear.

Nov. 5, 2008

Dear Brother Obama,

You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.

I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.

I would further advise you not to take on other people's enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise. It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, "hate the sin, but love the sinner." There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people's spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led.

A good model of how to "work with the enemy" internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies. And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

In Peace and Joy,
Alice Walker

© 2008, Alice Walker

(Note: italics and emphasis are mine. --Beth )

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Every 2 years (even numbered) in August, Brussels put on a display like none other.

Thousands of begonias are put into a floral displays in the Grand Place of Brussels, Thursday, August 14, 2008. The display will last for three days in an event that is held every two years. This summer, the magnificent design of the flower carpet on the Market Square has drawn inspiration from 18th century French patterns. (Photo: AP Photo/Thierry Charlier)

See the rest of the CBS News photo essay  here.   I searched for a good YouTube video on this work of art, but couldn't find anything better than these lovely stills.

Isn't this grand? Something else to go to Europe for...in 2010.

"Our destiny is found on the path we take to avoid it."--none other than that ancestral mentor to many, Carl Jung

Hallowed E'en, All Saints Day and All Souls Day, October 31 - November 2, are Christian holy days devoted to our relationship with ancestors.  During this time of the year the veil between worlds is thin and we can seek to understand and evolve our relationship with those who have brought us to existence and have now have passed from our sight.

For the purpose of the post, we are referring to our human ancestors, although we have many other kinds, including animals who have formed us (they could be attached through generations before we were born), trees, mountains, etc.

Established in 1850, Oakland Historical Cemetery is Atlanta's oldest cemetery. 
The Lion of Atlanta rests over an undetermined number of Confederate soldiers buried beneath.
Check out Wayfaring Wanderer's current post on a Stroll Through Oakland Cemetery for a great photo montage of this historic, beautiful cemetery.

Two Septembers ago in 2006 I traveled to Eugene, Oregon with my dear friend Krayna, (who is also a blogger on the Virtual Tea House) to engage with a synagogue  around the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  (Krayna calls them the 'High Ho's' but I'm not intimate enough yet with them to nickname them!) While not Jewish myself  I have more than a little love, honor and admiration for the ancestral lineage between Judaism and my 'home' religion of Christianity.  Religious home base is where we travel out from to explore and engage, for enlightenment and deeper understanding of our  roots.  So it's natural for me that I spend time beginning to understand Judaism, not from a book, but with people who live and breathe it. 

On this trip, several impactful things happened, including a dream.  The impetus for the dream was an experience that I had standing in the back of the synagogue after the service looking at the names of those who had died as part of the Jewish community there in Eugene.  The candles/lights were lit for people who had died 40, 50 and 60 years before this date.  There were the Jewish years on the plaques as well as some Julian calendar dates.  I stood in awe and heard echoing through my mind a Jewish proverb that I'd come across years before while working in hospice grief groups: "You're never dead until you're forgotten."   A spaciousness opened under my feet and above my head as I experienced the names of those-who-are-not-forgotten, and knew that teenaged Christianity has  much to learn from our 'parent', Judaism, about honoring those who have brought us to this plane of existence.

The dream I had that night showed me that my hesitation to connect with ancestors was around fear that some of the darkness of my family's past would flood and overwhelm me.  The dream did an 'ancestral alignment' (sort of like a chiropractic spine twist, only different...) so that I saw that the ancestors as I knew them don't exist.  These are living, growing, vibrant beings, living on a different level, but very much alive,  and while vastly different from who they were 'here', are still connected to this level and willing to help us if we are open to it.  Note: If you read the link highlighted above about my ancient Grandmother, know that she died on October 15th in 2001..the threshold for this time of the year, it would seem.

I came across an article this morning from a blog by Lynn Jericho called The Inner Year  about ways to connect with our ancestors.  I reworked some of Lynn's great ideas and insights into this post.

• Engage with the dead. Relate to them with a reverent and open heart. Call out their names to let them know you remain connected to their being. (Not to the memory of their earthly existence, as this may trap us in the idea of these souls being what we thought they were...probably incomplete before death and certainly after death!). Even though they have disappeared, we still sense the ongoing growth of their soul and even occasionally their desire to connect with us.
• Being aware that ancestors live on beyond the threshold of death, and indeed may live exactly where we do, just on another level of consciousness, helps us reach out--or is it in--to them.
• Visit  local cemeteries often--even if you don't have family buried there.  The energy of these places helps open closed doors to ancestral energies.  (I have some I always visit when I'm in the 'hood: 2 in upstate New York, where my physical ancestors are buried for several generations; 1 in outback Colorado just because I love it--out there in the aspens; 1 here in Bend, Oregon where I walk my dog in the early morning hours.)
• It's not a mistake that the changing of the light brings us closer to the threshold of where we can connect with ancestral energies. If we did not have electricity, we would be dependent on the soft glow of candlelight after nightfall. The flickering shadows at the edge of candlelight gives us a sense that the dead are living nearby. Consider using candles often and with joy!
• During these festival days of the dead, do our best to resist the soul-killing energy of the mechanical and technical world. Find our way to the life of spiritual perception and sensitivity. Keep our thoughts pulsing with newness and the depth that our ancestors can bring to us. Ancestors seem to connect with living thoughts. They cannot experience mechanistic thoughts, addictive or habitual thoughts, or thoughts that lack our own spiritual creativity.
• Talk to the ancestors! Tell them about your need for their wisdom and perspective. Expect them to answer your call, but usually not in the way you expect!
• Read aloud a passage from a sacred text, listening to it through the ears of your ancestors. Read with your heart, not just your head. As you read aloud from a sacred text, feel the spiritual nourishment. Sacred texts feed both the living and the dead. You share a meaningful spiritual meal with your loved ones.
• In sleep, our souls are freed from the limitations of space and time.Pay particular attention to your dreams from about mid-October through Thanksgiving time.  The veil between worlds is thinner and our ancestors may try to connect through this more readily available mode. Call out the names of the dead nightly as you drift to sleep.  Calling out the names of the dead before asleep, is a way of saying “Here we come for a visit and a cup of tea!”

Clearer perspective, commitment to living our lives more consciously, a sense of seeing our lives as part of a much bigger mystery, and a sense of emotional balance are just some of the benefits of consciously connecting with our ancestors.  The more we connect with the ancestors in their continuing life, the more alive be become.

These practices also are also helpful to 'practicing our dying' so that when our time comes to make that shift, we're already keyed in to the next, the other, way of being.

If we're never dead until we're forgotten--let's remember with humility, grace, honesty and consistency those who have gone before us.  Let's bring the depths of our longings, fears and challenges to interact with those whose spiritual and sometimes genetic lineage we share.  They have wisdom that can help us find our way to the third way, the path of least resistance. Their wisdom can help us obtain the level of consciousness that Einstein connected with: a different one from the one on which we made and continue to make the problems we face.  

A favorite Hafez poem sums up what I pray those in the next generations--the ones I am ancestor to--will say summed up my life:

One regret, dear world

That I am determined not to have

When I am lying on my deathbed

is that

I did not kiss you enough.

Staying Connected: How to continue our relationships with those who have died by Rudolf Steiner

First, the definition of psychopomp, from wikipedia:

Many religious belief systems have a particular spirit, angel or deity whose responsibility is to escort newly-deceased souls to the afterlife. These creatures are called psychopomps, from the Greek word ψυχοπομπός (psychopompos), literally meaning the "guide of souls". Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply provide safe passage. Frequently depicted on funerary art, psychopomps have been associated at different times and in different cultures with horses, whippoorwills, ravens, owls, dogs, crows, sparrows, and dolphins.

In Jungian psychology, the psychopomp is a mediator between the unconscious and conscious realms. It is symbolically personified in dreams as a wise man (or woman), or sometimes as a helpful animal. In many cultures, the shaman also fulfills the role of the psychopomp. This may include not only accompanying the soul of the dead, but also vice versa: to help at birth, to introduce the newborn's soul to the world. This also accounts for the contemporary title of "midwife to the dying," which is another form of psychopomp work.

During this season of heightened activity of the ancestral spirits, you may be taught in unusual ways about living our dying. One way of being taught is through our dream states, which begin to wake us up to the activity around death and dying as we head into fall and winter and particularly towards Hallowed E'en and All Saints Day. Here's a dream I had several years ago during this time of the year.

Dream title: Dreams should always be this much fun

October 21, 2002, early am

In Phoenix (I think this is a play on words, later on reflection, relating to the fire-bird). I live there (never have lived in the literal Phoenix in ‘this’ reality). I’m living in an artistic community. I’m searching for something in a large building up on a balcony, looking down on a showroom floor, overlooking many rooms without ceilings. It's like looking down into a mock-up of a large home, without ceilings. No people, but interesting colors and furniture.

Then, I’m in the rooms, exploring, enjoying the curious themes and textures: brights, earthy, etc. As I leave one of the rooms, the furniture starts to follow me! It stops when I turn around and look at it. I am delighted and play with the furniture.

Next scene: I am at somebody’s house that I have been searching for. They are an old white-haired couple and are in twin beds. I apologize profusely, from the door of their bedroom, for my intrusion. They laugh like they expected me. Then these little psychopomp-things start jumping (in the dream it’s my energy that enlivens them first and only then do they enliven the so-called inanimate objects in the environment). They jump up and touch the old folks’ bathrobes, which then come alive, fly onto the beds and start tickling and wrestling with the people, who are delighted. I am still apologizing, even while I’m laughing. Then we go to the kitchen to fix breakfast, and I’m setting the table and the china starts following me around like the furniture had! I am delighted and giggling as I wake up.

I've done a fair amount of work with this dream, and there are, as in any dream, multiple layers of meaning;  the one that I want to highlight for this post is about the work of the psychopomps to help me enjoy the sexuality and the sensuality of the old people in this dream, and to help me delight in the inanimate objects vitality!  It's the work of our ancestral energies, which are both called to us, and come un-called, that helps us do the work of 'winter'--the growing delight in letting go of outworn ideas, concepts and beliefs, to prepare us for death, so that when it is our time for physical death, we've practiced it so well that it's like falling off a log, literally!

In this vein, it was a delight to see what my new friend, Phil Wyman over at Square No More blog and The Gathering (church) in Salem, Massachusetts is up to this week. Phil is a Pentecostal minister that both calls himself and is called 'a friend with witches'.  Although some of his theology leaves me puzzled (maybe because I don't yet understand it)  I love his heart and his desire to see life-and death in ever-bigger terms. 

Phil doesn't believe in or live from the place that the gospel is about drawing the circle into 'who's-in-who's-out'.  And because of that, he has befriended some pretty counter-cultural (to most Christians anyway!) groups and characters.  My observation of Phil after several months of being a regular reader and commenter on his blog, as well as now participating in a regular SynchroBlog with him and other out of the box Christians (watch for the next edition on "Leadership" being posted at sites near you on election day, November 4) that Phil leads the way in emergent Christianity. 

That being said, I'll follow him around, asking questions, sniffing for whiffs of judgement. So far, notta. 

Phil's very busy over there in Salem this week, what with Hallowed E'en upon us and all that happens in his 'hood around the celebration of the coming of darkness, Innana, and the like.  I wish I was there--it sounds like a whole lot of fun!  He posted this post earlier this week. In it he ties the worlds-bridging work of shamanism to glossalalia ('speaking in tongues') so honored and core in the Pentecostal traditions.  He goes a little far for me (I'm probably not quite there yet...wait up, Phil) but it's worth a read and some serious reflection.  Please feel free to post a comment at Square No More...or here on the Virtual Tea House.

Relief from a carved funerary lekythos at Athens:
Hermes as psychopomp conducts the deceased, Myrrhine, to Hades,
ca 430-420 BCE (National Archaeological Museum of Athens)

From Square No More:

Glossalalia and the Sacred Language of the Shaman: Christians as Pre-Mortem Psychopomps:

"Communication with the spirits beyond the curtain of our visible/audible/tangible world is a skill belonging to the most spiritual, and perhaps the most insane among us. Those who hear the voices of gods and goddesses, angels and demons, ancestors and ghosts have been revered, feared, and ridiculed through ages and cultures of human history.

"These holy men and women appear to see and hear things the average person does not. Sometimes with the senses, sometimes beyond their senses they experience a tie to a realm invisible to human eyes, and inaudible to human ears.

"What distinguished these holy people from the common public was not only having ears and eyes, which perceive things most people do not, but even their speech hearkened the unseen realm. These mystics of the other world spoke the language of the spirits, and their communication traveled in both directions. They heard the secrets of the heaven and hell, and somehow spoke the secrets in languages unknown to the uninitiated."  Read the rest of the post here: Square No More: Glossalalia and The Sacred Language of the Shaman: Christians as Pre-Mortem Psychopomps

Wow...lots to chew on here for the coming winter.  We may be skinny as a mother bear when we come out of our cave in the spring, but we'll have some phenomenal dreams and visions by ingesting this stuff!

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