Mulligan Stew

Come along with me for a blues cruise this Sunday 4-6pm EST at http://womr.org

It will be an eclectic mix of Mississippi Delta, 50s/60s Rhythm & Blues, Bourbon Street blues, Screaming Jay Hawkins, crackling vocals ala Nina Simone, operatic blues orphans from Missy Shevaughn and Yuma Wray, lascivious lounging love from Ms. Lavay Smith and rascalish rogues like Tom Waits to catch your cats on fire in a gypsy heat. It should be a good show. Don't miss it.

8 Tips to Kick This Year's Flu

1) TAKE ANTI-VIRAL TEA OR TINCTURE -
Olive leaf extract or olive leaf tea is the most effective anti-viral herb I am familiar with, unlike many herbs it doesn't seem to lose its efficacy quickly, and does not need to be alternated to remain effective. If you can't procure olive leaves, make a tea from lemon verbena leaves, yerba santa leaves, ginger root, peppermint leaves, mullein leaves, elecampane root, or turmeric and honey.



2) CHEW RAW GARLIC -
Mix it with olive oil and dip it bread if need be.

3) SOAK YOUR FEET -
Soak your feet in a combination of clay and salt in warm water. Rinse your feet. If you have lavender oil or tea tree oil, rub your feet afterwards with these oils in a carrier oil such as jojoba oil or almond oil. This will draw out the virus.

4) SWISH 'MOUTHWASH' -
Pulling is an ancient tradition. Swish organic sesame seed oil or olive oil around in your mouth to draw out the virus. Spit the oil out, as you would with a mouthwash.

5) MASSAGE YOUR SINUSES-
Massage around the bridge of your nose and the third eye area between your eyebrows, as well as your jaw by your ears with tea tree oil mixed with a carrier oil to drain sinuses and lymph nodes.

6) WEAR GARLIC SOCKS -
An old folkloric remedy that truly works every time. Chop up a half a garlic bulb, or at least several cloves of garlic in a small bowl. Put them in olive oil. Rub your feet for ten minutes with the anti-viral oil. Place first some dispensable socks on top of your oily feet, throw some garlic pieces in there. Put a pair of red socks on top of the first pair. Wear them several hours. Repeat once. You may wear them to bed. This remedy works the same way Chinese acupressure and reflexology work, each pair of the foot in connected to various organs of the body. The antiviral medicine goes into the bloodstream, carrying the healing properties to each part of the body.

7) POP JADE SCREEN TABLETS -
Get some of these magical herbal tablets online or from a Chinese Apothecary. They protect against wind cold/wind evil. Very effective!

8) SWEAT IT OUT! -
Drink diaphoretic tea to help induce sweating and draw-out the virus! Drink any combination of ginger, cayenne pepper, chrysanthemum, chamomile, elder flowers, peppermint, coriander seeds, and meadowsweet flowers. Sweeten with maple syrup or honey. Pull the covers over your head and sleep, allowing your immune system to do the work for you while you rest easy.

Quick Breakfast Tip

If you've ever been too busy to wash your dishes, and your kitchen is nearly past the point of no return, I suggest booking your mother/maternal figure a ticket to come stay with you. No, not to clean the mess for you, but to scare you straight with her impending arrival. Your mother is a dear woman, a sensitive sentient being whose heart would be crushed to know that her child is eating meat and potatoes with a serrated knife and melting plastic forkware in her attempts to reheat take-out without a proper utensil. But before you get up the courage to attack the rank pile of dishware with zeal and fervor - armed with a box of stainless steal pads, a stack of old beloved CDs and a squirt bottle of organic solvents - you'll have to eat something for fortitude.

If you do eat, if you are still someone who consumes foods orally in non-tablet-or-liquid-form, especially if you love the lost art of mastication, particularly if you are someone who buys bags of things from the health food store you never use, I suggest the following recipe:

Pandora's Seedy Cereal

1 1/2 c. unsweetened organic cow or goat yogurt
1 tbsp. raw chia seeds
2 tbsp. raw organic shelled hemp seeds
1 tbsp. raw organic flaxseed or flaxmeal
1 tbsp. organic maple syrup
1 organic banana sliced



optional:
1 tbsp. raw organic sesame seeds
1 tbsp. wild-crafted spirulina from Maine or the southern Hemisphere
1 tbsp. raw pumpkin seeds

And there you have it. Voila! Delicious, makes-you-feel-good breakfast for a hard day's night of cleaning.


The domestic goddess artwork above is by Edith Vonnegut, who asked to paint me when she gets back from Mexico. My reply? "Yes! Take me!" Of course, I meant take my essence and do with it what you will.

Don't Make Me Come Over There and Ovulate!

The International Women's Day hosted by 92.1 WOMR Provincetown and 91.3 WFMR Orleans, is back! This year's programming weaves an array of female voices together, with eclectic live music and interviews. Some featured interviews will include those with journalist Maryam Durani from Kandahar Afghanistan, Baroness Helena Kennedy, Aquella Yousef (originally from Kabul), Pulitzer Prize winners, author Indira Ganesan and so much more. I will be interviewing a documentary producer who is bringing the stories of Moroccan Muslim women to Cape Cod as well as a local doula and midwife team who will talk discuss the joy of women reclaiming their bodies and birth choices.

This is Rayssa Ribeiro and she will perform live on March 8th at WOMR!

Six Questions for a Cape Cod Doula

INTERVIEW WITH DOULA RUBY CORRIGAN ANASTASIO:

PP What are some common misconceptions about breast-feeding?

RA Common misconceptions are that if you choose to breastfeed you can’t go back to work and be a breastfeeding mother at the same time, breastfeeding makes your breasts saggy, and that it makes children clingy. On the contrary, it builds trust with them so when they are ready to face challenges in life more independently and with confidence. It builds a basis of trust.

PP What are some secrets to a happy pregnancy?


RA Trusting that your body knows how to grow a baby. Taking charge of your care. Becoming informed on your choices to make decisions that are right for you. Surrounding yourself with people who are supportive of your way of doing things. Being your own advocate. Understanding that every pregnancy is different. Building a supportive “birth team”. It takes a team, it really does.


PP What can partners do to best support women’s pregnancies?


RA Believe in their strength and ability. Believe in them. Believe in the process and believe in the woman. Rub their feet every night. Do more around the house is a big one. Make dinner, care for the other children, understand that she does need to take a nap. My cousin recently asked her husband if he’d mind watching the kids while she took a nap, he said, “Are you kidding me, you’re growing a person.” If every partner said that to us, how great it would be. Express appreciation for the job she is doing.


PP What can partners, friends and families do to support lactation?


RA Educate themselves on the benefits of breastfeeding and put their biases aside. Bring her a glass of water every time she sits down to nurse. Compliment her on how the baby is growing bigger and how well she is doing. Acknowledge the way she is nurturing the baby is the reason the baby is so healthy and growing so well. Don’t tell her negative stories. That goes for pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. Avoid being discouraging, saying things like: You’re not making enough milk, that’s why he’s crying, or That’s a big baby, there’s no way you will give him enough milk. Once she has that mind frame of ‘I can’t’ it’s really a downward spiral. The first step is that the latch is corrected immediately, not supplementation with formula. The baby should go through 8-10 diapers a day, this might mean being on the breast more often. I advise my clients not to give up in the first couple of weeks. Know that it is going to get better and better.


PP How can doulas assist women in ways that family members sometimes can’t?

RA Doulas are trained in comfort measures, information and support techniques. They don’t have the same emotional attachment to the women. It can be hard to for the husband or wife to watch [the process a birthing mother goes through.] Doulas know that what she is going through is just a part of her process, it is normal, it was built to work that it is doing. We are skilled in areas that a family member would not have the same insight, experience or training. Doulas have knowledge of the birth process, skill in providing comfort measures, and an understanding of what she is feeling. A lot of women have children, but they haven’t experienced giving birth.”

PP What herbs should women be using post-partum and why?

RA I have made and used pads that are kept in the freezer, with a tea made from comfrey and calendula” so that post partum you put it on your sore perineum. So it’s not dripping, squeeze out the extra. A long time ago they would dip a leaf of comfrey in bowling water and put that directly. Minuca honey is used by midwives, for tears not long enough to stitch. That seams to work really well.

You can find out more about Ruby Anastasio and read more about the importance of nursing at the bottom of the homepage http://pandorapeoples.com

The Fiddle and the Harp

These days we need more positive earth-healing frequencies to be magnified. The only earth-shaking we need is from ecstatic euphoric bolts of bodily bliss and mercaba-activating, cosmic-mind-melding, and consciousness-merging astral projections. That's why two beloved Celtic stringed classics enjoy fusion on WOMR-FM and WFMR on The Fiddle and the Harp. I will be guest-hosting again in a couple of weeks.

Read my article on breastfeeding at http://pandorapeoples.com ... scroll to the bottom of the home page!

Be well, freedom lovers, custodians of the earth, insomniacs, baby makers, Appalachian Aphrodites, Bostonians with Babylonian eyes and bella luna where ever you are tonight...

Ethereal Shipmate

Ethereal Shipmate
by Pandora Peoples

The lion has captured the heart
Of this bleeding gazelle,
The child like a full moon,
When my eyes are closed,
Fills my lungs like fragrant island flowers
On a starry night,
Like cupid he weaves love webs
Around his smiling parents.


My husband is like a room of leather-bound books,
A morning in the sand,
Waves lapping at the shore,
The flames in a fireplace,
Inviting me to two-step and tango,
He's the soulmeat on my ship
And the shipmate on my soul,
The drink on my lips.


He is my exfoliating scrub,
My TMJ-jawlock-emergency-rub,
My kindly mythic beast,
My spacemate co-navigating the waters
Of the galactic heart.



Attachment Parenting 101


Screen all media with trepidation and non-attachment, ignore false flags, turn a blind eye to encoded messages as there are enough unintentional ones to keep you busy filtering, accept a multitude of opinions and some degree of scapegoatism from the left, the liberals, the progressives, the libertarians, the creatives. Pretend the anti-intellectuals live in a bubble and can do you no harm. Remember the anti-feminists are making cries for help. Unfortunately, true love does not conquer, it acquiesces, it heals, it caves, it saves, it coalesces, it makes compromises, but it can make miracles happen.

As the wheel turns and another year is on the proverbial horizon, I am tingly and tickled pink, that my little nuclear family and I love to snuggle under the blankets together and read poetry into the night, grateful for my beloved husband born in the astrological month of the lion who has captured the heart of this bleeding gazelle.

People not only give up too easily on relationships in this culture, but often they are afraid to fall as deeply in love as they can be. If people hold back on discovering one another's deepest selves, or speaking up about their needs or what makes them satiated, or when couples fail to discover new aspects of themselves, or if they lose their individuality or are afraid to give their partners space, the bonding doesn't keep up with the soul's need for new levels of awareness. I think that must be 'the secret' of spunky couples who have been married 50 plus years.

Artists in Their Studios Create Perfect Christmas Gifts

(In case you missed this month's issue of "Dinghy: The Little Magazine", which most of us did.)

“Artists in Their Studios Create the Perfect Christmas Gifts:”
By Pandora Peoples

CINDY SAUERS is a multifaceted artist and owner of Saturday Farm and Island Cottage, vacation rentals in Cape Cod and St. John’s. Like a crystal or a precious stone, Sauers has a light, healing energy that touches your spirit. Her wit and whimsy is conveyed in her work, from her paintings to her murals. Hidden fairies are part of the motif of Island Cottage, whereas The Baa Boys, two adorable sheep are the animal hosts of Saturday Farm, “I think families pick Saturday Farm as a place that will calm them and make them feel balance again.”

Sauers’ love of art began at an early age, “I started with drawing. Lying in bed as a kid, I would dream about changing the color of my room.” She gravitated towards muses early on, “Once I started reading, I began reading autobiographies of artists. I would look for them in the library.” She contemplates, “I bet there are a lot of people out there that could be artists if they are just encouraged.” Art is so much a part of her life that she sees it as a natural form of expression all people can access. “I look at an artist as someone who is creative with all aspects of life. It could be creating a day, an environment, or using your creativity to work your way out of a problem, or turning a negative experience into a positive experience.”

Sauers is always fresh, working in many mediums as her inspiration takes hold. “I might feel like creating a painting, a drawing, a mosaic, block prints or creating a sculpture, or changing the landscape of the garden.” She likes to create every day, “I’ve learned that I can promote my creativity with music or routine…If I play a certain kind of music and have a certain cup of tea, I’ll be creative ten nights in a row…So, I set the stage and then it happens.”

You can find Cindy Sauers’ paintings in “The Presents of Angels” a holiday art show and performance series running at the Hyannis Harbor Arts Center at the Guyer Barn, Dec. 1-Jan. 5, as well as her artful gifts at their Christmas Gift Boutique. You can discover more about Sauers at her blog, http://itsa-world.blogspot.com.

KIMBERLY MEDEIROS creates cereal bowls that will have you singing to your oatmeal every morning. Her brilliant functional art embodies her love for life. Each stoneware piece is unique and draws you in with its beauty and character. After spending time with her and her clay cups, platters, and wine goblets, it is plain to see that her colorful designs, drawings, and patterns, are reflective of her joyful spirit. Her works are as contagious as her smile, each draws you in with a story.

Medeiros is inspired by everything from the paintings of Gustav Klimt to the imagery she discovered in India back in 2006, when took a trip with The Emancipation Network, an organization that provides trafficked girls with education, rehabilitation and job training. A percentage of the sales from her series, “Pots with a Purpose” goes to the organization. “My concept was people as vessels, vessels as vehicles, pots with a purpose.” As a teacher, Medeiros is enthusiastic that her pottery series can illuminate social justice issues.

Medeiros describes what it was like growing up in a family of ceramicists and painters, “My mother is big into color, I grew up part time in Florida. We always had a colorful life. [She was always] singing opera in the kitchen, with classical music in the other room, while the kids were on the floor doing crafts.” She goes on to say, “We were always encouraged to pursue it, instead of veging out in front of the TV…If kids are given the tools they will use them.” Of her artistic drive she explains, “I am happiest when I am at my wheel blaring my music and singing loudly.”

One of Medeiros’ favorite commissioned works was for best-selling author Dan Brown, because she got to “dive into his books, pull out his imagery, and personalize it”. The work is now in his foyer. She waxes poetic about the holidays, “I love the sense of community, people coming together and celebrating with family and friends. It’s about peace, joy and love.” And gorgeous pottery! You can find her work at the Christmas Gift Boutique at the Guyer Barn 250 South Street, Hyannis, MA, Dec. 1-Jan. 5, or online at the barnpottery.com

At a defining moment in high school, one of SHANNON MCDONALD’s teachers put her on a course of artistic study, indicating to her parents that she had a gift for pottery and design. After studying visual art at University, MacDonald got a job surrounded by beautiful fine art, but she “had to put on white gloves to touch it”. At that point, she realized that she wanted to create functional art she could explore with her hands. “I was always drawn to jewelry. I remember getting one of those mini looms.” She still has the pieces she made in those fateful early years. “I just love to accessorize. I love big statement necklaces. I didn’t see anything that fit my aesthetic. So, that’s when I started making the jewelry I love to wear.”

MacDonald describes her creative process as part of her daily life. She regularly dreams up new creations by sketching her ideas. Putting them to paper, helps her ideas seem tangible. “The act of putting it down and cementing it is really important to me,” she explains. To other artists she recommends keeping a collection of sketchbooks, “you see your process through the books. It’s wonderful to look at. It can re-inspire you to try something else, now that you’re further along in your work.”

Of the holiday season MacDonald enthuses, “I really enjoy the time with family…I make gifts for people that really match them. I really enjoy giving them.” She praises her mother for her talent at shopping for unique gifts that match the recipients. “It makes me happy that she truly thought of me when she bought it.” Giving hand-made gifts are a way people can give a “piece to remember through the years”. One commissioned collage made her customer, “So inspired that it made her cry, knowing that someone put so much thought into a piece made her happy.” She beams, “[I] really incorporated her into it.” The piece now hangs in the master bedroom.

Her jewelry line Ellie Joy, is named after her grandmother, who inspired her to be an artist. “She said, ‘Be brave, do what you want to do.’ She offers lovely unique painted wood jewelry she aptly calls “yoga jewelry” as well as glittery pieces that are perfect for the holidays. ” You can find MacDonald’s work at elliejoystore.etsy.com, Jewelry Inspirations in Dennis, and at the Christmas Gift Boutique at the Guyer Barn at 250 South Street, Hyannis, MA.

### Pandora Peoples, is a writer, herbalist and psychic medium in Dennis, MA. She is a contributing writer to Spiritual Pregnancy (Llewellyn 2013). She is a wife, mother and nutritional counselor. Her show Cape Codified runs on local community TV Channel 17. You can contact her at info@pandorapeoples.com

Music from the Galactic Center

My beloved husband got me a turntable that digitally records the albums. Eureka! I can pull out our dusty boxes of vinyls. Sergio Mendes Brazil 66 will be in heavy rotation once again. I can listen to Charles Brown and Whipped Cream and Other Delights.

Neurotic Mother-in-Law for the Holidays

An Evening of Monologues for the Holidays was lovely. A particularly tight and energetic performance by Nadia Schuessler and funny, well-crafted monologues by Gregory Hischak, Diane Kyle and Lee Roscoe.

I wrote my monologue today in a flurry between finishing editing Cape Codified with Special Guest Polka Dan's Beetbox Band [airing Christmas day] and buying desserts for the show. I based my monologue on content from a scene in a screenplay my husband and I wrote which is loosely based on my mother-in-law. It's a holiday tale called, "Getting Mom Off Drugs". She's dead now, so I'M definitely gonna hear about it. One of the perks of being a medium, you have plenty of time to smooth things over with the deceased relatives.

After 14 years of talking through the night into daybreak, you'd think two fire signs would burn out, but my husband and I are still so enamored with each other after all these years. Kudos to my charming, debonair, suave, kind-hearted, deep, slightly roguish and raunchy, pheromonally intoxicating, handsome husband. I adore him, his guardian angels, his cooking, his touch, his parenting. AND, he makes me laugh every day all of the time. Blessed Be! Who the hell needs a birthday party with all that?

Psss...Charlotte, you done real good. Despite your steak-knife-wielding dinners, irate screeching, and time spent in the car in the garage with the motor running, you really managed to raise a consistent, loving, positive, forthcoming, emotionally-stable, vulnerable, tender and heartfelt gem. God bless you Mrs. R. Those first 60 months of infancy really paid off...and we completely agree, 5 is a great age to stop counting your child's age in months.

Interview Today on Radio Station WOMR-FM

At 12:45pm today listen to my interview with host Joe Gouveia on Poets' Corner...streaming live at http://worm.org !

Drink Your Benadryl Down, Honey.

How refreshing it is to slow down, to be a hundred percent right with your child's need for guidance. We make children grow up so fast. They are checking their email, fetching the weather report online, and Skyping Santa!, when really they need our undivided...supervision. Children need structure and demonstrable love, or they feel lost and seem chaotic, fighting, power-struggling. In fact they are just trying to vie for mommy and daddy's attention when they are preoccupied with work. Turn off the computer, make some art with your child. Listen to what he's truly communicating to you. He will be so thrilled that you are genuinely listening, patiently and intently, making full eye contact, holding his gaze, that he will be tickled pink. He will waltz around the house, like there is fairness and justice in the world once again. And he will be the funnest playmate, conversationalist, and dance partner you could ever have!

A little reprogramming goes a long way. Direction, instruction and consistency are the corner stones of good parenting, as well as emotional accessibility. Which means you've got to play with your children. It's good for us too. The adult world is so disenchanting, so full of malaise, ennui, the banal, the mundane, Les Fleurs Du Mal, and fodder for this guy's depressive states of consciousness...