» Archive for June, 2004

Gemutlich Afternoon

Saturday, June 26th, 2004 by Maryam Webster

My German girlfriends have a word for it: gemutlich. The state when you’re with friends, have all that you want or need with you, and are in the midst of a big warm cosy. Gemutlich. Ten friends dropped by this weekend for one of our infamous garden party barbecues, absolutely oozing gemutlich vibes. (Inga, consider them chunnelled your way – get well soon!) The talk was deep and caring, light and carefree all at the same time. We taught each other things and read tarot cards and runes for each other. We were a mixed group, Neuro-Linguistic programmers, Bay Area life coaches and neo-pagan folk. Jeff brought the wonderful present of a set of runes, and the pagans started talking about the comparison of tarot to runes and readings were given. Everyone learned how to access their own intuition and their own readings. JBear trotted out his Silicon Valley Tarot. The coaches and the NLP’ers case conferenced and traded best changework tricks and tips. Several of us decided to put out a CD together. Everyone was gently drunk on sunshine, good food, congenial companionship and (for those who gently partook) JBear’s fine Smoking Loon chardonnay, which he buys exclusively for the label but which has turned out to be quite mellow and goes well with chevre on sesame flatbread.
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Reading Lolita in Tehran

Thursday, June 17th, 2004 by Maryam Webster

I am an ardent fan of self-care. Each week, whether I need it or not I give myself a thorough massage with scented oils, and allow myself the pleasure of reading a portion of a book that has nothing whatsoever to do with work. This past month I read Azar Nafisi’s absorbing portrait of Iranian intellectuals during the early years of the Islamic Republic in Reading Lolita in Tehran.

When I was in high school and again in college, I taught English as a Second Language to a group of Iranian students and got involved in their food, their politics, their family dramas and their lives. The group I taught in high school fled to America from the Shah and the group I taught in college, from the Ayatollah. A fair few were scarred by their experiences under both regimes and many preferred not to talk too closely about things that went on back home. Nafisi’s book, while clearly written from the viewpoint of a privileged intellectual, revealed many things about the timeperiod that helped me twenty-odd years later to fill in some gaps in my former student’s lives. Those interested in the historial period, in classical literature and in the ongoing struggle of women for equality in third world countries will enjoy this lush and moving portrait. For me, pastries, Turkish coffee, the company of other interesting women and discussion on topics dear to us is about as close to heaven as it gets… ;-)

What does it for you? What is so heavenly and self-nurturing that you willingly indulge to follow your bliss?

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Shedding our shells…

Saturday, June 12th, 2004 by Maryam Webster

I have been away from my blog for awhile tweaking up the website and course content over at The Certified Energy Coach Program plus working on the Quantum Flow book and CD set. Lots to do and a fair amount of travelling into the bargain. Here I am again!

During my travels I have been talking with women about how we age, and what suprises there have been for each of us in ageing. Mine in my early 40’s has been my skin. To see it go from taut and smooth to a nearly invisible network of tiny, fine wrinkles – the “crepe paper” look so often referred to in discussing middle-aged women. And all without any pain or discomfort of any kind. The women I have spoken to reveal bodies that seem to randomly rearrange themselves, fluids that were once abundant in the joints and elsewhere beginning to lessen and hair that turns treacherously into a drab display of non-color. Again, overnight, again, without any seeming discomfort. (“It should hurt or something, such drastic change” says 52 year old Thuy) Plus which, the sofa begins to look more inviting and these wonderful, comfortably-bosomed women find themselves with hours gone watching television, reading fiction, calling in sick to spend the afternoon soaking at the hot tub joint and getting hot-stone aromatherapy massaged by a soulful Santa Cruz flower-child named Melusine…
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