We've never met, but she already lived my life.

I opened the bulletin and read "Peanut Butter". I immediately called my friend, Rachel. We lived together in Timmer and listened to Andrea Gibson together. We also both love SARK.

I read Andrea Gibson's poem "Blue Blanket" at the Take Back the Night March last fall.

"Photograph" explained my heart for a very long time. It still makes me fear the fall. Autumn is my favorite season. Robert Frost knows about the "Leaf Treader". Autumn is the hardest season.

I am in love with Andrea Gibson.
She makes me cry cleansing tears.

Listen to her words.

Pleasure, please.

The love letter took a bit of thought, but I finished it... in case you were wondering.

Inevitably I am now wishing I had at least one of my SARK books with me. What was I thinking leaving them at home? Well, I did bring crayons to London... I suppose that's something. The SARK forum just isn't quenching my -- thirst? I googled Sark and under images I find a Succulent Wild Woman blanket connected to this blog entry.


The first Sark book I ever read was called Eat Mangoes Naked. Ironically enough it was one of the book displayed on the landing in the Amherst Public Library. 10 points for whoever chose that display, (s)he kinda changed my life.

Here's a lovely part of the book I just found posted on a blog:

One of my favorite perfect life aficionados is author SARK. Here is an excerpt from her book, Eat Mangoes Naked, about perfect pleasure:

I began feeling scared at the amount of joy I was experiencing, and noticed myself creating drama, almost like putting the brakes on pleasure.

The struggle still feels more comfortable to me than the pleasure, and I would how I can extend or expand the pleasure?

I think that one of the ways is to change the formula.

If we say, for example:

Going to a concert = pleasure

We might find: prickly grass, warm beverages, poor sound systems, belligerent fans or offensive lyrics.

We could change the formula to:

Going to a concert = a time

Instead of going to have “a good time” (which can cause pressure or struggle), we might just have a “time.”

This allows our actual experience to occur.

Maybe we’ll get to the concert, and leave after 10 minutes. Maybe we’ll see a sign that says “Fresh Peaches” and stop to by dozens and give them away.

Maybe we’ll stop the car, and have our own homemade concert by the river, singing off key.

Pleasure loves surprise and spontaneous expression.

To give ourselves permission for pleasure means moving in new directions, with no expectations and changing our moods in the process.

I am now giving you new permission for pleasure. You can use this whenever you feel stuck, lost, or out of pleasure.



Wonderful.




In the mentioned blog there is also this entry that is something we consistently worked on in workshops with Nathan Allen pre-creating Rose and the Rime. The concept of letting "failure" go as soon as it occurs, partly to be in the present and partly because it's not real "failure" is something I have struggled with since before I knew it was a concept. I had difficulty on-stage and I continue to have difficulty in my life. It's like when you go out for your first mile and drop a 6:15 when it was supposed to be a 6:25 or something and for the rest of the race you just wait for the wall to hit you. The only difference is the wall hits you twice as early because you are opening the door and inviting it in for tea and discouragement.