Chattering Mind: November 2006 Archives

My name is Valerie and I'm a Satya-holic. As often as I can afford (only a few times a year, really), I go to Satya, a wonderful "yoga-inspired" jewelry store. I walk across the slate floors and gaze at lotuses and Buddhas and Ganeshas and sparkling stones arranged by color. I try on everything yummy (basically the entire store). And then, if I'm feeling flush enough, I'll put down for a dangly, gold-vermeil-covered something-something that manages to make me feel luxe and sexy and spiritual in one trinkety swoop.

I know there's something intrinsically contradictory about yoga jewelry, especially yoga jewelry that's sold in a cute boutique on a trendy New York City street. But I love the stuff. It's organic and fancy and earthy and inspiring. And Friday brings the moment I've been waiting for since last December: the Satya sample sale!

I shouldn't even be telling you (these things are crowded enough!), but this year Satya is adding a very small sample sale section to their website. So no matter where you live, you can taste the Satya magic at less than half of retail (I swear they're not paying me). Here are the details for you to spiritually sample-shop online:

On December 1, 2, and 3 go to satyajewelry.com. Click the "Sample Sale" section where all sales will be final. And lovely.

By Valerie Reiss. Amy's on vacation.

I've just moved into a new apartment. In Brooklyn, land of my ancestors. It's sweet and cozy, and at 500 square feet just about double the size of my last place (I know, we're ridiculous here). I'm obsessive about making a house a home as soon as possible. Ideally I'd take a week off to put up shelves, organize closets, trap pre-me dust creatures, and the like. But alas. So this is a weekend-by-weekend transformation. One that is increasingly involving smelly, toxic paint.

For the major walls I've used low-VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds, known carcinogens) Benjamin Moore Eco Spec paint. But since it only comes in gallons, I'm painting smaller items (like blah pine nightstands) in full-VOC quarts. The thing is that both kinds make my lungs hurt and my glands swell a little, and give me a slight cough. Not good. Especially for me, a recent cancer survivor. But what's a decorating, color-adoring, health-guarding girl to do? Leave everything white and naked? I can't bear it.

The truth is NONE of us should be using things with labels that read, "carcinogenic"—whether that word applies to "maybe" or "mice" or anything. So why do we? Why is every grocery store brimming with toxins? Why is spackling a wall a dance with death? Though I'm as careful as I can be most of the time, I often dull my knowledge with denial, with trust. Like some nebulous "they" wouldn't allow us to use something that's really dangerous? Right?

Color me paranoid (with no-VOC tints, please). But what do you think? Do you try to limit the amount of toxins that enter your home? What risks are you willing to take in the name of aesthetics, color, craft, beauty?

I love the idea of milk paint, aromatherapy milk paint, and these no-VOC paints and finishes.

By Valerie Reiss. Amy's on vacation.

Wow, if you think your Thanksgiving was sub-par or just average, read a few of the thousands of posts Martha Stewart got when she asked readers to talk about the lessons they learned from their worst Thanksgivings ever.

Burned turkeys, plumbing clogged, sliced hands in the electric knife, bad arguments with friends and relations! It's all there! One family's whole house burned down when they tried to fry their turkey. They lost everything.

Thanksgiving can be a tough time for people who don't eat poultry, especially when their relatives are enthusiastic meat eaters. No doubt plenty of vegans are sitting down to a family meal that disgusts them, and families aren't always as sympathetic as they should be since many devoted meat eaters still can't understand how anyone can survive on a diet devoid of animal flesh.

The compassionate host will have plenty of veggie side dishes at the table to bridge the schism. Vegetarians, have you seen this delightful Adopt-a-Turkey website that hooks up happy turkeys with foster families for a fee? Check it out.

Here's an article with the whole quandary in reverse: Beliefnet editor Alana Kornfeld writes about how she used to decorate the Thanksgiving Turkey Squash at her parents macrobiotic holiday suppers. Apparently, Alana chooses to eat some poultry now, but she has fond memories of her family's meat-free holiday suppers.

Whatever you eat this weekend and in the coming weeks, enjoy it! If you keep up with your always-healthy consumption of eight glasses of water daily, you won't overeat. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! (By the way, I'm taking an at-home vacation next week, and Beliefnet.com's spirituality editor Valerie Reiss is going to be substituting.)

If your kids love to to sculpt their food before they eat it, they'll love this.

I found a choppy, but fact-filled run-down on the religious upbringing of late, great film director Robert Altman: "Catholicism was, to me, school,' he has said. "It was restrictions; it was things you had to do. It was your parents....

Janene Mascarella wrote a wonderful piece for The Washington Post about the powerful experience of thanking people who'd been helpful to her in the past. Often nervous that the folks she was thanking would find her absurdly nutty, she was...

Well, why not? The website TheGratitudeList.com sells aprons and T-shirts that will keep your gratitude close to your heart all year, not just on Thanksgiving. The blog at this site is just getting going, but you'll find several nice posts...

Deepak Chopra was schooled in medicine, but his greatest love has always been the study of the soul. His views in the new book "Life After Death: The Burden of Proof" seem especially relevant, as death seems--rightly or wrongly--closer to...

Sweet essay here on BustedHalo.com (the online mag for seekers in their 20s and 30s). In it, author Jeff Guhin gets into a conversation on saintly behavior with the Catholic teens he teaches....

Well, someone had to improve the standard cookie cutter....

I usually shell chestnuts the night before Thanksgiving. A couple of nights before Thanksgiving, if I'm smart. Chestnut purée was a standard side dish at my mother's Thanksgiving dinner, and in honor of her, I try to include it at...

Don't pass the buck! Bring a prayer to the Thanksgiving table this year! Here's a wonderful guide to prayers of many faiths and wisdom traditions....

"The basis for the new film 'Zen Noir' is a kind of funny concept," writes Beliefnet's spirituality editor Valerie Reiss in this short review. "A noir-style detective investigates a murder in a Buddhist temple. When he asks questions, he gets...

The folks at DuPont have regrouped and are now fighting allegations from the EPA that their Teflon coating on non-stick cookware includes a chemical that is a "likely carcinogen." The gasses Teflon produces at high heat are certainly bad for...

Yusuf Islam's new album "An Other Cup," is getting middlin' marks on Amazon--some fans are complaining that his voice sounds "weak." But the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens has a sparkling website with audio clips of him on anger,...

Ebay currently hosts some 26 pages of antique/vintage holiday cards, all fun, some in boxes, some loose. Here's a CD you can buy to download vintage holiday card images and then print out with a color printer....

I inwardly chattered all Tuesday night, worried I'd been mean to James Taylor in my review of his dreary Christmas album. I'm just not a natural-born critic, I guess. How do professional reviewers subdue their smug feelings of superiority? Many...

After several months of steady use, your yoga mat's odor may get distracting in the nose-down positions of the cobra or locust. But, "once avidya is lifted, the best solutions are often the simplest," claims the ad copy for this...

I didn't marry until I was 36, so I had about 15 years of heartache-y holidays--alone, unprotected, and bummed that nobody loved me. Or so I thought. For many people, the period from Thanksgiving to New Year's is miserable and...

I don't know if you've got plans the evenings of November 27th and 29th, but you may well be struggling with a weighty decision: whether or not to lower yourself enough to watch O.J. Simpson talking on Fox about how...

James Taylor's newly-released holiday album is essentially a refurbished collection from 2004, and I've got to tell you, having just spent the morning with it: It retains its highs and lows. Old Baby James' renditions of "Jingle Bells" and "Winter...

Oh, isn't this interesting? A whole website that teaches you how to make your last will and testament more ethical. I'm just passing it along....

No Chattering Mind post has inspired as much mail as my inquiry into how folks are ending their spiritual correspondence. What follows is a list of all the marvelous ways people are ending emails and letters to their fellows on...

"That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming."--Ralph Waldo Emerson...

Magic Cabin started as a hand-made doll catalog, and year after year, the lovely, natural toys and craft kits it features give me greater faith in all humanity! Get a paper copy of the catalog mailed to you or shop...

"I love my life, and I know I love my life."--Ed Bradley, as recalled by Diane Sawyer in Friday morning's tribute to him on ABC's "Good Morning America."...

Take a walk down Memory Lane when you check out Beliefnet's slideshow of fallen religious leaders. And remember this advice from His Holiness the Dalai Lama: "Rely on the teachings to evaluate a guru: do not have blind faith, but...

My warm thanks go to CM reader Daria for writing this in response to the revelations regarding minister Ted Haggard's secret life:"I read Ted Haggard's letter to his congregation and was surprised to find him taking responsibility, apologizing, asking for...

Notice how, in this piece by Richard Dawkins called "Why I Am Hostile Towards Religion," Dawkins refuses to write the word "bible" with a capital "B" unless he's quoting a Christian author whose work was originally published with the "B"...

My friend Myra, a graduate of New York's Institute for Integrative Nutrition, has launched her own nutritional consulting business, and I signed on as a client last spring thinking I'd get good nutritional tips (that I could then pass on...

As a mother, I can really relate to this. Have a look!...

Westin Hotel's smoking ban is in full flower after a year's work and a $3 million investment in its (fittingly named) BREATHE campaign. Smokers will be billed an additional $200 room fee if they smoke anywhere in the hotels, but...

Check out this "Code of the Callboy" editorial from today's New York Times by Dan Savage. An excerpt: "...today it is arguably more shameful and damaging to be a hypocritical closet case than it is to be a sex worker....

Thanks to Glittering Muse blogger David Garnet for alerting me to the existence of this laughing baby clip. Helps you understand while some people drink or take drugs to get to this luscious, open space. Of course, there are healthier...

As I write this, the country is finishing up a day of voting. Whether you're voting red or blue or chartreuse, there's no doubt this has been a decidedly unspiritual past month, politically speaking; mud has been slung on all...

Gee, what got into me? I stayed up late shopping online for holiday bed linens again. And then, I didn't buy a thing. It's the same every year. I say to myself, "Oh, it's silly to buy bed sheets just...

While you're browsing in the flannel sheet department, don't forget to get some hot water bottles--for yourself or to wrap as winter gifts. I actually put my growing boys (don't tell them I told you this) to bed with one...

Here's one of my favorite gay spirituality and culture blogs. In one post, writer Greg DiStefano quotes this passage from the "Gospel According to Thomas": "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you....

I went to our local Barnes & Noble Monday morning and picked up Sinclair Lewis's famous study of religious hypocrisy--the 1927 novel called "Elmer Gantry" (which became an Academy Award-winning film starring Burt Lancaster in 1960). In the novel, Elmer...

We don't really know yet which charges against Ted Haggard are true or false, but it's impossible to watch the unfolding of the evangelical pastor's alleged gay sex scandal without thinking of Carl Jung's writings on "shadow"--the least acknowledged or...

As I grapple with a father and two in-laws who hate the idea of assisted-living communities, I keep insisting "As for me, I'm ready to move into one now." Who can beat daily yoga classes in the rec room, Tai...

Some of you guys seemed annoyed with me for saying anything nice about KFC (its executives have just agreed to use a healthier, trans-fat-free frying oil). I don't eat Kentucky Fried Chicken, but some 736 millions chickens are sold at...

Veteran reporters like Leroy Sievers can work in relative obscurity for thirty years (he covered major stories for CBS and ABC, and then was Nightline's executive producer), before stepping fully in the public eye (opening up the whole world's heart...

"Look in the mirror once or twice a day, full on, eyes into eyes and say, 'I accept myself unconditionally right now.' After 30 days, you'll find that your life and health will improve." Get more sensible advice and whole...

"It took me an hour to turn the clocks back an hour, coordinating all the watches and digital alarm clocks and oven clock and kitchen clock and car clocks to Central Standard Time, during which a man starts to question...

Click here, wait a moment, and then sink into your own cursor-created abstract painting. Relax!...