Turns out it has a nice & tidy simple screw that allows you to open the beater mechanism – which was simply a simple hollow area surrounded by a cog & filled with wadding, some really OLD black grease & a heck of a lot of old cake batter!
A few moments later after dropping the important & irreplaceable screw thingie only once before containing it into a jar lid – I proceeded to clean the area out, apply sewing machine oil to all moving parts & then – deciding for expert advice – I called RJ for some thick grease. Turns out most guys have a grease gun around just for such uses…imagine that!  The next day it was brought over & together we determined how much grease to put into the fairly clean wadding, (no, I didn’t change the wadding although it looked vaguely familiar but was not really on my list of things to shop for right now) into the hollow areas plus a little onto the cogs in both parts of the machine works. A few minutes later I was back in business with the Kitchen Aid humming properly at every speed. Now, that is a story that needs to be repeated…
1- I did it almost by myself – using woman’s intuition & a lifetime of some experience with small machines (sewing machine, bike)
2- This older model appliance is made of parts intended to be serviced!  That is the real lesson of this tale – we need to find ways to make things again that aren’t meant to be dumped in a year & a day…
3- And…always good to have a grease gun around with some nice fresh light colored real good grease.
4- Must take quiet moments to make life happier & relieve upsets over small things…
5- Got to bake more, or get right person to bake using old yet happily working mixer appliance.
6- Keep RJ around for grease & other great reasons…

See ya in the kitchen,
Annie

IT’S ABOUT THE JOURNEY…

I RODE THE TRAIN TODAY – NOT JUST ANY TRAIN, IT IS THE WORLD FAMOUS “SKUNK TRAIN” THROUGH ANCIENT REDWOOD FORESTS, AND AN ALMOST UNTOUCHED WATERSHED THAT BIRTHS the WILD SALMON for california’s MENDOCINO PACIFIC COAST.

IMAGINE this journey with me….

Close your eyes & take a window seat on a Vintage Rail Cruiser as we journey on one of the most scenic railroads in North America – the Skunk Train. Let’s journey back in time into one of the last temperate rain forests. We ride deep into the headwaters of the Noyo River Canyon & watershed. We stop to pray and ask for forgiveness from the Old Growth Redwoods that have been saved from the logger’s ax over & over in the last 100 years. The story of these trees is phenomenal, and transcends time. Some of them are 1500 years old. Some of them may be felled this next season.

redwoods

Now open your eyes and look around you – your own beloved trees, your own beloved watershed and hometown with its potential developments & progress. What do you want for your own local community? What will you pray for? Work for?

~everywhere – The TREES ARE IN DANGER OF BEING CUT FOR LUMBER. THE SALMON ARE IN DANGER OF EXTINCTION. IT SEEMS THAT so many lives HANG ON The THREAD OF BELIEF, ON THE THREAD OF LOVE, ON THE THREADS OF RELATIONSHIP THAT WE create TOGETHER ON THIS FRAGILE PLANET WE CALL HOME.

I invite us all to dream together as the deepening dark draws us inward, as the bear begins her hibernation. let us dream of a nation united – a nation united by bands of steel & friendship, a nation we create in our hearts, a nation of one people. May we imagine our lives & the world as we want it to be – fir me – that is a future filled with beauty and peace, voices speaking & singing truth. May we blend our voices and speak for the biggest dream that we imagine – let’s sing the chorus of life – creating the future we dream by our speaking, our telling, our stories, our every action.

blessed bee,

annie Brigit waters

There has been much good written about ways of re-creating our society in a partnership model, as different from the dominator continuum . Riane Eisler is the originator of this paradigm, and she is modeling this in her own lifework. Neither she or I am proposing that women and men model separate types of behavior exclusively – but, if you have the chance to participate in women’s groups and note their leadership style, you will also note that there is a great deal to be emulated for our society and governance as a whole.

Spirituality has become the word of the hour. But what is spirituality? What does being spiritual mean? For me, as for many others, spirituality means feeling at one with that which we call the divine. But when I think of the divine I… think of our own most evolved qualities: our profound human capacity for empathy, for love, our striving for justice, our hunger for beauty, our yearning to create. I think being spiritual means being ethical and, in the true sense of the word, moral.”
-Riane Eisler

Why not take the conversation about spirituality and gender balance one step further …if you dare!

I am happy to say that recently the WELL (Willits Economic LocaLization) group in Willits voted to make gender a priority in our governance documents. This is significant in the Peak Oil movement which is predominately lead by men and whose opinion leaders are also almost exclusively white, male and over 40. This is understandable, since the science and information that guides this trend comes from oil geology, climate theorists and geologists, most of whom have worked in the hallowed halls of industry and academia for decades to get their “take” on the situation. I am not debating their qualifications to get us the undeniable information and facts.

However, my concern is the present lack of numbers of women and youth as speakers and presenters of this information. And, further – the lack of balance between the much heralded intellectual/action oriented skills and the relational/nurturance skills that will also be very much required under duress or conditions of change as imagined in most peak oil scenarios. This very thing could doom us to failure of future – we are not hearing the voice of balance – not only gender, but the component I choose to call divine feminine. Yes, I am jumping into a discussion of spirit and values here.

The Divine Feminine movement is about re-establishing values that our cultural paradigm (shall we say it – patriarchy ) considers “feminine,” and has rendered insignificant and of less value. The qualities of relationship building, caring and nurturing are among them. I would add the value of cooperation instead of competition is on my list – although we can argue that it is hardly a gender issue. The important point is that we always create the future using the tools of the present, and the process is the end result. This, guided by the values of nurture and cooperation – we will create a future climate of kindness, compassion, justice and fairness. Peace and wholeness might prevail for ourselves and our children. It might mean and end to war and environmental disaster. It would mean the end of a climate of power over and domination, as the partnership model would be valued as preeminent.

This discussion has a spiritual element, actually – its very center, and I believe this is the true key to bringing the Balance back. Our cultural role model is a Masculine God (and His Son or prophets – all male) How can we worship within a mythology that has no female element to it – even though almost all life on this planet comes out of the female? The spiritual future we would create requires bringing back into balance the male and female faces of God,

placing the Sacred Feminine alongside the Divine Masculine that has ruled alone for over 4000 years. Perhaps the newfound interest in the Mary Magdalene mystery is due to this need for balance. What if the message of Christianity has been sidelined for these years, and really was meant to come from the wisdom of a woman and man – in balance? To quote the famous Bahai leader, Abdul-Baha, “We believe the world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly.”

The Divine Feminine movement is about partnership, not just among genders, but within society, institutions and governments, for all peoples. It’s potential is the peaceful future of justice, love and relationship we all crave. How can we bring it into action? Start by ending the denial of such a thing. We can grow from there.

“Human Evolution is now at a crossroads. Stripped to its essentials, the central human task is how to organize society to promote the survival of our species and the development of our unique potentials. A partnership society offers us a viable alternative.“

Riane Eisler
The Chalice and The Blade <>
<>- Wishing you the best of our alternative future <>…Ann Brigit Waters Weller