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Health & Fitness

9/27/13—Embracing Brussels Sprouts

Today's Draw: Lilith, Siren of Air (Knight of Swords) from the Dark Goddess Tarot by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince. Have you ever tried something you were sure you wouldn't like, only to find out you liked it? Is there something now that you're curious about, but not daring enough to try? And where do you stand on the whole brussels sprouts debate?


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Today is indeed a fine day in the land. My workday was relaxed. I received a check from a chronically late paying client without having to ask for it first. And in the grandest moment of all the day, I received my Dark Goddess Tarot. 


The Dark Goddess is a non-traditional deck and, as the creator says, all the goddesses or mythical females in the deck have one thing in common—"powers that are disturbing, or considered disturbing when in female hands". Which is pretty much everything women do from the perspective of the conservative right...haha. 

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If all you know of Lilith is that it's the name of a concert (like me), then you'll be pleased to know that Jewish folklore identifies Lilith as the first wife of Adam. Instead of being created from Adam's rib, she was created at the same time as him. She eventually left him because she refused to become subservient to him. Then she coupled with the Archangel Samael (an angel of death) and never went back to the Garden of Eden again. Though there are many legends of Lilith, all characterize her as something of her own woman and dangerous to mess with. 


Lilith sounds like my kind of chick. And she comes to us today to say "be seduced by the strange to grow your mind." Do something different...even out of character. 


For lack of a better analogy available to me at this moment (I also had a long nap earlier, adding to my most excellent day) this is how I and many people I know came to embrace brussels sprouts. For me, it was a Barefoot Contessa show where she insisted that roasting brussels sprouts with just some olive oil and salt would change my opinion of them. 


My assumed dislike of brussels sprouts was so significant that I thought long and hard before I risked the roughly $3 investment it would take to prove Ina Garten wrong. But I eventually roasted them. And guess what? Now I LOVE brussels sprouts. The strange seduced me and opened my mind. 


The other night I went to a Deva Premal concert. She is a goddess of Sanskrit chat. If you're a yoga person, you're probably familiar with chant music, though you may not have known that's what you were listening to. The oft-mocked Hare Krishna chant—a devotional chant honoring the Hindu God Krishna—is a Sanskrit chant.


Anyway, I was sitting in the audience enthralled by both the skill of the bands that played during the concert, as well as the different instruments that were being played—zithers and all sorts of other things you never heard of. And this guy, Tripp Dudley, was playing the tabla (drum). The tabla is played partly with your fingertips and partly with every other part of your hand. This dude did a solo that had the audience on the edge of their seats in amazement at how much complex sound was coming out of two "hand drums". His hands were moving so fast you couldn't even see them. Beyond that, the music was played with such passion. You knew he did this pretty much every night, but that performance felt like it was done specially for us. 


As he was playing, I thought of an associate of mine who is a musician and performer, but who works in the corporate world. And it occurred to me that he would be so inspired by Tripp Dudley's playing (I think any percussionist would). But he would never go to a chant concert. Chant is too "out there", too "woo woo"....too strange. 


Think of all the things you might miss because it's just not your cup of tea...a cup of tea you haven't tasted lately or never even tasted to begin with. Lilith tells us to open our minds. Her refusal to live in a limited world led her away from Adam and his earthly limitation and toward her destiny. Had she not overcome her trepidation over leaving the ONLY MAN ON EARTH, she would have never discovered who she truly was. 


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