I left for vacation and when I returned, the water coming out of my faucets was brown when it first came out of the pipe. While the water eventually became "clear" for the most part, My Brita water filter did not totally remove all the rust, and the water in the pitcher has been a bit cloudy.

Curious as to whether this water was safe to drink or not, I searched online and found the answer. Is rusty water safe to drink? The short answer is yes, unless you have an extremely rare condition where iron accumulates in the body organs.

From the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter:

I rarely buy jewelry for myself, so getting some as a gift is always an extra treat! Recently, Hargobind Khalsa at Spirit Voyage held a little contest. His sister makes beautiful hand-made jewelry through the brand "Darshan Jewelry," but she had yet to quit her day job. The contest was for the best advice or encouragement for her posted to Facebook, and the winner would receive a free necklace!

I'll confess, the odds of winning were in my favor due to the low response, but I'm still happy to say I won the necklace! (Amazing, considering how many times I get myself into trouble for my Facebook comments!) I thought it was only fair in return to give a shout-out here to Darshan Jewelry on my blog.

Probably one of the best attributes to cultivate in your life is a sense of trust that things will work out for the best. Rather than fighting what's happening, and stressing and fretting about the future, coming to a place of peace and faith is a much more empowering place to be in. And usually, you will be more effective and make better decisions from a state of calm centeredness than coming from fear and anxiety.

But how do you have faith? The world can be a tough, awful place! Well, I think some form of spirituality is important. Believing in some sort of higher power and connecting with that power can give you comfort and strength in hard times. If you truly believe we are spiritual beings here on the planet to learn and grow, then you can be OK with life's challenges.

I am not a homeowner, although perhaps I will be some day, and so I follow with interest the current controversies with American Homeowners Associations. Homeowners Associations, or HOAs, are basically mini-fiefdoms in the suburbs. Owned by management companies, they are ostensibly there to protect the "property values" of the houses by making sure people don't get all "white trash" on their properties.

In other words, they want to make sure that you don't leave junky cars in the yard, leave your undies hanging out to dry on the clothesline, or heaven forbid, paint your door bright pink.

The problem is, once you give away your right to put your junk car in the front yard, you've now just given away the farm, and you have no rights to anything. You can't put a fence up, start a garden, or even park your car in the driveway without explicit approval of many HOAs, which still may not approve your request.

(Spoilers ahead. Though, you probably already know what happens, as you'd have to live under a rock not to know at this point.)

It seems like fans of Lost are having one of two reactions to the finale - either they loved it (and cried!) or they thought it was a cop-out.

I'm of the camp that cried. In fact, I not only cried, but I bawled like a baby, and that's saying a lot since I usually have nerves of steel and I never cry at movies. Ever.

What really got me at the end was the peace and happiness on Jack's face as he (and his friends) were enveloped in the white light. And the peace on his face as he finally laid down to die, knowing that he had done something good and meaningful in saving the island.

I very much enjoyed Tamara Levitt's blog piece, "Spiritual Materialism and Where to Point the Finger." She brings up a lot of issues I've had with the new age/self-help world:

I’ve kind of had it “up to here” with spiritual materialism: people spending $200.00 on yoga outfits, the abundance of self-proclaimed gurus taking ancient Eastern spiritual principles and repackaging them into fragmented Cole’s notes versions, and films that suggest if we simply repeat our daily affirmations we’ll attract the perfect partner and a high paying job. And if it doesn’t attract them, we must be doing it wrong. Suddenly, personal growth is all about outcome. Everybody’s jumping on the spiritual bandwagon. But hey, it’s hip. It’s cool. It’s fun. Let’s all chant, “Namaste,” together!

As I've written before on this blog, I have opposed the health insurance mandate in the health care bill because I feel it removes our freedom of choice to spend our health care dollars on alternative medicine.

While I've had some say to me, "but you can get some health insurance plans that cover alternative health," these plans will never cover more esoteric things such as Reiki or other types of energy healing. (Never mind that I don't want the health insurance industry to start encroaching on my Reiki business.)

The health care bill as it stands will mean that in 2014, all Americans will have to buy health insurance, whether they want it or not. Tax credits aren't going to help you each month when you have a hefty bill to pay. From one analyst's calculations, the anticipated cost for an individual will be around $15,000/year, and you will not be able to get a catastrophic policy anymore:

Here's a nice poem I ran across from Rumi:

i was dead i came alive
i was tears
i became laughter

all because of love
when it arrived
my temporal life
from then on
changed to eternal

love said to me
you are not
crazy enough
you don't
fit this house

i went and
became crazy
crazy enough
to be in chains

love said
you are not
intoxicated enough
you don't
fit the group

i went and
got drunk
drunk enough
to overflow
with light-headedness

love said
you are still
too clever
filled with
imagination and skepticism

i went and
became gullible
and in fright
pulled away
from it all

love said
you are a candle
attracting everyone
gathering every one
around you

i am no more
a candle spreading light
i gather no more crowds
and like smoke
i am all scattered now

love said
you are a teacher
you are a head
and for everyone
you are a leader

i am no more
not a teacher
not a leader
just a servant
to your wishes

Today I heard the sad news of Andrew Koenig's death. I was fortunate to have known Andrew - though not that well. He was one of the improvisers at the now defunct Empty Stage Theater in West Los Angeles, which I performed at for almost 10 years. While I knew Andrew was "Chekov's son," I did not know while he was at the theater that he had played "Boner" on Growing Pains - he was that humble and non-pretentious about his celebrity.

Andrew was not someone I was friends with, but an acquaintance who I saw on a regular basis for many years. He never struck me as the kind of person capable of taking his own life. In retrospect, I can see some evidence of the depression in his sharp humor. I don't remember him as a happy or joyful person, but a bright guy who expressed a more cynical view of life in his creative expression. Still, I would have never in a million years thought he was capable of ending his own life.

It is always strange to see yourself on TV...but here I am, teaching a past life regression workshop at RakSa in Culver City, Los Angeles: