Happy World Toilet Day!

Yes, well, there are holidays, people tend to forget. But it's an important day, too, since NGOs concerned about sanitation as well as dwinding fresh water reserves are using this day to raise awareness.

Interesting fact, by the way:

And considering, that many people in the world have no or only scarce access to clean fresh water, it's also good to think about alternatives to flushing toilets with precious water... how about a composter toilet? Aside from saving water, you can produce good and clean fertilizer with it, too:

This is the composter toilet with a firewood shed we had in our commune... going to the toilet was quite an adventure... but in the early morning, it was nice to climb up the tower, sit down in peace and quiet, drop the pants, leave the door open and gaze at the sunrise, while, well... you know...

While my current life has some creature comforts, I miss those moments...

Starting into the new week... skyclad, as usual.

Since I did something more than the last weekends, as far as recharging my inner batteries are concerned, getting up on this early Monday morning was easier. Well, considering that getting up on a work day means having to wake up around 5 am, it's never easy, really, since it's still dark night outside. The normal human impulse would be to stay tucked in until sunrise. But the demands of the "civilized" world transgress normal human behaviour, and that also means having to get up that early.

On the positive side of getting up that early, I have enough time to observe my nuddhist morning exercise, which took place on an almost clear early morning, with stars twinkling above, while I stood on my balcony, naked, gazing at Orion, inhaling the cool and humid morning air (5°C/40F). Since it had rained on the previous day, and a little fog was rising from the trees, I could hear drops of water fall from the branches, sounding like a slight rain falling slowly.

It was one of those special early mornings again, when autumn shows its nice side of a starry sky, despite cool temperatures and wisps of fog feeling a little like Mother Nature touching me with clammy fingers. Morning fog and mist have a special magic to it, when experienced skyclad, while greeting the day and gathering good vibes for facing the day ahead...

Picture by Resting Nomad from her Flickr photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/junk_art/

And just now, as I am writing this, I can see outside the window that the sky has closed up with hazy clouds... almost as if Mother Nature also wants to remind me, that the time of being happily skyclad on this morning is drawing to an end, as I have to don clothing to once again enter the realm of "The Matrix!", of the office world, the "civilized" urban environment out there, full of its stupid social taboos and hang-ups. Well, that's the price I have to pay for being a child of both worlds - the happy hippie planet as well as the "normal world". At least, I can do so, walking barefoot, thereby collecting some more good vibes and healthy energy from touching Mother Earth with my bare soles.

May I return from that strange, "normal" place unscathed today.

Have a happy day and a good start into the new week.

Relaxing and recharging... weekend moments:

Heeding my own advice, I started my relaxing and recharging after the office week on Friday, as soon as I stepped out of the office building. Even though the temperatures had been quite close to freezing level on Friday morning, I went barefoot to work and chose my flip-flops as office footwear, which stayed off when I was sitting at my desk:

When leaving the building on a mostly fair Friday afternoon with a little haze, I felt like bathing in golden light, while the sun was approaching the western horizon. Since it had been hazy almost all day, temperatures were in the 40s F (just above 5°C), but still mild enough for me to enjoy the textures and surfaces on the way home with my bare feet.

I spent a lazy Saturday, reading mostly and doing a little indoor meditation, doing household stuff like laundry in my usual naturally nude state, and postponed the only outdoor task (going to the ATM and buying small stuff for the office on Monday) to Sunday. A mostly lazy day isn't a day wasted, really. It's merely a different form of recharging the inner batteries.

Getting outdoors, for a little urban barefooting as well as feeling some grass and soil underfoot was my plan for this Sunday. And even though it was a wet and slightly rainy day, living up to the reputation of gloomy November, I enjoyed it. Since it was mild, with 8°C (46F), it was a delight to splash my bare feet in puddles, feel wet pavement and in one place even small gravel, which I used to get a free sole massage, triggering an extra portion of circulation.

I was puzzled to see, though, that someone had decided to prepare for worse weather, when walking on the ped zone from the ATM back to the central station of my neighbor city:

The name of the boat fits, since the Goddess Freyja is also associated with beauty... and that vessel is a beautiful one, really.

However, the forecast for the next two weeks is predicting only slight rain, if any... but temperatures are going to drop by the end of next week... it might be, that next week is the last week in a while to wear flip-flops as office shoes. Mainstream society will expect me to wear closed shoes afterwards, then... OK. So be it. But that will only be the case in the office. In my free time, I'll still be barefoot.

After getting money from the ATM, buying the stuff I wanted and getting back home, I took a little time to also get in touch with Mother Earth, by walking on soft, wet grass and over fallen leaves. That's the nice thing about autumn: even if the sky is all grey, you will find beauty and the splendour of colors right at your feet. And when you're barefoot, you can take in that beauty with your eyes as well as by touching and feeling it...

A final note on my urban barefooting, where I did not only spot the boat featured above, but also the color of consumerist horrors, which parents of young girls are going to face this Christmas: pink!

Yes, the toy industry has taken the fairies and ponies, the unicorns and winged horses, dyed them all candy-pink and displays them in their toy stores, ready to trigger the desires of young girls to have their personal pink princess accessories or a magic tree palace, a plastic pink pony to ride on, plus the candy-colored handbag, complete with a pink plush unicorn!

Oh, the horror of the holidays to come... I vote for pink being the scariest color of this coming Christmas season.

Have a Happy Skyclad Sunday!

You have seen me posting celebration pictures of the weekend, following the classic "TGIF" ("Thank God it's Friday!") motto - only that I decided to write "Goddess" instead of "God" in them, following my personal faith and spirituality. I am now expanding this weekend celebration to wishing everyone sharing my naturist way of living, a Happy Skyclad Sunday, using pictures of natural, happy, blissful and spiritual nude human beings along with the Sunday wishes.

Here's the first one of my Skyclad Sunday collection (more to follow on the next Sundays):

While lots of mainstream people still connect nudity with sexuality alone, they might think of this as merely showing erotica. No, that's not my intention at all. True enough, sex (wonderful and enjoyable as it is) is made in the nude. And it's something I love doing, as well. (*Gasp!* What a shock!! Hehe, did you think, I'm asexual? Uh-uh, nope, definitely not.)

But nudity is more than just that. To me, it's the most natural state of being. When being out in Nature, barefoot and naked, I am more in tune with Her (both capitalized as in Mother Nature), able to feel all the elements fully. When celebrating the wonders of Her creation, it is the best way to do so. Therefore, I also meditate naked, when out in Nature - this forming my personal spiritual way of Nuddhism, as I have called it (and others have done so too, when it comes to nude meditation... just do a Google search of that term, and don't let it correct the spelling).

I also live naked at home (full-time). Not having to bother what to wear in my apartment makes life a lot easier. Plus: it feels very liberating not to be constricted by clothes and have my skin breathe freely.

Aside from practical reasons (protection from cold weather or unsafe environments) and social inhibitions (nudity taboos, dress codes, etc.), clothes aren't a necessity, but merely a choice. The same goes for shoes, too, which I choose not to wear very often.

So, as I have been skyclad, when writing this *), I will now don clothes (due to cool weather and social taboos), to take a barefoot walk and enjoy this minimal nudity, while being in touch with Mother Nature...


*) Actually, all blog posts made here, have been written while I was naked!

Good advice!

Yes, that's what I intend to do today and tomorrow:

By choosing to do things making me happy, I will recharge, relax and heal some more, before facing the next week at work.

Happy Birthday, Sister!

Today is the birthday of a sweet Rainbow Sister who will always dwell in my heart...

She named me ~*Ganesha*~ when we first met.

On the day she was born the world grew brighter, as if a new star shone onto this world.
May she keep shining her warm and bright light onto this world every day... she does it every time she smiles.

Love and Light to you, Miri!

I'm in need of a vacation!

OK, that's what most people think, when going to work daily. And, of course, as soon as a time of leave is over, and colleagues ask "How was it??" the usual (and also correct) answer is "Too short!!".

In my case, it's also fact, since the last four weeks at work have been taxing, having to do overtime, working on Saturdays - thus shortening the much-needed recharge time on weekends - and still having to perform and function. Where finding and maintaining the balance between functioning and living are concerned, the latter fell a little short.That can happen, but it made me emotionally vulnerable.

Despite the funny nature of the cartoon above, I sometimes felt like that. I noticed my sleep cycle becoming erratic, often falling asleep in the early evening, to wake up at night, sometimes with only the time of a nap left before having to get up again. On the shortened weekends, I spent the Sundays most often indoors, lazy, not taking the opportunities of sunny days to get out and recharge outdoors. In hindsight, a big mistake.

By and by, I became emotionally thin-skinned enough to have one word affect me the way it did. Actually, it was a warning sign of what many people in fact-and-figure, number-crunching jobs, doing overtime face, when not using the sparce free time to properly relax and find healing: burn-out syndrome and depression. Realizing that today, I decided to shift the weights of functioning versus living back to the more important latter part. After having had a good night's sleep, waking up refreshed, making sure to gather some more positive power, I saw a destination ahead, promising a time of relaxation and healing longer than just a weekend: three weeks to go until I have a week off, right at the start of winter.

And on the way there, I decided to change my habits of going to sleep, practising the art of leaving the influence of the artificial office world behind, when leaving it in the afternoon and switching to heart, soul and spirit recharging mode the way I used to.

Plus, when it comes to looking back at the past, I received some support by a message on a Facebook page, reading as follows:

I'm not sad about what my life has become... it deviated from some plans I made originally, but I walked a road, leading me to very interesting places, events and encounters with interesting and inspiring people. Some of them have become friends of mine and a few special people also have my love (and always will).

When treating my past life like a book (as in the "re-reading the past" reference in my earlier post), I will now stick to the chapters containing the joy, the wonderful moments, the people who have left their footprints on my heart and these special ones who still dwell there, even if they are far from me, as far as distance is concerned.

Those I hold dear and feel love for, live in my heart as if it were a meadow on a sunny summer day, laying in the grass, inhaling the sweet scent of flowers, a gentle breeze wafting around them. Occasionally they skip and jump around, their bare feet feeling the softness of the weeds underfoot, dancing happily. And if they wish to, they do so skyclad as well... my heart is a place of everlasting summer warmth, making it possible to be naturally nude, never in need of clothes or shoes. When it's warm enough, those are only "necessary" for social taboo reasons, anyway.

"Ah, right, he's writing about being naked again", a mainstream reader might now sigh...

Yes, I do, for that's in fact a crucial part of being me and of my personal recharging and healing program. Being a naturist, I live naked at home. It is the most natural state of being to me. And touching the ground with my bare soles still is and always will be my direct connection to Mother Nature, my bare feet being the very nodes of my body to draw and gather positive energy and good vibes from Her by being directly in touch. And I want to share that sensation with the beings I love... therefore, it's not a sexual thought when I envision them dancing and frolicking naked on that sunny meadow, but it's rather sharing the feeling of being fully in touch with Nature, being our natural selves, not constricted by social hang-ups.

Doing that recharging outdoors in Nature is becoming a little more of a challenge with temperatures dropping near winter levels now... I am hoping for sunny days, when the rare November mildness allows me to spend some skyclad time in the sun. I still observe my daily morning exercise of doing a nude breath meditation on my balcony, drawing positive energy from the early morning air, followed by a mug of morning coffee, extra-strong and double-sweet.

So, focusing again on the very "hippie" part of my being, I feel like coming up for air, before drowning in the rough waters of "The Matrix!" known as office work. Now, it's time to once again stop thrashing around in those waters and float and swim with the current, instead of going under.

After four weeks of weekend work, I am facing now a free Saturday and Sunday... making it easier to recharge, before beginning the three-week countdown to my leave. And now, it's really time to express my joy and celebrate the final work day of the week lying ahead - and this time, celebrating it with an image that looks very much like the inside of my big happy hippie heart...