)O( Jumping July )O(

Flew right on by!  I simply have no words for how busy I am right now.  It's amazing.  It's fabulous.  It's EXHAUSTING.  This is the Year of the Rabbit and we are HOPPING. I feel so grateful and excited to be a part of everything I'm working on!  So much is developing I don't want to give anything away prematurely.  
In lieu of a personal anecdote this month, please enjoy another unedited excerpt from my upcoming book!  

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Seeking reinforcements, my uncle took me to a big event where many leaders of the Methodist church were gathering.  He told me to just wander around and ask questions.  His only request was that I remained respectful.  There were quite a few teenagers present, including a very cute girl and her friend.  We exchanged numbers and snacked at all the food tables.  Eventually a jolly looking pastor noticed me and came over to say hello.

The smiling pastor inquired about my interests at school, made a couple of jokes, asked me a few more rapid fire questions, and then said something I've taken with me for the rest of my life.  He told me that we are all different plants in a garden.  Some of us are wild onions some of us are roses, and so on.  In the garden of life, some plants need a trellis to support them as they grow.  Tomatoes, grapes, and beans are all like that.  Organized religion is that trellis.  If you don't need the trellis, that fine, but please be kind to the tomatoes.

Newly empowered by this sense of spiritual validation, I continued wandering around the gathering.  I noticed this one ancient pastor wearing truly gaudy clothing.  He had rings on every finger.  His hair was perfectly cut and coifed.  His custom suit was an obnoxious yet somehow subtle gold.   He saw me notice him and came over to talk to me.

I don't remember what exactly he said to me, but I was extremely offended.  It was something to do with women knowing their place and being humble in the Lord's work.  For a hot-headed teenager, I think I did a pretty good job keeping my cool.  My mouth stayed shut until he finished speaking.  Then, without any extra words or frills, I told him I was unable to hear anything he was saying over how loudly he was proclaiming his wealth.  I asked him how many families he could feed with one of the rings on his fingers, and then wandered away before he could form a response.

My uncle was even more frustrated with me after the event.  Luckily, his frustration didn't translate to him forbidding me from using the computer.  I learned to clear my browser history and log out of all websites each time I walked away from the computer desk.  Sparrow told me he was making big plans for when I came back home to visit for Christmas.  My grandmother wasn't pleased, but she was worried I wouldn't go back to my uncle's house if she tried to interfere with our plans.

It became clear to me that I was going to lose my virginity to Sparrow when I got back to California.  My brain wasn't really certain it was a good idea, but my heart was addicted to the love-bombing and poetry.  I decided to create a potion to preserve the essence of my virginity, for contemplation and ritual use.  My internet searches became all about herbs, essential oils, incense, perfume, and food grade extracts. As Christmas drew nearer, I built the base of the concoction, and told Sparrow what ingredients he needed to put together to make the activation.

My ingredients were exotic, creative, and wonderful.  Snow melt and ocean water, magnolia and orchid, cinnamon and myrrh, and so on.  My bottle was a beautiful black teardrop. with a natural cork stopper.  A few small quartz crystals were placed at the bottom of the bottle as a focal point of my focus and intention.  Once combined, it was sealed with my virgin blood, wax, and honey.

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