Yin-Yang on a Stick

I’m not much of a State Fair-goer. Left to my own, I would never go—too many people, food doesn’t agree with me, get sick on rides, it’s often hot, it’s often rainy, the list goes on. However, I’m married to a man who LOVES the Fair. He’s not originally from Minnesota so finds it fascinating and unusual how our Fair is so heavily promoted and how everyone who is anyone goes. So, I go to the Fair with him.

It’s fun to see him so excited about it all—he loves the animal barns (don’t know why since he wasn’t a farmer growing up). He loves eating corn dogs (which he’d never eat at home) and he gets a major kick out of seeing the flower arrangements (although he is a gardener, flower arranging isn’t his passion). I guess the Fair just gets people out of their normal lives. I’m sort of a curmudgeon when we go----I refuse to walk through the Midway and I’m super fussy about food. It takes me a while to adjust to all the yang energy. This year, I decided to see if I could create a better balance for myself and went in search of some yin spots.

There have to be other people like me who find it all too much. Well, to them I say take heart, I did find a couple places during which I could gather myself together, if only for a moment. One was the sky ride. Here we were safely tucked into a little pod all by ourselves and sent up and over the foray where we could quietly look down on the masses. That was a helpful relief when I needed it and it went slowly enough that it didn’t upset my stomach. We went through Ye Old Mill----a very out-dated but funky ride that takes you on a tunnel of love experience. It’s quiet, dark, and very moist----couldn’t get more yin than that.

I thought the fine arts center would provide some quiet time, but not so. Everyone was jockeying and elbowing. The Birthing Center did offer some nice moments—people seemed to respect the mothers and their new babies, so there were nano-seconds of quiet awe. I had heard there was a meditation tent, but couldn’t find it. When it got too bad, I’d have some little doughnuts which gave me temporary relief. Nothing like a little sugar to put balance between yin and yang.

I guess the State Fair isn’t meant to be a quiet, meaningful day, but rather a head-on collision with stimulation. That’s why most people love it so much. And I must admit, I enjoy watching my husband turn into a kid, trying to figure out where to run first.

Floored in the Garage

This week we had our garage floor re-coated. It wasn’t as simple as all that since they had to grind down the crumbling cement, and apply several coats of epoxy-like substances.
As with most projects, this started when we were naively sweeping out the garage this spring. We noticed that another winter had affected the floor even more than last year, causing the cement to disintegrate even further. That Monday I was on the phone getting bids to fix the problem. It took only a day to complete, probably due to the expertise, good-humor, and good looks of the two guys working on it.

The obvious Feng Shui slant to this is that our garage is on the left-hand third of our house. Depending on your perspective that could translate as being in the Knowledge, Family and Wealth area or the northeast, east, and southeast areas. Either way, a substantial part of our lives was experiencing foundational breakdown. So, in a word, from a physical standpoint that issue has been addressed.

The other Feng Shui piece to our garage floor has to do with the change in energy. I had no idea the results of this project would be so pervasive. Several times each day I am confronted with the shift----for obvious starters, every time I go in and out of the garage to get in my car. But also, I realized I am in there at least once if not twice each day with some recycling. We keep the plant food in the garage. Some of our tools are stored in the garage. When I need a box, we collapse them and put them in the garage. The plastic bags for gardening are stored there as well. The bottom line is that I love going in the garage. I can go in there barefoot. I let the cats play in there now---it felt creepy to me before. Sounds are even different inside the garage. When I close my car door, when I open the back door, when I walk around, it just resonates differently----solidly.

Such a small, seemingly insignificant change----such a huge change in my daily pattern. It feels like the garage is truly a part of our house now, pointing out that I evidently hadn’t felt that way before. Just when I think I know my house, I have a new experience like this. I guess you could say, yes, I was floored.

Two Sides to the Olympics

Even if you hadn’t watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics, by now you’ve heard how over-the-top they were. Each moment was nothing short of breath-taking and left you wondering "how did they do that?" I think everyone marveled at the enormity of the ceremony just from the sheer numbers of people it took to pull off most of these routines. If I heard correctly, no one had to perform twice, so we’re really talking a lot of people.

I conjecture that part of the appeal of the ceremony was the innate balance that unfolded----the mingling of fire and water, rigidity and flow, dark and light, children and warriors, marching soldiers and dancing calligraphers, yin and yang. Each sequence was balanced by the sequence prior and the one after. How appropriate the arena was termed the "bird’s nest" since at times a phoenix all but flew out the top, symbolic of China’s rise and re-birth.


Having studied Chinese history while recently in graduate school, I know there were periods of history when the Chinese wanted to not only forget their past, but destroy it as well----the cultural revolution being the most recent movement. But this night, they remembered----their calligraphy, their printing blocks, their tai qi. Hopefully those of us who study Feng Shui noticed a mock-up of an original compass with the spoon. They proudly claimed these aspects as part of who the Chinese are, even down to walking in the athletes based on the number of character strokes in their country names, not in alphabetical order. For the last century, the Chinese have been trying to accommodate this language disparity by romanizing their characters so those of us learning it could alphabetize and find things. Not this evening. It was done the Chinese way.

Perhaps the most important piece that fell into place was to break the idea that "made in China" means cheap and slip-shod. I pity the next city who hosts the summer Olympics—this was a first-class act and will be a hard one to follow.

Feng Shui Perfection

Sometimes I’m a stranger in my own town. I’ve lived in Minneapolis all but three years of my adult life, yet I was just recently introduced to a part of the city I had never been, which, as it turns out, it is probably the most perfect Feng Shui spot around.

I had heard of Centennial Lakes Park, a man-made area integrating condos, townhomes, offices and retail space. But I never seemed to have the time to explore it, or it wasn’t convenient, or something. A couple nights ago my neighbor invited me to go with her as she walked her dog.

Understand that my husband and I live near Lake Harriet in south Minneapolis where people can bike, walk, or jog around the lake. Most people have their I-pods plugged into their ears and are oblivious to anything else. When I do walk around the lake, I feel like I need to keep up or get out of the way of the power walkers. We also live on Minnehaha Parkway which provides more walking and bike paths meandering with the flow of Minnehaha Creek. At times these paths get downright remote and isolated, rustic even. So I’m familiar with walking by
water and have done my share.

Centennial Lakes, however, takes these concepts and creates what I see as the perfect Feng Shui experience. The paths are indeed centered around water, like the above examples, but that’s about where any similarities end. The walk is about a mile-and-a-half around the whole lake. For most of the way, their paths lead you around the lake in an obvious course, but then intermittently will diverge into two separate options, eventually merging back into a single walkway, providing a new view so you'd never tire of the scenery. There are tons of places to sit and in a variety of ways----park benches, benches where you can rest your back up against a tree, benches tucked behind some hedges, benches out on a peninsula overlooking the water, benches perched high up on some rocks to give a higher focus, double swings where couples could sit and talk, or where this particular evening three young girls could laugh hysterically at a recent text message, lawn chairs, rocks strategically placed by the water, picnic tables. If you needed to rest, you were not out of luck.

If you wanted to be more active, you could rent a paddle boat or a gondalier could provide you a Venice-like ride around the park. A labyrinth lured some people into its mystery. There was a putting course, a croquet lawn, bridges spanned across the water. People with dogs, people without dogs, people in wheel-chairs, people with kids and dogs, classical music coming from somewhere, lights emphasizing certain areas.

Maybe it had an artificial feel; it was, after all, a fabricated setting. Some would argue that this isn't truly nature but a polished substitute. But people were engaged. No power walkers here. I didn’t see one I-pod. Everyone said hello, everyone was smiling. People were ambling and strolling. I didn’t want it to end. The next night I took my husband back and the experience was just as great. We came home refreshed, renewed, uplifted----isn’t that what a true Feng Shui spot should do?