The practice of meditation is to gain control of your thoughts and to learn to focus your concentration on the subject you are meditating on. Whether that is an issue you are having with your personal life, a Zen saying or story or some other matter that would benefit from your complete focus and concentration.  Meditation with incense can either be a means of itself, or as an aid to unlock some part of your consciousness in order to help you understand some matter a bit more clearly.

If you are using incense to meditate on and not as an aid, then it is a simple matter to find a scent that is pleasing to you and concentrate on it. The process that I follow is to light a stick of perhaps nag champa then settle into my preferred position for meditation and clear my mind by concentrating on my breathing.  Then when I feel focused I will turn my attention to the smell of the incense and meditate on the various subtle scents that comprise a good, well crafted stick of incense.  There are a surprising number and each one can be discerned with focus and concentration.  I find that by the time the stick burns out I am completely refreshed and relaxed and whatever was troubling me before I began is just a hazy memory.  I hope that everyone gives it a try.  If you are new to meditation it will be difficult at first but as with all things worth mastering, practice makes perfect.  Although there is no “perfect” way to meditate or even a “perfect” meditation session.  It is not a performance art.  It is deeply personal and subjective and meant only to help you gain mastery of your thoughts.

If you are using incense as an aid in meditation to help you unlock a thought or feeling then do as I suggested above, but try to use the scent of the stick not as something to concentrate on, but rather as something that helps triggers thoughts and feelings.  Scent is the most powerful of the human senses.  Something you smelled when you were five and then smelled again twenty years later can snap you right back in time to the moment you first smelled it.  You can remember where you were, what you wearing, thinking and feeling and more just by the powerful associations that scent creates in memory.  You may have to try several different types of incense and each one will trigger different thoughts and feelings.  Go with them and meditate on them and try to understand them.  Perhaps lavender reminds you of your grandmother, or frankincense reminds you of sunday school.  The possibilities are nearly limitless as to what you can explore in your own mind with a gentle reminder from a stick or cone of incense.  With understanding comes freedom from things that might trouble or worry you.

And that, is the whole point.  To understand your thoughts and feelings.  To master them in order to keep those stray and unwanted thoughts from mastering your emotional and spiritual life.  To be able to focus clearly on the issues at hand rather than being confused by a swirl of conflicting thoughts and feelings that you find hard to control.

Good luck to you as you learn and grow and Peace, Love and Happiness always.

The largest part of the problem is that many people are not comfortable nude.  Whatever the underlying reasons, they can’t seem to feel completely relaxed if they are nude.  Feelings of vulnerability and shame overpower their attempts to clear their mind and focus on their own body and their responses to their environment.  Although difficult, those feelings are a perfect opportunity to test out your growing mastery of your own thoughts as you learn to relax and enjoy the moment.

The goal of meditating in the nude is exactly the same as the thoughts expressed in my beginners guide to basic meditation. To master your runaway thoughts, calm your mind and body and gain a deeper introspection into whatever subject you are meditating upon.  As I stated previously, meditating in the nude presents another set of thought challenges to overcome, but they can be overcome with a little peserverance and practice.

You should have a private area for your foray into nude meditation where you can be assured that you will not be disturbed.  Once you can satisfy your mind about this by a locked door or being alone in your house or apartment, then you will find it a lot easier to relax and let go of the nervousness of being discovered in the nude.  Aside from being barged in on while nude is the nerve-wracking thought of having to explain why you are sitting in the middle of the floor naked.  You have to diminish or dismiss those fears and thoughts in order to proceed.

Admittedly if you are not used to doing much more than shower in the nude it will be a little strange feeling to disrobe and seat yourself in preparation for meditation.  That is actually a good thing.  You should embrace the feelings and thoughts and use them in your meditation. Perhaps you can gain a deeper understanding of the feelings you are experiencing by giving them some very focused meditative thought.  Which is the whole reason you are doing this to begin with.  To gain insight and understanding of your mind and your body.

Having seated yourself in a comfortable position and with your back straight, begin by focusing on your breathing.  Deep, slow and steady breathing in and out as you concentrate on the air entering and leaving your lungs.  Concentrate solely on your breathing and dismiss all the stray thoughts that are probably screaming for attention in your mind.  Focus entirely on your breathing until you have relaxed and gotten all other thoughts and feelings firmly under control.

Then, with that achieved you can find interesting things to meditate on about your own body and your thoughts and feelings about it. Concentrate on the goosebumps you might have, the sensation of air moving over your normally clothed and hidden back, the way your arms feel against the skin of your thighs if you happen to be sitting that way.  You can start at your toes and slowly work your way up to the top of your head meditating on each body part and sensation in turn.  The goal is to become more aware of your body, more in tune with its reactions to and interactions with the environment.

Once you have achieved a state of total calm and centered yourself, you should feel free and yet deeply connected to your environment.  When that happens it is an excellent time to turn those meditations on your hair and skin and sensations inward and meditate on your deeper feelings and thoughts.  That is the point to meditating in the nude.  To feel completely free and yet as one with the world.  To have an expanded consciousness liberated from all thoughts of physical things while you gain deeper understanding and insights into yourself and thoughts.

It actually is quite wonderful once you master your own feelings about being nude in what is not normally a situation for nudity.  You can meditate in the nude with a partner, but that brings a new set of emotional challenges to the fore and it isn’t something you should try until you are completely comfortable and calm in your own skin.  Unless of course you are already completely comfortable being nude around your partner already.  Still, you would be surprised I think by what thoughts can interrupt you when you place yourself in that situation.

Nude meditation is not meant to be erotic.  It is meant to be a way to gain deeper understanding of yourself and your mind.  Although an incredibly sensual experience, you won’t get very far with mastering your thoughts if you go into it with thoughts of it becoming an erotic experience.  I think it is something that everyone should attempt, although it is not something for everyone.  It can be very good for you if you can master your own thoughts and feelings before, during and after.

Good luck to you and Peace, Love and Happiness always.

If you create an Elf or Dwarf as your character you will start the game at Thorin’s Gate.  A wintry, snowbound and desolate place.  A good incense for that area is eucalyptus because of the clean, clear and crisp scent that it provides.  Another good one would be frankincense for the clear scent that it provides.  Unfortunately there are no campfires in that area or Amitayu Tibetan incense would work great.

If you start out as a Hobbit, you will begin your adventures in The Shire.  Any good cedar, pine, juniper or sage works pretty good for that area.  Especially the aromatic woods like pine or cedar.  There are a lot of trees in The Shire and fresh woodsy scents work well to help immerse yourself in the scenery and general feel of the area.

If you start your character as a man, then you start out in Archet.  A tiny little hamlet with not much of note except for a pond and a smattering of trees at the other end of a largish field.  Again, pine and cedar are good here.  Up until the part where Archet is burned to the ground when you complete the introductory quests.  Amitayu Tibetan incense is great here because of its wonderful smoky, burning wood scent. After that is Combe and the deep Chetwood forest.  Pine, and Cedarwood are the only things that come to mind here.

Eventually, for Man, Dwarf, Elf and Hobbit, all roads lead to Bree.  Bree is a busy city with chimney smoke, people, horses, the terrific Prancing Pony Inn with all of its antique wood and more.  Sandalwood is great if you are going to be hanging around the north side of Bree.  Lemongrass, Sweetgrass, Rose and Chamomile are great for the southern end near where the skirmish camp is located.  You will have many adventures around Bree, but in particular The Old Forest and The Barrow Downs stick out in my mind.  The Old Forest is perfect for pine, cedar, spruce and other woodsy scents.  The Barrow Downs is another story entirely.  It is perpetually filled with fog, barrows (crypts) and various shades spread across a desolate landscape devoid of a single tree or bush.  Frankincense works for me here because it reminds me of church and since I am in essentially a graveyard, it fits right in.  Cannabis,  Gonesh no. 6 Ancient Times and Tulasi nag champa are good here as well.

To the east of Bree lie The Midgewater Marshes and eventually The Lone Lands.  The Midgewater Marsh would probably stink to high heaven in real life with fetid water and mud, but a good warm nag champa like Satya‘s version will get you through.  The Lone Lands are desolate fields, rocky outcroppings and sparse trees.  It does have Weathertop though and that is a perfect place for Amitayu Tibetan.  The rest of the time sage, sweetgrass, lavender or lemongrass work just fine.

By now you will have leveled up enough for Trestlebridge, Esteldin and The North Downs.  Trestlebridge is a sad, smoky place that works well with Green Tara, Amitayu Tibetan, Frankincense and on the other side of the bridge, sandalwood.  Esteldin is aromatic woods once again like pine and cedar and fir.  The North Downs proper are endless fields and rocky outcrops that need sweetgrass and lavender but with a colder edge to them.  Like eucalyptus or camphor.

So for now, you can smell The Lord of The Rings as you journey through Middle Earth.  I would love to hear suggestions for other scents and scents for other areas as well.  I know there are creative people out there that know just the perfect thing for battling evil in Moria or trees in The Old Forest.

Well, there is actually. Although I am not 100% sure what its official name is.  Is it just “Purple Stuff” or is the made up word “Superliminal” a part of the official name as well?  At any rate, the can has printed on it “CALM DOWN”, “RELAX THE BODY” and “FOCUS THE MIND”.  Although it isn’t very relaxing to be shouted at in all caps by an inanimate object.  Perhaps the artists that designed the can were all fans of energy drinks of various kinds.

The ingredients list is pretty standard for any carbonated beverage with the exception of Rose Hips powder (10mg), Valerian Root (10mg) and the amino acid L-Theanine (5mg)   This is the interesting part because it makes this drink effectively an anti-energy drink.  It is hard to be wired and anxious when you feel relaxed and mellow.  Of course, you have to get past the 13 grams of Crystalline Fructose listed in the ingredients as well!

L-Theanine is thought to be beneficial for anxiety by increasing levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).  A brain chemical that is naturally calming.  It may also increase the serotonin levels in the brain, which is another feel-good neurochemical.  Valerian also acts to increase GABA and some researchers believe it inhibits the re-uptake of GABA as well.  Rose Hips are chock full of Vitamin C and everyone could use a bit more Vitamin C.  Especially if you smoke as smoking destroys Vitamin C.

So enough with the science stuff Mister Smarty Pants, how does it taste?  What effect does it have?  Can I drink a can or two and feel so mellow that woodland creatures come out of the forest to sit in my lap and share in the calm?  The short answer is, it tastes like very lightly carbonated grape Kool-Aid and I noticed no effect whatsoever.  The longer answer is below.

As I said above, it tastes like lightly carbonated grape Kool-Aid or even a grape Free-Z-Pop with a touch of carbonation.  It doesn’t have much of a carbonation “bite” and that is actually okay with me.  It is pretty smooth and tastes fine.  Although the grape-sweet taste seems to linger in my mouth longer than I would have liked.

As for the effects of the L-Theanine and Valerian Root, I didn’t feel anything and I tried it on an empty stomach just to get the full possible effect. Personally I think you would be better served by just picking up some Valerian Root capsules from a health food store.  It is less expensive and I am sure much more effective.

In conclusion it didn’t do anything for me except lighten my wallet by $2.50.  It isn’t horrid, or grotesque but it isn’t very refreshing either.  However, and this is important, virtually everything is subjective and what does not work for me may be beyond awesome for someone else.  My final recommendation is to go ahead and try it and see if it works for you.  If it doesn’t, then you can’t say you weren’t warned.

Scent is subjective.  What I love, others may be repulsed by.  What others find positively incredible, I might find to be disgusting.  So there is no way that any two people can experience an incense in exactly the same way.  All I try to do is write as clearly as I can what my impressions of a given incense are and whether I personally like it or not.  It goes without saying that some incense is of high enough quality and of such good formulation that most people will find it palatable.  Satya Sai Baba Nag Champa is a good example of this.  There is a reason it is the number one selling incense in the world.

So why do I stock incense that I don’t particular care for?  Because what I said in the last paragraph remains true.  Even if I positively hate an incense, someone somewhere will love it and be glad that I have it in stock for a fair price.  The opposite is also true of course.  I might be delighted by an incense that others may find to be an assault on their nasal passages, but I will be happy to find someone who sells it at a fair price and treats me well as a customer.

With that being said, my reviews and impressions are as honest as I can write them.  Everyone may not agree with me, but that is what makes the world a wonderful place.  You don’t have to agree with me or like the same things that I like.  You are free to pick and choose and explore and find the things that make you the happiest.  Never take anyones word on what will make you happy and please you.  Figure it out for yourself.  I think you will find you are a lot happier that way.

I hope that I can help with that as far as incense goes by being honest about the things that I sell.

The cardinals that are building a nest in the hedge just off the deck steps are singing softly to each other and a random squirrel arcs through the limbs of the trees now and then.  It all combines to make me forget about living for awhile and concentrate on life.  What is the meaning of life anyway?  Debates have raged for thousands of years and everyone has an idea or opinion about the meaning of life and while they argue and ponder I fear they are missing the point entirely.

This is the meaning of life.  To have a glad and peaceful heart.  To know that there are people you love and who love you.  To appreciate the beauty and wonder of the world around you without analyzing it trying to find a point.  To be kind to others and to give freely when you can.  To let go of the urge to correct, educate or school others.  To take whatever comes and deal with as it happens and never let its ghost haunt you for long.  To be peaceful, content and happy.  To love and be loved.  I think it really is that simple.

As I sit here enjoying the splendor of an early spring sunset with Seals and Croft playing softly as I type, I know that I can remember this moment for a very long time to come and be glad and thankful for it because there is beauty and life all around me and I am happy.  I can step inside to the warm arms and warm smile of a woman that loves me for who I am.  Flaws and scars and all.  I can sit here and try in vain to whistle back to the cardinals or I can just be glad I am alive and be thankful for today and every day that has gone before.

I wish each and everyone of you reading this your own moments like these.  I hope that you find the time now and then to be glad that you are alive and to be thankful for what you have without worrying about the things you don’t.  Peace, Love and Happiness to you all my friends.

On this particular night we were standing outside the car and I was in full storytelling mode. The girls were suitably anxious and clingy and even Jerry was acting a little worried as he idly played with a dead oak branch he had found on the ground. At nearly the height of my dramatic recitation there came a tremendous crashing from the dark woods just behind us. I figured out later it was a mule deer, but at the moment it was Satan himself thundering through the forest in search of fresh souls. Jerry reacted immediately by swinging the oak branch up in a comically defensive position and slicing open my temple with the ragged end of it.

I had to smile to myself as the memory played again in my mind. While wondering what ever happened to Jerry, I brought my right hand up to trace the faint scar he had left so long ago. It was then that I noticed the scar that runs from the first joint of my right thumb halfway across the web of skin to my index finger. I see it every day when I write or practice guitar and I never think about it. Tonight though I was in the mood for trips down memory lane. I got this particularly nasty scar in July of 1994. My girlfriend had gone to the beach with her parents and I was pressed into service to feed and water her dogs while she was gone. One day I was in a hurry to feed the dogs and get to work and I carelessly pushed on one of the glass panes of the back door instead of the door iteself. The pane shattered and for a few moments I did not even realize I had injured myself. That is until the steady tapping of the stream of blood from my hand hitting the linoleum informed me otherwise. I stopped the bleeding and even managed to obtain a fresh pane of glass and replace the broken one before work, but my hand hurt like hell for several days afterwards. My girlfriends father approved of my work upon his return from the beach. He complimented me by telling me that it was probably better work than the existing panes. It would be the first and last time he would compliment me I fear.

I have a scar on my left arm, on the inside right on my elbow joint. I got that one from loading tin siding into a flat bottom boat on some God-forsaken island somewhere off the coast of Cape Coral in 2001. I have a large chunk missing from the skin on the outside of my right knee from falling while running full speed on asphalt in 1987. I have what appears to be a dimple on the left side of my face, but in actuality it is where I fell on a pencil in 1978. Another inch or so higher and I would be missing an eye, not remembering the terrible taste of a mouthful of blood and a ripped open gum as the pencil penetrated through to my upper jaw.

I have a cool scar that looks like a zipper just above my left knee. That one came from a chainsaw kicking back while cutting a stump in 1988. I have a million scars it seems and all of them tell a story. Stories of where I have been and who I have known. They tell stories of work and play, love and loss, good times and bad times. None of them mean very much without someone to tell their stories to though. I guess that is the only part of turning forty two on June 12th that is a downer. I have to do it alone, while I love and miss someone so very far away from me.

I suppose that is the worst scar of all, the one on my heart that just won’t heal.

The song in question is “I Love You” by the Climax Blues Band. Joy told me once when we were dating that it made her think of me. I did not understand how then, and I do not understand how even now. Still, because of our conversation about that song it is now inextricably linked to Joy in my mind and likely will be for the rest of my life.

Since the song caused me to think about her I did a Google search and when that did not pan out, turned to classmates.com. I found her relatively easily of course and learned a bit about her in the present day. She is married to Chip, has three kids and is a stay at home mom with a degree. I felt a little disappointed to learn that. The part about being a stay at home mom I mean. To understand why you would have had to know Joy back in the 80′s from my perspective.

Joy was an amazing woman. She was extremely intelligent, but not in a brooding sort of way. No, she was intelligent in a lively, active, conversational way. I recall thinking many times as I listened to her talk that she was far more intelligent than me. I remember feeling proud and a little uneasy at the same time. Besides her intelligence she had a fearsomely quick wit. I won’t give you the details of my favorite example of her comeback ability, but suffice it to say that somewhere a dim witted man in Roebuck probably still regrets engaging her in a battle of wits more than twenty years ago. She also had a wonderfully engaging sense of humor and would draw whimsical little sketches now and then.

So Joy was beautiful, intelligent, quick witted, funny and artistic. Pretty much the total and complete package. I won’t bore you with the details of my epic failure in losing her not once but twice, as I don’t want to sit here and squirm in my discomfort as I type it all out. Suffice it to say that I failed, as teenage boys often will and I lived to regret it as the years went passing by.

The reason I was disappointed to learn that she had earned a degree, but was a stay at home mom, is because I always imagined her writing. If not a novel then at least a regular column in a magazine or newspaper. I thought she would end up writing at least one book, I swear I did. I imagined it would be intelligent, incisive and funny. So to learn that she was apparently not even using her degree to teach and use her intellect in creative ways was a bit saddening to me.

The last time I saw her, I stood right beside her in the registrars office at U.A.B. in 1995. I recognized her instantly and was pleased to see that she was going to college. I got the impression she recognized me but was studiously avoiding eye contact, so I said nothing. Like I said, it was an epic fail of a breakup and I am pretty sure she was still bitter about being treated in such a fashion.

So Joy, if you ever happen upon this post, please know that I think of you from time to time. I think of you now and then when it is bitter cold outside and snowmen come to mind. Remember Frosty? I think of you when I happen by your old house on Scenic View Drive. I think of you at the oddest times and in the strangest places, but I do indeed still think about you. Each time I think about you I wince with regret at how I treated you. I feel a sense of sadness that I never told you what I am telling you now. I am sorry Joy. If I never said it before, please accept it now.

Some women touch you once and leave a mark on you for a lifetime. Joy is one of those women. She was, and likely still is, dazzling and amazing and the reason that snowmen make me smile inside.

We set aside part of the rehearsal hall for a workout area and moved the equipment in. Not only does it give us adequate sheltered space to workout in, but it also means we can use the 800 watt p.a. for music while working out. I cannot stress this enough. If you have access to a powerful p.s. then by all means use it. The benefits are immediate. You can no longer hear your own cries of pain and therefore remain motivated longer. It also prevents you from being assaulted with especially colorful language when you drop a 25lb plate on your spotters foot. If you close your eyes so you can’t see him hopping about, it is almost like it did not happen!

Another benefit of this system is that when the bass is pounding in your chest you often cannot distinguish between it and your own thundering heart. This obviously saves you from being worried about your impending heart attack and therefore reduces your stress level. Sometimes however I have discovered that the bass drum continues to pound long after the music has shuffled to a softer track. This is an unusual aural phenomenon and one I will investigate further as soon I stop feeling the need to crawl across the floor puking.

Which brings us to yet another benefit of powerfully amplified music during your workout. If you are like me and suffer from a relatively weak gag reflex, the sound of your workout partner hurling in a wastebasket will no longer be of concern. Indeed, once the screaming and cursing and cries of agony are drowned out, lifting heavy iron is not so bad at all.

So I suggest to everyone they buy a vastly overpowered stereo for their workout space. I also suggest burning a CD of Metallica, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and other thunderous noisemakers. Whatever you do, do not burn a CD of Enya. It not only does not mask the sobbing but oftentimes will contribute to it.

That is the end of this useful tip. Now if you will excuse me I have to go and puke in a wastebasket. I mean, go and “pump iron” to develop my “pecs” and “abs” and god knows what other muscle groups that are lurking under my winter coat of flab.

Admittedly musical instruments in our hands could be viewed as weapons of mass destruction. There is also no doubt we could easily be mistaken for scruffy third world denizens as well, but that is not the point. The point (as best I recall) is that we were face to face with a Law Enforcement Official. Who, having solved all other crimes in the city, had been dispatched to investigate the sounds of cats being strangled at high volume.

With the kind of mental acuity that one usually associates with toilet bacteria, the officer in question immediately ascertained he required backup. Within minutes, not one but two more cruisers arrived. I cannot help but wonder what the other officers were thinking as they rolled up to find find one of their own face to face with a group of middle aged men holding guitars. The fear must have been palpable, their hands sweaty on the grips of their Tasers(tm).

Warily the officers approached in phalanx. Not knowing when one of us would throw a bottle of Geritol into the air with a wild war-whoop and charge, swinging his instrument wildly. Surely this gang of men who would dare practice at moderate volume at 7:00 p.m. at night could be capable of tremendous violence.

Using his best Intimidation Voice(tm), the first officer on the scene intoned, “Yew awl, kain’t be mekkin’ all thet ruckus.” Frightened by this display of verbal ability, Eddy nearly dropped his truss and I had to lean a little more forcefully on my walker.

Showing an incredible lack of common sense, our ringleader whined “But it’s only seven o’clock!” You could have heard a hernia pull in the thick silence that immediately followed. The three officers drew closer together, ostensibly to perform a British Square maneuver for their own safety, as officer one informed us of “The Law”.

“We gots us a complaint, and thet’s good enuff fer me to shut yer smart ass down BOY!” Apparently, interpretation of city ordinances depending on your mood at the time is a required class at the Police Academy and Oratory College(tm).

Sensing a Tazing(tm) our nefarious ringleader retreated as the rest of us mentally evaluated the odds of eating jail food for dinner. Officer one, now fully confident in his mastery of the situation, continued to read us the P.O.P.A.D. law.* while his brethren made careful mental notes concerning tear gas canister trajectories and elbow room for a good baton swing. You can never be too confident when dealing with middle age musicians. We are known for such scofflaw activities as drinking tequila right from the barmaids brassiere and staying up to watch “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” on the late show. Or more accurately, falling asleep watching it because it is way past our bedtime. In short, we are a dangerous, reckless breed.

Eventually they put the S.W.A.T. team back on standby and departed to their respective cruisers. Each left idling for the entire harangue incidentally. The sound of tax dollars burning emanating from their exhausts. No doubt they were eager to get back to the station house so they could regale their fellows (unlucky enough to be left out of the action) with their tales of individual heroics.

It was a tense confrontation and I for one am glad that my tax dollars are spent in control of old men with guitars. Even so, you cannot keep the anarchist spirit of Rock and Roll(tm) down. The first thing we did after the cruiser lights had vanished into the distance was play “I Fought The Law” at approximately the same volume as a drinking fountain. We may be rebels, but we are not stupid.

*Pissing Off Police After Dark