 View Our Latest Posting Below! Updated 01/09/2004 |
Table Of Contents |
|
LATE SUMMER NEWSLETTER 2003 As the dry summer burns through the long afternoons, the Alchemical Bakery thrives living over a mile high in central Utah -- even this avid gardener is often indoors seeking the shade from the free sweat lodge of the desert. Now and again the sky acts as if monsoon season is upon us yet often we still have to water our plants by hand. Good timing for the afternoon electrical storms as Astrology Services, Hygieia College, Phone Consultations, Six Directions, and Catalog orders keep me contentedly inside meeting the most amazing people from around the world via the World Wide Web, airmail, snailmail, UPS, FedEx, and the phone. (Not to mention those astounding meetings via the dreamtime and the macrophone.)  This summer Mars is closer to the Sun and Earth than ever and many hot spots are erupting within and around the world. Let the report begin!
HEADLINE - NAN KOEHLER is facing one year in prison AUG 31st for criminal charges related to a homebirth transport about two years ago. Hopefully she will be able to serve her sentence under house arrest, wearing an anklet, and reporting to a parole officer instead. Please send donations to her court costs directly to: Nan Koehler, 13140 Frati Lane, Sebastopol CA 95472 You can read more about Nan's ordeal on our Six Directions web pages. AUGUST 2003: Car Ma = Karma Our trusted vehicle was gone! As we last left off in the Early Summer Newsletter, when Halley and I flew home from Vancouver, our Caravan was stolen in Las Vegas. After almost a month of it being missing, we had an adventure of mythic proportion. Not only was the planet Saturn transiting my first house of identity during the theft, but it was also time to return to the City of Angels, where the old patterns (Saturn = pater = -patterns) were originally given to me and inherited by all our family. It had been over a year since last we visited my mother, sister, aunt, cousins, uncles, childhood friends, etc.  Photo in a Valley Hospital a few years ago when we last visited. Gary is slowly convalescing after a catastrophic accident. We haven't seen him in way too long, though as we are both born under the star sign of Gemini, we talk by phone and write often - our birthdays are only 10 days apart, our mothers the closest sisters and our lives so parallel that it's lucky I understand astrology.
My mother Vicki and youngest sister Kit now live together in Van Nuys and Halley and I spent most of our time with this odd couple and their dogs for the few days we were in L.A. One vignette - my mother saves up tasks for me that no one else will do for when we come to visit. This time Mom asked me to help her find a missing savings account that she suddenly remembered from long ago. We spent hours together looking for a bank that closed in the 1980's - by "we" I mean, my blind mother (with the aid of a walker), Halley, and I toured up and down blocks of Van Nuys Blvd in the busy, hot afternoon. Eventually, after visiting two banks that do exist, we traced down the missing funds. Minus the parking ticket I got being in a red, white, and blue zone (an American flag was painted on the curb), it was a successful day.
 We went to L.A. not only to visit our beloved family largely located in the San Fernando Valley, but also to buy a used '95 Saturn car -- recall our family vehicle, a '93 Dodge Caravan was stolen when parked with permission and reassurance by the front desk (both shifts) in front of the Mardi Gras Hotel in Las Vegas -- The theft occurred between June 30th and July 3rd: There were no witnesses to the grand larceny event.
My youngest daughter and I had just returned from Canada and shuttled from the airport late at night back to the hotel to discover the theft. We were told at the Mardi Gras Hotel on Paradise Road in Las Vegas to walk around the parking lot at almost midnight to see if it perhaps it had been moved or we had left our Caravan in another place? As we perambulated the seedy and dimly lit parking lot, Halley and I were grateful that we were not mugged or abducted when we returned to the Front Desk. We were that desperate to worship in my Church of Gratitude. Written report Las Vegas Metro Police Report filed by phone July 3rd. The Metro Police had no interest in sending an officer to make a report in person. Many phone calls to check if the Caravan was found to the Las Vegas Metro Police while still in Las Vegas and upon our return to Utah. Each time I was told they hadn't located it yet, even after Halley's dream of its discovery around July 6th. Here is a timeline of the sequence of events. July 30th Drive to Las Vegas to return the rental car as per Geico Insurance coverage, unaware that our caravan was in Las Vegas at that time. All the rest would not have happened if we had been informed. July 31st Fly one way to Burbank Aug 2nd Buy a used tire to have a spare for the trip home.  August 4th We were right on schedule coming home to Utah from L.A. when the Las Vegas Police sent a phone message that our Caravan was impounded and advised me to pick it up immediately as they charge by the day for storage. I got this unexpected notice when I rang Rico in Utah from Eastern NV only a few hours from home. My daughter & I stayed in a Mesquite motel and the next day went back to West Las Vegas to pay an almost $700 ransom for our Caravan in impounding storage fees to Ewing Bros. -- they would accept CASH only. Recall that our stolen caravan had been sitting there (impounded) since July 8th, though our first notice from the police was only AUG 5th.
I had called the LV police several times, especially as my daughter had a vivid dream around July 6th that our caravan was found. However each time I called, they said it was still missing. I called the Las Vegas Metro Police enough times that they told me to stop calling -- they would contact me when and if the Caravan was ever recovered. Therefore I filled out insurance claim forms, mourned the loss of all the non-reimbursable items stolen within our caravan (our traveling home), and ultimately had let it go as an unsolved mystery. Once more, whenever I surrender, what is lost is found - almost all of the time.  Back to the trip home with a used Saturn car with 225,00 miles already on it ... We spent the next 2 days in Nevada staying at motels to do the paperwork plus car repairs needed to get the Caravan road worthy. At this writing, (8.18.03) we are still not totally done. This has been no small feat -- the thieves who had stolen our caravan had quite a party running it to the ground. There was lots of evidence about the crime -- we filled two garbage bags of “evidence” left in our Caravan when they ran out of gas. Items ranged from “skank” hotel keys with two young women's photos, a baseball bat obviously used for other things than hitting balls, many tools, flashlight, clothes, condoms, an empty cologne bottle, eye drops, lip gloss and lots of other things but here is my personal favorite -- a pair of black & white fuzzy dice, hanging from the rear view mirror. Plus – the radio was fixed and tuned to a local Spanish station! (It hadn’t worked in five years.) Another moment of worship in our Church of Gratitude - numerous mementos of the joy ride, the body of the van still intact, and lucky dice showing the number "11". All this plus salsa music!! August 5th I removed the Nevada license plate on the back of the Caravan and gave it to the Ewing Brother, as they counseled. I was also told to throw away the "evidence" that we bagged as the case was considered closed. (I didn't.) We then towed the Caravan to the street, went to buy gasoline, start the vehicle, and deem it even worthy of getting a moving permit from the DMV. Now I understand why the musician Frank Zappa said that he never got a drivers license - he hated the lines at the DMV. I finally learned what he meant -- hours later at the DMV in W Las Vegas, we were good to go - however the long lines were like a non-amusement park that if I were rich and famous, I would avoid, just like the Mothers of Invention. West Las Vegas makes central Utah look like Disney World compared to san elementary school fair. Once we were hopeful that the Caravan would make the trip, my good neighbors drove our son Quinn all the way from central Utah to be the 2nd driver needed for the road trip to get both the vehicles home. They delivered Quinn in the late evening in Mesquite and I reimbursed their motel and gas plus their time for dropping off the needed driver. Quinn, Halley, and I had a wonderful reunion for one night at the hotel -- then the long drive home from Nevada to Utah. I prayed the whole way - the City of Angels now behind us for perhaps another year. August 6th Drove both vehicles home keeping an eye on one another not knowing which vehicle, if either, would need roadside assistance. Bought a steering wheel lock until the ignition could be repaired on the Caravan - the thieves had jammed a screwdriver to get the Caravan running instead of a key. I remembered reading Nancy Drew Mysteries when a young girl at this point. August 8th Finally at home we receive a certified letter from Ewing Bros. notifying me of the Total Charges in accordance with Nevada Revised Statutes $695.00 TOTAL Expenses for the Delay= $1800.09 August 16, 2003 Now there is hope that Geico Insurance will reimburse me for the "transportation costs" to retrieve the Caravan. We will see as Saturn is still in my first house for a while. When it becomes that literal, i.e. my vehicle (the business/family car) is lost, then recovered (retrograde/direct), life transforms into a mystery/comedy and ceases to be tragic. The late SUMMER will bring Halley and I to New Hampshire for the Women's Herbal Conference, a bi-annual event for us in the glorious northeast. This year I am teaching three workshops - WITCHES, MIDWIVES & HERBALISTS, THE LAP OF THE GODDESS: Fertile Sexuality, and HYGIEIA: A WOMAN'S POST MODERN HERBAL (Intensive). We will be settling home AUG 28th or so. Meanwhile, Quinn will be home in Joseph handling the web business, garden, cats, and all needed to sustain our home until we return from Rosemary Gladstar's Gathering of women who love plants (AKA Women's Herb Conference). A documentary film on Lotus Birth is in the works now. If you or anyone you know has photos or film of this blessed event that can be included, please let me know through phone or email - freestone@freestone.org. This is the vision of Dara Knerr, a member of APPPAH, who foresees like we do, how leaving the umbilical cord intact after birth contributes to world peace. On the road and at home, we journey to the sources of feminist alchemy through Hygieia College ~ Mystery School in Womancraft & Midwifery. Over one thousand of us are enrolled throughout the world bringing conscious conception, freebirth, extended breastfeeding, lotus birth, intactivism (ending circumcision), homeschool, conscious parenting, earth-based healing, and eco-activism to our communities. Re: Educating our communities for the sake of our Earth -- a delightful new book by my midwife friend Miriam is entitled, My Grandmother Went To Jail - it's now available for $16 ppd through mail and/or the CATALOG page of our Freestone Innerprizes website. It is a most germane book for the current witch-hunt. As several of my best friends served prison time for acts of conscience, and were grandmothers before, during, and/or after the jail sentence, it has become one of my favorite children's books of this season. (My other favorites are The Little Prince, Animalia, I Love You Forever, Charlotte's Web, Alice in Wonderland, and The Nancy Drew Mysteries. )  We do hope to be with you, all your relations, and your dearest friends in Georgia at Lake Lanier soon for I A M M's WISDOM of the Grandmothers-- Sept 19-20th. See our TOUR 2003 Schedule for the information on registering. Halley and I adore being in Georgia at this season and resonate with the work of the International Mothers and Midwives Alliance founded by the spiritual midwife, our beloved colleague, S.Vimala Emanuel. This is the last Earth based gathering of the year.
Almost at the end of this year 2003 in December, there is one more TOUR to San Francisco for the Association of Pre and Perinatal Psychology and Health Congress. There will be limited private consultation time available in Santa Rosa around that event - December 4-7th. If interested in booking a session, contact Jeannine. Thanks to Six Directions for funding this event and appreciation to all who invest in the work of a World Emissary for the Possible Family. As always, donations are tax deductible - please ask for our Federal Tax Exemption Number when investing in a future where all babies are gently welcomed and thrive in peace. There are several highly praised magazines this season that have recently or will soon publish my new writings -- Byronchild of NSW, Australia, The Mother Magazine of Cumbria, U.K., and Midwifery Today of Eugene, Oregon. This year a surprising new book has been steadily coming through me -- these aforementioned 'zines were kind enough to print some chapters from the new collection. Also, author Michel Odent (Primal Health Research), has translated "First Fluttering: The Quickening" into French and my poem will appear on the Freestone website as an online article. The end of September brings more adventure as Rico retires early from his job with Work Force Services in Moab. Report to follow of his 60th birthday party and what the future holds for the Alchemical Bakery in the forthcoming 2003 AUTUMN Newsletter.  Until then, KEEP IT COSMIC!!May that your Summer-Turning-Into-Autumn is blessed in all ways: may you deepen your gratitude for all the karma burned away this season and are ready to harvest the fruits of your good works. However we come together again, may it be to celebrate! I so look forward to our reunion wherever it will be. LOVE, Jeannine Parvati Baker FREESTONE INNERPRIZES www.freestone.org Mailing Address 40 N. State St. Joseph UT 84739 USA Phone 435-527-3738 Healing the Earth by Healing Birth © Jeannine Parvati Baker BACK to Newsletter Archives |
