Tech Tip

This week I made a mistake while trying to edit my storybook. I accidentally made one of my stories a subpage, which meant that no one could find it! While I'm still unsure of how I did that in post-editing, I can help share how to make sure that doesn't happen!

If you're new to google sites, and you want to add a new story AND have it appear visibly underneath previous posts, do this...

Go to the top right, and you'll see a little gray icon that says "Create page"
Click on that, and it will take you to a new page where you can title the new post.
When it asks to put a location, you're going to want to click PUT PAGE AT TOP LEVEL.
To me, you'd think that would mean it would put the post above the first one. But it actually formats the post underneath the oldest. If you click PUT PAGE UNDER _______ it will create a subpage for it, unable to be easily viewed upon navigation.

Extra Reading

I had this video saved from a previous week. WOW! I truly loved it!

Watching this video gave me some ideas for my storybook. I really liked how they (the writers of the film) talk about Ravana. It made me think back to the start of the semester when I first read the story, and how interesting I thought he and his sister are. I typically like to take characters that are smaller or overlooked and try and utilize the freedom that is given when they don't have too much story.

I've been needed (and trying to come up with) a stronger conflict for my main character, Savanna. My storybook is inspired by Sita from the Ramayana, so I think that this is going to give me something to work with!

Lakshmi! Who also makes an importance apperance in my story.
Sita Sings the Blues

Bib:
http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/watch.html

Notes: Lakshmi

I watched two videos on the Goddess Lakshmi.

For my storybook, I incorporated the story The Banished Girls which heavily includes Lakshmi. Because Savanna is at an ashram and I've also involved the Bodhi tree (mostly because I love trees!), I'm considering on having Savanna meet Lakshmi in a meditative state, where Lakshmi is going to share wisdom with her.




Lakshmi: Goddess of Wealth
This story makes me think that Savanna can return home to the states and completely save her marriage, her mental health, and her lifestyle.

Lakshmi: Origin
This helped me brush off my memory of Lakshmi and her origin, which is really important for trying to write her!

Planning Post: Goddess Lakshmi meets Savanna

For this upcoming storybook, I'm planning to have Savanna meet Lakshmi in a meditative state. She will have spent 20 days thus far in the Ashram. I think it's important to also lay out what happens within an ashram,

While underneath the Bodhi tree, during her meditation, Savanna will experience something much more out of body when she finds herself sitting in a grass field with Lakshmi herself. In my previous post, Lakshmi made an apperance as I wrote about the story, "The Banished Girls." Through that experience, Savanna has realzied that she is very similar to one of the sisters in the story, who has been cursed by Lakshmi.

In my previous planning post, I wrote the final paragraph for the entire storybook. Savanna is going to realize that while she's not ready for her spirit guides or the most indepth value of meditation, she is going to find the value of peace and learn that Grace, her friend from the flight, is actually her "soul sister" if you will.

Lakshmi is the Goddess of wealth, fortune, and prosperity. She relates to Savanna because Savanna has come from a fortunate career, bringing her material wealth, but she has lost the value of what truly matters.  I'm thinking that Lakshmi is going to share some news with her.... that she's not going to return home to a job, but an opportunity to rebuild her marraige. There's a piece of dialogue that I'm thinknig of, where Savanna first meets Lakshmi and she asks,
"Wait, I thought you were supposed to have four arms?"


Lakshmi will have a clever reply, something about modern day meditation or whatever, but explain how Her four arms are symbolic of the four goals of humanity that are considered good in Hinduism - dharma (pursuit of ethical, moral life), artha (pursuit of wealth, means of life), kama (pursuit of love, emotional fulfillment) and moksha (pursuit of self-knowledge, liberation).

Savanna's artha is quite satisfied, but along the way her dharma has suffered, and her kama. But through this trip to the ashram (and because of her alignment with Grace's soul) she has succeeded to return to her moksha, which is restoring her kama and dharma. 














Notes on Lakshmi:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi

Growth Mindset: Nov. 7th

Today's growth mindset is, "Effort ignites ability and turns in into accomplishment."

I really needed this today. It's helpful in the sense of, well, I might as well keep going. There's a big showcase audition coming up and I've been unable to find material that really speaks to me and what I want to show. It's been really hard, because I'm actively looking all the time! I just can't seem to find it. But, I'm putting in the effort. So if I just keep at it, it has to turn up.... right?

A personal photo from 2012,
doing a monologue I was really into. I need some of that good juju!

Planning: One Flew Under the Bodhi Tree.

Bodhi Tree Hawaii

I was never a nature girl. Camping meant sharing a sleeping bed with rocks and dirt and bugs and aren't we told to watch out for those bed bugs? But my time in the ashram has changed me. This all started the night under the Bodhi tree.

Imagine the largest tree you have ever seen. One that you know can't be cut down, nor should it. Here the lion can sleep with the lamb, and I can rest with the ants. Despite there being various birds and creatures cluttering the branches and the sighting of roots, there are no droppings. Not in the dirt, not on the leaves. Which, frankly, made for a more comfortable me.

My friend, Grace, she's begun the sacred practice under neath the Bodhi tree. Her lineage is pure and she's been chosen by the lama, and in return given a Yidam. This Yidam is her guide through the deep meditation. I, on the other hand, have not been blessed with a Yidam. Grace, if you can recall, is a shining light in this world. When I met her she guided me here, to this ashram, to the Bodhi tree. I'm just learning, only just learning, what it means to turn on the light or seek a flame. Before, I wouldn't have been okay with this. Never. Competition is key.... was key. I was the star of the track team, an aggressive, ambitious leader in the buisness field. To not be chosen for anything? Impossible.

But, my time under the Bodhi tree has taught me to breath deeply into the ground. Root myself to the world and touch the waters of deep, deep knowledge. To drink in purity and exhale doubt, aggression, and disease. When I learned that I wasn't ready, I knew in my heart it was true, fighting it would only keep my soul trapped in the dark I so desperately attempted to hide inside. When I breathed in, "Okay" I exhaled, "Why not?" Releasing the negativity of my mindset, I felt the light from deep within warm.

I sit here, underneath the Bodhi tree everyday. For maybe twenty minutes, for maybe an hour. Grace comes nearly all day. I swear, when I look at her, she is a flame. A flame of knowledge and life and stories and other lives far beyond this one. She is a Goddess, full of flame.



AUTHOR'S NOTE:
So, this is kind of both planning and an actual story. This is going to be a type of conclusion to my storybook (heh, sorry spoilers!)
My goal was to help bring Savanna back to the Universe, and I used the story The Banished Girls, in which the sister returns to the Goddess at the end. I love the character Grace, she's wonderful. SO I'm looking at drawing the parallel there!


WEBSITE:
http://www.wisdom-tree.com

Reading Notes

THE BANISHED GIRLS

• two sisters 
• poverty- prosperity 
• worshiping a Goddess 
• Amuna- stops worshiping Goddess once blessed, is cursed. 
• Jamuna- has always worshiped the Goddess. Convinces sister to return. 
• Amuna returns to Goddess, no longer cursed. 

Sacred tales of India