Free Space: the magickal place of Not Knowing, devoid of systems and seething with potential. Some call it center, others call it being connected - whatever it is, it's where everything begins and nothing exists. Some create this Space of Freedom by turning off the ringer, locking the door, sitting motionless, closing their eyes and basically shutting out the world (there is a fine line between meditation and escapism). I confirm, this method is effective though rarely for myself (I mean, when is something brilliant not happening in this jet-fuelled imagination). And try as I might to create some Free Space through meditation, today just wasn’t that day.

Fresh air and sunshine for a good little cleansing girl coupled with the banishing symbolism of today's Dark Moon, led me to the fabulous Hollywood Forever Cemetery for exercise today. My fragile attempt at inner peace however was thwarted by high powered sneak attack sprinklers making sure the late directors and actresses would not miss a morning without blossoming roses framing their headshots - dramatically engraved in Hollywood Forever marble. And if I hoped that later, during a massage my attempt at passive serenity might prevail, I changed my mind when the young Thai woman, massaging me with one hand, answered her cell phone with the other.

On Day Two of the Chaos Cleanse, I drank 2 glasses of apple cider vinegar tea, 2 glasses of hydrated barley powder, 2 liters of water and now, typing in an anonymous corner of the local artists' coffee shop, I am relishing the warmth of 2 fish bowl cups of spicy Yogi tea. I took in half an avocado (and savored every minute of it!) and sucked on a few crystals of Celtic sea salt for some unexplainable craving-acknowledged reason (cravings have a purpose sometimes, you know - like getting you to eat what your body knows it needs). I hiked one hour in that star studded hardly spooky most fabulous of fabulous cemeteries, did a half hour of ballet floor barre, sweated profusely through a 90 minute Bikram Yoga class, and wrapped up the physical activity with an equally star studded 90 minute Thai massage. I felt true hunger not once and passing cravings only twice.

In Bikram Yoga we did a lying posture, knees pulling towards chest (in my case, ears). The instructor translated the name of this position as Wind Letting Pose, whereby one embarrassed class member promptly demonstrated the appropriateness that defination. Perhaps this is Eros, Greek Goddess of Discord, helping break down my systems by throwing salt in the batter of my seriousness.

I close my eyes now at the cafe, hear teenagers flirting - the spitting of an espresso machine. I feel passers by glancing art hanging above my head and feel a strong wind barging in the open door. It all collision wreck collides into a mess of indefinable Chaos, from where the only thing left to do is create.

Reduction is one path to Free Space. Immersion is another.

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