The Fezziwig News by Stu Jenks

Now available, on the Apple IPad: The Transpersonal Papers (1861-2010) and Bozo In Love

Been a long time coming for The Transpersonal Papers (1861-2010).

Three editors, two proofreaders, two designers, four printers, and hours, days, weeks, months, years, lifetimes, (I know I'm overstating), of writing, traveling, shooting, editing, remembering, hiking, and more writing, shooting, and editing, but I'm not complaining. No, no, no.

And apologies for not having the dough right now, to print The Transpersonal Papers as a coffee-table book as I had originally planned. ($10,000, it would have cost. Maybe someday.) But you now can buy it, for $14.95, as an Ebook on the Apple IPad, and I expect it to be available within a couple days on the Nook and the Kindle as well.

I just looked at it on my new IPad. The photos, text and design look grand.

And as an extra surprise, Bozo In Love is now up on IBooks too, ($9.95), as well as the rest of my catalog: Flame Spirals, Hoop Dancing, and Dementia Blues, on IBooks, Nook and Kindle.

Just in time for Christmas.

And don't worry. All but The Transpersonal Papers can still be bought as a book book through Fezziwig Press. I have plenty. Just go to www.fezziwigpressonline.com, for the hardbounds and paperbacks, but go to ITunes, today, (and Kindle and Nook, soon) for the ebooks.

Heavy sigh from my third story apartment balcony. I look out onto the Tucson city lights in the valley below. Cold, dry air embraces me. I inhale deeply. Exhale.

A very good night in the desert.

Think I'll make a cup of coffee with egg nog and play some Angry Birds on my new IPad.

Time to celebrate.

 

"Vortex at Cathedral Rock"

"Vortex at Cathedral Rock, Sedona, Arizona" (c) 2010 Stu Jenks

    Those of you who have read my essays over the years may think I’m a very Woo Woo kind of guy. Sometimes I talk to trees and I hear their voices. On occasion, I feel the presence of dead relatives and even hear them speak. I’ve had spontaneous visions of past lives. I pray often throughout the day and quiet my mind through short yet powerful meditations. My visits into the nocturnal desert shake my core in a Godly-sort-of-way. But I’m not nearly as Woo Woo as you might think.
    I don’t believe that I’m special in God’s eyes. I don’t magically believe that through my spiritual practices, harm will flee from me and light will always come. I’m just awake enough to avoid The Bad Guys. I don’t believe there is any Secret to prosperity. I believe success is a combination of hard work, good luck, what part of the planet you were born on, and what race, class and sex you happen to be. I don’t believe that I’m one of the Chosen Ones. I believe my closeness to God comes from my heart journeying into an often poor and despairing world, giving as I can, but not from any sense of religious entitlement from having sat on the lap of God or from a condescending pity for those less fortunate. It just feels good to give. I don’t believe that praying in a cathedral or making a stack of stones will cure me of cancer, cause my mother to not die a painful death, or bring back a past lover I still miss. I believe that Life is a wonderful, painful thing, and that prayer is about me getting right with The World, not God doing right by me.
    At one time, I thought God was a gumball machine: I put in the coin of prayer; I get back what I want. Those beliefs seem so much like those of a scared child now. I’m not in Spiritual High School yet (I’m still too much of a know-it-all.), but I do feel like I’m currently enrolled in God’s Middle School.
    But what does make me more Woo Woo than most is that I do believe if you go to a place, anyplace, be it a church in a square or a stream near a mountain, and you come with strong and focused intent to be closer to God, to Humans, and to All There Is, you will find a power of Love and Light there beyond what you would expect. You will be spiritually surprised. But it comes from the intent, not the place. Revelations can visit any of us at any time, whether we are surrounded by centuries-old stained glass at Notre Dame in Paris, or the weeks-old stench of piss and grease in the alley behind my favorite grill in Tucson.
    It’s about intent. Your desire to Give. Your willingness to Love. Your ability to Forgive.
    So stack your river stones high, metaphysicians of Sedona. Let the Woo Woo out. But know what you will most likely receive will be the knowledge that you are OK just the way you are. And from this new found wisdom, hopefully you will return to your loved ones in the village, bringing a grounded spiritual practice of Giving, Loving, and Forgiving.
    Chances are very slim that God/Goddess/All-There-Is will give you a million bucks.

    You’ll just feel like a million bucks.

"Hoop Dancing" [The Audiobook]

"Hoop Dancing" [The Audiobook] can now be purchased for $9.95 at My CDBaby webpage, as well as at ITunes. I'm quite happy with it. But perhaps you ask, "Stu, "Hoop Dancing" is a photo-memoir. How come an audiobook for a picture book?" Well, since I've been traveling a lot, shooting the world and all that, I listen to audiobooks while I drive. Now most times, I'm singing along to Ben Folds, or Dave Rawlings, or Neko Case or U2 as I journey about, but when it's late, dark and I'm on a lonely Interstate, I put on audiobooks like "The Lovely Bones", "Mountains Beyond Mountains," or "Into Thin Air." So, I love audiobooks. I hope you love audiobooks too, and perhaps you'll like this one as well.

...but it felt like Christmas in Zion...

"Stu's Dolmen"

"Stu's Dolmen, atop Cathy's Fault, Dripping Springs, Arizona" (c) 2010 Stu Jenks

    [This is where I would like to have my ashes placed after my death. (A service will be held at Grace St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Tucson as well, even though I'm more a Buddha boy than a Jesus guy.) My remains don't need to be inside of the small dolmen you see pictured above, but near it would be nice. Craig Acorn has the lead on this. His numbers are in my cellphone. Please place my current sobriety chip, my Angel Coin, and a copy of the key to my '88 Pathfinder (if I still own it) inside of the small tomb. Also, Craig, taken a couple dozen of the small pretty stones that litter my apartment and studio, and give them to any who would like to take a rock to the summit. And everyone, feel free to add any and all mementos that you would like to place inside or around the dolmen (The little tomb isn't very big, but there is room for small things.) Please come and visit me too, or at least tip your hat to me, as you drive north of Winkelman on Highway 77. The Bighorns and Mule Deer who graze there will keep me company during the day, and the starry sky will be my blanket at night, but I could always use a visit, every now and then, from a living human being. I don't plan on dying anytime soon, but I am 55, am on the road a lot, have been ridden pretty hard much of my life, and I do live on the happily-uncertain and unexpectedly-joyous planet call Earth. (Security really is the biggest illusion of all, you know.) Anyway, know that I love you all, and I mean all of you. And thanks ahead of time for taking me to Cathy's Fault, one of the most beautiful places in all the world, at least to me.]

"Dawn Break at Monument Valley"

"Dawn Breaks at Monument Valley" (c) 2010 Stu Jenks

[For even though this is a nice photograph, the best pictures are taken with the eyeballs alone.]

"Right Mitten in Fog"

"Right Mitten in Fog, Monument Valley Tribal Park, Utah/Arizona Border" (c) 2010 Stu Jenks

"Delicate Arch in Snow"

"Delicate Arch in Snow" (c) 2010 Stu Jenks

"Cochise's Head"

"Cochise's Head, Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona" (c) 2009 Stu Jenks

[Images from top to bottom: "Cochise's Head", "Standing Stone at Chiricahua National Monument", "Stones Along The Path, (After Parrish), "From Inspiration Point", and "Martha Ball Buick, from two miles away"]

"Circle For A Distant Lover" [Tomb of the Unknown Girlfriend]

 

"Circle For A Distant Lover, Foothills of the Catalinas, Arizona" (c) 2008 Stu Jenks

[Originally made this stone circle in the 1980's. Dismantled it in the 90's. Felt moved to remake it yesterday, inspired by a woman in my life today, who is far away. I miss her. The circle stands in a secret place high in the hills to the east of Sierra Tucson, a treatment center I went through and then worked at many years ago.

Fun Fact #1: As I left the hidden spot at dusk, I fell down and hurt my right quad muscle. Banged it hard on a boulder. I'm a limping man, this morning. Thank you, God, for the person who invented Ibuprofen.

Fun Fact #2: As I took these shots, I thought I'd call the piece, "Tomb of the Unknown Girlfriend" but I thought some wouldn't get the irony, the complexity or the joke. They might actually think I'd buried someone near those rocks. Comments are welcome. ]