Mushpa + Mensa’s Journey

Tags

belle and bear, Cara Reynolds, corona virus, covid 19, Craft Beer, el jefe, gay, hurricaine florence, lesbian, lesbians, Maria Emilia Borja, Maya the Magical Mobile Art Machine, Mensa, Mushpa, Mushpa + Mensa, NC Beer, NC State, organic cotton tees, organic t-shirts, robot girl, tuxedo cat, wilmington

Happy Thanksgiving Mushpa + Mensa Super Fans! We hope this newsletter finds you well in these 2020 times.

You may know us from when we used to travel up and down the eastern seaboard in our art truck Maya, the Magical Mobile Art Machine (our small mobile, solar powered tiny boutique) advocating for local, conscious, women-owned small businesses all over the world, all the while spreading our art, messages, laughter and love!

Things have changed a bit from then, for better or for worse in September of 2018, our art truck Maya was flooded during the destructive Hurricane Florence via North Carolina. Our little Maya was under 5 feet of filthy water and debris. She no longer started and was covered in black mold. It was her end and yet another new beginning for Mushpa + Mensa.

Yes, it did break our hearts, but we are firm believers that everything happens for a reason.  

Honestly, we are so happy to have discover Maya hidden in a corner lot in Staten Island, to have been able to transform her inside and out with our very own hands into the beauty she became. We are grateful that she took us on such great adventures, thousands of miles worth since we began in 2014. She was there for many a grand moment in our lives, always helping us spread our message of love to the masses. For that we are blessed.

Mushpa + Mensa did not give up their travels. We went back to tents, just like the good old NYC days. We kept touring and even made it to the Central Time Zone!

We did that for a year and then in March of 2020 came “The Pandemic” aka Covid-19 and all shows were cancelled until further notice. It is now nine months later and Thanksgiving weekend and we are thankful that our loved business endeavor has survived through it all! Nine months later and Mushpa + Mensa’s rebirth is a transformation from the streets to an amazing online presence thanks to all the support from our loyal customers and all the new ones we have found on this journey in the New World.new ones we have found on this journey in the New World.

We truly hope you see we love what we are doing, making a living selling our art, and get inspired to create change in the world through your own blessings and devotion to what you love.   We, Cara and Maria-Emilia, send love to all and a wish that we all stay safe this holiday season. Chins up, the vaccine is just around the corner.  

-Mushpa + Mensa (Cara and Emilia)

Just A Few Laughs

Tags

bowling, Cara Reynolds, Happiness, hedgehog, inspiration, laughs, laughter, lesbian, Maria Emilia Borja, Mensa, Mushpa, Mushpa + Mensa, Mushpa Y Mensa, Pepper vs Tuck, queer, The American Hedgehog Bowling Association, The American Hedgehog Bowling Association - Pepper vs Tuck

Hedgehog bowling and not in a bad way… Please it’s us.

So cute.

-Mushpa

Killing Eve…I’ve Got Issues

Tags

Amadeus, AMC, BBC, Cara Reynolds, Elena Felton, Eve, Eve Polastri, Fiona Shaw, gay, issues, Jodie Comer, Killing Eve, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, lesbian, Mushpa + Mensa, Oksana Astankova, queer, Sandra Oh, serial killer, villanelle

You got hands like oceans.

-Mushpa

P.S. – BBC thank you for Killing Eve.

Sooooo good.

Gay in 5 Minutes

Tags

Chinese food, dating app, dog, Fortunate, fortune cookies, gay, lesbian, lesbian short film, Mushpa + Mensa, OML, One More Lesbian, queer, take out, Tristan True Giallani

You need a quick break?

Simple and sweet.

-Mushpa

Say It Like You Mean It!

Tags

30 day challenge, 30 day prayer, energy, God, Goddess, good podcasts, i am blessed, i am prosperous, i am stron, i have faith, joel osteen, podcasts, Prayer, say it like you mean it, say so prayer, say so sermon, source, spirituality, tools for spirituality

If you are into podcasts, and spirituality, maybe you’ve heard of Joel Osteen. I’m sure there’s politics around him. He is a white male with money and success. Honestly though, I don’t want to google that today. It’s so easy to find fault with everyone on the internet, probably even Mother Teresa, that I am choosing to bring only positivity into this post.

I just happened to stumble upon his podcast one day, and truly he is a wonderful speaker.  I got hooked. If you want to feel good, and need a little spiritual restoration, and want to uplift yourself, try him out. There is somethig about him that reaches into you, digs deep, connects and doesn’t want to let go… and you want to keep listening. Even if you are a “liberal latina spiritual lesbian” like me (which is not who I truly am…but that’s another post on human existentialism I won’t go into today).

In the episode/sermon “Say So” he speaks about the importance of saying things out loud, and he finishes the sermon with a blessing. This morning I typed it down, and adapted it a little bit for myself. I have printed it out and hung it in my room, where I will committ to recite it outloud every morning along with my meditation practice.

The blessing is a follows:

Say it like you mean it: 

I am blessed.

I am prosperous.

I am strong.

I am healthy.

I am talented.

I am creative.

I am competent.

I am secure.

I am disciplined.

I am focused.

I am attractive.

I am well liked.

I have a good personality.

The right people are in my future.

The right opportunities are headed my way.

I will accomplish my dreams.

I will overcome every obstacle.

2019 is my year.

Things have shifted in my favor.

God is about to show me something that I’ve never seen.

It’s going to be

bigger,

better,

greater

than I ever imagined.

I am safe in the hands of God.

I am present today.

I am here now.

I have faith.

 Amen

Do it too. Print it out. Put it up in your wall, in your bathroom, in your notebook, next to your desk, your bed, your altar. Just make it happen. Try it out with me for the next 30 days. This is another step I am taking for myself to live more in the moment, to fill me, and to truly just be.

Hope this fills you up too.

Much love,

Mensa

Happy Six Years of Us

Tags

6 years, anniversary, candy, Cara Reynolds, iron, Jah Cure, Maria Emilia Borja, Mushpa + Mensa, Never Find, our next house

That’s right.

– Mushpa

Viva Menstruation!

Tags

blood, connection, female, Feminism, God, Goddess, magic, menstruation, moon cycles, new moon, period, spirituality, taboo, teal swan, women

Cheers to those 3,500 days of our lives that we bleed!

 

In honor of the upcoming new moon on Thursday, here is a little love from Teal Swan.

And in honor of all the women that have this magic energy inside us.

We have it, so let’s tap it and lets make miracles with our blood!

Much love,

Mensa

 

Get Up Get Down

Tags

Amelia Meath, Bob Boilen, Cara Reynolds, Colin Marshall, Come Down, Dine Alone, Electropop, Emma Breg, Flock of Dimes, H.S.K.T., Happiness, Hey Mami, indie pop, Kevin Wait, Loma Vista, Made of Oak, Maggie Starbar, Maggie Starbard, Megafaun, Morgan McCloy, Morgan McCloy/NPR, Mountain Man, Mushpa + Mensa, Mushpa Y Mensa, music video, Nick Sanborn, NPR, NPR Tiny Desk Concert, Partisan, Sylvan Esso, tiny desk, Trekky

Today’s music brought to you by Sylvan Esso.

Hey Mami…

They are a local band from Durham, NC who made it big! :] North Carolina has so many great things! Watch out NYC, we have nerdy hillbilly coolness AND nature! We’ll call ourselves the Big Tobacco, the City that Sometimes Sleeps. Okay, that’s not so cool.

-Mushpa

 

 

She’s Looking Through The Wrong End Of The Telescope

Tags

Andrew Burri, Berklee School of Music, Berklee School of Music alumni, Bob Boilen, Brooklyn, Brooklyn NY, Cara Reynolds, Chic Band, Christopher Parks, Danny Molad, Denise DeBelius, Don't Just Sit There, female music, Genevieve, Go Home, Holly Laessig, Jess Wolfe, Kevin Wait, Lauren Rock, Lucius, Mushpa + Mensa, Mushpa Y Mensa, music video, New York City, NPR Tiny Desk, Peter Lalish, Ryan Smith, Turn It Around

Turn it around.

Feels like a curse.

Sounds likes a dream.

Don’t know what it means.

But it means everything.

Two of us on the run.

I can be the one who’s going insane.

A bike ride from our place in Brooklyn. We ate here so many times.

I love ya girl.

Took me 5 years to find them…but I did.

-Mushpa

Jump

Tags

2017, 2017 Sundance Film Festival, AXEL DANIELSON, Brave, humans in doubt, independent filmmakers, Jump, MAXIMILIEN VAN AERTRYCK, Mushpa + Mensa, New York Times, Op-Docs, Sundance Film Festival, Sweden, Ten Meter Tower

Mushpa + Mensa talks quite a bit about the stuff you see out there on the World Wide Web and TV that isn’t always super positive. We want to make Mushpa + Mensa’s blog mad positive. We want to show humans at their best and/or most beautifully vulnerable. We want to build up, not tear down, unite not divide.

Now that we’ve said all that, here is something to start us off, the “Ten Meter Tower“.

Like I always say, it’s about the jumping, as long as you jump, you may not end up where you expect, but you’ll always end up somewhere better than where you were.

Love it.

– Mushpa