Posts
February 28, 2011
Word Work
Word prompt for today...Leaven v. Levity. Both are rising agents. Leaven (like baking soda) is great for raising dough into delicious bisquits. Levity is great for raising spirits. See how you can use both words in a paragraph you write of your own experiences. Then make a drawing of a bisquit and a smile. Or maybe a smile wrapped around a bisquit. No matter how you approach words, always remember to play with them because they have the ability to raise your own spirits.
Mardi Gras in New Orleans
OMG, Wednesday, March 2nd, Ancient Druid's Parade!!! So cool! Hope to post pictures later this week. Meanwhile, just google ancient druids parade New Orleans or go to this link.
"11 Krewe of Ancient Druids - New Orleans, LA Mardi Gras Parade ... Comprised of Carnival veterans from several other Orleans Parish parading organizations
www.mardigrasparadeschedule.com/krewes/druids/ "
"11 Krewe of Ancient Druids - New Orleans, LA Mardi Gras Parade ... Comprised of Carnival veterans from several other Orleans Parish parading organizations
www.mardigrasparadeschedule.com/krewes/druids/ "
February 27, 2011
Re-Purposing
I used to think I was just cheap. I reuse everything. In fact, I am too cheap to buy one of those fancy computer fans but my computer gets really hot when I have it on my lap. So I thought about it and realized my plastic chopping board (which I never use because it is impossible to keep clean) fits right under my computer and keeps my legs a whole lot cooler.
I also wanted to organize my cook books which were just stacked on the counter. I also was getting ready to throw out my old wooden dish rack which never really worked for all my dishes. One thing let to another and now my cook books are on the top rack of the disk rack and my paper towels are on the cup holder part of the dish rack. So three items are organized instead of just the cook books.
So if I want to make cookies or stew, I can pull out the right book and get started. And if I make a mess on the counter, my paper towels will stay dry!
I also wanted to organize my cook books which were just stacked on the counter. I also was getting ready to throw out my old wooden dish rack which never really worked for all my dishes. One thing let to another and now my cook books are on the top rack of the disk rack and my paper towels are on the cup holder part of the dish rack. So three items are organized instead of just the cook books.
So if I want to make cookies or stew, I can pull out the right book and get started. And if I make a mess on the counter, my paper towels will stay dry!
Stormy Weather -- Not Just a Song
One of the advantages of having fibromyalgia is that I know when to turn on the Weather Channel to confirm why I hurt. It's true. I can predict bad weather. I always used to laugh at the folk tales about folks who claimed they could make these predictions. Old Wives' Tales, Hah! Bah! I don't laugh anymore. I just hope that the tornadoes predicted in the swath of states tonight and tomorrow are not as powerful as predicted. Fingers crossed everyone.
Favorite Fun Website for CatGeeks
http://www.catslikefelix.co.uk/ This is the link for a massively fun website located in the UK. Purina/Nestle created it. Check it out. Felix is a really cute animated cat who walks all across the screenm meows and has lots of ways you can play with him. So if you are stuck inside an office and miss the sounds of a cat, pull up Felix for a quick cat fix.
February 10, 2011
Push Rewind in Time for Valentines' Day
Ever notice that when you stop doing something for a while -- like riding a bike or writing in a blog -- restarting the activity is often harder than when you did it for the first time? Expectations are a big part of all of our lives and we expect to be able to hop in and do just as well as we did before we stopped. It is no wonder that weekend atheletes are always nursing sports injuries.
Have you stopped doing what you love because of the economy, disappointments or health? I know how you feel. It is so hard to rewind the hope, faith and find the heart to go on. But as a wise friend once told me, just do one thing a day. A letter, looking at a job board, a small bit of writing, a small bit of work and keep going. Pretty soon when you look back you will see that all those scraps you have piled up are actually achievements you can point at and use to create more passion for whatever you are searching for.
Stay in the fight, the game, your life,
Have you stopped doing what you love because of the economy, disappointments or health? I know how you feel. It is so hard to rewind the hope, faith and find the heart to go on. But as a wise friend once told me, just do one thing a day. A letter, looking at a job board, a small bit of writing, a small bit of work and keep going. Pretty soon when you look back you will see that all those scraps you have piled up are actually achievements you can point at and use to create more passion for whatever you are searching for.
Stay in the fight, the game, your life,
July 15, 2010
Resonances
True Ghost Stories and Paranormal Articles
True Ghost Tales
Most people know of at least one ghost story that has been told as being true ... of ghost stories and for those of you who like to interact with others who are ... Ghosts have been known to move things around, or even to hide objects. ...
www.trueghosttales.com/
I reference this site since I have experienced weird stuff. My experiences are mostly physical, feeling and hearing. I don't often see things. I call these experiences 'resonances' but I am not sure whether this is the correct term. I am only a novice in this field after all.
The only two times I can remember 'seeing' ghosts were when the family ghost (doesn't every family have one? Just saying....) reached down for me as I reached the top of the stairs at my house. I was five at the time. He seemed sad but kind. The really interesting part of this tale is that when I reported this to my family they said that many of the family who had lived in the house had met ghosts in it. My father said he'd met a woman who appeared upstairs in the back bedroom I shared with my sister and that my great grandmother had also met this ghost.
I felt things in this house -- fear of the bathroom and the hallway leading to it which had an opening to the back stairs. I also heard steps coming up the backstairs and through the common room each night. I learned to read early and often to try to stay occupied while this was happening. I'd even put a chair under the doorknob at night. My folks soon put a stop to that. My poor sister had to put up with me asking her to tie herself to me with shoelaces so that when the monsters under the bed tried to take me, he/she/it would also get her. My theory was that we would be together. Bless her heart, she only put up with this a couple of days.
At 12, I had several memorable experiences in the kitchen with a poltergeist bouncing pots full of boiling water off of the stove and onto the floor while the family was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Thankfully none of us were burned though we all saw it happen.
When I was at university, my dad always knew when I was coming home from university because his bed would jump up and down. My dad weighed over 200 pounds at that point adding more heft to the usual weight of the bed, mattress, headboard and covers.
At 17, my sister went to college and I was left alone. I started hearing breathing from her empty bed which came to a crest at 2 am on Easter Monday. That night started with breathing in my sister's bed, only much louder and gruffer than usual, then the usual footsteps up the back stairs started and continued through the common area to the front of the bedroom I shared with my sister. By the way, my parents slept downstairs so I was all alone upstairs. Two women appeared at the end of the bed when the footsteps stopped. They said, "let us help" and there I was, frozen in fear. Literally. I rallied and sat up, waved my arm towards the door and tried to tell them to get away because I thought they wanted to force me to kill myself. A fearful thought. Then the breathing in the bed next to me started to get louder and louder at which point I ran through the two figures at the end of my bed and went downstairs to my parents' bedroom. They were already awake because of the noises upstairs and came immediately to my aid. My dad went up the backstairs with his service revolver and my mom and I went up the front stairs to corner whatever was making the noise. Nothing was there but the sounds. I stayed the rest of the night in my parents' bedroom listening to more footsteps throughout the night.
Later we learned that there had been a double suicide in the 1890's in the house of two women who were cheated out of the house by what they called a 'tombstone skinning lawyer.' A volunteer at an local art gallery where my mom also volunteered told her about these ladies and about the attorney and brought her to the deed/will where the words appear. I need to verify that the attorney was working in the town at that point and that he had access to the womens' legacy and took over the house when they died. But whatever these forces were, they lessened when my folks updated the kitchen (the oldest part of the house) and later updated the upstairs area. The upstairs bathroom still gives me the creeps, though, so whatever was there continues to this day.
Two other episodes happened in January 2000. My mother died and I knew it and woke up before the phone call. Later in the month, when I took my girls to my mom's memorial service at the church we attended, my youngest was skipping down the aisle on the way from the service and had her feet hauled out from under her, causing her to land flat on her back in the passageway. The family was all around her and several of them commented that this was the doing of my grandmother who was interred at the church in the columbarium. I tend to believe that.
Later on in 2002, I was checking my girls' rooms in the late night when I made a wrong turn and fell down the stairs in the dark. I karoomed into the wall on the far side of the stair rail and 'felt' a hand support me as I bumped down to the front hall. I only cracked a bone in my wrist. Hurt like the dickens but then again, I was alive for it to hurt. So I take the good with the bad. I always knew the house had angry resonances of other people who had lived on the land there. But this energy was different from the background resonance I usually felt. It was a gentle energy and not an angry force.
After my mom-in-law died in 2008, she was unhappy with me and hauled me off my feet in my new rental where I lived. I know it was her because I had just returned exhausted from sitting shiva in Baltimore. As I had 'cleared' the rental of any prior resonances, I know it wasn't anyone else. I took my bruised ribs and back to the doctors who appreciated the damage but were unsure of why I fell. Their hypothesis was that I was exhausted by her death and the stresses of sitting shiva with some of the most hostile people I'd ever met who came to sit with us in Baltimore. All Very True. But still ....
So how do we protect ourselves from angry or sad resonances??? I know, for me, that I absolutely have to recognize when I am picking up anger from those around me and learn various ways to shed the anger through meditation and writing about it.
I pick up lots of feelings from others -- don't we all? And often I act angry not realizing that the anger is not mine but someone else's. My advice? Stay focused when you drive because drivers' express their anger in how they drive and anger is a powerful force. Also realize that the corporate telephone systems we use when calling to ask for help -- the dreaded phone system of pressing 1, 2, 3 or 4 to access a human -- are tailor made to make callers furious. Please recognize that and put the anger aside if at all possible. Just don't carry the anger of others around with you. Anger weighs more than than you think it does.
True Ghost Tales
Most people know of at least one ghost story that has been told as being true ... of ghost stories and for those of you who like to interact with others who are ... Ghosts have been known to move things around, or even to hide objects. ...
www.trueghosttales.com/
I reference this site since I have experienced weird stuff. My experiences are mostly physical, feeling and hearing. I don't often see things. I call these experiences 'resonances' but I am not sure whether this is the correct term. I am only a novice in this field after all.
The only two times I can remember 'seeing' ghosts were when the family ghost (doesn't every family have one? Just saying....) reached down for me as I reached the top of the stairs at my house. I was five at the time. He seemed sad but kind. The really interesting part of this tale is that when I reported this to my family they said that many of the family who had lived in the house had met ghosts in it. My father said he'd met a woman who appeared upstairs in the back bedroom I shared with my sister and that my great grandmother had also met this ghost.
I felt things in this house -- fear of the bathroom and the hallway leading to it which had an opening to the back stairs. I also heard steps coming up the backstairs and through the common room each night. I learned to read early and often to try to stay occupied while this was happening. I'd even put a chair under the doorknob at night. My folks soon put a stop to that. My poor sister had to put up with me asking her to tie herself to me with shoelaces so that when the monsters under the bed tried to take me, he/she/it would also get her. My theory was that we would be together. Bless her heart, she only put up with this a couple of days.
At 12, I had several memorable experiences in the kitchen with a poltergeist bouncing pots full of boiling water off of the stove and onto the floor while the family was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Thankfully none of us were burned though we all saw it happen.
When I was at university, my dad always knew when I was coming home from university because his bed would jump up and down. My dad weighed over 200 pounds at that point adding more heft to the usual weight of the bed, mattress, headboard and covers.
At 17, my sister went to college and I was left alone. I started hearing breathing from her empty bed which came to a crest at 2 am on Easter Monday. That night started with breathing in my sister's bed, only much louder and gruffer than usual, then the usual footsteps up the back stairs started and continued through the common area to the front of the bedroom I shared with my sister. By the way, my parents slept downstairs so I was all alone upstairs. Two women appeared at the end of the bed when the footsteps stopped. They said, "let us help" and there I was, frozen in fear. Literally. I rallied and sat up, waved my arm towards the door and tried to tell them to get away because I thought they wanted to force me to kill myself. A fearful thought. Then the breathing in the bed next to me started to get louder and louder at which point I ran through the two figures at the end of my bed and went downstairs to my parents' bedroom. They were already awake because of the noises upstairs and came immediately to my aid. My dad went up the backstairs with his service revolver and my mom and I went up the front stairs to corner whatever was making the noise. Nothing was there but the sounds. I stayed the rest of the night in my parents' bedroom listening to more footsteps throughout the night.
Later we learned that there had been a double suicide in the 1890's in the house of two women who were cheated out of the house by what they called a 'tombstone skinning lawyer.' A volunteer at an local art gallery where my mom also volunteered told her about these ladies and about the attorney and brought her to the deed/will where the words appear. I need to verify that the attorney was working in the town at that point and that he had access to the womens' legacy and took over the house when they died. But whatever these forces were, they lessened when my folks updated the kitchen (the oldest part of the house) and later updated the upstairs area. The upstairs bathroom still gives me the creeps, though, so whatever was there continues to this day.
Two other episodes happened in January 2000. My mother died and I knew it and woke up before the phone call. Later in the month, when I took my girls to my mom's memorial service at the church we attended, my youngest was skipping down the aisle on the way from the service and had her feet hauled out from under her, causing her to land flat on her back in the passageway. The family was all around her and several of them commented that this was the doing of my grandmother who was interred at the church in the columbarium. I tend to believe that.
Later on in 2002, I was checking my girls' rooms in the late night when I made a wrong turn and fell down the stairs in the dark. I karoomed into the wall on the far side of the stair rail and 'felt' a hand support me as I bumped down to the front hall. I only cracked a bone in my wrist. Hurt like the dickens but then again, I was alive for it to hurt. So I take the good with the bad. I always knew the house had angry resonances of other people who had lived on the land there. But this energy was different from the background resonance I usually felt. It was a gentle energy and not an angry force.
After my mom-in-law died in 2008, she was unhappy with me and hauled me off my feet in my new rental where I lived. I know it was her because I had just returned exhausted from sitting shiva in Baltimore. As I had 'cleared' the rental of any prior resonances, I know it wasn't anyone else. I took my bruised ribs and back to the doctors who appreciated the damage but were unsure of why I fell. Their hypothesis was that I was exhausted by her death and the stresses of sitting shiva with some of the most hostile people I'd ever met who came to sit with us in Baltimore. All Very True. But still ....
So how do we protect ourselves from angry or sad resonances??? I know, for me, that I absolutely have to recognize when I am picking up anger from those around me and learn various ways to shed the anger through meditation and writing about it.
I pick up lots of feelings from others -- don't we all? And often I act angry not realizing that the anger is not mine but someone else's. My advice? Stay focused when you drive because drivers' express their anger in how they drive and anger is a powerful force. Also realize that the corporate telephone systems we use when calling to ask for help -- the dreaded phone system of pressing 1, 2, 3 or 4 to access a human -- are tailor made to make callers furious. Please recognize that and put the anger aside if at all possible. Just don't carry the anger of others around with you. Anger weighs more than than you think it does.
June 17, 2010
The Tale of the Mouse
As everyone who reads this blog knows, I rescue animals. Ok, ok, perhaps not cockroaches when they march inside my place but very close to everything else. I accept no excuses for not rescuing animals...not even when it comes to excusing my reckless endangering of backyard wildlife.
So today a lesson learned and my humble apologies to scaring a field mouse almost to bits. I left the door open when the cats & I went out to play and a mouse came in uninvited. When I back in with the cats, they had a marvelous time trying to find the mouse but he stayed away until this evening. And tonight it was a one sided battle with the cats winning paws down. My big cat Rory (seen above) caught the mouse and paraded in front of me with his jaws full of mouse. The mouse got lucky because I threw a blanket over both of them and got the mouse (that I thought was dead) away from the cat.
I even got the mouse back into the wild (well, the front yard actually) after I found him trying to get out of the kitchen trash can where I had stashed him away from the cat. He seems unhurt and hopefully will find his way to the backyard from the azalea bush.
All safe for now in this corner of the world.
So today a lesson learned and my humble apologies to scaring a field mouse almost to bits. I left the door open when the cats & I went out to play and a mouse came in uninvited. When I back in with the cats, they had a marvelous time trying to find the mouse but he stayed away until this evening. And tonight it was a one sided battle with the cats winning paws down. My big cat Rory (seen above) caught the mouse and paraded in front of me with his jaws full of mouse. The mouse got lucky because I threw a blanket over both of them and got the mouse (that I thought was dead) away from the cat.
I even got the mouse back into the wild (well, the front yard actually) after I found him trying to get out of the kitchen trash can where I had stashed him away from the cat. He seems unhurt and hopefully will find his way to the backyard from the azalea bush.
All safe for now in this corner of the world.
April 25, 2010
faith and cats
Kindergarten never taught me anything. What I have learned about life -- really learned -- has come from working with animals. Newfoundland dogs first and now cats -- lots of cats. I herded cats for 2 years at the FOHA facility, rescued dogs from kill shelters for Truck-N-Paws for 2 years and now live -- as the servant to 3 cats. Like I said, Kindergarten taught me nothing -- but cats and dogs have taught me everything. From letting go to persistence in going after a goal to the zen concept of holding with an open hand. The basics to the degree program of life.
My latest goal -- integrating, socializing and regifting with faith -- is my first cat. She is still very shy and creeps about when she is unsure but today she got into the backyard on her own. No harness, no leash, no collar. Really scary for me because I wasn't sure if she knew where her safe place was. I have trained my other two cats to know that inside the house is safe and outside is not. And they have faith in me on that -- at least my SUV big cat does. My mid-size cat knows but doesn't want to admit it. And my small smartcar size cat is beginning to understand that she can trust the inside as well.
For me today the lesson of life is trust. Trust in knowing the cats well enough to let them experiment being outside together.
My latest goal -- integrating, socializing and regifting with faith -- is my first cat. She is still very shy and creeps about when she is unsure but today she got into the backyard on her own. No harness, no leash, no collar. Really scary for me because I wasn't sure if she knew where her safe place was. I have trained my other two cats to know that inside the house is safe and outside is not. And they have faith in me on that -- at least my SUV big cat does. My mid-size cat knows but doesn't want to admit it. And my small smartcar size cat is beginning to understand that she can trust the inside as well.
For me today the lesson of life is trust. Trust in knowing the cats well enough to let them experiment being outside together.
April 23, 2010
Karma is a funny thing
I got to do my favorite thing today...find information in courthouses. Perhaps I like courthouses because my dad had an office in one when I was growing up so the smell of linoleum and concrete is familiar. Or maybe it is the smell of legal papers. It was just nice to be back in a courthouse today. And it was a beautiful spring day. Lilacs were starting to bloom and people were just outside reading briefs or eating lunch.
Yesterday we had a change of luck and people actually reached out to help us set up the office properly after 6 weeks of feeling like we were invisible. So today it was my time to get helped personally at the first courthouse I got to. As readers of this blog know, I get lost easily. I looked lost when I was walking over to the courthouse and two women went out of their way to find out where I was going and make sure I got there. Sweet people. Then later I was able to return the favor with a different woman at a different courthouse who was lost and needed help. An all around feel good kind of day.
Is it karma that works or is it just a beautiful spring day that brings out the best in people? I suspect karma is in the eye of the beholder. I am just grateful for it today. My karma box was getting kind of empty after the last 6 weeks.
So when kindness happens to you, pass it on.
Namaste
Yesterday we had a change of luck and people actually reached out to help us set up the office properly after 6 weeks of feeling like we were invisible. So today it was my time to get helped personally at the first courthouse I got to. As readers of this blog know, I get lost easily. I looked lost when I was walking over to the courthouse and two women went out of their way to find out where I was going and make sure I got there. Sweet people. Then later I was able to return the favor with a different woman at a different courthouse who was lost and needed help. An all around feel good kind of day.
Is it karma that works or is it just a beautiful spring day that brings out the best in people? I suspect karma is in the eye of the beholder. I am just grateful for it today. My karma box was getting kind of empty after the last 6 weeks.
So when kindness happens to you, pass it on.
Namaste
Very Cool
Just discovered a service that can turn this blog into a book. Yay!!! And it is offered by google!!!!
Actually,
Actually, I do recall the last time when people came together as individuals (and strangers to one another) and helped. It was 9/11 and I was driving home after the Pentagon attack in D.C. I turned onto the wrong road and had to backtrack to get out of the city. I had gotten lost on the access point to the Teddy Roosevelt Bridge which is usually relentlessly difficult to navigate. So normally this is a suicidal tactic. Streets come so fast and drivers come so quick that accidents happen fast because no one driver has the patience and kindness to look beyond themselves while they are on the road. But that day was a light in time that continues to shine in to the present. Other drivers stopped and let me get turned around. So here is a shoutout to those that helped. I know that now I give other drivers plenty of room to get in, get around and try not to get upset when I get cut off. I have a bumper sticker that keeps me from getting upset at people who are honking at others...this really used to tick me off. My sticker says "Honk If You Don't Exist."
It helps me take a moment before getting upset to wonder whether they are honking in a friendly, geewhiz I get like the bumper sticker or whether they are honking because they are idiots.
Just food for thought
Namaste
It helps me take a moment before getting upset to wonder whether they are honking in a friendly, geewhiz I get like the bumper sticker or whether they are honking because they are idiots.
Just food for thought
Namaste
Hmmm, why is it easier...
Actually this experience with the office move has been food for thought. Why is it easier for people acting in groups to become callous and cold towards those they are (supposedly) helping? Why does belonging to an institution make people act afraid of acting with kindness towards others?
I used to see this behavior in cats at the Shelter. New rescues would come in and after the obligatory period in isolation would go into the main cattery area. Resident cats are an iffy lot when it comes to meeting new cats. Standoffish doesn't begin to describe it.
All I know is that I am eternally grateful to the people who eventually reached out to help fix the problems caused by the incompetence of others.
Thank you for restoring my faith in the best of individuals reaching to help.
I used to see this behavior in cats at the Shelter. New rescues would come in and after the obligatory period in isolation would go into the main cattery area. Resident cats are an iffy lot when it comes to meeting new cats. Standoffish doesn't begin to describe it.
All I know is that I am eternally grateful to the people who eventually reached out to help fix the problems caused by the incompetence of others.
Thank you for restoring my faith in the best of individuals reaching to help.
A Shirley Temple View of Life--The Little Princess
Oh, if I could just have the sense of faith that Shirley Temple has in this movie. The entire experience of managing an office move, fighting with the phone/computer companies and finding out that an honest broker is not to be found in today's world has shaken me. I believe the best of experience was meeting people who could and did step out of their institutional roles to help. People who rise up and help make things better are more heroic than is given credit. Perhaps because of the last two days when they stepped up to step in have been a lesson for me in the value of persistence and belief in myself. And perhaps a better belief in the heroism of peopl when they act individually instead of collectively.
April 14, 2010
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen | Worse Than War
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen | Worse Than War
My god, this is the most powerful view of genocide I have ever watched. And believe me, I have watched plenty of programs on holocausts. But Goldhagen is different. He is the first one to link all genocides together. From Pol Pot, Hitler, Tutsie, Armenian, Bosnia and others, he weaves a compelling case for genocide being an integral part of the human experience. He then goes further an explores ways to stop them since the countries of the world consider status quo more important than intervention in the internal affairs of a country--even when massive numbers of humans are being exterminated. He has done the research, he has talked with mass murderers to hear their side, he is the more thorough historian and activist I have seen so far. May he inspire many more!
March 31, 2010
Campus visits
We're off to see the campuses of 3 universities this week. Eeeeeek! From checking to make sure the cats will be ok while we are gone -- thank you, Ana!! to getting the car filled up and the windows washed for the long drive to printing up campus maps, direction maps and creating folders, it is a campaign worthy of Napoleon's assault on Mother Russia. So eeeeeeek!!!
Happy Passover everyone and Happy Easter to everyone else.
March 6, 2010
March 3, 2010
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