Connected and Committed

sunflowers

It's been one of those days. I inadvertently left my son's medicine out of the refrigerator and didn't notice. For several days. Kept giving it to him, mind you. No excuses. I have a Master's degree. I am the daughter of a pharmacist. Very sad state of affairs. However, the pharmacy that agreed to fulfill a replacement prescription from out of town went to bat for me with the insurance company so the original was voided rather than my paying full price for the second one. To all the great health care alliance professionals out there, we salute you.

cards

Little Man is big into Yu-gi-oh!. The complexity of the strategy involved in actually playing with these cards boggles my mind. I have to say I enjoy looking at them though. These are some of my favorites, which I would transform into my own unique deck of Alignment cards:

Bait Doll: sort of a talisman for enticing what I want into my experience. Of course I know that, for me, it takes focus and allowing for these things to show up, so this doll would help me do that.

Seven Tool of the Bandit: The image on this card is a slightly sinister Swiss army knife. I can imagine something along those lines with Alignment tools at the ready in your pocket, or purse, or at your computer.

Brain Control: More focusing on what I want more than what I don't want. Play this card and the negative thoughts dissipate.

Malice Dispersion: Play this card and the negative stuff dissipates even faster.

Release Restraint: When you are noticing that what you resist persists, play this card.

Back to Square One: This is a Get out of Jail card in a way, something to remind you of what you are about here on this planet, what your work is, what it is that makes you and you alone feel good.

Shift: 'Nuff said.

Magic Drain: Oh, the possibilities. A swirling vortex of negative thoughts flowing away. Do over.

Compulsory Evacuation Device: Our guidance systems sort of do this when they clue into the fact that we aren't paying attention, and then ramp up the intensity of the message they are sending. This would be for when we just aren't up for the challenge anymore.

The Reliable Guardian: Oh yeah.

Remove Trap: Get out of our own way. Pronto.

Supply: Endless.

Having developed a complex system of beliefs, we become more interested in defending them than in knowing what is true. 

Translucent Revolution

Ah, but when your curiosity begins to question those beliefs, like, are they really true? Do they serve me still as they might have back in the day? When you can deflate them like a balloon, with that much fanfare and drama, then we're talkin'.

little man

Little man is here for a stretch, and we are scouring the known universe for stuff to do in the afternoons. This is what we found yesterday:

Little man walks into the room and in front of the projector lens, and viola! the magic of science. 

Way cool.

And then there is the obligatory lesson on the food pyramid:

Ew.

your custom riverbed

   

The water will flow through your custom riverbed. -  The Translucent Revolution

magic

beer truck

Pretty nice ambience for the outside of a beer truck, eh?

seasons

Three minutes a day - less light for three minutes a day - it's showing up when I go for my walks in the morning, and turning on lights now in the evening. During a recent trip to the dollar store, there were Christmas decorations on the walls for sale, and this was to be had at Joanne's:

Whatever. I feel like hibernating. I feel like a bear who follows the pull from nature to go crawl in the cave and be still for awhile.  Not because there are Christmas decorations on the wall in August, although that would be probable cause. Just feeling slow. And quiet.

windchime

"Right now I've got Eckhart Tolle, the Tao Te Ching, Cosmopolitan, and a thriller on my bedside table. They seem to betting along just fine."

The Translucent Revolution:How People Just Like You Are WAKING UP and CHANGING the World

LOVE. THIS. BOOK.

joanne's

blue vase

it worked

So the post I did a few days ago about waiting and reaching way-y-y-y-y-y-y-y down? - well, it worked. The end result was the desired result and the news arrived yesterday, so I'm taking partial credit for getting it to happen sooner rather than later.

And of course on my walk this morning, there were all kinds of ideas popping into my head for a workshop/ecourse experience that I've been wanting to get started on. Palpable shifts are powerful, man. Let me know if you want to be in the focus group.

meme

Received this meme to use with your own personal stash of books:

"Instructions:

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 67.

3. Find the ninth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.

5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest."

....so what I grabbed off of the available shelf:

"Here's what's interesting: Both Kroger and A&P were old companies (Kroger at 82 years, A&P at 111 years) heading into the 1970s; both companies had nearly all their assets invested in traditional grocery stores; both companies had strongholds outside the major growth areas of the United States; and both companies had knowledge of how the world around them was changing. Yet one of these two companies confronted the brutal facts of reality head-on and completely changed its entire system in response; the other stuck its head in the sand."

from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't by Jim Collins

I like to see what shows up in synchronistic/totally random-but-not-really instances like this. Another message to keep my head firmly above the sand, on the beach, dealing with reality as it is, not what I'd like reality to be.

waiting

Waiting to hear whether or not something is going to happen the way you want it to - that is by far one of the most difficult things to endure as a human. Difficult because our minds are not trained to focus on what we want, so we wander over into the "What If?" section and try on a few scenarios for size, mixing up the vibrations and sending mixed signals to the celestial satellites.

I'm reaching way-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y down with a particular something at the moment. I'm picturing it going the way I want it to - stamp of approval, boxes checked, "Yes" 's noted, weeks down the road with said decision slam-dunked. The chessboard of life with its events, circumstances, and people lined up for my benefit, they are all there, just waiting.

For a shift. A palpable shift.

 

troll

from Hank

"We live on the edge of the miraculous every minute of our lives. The miracle is in us, and it blossoms forth the moment we lay ourselves open to it. The miracle of miracles is the stubbornness with which men refuse to open themselves up. Our whole life seems to be nothing more but a frantic effort to evade that which is constantly in our grasp."

~Henry Miller

"Stolen" from Keri Smith's blog. I don't think she would mind :~)

Last night I was standing in line to pay for something, and the woman next to me said,  "Would you mind cutting my hair tonight like yours?" Referring to my short-shorn locks.  Hers were longish, up in a confined ponytail to help deal with the heat.  I get many complements on my hair, and shared commiseration that they just couldn't ever try it themselves because A) their head isn't the right shape (wha'?), or B) they aren't brave enough. This was the first time someone requested my assistance in their experiment, and the first time someone requested to touch my hair. I had to explain that my clipper was many miles away, but I was sure that any barbershop would be more than willing to use theirs with #3 and #2 attachments.

And it was fine, touch my hair.  Who knows?  Somewhere out there tonight there may be a woman with a smile on her face because her hair is exactly the way she wants it to be.  Imagine the world-wide shift in happiness should that apply across the planet.

fundamental choice

from Robert Fritz's latest newsletter:

A real choice means we can do it (whatever the it is)
or not. If you must do it, you have no choice.
Some people use the word "choice," but they don't really
mean you can do it or not. Sometimes they think that a
choice is forced upon you, and if you don't do whatever
the it is, you will pay a price until you wise up,
and finally make "the right choice." The thought here is
"yes, you have a choice to get it wrong, pay the consequences,
and finally come to your senses and do the right thing." But
this is not in the spirit of a true choice. It is just a
life-manipulation which presumes there is a "right" path
and you must take it; this notion of choice is held
by those who have some dogmatic belief system that they feel
is the only truth. They think anyone with a different view
will eventually be forced to adopt their worldview.

But in life we do have many choices we can make. Some of
these choices can make all the difference. If you haven't
made the fundamental choice to be a non-smoker, any method
you choose will eventually fail. If you have made the
fundamental choice to be a non-smoker, just about any method
you choose will work, and you will be attracted to those
methods that work especially well for you.

Fundamental choices are about orientation, states of being,
the ground you stand on. There are four major fundamental
choices we recommend to people. They are:

The choice to be healthy
The choice to be free
The choice to be true to yourself
The choice to be the predominant creative force in your own life

.......

Like all fundamental choices,
once made, any processes
they choose can be made to
work, and they are
especially attracted to
those methods that work
particularly well for them.
Other may think of them
as committed, but they are
conscious that they are
organizing their lives around
their deepest values and
highest aspirations.

Once you make a fundamental choice, everything changes,
even if everything looks the same. You are on solid
ground and you no longer are subject to the changing
circumstances that life brings. Your creative process
is driven by the generative love of the outcomes you
desire to bring into the world, and the situations you
find yourself in are simply the raw material you begin with.

Robert Fritz 2006

***************

My apologies for the weird spacing that came up in the automated email that I copied this from.

Can I get an amen? This notion of fundamental choice that Fritz describes, I refer to in my personal cosmology as crossing the line in your head. You KNOW when it is no longer acceptable to continue with a particular experience or circumstance, and there is a palpable response in your body when your mind has made itself up to make a change, starting right now, and it's going to happen. Case closed.

What I love about what Fritz has to say is the part where "you will be attracted to those methods that work especially well for you." I believe that phenomenon exists, the methods that work especially well for me, and not necessarily for anyone else, because that fundamental choice has been made and it sends out waves of intent to the universe, and the magic starts happening - people, circumstances and events  begin stockpiling on the chessboard of life, and as long as I get vigilant about those joy-pullers washing my body-mind with the essence of what truly makes me happy, well, then there's no stopping them from manifesting.

I start looking for what cool way something is going to show up - what person is going to bring a fun and interesting twist to the mix, what incident or material thing that will so outshine what I could possibly conjure with my puny mortal mind/expectations.

These joy-pullers though - that seems to have my attention these days. Just a few years ago I didn't understood the purpose of feeling joy - only that it happened once in a great while, and it felt good and that I'd like for it to happen more often if possible, please. What is dawning on me now is that, to quote from PostSecret: "I'm starting to realize that we live in order to change someone else's life." When I'm clued in to who I really am and what makes my heart sing, I get to show up in other people's live and contribute to their joy-pullers. How cool is that?! Deciding to go for the joy helps keep things moving, expanding, getting better on the planet. The alternative - hanging out anywhere else on the emotional scale for any length of time, and observing the effects - well, it doesn't contribute squat to me, or anybody else. And it's boring. 

So, back to the joy-pullers. Anything qualifies that makes you feel energized, wanting to play, at peace with yourself, that plumbs your gut/inner guidance and comes up smilin'.  I've started collecting past joy-pullers - events that I remember experiencing with joy and that I can look upon as future inspiration when I'm not feeling so joyful these days. I'm writing them down on paint chip samples from the hardware store, mostly because color is a big joy-puller for me. 

It's amazing how the energy changes when you focus on one of these puppies. Remembering how you felt at the time, and appreciating that to the fullest extent of the law. A few weeks ago I was in heaven remembering a surprise party my fifth-grade class and I gave for our teacher, whom we loved to death. We tore up scads of pieces of construction paper for confetti, and recruited other teachers as partners in crime to get her out of the room so we could make our preparations. Then I was reminded of the rendezvous we all had at her apartment at the end of the year. I don't remember any of the details, just how cool it was that a teacher would invite the entire class to their apartment for a party, and how much fun that was.

That joy - right there - that's what I want. More than anything. As often as possible. And it's so within my power to choose.