Connected and Committed

meeting a stranger

We die to each other daily. What we know of other people is only our memory of the moments during which we knew them. And they have changed since then. To pretend that they and we are the same is a useful and convenient social convention which must sometimes be broken. We must also remember that at every meeting we are meeting a stranger.

from T. S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party

This happened to me yesterday.

In the morning, I was one person.

And by the afternoon, I was in a completely different frame of mind. I attribute this particular transformation to listening to an especially resonating new Abraham cd on the way to work, and to recent energy transfusions I've been exchanging with a particular person.

I was blissed out and sure of the universe's love for me on a level that I've visited only a few times, briefly. I could see the next logical steps to take on several projects, and I could feel limiting beliefs dissolving away.

This session lasted a few hours. Thoughts and realizations zinged across the sky of my mind like so many falling stars and shooting comets, and with as much stunning pyrotechnics.

Never mind that Target doesn't carry the underwear that I wanted to buy anymore. Never mind that several locations of Cost Plus are closing in my area. I was unperturbed in my blissmongering.

Right here is where, in the past, I would have begun grasping at the vapors of this experience to try to make it stay, last as long as possible, duplicate it, bottle it.

Not this time.

I know that it will be back, and it will be better when it does, just like this one was.

When peace of mind opens up its arms and takes you in (or more accurately, when you open up to it), the relief and the ecstacy is astounding. No wonder we want that to hang around forever.

But what's left after it's gone isn't the enemy. It's more bliss. Cuz it just is.

That's the crazy thing about this enlightenment stuff. You race around pursuing an end that you fabricate in your mind, and what you're looking for is right there, inside, all the time. Even when you're convinced of the opposite.

It doesn't care how long it takes you to figure it out, either.

It will wait as long as it takes.

Here's to dying to yourself today.

expectations

So I'm catching myself focusing on an interesting facet of this 30-day intention thing.

Which is cool, because my intention this cycle is to deflate limiting beliefs.

I assumed all kinds of creative energy would be unleashed when I gave myself more time in the morning by getting up earlier, and getting to bed earlier.

Well, that's not what's been happening. And we all know that old adage about what assuming something makes you and me.

Don't get me wrong, there certainly have been bursts of creative expression along the way.

But there's something else going on here that I didn't anticipate.

I'm feeling rested.

I'm exploring energy and the directing of it in ways I wasn't aware of before.

I'm watching circumstances and people and events manifesting in my life at a pace that has my attention because of the fluid, organic, next-logical-step-ness of it.

I've been apprenticed as a wanna-be cat-owner.

I'm pulling my energy back from potential wildgoose chases, because I know where the chase will lead.

I'm being, more than doing.

So this perceived lack of creativity I've been thinking about, I think it's just getting channeled differently. It's there, with different clothes on, and I don't need to know the how or when of what's next with my producing out there in the world.

Which makes me wonder what will show up as my next intention.

Cuz it will rock.

You are magnificent because....

It's my experience that it's always been easier to tweak these bloody limiting belief gremlins where they live and kill them with kindness in others more so than it is to do it for myself. So while I constructed this list in response to turning around someone else's negative self-talk tapes, I'm thinkin' that my subconscious will soak it up too:

You have transformed what was once perceived as a devastating loss into one of the most perfect gifts to yourself that you could imagine.
You have always honored the creative goddess inside you.
You are so much more than the waifs you don't look at anymore on magazine covers.
You have abundance all around you, and you see it every day.
You honor your needs by changing your mind as each situation warrants it.
You speak your truth.
You are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them.
You honor your capacity for stimuli and what feels right.
You allow your feelings to be.
You fight the good fight of staying awake to what the culture would have you asleep for.
You know on a cellular level that life begins at 40.
You don't buy into artificial standards of worth any longer.
You shine when the time is right.
You are drop-dead gorgeous.

back to it

Back to work today.

I'm observing where I let my energy go as I ease back into this work-a-day life, monitoring when I send some off on a wild goose chase and calling it back before I do myself psychic or immune-system-affecting harm.

Goal-setting activities for the year are due today and I just put the finishing touches on mine. No need to obsess about them, since they represent a checkmark on someone else's list to me.

What jazzes me more is following the path of becoming more and more of who I really am - I wonder how that kind of goalsetting would fly in HR? Lately the spotlight in the interrogation room has been focused on confronting limiting beliefs, questioning their validity, seeing the ridiculousness in how Belief A does not compute with Reality B. Picturing a belief as my reflection in the water looking down from a dock, and I can just as easily walk away from it and erase it forever as stand there and maintain it. Watching the belief dangle from a string that’s held between my fingers over the Grand Canyon, just a nano-second away from being let go of, floating away to the bottom on the breeze.

Until one day, as a friend so aptly put it, "Oops. Guess it must have fallen in."

rewind

I just woke up from another one of those dreams.

I’m in Rome. I’m on a break of some sort and have made plans to travel somewhere. I’m with several people I know and we are about to get started on a trip together. But all of a sudden they’ve headed off without me. I discover as I attempt to catch up with them, thinking I know the general direction in which we were all to go, that I am missing several basic pieces of travel paraphenalia - passport, cellphone, credit card, umbrella. I have a box that I’m tucking my few personal belongings inside. While I’m walking along, trying to get to where I think my friends will be, I consider just stopping and taking a break by myself. Fnding them now will be nearly impossible.

Then I wake up.

I have this dream now and then, variations on the same theme. I’m in Rome, I need to get somewhere, and I can’t get there because of some obstacle. I think it’s very interesting that this time dropping the obstacle is an option.

The other dream I have on occasion is being in a teaching environment, and I can’t find my gradebook, or the seating chart, or no one will tell me where my classroom is, or the students are rowdy beyond control. My buddhist monk brother with a day job tells me that he has this kind of anxiety dream still as well, where he is on the submarine he rode around the world on for awhile in the Navy and things go wrong.

I think dreams reflect where we are at any given time with our stuff, and I'm glad to see this shift, however minute it may seem. Next time I'd like to realize in the dream that I can take whatever course of action I can conjure, and walk off into the sunset.

the crud

So I've stayed home from my day job for two days now, nursing myself back to health from a bout with The Crud - sinus stuff that aggravates a sore throat. Sleeping, drinking hot water with lemon and cayenne, and taking some over-the-counter stuff too I think is covering all the bases. I do feel better, although not quite where I want to be.

All in due time.

I watched some of the solar ecplise last night before I crashed again. I wondered what went through the minds and hearts of early man when they saw this kind of thing rocking their perceived world. Punishment from the gods, the world falling apart, or just something cool going on up in the heavens?

Of course we'll never know, but I'd like to think they took it all in stride, like dealing with sabertoothes.

Just like I'll be feeling better here in a day or two.

that sleep thing

So it's been a bit longer than 30 days, and I'm thrilled to report that my intention to go to bed by 9:00 PM and get up at 5:00 AM has been a success.

Once I crossed the line in my head to do it, I've experienced almost a craving to keep to that schedule, and look forward to getting up that early. My alarm goes off at 5:00, in the form of the digitized sound of rain falling. I might lounge in the warm cozy goodness of my bed for awhile, and then I get up. I incorporated using a light therapy box, a first generation Litebook I found on craigslist, into the routine a few weeks ago. Half an hour when I first get up and again at mid-afternoon, and I think this is adjusting my circadian rhythms so I am truly tired when I am supposed to be, and awake when I am supposed to be.

I also received a nudge from the universe about buying a memory foam pillow - not the kind with the contours, but the slab version. Amazing difference in sleep.

I find that I'm not so focused on getting ready for work and what time I'll be leaving, either. I leave the house at a different time every day, and it doesn't really matter. Traffic is quite cooperative most of the time as well, which I take total credit for.

When the 30-day mark was reached, the group I'm playing with in the intention sandbox unanimously chose to continue on with each other as new-found cheerleaders and friends, creating new habits and attitudes in our lives in that supportive framework. I'd highly recommend that arrangement when you decide to choreograph change in your life. Transformation is powerful stuff, and it's better shared.

spice is nice

dawn

celebration

Holy crap.

My first time out of the marketing copy chute, with my urging and knowing I recommended some messaging for our flagship product’s cover for next year - the company I work for makes coupon books, in case you were wondering - four little words on the cover, but what’s more important behind that is the process and the intention to affect what goes into decision-making for this kind of thing.

Anyway, the concepts were mocked up, and that’s what my coworkers and I held up high last month at the sales convention for the field reps to vote on. There was a clear winner, and then messaging became an issue when Legal got a hold of it. They were concerned that it was too similar to Walmart’s or Target’s tag lines, and sent the concepts out to counsel specializing in that kind of thing. I let go of it then, thinking that it would die the death of many a great marketing idea.

However, last night I learned that it came back with a green light. It’s a go!

---- ----. -- ----.

Four little words that I can't say out loud yet, but they mean so much to me. Not in terms of our product - it’s great if people buy the book and use the coupons and save money - but in terms of attitude and outlook from an energetic perspective. I’d like to think that energy will infiltrate each person’s personal space and change them for the better. That’s what I wanted it to do when I made the suggestions. But we’ll keep that our little secret here. This phrase will be touching a few million people’s lives in a few months…

I went to Whole Foods and bought myself a dark chocolate with ginger bar to celebrate. The sun is out today, and the snow from last night is melting. I’m so excited about spring coming……

Yesterday, upon getting a cosmic nudge to try a memory foam slab pillow, I picked one up and slept on it for the first time. My waves-on-the-beach alarm sound went off, and an hour later I got up, it was that cozy. I still managed to squeeze in my stretching exercises and the lightbox session anyway. I am so happy that this will be a great addition to my sleep intention!

Had a great online chat with DC this morning - that was fun! She passed along some wisdom about snakes:

“Snake comes to you at a time when you are heading for change. You are ready to explore the mysterious, voyage where you have never gone before, whether in the physical world or in the depths of the mind and soul. People with Snake medicine know the power of renewal. Snake sheds his skin, leaving it behind and slithering away completely renewed. Snake people can do the same, shedding their dull layers to reveal a brilliant new self underneath.

“Snake people are also creative and have strong psychic/intuitive powers. Snake represents the silver cord that connects the physical body to the astral body, so Snake people may also be especially adept in astral travel. The snake is a symbol of Goddess energy and he will protect you from religious persecution.”

This info feels important because over the weekend while I was with my friend M, there was a wooden snake in one of the book shelves, the kind that is articulated enough to let the snake “slither” while you angle it. Awesome stuff.

Self-enhancement seems like an incorporated entity now. It feels like it’s internalized and a welcome member of the family. Of course it will wander and get lost on occasion, cuz that’s just how these things seem to go.

But that’s all good. It is how it is. Perfection is no longer the goal. Bouncing back, choosing differently, being amused at my ego’s travails, is.

who I really am

Couldn’t concentrate worth a damn today. And it wasn’t because I was thinking about “him”. It was because I was thinking about “me”.

This is it, right here, where I meet the mother of all limiting beliefs–-in relationship. Based on previous experience, (some) men leave, and it’s because of something that should change in me that makes that happen. Well, I know better now that yes, it is something in me that needs to change, but not to get them to stay, because obviously they weren’t who I am supposed to be with, that is clear.

What needs to change is how fully I show up as who I really am. Period.

Who I really am knows that there is no value in fear.

Who I really am knows that should this not last, it was not meant to, and that my casting director is always busy lining up the rest of my life for me as we speak, tweaking and adjusting as I change and grow.

Who I really am knows that “he” is practically craving that I show up that way on a soul level, tickled to death that he is honored to have such a fine partner to play with.

Who I really am sees this opportunity and runs with it for all I’m worth, holding nothing back and leaving nothing out.

Who I really am thinks this is about as much fun as a soul can possibly have.

Who I really am understands the value of receiving this gift.

Who I really am is delighted that I’m catching up to her with this experience, as she’s been eagerly anticipating this meeting of the soul-body-mind for a very long time.

Who I really am sings the body electric.

exotic

Just thought you'd want to know

Everyone can have it all.

-- Alan Cohen

***********

There is more than enough for everyone.

Everyone's dreams can be accomodated.

There are enough resources to go around.

My receiving what I want does not preclude anyone else from receiving what it is they say they want.

And vice versa.

My playing it small does not in any way assist anyone else in getting what they want. It gums up the works, throws a monkey wrench in all the pertinent casting directors' efforts.

In fact, it just makes it more difficult for everything to come together the way it's supposed to.

So I'm knocking it off.

Just thought you'd want to know.

electricity

in case you forgot

The reason for desires, goals...for finding those decisions or points of focus, is because they are the life-giving things of the Universe. Without objects of attention, or objects of desire, Life Force does not come through any of us.

-- Abraham

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

In case you forgot. Cuz you might have.

That energy you feel all hunched up behind the letting in of your desire, that's Life Force.

It's rarin' to go, to get this party started already.

That can feel kinda scary, I know. I feel that way too sometimes.

But more often than not, my curiosity helps me get over that hump and move on with it.

Cuz it will, eventually, whether you cooperate or not.

Trust me - it's much more fun when you cooperate.

How to Start Over

1.
resist the temptation to wipe the slate clean entirely.
you cannot do this.
you are where you are.
but you can dust. you can mop. you can cleanse your belly
of all the heavy cheeses you ate at last month's holiday parties.
you can initiate the day with decaf.
you can rake four batches of leaves from the lawn.
you can sing, loudly, in the car to no one
but the man on the radio who is singing with you.
you can decide that the apple pie you are craving
will not come from your hands, your oven, your kitchen,
but from the bakery aisle at your neighborhood grocery.

2.
ignore the titles from the self-help shelves and glossy
women's magazines, with their sound bytes of colorful insight.
you do not need a makeover, a diet, a religious conversion.
you do not need to get more in touch with your feelings.
you do not need potassium, or St. John's Wort, or a colonic.
you need a walk, communion with shore birds, a rainstorm,
a glass of wine in front of a fire, lip gloss, a whole evening
of the novel you read only incrementally, at night, before bed.

3.
ignore the calendar, the clock, the larger itineraries
ticking their niggling bits of time.
you will sleep when you need to.
you will know when it is time for water, for a shower,
for a phone call, for a kiss, for solitude, for Indian food,
whatever nourishment you need for your throat, your ears,
the palms of your hands, the hunger just under your skin.

4.
imagine, despite your unbearable faults and fissures,
you are still a thing of beauty, a rare creature, a snowflake,
a singular, spectacular atom circumnavigating the tangled astronomy
of your life the only way you know how.

Maya Stein

Maya6

recipe

Mining the moment for something that feels good, something to appreciate, something to savor, something to take in, that's what your moments are about.

They're not about justifying your existence.
It's justified. You exist.

It's not about proving your worthiness.
It's done. You're worthy.

It's not about achieving success.
You never get it done.

It's about "How much can this moment deliver to me?" And some of you like them fast, some of you like them slow.

No one's taking score.

You get to choose.

The only measurement is between my desire and my allowing. And your emotions tell you everything about that.

-- Abraham

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

This is a recipe worth passing down from generation to generation. I can picture the cookbook it resides in, spattered with flour and oil, perhaps a singe mark or two from the coils on the stovetop, well worn pages and cracked spine.

All the indications of active usage and participation.

limiting beliefs

Crappy exposure, but I don't want to wait til the morning light to post this.

About a year ago I put this note up at work and at home. When I caught myself thinking a thought that didn't serve me, I had this in my line of sight and could help myself refocus. Inside the binder are notes I've received since becoming an online presence, notes of appreciation and testimony to all that I bring to people, just by being who I am.

It made a difference.

So do you.

nudges 02.06.08

I am so happy and very grateful for:

1) Being able to identify that it's the glee behind the gratitude that energizes me and gets me beyond the heaviness of "I should be grateful";

2) Looking back to my life a year ago and how different it is now, what cool people I've met, what interesting things I've found to do, what self-enhancing beliefs I've created;

3) Meeting Todd, who introduced me to Susan, who attracted Cris and Charlie and ea, who brought along Carla, who introduced me to the diva sisters;

4) Change;

5) Savoring and anticipating who I get to play with this weekend and what might happen;

6) My son, who is the source of so many realizations and shifts that I make;

7) The Red Food banquet that will be happening in a few hours a few feet away from where I am typing this--I brought Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Curry;

8) Totally choreographed-by-my-casting-director conversations that revive and inspire me, like discovering that some people smell their life's purpose;

9) William Hull.

Hull's Revenge

I don't intend to sully this visualization with the word revenge, but it sounds fun so bear that in mind as you read on.

The aforementioned description of the British slight-of-hand against Mr. Hull that temporarily determined the fate of Fort Detroit at one point in time has been tickling the funny bone of my self-enhancing beliefs campaign today. I've been envisioning me in the place of Mr. Hull while he watched the shenanigans of his English counterpart, and sending this soul message across the field of battle: "Listen, Dudes. I get it that you think this is real life-and-death here, honor for country and all that. But that allegiance is no longer valid. I see what you're doing. I see the manufacturing of fear, doubt, worry, where there is none. I see you attempting to maintain your position--after all, it's one you've been accustomed to for who knows how long. I see it all now, and I appreciate the fervor based on your buy-in to lack mentality."

They stop what they are doing and sheepishly look at each other, realizing the jig is up. We all start to laugh and enjoy the vibe we create with each other. I suggest some alterntaive activities that our collaborative energy would be better suited for, and they drop the weapons where they are, to be grown over by the grass and flowers and vines.

This party is just getting started.

make more plans

Be easy about it. Don't rush into things. Savor them more. Make more plans and be more deliberate and specific about the plans that you are making, and in all that you do, let your dominant intent be to find that which pleasures you as you imagine it.

-- Abraham

*********

This message is coming at me from all directions lately, and I'm paying attention. Really, I am.

As I'm typing this, a really bright light is shining (lol!! I just got the irony of that) to my right in the form of a light therapy box. I bought it last week after reading about how it can help reset your circadian rhythms, of which mine are apparently are all out of whack. After four days of exposure to this light, I think I am seeing a difference in how I feel, especially in the late afternoons. So I'm going to keep it up, and see what happens.

This tidbit from history has grabbed my delight bone and won't let go:

Brock began bombarding the Americans inside the fort and fooled the Americans into believing there were more British than there actually were. For instance, soldiers were told to light individual fires, instead of one fire per unit, thereby creating the illusion of a much larger army. The British troops were marched in plain sight of the American side, then quickly marched off and ducked behind entrenchments, where they would join the front of the line again. The same was done for meals, where the line would dump their beans into a hidden pot, then walk to the front to pick them up again where they could be seen. To the observing U.S. forces, it looked like long lines of troops were waiting just out of their sight. He also gave his militia uniforms of regular army soldiers to make Hull believe most of the British force were regulars. Tecumseh's warriors did likewise, and made loud war cries.

Brock sent a message to Hull that included a threat: "The force at my disposal authorizes me to require of you the immediate surrender of Fort Detroit. It is far from my intention to join in a war of extermination, but you must be aware, that the numerous body of Indians who have attached themselves to my troops, will be beyond control the moment the contest commences…"

Brock's plan worked better than he thought it would. Hull didn’t think that his troops could hold out against a force of what he thought were thousands of British regulars, and, hearing the Indian war cries, began to fear the worst. Women and children, including his own daughter and grandchild, still lived inside the Fort. Against the advice of his soldiers, Hull flew a white flag of surrender. He sent messengers to Brock asking 3 days to agree on terms of surrender. Brock replied he would allow him 3 hours. Hull was relieved from his governorship, and although he was court-martialed and sentenced to be shot, he was pardoned by President Madison. He retired to Newton, Massachusetts and published two books in the hopes of clearing his name.

Hull surrendered his entire force along with 39 cannon and 2,500 muskets. Two large detachments in the area were even surrendered.

**********

I love the slight-of-hand on the part of the British. I love how this perspective of the event wasn't mentioned in any of the other recountings I came across on the internet while researching Mr. Hull for my son's social studies presentation. I love how even back then, and probably back to the beginning of written history, someone was attempting to clear his name after a truly wacked out circumstance.

Do not mess with what belongs to other people and not expect the law of reciprocity to kick in, dude.

continuing the meme

Zura at Creative Clown has tagged me with the Seven Oddball Things meme. So  I’m supposed to write seven weird things about myself. Oh, where to begin :-)

1. Instead of buying a high school class ring that I knew I wouldn't wear past September following graduation, I bought filigree gold band that I knew I would.

2. I live in a small two-bedroom apartment because I'd rather spend my money on things I want to do rather than all the stuff and expense that go into homeownership.

3. I love black licorice, salt and vinegar kettle chips and cumin.

4. At the age of nearly 48 I've learned how to knit.

5. I shop at thrift stores for environmental impact reasons, but I also have a lot of fun doing it.

6. I sleep in a loftbed that I made myself with the help of a friend.

7. The word "Knowing" is painted on the wall in my living room, which is really my studio.

Anyone interested in continuing the meme, follow your bliss!

#7

Joan again

Was this a decision, a choice? In some sense, yes. It was predicated entirely on the notion of choice. And yet, despite all my best efforts, somehow this choice was not available until the moment when it actually was. In the deepest sense, it happened by itself.

The person who appears to be choosing this or that is a disguise, a costume, a mask behind and through which Consciousness operates. When "you" believe in the reality of the disguise and lose sight of who is pinching who, then "you" enjoy the Divine Drama: the struggle, the horror, the hope, the advances and the setbacks, the whole apparent adventure, including the whole fascinating quandary of whether or not "you" are free to choose. When it is seen ( buy no one) that there is no one behind the mask, then the pincher and the pinched dissolve together. The hand moves away effortlessly. The dilemma evaporates.

Or maybe the pinch continues. After all, not every flower blooms, and only in the mirage of personal identity does this appear tragic. Consciousness (or God) has an interest, it seems, in experiencing absolutely everything; even failure, even addiction, even the holocaust. Unconditional love embraces it all, just as it is.

...Gradually the mind was being forced into a corner, and it was begin seen that liberation had nothing to do with improvement. That dream of getting control at last and finally triumphing is the Last Big Hope, the final disappointment. We no longer believe that a million dollars or an academy award will bring us lasting peace and happiness, but we still imagine that our ersatz version of enlightenment will. We're still taking the phenomenal dream and the "me" character to be real. We've switched from a worldly movie to a spiritual one, but we're still in the frame of duality and personal identity, trying to get somewhere in the movie. Even trying to get out of the movie is only another movie, featuring the same illusory main character. True enlightenment is not final victory; it is final defeat. It's outside the frame.

Identifying as Joan and seeking improvement is agitation. Peace allows everything. But it's not that peace is good and agitation is bad. Agitation can be fun. The story of being bound and trying to get free is a very entertaining story. Hollywood has made billions on it. The movie arises and disappears. The agitation comes and goes. Awareness accepts it all. There is never really a problem. The rope only looks like a snake. Look deeply into agitation, and you find only peace.

There is no choice because there is no thing at all. That word (enlightenment) truly points only to this that never arrives and never leaves. The mind just can't quite believe it. It's too simple. Too transparent. Too all-inclusive. It is literally beyond belief. Right here, right now. Just as it is.

....If you hear yourself thinking, "I've tried awareness over and over, and it doesn't work, I'm still smoking," that's thinking, thinking about awareness. It's thinking about "you" (a thought) using something called "awareness" (an idea) to achieve an imagined result (another idea!) That's not awareness; it's wishful thinking, followed by frustration and despair. Awareness isn't looking for any results or feeling depressed by past failures. That's all thought activity. Awareness sees without commentary or judgment. It has no agenda. It accepts everything as it is.

Suffering is an illusion that somethings needs to be different. Awareness is all-inclusive. Nothing is left out. Paradoxically, it is this very quality of total acceptance that has the power to dissolve all suffering. It's a great joke, a great mystery that the key to transformation is the complete acceptance of what is.

it's all good

Whenever in doubt, Debra, claim it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly, and your power will be restored.

The Universe

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Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

Responsibility, Debra, is power. Never had anything to do with Keds or Cheerios.

Story People

I don't mind being a temp, she told me. It reminds me of my priorities.

time travel

Quantum Physics 101

The present is defined by a confluence of your thoughts, Debra, otherwise known as your beliefs. The future is what you experience when your beliefs change. Time measures how much energy or effort you require to change your thoughts, or, the degree of conflict between old and new thinking. And space shows exactly what you're now thinking about.

And the one, universal, immovable, unifying equation that sums up all things physical and metaphysical, is.... Thoughts Become Things. Which is all you really need to know.

TBT,
The Universe
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Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

Yes, time travel is very possible, Debra, you're doing it now.

red flags and sirens going off

Perception is a mirror, not a fact.

-- A Course in Miracles

provoking

The courage to wonder about other life-perspectives than presently held, Debra, unprovoked by people and circumstances, especially when they may contradict lifelong convictions, takes not only a spiritual giant with a child's curiosity, but a blazing desire for more of everything life has to offer.

Yeah, you have it nailed.

The Universe

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

You can have more, Debra, you can even have it all, when you begin seeing perspectives you have never seen before.

***********

Oh, yeah, baby.

willingness

The more willing you are to receive, the more willing the universe is to give.

-- Alan Cohen

**********

Actually, I think this should be amended to say "the more the universe is then able to release what it's got in store for you." It's always willing to give. Heck, it's always giving.

nothing whisperer

Psssssst... Not that you ever would, Debra, but when someone tells their best friend about their difficult day, or how tricky relationships have been, or that they have a jolly good life in most regards except financially, not only do they relive the unpleasantness, but they commission all the elements to project into their future whatever they've been claiming. Besides, you'd never say, "jolly."

Better to whisper sweet nothings -
The Universe
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Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

Happily, Debra, it works even faster in reverse. Tell them about all that now serves you, however meager your portions, and it shall promptly multiply.

institutional living

Marriage is a great institution, if you don’t mind living in an institution.

-- Source unknown

***********

This often occurs to me when getting married again crosses my mind.

Needles, to say, living in an institution is not my idea of fun.

I think it's possible to have the best aspects of a marriage relationship outside of the confining, restricting, impeding nature of what our culture views to be a "normal" day-to-day existence.

Confining, restricting, and impeding just don't cut it.