Audio Blog Virgin

This is my first audio blog. I really ought to delete it because there really wasn't anything of note said, but I think I will leave it for the time being. Just getting comfortable with the idea of making recordings again.

When you figure, the possibilities are endless...actually 5 minutes long at a time. Right now I'm writing in the "edit html" section, where I normally don't go, but for whatever reason I couldn't move myself higher than the button in the other "compose" mode. I see there are gif's for the audio picture too. I might come up with something to coordinate with the site? Maybe. A flower or something? I might work on it this weekend. I think this could be especially useful with the other blog I'm mulling over: Learn to Channel

Just a Quick Comment

Just a quick comment.  It’s interesting that even with tri-focals I am not always spot-on with what I read.  I was just reading somebody else’s blog and they said, “fangirl” and I read, “fatgirl”.  Having just made it through the Thanksgiving holiday…perhaps that is on my mind.  

I was reminded, though, of how very important it is when you rely upon a spell-checker that you don’t just blithely accept whatever is suggested as a correct spelling.  For instance, once I had composed a letter to a man and at the end of it said, “I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”  I knew I hadn’t spelled inconvenience correctly, but was all set to rely upon ye olde spell-checker to bail me out.  Yikes.  In a flash of the eye however, inconvenience was changed to incontinence.  And, I had already hit the send button.  

That was when I learned I could delay sending emails by about 10 seconds and just have them sit around in my outbox for that long.  That’s all it takes to realize you’ve done the most embarrassing thing alive.  Since then having my emails sit there until I either hit send again or just allow the timer to count down has come in really handy.

By the way, I never did hear anything from the guy I’d sent that letter to.   Hopefully, he read it too fast to realize what I’d done.

  

Sea Foam Green

It’s done. What a job putting a new face on this blog was. I was really nervous it wouldn't work. Nice, though, I think. I suppose it’ll take me a bit of time to get used to it, but it’s the color of the suit I got married in, August 6, 1976 in Stuttgart. Dennis and me. What a trip it's been.

New Blog

I'm in the process of creating a new blog. This one will be to help people learn how to channel. But, I'm tired of blue. Blue is pretty, but blue is what I've done for this blog and for my website Talking To Spirit. And, I needed a change. Except, it's like walking around in new shoes. It just doesn't feel right yet. Right now the new blog, Learn to Channel is a buttery yellow. Also, I was able to get a template that was easy to fiddle with.

This is a header I made as an experiment for this blog. Not too sure what I think of it yet.

Quitting Smoking

I’m a sucker for subliminal recordings.  What can I say?  They work, though, I don’t know that they always work for the intended purposes.  It’s like using cough drops as a tool in my arsenal to quit smoking.  The cough drops were not intended to be sucked all day long, but I have to say when you suck on a cherry mentholated cough drop and combine it with a cup of black coffee you end up with a god-awful taste in your mouth that, strangely enough, reminded me of having just had a cigarette.  I did that for the first 3 days after I quit smoking.  It worked and I’ve not had a cigarette in 6 years.  

I remember how terrible it was to quit smoking.  I’d tried so many times to quit.  I can’t tell you why the last time worked when all the times I’d tried before had not worked.  The only thing I could say was that I kept trying to quit.  Now that I have the advantage of hindsight I can see that each of those failed attempts to quit were not actually failures, but were steps I needed to take to quit.  They were stages.  I really didn’t realize it at the time.  If I had, I think I would have tried more often to quit.  You’re talking to the number one person who can’t seem to do easily what everybody else does with ease.  Or, at least with style.  

I was horrible.  I was mean.  I was nasty.  I was terrible.  I gained 50 pounds.  I still want a cigarette every once in awhile, but the cravings aren’t as terrible now.  It’s just a passing fancy I get every once in awhile, generally when I’m stressed out.  But, it goes away.  I had no idea when I quit that 6 years later I’d still want a cigarette, but there you are.  It isn’t a crippling need, though.  I can get through it.  The cravings generally last all of 2 seconds.  And, then it is gone.  My sister quit smoking 20 years ago.  She said she still craves a cigarette when she’s in an elevator.  Twenty years later.  She gets over it too.

I’ll tell you, though, I’ve saved a lot of money.  Actually, I do remember now what the final straw was for me that made my resolve strong enough to quit smoking.  It was the money angle.  Whatever works.  Anyway, I just couldn’t justify spending as much money as I was spending on my cigarettes anymore.  

I can tell you my stats:  It’s been 6 years, 2 months, 5 days, 6 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds since I quit smoking.  I have not smoked 67,688 cigarettes.  I have saved $14,180.78.  I have saved 7 months, 3 weeks and 40 minutes of my life.  This comes from a little freeware program called LastQuit version 1.1.  Unfortunately, I don’t see that this program is available on the internet anymore.  But, there are others.  Quit Meter Counter is available from Download.com for $10 and, from the description, seems to do the same thing as my little program.  http://www.download.com/QuitMeter-Counter/3000-2129_4-10212373.html?tag=lst-4-6  

My husband would encourage me to look at it in the days just after I’d quit.  I really wasn’t interested.  Actually, I’d have chewed on a sock with more enthusiasm in those days, but I’m glad that I have it now.  Every once in awhile I pat myself on the back and have a look at those statistics.  

But, the advice I have for anybody trying to quit smoking?  Keep trying.  Try all sorts of things, one after the other, after the other.  The point is to distract yourself.  Save up some money to use as an “Indulge Yourself” fund while you are in the early stages.  Spend it on things to reward yourself because you’ve been good.  Spend time in places where you can’t smoke.  I remember I took a lot of showers in those early days.  Remember that each day you get through without a cigarette is bringing you closer and closer to the time that you can consider yourself smoke free and safe from relapses.  

Here’s a run through of what happens time-wise as you quit smoking.  This is from a reference article that came with my LastQuit program:

Quitting smoking can make a big difference to your health and the health of your family. While some benefits will take time, others are experienced almost right away.

Even people who have already developed smoking-related illnesses can benefit from quitting. Among smokers who have already had a heart attack, quitting smoking reduces the chances that they will have a second heart attack by 50%, compared to those who continue to smoke!
The message is clear. The sooner you quit, the more you and everyone around you will benefit.

Physical benefits of quitting smoking.

20 minutes after your last cigarette:
Your blood pressure drops to normal.
Your pulse rate drops to normal.
Your hand and foot temperature rises to normal.
8 hours after your last cigarette:
Your blood carbon monoxide levels drop to normal.
Your blood oxygen level increases to normal.
1 day after your last cigarette:
Your chances of heart attack and stroke start decreasing.
2 days after your last cigarette:
Your senses of taste and smell begin to heighten.
Certain nerve endings begin to re-grow.
Nicotine by-products are removed from your body.
3 days after your last cigarette:
Your bronchial tubes start to relax, making breathing easier.
Your lung capacity begins to improve.
2 to 12 weeks after your last cigarette:
Your walking and aerobic exercises become easier.
1 month after your last cigarette:
Your circulation improves.
You experience more energy.
1 to 3 months after your last cigarette:
Your lung function increases up to 30 percent.
Your bronchial cilia begin to re-grow, increased ability to clean lungs, reduce infection, clear pollutants.
Your overall body energy increases.
1 to 12 months after your last cigarette:
Your coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue and shortness of breath decrease.
2 to 4 months after your last cigarette:
Your risk of developing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease reduces by 5%.
1 year after your last cigarette:
Your risk of developing Coronary Heart Disease reduces by 50%.
2 years after your last cigarette:
You reduce the risk of recurrence of ulcers and improve short-term healing.
Your risk of death from heart disease declines 24%.
3 years after your last cigarette:
Your risk of heart attack and stroke approaches that of someone who has never smoked.
5 years after your last cigarette:
Your risk of developing mouth, esophageal, throat and bladder cancer reduces by 50%.
Your chance of dying from lung cancer decreases by half for one-pack-a-day smokers.
5 to 15 years after your last cigarette:
Your risk of stroke reduces to that of someone who never smoked.
10 years after your last cigarette:
Any pre cancerous cells are replaced by healthy, normal cells.
You have a 50% to 70% reduction in the risk of developing lung cancer.
Your risk of pancreatic cancer is reduced.
10 to 14 years after your last cigarette:
Your risk of developing Heart Disease drops to that of someone who never smoked.
15 years after your last cigarette:
Your risk of developing lung cancer is the same as non-smokers.
For Congestive Heart Disease, your risk reduces to the same as someone who never smoked.
Your life expectancy is as long as that of a non-smoker!

Thanksgiving was Great

I hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving day. Here’s what Dennis, Phil our next door neighbor and I had for Thanksgiving dinner. A spiral cut ham (that I think I might have baked too long, but everybody said it was good), Brussels sprouts, two different kinds of yams and stuffing.

I baked the yams the night before at 400° F. Good thing I poked them half way through because they didn’t end up taking an hour to bake. So, by the time I got ready to use them the next day they were really soft. But, still all was well. I sliced them into rounds and layered them with butter, brown sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar into a pie pan. At the end of my preparations somebody in spirit said I should sprinkle it all with pepper. I thought I was hearing wrong and said, “What?” They repeated the suggestion. I said, “You’re kidding!” Nope. They meant what they said and having said it a third time I shrugged my shoulders and said, “Okay, I’m game.” Though, I was going to withhold judgment until after I’d tasted them. Yeah, they were great!

Our second side dish of yams was contributed by friends who had read in my blog earlier that I was going to try some yams for the first time this year. It was also the first time I’d ever gotten to actually meet Krista and Abhay, though we’ve been “talking” via e-mail for many months now. On their way to their Thanksgiving Day dinner they stopped by and brought us our second dish of yams. It was great to meet them for the first time.

Here’s Krista’s recipe. Absolutely fantastic!

Krista’s Yams

Medium slices of yams, 3 or so yams, 1/2 - 3/4 c. of coconut milk and salt.... put this together in either an oven casserole dish or you could cook it on the stovetop too. Add on top a mixture of spices briefly cooked in oil: Heat 1T or so of oil ( a kind that won't smoke if heated to med. high), when it's hot, add all or any of the following - 3 or 4 cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, coriander seeds, whole black pepper and 3 cloves... then after they've sizzled for a moment add some powdered spices: 1/4 each - cumin, coriander, cayenne and turmeric. They'll cook instantly so right away take it off the flame and pour onto the yams and stir it a bit. I baked it at 350° for 45 min to an hour, mixing once or twice to baste them. If you don't have all of those spices around, you can either mix and match (it will taste good with any combination really) or you can also substitute a premixed spice mix if you want, the kind we use is "pathak's mild curry paste". It is actually really, really good and about 1/2-1 T is amazing with those yams! You can get it at any Indian store for sure, and they also carry it at some grocery stores too, in the ethnic aisle.

So, thanks to Krista and Abhay for a great dish of yams. We really did enjoy ourselves and it was so nice to meet you for the “first” time!

Happy Thanksgiving

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. Whether you are spending it with friends and family or by yourself, whether you are doing it up big or keeping it simple take a moment at some point in the day and quietly and in your heart give thanks for whatever it is you are grateful for.

I would say what I am grateful for. I’m grateful for the opportunity to connect with so many people through my blog and through my website, Talking To Spirit. From the email I have received through the years what I channel and talk about has been convincing enough to lay fears to rest and to help people through the grieving process. At times I’ve been of assistance to folks who want to learn how to channel.

On a personal level, I’m thankful to have the love and support of my husband of 29 years, Dennis. I’m thankful to have had as many cats in our lives as we’ve had and I’m thankful for the four we have now: Shelby, Mattie, Samantha and Fluffy Drawers. I’m thankful for my friends who provide support and love. And, I’m especially thankful to Seth, to the Guides and to the Folk in Spirit.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

What to Make for Dinner

I haven’t quite decided what to do for Thanksgiving dinner. We’ll be having one guest, Phil our neighbor. We have a gift certificate for $100 to a restaurant in the area, but knowing what their prices are like that would only take care of 2 people. So, I’m cooking. What, I just don’t know. I’m inclined toward a ham or a roast, but it’s going to depend on what is available at the store when I get there. And, I figure I’m probably going to be buying it all on Thanksgiving day. Such is the way of the working woman.

My mother would not have done things this way. Leaving it up to the last minute. The stores wouldn’t be open that day anyway. At least, I hope ours will be. I surely don’t want to go shopping Wednesday night. Can you imagine how crowded it will be?

Anyway, I’ve never in my life done anything with sweet potatoes. And, I think that would be nice to have with a ham. I think I would like to do one adventurous thing. I wonder how hard it would be and what the margin for error on elbowing up the whole thing. Notice I’m trying to cure myself of swearing. I will now use the word elbow..or try to. It appears to be working. This is a hint from one of the guides that was delivered right after I’d called somebody an a**hole for the fifth time in 2 minutes. I swear the drivers in Oakland don’t go to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get their driver’s licenses. They come in boxes of Cracker Jack.

Anyway, just to be different are there any Folk in Spirit who’d like to discuss the Evanosky’s Thanksgiving Day Dinner? Yes, this is Julia Child. No…I thought of you, but I thought it was just me messing up. No, who else? How are you, Dear? I’m good. How about you? Fine and dandy. Really, Julia Child? Yes. You have asked about cooking? To do it up and have the time you need you would need to enlist the help of your friend who does not work. But, I know you are not going to do that, so you could consider a buffet. You do not have a dining room table, so space is very limited. Setting up your card table is awkward. Stick with your tv tray tables. Okay, that sounds logical. But, you said a buffet. Like we’d serve ourselves out in the kitchen? No, I mean setting the card table up behind your loveseat and filling it full of goodies to eat. You can get away with carrot and celery sticks and a bowl of olives. You could prepare some crustini with minced garlic on top setting it in your broiler to brown and toast. I’m thinking you’re way more ambitious than I really want to be. What do you want? Peanut and butter sandwiches? Well, no. Then, you should go out. Don’t have the turkey if they don’t do it the way you like it done. Look, I really appreciate you coming by to talk about this, but I just don’t know. I was thinking about throwing some sort of meat into the oven, having some rolls, doing up some potatoes and a vegetable. I was just sort of thinking about the sweet potatoes, but I don’t think I’m really going to do them.

Okay, I’m going to need to think about all of this. Maybe we can put the card table up, but I’m wondering if the cats will be jumping up on it. Well, they might. It would be healthy to have carrot and celery sticks. Can I marinate them in something?

I just keep thinking about how I’m diabetic too. I’m also fasting and talking about food isn’t helping. I’m thinking I should leave the house early this morning before work to go have that blood work done. I can have water, but nothing else.

Okay, enough grousing. Thanks, Julia. I’ve so enjoyed talking to you. As it gets closer to the dinner I’ll be calling on you again if you don’t mind. My pleasure.

Moving Along

Hey, I had my anniversary date at work the other day. I’ve been there 13 years…this time. I was there before for 3½ years, so it’s a grand total of 16½ years. I had a break of 1½ years where I had declared myself a writer and wasn’t going to be a secretary anymore. Anyway, can you imagine? 16½ years! I’m astonished. Me, the mean secretary. It helps being psychic. You learn to not get so uptight about things. It would have helped more if I’d been a witch and I could go around casting spells. But, so are the twists and turns of life.

I came across a picture of my guide just now as I was looking for turkeys for Thanksgiving. Oh, I think I’m going to regret saying it that way! HA! This is a picture Rob, Jane Roberts’ husband, painted of Seth many years ago when she was channeling for him. Actually, I’ve got a picture of Jane too. Jane and Rob started talking with Seth in 1963 using a Ouija board and continued to hold regular sessions with him for 21 years until she died in 1984. There is a huge body of work, with published books and material at Yale University. I could never hope to come close to the body of work they did. I was shocked, actually, when Seth spelled out his name when I finally made channeling contact in 1993. I asked him if he was my guide. He said yes. I asked if he was the same Seth who'd worked with Jane. He said yes. I actually don't talk about it very much. I'm always afraid people will compare the work I do with what Jane did and find it terribly wanting. But, there's a fly in the ointment too in the sense that I don't just talk to Seth. There are other guides and Folk in Spirit who come to talk. I don't do the visual thing very well and I don't actually know who I'm talking to all the time. Many times I just assume it is Seth, but other times I can sense an actual change in the energy. Also, they start talking with a different style and cadence. That's a clue for me that somebody else has stepped up to the mic to talk. I used to ask who I was talking to a lot more than I do now, but it got to be intruisive and it sapped my energy because I'd get all hung up on it. And, there are many others who also channel Seth. I'm not the only other one. Some of the folks have published books.

Work is progressing on the archived readings. I’m up to 160 now. I did about 100 of them today. Not bad work! Also, I ironed a dozen shirts, did a load of wash, vacuumed the house, made an excellent dinner with my new Emeril grill pan, blogged twice, did some reading, watched Johnny Depp in, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”, overate at dinner, but feel okay right now…knock wood. The day has been nice and productive.

The doctor did talk to me yesterday about the fall I took earlier in the month. He said that being more than 20 pounds overweight will eventually cause your joints to give out. The muscles and tendons just can’t take it. Oh, joy. Anyway, another reason to lose weight.

Website

Working industrially toward revamping all my archived channeled readings. I'm up to 120 right now. I do them in batches of 10 and 20. My brain can't handle more than that at one time. What I'm doing is narrowing up the page. I didn't realize it, but there was just too much to look at. I think the idea is to direct the person's eyes? Well, I'm not exactly doing that, but I am limiting the number of things on the page to distract from the main purpose which is the reading. After that if they click on a few ads, hey, who am I to complain?

But, this is purely technical work. It took me a week of fiddling with page to finally get it to be the width I wanted. Turns out I just had too many tables going across the page. Now, it is longer than it was before. But, it's a matter of loading up the last revamped page, loading in the next to do, copying the reading, pasting it into the last revamped page, adjusting the next reading number and then saving it as the next number. If I get interrupted it can be messy. One little brain flip and I'm off track and I don't want to be. I also found myself fixing some I'd already fixed before. So, I take breaks. Time out for ironing. Time out for making tuna salad. Time out for cutting 200 business cards for 2 guys at work...oh, my aching back. And, now, time out to blog. I may take a nap soon, too.

I'll be glad when it is done. It's a large project. Not as large as links and resource pages, but it's sure a lot more tedious. I'm ready for something creative.

So...announcing...the first 120 newly revamped, freshest in the world looking Channeled Bits of Advice and Other Assorted Things to Talk About from Talking To Spirit. Thanks for having a peek.

Hi

Well, not much of note to report this morning other than I am off to a dental appointment before work. I always end up with a raging headache, so I'm going to try to head it off this time by taking a couple of ibuprophens. Maybe that will help. The guides are always wonderful at dental appointments either telling me stories or just talking about stuff to keep my mind off of the pain and drilling. In the meantime, I wanted to see if the banner below would show up and work.

November is National Diabetes Month

I just watched a half an hour show on CNBC called dLife. It's about diabetes and what you can do to manage it. I was diagnosed with diabetes 3 years ago, but I really haven't done much for it other than to take medicine. I ignored it for the first year or so and I've worried about it since then. I find lately that I'm very tired at times, but it is still better than it was in the days leading up to the diagnosis. I thought I was okay with it. Evidently I am not. Because in watching this show, in listening to folks talk plainly about their diabetes and the importance of diet and exercise I was caught off guard. I thought I was okay with it.

The show comes on every Sunday at 4:00 PM in California on CNBC.

A channeling funny? One of the guides said to me, "It's not as though you have cancer. Think of it as being blond." Meaning, you've got this for the rest of your life. Deal with it. I had to laugh through my tears and apologize to all who are blond.

Anyway, for those of you who are diabetic, for those of you who have loved ones or who know folks who are diabetic and for those of you who are in the high risk categories: Any person of color, any person who is overweight and any person who has a family member who has been diagnosed as diabetic check out the website at dLife.com

Also, I've put together a collection of sites having to do with diabetes and with exercise at my own website.

Test often and keep your blood sugar at reasonable levels.

Expecting Excellence - Channeled Material

There are words which have negative vibrations associated with them. There are others which lighten. Love is a word with a higher vibration than the word hate. If you go around saying, “I hate this and I hate that” much of the time you will feel a morbid pressing of your spirit. If you can find yourself in a good mood more often you will see that the higher vibrations of your better mood will influence the things that happen to you.

Additionally, not to ignore bad things happening, but when a bad thing happens to a person who is generally better humored that bad thing will likely not lay them low for too long. They will basically know no better than to pick themselves up, dust off and move on looking for the next interesting and enlightening thing to do.

If you say, “But, how can you just put yourself in a good mood?” Well, we are sorry to say, but you can. Smile. We have news for you, your face is not going to crack.

It is like expecting excellent things to happen. If that is what you expect that is generally what happens.

Also, if you wait for life to happen to you it might just pass you by. You can set for yourself tasks to do. It does not matter that they are not as magnificent sounding as creating a new company or writing a great novel. Just push yourself a little periodically. Ask yourself to do something that you have not done in awhile.

If you have a bad habit do something about it. Break the task into 25 steps and address a few of them at a time.

Revisit your goals to ensure you are staying on track. And, as you move closer to your goals be flexible to see that as you have progressed on the journey you may have decided upon a different goal. The idea is to keep moving and to have fun.

The Interview with God

Someone sent me a link to, "The Interview with God". This is well worth the price of admission which is free. About 45 seconds. I think you will enjoy it. Pass it on.

Aliens

I’m going to have such a good time when I finally retire. There are so many things that I am interested in there are just not enough hours in the day to do all of them. Most of what I do that interests me these days centers around my website, Talking To Spirit. What I am working on currently are ways to get more people coming to my site. The information there is free of charge and just waits for people to come. It has helped me and I’m an awfully hard nut to crack. I would hope it could help others. Whether a person would channel for themselves or just read what the guides say through me or what I’ve experienced I would hope they might come away from the experience either heartened, encouraged or just entertained.

In any case, the current project is to expand my resource pages. I’m going from 26 pages to 65 and this weekend I will be done. If anybody wants a sneak preview they can see the Talking To Spirit Aliens Resource Page. I have another 6 to go. I get about 4 or 5 done a day and this morning I’ve done 2 of them already. I just couldn’t sleep wanting to get a head start seeing as how I’m on the home stretch now.

My intention is to write an article or do a bit of channeling for each page. Presently, I’ve been putting a joke at the bottom of each page. I’ve only written 2 articles. One is on the Aliens page I put a link for above. True story if anyone is inclined to read it.

Everybody have a safe day today.

Dream and a Joke

I wanted to take a moment out to blog. I used to smoke and if I still did that’s what I’d do now. But, it’s 3:15 in the morning and I don’t smoke, so instead I blog. Anyway, I couldn’t sleep. I awakened angry. Imagine, not a nightmare, but a mad dream. I was at work, but it was a new work. New to me. And, the new regime was in town. And, a lawyer sat there advising us as to how we were going to get our office cleaned up. They were ignoring me. But, everybody knew I was going to be the one to do it. Hey, what can I say? Duties as assigned. But, the deal is that they were going to downgrade my position, pay me less and make me do more which included cleaning the office in addition to all the other things I already did, which, I assume were secretarial in nature. I have yet to have a dream where I’m a psychic! LOL.

I was so angry at the guy. I hollered at him, “Have the courtesy to speak to me. Look at me! Stop talking about me like I’m not here! You will not pay me less just so I can clean this office!” I was so angry at him he was literally blown out of his chair to land in a pile of papers. Phhhoooff. That’s when I woke up.

I was so agitated I knew that going back to bed was not an option. So, to make myself useful I got up to work on my resource pages. Of the 41 pages I will be adding I’ve done 8. I did 3 yesterday and 1 this morning. It’s taking me about half an hour to finish the page for this particular stage of the project and I hope to be done by Thanksgiving. I’m putting jokes at the bottom of each one, unless I’ve written an article about the subject. Lots of jokes…very few articles. But, I thought the joke for the Ghosts resource page was hilarious and I figured to share it with everybody. Mostly, the jokes I use are from Belief.net.

Guardian Angel on the Job
A man was walking in the street when he heard a voice: "Stop! Stand still! If you take one more step, a brick will fall down on your head and kill you." The man stopped and a big brick fell right in front of him. The man was astonished. He went on, and after awhile he was going to cross the road. Once again the voice shouted: "Stop! Stand still! If you take one more step a car will run over you and you will die." The man did as he was instructed, and a car came careening around the corner, barely missing him. "Where are you?" the man asked. "Who are you?" "I am your guardian angel," the voice answered. "Oh yeah?" the man asked. "And where the hell were you when I got married?"

Falling Awake by Jayne Ann Krentz

I just finished reading, “Falling Awake” by Jayne Ann Krentz, one of my favorite authors. Terrific. Just a terrific book. I don’t know that I’ve actually ever read anything by her that wasn’t terrific. This one, though, concentrates on lucid dreaming. And, actually, a step beyond lucid dreaming into what she calls extreme dreaming. I felt it was such an important book that I put a link to it on my own lucid dreaming page. Thanks Jayne!

Magnificent Pinwheeling Pratfall

I fell down the other day.  I was walking by myself.  I don’t smoke.  I wasn’t chewing gum.  I wasn’t talking on my cell phone.  I wasn’t even channeling.  I was just walking along on my way to the car to go to a meeting.  The sidewalk was pretty much clear.  I’d just passed through a few fallen leaves.  Maybe, just maybe there was something sticky on the sidewalk or, perhaps, I stumbled over one of those PG&E inserts in the sidewalk that had sunk a little bit.  

Anyway, it was one of those rather magnificent arms flailing and pinwheeling, bags flying, giant steps grand dive into the sidewalk pretty purple flowered groundcover.  I impacted on my boob.  Good thing they are big.  Then, my left shoulder took the hit and I ended up lying on my back with my head hanging off the curb into the street.  I was shocked and stunned and I really couldn’t move.  A lady ran across the street and within moments two more appeared.  I reassured them I was okay, but I did need some help to stand up.  Actually, I’d have needed the help to stand up regardless of whether or not I’d fallen, but they helped me to my feet and insisted I sit down on the steps to the house where we were.  

They were all so very, very kind.  And, though I don’t know who they are and had never seen them before, I want to thank them all for their kindness and their solicitude in my time of need.  They offered to take me anywhere I wanted to go.  It was such a very caring moment.  But, I assured them I was okay.  Actually, I was babbling a bit.  I kept saying, “I need to go to a meeting.  I have to take notes.”  

The car was just a short distance away.  We could all see it from where I sat on the steps.  So, after a few minutes I made my way there.  I got in, adjusted the seat, buckled my seat belt and that was when the reaction set it.  I started crying.  And, I realized just how very lucky I was.  Those ladies had sworn they saw my head hit the curb.  What can I say?  Big hair.  But, it could have hit the curb.  But, I was okay.  Everything was okay.  I was a little shaken up.  Nothing had been twisted or wrenched much other than my shoulder (the same one I hit 15 years ago when I took a flying leap out of a city bus).  Anyway, I sat there in my car and it occurred to me how very miraculous that fall had been.  And, I started thanking everybody.  “Thank you guides.  Thank you cats.  Thank you Mom.  Thank you guardian angels.”  A voice intervened:  “Give yourself some credit.  You knew how to take a fall.”  So, that sort of pulled me up short.  I gathered myself and went on to babble somewhat at the meeting.

I have concluded though something else of interest about that fall.  All my life I’ve had a fear of falling.  Especially, in regard to the general embarrassment of having put on a spectacle.  As a little girl I’d worry so much about showing my underwear in public.  Oh, horrors.  Anyway, you’d figure that pratfall I took was pretty spectacular.  I mean, they couldn’t have choreographed anything finer for a Three Stooges movie at all.  But, I wasn’t embarrassed, either during it or afterwards.  I was just grateful that I wasn’t hurt and thankful for the solicitude of strangers.  Like I told them at the office, “I was busy having an accident.”

Three days later, I’m a bit sore.  The rib under my boob hurts.  I have a nasty looking bruise on my hip.  And, I’m watching that shoulder carefully taking one of my dwindling stash of 600 mg Motrin once a day.  But, everything else is okay.  Very, very lucky.  Thanks everybody.