Sunday Afternoon

I just spent the last of the Amazon gift certificate DeeDude gave me for Christmas. I picked out a couple of books, a cold soldering iron and a steam cleaning machine.

I figure we're going to get a lot of use out of the steam cleaner. They had the smaller hand held jobs and then they had the 1,500 watt big boys. I bought the big one. We've got a lot of crud build up different places and as I get older I am less inclined to clean it. I also figure I can blast out the bottom of the bird cage after first transferring birdie boys somewhere else. Maybe we can purchase a smaller cage for them to have as temporary housing while I give their main house the grand cleaning. I sure don't want them anywhere near it while I'm cleaning it.

DeeDude spent a few hours today exploring up in the hills. He said he only slid down hills twice. Tired, dirty and chunks of things in his pockets he's much happier than he was a few days ago. He's finally recovered from his strep throat, though he still has a few day's worth of antibiotics to take.

Pretend

This morning I’m recommending an activity that everybody does especially children. Pretending is generally viewed as a childish, playful activity, but I feel it is actually more important than that. Caught gazing off through the window in study hall a student is admonished to stop daydreaming, but I’m asking you to do this as a vehicle to make your day more interesting, to help you move past a physical pain or a fear and to enjoy your day more fully.

As a child we pretend all the time. As an adult we have put away our childish things and moved on with life. I’m asking you to pretend. And, I know you can do it. Notice I’m not saying the word visualize? Visualize was actually a tough one for me to do as an adult. Pretend I was okay with.

So, let’s pretend.

Take a deep breath and pretend that your shoulders are relaxed. This is like a runner prior to a run where they shake out their arms and legs and stretch some. Now, stretch your back and twist it some listening to all the little cracks going on. Quiet yourself and once again pretend that not only are your shoulders relaxed, but your back is too. Take a deep breath. Remember how relaxed you were this morning when you woke up, how it was to lie in your bed thinking it was the weekend and you did not have to get up right away. Remember that and with the pretending allow that feeling to come back again. Take another deep breath.

Now, this is where this exercise can begin to focus in on something you would like to work on. Say you need some courage for something. You are getting promoted and don’t know exactly if you can do this new job. And, you are afraid and you need some courage. How exactly would you use this pretending to do this?

Think back to when one other time you once needed courage. Something a long time ago where in the doing of whatever it was you were in this same boat, nervous leading up to it, moved through it okay and came out the other end victorious and competent and did well with the task. It doesn’t have to be a promotion. Something that illustrated that you had courage. Like the time you had to speak in front of your whole class. You imagined then that they were actually interested in what you had to say. That was all it took. And, you moved through it.

It was natural. It was seamless. Time moved smoothly as it always does. It was years ago. You can do this again. It’s not quite the same but it’s the same fear you had then that you have now. You’re afraid they won’t listen to you? You’re afraid they won’t take you seriously in your new position? Pretend they are grateful to have you to advise them. Pretend that you are competent. Pretend that you really know what you are doing and guess what? Anything you don’t know you will learn. All will be well. And, for a few moments in time you can begin to lessen the fear you are holding about this upcoming promotion just by pretending like you did as a child.

Good Day vs Bad Day

The difference between having a good day and a bad day is sometimes just how you look at things. The knuckleheads who irritate you are not going to change the way they operate just because you get irritated. It’s going to take a whole lot more to change them. So, the issue then becomes not why they won’t change, but rather, why what they do bothers you. So, do a little soul searching and try to figure some of that out. In the meantime, have some rules in place and if they violate those rules they pay the consequences. There. How easy was that? You didn’t have to get mad either. And, if they start playing mind games with you and trying to bend you to their will just say, “No” and be done with it.

Dreaming of Samantha and of Molly

Last night I dreamed of Samantha, the first cat we ever had. We have another Samantha, but it was the first one, the one who had passed on who I dreamed of last night. She spoke to me in English. This is the second time that one of our pets has talked to me in a dream. She asked me not to pick her up. She was bleeding, she was sore wounded and lying in a box on her side. The water was rising and she was in danger. I was already there to rescue a bunch of baby kittens, but when I saw she was there too I centered my efforts on getting her to safety. When she asked me not to pick her up I said something about not really picking her up because I would be holding the box she was in. Except the water had begun to disintegrate the box and it was falling apart even as I tried to pick her up. That’s when I woke up. I found a picture of her and Goldie, my mother's Yorkie sitting side by side looking out of our front window.

In the morning DeeDude told me he’d dreamed of Molly, one of our other cats who had died. I’ve never known us to both dream of our cats on the same night. I found a picure of Molly, in the background, with her best friend Mitzie, in the foreground. She insisted I find a picture of the two of them together. Both have passed on.

I am a firm believer in the idea that those who have passed on can visit with us in our dreams. I just wish I'd been lucid and able to enjoy the visits while they were happening.

Scotoma

Here’s the word for the day. It is scotoma. Sounds like something you want to put ointment on, doesn’t it? I first heard it years ago and was fascinated by it. What it means is that you have become blind to something that is sitting right in front of you.

To illustrate how it works is for you to imagine that you just broke a lamp in your living room. It’s still functional, but something on that wonderful, decorative, very expensive and very old lamp has broken off. You can see the jagged edges where the piece is broken off. It’s very upsetting to you. It is also very obvious to you. Every time you see it you cringe because your wonderful lamp is not wonderful anymore. It’s busted.

Day Two: You walk into your living room and your eyes are drawn to the poor, broken lamp immediately. You don’t see anything else first in that room except your broken lamp.

Day Three: You walk into your living room and your eyes slide past the lamp and then ratchet back onto it. You think, “I’m going to have to fix that before Aunt Martha gets here for Thanksgiving, or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Day Four: You walk into your living room, your eyes slide past the lamp and once again move back to the lamp. You think, “Shit, I forgot to get the glue. I need to fix that lamp.”

Day Five: You walk into your living room and have totally forgotten about the lamp. You move to the sofa, watch some television and eventually, as the day winds to a close and it gets dark in the room you reach up to turn on the lamp. You don’t even notice that it is broken.

Day Sixty-three: Aunt Martha comes to dinner. The very first thing she sees upon entering your living room is the lamp. She exclaims. You’ve forgotten all about the lamp being broken.

That’s a scotoma. You became blind to that which was right in front of you.

I Need A Psychic

Hey, I need a psychic. What? You are a psychic. Why do you need one? Guess what? I don’t read very well for myself. What I’ve learned is that I am a case of I can’t see the forest for the trees. Also, I’m so much aligned with sensing the larger picture that my own tiny bit of real estate just doesn’t rate all that much importance. At least, that’s what it seems like to me. So, I mostly just go with the flow and allow it all to fall where it may.

Sometimes when I really want something to happen I’ll spend a bit of time on it as if it were a project to cut my teeth manifesting a favorable outcome, but mostly I just sit there watching forensic detective television shows talking to the murdered victims. What am I going to say? Nothing. I have nice chats with them in my head. They’re not hurting anymore. But, danged I wish my husband didn’t like to watch them while we’re eating dinner.

By the way, DeeDude found out he has strep throat today. Since Sunday before last he’s been sick. Did he listen to his wife the psychic and go see the doctor last week? No. Now, he’s on antibiotics and went to bed early tonight. I haven’t seen him dragging his butt like this in years. We anticipate a speedy recovery now.

Go God!

It’s not necessarily chores that I want to talk about I really want to talk about how we classify the things we do as okay, fun or disagreeable. Why? I think of people who are immersed in their spiritual lives and how they offer up their labors to God. I think that’s an admirable thing to do, though I personally might not do exactly that. But, it does make me think about the things I cringe from doing. I’ll put off ironing until the clothes that need it are piled high and I’m really scratching my head in the morning wondering what I’ve got left to wear to work. But, if I could maybe think of all the people who’ve gone before me who’ve done this same thing and who didn’t have an issue with it how they managed to do that particular chore and move quickly past it to other things. Is it too much of not living in the moment where I dread something so terribly that the dreading eclipses every other creative urge I’ve got and all the “fun” things don’t get done?

I wonder about doing it for God. I don’t think God cares really about my ironing. I would imagine he’s got other things to think about. I guess my problem is in thinking of God as somebody else. The guides have urged me many times to think of God as us. All of us. Together. Spirit is God. They just said, “Go God”. Right. I guess that’s enough.

How I Make Kraut

Here’s what’s for dinner: Kraut and Wurst.

I chopped up a big sweet onion, peeled and diced up a potato. Set that to sautéing in a little olive oil. Thought better of it and chopped up 3 strips of bacon to add to the mix. If I’d thought of it earlier maybe I wouldn’t have added as much olive oil. Peeled and chopped up an apple and added that too. Dissolved a beef bouillon cube in a cup of water and added that. Considered and then added in half of my cup of apple juice I’d been drinking. I didn’t measure that one, but figure it was about 1/3 of a cup. I may add more as the afternoon progresses.

Then, the final ingredient. I added a quart of sauerkraut. That is going to bubble away on the stove for a few hours. We want to watch the Sopranos at 6:00 pm and seeing as how I don’t like to be eating while we watch it I figure dinner will be at 5:30 or thereabouts. So, this is going to simmer away a little over an hour. Then, it can sit around for awhile and I'll reheat it. The potatoes and apples will be mush by the time dinner comes, but will have flavored the dish and the potato (according to my neighbor Phil) is what will make the gravy. I'll have to go see about finding a lid for the skillet.

I’ve got 4 Saags bockwursts to have with the meal. We'll have boiled potatoes too. Just a nice German dinner tonight.

DeeDude has been sick ever since he finished doing the taxes last week. The willies, fever, the yuckies and a sore throat. Also, I hear him sneezing every once in awhile. He's promised me he will telephone the advice nurse tomorrow if he still has a sore throat. But, this is the first time in years that he's had a really bad cold. It reminds me of the cold I got right after I quit my job oh so many years ago to write. I was sick for 3 months. But, it wasn't all in vain. I got psychic at the end of it.

Sheba and Flowers DeeDude Gave Me

Sheba giving them a sniff.

A close up of one of the roses.

Creativity for Couch Potatoes - Channeled Information

Creativity would be what a person might think of as the Holy Grail, that which must be sought and that which is most elusive. And, yet in the actual seeking of this thing called creativity a person becomes most creative. It is almost like the very air you breathe; there, but not seen. Air with a chemical composition and yet the only time you feel it is when the barometer rises and falls and the air becomes wind, still unseen and yet now felt with one of your senses. Air that carries the scent of a neighbors barbecue, the fragrance of flowers and the mouth watering smell of brownies baking in your mother’s oven. But, still unseen.

Creativity is like that.

You envy people who are more creative than you are. You think, “Oh, if only I could do that I, too, would be famous.” Or, you think, with envy, “Oh, some people get all the breaks.” Or, you think, “I don’t have enough education.” finding excuse after excuse as to why you don’t have any creativity, or enough creativity.

We say what you have an abundance of is fear. It far outweighs the creativity you seek at the moment and, yet, even in your fear you are exercising your creativity. If you can imagine all the different ways you are going to fail you could also imagine all the different ways you can succeed.

We would like to level the playing field so that you feel you do have a chance to do whatever it is (within reason) that you’d like to do, so that you can at least try. And, we would also like to say that in trying there is more valor than there is in having wished that you might try.

How is that you define creativity? You might begin by setting it up against yourself. What is creativity to you? Do you see creativity as an artist using the paints in front of him or her and crating a wonderful work of art that hypnotizes those who look upon it? Do you think creativity is the genius behind the photographer who frames the perfect shot of a field of flowers and a woman who stands at the edge? Do you only think of creativity as a composer who creates a beautiful or haunting piece of music or the musician who plays that music with verve and abandon?

Do you think that creativity is not of yourself and is something to be caught or tamed?

Could you now think of creativity as the process a doctor uses to puzzle through a complex set of symptoms to help a person to heal? Or as a member of the clergy who reaches out to help someone who feels they are beyond help? Can you think of creativity as a teacher who seeks to capture the attention of a class who are wont to daydream in the slow and sultry midsummer afternoons? Could you think of creativity being used by a policeman who is able to make a neighborhood feel safer just by telling them what they need to do to be safe?

Creativity is used by all of you each and every moment of your living days. You cannot help but to use it. Your job, now, is to change what you think of creativity so that it is no longer an elusive thing, but something that you exercise all the time. Your job is to make yourself feel more comfortable doing what you would like to be doing. Your job is to no longer pay so much attention to what others expect from you or how they judge you. Certainly, constructive comments are welcome and you can always tell the person offering them that you will take them under consideration, but act upon them in your own time. If they seem valid to you at that point in time use them. If not save them for another time when you will be more ready to apply them.

Sometimes people who appear to accomplish a great deal, no matter what they do, are said to be extremely creative. It is as if people think that people who do a lot are also very creative and if they were not so creative they would not accomplish as much as they do. We however, would like to put forth the idea that it is not just someone who utilizes their creativity who has it, but everyone who has creativity. The difference between someone who does a lot and someone who does not do a lot is not laziness versus a sense of industry, but instead something deeper.

Choice is what it is. If you suppose that creativity is exercised every moment of your life then there really is no difference between the person who gets a lot accomplished and the person who is a born couch potato. They are just exercising their creativity in different ways. So, the excuse of the couch potato that they have no creativity is false. They have no excuse not to be industrious.

The challenge, then, is to find a way to encourage the couch potato type of person to become more industrious.

Sometimes having a sense of competition is of advantage. This goes back to the old saying of, “Misery loves company.” If you can find a group of people doing the same thing that you are doing you can all support each other. If there is no group in your vicinity there is certainly one available on the internet and you can still experience a group like feeling this way. Within each group the competitions and contest you look for to spur yourself onward in your chosen field of interest is there. In the community of bloggers you might find people who challenge you to utilize a specific vegetable to find an appetizing new recipe. In the field of writers there is the NaNoWriMo group, the National Novel Writing Month every November, where even as we speak, our channel has joined in 2006 to write and to channel more than she has previously. Not exactly a novel, but on the momentum of energy generated by 70,000 souls feverishly writing she has committed to a body of work.

Apart from finding like-minded souls there is also the idea that you might encounter, more likely will definitely run into, a psychological problem that in some way prevents you from moving forward in your chosen field of interest to the extent that you would like to move. Think of it this way and that is doing inner growth work is not something to do only at the times that you have what might be considered an obvious psychological problem that sends you immediately to your neighborhood psychotherapist, but instead is work that each and every one of you does during the course of your life. It’s what is called maturing.

Picture this: You are quite comfortable doing what you do day in and day out; nothing rocks your boat in any way. Your existence is predictable, it is ordered, it is normal, it is ordinary. You are held to be a couch potato by all and sundry. And, you have been happy doing it. However, now the itch to build a boat has struck you. Not a huge sea faring boat, but a tiny one; a boat in a bottle.

You’ve always admired models such as that. You’ve actually collected a number of tools over the years, but you never really did anything with them. Now, the itch has struck and you want to build a boat. You’re going to need to bring the focus of your attention toward building this boat. It doesn’t just happen magically contrary to a popular belief about people who appear to be endowed with phenomenal creative ability. They would work just as hard at building a boat as you, our gentle couch potato would.

Now starts the underlying psychological resistance toward moving farther along toward having a boat on your mantle. The first thing you might encounter is a feeling of fear. Enough fear to nip all of these grand attempts in the bud. Your job is to now follow the scent of this fear to its source and understand why you have it. Experience it again. Show the fear that you are an adult now and can handle it. Whatever that fear is.

Plan on being more sensitive as you embark upon your project. Look for areas of resistance. “Oh, my back aches.” There’s no real reason for your back to be aching. It is preventing you from writing, your chosen area of interest. Why now? Isn’t that an interesting little co-inki-dink? Our channel is laughing and that, we reserve to use occasionally as an editorial aside.

Be willing to be more observant of your own reactions now. Be willing to be open to ways of investigating old wounds and fears that prevent you from moving forward in your chosen field of study and investigation. Be willing to heal. And, we would remind you that healing means you feel better and that you are able to work easily.

The Easy Way Out Today

Oh, shoot. I am worn away this week. Friday just did not come fast enough. So, I happened to think of all the channeling I did last November for the NaNoWriMo stuff. I haven’t looked at it since then. Actually, after I channel anything when I read it afterwards it is like reading it for the first time. It’s just something that happens to me when I zone out while I’m channeling. So, seeing as how I am mentally worn to a frazzle I thought I’d resurrect portions of that for inclusion in my blog.

Potatoes

Well, I’m glad I did it that way. Which was to make the potato dish tonight rather than with our Easter dinner tomorrow night. We’re having a spiral cut ham. Yum. And, I wanted to have potatoes au gratin. That’s the way my mother always used to do it and that’s what I wanted to have. Except I’ve always made them from the box. Only once, years ago did I attempt to make them from scratch. I can’t remember how they turned out, but seeing as how I didn’t repeat that particular move I can only say they must not have been very good.

So, today at the grocery store I thought how hard could it be? I bought the fixings for home made potatoes au gratin. I figured this was scalloped potatoes with cheese. While I’m in line I asked the lady in front of me if she knew how to make them from scratch. She said, “Oh, I always make them for him. He likes them fine.” Him was her husband who was ahead of her in line. So, she told me. Cut the potatoes real thin, like you were going to make potato chips. Then, she said to layer potatoes, thinly sliced onion, sprinkle with salt and pepper, sprinkle with some flour, dot with butter and then start in with your next layer. She said after it was all layered up you should pour in some milk and bake it for an hour until it was done.

Okay, so I decided to do a test-run tonight. I did as she said. She said she doesn’t measure anything. I gave it a whirl. She had also said she’d never tried it with cheese, so I did one of each. I used my small sized loaf pans with 2 russet potatoes and 1 onion. I guess I used up most of one stick of butter between the 2 pans and I don’t know how much milk I poured in; enough to see it all rise to the surface. One of the layers in one pan was cheese. So that one was the au gratin potatoes and the other was to be the scalloped potatoes.

They baked and bubbled and smelled wonderful. Except when you spooned into it the sauce was real runny and lumpy and that’s where it looked a mess. DeeDude tried some of each and said they were both great and we should just save them and have them with our Easter dinner. I looked askance at him and returned to the kitchen. I mean this looked horrible. The worser one to clump was the one with the cheese in it, but that was the one to brown up the best.

What, you might ask, did I do?

I hauled forth yea olde food processer and set to pulsing. Pulsed the whole lot of it into a smooth, really thick, potato soup that I thinned out with some water. Tasted fine and I decided that I will use that tomorrow night to pour between new layers of thinly sliced potatoes and onions. No clumping up because it will have already been blended and cooked and I feel it will be fine.

In future? If this tastes good I will make it this way from now on. If not I will make a white sauce and then use that to pour over the layers of onions and potatoes.

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

I just finished watching, “The Notebook” based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. I’d read the novel some years ago, but had mostly forgotten it. Actually, that’s sort of morbidly humorous because this is the story of a man and wife, so deeply in love, that the man follows his wife into a nursing facility when she loses herself to Alzheimer’s. This is the story of their life together which he reads to her every day with the hope that she will remember, just for a few moments that he is her husband and not some man who wandered into her life just that morning to read to her from a book. And, she does remember, usually at the end of the day, the love she has for him and that he has for her. She asks about their children and asks him to tell them that she loves them too.

It sounds a simple story, but I cried. I always cry when I read love stories.

2 New Blogs

I’ve started 2 new blogs. One of them is for beading and the other for reading. I haven’t done a whole lot with either of them, but all good things come to those who wait. Right? Anyway, http://where-i-read-books.blogspot.com is the one where I will review the books I am reading. So far I’ve reviewed two books. I’m reading a third as we speak, the second I’ve read by this particular author and though the story is moving slowly right now I still have hopes that I’m going to like the story once it’s over. The other blog, http://where-i-bead.blogspot.com has pretty much nothing in it other than the first entry which is nothing to speak of. But, this will also encourage me to get busy and work on my beading.

Akiane Kramarik

Interesting the amazing things that people are doing. I came upon Akiane Kramanik's work this evening on YouTube.