Somehow it just didn't happen. I'm even wondering if I'll get anything written for today. I think I'm experiencing the affects of "house cleaning".
I guess I took this week off. I had a post all ready to go for the 18th on Self Love...And then I was going to do a post on the 21st for Thanksgiving. Somehow it just didn't happen. I'm even wondering if I'll get anything written for today. I think I'm experiencing the affects of "house cleaning". That ol' Feng Shui that happens when you get rid of a lot of accumulated debris, which doesn't fit into your life anymore, or when you move the furniture, or when you redecorate, with new colors and patterns. Whenever you do that, you change the energy pattern. And since your outer environment is a reflection of your inner landscape, changing the energy pattern in your home is going to affect your own energy pattern. At the beginning of this week, I began purging the accumulation of the last ten years. You could not call me a hoarder. But somehow, I can still manage to accumulate stuff. It is partly due to sentiment, partly due to my unwillingness to throw something into the trash which could be recycled-but doesn't go into the recycling pick up, so it requires extra effort, etc. Anyway, there is something magical which happens when you release something which is associated with another time, and even sometimes another place. Especially if it has held space in a part of your home for several years. You can feel the dammed up energy breaking up and beginning to flow. You can feel that part of your home come to life. And something else happens as well. The balance shifts, and so often you may begin to experience symptoms of the change in energy. You may get sick or you may suddenly feel really great. You may get a call from a long lost friend, like I did today. You may experience a flow in other parts of your life, like with clients or abundance or creativity or love. You may suddenly see yourself or other people in a new light. I've noticed that clearing my living space of the accumulation which is no longer relevant, seems to have had the affect of creating breathing space and a flow of energy...a light to see by, as it were. I have created Space for Me. And now there is less to distract. Less to dilute. And that is a very good thing. But on the flip side, I am feeling a little edgy right now, but it's probably all part of the process. I'm still working on this project, because I only did about 12 hours this week, and it is easily a 72 hour project, because I want to get to a state of minimalism. "Things" are taking too much of my attention and I've had it with that. The whole point is, I'm taking advantage of this cleaning frenzy while it's active, because who knows when it may fizzle out and then I'll be back to not wanting to deal with any of it and that's all I have to say about that. On another note...We celebrated Thanksgiving in the US this past Thursday. I got a Turkey from the organic farm down the road where I used to work (Stokesberry Farm), and got together with my family at the home of my Mom and Dad. We did pretty good. Almost everything this year was organic/fair trade, and much of it was local. I have come to see different points of view when it comes to Thanksgiving. Last year I attended a gathering on the estuary which is now known as Capitol Lake. The Native Americans who hosted it do NOT celebrate this holiday for obvious reasons. When I was a kid, it was part of a wonderful triumvirate of holidays and was celebrated with generations of family. I still remember the holiday gatherings with Grand Parents, Uncles, Aunts, Cousins and my own immediate family. But as more of us grew up and moved away, those gatherings stopped taking place, and since it was just my husband and myself, we kind of got out of the habit of observing Thanksgiving. But when my Mom miraculously survived Leukemia, I kept picturing she would be home for Thanksgiving. I don't know why, but I just kept seeing that she would be spending it at home. As the date approached it seemed unlikely, but then suddenly there we all were at my Mom and Dad's house, celebrating Thanksgiving together. So that's when Thanksgiving took on a whole new meaning for me. There really was something pretty extraordinary to be Thankful for. That was in 2004. Eight years later, we are still celebrating Thanksgiving at the home of my parents.
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I'm going to start this post with an apology. Not to the few tenacious readers who follow me, but to the planet we call home. To Planet Earth, I'm sorry we humans are too short sighted and too greedy. I'm sorry that the necessity for even writing this post has arisen. And most of all I'm sorry that we haven't fixed this problem yet. Why the Rant? This morning I woke up to another piece of trash in my driveway courtesy of The Olympian newspaper. A bundle of ads on newsprint wrapped in a pink plastic bag with the word YES! in bold black lettering. It is an attempt to market goods and services, which I personally have no use for. I have repeatedly asked them not to deliver it to me and so it lays there out in the entrance to my driveway, until I kick it out of the path of my car. It is on County land and there is now an accumulation of them next to my driveway, which I have not taken receipt of. You could say I have refused delivery. So does that make it litter? Why is this important to me? What is my objection to The Olympian's method of marketing? Lot's of people use paper, so it isn't that. The Olympian could overcome my objection by doing one simple thing differently. They could use the US Postal Service to deliver their ad materials. That would save them money, because they wouldn't have to buy little plastic sacks to put them in, and wouldn't have to pay people to put them into those little plastic sacks and then drive around delivering them to every house in the county. Yep! It's the sacks I object to. What can I do with them? They're just disposable. Why does this matter to me?Because In the first decade of the millenium it was the fashion for credit card offers to come in the mail with faux credit cards made of plastic. Think of the millions that went out to people in the mail, just to ENTICE you to get a credit card. And because as recent as last Spring I was getting plastic containers with a key made of metal and plastic from a local auto dealer to ENTICE people to come in to the dealership on the off chance that the key they have received will magically win them a brand new car, or at least maybe win a $100.00 gift card (another piece of plastic). And let's talk about gift cards. Some companies are insightful enough to offer you the option of refilling your card. But some like Fred Meyer, do not offer you that option. So the card gets thrown away when you have used it up. But here is an alternative to throwing away gift cards. Earthworks will recycle gift cards. Follow the link below, if you've been throwing those things in a drawer like I have, waiting for an opportunity to do something responsible with them. Earthworks http://www.earthworkssystem.com/consumers.htmlAnd what about all these membership cards that everyone requires you to have now, so that you don't get discriminated against by paying an outrageously artificially inflated price. A price I might add which is a made up number to make people feel like they are getting a deal (what a deal!) on grocery items because they have a plastic card with the name of the store on it. The card really isn't necessary, because if you have forgotten your card, you can give them your phone number which is in their system and you still get the DEAL! on your purchase. So why have plastic? And how many times have they sneaked into my grocery bag, a plastic card-set (deactivated of course) as a way to ENTICE me to sign up as a loyal card carrying customer? That's twice the plastic. And it doesn't even do anything. My point is that in the U.S. there is a lot of disposable plastic out there that comes to us whether we want it or not. I'm talking about just the plastic generated by marketing alone. So allow me to get positive for a moment (after all I did title this post, A Positive Little Rant). I understand the need for marketing. As the owner of my own business, I am always trying to find a way to get my message out to people who might want to use the services I provide. So you can see I have nothing against marketing. I would just like to see some more responsible practices put in place where marketing is concerned. I would like to see people who provide marketing services come up with ways to get their message across which didn't require the enormous amount of waste. We do not need a Safeway card, an Albertson's card, a Fred Meyer card, a QFC card, a Thriftway card, and a Costco card. I do have one card. It is a PAPER card which shows that I am a member of the Olympia Food Co-op, and it has lasted for over ten years. If I ever decide to stop using it, it is 100% recyclable. I have lot's of advertising material coming in my mail box. I never object to it, if I am able to fully recycle it. But I do object if I get something wrapped in plastic packaging, or if thousands of disposable keys are sent out in an attempt to lure people into a local auto dealer. There are other ways to do this. Ways which do not alienate a percentage of your target market. Ways which would be considered more sustainable? I am considering what my next step will be. I have been unsuccessful in my requests to have The Olympian stop delivering their ad trash to the road outside of my property. This is just a reminder of a larger problem we have in our culture of disposable resources. So I am considering ways to create permanent change around this issue. And in considering what I can do in a positive way, I am feeling better than I did when I looked outside on a lovely clear fall morning and saw a half dozen pink plastic sacks along my road.
I have been hearing about happiness lately. I want to take a moment to write about how powerful the vibration of happiness can be when it is experienced as celebration. Here's a quick example of what I'm talking about. I remember getting some really good news about a family member going into remission from cancer. That's really something to celebrate right? But it's a funny thing, about doctors. They seem to be really worried that you're going to get your hopes up. At least the doctors in this story were displaying that fear. And because they want you to be ready for when that other shoe drops, they spend a lot of energy preparing you for the worst. I don't know how it is for you, but I don't really like it when someone rains on my parade, and so after several days of it, I got angry. I wanted to CELEBRATE what I considered a huge miracle. So I rebelled. Don't I always? I said to myself--and to anyone else who would listen, "Yes!" we are going to celebrate this victory. "Yes!" we are going to graciously accept this miracle, and be grateful and express appreciation, because this is an amazing gift. And we need to start living that! Here's my point. Don't let ANYONE stop you from celebrating - ever. The Universe loves to party and I believe celebrations help us come into alignment with Universal or Divine energy. I feel that celebrating is one of the keys to overcoming terminal disease. It changes perception, and ramps up the energy of pure joy. But this isn't just about overcoming illness. This is about celebrating your life. Your loved ones, your passions, what ever you can think of to celebrate. So here's a little something to inspire you to notice the everyday celebrations of your life. And besides, I just like it. Thanks to ImVickieB for posting this on youtube. It makes me giggle. I live in a state where this little sticker is a relic of the past. We vote by mail-in ballot only now and I really miss gathering at polling sites to vote. It was fun to go to what ever place was marked as your neighborhood polling site (typically churches and schools because they're everywhere). We would walk in and there would be an atmosphere of holiday. Everyone smiling. Everyone excited to vote. My husband worked at one of those polling sites one year. He said it was a blast. Like an all day party. I'm not really sure who decided that we were going to stop doing it that way. It's Washington state for heaven's sake. It's not Florida. I never had to wait in a line for more than about 10 minutes to vote, and that was only if it was really busy. After, we would put our ballot in the ballot box, and they would give us a little sticker that said I Voted just like in this picture. And we would go out smiling at the people coming in who were also smiling. Because Yay! We get to Vote! I imagine it makes it easier for people who are really busy, or for people who can't get out as easily. So that's a good thing, but I still miss that whole Voting Ritual Thing we did. I'll bet I'm not the only one who does. Yesterday I put my ballot into the box set up at the post office. I drove up to the ballot box, and without leaving my car, stuck my hand out the window, and dropped my ballot into the slot. After seeing video of people in some other states, waiting in lines for up to 8 1/2 hours just to vote, I feel lucky to have this option. It's very painless. Still - It's not as fun as it used to be. We are lucky to live in a country which allows it's citizens to vote. Even though in some states, it takes great tenacity to get through that process. Those of you who are taking it upon yourselves to create laws and situations to try and suppress the vote--Remember you can be voted out of office. I think we have reached a time where we are demanding more accountability from our elected officials. We can see you better than we used to be able to. Big Brother may be watching, but We The People are watching back. It's election day. Anything can happen. The whole world waits with us in anticipation. By as early as this evening, we could know who our elected officials will be in the years to come. We know those we choose to govern at the federal level affect the entire world. But the choices we make at the local level ripple out and gain momentum, affecting the course of our actions in ways we may be unable to anticipate. I can't help but be impressed by that, and it comes into play for me when I make decisions about who to vote for and what issues to vote on. Still, a larger part of me remembers that it is a story we tell. It is a game we play. I always want to play it well, because that's the type of character I have written for myself. But it doesn't mean it can't be fun. With that, I'd like to thank all of the politicians and the news agencies that have handed the country such a huge laugh this past year, and the insightful comedians who point out the inconsistencies and the hypocrisy. It is my perception that the unifying laugh value of this whole process far outweighs the damage done by the lies you tell and the divisive hatred you market. Let us continue to focus on the things which unite us. And let's celebrate our democratic process. Today is election day. Let's celebrate that. If you haven't voted yet, give yourself a treat. Have some fun--Go fill out a ballot. :)
I want to thank my friend Robin for starting this train of thought and inspiring me to go deeper into this idea for my own expansion. :) Recently my friend Robin wrote about "suffering being the catalyst for change". This is a really abbreviated version... She writes about having a conversation with someone who expressed the idea that 'suffering is necessary for change', and Robin protested that idea. She went on to state further that she didn't think that hitting rock bottom is a pre-requisite for change, but suffering does seem to play in...Why bother to change if you're already happy? Here are my thoughts on that. For me suffering is a matter of perception. It's a relative point of view. Say I am in a relationship with someone (it could be a marriage, a friendship, or a business relationship) and I am feeling some conflict arise. Maybe I'm miserable and maybe I am truly suffering emotionally. Why am I suffering? The answer is because I choose to. If I am looking at this conflict from a certain perspective, and am suffering as a result--true, I CAN use that to take steps to make change. In this scenario, "Suffering as a catalyst for change", is the way I have chosen to play this round in the game. But it isn't ALWAYS the way I play it. Sometimes I create change in my life with what seems like no effort at all, and certainly little or no suffering. And I'll tell you a secret. The easy 'non suffering' version, is my preferred method for creating change. I think the 'suffering' comes from resisting the change, which is inevitable. So my belief is that suffering is only ONE of the methods we use to inspire change. As for the question "Why bother to change if you're already happy?" The answer I would choose would simply be, because it's time. You CAN be happy and still change. You can be happy and still evolve. Most especially if you're looking at your life like a game or like a story. Because the object of the game is to keep moving forward, and the plot of the story must go somewhere. Am I always happy? Of course not. But neither does suffering always lead me to create change in my life. Sometimes in past experiences it has just made me numb. In those instances I was unable to see or feel what "needed" to change, (which again is a relative perception). We're on an evolutionary course and it feels like (from my perspective) opportunities for change are streaming through us and around us. That might feel uncomfortable if we're resisting the process. But if we're willing to jump into the experience without trying to control the outcome and just Observe the process, it becomes a much easier shift. Maybe you didn't even notice the change taking place, but you look around and you see a completely different view. And you wonder to yourself, "When did I hyper-jump? What IS this dimension?" You haven't gone anywhere. Your eyes have opened a little wider, or you've turned your head to take in a wider view, or your brain has learned to translate what you think your world is about in a more expanded fashion. Maybe you see yourself differently. Maybe you stop focusing on what you think is wrong, and have begun to see what is so very beautiful about yourself. Maybe you realize that the family member you could never agree with is really expressing your same viewpoint, but using different words--and now you comprehend that you've been in agreement all along. Or maybe the guy at work, who you always thought was a real jerk, isn't really. And in fact, maybe you suddenly see qualities in that guy that you admire. These aren't necessarily things that you set out to change or to even notice. That change came about because it was inevitable as part of the evolutionary process. And it was a relatively easy shift to make because a larger part of you was smart enough to stop resisting that change and jump into the flow of it. See how tuned in you are? Suffering can be a catalyst for change, but I don't believe that it has to be. I think 'change' is another way of saying 'expanded view point' or 'expansion (of consciousness)' and will occur whether we are suffering through it or not. The less resistance to change/expansion which is occurring, the easier the process and the less suffering we experience. And even though I think change/expansion/evolution is inevitable, I think we still get to make choices about how we play with it. That's the fun, creative part of this whole story/game in the third dimension on planet Earth.
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