Thursday, December 13, 2007

Join the Upwising

If you love puns as much as I do, you will find this latest 1 minute video from the Institute of Noetic Sciences irresistible. It could only have been done by Swami Beyondananda:

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Grandsons


complete with red eye, please excuse:)

Trystan and Dylen


This was taken on one of our many outings to Independence Grove, Libertyville.

Dawsons



This photo of John and Margit was taken at a party at the O'keefe-Manns.

Eve



This photo was taken in Independence Grove in Libertyville, one of my favorite Lake County forest preserves.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Being a Star

I really like Mike Dooley. He is so wise and so creative. He sends out a daily free email which he calls a note from the Universe. They are always playful and very condensed; perfect for the times. He writes like the Universe is writing you a note, and the perspective makes you think; it is classic out-of-the-box thinking.

Here is part of today's email. How brilliant a summary of the right way to achieve goals is this:

Here are 3 sure-fire steps that will take you from wishing upon a star to being one:

Imagine your dreams as if they already exist.

Speak as if they already exist.

And act as if they already exist.


The Universe (mike dooley) © www.tut.com ®

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Merle Haggard endorses Hillary Clinton


I turned on my car radio the other day and got right in the middle of a phone interview with Merle Haggard. I was astounded to hear that he had not only endorsed Hillary Clinton for President, he had written a song about it called Hillary. I wrote an article about it just published on Associated Content. Please check it out:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/456647/merle_haggard_endorses_hillary_clinton.html

Monday, October 15, 2007

Some Rumi


I love Rumi and have pretty much since I have discovered him. It is astounding to me that this poet who lived 800 years ago speaks so clearly to what I am experiencing this moment.

Someone has put some Barks translation of Rumi into a really lovely multimedia presentation, check it out:

http://www.beliefnet.com/rumimeditation/index.html

Image by Ron Wennekes: Catch and Carry

Friday, October 12, 2007

Being Original



I like to read before going to sleep, except if I am really exhausted it is my usual routine to read for a few minutes before I turn off the light.

One of the books by my bedside is an old favorite by Alan Cohen, A Deep Breath of Life. It is set up like a daily journal, with a reading for each day of the year. Oct.11 really touched me; I want to share it with you:

Oct. 11
Don’t Wait for Worth

Think not you lack a special value here.
--A Course in Miracles

In all his lifetime, Vincent Van Gogh sold a single painting for a pittance. At a recent auction, one of Van Gogh’s paintings sold for $82.5 million—an all-time high for a piece of artwork. Currently four of his paintings are among the ten highest-priced paintings ever sold.

It is ironic that Van Gogh was not acknowledged during his lifetime, and posthumously has become the highest-valued painter in history. This tells me that the immediate reaction or acknowledgment of the world is not always an indication of true quality. Quite often great artists and geniuses are overlooked in the early stage of their careers or during their lifetime.

When setting out to create art, music, or literature, to invent an object or method of service, or to choose a career, consult your own heart rather than the world. If you build your creations around the opinions of others, you will give away your power rather than draw it from within. As you allow your creations to spring from your inner vision, you will be a master of your own destiny and ultimately render great service.

Anyone can plug numbers into a formula. Many movie, television, novel, and song writers play on stock story lines that are sure to sell to the masses; some successful writers crank out plot after plot that simply dress old puppets in new clothing. True art, on the other hand, moves beyond what has been, and invites viewers to look at life from a grander perspective. Here is where originality, spirituality, and vision are called for. Such inventors must play on the cutting edge of their own creativity and call the masses to be bigger than they were.

Allow your genius to come forth uniquely—it is your greatest hope to live your destiny.

I pray to be a channel for fresh and wonderful ideas that bring healing and empowerment.

The mind of God within me creates beauty, service, enlightenment, and success.

Alan Cohen

Gotta love it! Thanks Alan for reminding me of what I need to do.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Foreclosures biz

Foreclosures are the hot trend in the real estate biz at the moment, and those who have the stomach for it can make serious profits. Here is a program that is helping a lot of folks interested in foreclosures:

Click Here To Search Foreclosures

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Abundance Affirmations

By Oyvind Hennum

Affirmation is a powerful tool that you can use to change your life. It is a statement that you are repeating over and over again until it becomes a part of your truth.

The positive affirmation becomes more powerful when it is stated with a feeling behind it. It is not enough to repeat it like a parrot or on automatic. The best way of repeating your positive affirmation is to first bring yourself into a relaxed state of mind before you start.

A simple technique is to sit down in a chair, relax your breathing, and close your eyes.

Then, start to focus on your own breath by breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. When you breathe in, follow the breath all the way down in your belly, feeling that your belly expands.

Then, breathe out through your mouth. To go deeper into relaxation, open your mouth and make a soft sound of “aaahhh” while you breathe out.

Do this while you are counting up to ten and then back to one again, counting one number on each out breath. Then, you are ready to start with your positive affirmation. Take the sentence you chose and repeat it ten times—one time on each out breath.

After you have repeated your sentence, go on with your next one, and do the same for every sentence. Pick only a few sentences to work with until you feel they have become a part of you, and then you can pick new sentences to work with. After you have done your positive affirmation session, it is important to show your gratitude to Existence (or God) and yourself by saying: “Thank you for making this a part of my life.”

An affirmation of gratitude is the most powerful positive affirmation.

This is a prayer that works because you are stating who you are. If you are only repeating what you would like to be true, you may repeat forever without effect. The effect comes when you allow yourself to believe that what you are stating is actually true. It takes quite some faith to do this because you are stating a truth about yourself that you cannot see or experience yet.

You will have to gain such clarity and focus—determination and drive—toward what you desire to create with your positive affirmation: that there is no doubt in you that this will come true. This is your new reality, and it starts with believing, then seeing and experiencing. Not the other way around, which has been the standard for human beings for a long time: “Let me see it, and I will believe it.”

You now know that this is not how it works. It works the other way around, and it starts with you. With your positive affirmation, you are stating who you are—right now. This is how you create your own reality. You are doing this all the time on an unconscious level; your thoughts about yourself create who you are. This is the reason that so many things seem to happen to you.

You are giving yourself all the time affirmations that you are not conscious about in the way you are thinking about yourself. Unconscious negative thought patterns create your reality as easy as your conscious positive affirmations about yourself.

That is why it is important to make your statements in a positive way with positive words: “I am not a smoker anymore” (which sounds like you would still like to be one!) works with the negative connotation “not.”

“Not” rejects a part of yourself and does not include all sides of you. A positive, creative, and supportive way of making this statement would be: “I am living a healthy and happy life without cigarettes.”

If you are still a smoker and you would like to live a happy life without cigarettes, I suggest you stop. Now! There will never be a right moment other than now!

Then, in the next moment, you state proudly and to the whole world: “I have stopped smoking, and I will never touch a cigarette again in my whole life!” Wow! What a determination and intention behind that statement! You mean business!

Do this and stick to it, and you will never smoke again.

When you do the positive affirmation exercise and you set yourself goals and pursue them, you will probably have all your judgments and negative thoughts coming to the surface.

Statements like “Yeah, yeah, good luck, smart ass,” “You are dreaming, buddy,” or “This is bullshit; it will never work” and similar thoughts are likely to interrupt you trying to make hindrances on the way to a better life. Take a closer look at the second judgment: “You are dreaming, buddy.”

That one has some truth in it. When a new thought enters your mind, it can feel like a vague dream. You see yourself in a place where you really would like to be, and you immediately discern the thought as a dream.

By discerning the thought, you stop your new thought about yourself from becoming reality. It works in a very simple way: The universe copies your thoughts into reality!

Your strongest thought becomes reality; even the underlying ones that you are not aware of will do so. In this way, you become what you think. Understand that principle and you’ll be already a good step ahead in changing your reality. But understanding is not enough. You also need to take action to change. And the most beneficial action you can take is to become aware about yourself and your thought patterns.

Then, you will more easily be able to catch yourself thinking a negative thought or doing a negative action. Negative thoughts look like these: “You don't have money, so you have no right; who do you think you are?” “Money is bad and filthy anyway.” “I will never make it to get money together.”

When you catch yourself thinking like this, simply change the thought by will. Say to yourself: “Okay, here we go again—the old record is playing again.”

Accept that this side will always be a part of you but that you are now going to be in charge of this record player. That means you can choose what thoughts you are thinking. This may sound like brainwashing—and that is in fact what it is. You clean out the negative thought patterns and replace them with positive ones.

But don’t worry: Your negative thoughts will sneak up on you again before you know it, so don’t think you are losing a part of yourself by doing some brainwashing. You are simply gaining control over your own thoughts.

Saying a negative sentence about yourself works the same way as thinking a negative thought: It creates your reality even stronger than the thought you had before you spoke it out loud. “I’m broke and I don’t know how to get it together this month. I have loads of bills and my job sucks and pays lousy.”

When you say this outloud, the universe copies your statement, and that is the reality you are creating. Still, it is too quick to think that just by saying “My job is great and I can pay all my bills easily,” things will change instantly for you. This will not be the case.

Simply lying about a fact in your life—like having a lot of unpaid bills—does not change your situation.

You need to rephrase your statement: “I am making it my priority to pay my bills this month because my economic situation is not looking very good right now. I am actively working on changing it, and I am also looking for a better job while I keep doing the one I have now—doing the best I can.”

Change your negative thoughts around bills too. Bills are blessings! They are a physical proof that someone else trusts your ability to pay! That is more trust than you have in yourself when you think and talk negatively about them. Someone else allows you to buy or do something and says “You can pay later; we trust you” by sending you a bill! They may not say the words, but that is what their action means. That bills are blessings does not mean that you should collect as many as possible. Rather, do it the other way around. Always look for ways to minimize your expenses and learn from other people who manage to pay their bills easily. They are obviously doing something you are not! As for the statement that your job “sucks,” it definitely will not become better from you repeating negative affirmations about it! Think of your job as a springboard; a starting point for the rest of your career.

Do your absolute best as long as you are there, and see it as a possibility rather than something that holds you back. What I mean about possibility is that the job covers your day-to-day expenses while you are looking around for new possibilities.

While you are in a job, take it on one hundred percent and be fully behind it. Give always a bit more than you get paid for. That is an incredibly powerful statement to yourself, your employer, and to the universe.

Your statement and action say: “I always do my best, and that gives me the opportunity to choose exactly what I would like to work with.” This is a real positive affirmation. A negative action would be to stay in the job and be resentful about it, blaming the world for giving you such a lousy job.

Complaining and blaming others for your own situation are absolutely the best ways to stay stuck in it. Simply stop it!

Start thinking, talking, and acting in a constructive way, and you will see your reality change. Maybe it will take some time before you get a new job or can pay all your bills easily, but the feeling about the issue will change immediately.

The situation is no longer a huge problem because you changed your perception about it. In fact, your situation is just that—a fact, not a problem. And this fact can change when you understand and apply the laws of creation.

Think, talk, and act toward a solution and your “problem” with money will be solved. Now, in the meantime, your mind probably goes: ”It cannot be this easy; I don't believe it.”

This is okay; you just don't have to listen to it and can decide to become the creator of your life situation instead of the victim of it. By victim, I mean a victim of circumstances— seemingly out of your control.

This is a very common perception about life: It just happens to you! And you can do nothing about it!

If you recognize yourself here, it is time to look a bit deeper! Deep down in the subconscious, where your statement about the world creates your reality.

Saying “Life just happens to me, and I can do nothing about it” gives you not only very little choice but also gives you the “benefit” of not having to take responsibility for your life. If you are tired of living like this, then take action. Say to yourself: “I am responsible for my life, and I am going to become the creator of my life. I am no longer a victim.”

From there on, you can start to move into a different and new dimension of your life—the one that you yourself are creating by using positive affirmations!

Copyright (c) 2005 www.financial-freedom-made-simple.com

About the author:

Oyvind Hennum runs the web site:
http://www.financial-freedom-made-simple.com

The site contains: Book reviews, articles, biographies, free e-books, motivational quotes, abundance affirmations, practical tips, success tests, budgeting advice and resource directory.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Spiritual dialogues.com


In an earlier post, I talked about a website called Little Known Pubs, which was the online outpost for the writings of the talented ECK journalist Doug Marman. This website has been updated and upgraded and renamed: http://www.spiritualdialogues.com/

Doug has published an amazing new book called The Whole Truth, The Spiritual Legacy of Paul Twitchell. which is available on this website. This is a book of great scholarship that attracted positive comments from both Gail, Paul's widow, and Brad Steiger, Paul's biographer.

If you have any interest in the work of Paul Twitchell, this book is a must read. I was pleased to be able to contribute several photos from my collection for the book, including the portrait that was used for the front cover, taken by Jerry Lenon. Where are you Jerry Lenon? Inside Doug included a photo I took of Paulji chucking my then infant daughter Tobi under the chin, while she was being held by Sheila, my then wife:)

There are other books of interest on this website also; check it out!

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Love or Fear?


It was a beautiful spring day, just this last Saturday in April. I had the responsibility for taking care of my 6 and 7-year-old grandsons.

We stopped by my house and I made a big bowl of buttered popcorn and the boys entertained themselves with coloring books I had picked up on my last shopping trip while they munched their snack.

After I finished my home office business, we went to the local park to play. This is a lovely playground that the boys are very familiar with, so they went to play, happy to be there.

We hadn't finished the popcorn so I had decided to just bring the big bowl with us and finish munching it there. I installed myself on one of the picnic tables in the shade, with a good view of the playground.

I was feeling very exuberant and happy so I offered some popcorn to a mother and her kid as they passed by on the way to their car. They seemed to ignore my offering and I thought nothing of it.

A few minutes later a couple of the local police approached me and asked for my ID. I said sure, but what was the problem?

Apparently someone had complained that there was a man in the park trying to sell popcorn to kids!

I have had nothing but good experiences with the Mundelein police so I got my driver's license and chatted with them while they checked me out to make sure I wasn't some kind of pedophile or something. In a few minutes they handed my license back to me and said I was ok to go.

So what to make of this incident? Of course if there was some strange man in the park trying to seduce kids by offering them popcorn he should be reported.

And maybe because I have a beard I looked not like a typical Republican suburbanite. But jeez folks!

If the mother or whoever reported me consulted her intuition or even just used her powers of observation for five minutes she would have seen/known that I was just an innocent grandpa in the park with his grandkids.

But her decision to call the alarm must have been a knee jerk reaction just based on fear. This is a sad and hopefully avoidable situation.

The events of 9/11 created a New World for many. There is no doubt that there are sexual predators out there that we need to take precautions against to protect our children. The world can be a pretty scary place and it is easy to yield to fear and just live a paranoid existence. But do we really want to live this way?

I certainly don't. And even though there is much negativity in this world, I still see Love to be the most powerful force in my life and in this world. I intend to live my life based on love, not fear. If we end up living in fear the terrorists have won.

I am not a Pollyanna who wants to hide from the realities of modern life. I just want to remind everyone that a lot of your reality is based upon where you put your attention. If you have been watching too many news reports and have not been tending to your relationship with God, you will have a tendency to develop a warped perspective, one that is fear based.

If your recollection is that you are Soul and are eternal, it is possible for you to bring the force of love into your daily existence in a meaningful way.

Are you going to share the popcorn or call the police?

Some thoughts on the tragedy in Virginia

Tragedies like the murders at Virginia Tech provide fresh reminders of the fragility of our lives. Why did this happen? What does it mean?

We live in a time that esoteric literature has described as the Kali Yuga, or the Iron Age. I first ran across this term when I was studying Hinduism and later encountered it again in Eckankar, the religion of the Light and Sound of God.

Wars, strife and disharmony characterize the Iron Age; it is also called the Dark Age. Events like this are a stark reminder that this is indeed the age we live in. We could see the war in Iraq as more of the same.

A Yuga is an incredibly long period of time. Scholars differ as to its length, which is traditionally described as 432,000 years but some think is shorter.

Do your remember spinning a top as a child? It spins beautifully for a long time, but then it begins to wobble. Once it starts wobbling, it will soon fall. The Kali Yuga is the time when the top of the universe is wobbling madly.

Each age is shorter than the previous one, and there are four. The first is the Golden age which is remembered as the garden of Eden and in many other utopian legends.

How is this relevant to the tragedy in Virginia? Remember the serenity prayer? One of the things we cannot change is the time into which we have incarnated. So we have to learn to deal with it.

How? By remembering that Soul is eternal and we are all sparks of the Divine. This is the central truth of Eckankar and most of the world's religions. Further, Eckankar teaches that Soul exists because God loves it. So even though the reasons for the deaths in Virginia may be unfathomable, we must know that Soul does not die, only the body.

Is their some karmic connection between the murderer and the people he killed? More than likely. It is a given that more bad karma has been created, but who knows what karmic drama was manifesting?

Detachment is the key quality that is taught in Eckankar and it can be a very useful skill in times like these. Detachment does not mean not to care. It really means to realize that you are not your emotions. So grieve, but as the Chinese say, do not let the bird of grief build a nest in your hair.

I personally would like to hope that this incident might cause the lovers of guns and their freedom to buy same to take a fresh look at the tragic consequences of the easy availability of automatic weapons. The only reason for the existence of these weapons is to kill large numbers of people.

One could hypothesize that a determined person can always find a way to get access to what weapons he wants, but why should we continue to make it so easy? You have probably seen the statistics about the number of violent crimes involving guns that occur in America versus every where else in the world. This is something we can change in America if we have the will.

Each moment of our lives we have a choice where we put our attention. This is a freedom that we always have and always will. We create our reality by where we continue to put our attention.

If this incident can serve as a wake up call perhaps that is the lemonade. Remember that we are Soul, that our life in this body is a gift and can be taken from us at any moment. Let us live accordingly.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Little know Pubs

No, this is not referring to cool dive bars you haven't discovered:) It is referring to the great work of Doug Marman who I referred to in my articles about how to find God. I wanted to include this link most prominently so it is easy to find:
http://www.littleknownpubs.com/DialogIntro.htm

How to Find God, Part 2

Note: I published part 1 of this series on AC:
I offered them an exclusive on Part 2, but their offer was so paltry that I decided to just publish it on my blog here. So if you haven't read part 1, this article will make more sense if you do that first.


How to Find God, Part Two.
Reconsider the HU

I never dreamed when I wrote the original article that it would create the little hotbed of controversy that it did. Twenty-four comments and counting as of this writing. The only responsible thing to do will be to write this follow up.

I think that slightly more heat than light was generated by all the comments, and I would like to remedy that situation if I can. People can get passionate about this subject but in order to view it clearly some detachment is necessary.

It is important for me to reiterate what I said at the beginning of my original article. One’s spiritual life is a very subjective business and no one can tell you what is right for you. Only you can determine that for yourself.

First let me settle one simple controversy. I am an Eckist, a member of Eckankar and have been for almost 40 years in this life. But let me again remind you of this: we do not evangelize in Eckankar! It is not for everybody that’s for sure. Only you can determine what is right for you! All I want to do is share my own experience. You have to reach your own conclusions.

The modern controversy surrounding Eckankar has created such a smoke screen for the seeker that only the most determined truth seeker will penetrate it. In order to help you do this; I included the work of Doug Marman in my resources. He has written very insightfully on this whole issue and I highly recommend reading his work if this topic interests you.

I did not mention Eckankar in the original article because I wanted to keep the emphasis simply on the process of getting in touch with your own divine nature. I again call your attention to the ancient word HU, because it is an elegant and precise tool for doing just that.

It is absolutely essential in matters of the Spirit to have your own personal experience. Reading about it in books or hearing someone talk about it may be helpful, but ultimately you must have your own experience in order to discover the validity of what is being read or heard.

This is why chanting the HU can be so useful. By having your own personal experience with Spirit, you can cut to the heart of this whole debate. Ultimately, it is necessary to transcend the mind and chanting HU is one of the most efficient ways to get there.

If you allow yourself to be put off or discouraged by the Naysayers on the path, you cannot be considered a real seeker. Find your own answers, have your own experience, and then you will know.

One of the most refreshing aspects of Eckankar is that it is not based upon belief. You need not take anyone’s word for anything. Authority is not contained in any external media. You are your own truth. You reach your own conclusions based upon your own experience.

I was privileged to know Paul Twitchell when he was alive, and I have also been privileged to know the current living ECK Master, Harold Klemp. No one can take away from me what my own experiences have been with them. Again I encourage you to have your own experience. Don’t be turned away based upon some third party whose voice and agenda may not be in your best interest.

When I first heard about Eckankar, Paul Twitchell had an approach that appealed greatly to my scientific bent. He suggested I take the idea that I was Soul as a working hypothesis, and test it by doing spiritual exercises.

Chanting the HU is just one possible exercise; there are hundreds more suggested in the writings of ECK. What happened to me was that I finally experienced myself as Soul. Once I had that experience, I knew! Nothing could take that away from me. This is what Eckankar is really all about, finding that experience. Once you have that experience, you know. End of story!

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Wake up call

I grew up in a kind of utopian community called York Center Community co-operative. One of my neighbors was Terry Patten who is living an exciting life. He is currently on a citizen diplomacy mission in Iran sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. He has a great blog which I heartily recommend you explore.

This blog has been a wake up call for me. I love the way that Terry is active and engaged and it challenges me to do likewise with my own life. I feel like I have some more serious writing to do and reading this blog has inspired me to get to it! Thanks Terry!

http://terrypatten.typepad.com/iran/

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Project Payday update

I finally was able to access the project payday material and not only does it look legit, it looks very promising. It will take a while to test and experiment with, but I am excited about it. The instructional materials were very clear and straighforward and well written, and they do explain what is a very real opportunity.

This is not a get rich quick scheme, but it does look like a very real opportunity to make some money. I have applied to become an affiliate and I will begin using their methods immediately so stay tuned for updates.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Project Payday

This morning against my better judgement I responded to a website with the title of the subject. It made a nice pitch and offered the option of getting the program for free by accepting an offer from the list of offers. I looked over the list and chose BlogToolKit for obvious reasons. It offered a trial for $1.95 which was easy to accept but I didn't find out until after I had submitted my CC number that after 14 days I would be charged $39.95 a month. Of course I had the option of cancelling, but to not disclose all the terms of the deal before I was asked to sign up is dirty pool, it's unethical.

I don't understand why merchants pull these kinds of stunts. How can they engender confidence in their materials if you immediately feel like you have been manipulated?

Not only that, but I still haven't heard from Project Payday with how to access their materials. Perhaps this notice will come; it has only been a few hours, so I will reserve my judgment here. But this was certainly not an auspicious beginning, and with Mercury retrograde I have a policy of not beginning new projects, so I should have known better anyway!

Plaid

Milt Jackson's Grace

Friday, February 23, 2007

Saving NPR and PBS Once and for All

If you have any political awareness at all, you know that public radio and TV are under constant attack. I thought this recent email from Move On was worth printing here:

Dear MoveOn member,
Thanks to word of mouth, we reached our goal—over 600,000 people have signed the petition to save NPR and PBS once and for all! That's off the charts.
Congress heard us loud and clear. In fact, the chair of the Public Broadcasting Caucus, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), reached out to MoveOn members. Here's what he had to say:
"Despite getting rid of Tom Delay and the Republican-led Congress, the Bush administration continues proposing draconian cuts to public broadcasting. MoveOn played an invaluable service in the last Congress to help restore funding, and I hope MoveOn will continue its efforts as I and other members of the Public Broadcasting Caucus work to secure funding for PBS and NPR once and for all."
But the fight isn't over. In reaction to our petition, a right-wing group has launched a petition calling on Congress to eliminate all funding for NPR and PBS.1 This is a real fight, and we hope you're in it for the long haul.
If you like, you can contribute to our efforts here:
https://civic.moveon.org/donatec4/creditcard.html?id=9925-4257346-fFfKsv&t=1
The battle is on—let's guarantee NPR and PBS have permanent funding and independence from partisan meddling. We'll print and deliver this massive petition to every member of Congress. And we'll keep you in the loop on the next steps.
As always, thanks for all you do.
–Noah, Wes, Carrie, Joan and the MoveOn.org Civic Action Team Friday, February 23rd, 2007
Source:
1. "Report Sees Few Funding Alternatives for PBS," TV Week, February 20, 2007http://www.freepress.net/news/21196

On Being Single: A Personal Reflection

I was just googling around this morning and I found this great essay. First I googled "mystic" and found: http://themystic.org/ This site is most fascinating and looks very worthwhile.

Then I googled "spiritual" and found another very interesting website. The following link is to an essay that has the same title as this post. There is lots of other juicy material on this website but especially for the single folk, I direct you to this brilliant short essay: http://www.soulhealing.com/single.htm

Monday, February 19, 2007

Freelance work exchange

I finally took the plunge and became a member of the freelance work exchange. There are lots of useful resources here and lists of legit jobs. I have started to plow through the material and apply for jobs for which I am qualified. We shall see how it goes. My first impression is that this may be a worthwhile investment; only time will tell.


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Friday, January 19, 2007

Happy 65th Birthday Jan! part 2

I thought long and hard about what kind of gift I could give you that would be appropriate to this milestone birthday. I woke up this morning knowing I wanted to write you an essay and I decided the ideal thing to do would be to publish it to this blog, since the subject is so universal I thought you would not mind if I shared this with the world.

Over the years I have collected a few artifacts related to the subject of aging and the postcard reproduced below that I got from Vera and Leo a few years ago is right at the top of the list of objects that address the subject masterfully. So that is the first thing I share with you. Of course it is especially poignant now that Leo is gone.

Happy 65th Birthday Jan!

How much have you lost from procrastination?

One of the Editors at Judy's book asked this question and I had to respond!

Oh baby, thanks for asking a really juicy question. This is one I am addressing daily!

I could recommend a whole library of books I have read on this subject, putting 1/2 of 1 % of what I have learned into practice! That will give you a hint about my style of procrastination.

Let me just give you a quote from a lovely little flip book written by Ruth Hayes, called the "flip book of the DEAD." BTW, in case you're not familiar with the term, a flip book is a primitive form of animation, where you flip the page ends to view a changing scene. I'm sure you've seen them:

"O procrastinating one, who thinketh not
of the coming of death,
Devoting thyself to the useless doings of this life,
Improvident art thou in dissipating
thy great opportunity;
Mistaken, indeed, will thy purpose be now
if thou returnest emptyhanded from this life. . .
Wilt thou not be acting even as a traitor to thyself?"