“Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits.”
William Hazlitt 1778-1830, Essayist
Another favorite quote…
It’s a reminder to stay sweet, not to let life’s challenges bring negative changes, to find the things that bring joy and live them.
Create joy Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy. Milton Erickson, M.D. One of the servers in a restaurant the other day was talking with me about the new year...
Thinkin' about forgiveness and giving up resentment I woke the other morning thinking about forgiveness and asking/praying/thinking about how to give up any resentments that were lurking around...and trying to get a handle on it. I've heard it said that forgiveness is...
Kids are so funny, they keep you on your toes Yesterday in the car on the way home from school I saw my 9 yo (3rd g) with $20. She has some money saved from her allowances because she usually talks herself out of spending...
Forced to be family I appreciated the title and subtitle of this book for its cleverness: Forced to Be Family: A Guide for Living with Sinister Sisters, Drama Mamas, and Infuriating In-Laws. The author has also written a number...
Trees I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree... ...only God can make a tree. ~Joyce Kilmer, "Trees," 1914 The trees are God's great alphabet: With them He writes in shining...
20 Ways to Convince Someone to Save More Money Financial planners and personal finance advocates would likely agree that winning the "Why should I save money?" argument is one of their most difficult challenges to...
Punch Life In The Face The following guest post is from Steven Severson of HundredGoals.com. After reading his post, please visit his site and consider signing up to receive his...
Authentic Sharing on Birthing a New Life Have you ever asked for a change in one area of your life and discovered waves of change sweeping through your entire life in order to...
Abortion.. What are your views? Trapped... Time Has Run Out For Over 49 Million Americans. By Another's Choice.. Who is trapped by the "choice" of abortion? Both the mother and...
How to Keep Plants Safe This Winter If you have planted perennials in your garden this year, there are a few things that you’ll have to do to make sure that they...
My dh picked up his tri-focals yesterday. It’s a new experience for him. They are the no-line type…and he is tilting his head differently than he tilted it before. He’s generally not needed glasses for distance, and his eyes naturally are like mono-vision, with one eye seeing up close and the other at a distance, but he’s needed more for reading glasses than he has had and because of the way his eyes see, picking up a $1 pair doesn’t work like it used to. Anyway, he picked out a frame that looks good, even though he picked on price.
This morning’s paper had a humorous article on getting glasses and I thought it was perfect timing. I sure enjoyed it!
La Prairie cosmetics and color story La Prairie has many fine products. In many ways they are state of the art. They are also expensive. I use them frugally, if that makes sense. I use them where I need them, not...
Review Vitus (movie) Vitus is a charming movie, full of love, and I highly recommend it, if you have not seen it already. It is a slice of life I'd like to return to more than once. Beautifully...
FOTD Maybelline Smokey Green Eye look with Meow I've been captivated by the current ads for Maybelline Smokey Eyes. The Emerald Smokey Eye ad was simply gorgeous, so I thought I would use some colors I already have to get a similar look....
Empathy, hope, faith, cynicism, doubt, pessimism (book) The other day walking through the library quickly, several book titles leapt out at me. The author of this book shares out of his practice and his life. He was a psychologist, on the faculty...
Quiet time I need a certain amount of quiet time to function well. If I don't get it, life becomes too hectic, when it is busy already, or I find myself wakeful in the night, the only...
Earn Money at Home With Ease Earn Money at Home With Ease By Alan Lim Persons looking to earn money at home have a lot of opportunities to work online. Online...
Review: Sylvester by Georgette Heyer Sylvester was recommended to me by Laura Kinsale because he botches his proposal to Phoebe and his character is like that of Mr. Darcy. Now,...
Bolle Tennis Vigilante Sunglasses One of the biggest problems that tennis players face is being able to function in bright sunlight, and see a ball that is hurtling at...
Addiction vs. Practice Mortification of the flesh to what purpose, disidentification? Yes indeed. When people still undertook it with the proper intent, but it has no merit if...
This came across my computer from Insight of the Day today:
I believe people should study a little bit every day. It should become habitual, like brushing your teeth, combing your hair, having a shower or getting dressed. Study the mind, the laws of the universe and paradigms. There’s enough information on those subjects to keep a person studying forever. Bob Proctor
Because I like to learn about new things, I don’t think of it as a habit. I laugh and say once I’ve learned one new thing each day, I can go to sleep.
Recently I read the book Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment. He teaches a very popular class in this. One of his interesting points is to make anything you like, that makes you happy, a habit, schedule it in. Evidently making something a habit means it actually gets into your life on a regular basis. And it takes upwards of a month to make something new a habit.
The Frog Prince by Jane Porter The Frog Prince is a modern day fairy tale. Because I liked Flirting with Forty so well, I had high expectations for this one. In a mere 371 pages Holly goes from being a devastated,...
Average eyes (or not) Every tree and plant in the meadow seemed to be dancing, those which average eyes would see as fixed and still. ... Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and...
Review: Arbonne NutriMinC RE9 body serum and body lotion If you are looking for a miracle product, this might just be it. I first saw the picture of a woman's arms. On one arm, she used these products for 2 weeks, once a day....
How to create a service environment I'd like to meet this Captain, wouldn't you! "Serve with passion," -- indeed! Here's a story to make your day happier: When I wrote the book, Customer Love, I shared this story about Captain Denny...
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the four(ty) hour workweek After reading Timothy Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Workweek I was struck by what I viewed as one of his main concepts: work is something to...
Review of Alan Corey's A Million Bucks by 30 I received a complimentary copy -- autographed by the author, no less! -- of A Million Bucks by 30. This book will be available in...
Fake studying for fake education By: Ruslans Mescerjakovs, Founder School of Phenomenal Memory I still remember my exams in secondary school. I will let you to decide how common this...
Recently I had the privilege to hear renowned pianist Brooks Aehron. If you ever get a chance to see him, you will have a good time, whether you like piano music particularly or not. He is quite a showman. He makes music fun!
One thing he asked the audience at one of his three concerts was: what is a pianist’s greatest fear? His answer was not forgetting the music, but the loss of a hand. Then he played an entire piece using just his left hand. You can imagine how difficult that is, especially if you are right handed.
This story of Hee Ah Lee takes it even farther. Born with serious birth defects, she has mastered piano with the use of only 4 fingers, some of which do not function as normal fingers. It makes many difficulties most of us might face seem very small in comparison.
It moved me to tears. I was also moved that her mother resisted family pressure to abandon her to adoption to Canada or the West. To her mother, Hee Ah Lee has always been beautiful and perfect.
She has given more than 200 concerts and loves to perform. If you watch the second video to the very end, you can see that she knows how to interact with the audience.
Here’s a short piece played by her:
And a longer story:
You can find other videos featuring her also.
The lesson here, to me, is find a way. If something seems impossible, yet our talents are leading us to do it, find a way.
There is a unique way for each of us to accomplish most anything, if we truly desire it, work toward it, and have our own vision that we keep in sight. It also helps to surround ourselves with others who will help forward our vision or even lead us to it. Eliminate naysayers! Work towards the end we are trying to achieve.
The world needs our music, whether we are playing music or living the music of our lives. Each of us is needed.
Review Percy Jackson movie If you loved Harry Potter, be sure not to miss Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Book Girl and I went to the midnight showing last night, crazy people that we are. The...
Elder role models I'm always on the lookout for role models, male or female, who are older than I am. But there's something about a woman who is living an interesting life that does, in fact, interest me....
Review: Update: Kindle 2 ebook reader UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE NEWS FLASH Amazon is keeping up with the competition This arrived in my mailbox this morning: Dear Kindle Customers, A new Kindle software update is now available and will be automatically delivered...
What's your favorite music? Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without. Confucius I pretty much like it all, but I get tired of country, at least at times. Though, I have to admit, one...
Meet the Robinsons, movie review contains spoiler For those of you parenting adopted children this is a friend's thoughts on seeing the film with her two adopted daughters so you will have a better idea of what it entails. As I said,...
Finding Acoustic Guitar Music Those who play the acoustic guitar are always on the lookout for great acoustic guitar music. There are a number of great collections out there...
Sax in the Jazz Band There can be absolutely no doubt that for the original forty years worth of Jazz, the clarinet was one of the major lead instruments for...
Approach Your Site With E-Fuzion While appropriate web designing is finished for web site, afterward the meticulous web site carry extra stipulate between the webs searchers approach up with the...
List of Musical Terminology 8eva – an octave higher
A tempo – resume the normal speed after a diversion
Accelerando (accel.) – gradually becoming faster
Adagio – slowly, leisurely
...
Brief History of the Accordian The accordion is a potable acoustical musical instrument that is box shaped, and is derived from the hand held bellows-driven family of free-reed aerophone instruments....
This comes from a friend of mine who helped another friend celebrate her 102nd birthday! I asked her to tell me something about her friend. I think we tend to hear more of decrepitude than elders who are still going strong. I like to collect stories of folks living life well into their elder years. It counteracts what we hear way more of than we should for our own good.
Karin
My friend who is celebrating her 102nd birthday this week, is so inspiring to me. She stays up to date with news and current events and is always interesting to talk to. She knows what’s going on and often has a thoughtful comment to offer. She has friends of all ages. I know that each of her friends feel just as I do…..they visit her because they WANT to, not because they feel obligated. They enjoy talking to her and they enjoy being with her.
One day, when she was 98 years old, I took her to the bank because she had two c.d.’s that were coming due and she wasn’t sure what to do with them. I waited while she went in and talked to the bank officer. A few minutes later she came out of his office and with a little smile on her face, she told me that she had renewed the cd’s for another two years. We both kind of chuckled at her decision, but that was just another example of how she lives each moment of her life, always living in the here and now. I don’t know what she did with the cd’s when they came due again. She would have been 100 that year and I’d be willing to bet that she renewed them for another two years. (and if so, it’s now time to renew them again!) She lives each day with anticipation and appreciation.
About two years ago the apartment building which she had lived in for more than 25 years was being turned into condos and everyone had to leave unless they wanted to buy a unit. She knew she would have to leave, and after much help from several friends she moved from her spacious two bedroom apartment into a much smaller one-bedroom apartment a few blocks away. She could not fit all of her furniture into the one bedroom apartment, but instead of selling the furniture that she couldn’t use, she rented a storage unit and stored the excess furniture.. I saw that as one more example of her living for the moment. She seldom talks about the past unless she has an interesting story to tell you. She’s a real inspiration!
You asked me to include any comments that she might have made at her birthday party about life or birthdays, but she just simply thanked everyone for being there and for their kindness. She seems to take each birthday in stride without ever making a big deal about it . Amazing! Love, J.
He went to Paris, Jimmy Buffet lyrics This is a beautiful song, but I couldn't find a video...so here's the lyrics, minus one verse...Paris is one of the cities I love to visit. I've got extended 'family' there, because we hosted an...
The Thank You Campaign A friend sent me this youtube video today. It seems appropriate to post at this time of year, Thanksgiving in America where I live, and while it is directed at thanking the military men and...
Living a passionate life What is the purpose of this life? Do you keep living until you have had all the best experiences? When is life complete? How many years would you want to keep living? Or do you...
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Weekend Roundup - Cleaning The Carpet Edition Every year we get our carpets and living room furniture steam cleaned. It's amazing how much dirt can accumulate! I've tried DIY methods but nothing...
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Friends Encourage Friends To Be Frugal. Photo by freeparking You know that expression "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk"? Of course you do, but if you think about it, the same...
The Ten Commandments of Money Would you like to be able to work less? How about buy a new car? Maybe get a nicer house? We all have things that...
Birthdays Are Coming Up Both of our children have birthdays coming up. The older will be eight and the younger turns one. And the dates are within two days...
There is a famous prayer often called the Serenity Prayer. Sometimes we simply have to accept what is, while we work it out in thought and prayer, trying to figure out what is the difference between what we must accept and what we must try to change.
Waiting for a Chinese adoption right now falls into this category. But so do a lot of other things.
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
–Reinhold Niebuhr
In letting go, we release our mental pictures of how things should turn out and accept what the universe brings us. We accept that we don’t really know how things should be. (p 186)
…surrender [is] a choice, and … it [does] not mean giving up… When we surrender, we accept it just as it is…to see that we always have choices, in every situation, is surrender. To turn away from a situation is to give up. To turn into it is surrender. (p 188-189)
Sometimes we have to turn into the wind in order to take advantage of it. The wind is going to blow anyway. The question is what are we going to do while it does?
…conditions may never change, which makes us victims of their not changing. To say, ‘I will only be peaceful if such and such happens’ is pretty limiting…I’m not talking about accepting everything that happens. If you don’t like the television show you’re watching, you don’t have to surrender to it — change the channel.
…I’m talking about situations we have decided are insurmountable obstacles to happiness….Surrendering into life as it is can be the quickest and most powerful way to get the lesson out of the situation. You can’t change your bad childhood, but you can have a good life… you can stop wasting your time and energy [on things that won't change]…[it] doesn’t mean that life is over.
…if happiness is possible tomorrow, it is also possible today. If love is possible tomorrow, it is possible today. (p 188-193)
If we have to get through a situation in order to get to the other side, then we simply have to do it, a day at a time, making each day count as best we can, making choices for happiness even as we walk the path. Nobody can tell you what works for you, but you can find it for yourself. Don’t let a day go by without finding some happiness in it. Take a moment to notice the good things around you.
…live every day to its fullest. When was the last time you really looked at the sea? Or smelled the morning? … to see the stars… to gaze out on the ocean. Many of us live near the ocean but never take the time to look at it. We all live under the stars, but do we look up at the sky? Do we really touch and taste life, do we see and feel the extraordinary, especially in the ordinary? (p 224)
There are wonderful moments waiting in this day. Go for it!
How do you know if you are making the right decision I can't answer this one, but it's a tough question. Thinking can get you into trouble. Too much introspection can be begloom-ing. (I really do like that word.) There have been several times in my...
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A woman with substance Our paper chronicles today a woman who is 105. She looks good! They say she has a spark. Here's some highlights: She began playing the drums at 12. A neighbor says of her: She's an...
Punch Life In The Face The following guest post is from Steven Severson of HundredGoals.com. After reading his post, please visit his site and consider signing up to receive his...
14 Reasons to Use a Relationship Coach The coaching relationship is unique and powerful, and really can help you find fulfillment in your life and relationships. Below are some important reasons to...
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Of all the gifts my mother gave me, not the least of which was an excellent childhood, I’d have to say that ‘enthusiasm’ was by far one of the most valuable. She taught me not to miss the parade, if you know what I mean. You don’t always have to actually JOIN the parade, if that’s not your personality- but you should SHOW UP and cheer and laugh and sing along, if only to yourself. -c
I simply love this quote, not much else to add to that. I like it for me as both the parent and the child I once was, but still embody. I too had an excellent childhood, or at least a plenty-good-enough one, but I wasn’t taught the rest of this. I had to pick it up for myself in the parades of life. And I have to encourage my children in this direction.
As an adult, once when I was going through what might possibly have been a difficult situation, someone said to me to view it as if I were sitting in a parade stand. I should think of it as if I were (or had been) watching it pass by, not as if I were in it. I thought that was very helpful to remember. I had sort of felt that way at the time it was happening, not exactly removed from it, but not within it either. It helped me feel freer of any repercussions. And it seemed a kind of grace.
Karin
A mother should give her children a superabundance of enthusiasm, that after they have lost all they are sure to lose in mixing with the world, enough may still remain to prompt and support them through great actions. Julius C. Hare (1795-1855) English Cleric
Conquering the mountain What an idiot! I'm laughing here, because obviously the guy knows what he is doing. My question is why. It's not what you think. He isn't mountain climbing. He's descending the mountain at umpteen mph...
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Money Quote Friday - Don't Waste Time Edition. Today's quote really hit me for some reason, in that sometimes we really forget the essence of life...living. Forget money, forget your job, forget your...
14) Work to Mature the Way Adoption is understood in Our Society
–Much of our inability to believe adoption corruption exists begins with our society’s simplistic, AP centered, and mythic understanding of adoption. Adoption is mythically considered an always and absolute good. When adoption is seen in more mature, realistic, and balanced ways, our society will start to realize that adoption, like almost everything else in life, can be used for good or ill (to help or to exploit and harm). Adoption is a good only when used and practiced responsibly with an understanding of what it is and what is it is not; the good that it can be, but also the real inherent losses that it causes.
–As in all things, educating yourself is first. Seek to understand adoption as an elephant surrounded by blind men. Our society believes and acts as if the only valid perspective on adoption comes from the blind man standing in the position of adoptive parent. That blind man is given a megaphone and all
others (very valid others who stand around the majority of the elephant) who have different perspectives are ignored, greeted with skepticism, and/or silenced. Learn to see adoption from the perspective of other blind men-adoptees, birth families, those hurt by adoption, the big picture, the
historical perspective, etc.
–join IAT :0) [and/or Discuss-IAT] and encourage others to join; listen and learn. Be willing to change and mature your perspective.
–read adoptee memoirs, blogs, and stories
–read books on adoption history and practice
–read criticisms of intercountry adoption including those that see intercountry adoption as a continuation of neocolonial practices and an outgrowth of the evils of globalism; seek to understand the racial aspects and the first world/third world power inequities of intercountry adoption.
–read first mother blogs, accounts, and stories
–seek out stories that show other sides of adoption
–from all of these form a more realistic understanding of adoption.
–Remember this: It is always easy to recognize the injustices of another time and place; the hard thing is to recognize the injustices of your own time and place. In every time and place where injustice has been condoned/ignored/allowed to thrive by society there has been a worldview and a simplistic uni-blind-man mythology that makes injustice look just, especially for those who benefit from it. It is easy to shift blame, make problems into non-problems, injustices into non-issues, and ignore massive problems. It is harder to take a stand against the zeitgeist and be a flea or a lion biting against injustice. Reform begins with understanding the view from somewhere other than society’s single approved blind man. It starts when people begin to recognize that there are other human beings involved — people as human as themselves. People who have the same emotions, the same hopes, and the same dreams — and who feel pain in the same way and for the same reasons as themselves — when we start to care about the way the world looks from the perspective of those other equally human beings. Not just the way WE think the world looks from their perspective (in our minds), but the way it IS from their experience and perspective. When we GIVE THEM VOICE and LISTEN TO THEM.
–Whenever you see adoption being portrayed in a simplistic, AP centered, uni-perspective, mythic sort of way, speak up and share a different perspective.
Finding birth family (and corruption) (and love) in India Hi all, Several weeks ago Karin posted on my behalf as I'd wanted to post anonymously. My daughter did not want her story shared but she now feels differently. As her birth mother has also...
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“The summer night is like a perfection of thought.” –Wallace Stevens
“In summer, the song sings itself.” –William Carlos Williams
Sometimes I take stock of myself or my life and remember the simple things that, if I but notice them, make life easier. At times that is about the best way to get through. A perfect summer night is one of them.
It has been beautiful around here lately. I never fail to recognize it when I feel the breeze, and it is cool. Warm days, but not blistering, and cooling off at night. By August, and even into October, the cool down is practically minimal.
I was waiting for summer to share these quotes. The trouble for me is that summer here can be just too, too hot. When it is, I run my errands early in the morning or after 5 pm. I don’t know how people survived minus air conditioning.
Well, as a kid, we headed to the lake. And when we were in town, we lived at the swimming pool.
The other day I saw a great old car — it looked brand new — and as much as I might have liked tooling around in it, a blast from the past, there wasn’t any air conditioning. Nope, no can do!
Right now, today, I was thinking that for June we are having very temperate weather. I’m surprised it isn’t hotter, but a lot of it is because we’ve had literally inches of rain. Afternoon rains cool it down right quick. For me, it’s even better if there’s some overcast. Let the sun come out, and it is too, too hot.
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Speaking of the ads at this blog I don't pick 'em. They are put on automatically by the content of my posts. If you are interested in an ad, click on it. Currently there is one showing a 6 year old prodigy...
Thinking of an adoptee's rejection by her APs "In every dispute between parent and child, both cannot be right, but they may be, and usually are, both wrong. It is this situation which gives family life its peculiar hysterical charm." - Isaac Rosenfeld...
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What Link Building Methods Work Today? What Link Building Methods Work Today? By Adelaide Kwaning Link building is the process of building back links. The more back links to your site,...
Fire risk assessment - your legal responsibility The legal responsibility for ensuring compliance with fire safety and related legislation lies with the relevant company as the employing authority, where it is...
Factory farming is key to swine flu epidemic In a previous post, we noted the recently published research of Yoshihiro Kawaoka, the eminent Japanse virologist, in which he recorded the fact that he...
Blogging – You’re Doing it WRONG! (Pt 2) This continues from part one and is part two in a two part series on what bloggers are doing wrong when it comes to blogging....
If kvetching is second nature to you, I heard today of rubber bracelets to be worn to help you stop complaining. I guess even Oprah talked about it on her show. I’m behind in finding out about things.
It is worn on one wrist, until you complain, then you move it to the other wrist and begin to count again. The hope is to get to 21 days without changing wrists. Thankfully, it doesn’t register complaints in your mind, only spoken complaints.
And I don’t think it counts for legitimate complaints (though we should be honest with ourselves which are and which aren’t, LOL)
It’s spreading around the world. So far, more than 3.5 million have been ordered, going to 78 countries. If you want to read a story about it, go here; or to order bracelets and read more about it, go here.
See my later post on this here. I added pictures from this post below:
My bracelet
I thought about making a bracelet with the words No complaint, but for me, I wanted a positive reminder of what I hope to bring.
I was playing around with alphabet beads to see what letters I had to work with. It isn’t necessary to put much money into making a bracelet like these. I made two bracelets that I alternate wearing. If I find I really enjoy them, I will remake them in silver beads. I added crystals and carved beads to make them more interesting.
Create-Imagine-Appreciate
Bring Joy-Love-Pax
What do you do if you find yourself chronically complaining? What do you want to bring to situations? How do you keep resentments and complaints from sizzling?
Working out of complaints How it began Perhaps you've heard of the church that gave out rubber bracelets with the words No complaint. The idea was to wear the bracelet on one wrist, moving it to the other when...
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why my question has been removed? i've posted a question asking people to recommend wordpress plugin for managing banners. there wasn't anything inappropriate, i'm sure of that. no bad language or...
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I can’t say I follow all the byways. I read nearly every word or I’d miss something, but because he has set up a sort of parallel universe I’m not always catching nuances. Sometimes another book adds some of the backstory in a way I find I understand it better. And I haven’t read the first 9 books all in order (it isn’t really necessary as there are enough allusions to other characters and their place in the story in each book.)
I really enjoy the narration of the main character, Harry. We get inside his head where there is plenty of cynicism, a lot of caring, and some interesting ways to handle evil.
This is sort of an apocalyptic series of good vs. evil with assorted vampires, archangels, evil spirits, and other literary and Biblical allusions, such as the fearsome Gruffs in this book (as in Billy Goat Gruffs). That one tickled my fancy!
I enjoy the humor.
At one time in my life, a shapeshifted, demonically possessed maniac crashing through a window and trying to rip my face off would have come as an enormous and nasty surprise.
But that was pretty much in the past. (p 102)
There is an entire website devoted to those who love the series and the various things (such as time lines and ages) that the fans are figuring out for the rest of us.
In the meantime, you could do a lot worse than spending some time in this series. There are godly believers; agnostics; atheists; a police officer in charge of paranormal with a developed sense of responsibility for her charge, the city of Chicago; and even a crime lord who has redeeming qualities. It is certainly thought provoking. There’s not a lot of gratuitous gore and what there is often happens to the bad guys. It’s not a series that would keep me up at night. I don’t expect any of these non-human characters to meet me in an alley.
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer Outside of the fact that twilight is one of my favorite times of day, I was intrigued by an article in our paper a couple of weeks ago or so mentioning this author and her...
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The Black Widow Agency (book) While perusing the new book section of our local library, I came across a new (to me) author/book series by Felicia Donovan The Black Widow Agency (Black Widow Agency Mysteries). In a way, it reminds...
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I’ve been surprised lately by the number of times I’ve been around people who dismiss out of hand experiences and ideas that might be of interest or a help to them. Maybe I notice it more because I try to stay open to new ideas and experiences, even if I have to make a list so that I remember to think about or to do them as time allows. The latest for me is ordering a book from the library that someone remarked about at another list.
Is that an oxymoron, to work at staying open? Should it come easier?
Anyway, it’s like I’ve become aware of it on a lot of levels. How could I not — it was as if I was being knocked over the head with it. All of a sudden, not so suddenly, it registers. I’m finally present enough in the moments of my life that it makes a connection.
The most recent experience happened when I overheard a woman shut the door to a new idea. She dismissed it out of hand and even a bit abruptly.
Are people that closed? I imagine this woman thinks of herself as quite open and outgoing. But she dropped the ball on that one.
And where are the spaces in my life that are closed (and maybe even locked up tight.) (Of course, I don’t think I have that many. ;O)
Disclaimer for those who are technically challenged: I understand…and that’s not what I’m really talking about, though picking up new technology seems to be the name of the game. I learn to do only what I need to know…and the line keeps moving forward. There’s no time to learn things I will not be using.
Fukoji Bells on New Year's Eve A friend posted this on another list. It was the first time I'd heard of it. I am touched by it on a variety of levels. There's something to be said for having a community...
Books and language Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which other men have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life. Jesse Lee Bennett The sum of human wisdom is not...
David McClure on a senior moment I thought this was too funny. I hope it makes you smile. Find it here where you can find other columns he has written. Karin David McClure of McKinney: A senior moment ... at 48?...
The real effects of adoption Ann Landers, or was it Dear Abby, had a column a number of years ago about parents who wished they'd never had children. The percentage was astonishingly high, I thought, and so did she. Mostly...
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Make Money Trading Online Make money Indy, or Indiana Jones was one of my favorite heroes. Remember the movie about the Holy Grail and the scene where he has...
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The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions. Oliver Wendell Holmes
I love the idea of the flexibility that is behind this quote. Every rule has its exception.
I know someone whose life was ordered by seeing things as either right or wrong, black or white, no shades of grey. For her, I think to believe or live the exceptions would have felt too unsafe. How else to order the world? At the same time she was very kind and compassionate. In a sense she was a product of her times and her upbringing.
I, on the other hand, can be too knowledgeable about the shades of grey to clearly make a strong leap to the side of the rules, rebel of the heart that I am.
Somewhere there is balance.
And in that balance, somewhere, there is the knowledge that every rule has its exception.
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Answers to Common Mutual Fund Questions Mutual funds have always been a great place to invest money over a long period of time, if you pick one out with low fees...
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Related Posts 
Create joy Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy. Milton Erickson, M.D. One of the servers in a restaurant the other day was talking with me about the new year... 
. He teaches a very popular class in this. One of his interesting points is to make anything you like, that makes you happy, a habit, schedule it in. Evidently making something a habit means it actually gets into your life on a regular basis. And it takes upwards of a month to make something new a habit.
has an interesting chapter on surrender. The book also has chapters on Authenticity, Love, Relationships, Loss, Power, Guilt, Time, Fear, Anger, Play, Patience, Forgiveness and Happiness. 
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