First Snow Storm

Yesterday we awoke to snow on the ground. It wasn't much, just about a half inch. Since the ground wasn't frozen yet, the roads were mainly wet. It didn't seem too bad. However, Mother Nature wasn't through with us yet. The clouds stayed around most of the day and the wind kept blowing. We kept getting little, short periods of snow flakes. The weatherman warned us that it would get worse overnight because there was a storm coming from the north west over the Great Salt Lake. Tooele and the western parts of Salt Lake could get more snow.

This morning when we got up there was about 4 inches of snow on the mailbox and my car was covered. It's been cloudy and breezy most of the day. It's just plain cold, though the walks and driveway are pretty much melted. Still, we've stayed inside and warm, though the dog, Lady, has been trying to coax at least one of us outside to play in the snow. Silly dog. She hates the rain, but loves the snow.You'd think she had Husky in her instead of Lab.

The mountains have seemed to be getting a good base of snow. That's good. I'm not all that fond of snow, but I do like drinking water and washing, so I guess I need to learn to put up with the snow. It actually wouldn't be too bad if I didn't have to travel. Maybe I can figure out how to call my demos in?

Defy Gravity, An Early Review

I've just started reading Caroline Myss' new book, Defy Gravity. It is about healing as all of her books are, but this one is more about healing through "Grace". She gets away from much of the conventional ideas for healing. Her previous book, which I haven't read yet was called "Entering The Castle" in which she talks about the writings of one of her favorite historical womwn, Saint Theresa of Avila. She bases this new book on some of the things that have happened to her and her audiences when she was promoting that pervious book.

Caroline Myss has been a medical intuitive for many years working with Dr. Norm Shealy. I read several of her books from that time. She's seemed to believe that we can heal using ours or other's energy. There is certainly quite a bit of study on the subject. Many of her books talk about our attitudes and outlook on life, our using our minds to heal.

This new book is more about spirit. So much of the first part of the book resonates with me. She talks about how so many of us feel the empty places in our lives and psyche. I know that is true for me. She feels that we can't depend on science for everything, we need Spirit, we need God's Grace to see us through.

I am into chapter 2 now and enjoying it very much. She talks about forgiveness and surrender and the reason so many of us can't seem to do these things, and I see myself. I'm not quite as bad about forgiveness, but surrender is something that is very difficult for me. It's difficult to give up control, even though I know that I can't control all, or sometimes even some of the aspects of my life. I will keep reading and hope to heal my life somewhere down the road.

Just Another Post

It is a beautiful, sunny day today. It's a nice change from a couple of pretty heavy windy days. We need to replace some plastic tarp on the garage roof where we didn't get it repaired this year. We had garbage cans tip over and tree branches and pinecones to pick up. One of our windchimes needs to be restrung. It was originally done with cording, but fishing leader lasts better in our windy area.

I've actually been doing a little sewing. I've finished a top for myself made from a Fall, Halloween type print to wear at work. The neckline had an over-lapping vee neckline that I really had problems with. I'm so out of practise! I'm going to try doing some other sewing. Many of my clothes have really seen better days, plus, some I'm heartily sick of.

I've been spending entirely too much time playing games on Facebook! Cafetown really irritates me. It takes too much time to load, if you don't spend enough time there, your food gets ruined and has to be discarded. I find myself treating it like a real business and worrying about customer service. I guess that's a habit from my real job.I think I'll let the cafe thing go. The farm is more fun anyway. It seems a bit silly to spend so much time on something that isn't real. Maybe that's the charm.

We're getting ready to paint the garage if the weather holds up. It really needs it! This weekend is supposed to be in the 70s. Of course I'm working! After all, it is a weekend and working in retail pretty much demands it.

Well, life goes on here in Utah, pretty much as usual, which isn't saying a lot. Still, it's predictable.

Our October Venture

My Aunts, MaryLou and Maureen and I went on a little outing on Sunday. We planned on seeing fall leaves. The weather was stormy and I considered postponing the trip, but my next Sunday off was not for 2 weeks. The leaves would be pretty much off the trees by then.

We usually go fairly high, like the Nebo or Alpine Loops, but we were concerned about driving in snow.We decided to just go up to Park City, then to Midway and Heber, then on down Provo Canyon.

We had rain most of the way. Park City had some road work going on, so we ended up driving around a bit. The rain showed signs of becoming snow, getting a little slushy. The picture was taken around Park City. You can see a little snow on the top of the mountain. By the next day, they had snow on the ground.

We drove through Midway.There's been a lot of building there. They even have a spa resort now. Heber has done some beutifying along Main St. We got hungry and needed a pit-stop, so we stopped at MacDonalds. I can't believe we drove that far just to eat at MacDonalds. Oh well, when hunger calls.

The drive down Provo canyon was really pretty.The leaves were mostly turned, but still on the trees. It's sure a lot nicer with the new road!

We ended up going home through Lehi and the "back" way through Cedar Fort. By the time we got out around the area where the ATV riders like to go, the rain was coming down looking like weak chocolate milk, or maybe latte. The car is really a mess! Unfortunately, it's still a little cold to wash it at home.We might have to resort to paying for a carwash. All in all, storm included, it was a nice trip.

The Self Actualised Person

I just recieved some information about becoming "self actualised". I think the term originated from a man called Abraham Maslov. I think he was a phycologist or perhaps a socialolgist or something like that. Anyway, he described the stages that people go through to become mature, or "actualised".

The info I have talks about learning to accept what is, that which you can't change. Of course, you need to know how to recognise the things that you can't change, so you don't go through life banging your head against a wall, thinking you're going to make a difference. I guess we all go through those things.Still, it's better than giving up on something that you really might be able to change. But I degress. Usually, the things you can't change are other people. They are the only ones who can effect changes in themselves.We can only support them.

Another thing that a self actualised person does, is when problems occur, he allows negativity to go through him, but remain detatched from the result. That sounds pretty tricky to me. I have a hard time with the detatchment thing.

A self actualised person takes responsibility for himself. He doesn't blame everyone else. Okay, that's just being a grown up, right? Obviously,there are outside things that affect us, but we are responsible for our reactions.

There were other things, like respect for others, being supportive to others,etc. Oh, and a real big one, don't judge others. That's big, because it's hard. Just when you think you're doing okay, you find yourself slapping labels on people or events. I guess you have to learn to disagree with someone without judging them to be an idiot. Sometimes that is really hard!

Okay,I guess just getting to be adult age isn't all we have to do, we actually need to grow up too. The problem is that it seems to be an unending process. At least there's always something to learn and/or teach. Keeps life interesting.

The Enemy Within

Most of us have beliefs that do not serve us in our lives. We accept, as truth, things that we are told as we are growing up. As children, we don't seem to have much of a judgement filter for things we're told or see until we get older, meet other ideas, have experiences. Most of us, even if we consider ourselves stable and emotionally healthy, have beliefs that don't serve us well. We often even realise that judgements we make are often not really our own, but are remnants of things we accepted, without question, in our formative years. Trying to change or discard these beliefs can be very difficult. We often don't even realise what our beliefs are most of the time. I grew up thinking I was clumsy, because my Father told me so. It took me quite a few years to find out, I was no different than other people, I could be graceful, as well as clumsy. I wasn't cursed.

For children who undergo trauma and pain at a young age, who are told they are not deserving of happiness or given other beliefs about the world they are raised in, life can be a constant struggle to believe in their worthyness, their right to be happy. That's because they harbor a part of those beliefs within their minds, like an enemy. Often, despite "knowing"in their heads that they are worthy, that remnant of belief crops up, trying to assert itself. Allowing themselves to enjoy life and have a wonderful time, might trigger the belief that they are unworthy to enjoy themselves. They end up having to fight those feelings of depression and unworthyness again.

It's easy for someone who had a relatively happy childhood, to tell someone they just need to love themselves more. Unfortunately, that misses the point, that this child was never given love enough to learn to love themselves. I don't have answers for how to remove those false beliefs. I have enough of my own that rear their ugly heads when I least want them. I've heard that we should just let go of the beliefs that hold you back. Nobody seems to be real certain how to do that letting go. I suspect that those old beliefs need to be replaced by better ones, otherwise, there's a hole in your mind, but I don't really have answers.