Quotations

I've come across some lovely quotations that I like and would like to share them.

Three from Einstein: Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
A human being is part of a whole....a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself....as something separated from the rest....This delusion is a kind of prison for us... Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Imagination is more important than Knowledge.

From Thich Nhat Hanh: Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

From Stephen Covey: Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will effect us.

From Chief Seattle: Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

From Mahatma Gandhi: As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world--that is the myth of the atomic age--as in being able to remake ourselves.

From Helen Keller: The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

Busy Weekend

I had a pretty busy weekend. I worked 4 days, Thursday to Sunday. On Saturday, I and another Demo Associate, Michelle, worked on a meatball event. We used the same brand meatball and served it 2 different ways. Michelle served hers in a marinara sauce, cut in half on a toasted Italian seasoned toasted bagette. I served mine whole, on a tooth pick in a sauce made from barbeque sauce and grape jelly. It sounds strange, but is really quite delicious. It was quite a hit. Of course, you can't please everyone. Michelle got quite frustrated trying to explain to someone that she couldn't remove the grape jelly from a meatball for her. It was a tiring demo because our meatballs were being cooked back in the kitchen, and we would serve them so quickly that we were running back and forth, trying to keep up with demands.

It always surprises me how many people decide to go shopping when it snows! We had a snow storm on Saturday and it didn't lessen our crowds at all. If anything, it increased them. Of course, since we have a tire shop, that was most of the increase. People suddenly decided that winter was coming and they needed new tires. While they wait for the installation, they shop and/or partake of the free samples.

We had a lot of wind with the snow and it was very cold. It made the storm seem worse than it was downtown where the store is. When I left at 6 pm, I thought I'd missed having to drive in the storm because the clouds were breaking up and the roads were mainly wet. Unfortunately, by the time I hit Magna, it was snowing again. Going up the hill around Kennecot, visability was bad. The weather report had predicted "lake effect" snow, so I expected to have it all the way to Tooele, but it ended at Lake Point. We did get more snow in Tooele over night though. We ended up with 8 inches in Tooele. Great fun to shovel before work on Sunday morning. I'm pretty stiff and sore today,but it will pass.

Thankfulness

It's November again. Our minds turn to gratitude and all that we are grateful for. Isn't it sad that we only reserve one month, officially, to be thankful? Of course, many of us practise gratitude on a regular basis. I used to keep a gratitude journal, formally recognising things to be grateful for each day. It got to be a little meaningless after awhile.My fault probably. I do better being spontaneous. Still, for this month I plan on posting something to be grateful for each day on my Facebook page, thanks to a fellow Facebook friend. Hopefully, it will catch on.

There are days when it is hard to find something to be thankful for, because of problems you are facing. This is really a time that we need to dig deep and find something to be thankful for, even if it's that you got out of bed that morning. When we are facing challenges, especially hard ones, it's really important to find at least one thing to be thankful for, just to show yourself that all is not totally dark.

Making a habit of gratitude can brighten and enrich your life. Just the knowledge that you can be thankful for something, just to be breathing, heart beating, aware of yourself, can sometimes be a pretty good gift, if not to you, at least to those who love you!

Time or Timelessness

It's strange how we experience time. Time can seem like it is rushing along, pushing us to do more or making us feel that there is not enough time. Sometimes we feel like there's all the time we need. Other times, we feel there is no time, we're in the flow of whatever we're doing and time either doesn't exist, or it seems to stand still.

Notice how many times I've used the word "time" in the last paragraph. Notice the ways the word can be used. It seems pretty important for something that may or may not exist. Time is used to denote the linear progression of past, present and future. Even Einstein called time a stubbornly persistant illusion. The Greek had two words denoting time. Chronos is numeric or chronological time. The other word is Kairos, which lierally means "the right or opportune moment". This discribes metaphysical or devine time. This is the time we experience during meditation or during some intense, in the flow experience. Sometimes we have a sense of timelessness that gives us a glimpse into spiritual infinity, if we're very lucky. Metaphysician, Thomas Troward wrote, "The whole of the Spirit must be present at every point in space at the same moment."

Many indigenous people seem to have an ability to live in the present moment, not be tied down to the tyrant of time passing, as we "civilised"people are. Some of them don't even have words in their language to discribe time as we do. We should all strive to live each moment, just as it is. The past is gone and cannot be changed, only learned from. The future has not arrived yet and depends upon the present for it's outcome. We need to learn to act as if "now" is all there is, because it's true.

Strange Day

Today has been a strange, sluggish day. I woke up tired and I'm still tired. I have accomplished very little, when I had planned so much. I get really irritated by days like this. Maybe I just need to "go with the flow" and just get through it.

It has actually been pretty nice weather for the last few days. I really need to work out in my garden a bit before the ground freezes, which could be soon or not, only Mother Nature knows. The nieghbors tree on our property line has lost most of it's leaves. They would make great winter mulch for the garden, but not if I wait until we get more snow. (the snow we got before Halloween melted)

Sometimes I feel really guilty when I'm not accomplishing something. I mean, life doesn't really last forever, at least not as the currant body, that is. Of course, time doesn't really exist,we just experience things in a linear fashion, so it's convenient to use a clock, I guess. That's why our Congressmen can get away with playing with our clocks. I guess it gives them something to do and makes them feel like they're earning their great health benefits, right. Well, tomarrow is another day, hopefully.

Halloween

This is the second year I have worked on Halloween for my current job. I don't really remember last year, but I do remember this year. Of course that was yesterday, so I really should remember, right?

This year, our manager who is in charge of community outreach programs,(read PR), decided that since Halloween fell on a Saturday and we would see more children, we should supply them each with a paper bag and let them trick or treat in the store. That mostly meant supplying all the demo people with a supply of candy to hand out, in addition to our regular demo chores. We were kept supplied most of the day with plenty of candy. We're a warehouse store, we have BIG bags of candy.

It was a little distracting, sometimes a lot distracting. There were some really cute kids and costumes. There were very young ones who weren't quite sure what was going on, and there were those who were too shy to say "trick or treat". Sometimes we'd get so involved with the kids, to look up and find our trays empty of demo samples and mostly patient people waiting to taste some morsel or another. To say we were kept busy is an understatement. One of my demo associates said she wasn't even quite sure what day it was.

We had one or two demo people who tried to limit the candy to children, but most of us didn't worry about adults getting candy. I guess we remembered taking a little cut of the candy of our children when they were small.

It was dark when I came home and I worried about little goblins on the streets, but there were only those keeping to the sidewalks. Even with the "trunk or treat" programs at the churches and the downtown merchants giving out candy, we still had more kids than last year. We were close to running out of candy, which is better for my waistline anyway.

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.

Tiredness

I had a really busy 4 days at work this last weekend. We seem to be having more and more demos that are professionally planned, with signs and props and special recipes. I guess the vendors want to get the most out of the money spent. That's understandable. I'm not too excited about the ones that require a specific script. Usually, it's something fairly short and you have 2 or 3 to mix throughout the demo. Unfortunately, the customer doesn't always appreciate us sounding like the latest sales pitch on late night cable. Since I work at a "membership" facility, I see a lot of the same people week after week. As a Demo Lady, I often establish a certain rapport with our regulars and they expect to be treated like individuals. Some of them don't expect their regular demo person to start sounding like a parrot. I guess it will all figure itself out eventually.

On Saturday and Sunday, my demo was about stocking up your freezer with fun foods for football viewing. With 4 products, 3 needing to be cooked, we had to use the bakery ovens. Someone in the back would keep things cooking and put them in steam tables, but my partner and I had to run back and forth keeping our own steam tables out on the floor supplied. Plus, we did our own relieving for breaks and lunchs. I felt like I was running my legs off. Talk about race walking! By Sunday night, I was almost too tired to sleep! I work with such a great team of people though, that I had plenty of help, for which I am very grateful! Next weekend, I'm looking forward to only 2 days working.

My Aunts and I are planning to drive to the mountains on Sunday to see fall leaves. Of course, we're expecting snow in the high altitudes the next 2 days. Hopefully, that won't ruin the leaves. I'm trying to decide whether to pick my green tomatoes tonight or take a chance on it getting too cold tonight.

New Book

I've been reading a 10 page article on a book that was written over a period of time by Carl G Jung.It was written in a big red leather bound book by hand and with his own color drawings. It was written during a time of his life when he was under going periods of visions, nightmares etc. when he was a little concerned that he was going out of his mind. It started when he was 38 years old and continued several years. Apparently, he began welcoming it and ended up anylizing himself. The book remained in a cupboard in his home throughout his life and even after his death, for awhile. Eventually, his family put it into a bank deposit box in a bank in Zurich.

The family,for many years, resisted requests to have the book published. A few years ago, a man named Noll, published a book that was very critical of Jung, making the family unhappy. Then a scholar from London, let them know that there were ,at least, 2 partial copies of the "Red Book" available that might be published. The family decided to publish a copy of the original,along with a translation from the German and over 1000 footnotes, provided by the scholar from London. At least the book would be Carl Jungs own words.

It seems that there is a lot of unusual, for a scientist, material in the book. There are myths, achetypes, even the Devil. It should be interesting reading. I've always been more interested in Jung than in Frued anyway. I'm not sure when it will be out, but I'm going to watch for it.

Time Flies!

I just realised that I haven't posted here since September 8. Oops! For the last couple of weeks I have been back to my old schedule, working Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun one week, then just Fri and Sat the next week. I still get 4 days off a week, but somehow , it doesn't feel like it. I know, it's all in my head. I was just enjoying a normal paycheck, when I was told our team lead had been sticking her neck out and hoping for paid demos for us. Now she's been told by headquarters, that she can only schedual us for demos already set. That means, we have to be called in for last minute demos and are supposed to keep our calendars clear. Like that is going to happen, especially if she calls us with only a days' warning. Oh well, I still have a job, right?

Today was a beautiful day. It was sunny and not quite 70 degrees. I love this kind of weather! I played hooky and didn't mow the lawn this morning. My Aunt Maureen had a doctors appointment in Salt Lake, so we all 3 went in. After her appointment, we went shopping. I needed new work shoes. I think working on my feet all the time is makeing my feet wider and flatter. I also got some fun fall fabric to make me a new blouse to wear for Autumn Saturdays at work. We normally wear black trousers and white tops. We look like penguins. On Saturdays, we're assigned different colors. Last week we wore yellow and looked like honey bees. This past Sat was green. Next week, it's fall leaf colors. During October, we'll probably go Halloween or Fall. Pretty much the same in November until after Thanksgiving, then we'll be into Christmas colors and designs. It breaks up the monotany and allows us a little self expression.

We've had quite a few tomatoes from our little patch. With only one surviving cucumber plant, there's not been too much if them. I just hope we don't get an early freeze. The strange plant that has been growong out near the front sidewalk is either a pumpkin, or another squash. there are 3 little fruits so far.I don't think the season will last long enough to really get something from the plant, but you never know.

The Blahs

You know how some days just don't seem worth getting up for? That's where I am right now. Every day seems to stretch out before me the same as the one before with only slight variation. It may be because I seemed to be up and down all night, not really getting a good night's sleep. I've noticed that I get quite unenthusiastic when I'm sleep deprived, especially when that deprivation is from nothing much, certainly not from excitement.

I'm back to my old schedual at work, at least, for now. I guess we'll see whether the economy is looking up enough to keep our hours up. I get a raise this month. It's not what I've got in the past, but the fact that I still have a job, much less a raise, is certainly something to be thankful for. I am thankful, but I think I'm also bored. I have certain tasks each day, which I do. I watch the same things on TV, endlessly. I'm even re-reading one of my favorite series of books. Still, everything is the same with only small variations.

I've always believed that boredom is the fault of the boree. Is that a word? Anyway, I should be able to get out of this funk. Maybe I'm enjoying it? New project for tomorrow, right after I mow the lawn......Find something exciting to do, or at least interesting.

Politics?

I'm getting so depressed reading the news lately. It seems that we, as a nation are more polarized than ever. The president can't even give a little pep talk to the nations' school children without causing a furor. George H W Bush gave one during his presidency, with nary a ripple in the political firmament, but let Obamma try, and the conservatives claim he's trying to push his socialism agenda on innocent children! The mistrust in this country is rampent. The stories going around are so wild and unbelievable as to be laughable, but there are still people quoting rediculous things with apparent belief. Doesn't anyone stop to think about the stories and ideas they are passing on with such outrage and enjoyment? Apperently, there are people who would rather let someone else think for them. It's more fun to repeat outrageous stories and get others as excited as they are.

It's beginning to feel like when people relished passing on all the dirty laundry type of gossip over the back fence or around the water cooler at work. All the political junk going around has the same flavor of the worst sort of hurtful gossip that some people seem to love so much. Isn't it time for America to grow up and take some responsibilty for ourselves and our country?

Aging With Grace

My Son and Daughter-in-Law are bemoaning and feeling their age it seems. They are 45 and 44 respectively. Here I am at 65, and they're worrying in their 40s! I don't remember being too concerned at being in my 40s. I remember turning 30 and being glad that I was finally old enough to be taken seriously. I never worried too much about birthdays until the big 5 0. I think that turning 50 was traumatic because I was newly single, going through a divorce. It was scary. Fortunately, I had a considerate male friend who brought me roses, took me to dinner and a movie, and helped me realise that my life wasn't over.

I read an article recently about going through life without being overly concerned about age. The trick seems to be to find ways to continue through life with the state of youth available to us if we don't lock ourselves down with beliefs that hold us in place. I had a friend who became a grandmother at about age 38. She was very glad to have a grandchild, but, somehow, she seemed to believe that her life was now defined by being a grandmother. She saw herself as someone who tended the baby and stayed at home in her rocker.Can you beleive that? At age 38! Just unreal. Fortunately, she eased off on the rocking chair, went to work and started the next half of her life. At least she didn't totally let steriotypical beliefs ruin her life.

We come to life in a state of youth, with all it's flowering before us.We can continue through life with the state of youth available to us if we don't lock ourselves down with beliefs that hold us in place. It's fine to be stable, but it's not fun to stagnate.

The author of the article, Margaret Stortz, is a minister. She gives 3 attitudes to help you keep living youthfully. Make no comparisons, Make no judgements, and delete your need to understand. When we make comparisons between ourselves and others, we are held in place by them. The ideas of "better than" or "less than" bind us and limit our views of ourselves. We get stuck, and that leads to feeling less young. When we make judgemants of ourselves or others, they are often censorious. They have a negative bite. This tends to take the life out of healthy, flowing thinking. We can always assess our actions, seeing what works and what doesn't, but judging things either good or bad, tends to put us and others into boxes and limits our feelings and actions.

The third idea, not needing to understand, can be harder for some than for others, but the need to understand can cause problems. It's normal to want to understand why something is taking place. But what if whatever is happening is beyond our understanding? By insisting on knowing why, we can sidetrack ourselves into dead end conditions. We can over anaylise and get obssessive about our problems. This can distract us from looking at life as an adventure, full of wonder and not really knowing where it will lead. We can ask, who am I?and where am I going, what will I be next month or next year? These questions can't really be answered. We can say what we intend for our futures, what we want to experience, but we need to keep an open mind, because sometimes, God has a much better experience for us than we hope for. We all want the best for ourselves and our loved ones. That is good, we need to expect the best. Still, we need to keep open to the possibilities that God wants us to experience, He can think much bigger than we can, and as a loving Father, he wants us to have the very best.

I know that to someone who feels like they are hanging on to life by their fingernails, looking at life as an adventure is difficult. Life can be a great trial, but sometimes, just the idea that life can be different may, at times be an incentive. The idea that there are people "out there" living with adventure and possibilities, may help them to believe sometimes, that someday they will get to that place as well.