We’ve got more than we think. We don’t realize it because we go day to day without giving it much thought. It’s easier to see what we don’t have enough of, like time and money.
It’s common to stack our belongings against our perception of everyone else’s. We dwell on only taking a week’s vacation when the neighbors went for two weeks, or lament that their plasma TV is bigger and newer.
We’re spoiled, shallow, and empty. We’ve bought into the silly notion that bigger and newer is always better. If we can’t afford it, then we’ve failed. We turn to credit to help us fit in with society because that new toy is important to our happiness. Credit exists. Why not use it?
Big new toys make us feel important, successful, and abundant. They fill the hole ripped in our psyches from not taking the time to appreciate what we do have.
What to do?
The first step is to determine what you’ve got. Document your abundance.
Get a pen and paper and make a list. Start with the basics.
Look around your house. You’re indoors, right? Then you’ve got a roof over your head.
Have you got food in the fridge? Cable television? A car?
What else have you got?
If you’ve got food, clothing, and shelter, then you’re leaps and bounds ahead of the millions of homeless and starving people in North America alone.
Write down everything you can think of including the clean air you breathe and the potable water from your kitchen tap.
Funny thing is, when you make this list you begin to understand how much you have.
Include your friends and family on you list, too.
If you immediate wants and needs are met, then you’ve got real abundance. Acknowledge it and be grateful for it. Many people around you and millions more around the world consider you rich.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
Reincarnation
How do you know you didn’t live before? Can you prove this is your first and only life?
You’re welcome to believe it. Do what fits your spiritual outlook and your comfort level.
But it you subscribe to the belief that life isn’t a one-shot affair, and you further believe that the people in your life have been with you before, then it’s reasonable to conclude that you’ve got some business with them. Karma maybe. Or maybe they’re offering a lesson that you’ve decided to have in this life.
But whatever it is, if you’re having difficulty understanding your life experiences, then exploring your past lives can give you a whole new set of tools for dealing with these events. Past-life regression can be exhilarating, traumatic, fun, terrifying, enlightening, and life-changing, all in one session. When you see friends and family today as the people they were once it gives you a different perspective on them. You may become more objective, understanding, or even kinder and more accepting in your view of them. And you’ll gain more understanding of your life choices, too.
You’re welcome to believe it. Do what fits your spiritual outlook and your comfort level.
But it you subscribe to the belief that life isn’t a one-shot affair, and you further believe that the people in your life have been with you before, then it’s reasonable to conclude that you’ve got some business with them. Karma maybe. Or maybe they’re offering a lesson that you’ve decided to have in this life.
But whatever it is, if you’re having difficulty understanding your life experiences, then exploring your past lives can give you a whole new set of tools for dealing with these events. Past-life regression can be exhilarating, traumatic, fun, terrifying, enlightening, and life-changing, all in one session. When you see friends and family today as the people they were once it gives you a different perspective on them. You may become more objective, understanding, or even kinder and more accepting in your view of them. And you’ll gain more understanding of your life choices, too.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Dear Blog:
I’m sorry to have ignored you so much lately. I’ll try to do better. I really messed up the other day trying to get you an RSS feed. Downloaded the wrong thing and had an awful time trying to kill it off. Computer searches don’t show anything, but a screen for it shows up on start up along with the dialer dialogue box.
Meanwhile, I did find the right thing for RSS, but I’m a wee bit snake bit over the earlier incident. I hope it’s not too late. I applied to BlogBurst so you’d get some more attention. It requires Atom or RSS. Something at the bottom of the posts talks about Atom and subscribing to it. When I click I get some of my posts. I wish I knew more, Blog. You deserve better. I tried Technorati six weeks ago. Nothing.
How is the BlogRoll treating you? I think it’s wonderful. I hope you do, too.
I’d like to get you some more pictures. The bird feeders have been steadily occupied by redpolls since the cold weather and wind started up. The photos have to be taken out the window and as soon as the blinds move they get scared and fly off. The ones facing away from the window stay, but I’d only get a photo of tail feathers. I don’t think you’d like that.
I’m trying, Blog. I’ll look around and see what else I can do for you. I’ll write again soon.
Meanwhile, I did find the right thing for RSS, but I’m a wee bit snake bit over the earlier incident. I hope it’s not too late. I applied to BlogBurst so you’d get some more attention. It requires Atom or RSS. Something at the bottom of the posts talks about Atom and subscribing to it. When I click I get some of my posts. I wish I knew more, Blog. You deserve better. I tried Technorati six weeks ago. Nothing.
How is the BlogRoll treating you? I think it’s wonderful. I hope you do, too.
I’d like to get you some more pictures. The bird feeders have been steadily occupied by redpolls since the cold weather and wind started up. The photos have to be taken out the window and as soon as the blinds move they get scared and fly off. The ones facing away from the window stay, but I’d only get a photo of tail feathers. I don’t think you’d like that.
I’m trying, Blog. I’ll look around and see what else I can do for you. I’ll write again soon.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Rejected
Life is proceeding normally. Got a rejection from a major Canadian publishing house today. Standard issue. Said it wasn’t right for their list and included an apology for bringing me disappointment.
Not right for the list covers a lot of ground. It can mean anything from your writing is laughable to it’s the wrong subject for what that publisher puts out. Mostly it’s to ward off stalkers.
Plenty of Golden Word Syndrome suffers cannot conceive of a world where their priceless prose could ever be rejected. If they’re turned down it’s a) a mistake, or b) the editor knows what I can do to make it perfect and she’ll tell me if I call and it’ll be accepted on the next try and if I could just talk to her I know she’d realize the error of her ways and offer me a contract.
Everyone gets rejected. I’m in good company. I need to work on my writing. Keep going. Keep learning. Keep sending out queries and proposals.
That’s what I’ll be doing in the next few days. I’ve let the query and proposal for book three collect dust for six months now. I’ve sniffed it over a few times and licked it clean again. It's ready to go. Bring on the rejections. I’m ready.
Not right for the list covers a lot of ground. It can mean anything from your writing is laughable to it’s the wrong subject for what that publisher puts out. Mostly it’s to ward off stalkers.
Plenty of Golden Word Syndrome suffers cannot conceive of a world where their priceless prose could ever be rejected. If they’re turned down it’s a) a mistake, or b) the editor knows what I can do to make it perfect and she’ll tell me if I call and it’ll be accepted on the next try and if I could just talk to her I know she’d realize the error of her ways and offer me a contract.
Everyone gets rejected. I’m in good company. I need to work on my writing. Keep going. Keep learning. Keep sending out queries and proposals.
That’s what I’ll be doing in the next few days. I’ve let the query and proposal for book three collect dust for six months now. I’ve sniffed it over a few times and licked it clean again. It's ready to go. Bring on the rejections. I’m ready.
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Invasion of the Giant Grasshoppers
Years ago when the boss was away we had a bit of fun. I ran composite photo of a man posing with his .3030 (I think) rifle in one hand and the giant, three-foot grasshopper he’d bagged with it in the other.
It ran on the front page of the Mountain View County News in late May of 1986. A co-worker in the newspaper’s backshop brought the photo in and we thought it’d make a great joke. The cutline explained how the farmer, fearing for his cattle, shot it while it was having a drink at a water trough.
About a week later we got a call from a nearby agricultural research station wanting more information. The publisher’s wife, just back from their month-long cruise, warned the caller that the ‘hoppers were coming and they’d better be ready.
The photo is two pics put together. The grasshopper pic was enlarged many, many times over while the man with the rifle was from a photo taken sometime in the 1930s.
In the early 1990s I saw this same photo on the cover of a tabloid. Apparently, the giant grasshoppers were taking over the Australian outback. A few years later it graced the front of another tabloid. By this time the ‘hoppers had made it to the US. I curse myself for not buying copies of these newspapers to hold up with pride along with the County News. After all, I broke the giant ‘hopper story.
It ran on the front page of the Mountain View County News in late May of 1986. A co-worker in the newspaper’s backshop brought the photo in and we thought it’d make a great joke. The cutline explained how the farmer, fearing for his cattle, shot it while it was having a drink at a water trough.
About a week later we got a call from a nearby agricultural research station wanting more information. The publisher’s wife, just back from their month-long cruise, warned the caller that the ‘hoppers were coming and they’d better be ready.
The photo is two pics put together. The grasshopper pic was enlarged many, many times over while the man with the rifle was from a photo taken sometime in the 1930s.
In the early 1990s I saw this same photo on the cover of a tabloid. Apparently, the giant grasshoppers were taking over the Australian outback. A few years later it graced the front of another tabloid. By this time the ‘hoppers had made it to the US. I curse myself for not buying copies of these newspapers to hold up with pride along with the County News. After all, I broke the giant ‘hopper story.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Daydreaming Is Not Hypnosis
Daydreaming is not hypnosis. It’s like hypnosis. It’s a similar mind-frame, but it’s not the same thing.
It annoys me greatly when I find this used as an example because I think it’s misleading.
Oh, I know why it’s posed this way. There’s no legitimate reason to fear the hypnotic state and this is a way to ease that fear. We can thank the entertainment media for messing with our minds over this. Killer hypnozombies are more interesting than someone who is simply relaxed and aware.
Truth is we lapse into different states of brain wave activity naturally during the day. We get lost in thought. We zone in while painting or reading or fixing the lawn mower. It’s natural and normal.
Generally when this happens we’ve gone into the alpha state. That’s where our brain wave activity has slowed a bit from the normal waking level known as beta.
It happens when we’re concentrating intently on something, but it also happens when we’re doing something routine and we daydream our way through it.
Hypnosis is an induced state of focused relaxation coupled with suggestibility.
Daydreaming doesn’t have much of a focus and doesn't make us susceptible to suggestion. If I’m lost in thought while sweeping my kitchen floor and someone suggests I go screaming into the street, it won’t happen. I’d snap out of the reverie and back into the beta level of consciousness darn quickly. I’d also be annoyed.
After alpha comes theta. It’s an even slower level brain wave activity. That’s the level we're at in proper hypnosis and meditation.
The fourth level is delta. That’s the level of brain wave activity we have in deep sleep and in a coma.
No one would ever suggest that a coma is the very same thing as a deep sleep. And it’s my position that no one should suggest that being lost in thought while we do the dishes is the same as being hypnotized.
It annoys me greatly when I find this used as an example because I think it’s misleading.
Oh, I know why it’s posed this way. There’s no legitimate reason to fear the hypnotic state and this is a way to ease that fear. We can thank the entertainment media for messing with our minds over this. Killer hypnozombies are more interesting than someone who is simply relaxed and aware.
Truth is we lapse into different states of brain wave activity naturally during the day. We get lost in thought. We zone in while painting or reading or fixing the lawn mower. It’s natural and normal.
Generally when this happens we’ve gone into the alpha state. That’s where our brain wave activity has slowed a bit from the normal waking level known as beta.
It happens when we’re concentrating intently on something, but it also happens when we’re doing something routine and we daydream our way through it.
Hypnosis is an induced state of focused relaxation coupled with suggestibility.
Daydreaming doesn’t have much of a focus and doesn't make us susceptible to suggestion. If I’m lost in thought while sweeping my kitchen floor and someone suggests I go screaming into the street, it won’t happen. I’d snap out of the reverie and back into the beta level of consciousness darn quickly. I’d also be annoyed.
After alpha comes theta. It’s an even slower level brain wave activity. That’s the level we're at in proper hypnosis and meditation.
The fourth level is delta. That’s the level of brain wave activity we have in deep sleep and in a coma.
No one would ever suggest that a coma is the very same thing as a deep sleep. And it’s my position that no one should suggest that being lost in thought while we do the dishes is the same as being hypnotized.
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