Last Day of the Year

It's been a year!! Most years are like that I suppose. When you look back over them, well... there's a lot that happened. I look back over this past year and find it amazing all the things that happened, all the experiences that I had, everything that I accomplished. It seems like forever since January 1. So, although the year seems to have sped away quickly, it also seems to be inordinately long! Which is a paradox... It goes faster but seems longer??? Weird!

What is this new year going to hold?? Who knows... I know that whatever declaration I make into this new year, I will have ample opportunities to fulfill it, to create it, to bring it into being. The old adage comes to mind "be careful what you wish for... you might just get it"... So, what do I want to create in 2011??? Maybe it's time for a new blog?? Time to take a look and see what I am up for... what do I want to create in my future...

They say to dream big... to dream audacious... to imagine something huge... and then to trust that it will come to be.... our role is to dream and imagine and to request... and the universe/God will provide...

Kijiji

So, out here in Alberta, Kijiji is the on-line classified of choice, as opposed to Craig's List. The other month, I thought I'd finally get around to posting some things on Kijiji... excess furniture, camping gear, etc. I posted about 10 things, and over the course of about a month, I've sold four of them... which is pretty darn good! These are things that are too good/expensive to go to Value Village or to flog at a garage sale. So, why not try and sell them on-line... So far, it's working pretty good for me. Plus, it has the added bonus of decluttering our basement space and creating space for other things.

I know I talk a lot about decluttering but... maybe I'm just a minimalist or something... but as I get older, I find that all these things around me drain my energy. Too much to look at, too much to dust, too much to pack during a move... Things from the past that weight me down. Things that I'm no longer attached to... I find that as I create more physical space around me by decluttering, my spiritual/mental space clears out as well... Which means there's more room for the things that I love... the things that mean something to me... And if someone else has a use for the things I'm getting rid of... all the better!!

Perhaps we should make December a spring-cleaning month?? I know, I know... it's a Christmas month, when we add all sorts of things to our space but really... when you think about it. As we approach the end of one year, wouldn't it make sense to pitch out the old and make room for the new? And not by buying something new for Christmas... But just creating space and letting the universe surprise us with something else.... Just a thought...

End of the Year

It's getting to be that time of year when we start thinking about New Year resolutions and stuff like that. We review our year, take note of where we fell down in our plans and make promises to ourselves that things will be different in the new year... I don't know about you... but New Year's resolutions don't always seem to work out for a lot of people... me included...

Part of it I think is that we make a whole bunch of resolutions all at once. We're going to eat right, drink lots of water, exercise 5 times a week, play with the kids, take more me time and... whatever else we can come up with. That seems like the conditions for failure. Too much stuff and our brain is going to shut down and try to maintain the status quo... Better to tackle one thing at a time!

So then, we say "I'm going to be more patient this year"... or something like that... Maybe that's a bit too broad... How about narrowing it down a bit, again making it a bit smaller and more manageable... I'll be more patient in line-ups at the grocery store. Who knows... if I can do that, it might overflow into the rest of my life as well...

Write it down. Put it somewhere prominent. Put it in your car, in your office, in your wallet... wherever you might see it over and over again. Remember, this is something that you are putting out there... writing it down gives it weight and power.

Declare it... Tell yourself that you are letting go if impatience in the grocery store and are in development with patience in the grocery store... And then see what happens. Odds are you'll have a lot of opportunities present themselves for patience!! That's great...

And remember, if you screw up once or twice, it doesn't mean the end of the world or the end of your resolution has come. Be kind to yourself and step up again...

Keep your word... to yourself... That's key...

People Who Have it Together

I found this article on oprah.com kind of interesting. It resonated with me because I can see some of these habits in myself. Although I often see myself as a perfectionist, I am also comfortable with a certain amount of flex in things. I know people who are even more serious sticklers for perfection that I am so... there is hope...
10 Habits of Highly Organized People

1. Walk away from Bargains - I sometimes have trouble with this one... hence we end up with 64 rolls of toilet paper in the house... It was too good of a deal to pass up! Mind you... this can also lead to cluttered/disorganized closets...

2. Make Peace with Imperfection - this makes perfect sense to me!! There needs to be a certain amount of flex in anything... the room for things to just be as they are... and to be able to say "good enough"

3. Never Label Anything "Miscellaneous" - ooh yes, this is a dangerous one... it becomes a grab bag for anything and everything... whether it is paper files or electronic files... Misc is a bad label

4. Schedule Regular Decluttering Sessions - these seem to come naturally to me. Every once in a while, I'll get the decluttering urge and will tackle some closet or cupboard or drawer... just to create some space, both physical and psychological...

5. Stick with What Works - if something works... then why keep looking for something that might be better or more perfect... That just leads to a bunch of confusion....

6. Create a Dump Zone - a place near the door where you can place anything and everything comes into the house or that needs to go out of the house... And if you hang your keys by the door, you'll never need to look for them again...

7. Ask for Help - Always a good thing... Ask for help with making dinner or with picking up groceries. Why waste your time running out on an errand, when the person coming home from work can easily stop and pick up missing ingredients...

8. Separate Emotions from Possessions - Ooh... this is a good one... We aren't attached to things, we are attached to our emotions about things... But if you're hanging onto something out of a sense of guilt or anxiety or any other uncomfortable emotion... maybe it's time to let it go and free you up...

9. Foresee and Avoid Problems - look ahead a little bit... See what needs doing before it needs doing... Get a bit of far sight and you'll see what needs to be done... and you'll either do it, or assemble the things you'll need to get the task done.

10. Know Where to Donate - whether it's a charity or a friend or a neighbour's child... Take a look and see how many donation opportunities are around you.

Feeling Overwhelmed?

You know those days... where nothing seems to go according to plan. Where there are way more things coming into your in-box than are leaving your out-box. You seem to be spinning your wheels and going nowhere quickly. I don't know about you, but those are the days where I end up feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. People are making too many demands on me!! They should just lay off! Ah yes... It's not them... it's me... I find that the times I get most overwhelmed is when I feel like I have too many things to do and not enough time. And the more I think that, the more frantic I get, and the less time there seems to be! Time just seems to race by and I fall farther and farther behind. Because I am feeling so overwhelmed and frustrated, I end up spending an inordinate amount of time stuck and in a very unproductive mode, pushing papers around my desk, grumbling under my breath, and losing time like a leaky sieve...

I've found that all it requires from me is a shift in my thinking.. a shift in my attitude. As long as I look at everything that I have to do as a huge mountain, I remain stuck. As soon as I can see everything as individual little pieces, I can start tackling them one at a time, creating a bit of space and then a bit more space... and then a bit more space... I also need to consciously shift my thinking about time... There is more than enough time... more than enough time... And the time does appear and I can accomplish more than I would have dreamed possible. Partly because I'm not spinning my wheels, not stuck in a rut, lamenting the lack of time... It's all in my perception... and how I hold things...

Amber Alert

The other day, I was working at the computer, listening to the radio, and the "beep-beep-beep" that precedes that Alberta Emergency Warning System came on over the radio. I was surprised because it's not tornado season! But no... they were using the system to issue an amber alert for a missing 12 year old boy who hadn't come home from school and was apparently "abducted" by his mother. It really is a great system... To think that everyone listening to the radio or to the television is instantly informed of the make and model of the car with the license plate... All of a sudden there are millions of vigilant eyes in the province looking for exactly the same thing... Definitely a valuable tool for the RCMP and other police forces... Eventually, I could see that being extended so that an alert text would be sent to all cell phone holders in the province... Talk about wide-spread coverage...

Christmas

It is the time of year to give and receive gifts. But more than that... it is the time of year to appreciate and acknowledge the gifts of those around us... and the gifts within ourselves. It is the time of year to express love and appreciation to all those who have touched our lives in the past year. To all those who have brought some joy, some ease, some comfort, some compassion, some love into our lives. We don't have to just think of those who are close to us. It could be anyone. It could even be the Starbucks barista who remembers us from one moment to the next. It could be the service station attendant who is always so friendly with a big grin on his face. It could be the Safeway person who shows an inordinate amount of patience with us... or with someone else. We just have to look around us and we'll see the gifts of those around us. So, who can you appreciate and express gratitude to this season?

Appreciation

Having been tucked into bed with a nasty chest cold the last 4 days has really made me appreciate good health!!! There's nothing like being sick to make one appreciate being not sick... being healthy and full of energy and life. I've been dragging myself around the house the last few days, coughing and stuffed up, with the energy of wet dish rag, and it's no fun! One day, I even sat at my desk, but couldn't even get enough energy up to focus or concentrate on what was there. Amazing how a bit of sinus congestion and chest congestion can screw up our synapses... Today, I woke up feeling significantly better. I've still got a bit of a rattle in the chest and my sinuses are still draining (lovely!) but I have more pep and energy and am actually feeling more like my normal self. I'm actually out at Starbucks this morning!!

And maybe that this true for life in general. We don't really appreciate something until it isn't there anymore. We don't appreciate good weather until we have bad weather. We don't appreciate our parents until they aren't there anymore... We don't appreciate freedom until we lose it. It's a good reminder to us to appreciate the people/things/gifts that we do have. Because we never know when they might disappear for a while... or for good...

Very Under the Weather

Yes, my cold has come full throttle. My head feels like it is stuffed with cotton, my sinuses are clogged, I have a headache, and I feel a titch feverish at times. It's time to just stop and slow down... or maybe slow down and stop! I was getting some purr therapy earlier from one of the cats but... It's hard for me to just sit and do nothing!! I am trying to be nice to myself and just take it easy... but that is sometimes easier said than done... It's challenging to just stop and allow myself to be sick... There's probably a learning in there somewhere!!

Which Came First...

The chicken or the egg? The feeling or the thought? Now, that's an interesting question... which does come first? The feeling... or the thought?? I was reading a book the other week (Slowing Down to the Speed of Life) and they might actually have an indicator of solution. So... I want you to get really angry, yup, super-duper angry... How are you going to do it?? Well, odds are, you're going to think about something that makes you really angry... and then you'll be angry... So, which came first? The feeling or the thought?

Even in the moment that something happens to us... when things are very raw and very fresh... which comes first? The embarassment? Or the thought that "this is embarassing"... Good question... The point that the authors make in this book is this... Our feelings are like a red-flag for us, they are an indicator of where our thoughts are. If we are feeling uncomfortable thoughts... odds are that our thoughts are behind it all. They say that there are only two groups of feelings... comfortable and uncomfortable. But if we become aware of our thoughts... just that awareness allows us to step back, recognize the craziness of our thinking and shift into something else...

The basic idea is that there are two types of thoughts... processing/analytical and free-flow... When we are in the processing/analytical (which is favoured by our education system), we can spin our wheels and create a very big hole, going nowhere... Those endless circular thougths that get us nowhere. Free-flow thinking is different... it takes us beyond what we have known into some other space...

What to know more... read the book!!

Under the Weather

Well, it is the season for colds apparently!! I have the first indicator... a sore throat... And I know what that is going to metamorphose into for me... A full-blown cold. I guess I wasn't taking enough grapefruit seed extract last week when I felt the first tiny indicators that a cold was coming. Yes, grapefruit seed extract... it tastes absolutely atrocious but it makes a huge difference! Whenever I get on a plane or feel a tiny little cold feeling coming on, I take this stuff and the cold either doesn't materialize... or it isn't as horrible as it could be.

So, the moral of the story for me is this... I need to pay more attention to what is going on in the moment! Pay more attention to what is present in my space. Me ignoring itty-bitty cold systems is going to come back and bite me in the butt... Sigh... yet again!

E-Readers

I know I've written about this before but... things always change so... I've been reading up on e-book readers and for us here in Canada, the two best options at this point seem to be the Chapters/Indigo Kobo E-book reader or the Amazon Kindle E-book reader. Both have wireless capability. And the Kindle just broke into the Canadian market this past summer. So... what to do??? E-books cost about $10 on average... So they aren't all that much cheaper than a real book... But, E-books are a lot lighter to pack around. When I think of all the books I've bought and packed and lugged around in my lifetime... Well, there is something really comforting to think that this e-book reader could hold them all... Mind you... if I lost them!! Or lost the e-book reader!!! But, Kindle has thought of that and you have a backup storage space on their website where all your books sit and wait for you in case something goes horribly awry. And both the Kobo ($149) and the Kindle 3G ($189) are quite reasonably priced... What to do... what to do...

The Death of the Book

So, I was reading the news the other day, and there's a tech guru (Nicholas Negroponte) who figures that the conventional paper book will cease to exist in 5 years. He says that getting cheap laptops to children in developing countries is a far more efficient way of increasing literacy. E-readers, the iPad, laptops, etc... All of these will supplant the actual physical paper book. Or will it??

A few years back... they told us that computers would create a paperless society... Uh-huh, right... sure... That didn't happen!! And while cds are on their last legs apparently, vinyl records are making a comeback... So who knows... I do see the argument against paper books. They use a lot of trees... Mind you, so do newspapers... Books are heavy to ship, costly to manufacture, etc. They take up a lot of warehouse space... Could we actually get to the point where our e-readers are as familiar to us as a book. There is something to be said for curling up with a good book on a cold winter's night... But curling up with an e-book reader? Mind you... I was on a trip recently and, from experience, took 4 books with me, 3 of which I finished and 1 of which I started... All for a week away from home. With an e-book reader, my bags could be so much lighter!

So, is this guy an accurate prophet?? Some books might hold onto life... large-scale photo books... cookbooks... etc... Sort of like with film... medium & large scale film is still around... but 35 mm has bit the dust...

Flowers can Speak

I'm not sure where I was the other day, or if I was listening to the radio but... they mentioned the language of flowers. Apparently, during the Victorian era, there was a whole language and symbology associated with flowers. This all depended on the type of flower, how it was held, whether it was given with your right hand or your left hand, how it was grouped with other flowers, etc. Apparrently, the Victorians had lots of fun composing secret messages using flowers! So, I did a bit of researc and sure enough, the Victorians had actual dictionaries that would tell you what each flower meant... That would be kind of fun... to compose and to interpret... as long as both people had the same flower dictionary!!

We don't really seem to have that today... Well, we do have remnants of it. Red roses are for love. Yellow roses are for friendship. White flowers symbolize purity. Chrysanthemums are for funerals, etc. But on the whole, we've lost the language of flowers... just another one of those dying dialects! It's kind of sad actually... We don't seem to speak in symbols that much anymore... They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and so is a symbol. A bouquet of flowers could say a few thousand words! We've become much more attached to the direct meaning of words, rather than their poetry.
http://www.victorianbazaar.com/meanings.html

In the Moment

So, would you believe that slowing down to the speed of life means we need to live in the present more?? Surprise?? Not!! Living in the present moment... being present to what is around us. Instead of being present to the past or to the future... Just fully enjoying and experiencing each moment. The authors of the book say that anything that keeps us focussed and present to what we are doing, is living in the moment. They make a link with rock climbing. When you are rock climbing, you can't let your thoughts wander to something else!! You need to be fully present in the moment... no wonder rock climbers get such a rush! Actually, it's anything that we do that keeps us present in the moment... It could be knitting... it could be biking... it could be photography... it could be writing. Whatever it is that keeps us focussed in the now... That intense focus and presence keep our minds from  wandering all over the place... keep our thoughts from hijacking our consciousness... And in that space, we encounter peace and joy...

Slowing Down

Reading a book right now (surprise!) called “Slowing Down to the Speed of Life” by Richard Carlson and Joe Bailey. Their primary premise is that our thoughts are what create stress and frantic-ness in our lifes. It is our thoughts that make us think we need to do things faster and more efficiently. It’s our thoughts that keep us stuck. They also say that our emotions are created by our thoughts. That it is our thoughts that create our emotions... So if we are experiencing “uncomfortable” emotions, like anger or irritation or impatience... or whatever, we need to take a look at our thoughts and alter them. They say that we have two types of thinking... analytical/processing thinking (sort of left-brain) which gets us certain things in life. It helps us figure out things when we know all the variables. But when we don’t know all the variables, analytical thinking just keeps us stuck, keeps us going around in circles with no solution, and actually spirals us deeper into a thought attack. The other type of thinking is free-flow thinking (sort of right-brain), in which we experience something different. It’s the type of thinking where we allow something to sit on the backburner and the answer will just pop up for us. We don’t analyze it, we let it go free-flow. This is a place of wisdom and creativity and opportunities and possibilities. We see things differently in this type of thinking. We can come to an answer without having all the variables, because something other than analyzing is at work...


It’s a very good book, very readable and it makes so much sense to me. This link between emotions and thoughts... They say that uncomfortable emotions are like a warning sign, a red alert that our thinking is probably on the wrong frequency... on the wrong channel. We are stuck in our analytical thinking... and it is that thinking which gets us stuck in those nasty emotions... So, alter our thinking... alter that conversation that we are having in our heads...

A Job a Week

So, I’m reading this book by Sean Aikin, about getting a job a week for 52 weeks. He’s still on the search, on the hunt, for what makes a career, or any job fulfilling. Many people are giving him advice... Do something that you believe is fulfilling, that makes a difference in the world. Be passionate about what you do. Working with people that you enjoy being around. Being good at what you do... So the key is finding that something that you love to do, that you are good at, that brings you a sense of fulfillment/mission/accomplishment... and go for it... That doesn’t seem too hard, does it??


Maybe the key is deciding on what it is that we are good at??? Is that part of our conundrum. We go through school and learn all sorts of things, and we get clear on those courses that we enjoy, and we get clear on where our highest marks are... but are those the things we are good at? What about being organized or self-disciplined or... Any of those other nebulous things that we aren’t tested for in highschool... What am I good at? What do I excel at? And what happens if you are good at a lot of things! That makes it even more challenging... Because we can mistake the things we are good at, for the things that we like. If I am good at things, and they come easy to me, then I might be tempted to think that I enjoy doing those things, because I get a sense of success and accomplishment out of it... But is that really what I’m looking for?

Interesting to think that there might be a perfect “something” out there for me... that I just need to step into creating... Because maybe the perfect career doesn’t even exist for us and what we really need to do is create it... create that job that we would be good at, and enjoy and have a sense of fulfillment with... Maybe that’s the key... But how do you know what it will be... if you have to create it... You have to think imaginatively... creatively...

Travelling

There was a movie a few months back, maybe even last year, called Up in the Air, with George Clooney. He played a "firing expert" who flew around the US to companies that were downsizing. It was his job to deliver the bad news to employees who were being let go. With all of his travelling, he spent most of his time in the air or at airports, and hardly any time at home. He had travelling down to a fine art and felt most at home in an airport.

While I'm not quite that bad... I do spend quite a bit of time travelling, compared with what I used to do! Usually I'm away at least 1 week a month, and sometimes 2 weeks. So, I've got the travelling thing down to a fine art as well. I know how to pack quickly the night before. I know that the window seats have the most leg room and under the seat storage space. I know that the back of the plane fills up last, so the odds of having someone in the middle seat are less. I know how to go through security quickly and efficiently. I know how to have a small, manageable carry-on...

And I know how to make the best use of time waiting for planes and for transferring. Always have 2 books in your carry-on. You never know when planes will be delayed. Most airports have free publis wi-fi access, so with a laptop computer, you can stay connected via emails or blogs. Most airports also have a Starbucks and/or a Tim Horton's in behind security, so you can always enjoy a hot chocolate.

Try to avoid a rush... I find that when I get to the airport with plenty of time, I don't feel that sense of rush and hurry, and can just relax and enjoy the experience. Some people resist being at the airport, resist having to wait between flights... but it's all in how you hold the experience... It's all in how you relate to it... Relate to it from a place of opportunity and possibilities, and you'll be surprised at how many will show up for you...

Empty Flight

I was on a flight from Calgary to Vancouver the other week, an early morning (7 am) West Jet flight on Sunday. We had a grand total of 7 passengers on the plane!! Smallest complement I've ever seen! It was interesting, as I was sitting in the back half of the plane, the only one behind row 12... so the flight attendant at Row 13 was doing his safety demonstration just for me!!! I tried to pay attention, or at least look interested, so he didn't feel so silly! But, I have to admit, I lost interest in the French-instruction section...

I imagine later flights would have been more full... But still...

One Week Job Project

So, this book caught my eye in Chapters and it looked like a good read, so I got it from the library.... The One-Week Job Project. It's about this young man from Port Moody, BC who graduates from university with an MBA and has no idea what he wants to do with his life. So he sets out to try 52 one-week jobs in the course of a year. He figures he can try the jobs to see if he like them, or not, and get clearer on what sort of job he would like.

Sean wants to follow his passion, but he's not quite clear what that is. As he goes through his one-week jobs, he meets a lot of people, many of whom are passionate about what they do... whether it is working in a brewery or an office or a store or installing windows. People who do what they love to do, love to go to work... And Sean doesn't want to land in a job where he dreads going to work on Monday morning...

At this point, I'm half way through the book and it's touching a cord with me... Sean makes quite the case for following your passion, whatever that might be. The advice he receives could easily be advice for me... or for all of us. Even if you're in your 40s or 50s... and you're not happy with what you are doing... shift... switch to something that is your passion. One man, a 40-something year old from England, moved to Canada with his wife, and got a job as a snow-shoe instructor... which he absolutely loves. He earns a lot less than he did back at his old job... but he is happy... and that is the difference... To do what you love to do...

Another man had a million dollar catering business... but was just living to work... so he sold it all and became a scuba instructor, and later openned a yoga studio...

Following your passion... but first you need to figure out what your passion is... What are you most happy doing?? What gives you energy? What do you wake up wanting to do in the morning? Find it and follow it... The rest will fall into place.

You Hear What You Eat

You know the old saying... "you are what you eat"... Well, now scientists say what you hear, affects how you taste your food, so "you hear what you eat"! Scientists did a study that looked at how sounds affect the way in which we taste our food. We've all complained about the bland food on airplanes and it might not be the food's fault, but the "white noise" of the airplane engines. Eating food while listening to white noises diminishes our capacity to taste saltiness and sweetness. But can make foods feel more crunchy.

Scientists also discovered that if we listen to music that we like, we tend to enjoy our food more. So... be prepared for music tailored to your tastes being played in restaurants, where it will influence what you taste!! They're going to do more studies to see what styles of music affect our eating the most... God help us all if they discover that Heavy Metal music makes us eat more! Or maybe it will be classical music? Or Country & Western?... Hmmm... all sorts of possibilities there... They could have restaurants with different seating areas that play different backgrounds music. So the first question the maitre'd would ask you is "what's your favourite music"... and then seat you accordingly. Now, if it's a family of 4 and they all like different music... well... that could be interesting. Of course, I've heard that they can have very specific speakers that beam the sound to a specific area... so maybe each person would hear their own favourite background music?? That takes marketing to a whole new level...

Also makes me wonder, if those times I haven't enjoyed my meal as much, it's not the meal's fault... but the music's!!

Interesting... Music that suites our tastes... really does affect our taste!

Multiculturalism

I read an article the other week on the news. Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, has admitted that multiculturalism in Germany is dead, a wash-out, hasn't worked. They have all these foreign workers and they haven't really integrated... and regular Germans are getting intolerant and impatient with them.


And I thought... how is it that multiculturalism has worked relatively well in Canada and in the US... while being a flop in Germany? What comes to me immediately is the stuff leading up to World War II and the Holocaust... Pointing the finger at other ethnic or cultural groups and blaming them for the way things are. What with France kicking out the Roma... Who is Germany going to kick out? And what does it mean for a nation that already went through the Holocaust? Kind of scary actually...

Sweet Pea Hunter

This past summer and fall, I discovered the delightful pursuit of the sweet pea!! These are pretty cute little flowers, and while we didn't grow any this year, other people in our neighbourhood did!

Some people grow them far into their yards, and they're pretty unaccessible, except to the eye. Some people though, grow them along their backyard fence, along the back alley, or even along the front yard fence, right next to the sidewalk! These sweet peas, as far as I am concerned, are fair game!! They are hanging into public turf... and nobody else seems to pick them!! This fall, many of them became little seedpods... So, I decided to embrace the sweet pea and in the dark of early mornings, would surreptiously sneak up on the unsuspecting sweet peas as they slumbered away. I didn't take a lot... just a few stalks... and their aroma is to die for... no wonder they are called "sweet" peas!!! Beautiful!!!

And their colours!!! There is the dark royal purple... the tender lavender and violet... A deep dark pink... a paler, lighter pink... and of course white. Some almost verge on red as well... Beautiful jewel tones!! Bundled together, they are quite beautiful... and in water, they can last almost a week! Great little flowers... and very cheery as well...

But, they didn't last much past the middle of October... We had a -4C frost one Friday night, and the next morning, the sweet peas were frozen... There frozen stalks turned to mush in my warm hands, and their frozen petals wilted in the light of day... Next year, I will begin my hunt for the elusive sweet pea earlier!!

Declutter Bug

Every once in a while I get bitten by the decluttering bug! I just get the urge to go around and declutter things, to clear some physical and some mental space. I have been noticing that as things get completed on my to-do list, it creates some space... space for something else to show up. Which is a great feeling... To feel that tehre is some space, rather than feeling enclosed by everything and anything. Space to move... space to create...

For me though, I still struggle with wanting to complete everything on my to-do list quicly and completely... like now! I am trying to get used to the idea that I can complete one piece of a project and don't need to do the whole project all today... These are month-long or year-long projects, so they do need some time... But to just do it a piece at a time... that makes it manageable...

The same for decluttering. Sometimes I'll just tackle one closet or one cupboard or one bookshelf or one room. I don't need to go around decluttering everything... I still have that box of nic-nacs that never got unpacked after the move... so maybe it's time to tackle that one box... to create some space. To really look at each nic-nac and ask myself... "what is the story that this nic-nac has... that I am attached to?".. What is that story... What is that emotional hold that it has on me... or that I have on it...

Some things remind me of good times... some things remind me of bad times... some things no longer have a hold of me... and I can let them go...

Time

Yep, back to the issue of time again... So, how about this... time expands and contracts depending on our level of panic and our feeling of not having enough time and our feeling of being overwhelmed... So, the more frantic I feel, the more time contracts or shrinks and the less time I seem to have. But, if I consciously acknowledge that while I have a lot to get done, there is more than enough time for all of it... then time magically expands and opens up in front of me...

Is time a subjective thing... speeding up and slowing down differently for different people? Speeding up and slowing down differently for us depending on our state of mind and our relationship with time?

Some would say that time is not the issue.... it's how we relate to time that is the issue. If we feel chronically time-crunched, then we are going to experience time as something that is lacking... when in fact we are creating that lack ourselves... in the way we are holding time...

If we see time as something that there is an abundance of... then time expands to fill our space, to give us more than enough time to achieve all that we want to achieve...

It's all about how we hold it... how we relate to it...

Windows

So, we've got 32 year old windows in our place... and they leak cold air all winter long... Time to get new windows, perhaps??? We asked two window companies to come in and give us estimates... The first guy gave us a $12,000 estimate (AH!!!). The second guy gave us a $7800 estimate with a $500 rebate... (EH!!!??) The second guy represents a well-established window manufacturer in Edmonton that has CSA approved windows and Energy Star certification, and the whole nine-yards... So what's the difference??? Well, the first guy represents a company that installs windows, but doesn't manufacture them... so they are sort of middle-men... Interesting...

Just goes to show you that it's best to go straight to the source if you can... To a place that manufactures and installs what they make... At least it gets rid of one level of price-raising!! It should be interesting to see how the installation goes... We'll have to lock the cats in a windowless room which would be... the basement or the bathroom... poor little guys!! Hopefully no squirrels manage to sneak in....

Winter

Winter usually sneaks up on me... Every year, I am away or busy and I procrastinate on puttin on my winter tires until... you guessed it... the first snowfall!! And then everybody and their dog wants their tires done and I have to wait a few days and well... it's not pretty!!

This year though... it worked differently!!! It was mid-October, I was going to be away for a week, and I thought... hmmm... I bet it'll snow while I'm gone and then I'll really be hooped!! So, I went to the tire shop and got my tires put on... The next day, the very next day, it snowed! Yup... Was I a ever a happy camper!! I was doing a little happy dance and smiling at the snow outside, knowing that this year I had beaten the snow by a day!

Mind you, our tomatoes outside were not doing a little happy dance! They've been tucked in at night, but during the day, it was quite warm... but that was it for the little guys! They did their best and it was time to say good bye to them...

Drawing a Blank

Sometimes I sit here staring at this blank screen and I can convince myself that I have nothing to write about! That there is nothing to communicate, and I might as well just minimize this screen and turn to something different. That's a subtle form of procrastination, isn't it?? Of course it's a load of crap that I have nothing to write about!! Of course it's a load of crap that I am drawing a blank! That's just a game my mind likes to play with me... And I believe it sometimes which drives me nuts!!

My mind tells me certain things through thoughts... and I believe them... I believe that what I am thinking is the truth or is real or reflects reality, or is accurate... But who says??? Somebody else might be thinking the exact opposite about something and they believe that they are right... or what they are thinking is true or real... But who says??? Well, we each do... We each believe that what we are thinking is the truth or is real... but is it?? We don't often think about what we are thinking... or how we are thinking... or the process of thinking. We just accept that our thougths reflect reality...

We have been hijacked by our minds and are asleep most of the time to what is really going on... We just blindly accept our thoughts at face value without any question... It's easier for us that way.... we don't have to challenge ourselves which can sometimes be uncomfortable... and we don't like discomfort at all!! So, we avoid it...

Did you know that 95% of the thougths you have today, you also had yesterday and the day before that and the day before that?? Wow... not a lot of room in there for creativity and something new to show up! We are like a broken record, replaying the same thoughts over and over again.... ick!!!

Writing

Well, didn't I have a full day of writing yesterday! A plethora of newsletter writing to keep me busy... RTS and the community association. I know I said I was a writer... but... when all these writing opportunities show up... you just know that the universe is out there conspiring to support me in writing!

Mind you, I had my own hurdles to overcome... namely... here it is again... procrastination! Yup, that nasty little puppy raises its head yet again and bites me in the butt... or tries to. I have to admit, I was able to challenge myself over and over again to "just do it"... I would sit there and start the conversation that I don't know what to write or how to start and maybe I should wait a bit for inspiration to strike me... Well, you know where that usually leads!! Anyhow, I just did it... I just started writing and the things all worked out fine... Better than fine in fact... So, that just goes to show me that procrastination is really just an excuse for not writing. Whenever I am postponing things, I can be pretty sure that what I really need to do is just tackle whatever it is head-on... I keep trying to do the two-step around it, but when I do that too much... I find that I end up doing the two-step around 10 things and getting myself completely tangled up...

The other thing I've discovered is that when I just do things, when I complete the things that are in my space... I create a little bit of space into which I can then complete a few more things, creating bigger space... and it snowballs that way... Very nice!!!

The Unknown

There are a couple of things that happen to me when faced with the unknown... excitement and sheer terror! If I'm honest... the terror often seems to get the stronger hand! Heading off into the unknown, jumping off the cliff, soaring into the sunset... call it what you will... There is an uncertainty in that... not knowing what is coming. Not knowing how I will handle things. Wondering if I actually CAN handle things... There's also an excitement... the quest of the explorer... heading off into new, uncharted territory... Excitement for the new... excitement for something beyond what I've known. Wondering what's around the next corner... wondering what amazing, new things will be discovered...

The difference between excitement and fear is huge... and paper thin... It's huge because where each of them takes me is... well... totally different places! Fear takes me to one place... Excitement takes me to a totally different place... And the end point difference is huge... The difference between fear and excitement is also paper thin... because at the beginning, I can make the choice to shift from one to the other... and very quickly and very easily... Catch it at the pass... and it's a snap to shift from fear to excitement... And move forward from there.

But again, I have to make the choice to shift. And the shifting occurs in my thoughts, in my conversation, in how I hold the experience or the event. My choice... I can see it as exciting or terrifying... I can shift from one to the other... Or choose to wallow in fear!!

Distracted Driving

Alberta is supposed to introduce distracted driving legislation this fall... And it can't come soon enough in my opinion!!! There is nothing more anxiety inducing than being in heavy traffic and being tail-gated by someone on their cell-phone... someone who is distracted by the conversation... someone who isn't paying attention to traffic ahead of them or around them...

The other day, I was standing on a busy street corner of a 6 lane thoroughfare through Calgary, and I counted 12 vehicles and 5 of the drivers were on cell phones. That's almost 50% which is kind of scary!

But it's not just cell phones... I've seen people using both hands to shove a hamburger in their mouth while they steer with their knees. I've seen people adjusting their hair with both hands while steering with... knees? And these are just the things that can be seen from outside the vehicle! Imagine what's going on in the cars... Kind of scary...

We drive one tonne vehicles around the streets with consummate confidence... but not always a high level of skill... Don't even talk to me about people not signalling lane changes!!! Bane of my existence...

Opposable Mind

Well, we're moving into the next section of this book, in which the author says he can show us ways in which we can to begin thinking integratively... rather than conventionally! I have to admit, that when he is giving his examples from the business world, of business leaders who have faced either-or solutions, it seemed fairly clear to me the direction that they could go... combining something of each into something new... But that's because he presents the situation in fairly simple terms and in reality they are very complex situations... So there is more to it than this... In our own lives, we have very complex situations, and it isn't always easy to pick out the features that are important, nor to see the way forward.

In the next few chapters, he's going to go over our stance, tools and experience... and how the three relate together. What I get from the book overall is that conventional thinkers, think inside the box... And integrative thinkers, think outside the box... They think bigger, wider, broader, deeper than conventional thinkers. They aren't limited by the "wisdom" of the day... they look farther ahead than others... They see things that conventional thinkers can't see... because they aren't look for it! We only see what we look for... If we don't see something, and others do see it... it's because it's not part of our worldview... not something we deem to be important... not something that we are looking for. We might even just ignore it or sweep it under the rug. Integrative thinkers, see things that others might dismiss as unimportant....

Hate Crimes

There's been stuff in the news about hate crimes... Anti-gay attacks. Anti-Jew vandalism. Anti-Muslim threats. Anti-this. Anti-that... All of it is so sad... so much hate in the world and for what?? When we hate someone... we are really hating ourselves... We are expressing anger and fear towards that aspect of ourselves that we fear the most. We are uncertain and fearful and angry at the world... at our place in the world... at our lost opportunities... and we want to take that out on someone... So we choose some person, some individual, some group, some religion, some culture to hate...
We might as well call them fear crimes... or anger crimes... Something about whatever it is, makes us feel uncomfortable, and we don't like to feel discomfort... so better to avoid that thing... or better yet, eradicate it from our existence completely. The thing is... if everyone got rid of everything in the world that they hated.... we'd have no people left in the world... Hate is the ultimate in self-destruction...

Screen Time

So, there was a study a few weeks ago that should come as no surprise... Children who spend more than 2 hours a day in front of the screen (i.e. TV or computer) are more likely to experience psychological difficulties. (http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/10/11/screen-kids-psychological-problems.html ). Does that surprise you?? Nope, doesn't surprise me either! So, they are now suggesting that we should limit the amount of time children spend in front of screens... Hard to do when kids are working more and more on the computer at school nowadays... And 2 hours/day seems kind of low!!! Given how much time we can end up spending in front of the computer and/or the TV...

Which makes me wonder... if TV and computer are having that sort of an effect on children... what sort of an effect is it having on adults? What sort of effect is it having on us? Because, let's face it, a lot of us do spend the whole day in front of a computer screen and then we come home and spend more time in front of the TV or the computer... All that screen-time must be having an impact on us as well... We just don't know what it is... We might even think it has no effect on us... but it probably does... we are just oblivious to it...

Opposable Mind

It never ceases to amaze how connections between RTS and the world show up! So I'm reading this book, Opposable Mind, and he makes the distinction between reality and what we think about reality, or the model of the world that we create. That is the distinction between what happened (Event) and what we said about what happened (Story). And it is there, that we see the key feature of integrative thinkers. They can distinguish between Event and Story. They can distinguish between reality and models that purport to reflect reality.

Integrative thinkers can then get out of the idea that their vision of reality (story) is the right one and area able to consider other points from other models, from other stories... to create something completely different... cool!!!

We are often faced with two opposing options, choices, models of reality... but to understand that they are not reality.... they are just models that explain reality... but not reality! And so, we can hold up the models, with no attachment to any of them, look at them, and come up with something new... something creative... something different...

Opposable Mind

So Conventional Thinkers vs. Integrative Thinkers. Well, some of the basic differences are this: conventional thinkers simplify things to the bare bones, like to look at the short term relationships, keep things narrowly focused, deal with one thing at a time and prefer to accept the world as it is. Integrative thinkers juggle a bunch of factors in the air, even if it is complicated, they look at how everything fits together, keep an open mind, look at wide-reaching relationships and welcome the challenge of shaping the world for the better. Integrative thinking will make your head hurt as you keep everything in play at once. Conventional thinking will keep the status quo going...

Overall, I would say conventional thinkers are looking to the past, to the way things have been done in the past. Integrative thinkers are looking to the future, at creating new possibilities that have never been imagined...

Kijiji

In the decluttering quest... I've also had to tackle a few larger items. A couple of spare bed frames that I've been hauling around with me for a few years... some bush gear... some excess camping gear... etc. For a few years now, I've been thinking I should post them on Craigslist or Kijiji... but it always seemed too challenging to do that... Well, I finally got around to it the other week and am pleased to report that within a few days I had sold a bed frame ($80) and a sleeping bag ($20)... with people interested in a few other items... There, that wasn't so hard!!!

No, it wasn't hard... but I made it hard!!! I had a huge story in my head about what it would involve and how time-consuming it was going to be... and people wouldn't want the stuff anyways, so why bother, etc. etc. etc.... Blah-blah-blah-blah!!!! It really is a learning for me to get that... what I think about something isn't necessarily the truth!!! It's just what I think about something... But I can make that something into something quite huge and quite daunting... and I did that all by myself!!! I'm great at turning mole-hills into mountains... When really, all they are is a mole-hill... And even if they are a mountain, they way to conquer any mountain is one step at a time... one step after one step after one step... and before you know it, the mountain is done...

Keeping the Weight Off

So... it's early February... post Christmas... middle of winter... and some of us might be putting on our winter/hibernation pounds... There was a thing on the news the other week that gave some assistance on keeping weight off... Eat foods with a lot glycemic index... avoid foods with a high glycemicc index... The low glycemic foods raise your blood sugar level slowly, making you feel full longer... The high glycemic foods do the reverse, give you a quick blood sugar boost, but dwindle rapidly, making you feel hungry sooner... Researchers even say, that if you avoid high glycemic foods, eat lean meat and beans, you can eat as much as you want without gaining weight... Hmmm....

So the list is as follows...

Foods with a low glycemic index:

wholegrain breads with many kernels
wholegrain pasta
whole oats (not instant or ground oats)
brown rice
apples, pears, oranges, raspberries and strawberries.
nearly all vegetables, with the exception of corn. Most vegetables should preferably be eaten raw
boiled new potatoes
beans and legumes

So, whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables... but only specific fruit... An apple a day keeps the doctor (and the weight) away!

Foods with a high glycemic index:
white bread and buns
white rice
most refined cereals and crackers
bananas (especially overripe bananas), grapes, kiwi, pineapple and melon
mashed potatoes and baked potatoes
sugary foods such as donuts

Yup, avoid processed grains and sugar... interesting about grapes, kiwi, pineapples and bananas. Although, I had heard somewhere that bananas have way too much sugar... But you can eat as many apples as you want....

Dreaded Box

I moved over 2 years ago, and I still have one box that I haven't unpacked... Yes, it's true!! So much for the organized me! Well... to be honest, it's a box of nic-nacs... And as my nic-nac shelf is already full, and I bequeathed my other nic-nac shelf to my sister, I'm kind of short on nic-nac space... But, this weekend, I'm thinking it's time to tackle the dreaded nic-nac box... I am now clear that I am not necessarily attached to the nic-nac itself, but to my story about the nic-nac. If I can let go of that story... then I'll be able to let go of the nic-nac... Pretty clear, yes??

Well, one story that I have to let go of is this... that my niece is going to want this nic-nac when she is an adult!! "I'll just keep this, because my niece might want it when she's older"... Uh-huh.... Picture this poor kid inheriting my nic-nacs, my sister's nic-nacs and my mothers's nic-nacs!!! UGH!!! What a horrible thing to do to a kid... young adult!!! My Dad has the right idea. He's been methodically going through his things and ditching the stuff that he's been hauling around for the last 20 years... It's time to let it go... He's a good role-model for me in that way...

How long do I want to continue to haul these things around with me?? How long do I want to keep believing that these things might be valuable some day? Or that my niece is going to want them someday? Or that if I throw away the thing, I'm throwing away the memory? Good question... I have a dog collar from our dog Toby, who passed on in 1981... Let's see, that's 30 years ago!!! Oh my God... Put it that way, and it's kind of crazy... But I know that we all do these things...

Somehow we think that in holding onto the things, we are holding onto our memories of the person or the event or the pet... Not really though... The memories live within us... It's time to let go of the things...

Fungible

Fungi-what???? Exactly what I though!! I'm reading this book and they used this word... fungible... And I had to look it up. Did it have something to do with fungi??? Mushrooms??? No, not at all... the word is used mostly in business and finance and means interchangeable. As in, things that are of equal value, are fungible. Go figure... I don't think I'll be using that word any time soon... but it definitely expanded my vocabulary a little bit! If I did try to use that word, unless I was speaking with my financial planner, I think all I would get would be blank looks!

Fungible... Those two things are fungible... Eh, it doesn't even really sound nice... nor roll off the tongue all that well... But it also makes me realize that there are a lot of words out there that I have no clue about! Specialized words from various professions that I never encounter... and never really need to use... Which makes me realize that there are a lot of things out there in this great world of ours, that I have no clue about. But the interesting thing too is this... I'm pretty sure I've never come across "fungible" before... But what do you want to bet that in the next little while, I'll come across that word at least 2 or 3 more times...

Have you ever noticed that's the way the world works sometimes. You will encounter something new, something you've never seen or heard before (you're pretty sure)... and then in the next little while, it will show up multiple times... Interesting don't you think....

Colours

OK, so have you ever looked outside at a parking lot? Take a look... Right now, I can see 15 cars from my vantage point. Two of them are a muted red/burgundy/wine colour. One is bright yellow. The rest of silver, grey, beige or black. Why are car colours so boring? Whatever happened to bright red? Why aren't there more exciting colours than forest green? What about bright purple or even dark purple? I don't think I've ever seen an orange car... I can see the roofs of many more cars and other than adding white to my list... that's pretty much it... How sad...

I've looked on the internet, and everybody else has the same question... why so many boring car colours? Some say it's the downturn in the economy. Some say it's just the conservative nature of the auto industry. Ergh...

Maybe it's a safety feature? Maybe if there were too many bright coloured cars on the road we would be distracted and have more accidents? Maybe bright colours don't stick to the metal very well? I don't know... and apparently others don't either! But it would be nice to create a rainbow of car colours out there... spruce up our city streets!

Procrastination

I've been mulling over the whole thing of procrastination and... well... I think a lot of it comes down to fear. Yup, that nasty little critter again... When I look through the procrastination, to the pushing things ahead, to avoiding phone calls, to postponing whatever it is... at the root of it all is fear. Fear that I'll sound stupid. Fear that I won't get it done right. Fear that I don't have enough information. Fear that I'll fail. Fear that...

Yeah, well... you get the picture. Funny, how it keeps showing up... The more I look for it, the more I see fear at the root of a lot of things that keep me stuck. And procrastination is a big one!! It's huge... I mean, I have a lot of things to do, you know... and I can't get them all done in one day, so it's natural to postpone things to another day... to push things forward... Yeah, right!!! There is some truth in that, but for me, it's always to look at what it is that is moving me to push things forward. Is it fear? Is it just plain common sense? If it's fear... I need to tackle that head-on. Even if I can't get everything done in the one day, I can make a start. I can work on something for 15 minutes... move it forward just that tiny bit... and then a tiny bit again. Once something is moving, it's a lot easier to keep it moving... doesn't take as much effort...

What lies at the root of your procrastination?? Or maybe you don't procrastinate??

Opposable Mind

Yup, another book, this one called The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin. He says that success in business (and other areas) can be traced (most of the time) back to integrative thinking, or what he calls "the opposable mind". The ability to hold two opposing ideas in tension and rather than to go into an either/or solution... to have both/and. To come up with a solution that incorporates both aspects but in a way that is new and novel. Something different...

I thought the title was kind of cool... and the idea of integrative thinking is needed more today than ever. We are so often stuck in an either/or world... in a world of black and white... We don't even look for other solutions anymore. We just go with A or Z and don't see anything in between... It comes out in the right/wrong approach as well. The idea that one choice is right and the other is wrong. That one person's idea is right and the other person's idea is wrong. But what if both choices are really not all that good... and we feel stuck between a rock and a hard place... In that instance, integrative thinking can get us out between the hard spaces and into something else... that we couldn't even dream of before.

The author says integrative thinking can be learned... can be taught... although in today's schools we are doing a fearsomely poor job of teaching our children to think...

What if...

Do you live with a lot of "what ifs"?? What if this happens. What if that happens. What if that doesn't happen. What if this doesn't happen. They are deadly!!! These little what ifs!! I find that they can stop me in my tracks faster than anything. "What if they don't like my book?"... Well, if I really believe that and get stuck with it... I'll never be sending that book out!! The fear of some nebulous thing in the future, that hasn't even occurred... and might never occur... keeps me stuck and keeps me from moving forward.

Yucky!! Of course, "what ifs" could also be used to inspire me to move forward. "What if they love my book!"... Mind you... there's still an "if" in that statement... which means it could go either way... and there is still some uncertainty in there... So maybe even these "what if" statements aren't all that empowering... They still leave room for doubt and indecision....

There is always a possibility out there... of something else... of something amazing... of something I can't even dream of. But I'll never know it if I languish in "what ifs"... The deadly doldrums of "what ifs".... "What if I'm wrong." Imagine if Darwin or Galielo or Copernicus or Jesus had let that stop them... "What if my paintings are all slop." Imagine if Picasso or Monet or Rembrandt had let that stop them... "What if my music is just empty noise." Imagine if Mozart or Beethoven or Tchaikovsky had let that stop them....

End Procrastination Now - Book

I've been procrastinating on reading End Procrastination Now!!! Ugh... It is not a book I would recommend. Not all that readable, and very full of psycho-babble... Every once in a while I get a glimmer of something useful, but on the whole... leave it on the shelf! The premise was good... that we procrastinate because of what we think, what we feel and what we do (or don't do). But beyond that, he took it in a direction that didn't work for me... although it might work for others.

But now, it's done... which is good... And I am clear that one of the main reasons I procrastinate is because I see the job or thing as being uncomfortable for me. It calls me to stretch in some area... where I'm not really sure I want to stretch or can stretch!!

The other thing I've noticed is that I'll put something on my to-do list... let's say, promoting my book by mailing it out to various places. I put that down "promote book", and what I see in there is the things that are going to stretch me... and I get stuck right there. What I've been doing though, is breaking the task up into little pieces... tiny little pieces and those things, I can do... Like put ISBN numbers in the books. Like looking up addresses of place. Like buying padded enveloped. Like designing a promotion cover letter. Like putting books in envelopes. Like putting letters in envelopes. Like taking it all to the post office. And before you know it... it's done!

All it takes is one little movement in the right direction... and then another little movement... and before you know it... the mountain is climbed... one step at a time...

A New Blog Adventure

If you check My Blog List along the sidebar, you'll see a new blog... "Fitness in my Forties"... Yup, that's me... I'm about to embark on the adventure called "having a personal trainer"... Winter has come with a vengeance... My bike is tucked away and doesn't have snow tires and... I do not want to come out of this winter with yet more "winter fat"!!

I think the first posting was yesterday, but you can catch up pretty quick...

Goodness Still Exists 2

Another good news story... this one from about a month ago... On the evening of October 5, a group of little girls were playing outside in Fresno California. A man in an old pickup truck drove up, spoke to them in Spanish and told them if they got in his truck he would take them to the dollar store to buy some candy. One 8 year old girl approached the man while the others walked away. Bystanders yelled at the girl to get away, but the man grabbed her into his truck and drove up. The mother, who wasn't far away, ran after the truck but couldn't catch it.

The police were called, and it was all over the news. In the early morning of October 6, a man named Victor Perez was standing outside, talking with his cousin about the abduction, which he had seen on the news the night before. A truck drove by... it matched the description of the suspect's truck... and Victor jumped into his truck and gave chase. He tried several times to block the pickup truck, but the man would not stop... Finally, Victor managed to get the truck to stop and the girl left the truck. Victor stayed with the girl, calling to bystanders for a blanket... Having gotten a partial license plate number, Victor gave that to the police, who caught the suspect a short while later.

Is Victor a hero? Undoubtedly. He paid attention and stepped into action when he say an opportunity. He probably saved this little girl's life. A lesson to all of us to be vigilant... to pay attention... and to act...

Segregation

This is a little tidbit from the US... Did you know that the most segregated "hour" in America is on Sunday morning when people are in Church? Blacks, whites, hispanics do not mix in their Sunday worship, on the whole. That's not to say that there is racism happening just that people like to hang out with people who look like them...

There's something in there that just strikes me as being a bit off... I get that people like to hang out with people who look like them... but... why in Church? In work, people mix together... they have to... But in church, where we can choose where we go... we like to stay separate. Isn't there something in there that just smacks a bit of... something... I am reminded of St. Paul and his letter to the Galatians, which I will paraphrase as... "in Christ there is no white or black, there is no hispanic or chinese, there is no filipino or indian... all are one in Christ"... And yet in churches in America, the very opposite is being seen.

What would it be like if we did mix in our worshipping communities... if all worshipping communities could draw on the wisdom of hispanic and black and white and chinese and filipino and indian? What might that look like?

Here in Canada, we see it more with segregated language communities. There's the Polish church and the Serbian and the Hungarian and the Korean and the German and the French and the... We're all white... and yet we still separate ourselves from each other...

Choose

Interesting... having looked up "decide" yesterday, I thought I would look up "choose" today... And it's roots go back to German and Gothic languages, and eventually, remotely to Latin... But the Germanic root basically means "to taste".

Which has a different flavour than "decide" and it's meaning of "to fall". In tasting, we can taste here and we can taste there. But when we taste something, it's like it becomes part of us. And similarly to the meaning of decide, we can't undo a tasting... much as we might like to! Once you've tasted a hot pepper... well... you're in it for the full tasting!! You can't undo a taste... A taste means you are committed to experiencing the full taste of something... You can savour it... or you can plough through it! But you can't avoid it.

So, in choosing something, we are committed to it as well... As we choose something, as we taste it, we are committed to the full experience of it. We can't undo the taste... You have to let the taste or the choice run it's full course before you can move on to something else...

Decide

We all know the word "decide". To choose something... to make a decision... to go this way or that way. The word decide comes from the Latin decidere which literally means "to fall". Which makes total sense to me!

Making a decision is like falling... it is leaping off of the cliff into the unknown. It is falling off into space and sometimes not knowing what's going to happen but at least a decision has been made. And, as with falling, there is often no going back with a decision! Once you've decided to jump out of the plane with your parachute... you can't undo that decision! You're committed to following it through...

Once a decision is made... it is made... To look back and regret what might have been is futile. But sometimes we try to go back on our decisions. We try to undo the past. And it can't be undone. Falling is pretty much a one-way street. We can't "unfall". We can't fall upwards and do it over again.

Mind you... we don't need to make decisions either. We can put it off and dither and justify and explain and come up with all sorts of excuses for why we don't want to fall... jump into whatever it is that is in front of us. Procrastination comes in all sorts of forms... I procrastinate by doing the laundry and cleaning the house and tidying up my desk and writing letters to people... I'm dithering on the edge of the cliff and not leaping out into the unknown... not soaring on the winds of transformation...

The Future is Now...

So, you remember in Star Trek, those communicators that they had... little flippie things... Kind of funny how we have little flippie cell phones nowadays...

In one of the Star Trek movies, #4 I think... they went back in time to today's San Francisco to bring some humpback whales back to the future. They needed a huge holding tank and traded the formula for transparent aluminum for some thick acrylic sheets. Transparent aluminum is... well... aluminum that is transparent. Strong and clear... used for all sorts of things...

Well, just a few weeks ago, two Russian scientists received the Noble Prize for making sheets of graphene... using scotch tape of all things... Graphene is sheets of carbon atoms that are one atom thick. Graphene is super light, pretty much transparent and 100 times stronger than steel. Imagine the possibilties?? Computer screens. Satellites. Airplanes. Cars. All sorts of applications... And it conducts electricity supergood... Watch and see if films of graphene aren't going to take computers to the next level... And who knows... maybe it won't be transparent aluminum... it will be transparent carbon....

Mortgages

Back in the olden days... I seem to remember that you needed to have a certain % downpayment to buy a house... Nowadays, you can buy a house with a tiny 5% downpayment. Mind you, you'll also need to pay insurance with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation... If you have at least a 20% downpayment, no insurance required... Which makes sense to me...

There was an article in the news a few weeks ago. This couple had bought a house about 3 years ago (I'm guessing)... valued at $300,000. They now have to renew their mortage for $288,000... but their house is only worth $240,000 in today's market. The bought at the peak and now... 3 years later they are stuck...  They need to come up with $48,000 or they could lose their house... And I'm thinking... in the next year or two, there are going to be a lot more of those house mortgages coming up for renewal... houses that were bought at the peak of the market and houses that are now worth a lot less. Which is not a big deal if you bought it with a large downpayment (20%) and can weather the ups and downs of the market. But if you used a small downpayment, and your house's value has sunk more than 5% or 10%... well... there are going to be a lot of stressed people...

Goodness Still Exists

So, I am sitting in Starbucks this morning, in Chapters... and it's pretty empty yet... being just shortly after 9 am... And this lady comes by and I can hear her talking to an older gentleman off by the comfy chairs in the other corner. At first I think they know each other, but then he stands up and I get that the woman doesn't know him, but is desperately searching for her cell phone in the chair cushions. She had left it here yesterday and nobody turned it in at the counter and she is hoping beyond hope is has slid down the side of the cushions. But no such luck.

The man asks if she's tried calling it... she has, but nothing. Has anyone tried phoning her on it? No. It is locked, so no one could use it... She is feeling sick and disconsolate. And then out of the corner of my eye, I see a Chapters woman approaching her with her hands behind her back... She asks her if she's the woman who lost her cell phone... and when the woman says "yes"... the lady sweeps her hands out from behind her back, cradling a bright red cell phone! The relief on the woman's face is immediate and palpable. The cell phone was in the Chapters office... Someone had turned it in!!!

The Chapters lady knows the feeling because she once left her phone in an outhouse in a park!! But then it turned out someone turned it in to the RCMP in a neighbouring community and all was well...

I know someone who left her cell phone on a park bench here in Calgary and then was able to phone the cell phone and pick it up from the kind gentleman who had found it...

There are good samaritans out there!! We are them...

A Commencement Address?

This came out as a song a few years back... It sounds like a commencement address... but it's not. It has been attributed to Kurt Vonnegut... but it's not him... It was actually a journalist from Chicago, Mary Schmich, who wrote it for her column in the Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1997... It is good...

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it
The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth.
Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded.
But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.
You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future.
Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts.
Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy.
Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.
The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults.
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life.
The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives.
Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.
Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either.
Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body.
Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it.
It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.
Dance - even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions., even if you don't follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go,
but with a precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.
Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths:
Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old.
And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Dance/Love/Sing/Live

There is a saying...

Dance like nobody's watching;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Sing like nobody's listening;
Live like it's heaven on earth.

It's all over posters and pictures and journal covers... But the interesting thing is that people aren't quite sure who coined the phrase. Some attribute it to Mark Twain, although it is very un-Twainish. Others attribute it to William Purkey, but even his original words have been tweaked a bit into this version. It's interesting how things can get out there on the internet and then metamorphose into something else... and then it spreads out into the world and we all see it and even quote it... but have not idea where it started...

Some people treat the quote as kind of "ick"... saying it looks like something created for a church bulletin or Reader's Digest. But... I'm thinking wisdom can come to us in many guises and we can ignore the wisdom if we don't like the messenger...

So, what would it be like to dance as if nobody was watching, to love as if you've never been hurt, to sing as if nobody's listening... to live as if it is heaven on earth.... In my mind, that would require us to live with complete and utter wholeheartedness... to let go of the past and of all of our fears and to leap out into the unknown with passion and hope and excitement and adventure...

Or we could...

Not dance, cause everybody's watching,
Not love, because we've been hurt too many times,
Not sing, because everyone's listening,
Not live, because life's going to heck in a hand basket...

our choice...

Email Confusion

I was looking at a book in Chapters the other day called "Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better" by David Shipley. And I thought... we all need to read this book!! I sent out a question this morning asking if a conference call for tomorrow could be rescheduled to next week. One person responded that that would work better for her as well. One guy responded "OK, thanks"... What does that mean? I asked a question!!! "OK, thanks" is not a response to a question. Plus, it was sent from a Blackberry, which we all know means that people are using an itsy-bitsy thumb-sized keyboard... so they tend to send the shortest messages possible. But now, I'm left wondering... does the think that I actually changed the time of the meeting? Does that means... what?

Email is for information... not conversation... And if we're going to use email for information, we need to be exquisitely clear in what we mean and what we say. Off the cuff comments do not move things forward... I'm thinking that I'll be reading this book by David Shipley some time soon... That is, if the Calgary Public Library has it in stock! Given its timeliness in today's society... it might be a good read for all of us! More later...

Projects... projects... projects...

I'm one of those poeples who like to have multiple projects on the go at any one time. And that's outside of work projects! I have family history projects on the go (multiple ones), photography projects, reading projects, etc... The thing I struggle with is this... I might get a bit bored with one project or am not clear on a way forward, so I will start another project... and another project... Until I have dozens of projects on the go... All started, by none completed... And that is a lot of weight to carry around from one year to another!!

I am slowly beginning to realize that I need to complete some projects to create some space for others! It's like being in a space, that is so tightly crammed with stuff, that you can't see things, and can't work on anything. First, handle one thing, create some space and then I'll have space to complete something else... and then something else... and then something else... And maybe then I can bring something new into the space!! I suppose it's a variation of greed... or something... gluttony maybe... Always adding something new when I haven't even completed the old yet... Always looking for the thrill of excitement in the new thing... when I would get an even bigger thrill if I would just complete some of the old projects!!! What a thought...

In Box

My to-do list is an ongoing work in progress... It seems that as much as I tick off my list, more gets added... or I remember more things that have been weighing on my conscience for a while! I know that my in box will never be empty... and that my to-do list will always have items on it... So, I'm never going to get to the point, where I can look at an empty page or an empty "in box" and think... "ah there... all done!"... And that's probably a good thing! Mind you, with many things on my to-do list, I find that they are fairly flexible. They don't mind being moved hither and yon... They can be shifted for days, weeks, months and sometimes even years. They are pretty patient with me...

Mind you... I'm not too patient with myself!!! I see these things and they niggle away at me... they sit there all patient and I know I need to get to them at some point... but that point always seems to be receding away ahead of me as fast as I move forward! There's always something new appearing in front of me that is "more important" or more time conscious...

And then, there are those moments where I do get some big project done and completed... and there is a feeling of immense satisfaction... and then I turn my attention to the next thing of the day... or the next big project...

Money solves Everything?

There was a story on the news a while ago... A young man (17 years old) was killed in a horrible car accident. After the autopsy, his family held his funeral and buried him. Several months later, a school group was going on a field trip to the mortuary and they saw a brain preserved in a jar, with the name of the young man on the label. They knew this young man and knew his family, and were quite upset. As were the family when they learned of it. They hadn't given permission for his brain to be kept. The pathologist says that they often hold organs for extended analysis afterwards. The family asked for the brain back and then held a second funeral to inter those remains. Plus, they are suing the city and the pathologist.

So, it's obvious that this family has been through a lot. They have experienced a lot of emotional heartache and the brain thing contributed to that. My question is... does the money received through litigation take the pain away? Make the experience go away? Wipe away their memories of the event? Bring back the young man. The answer, sad to say, is no... Money does none of that. Money can't help them to let go of anything... Even if the money paid for counselling and therapy, there is no guarantee that the family would be able to let go of anything.

Money solves nothing. But we have it in our heads that money will make us happy. Money can actually make us desperately unhappy. We think that money will take away all of our worries. Money can actually increase our worries. Oprah was interviewing J.K. Rowling a while ago (she of Harry Potter fame) and asked Rowling if, given that she is now richer than the Queen... she still worries about money. The answer is... yes... she still does. Money hasn't taken away her worries...

We place far too much emphasis on money... on what it can do for us... when we are the only ones who can do anything... or be anything... It is always our choice... You can be happy when you are poor. You can be desperately unhappy when you are rich. The difference lies within you...

What's the Point?

OK, so have you ever watched people in Starbucks or Tim Horton's or wherever?? It's interesting how many people come in as a pair and then sit on opposite sides of the table, sipping their drinks while they both work on their Blackberriese or iPhones or whatever... It's just interesting to see... We are sitting across from someone while we are connecting with other people electronically... Just kind of interesting...

The Opposable Mind

Alright, a new book... this one I saw somewhere... Chapters? SK airport? Anyhow, another library book... The subtitle says "How successfuly leaders win through integrative thinking"... The idea that great leaders can hold two opposing ideas in their minds at once and reach a synthesis that contains elements of both, but improves on each... Think of the pros vs. cons that we normally work with... We look at all the angles and then elminate one option and go with one option. It's very much a win-lose situation. We get into an either-or mentality. This book seems to favour a win-win scenario.... one of both/and... The trick is to find creative solutions to seemingly impossible situations...

I'm looking forward to this book... We'll see how it goes... And yes, still working on "End Procrastination Now"... sigh, it's a thicket to read through... not all that readable... some good ideas though....

Reading Books

OK, I've been pretty busy the last few years and I've developed this idea in my head that I don't have time to read books... Not like I used to! I used to be able to sit down on a Saturday or an evening and just read straight through for 4 or 5 hours and finish a book in that time... But I don't have those chunks of time anymore... or if I do, they are full of other things... So, when to read a book??? Sigh... no time... Well... that's obviously a load of crap!!

I've been reading a lot of books in the last few months... a chapter or two at a time... in 15 minutes or 1/2 hour chunks... They do add up after a while... And I don't notice the lack of time, not really... I have the time... I just have to get my mind around the idea that I can read a book in pieces... I don't need to read it cover to cover in one fell-swoop, all at once...

With that shift in perception, I'm doing pretty good with the book-reading thing... and am finding that it's getting hard to keep track of what I've been reading... So many new ideas... so many great ideas... Plus, it's amazing how much you can read at the airport before a trip... or on the plane... all of these opportunities to find a few minutes to read... Great opportunities... I just have to look and see them...

Happiness at Work

If there's one book you read in the next little while, let it be "Happiness at Work" by Srikumar Rao. It is an excellent book! Exceedingly readable and it resonated with me on so many levels. The idea that we create our reality... that we see the things we look for... we experience things through our filter of life... Shifting out of a me-centred world into an other-centred world. Because, guess what... the world does not revolve around you. The things that happen in this world don't all have to do with you. People aren't always talking about you... People aren't always thinking about you... It doesn't have to do with you...

We are called into an other-centred world in which we look for opportunities to be of service to others. That is our true vocation in life... to be of service in some way, shape or form... And that's going to look different for each and everyone of us... So, instead of asking "what's in it for me... what can I get out of this"... look and see... what can I do for others... what can I bring to the situation... what can I bring to others... Without looking for thanks, adulation, praise, recognition or reward...

All Hallow's Eve

Today is Halloween... or all Hallow's Eve... or in the Celtic world... Samhain. It marks the end of the harvest season... the turning from the season of light to the season of dark. The season of light to the season of gloom... Again... we can always choose to dispel the gloom ourselves... The feast of Samhain lights bonfires to ward off the dark... We too can light bonfires within our own spirits... bonfires that keep the gloom at bay... bonfires that welcome the light and create the light...

But in order to light a bonfire... or even a little campfire...we need some fuel... We need something to burn, something to light, something to kindle within us... Something that will burn within us... What are those things for us? Is it our practices, our habits? Exercise? Meditation? Eating well? Drinking lots of water? Doing something for us? Is it our hobbies? The things that we do that give us energy. The things that give us joy and life... The things that connect us to our spirit... We all have the fuel to create the bonfires within us... but we need to know what our fuel is... And it isn't things like sleeping in... drinking... drugs... caffeine... smoking...

Blue Sky

It's a great thing to wake up to blue sky in the mornings!! Or actually... it's an amazing thing to watch the sky lighten from black to grey and then to blue! To know that it is going to be a gloriously blue day with sunshine and warmth. Everything seems possible when the sun is shining. Everything seems doable when the sky is blue. It makes us what to get up and get moving. It makes us what to engage with the world...

And then there are the rainy days... of which we had far too many in September... days on which we don't want to do anything. Days on which the gloom never seems to lift outside and our houses are dark and lights need to be burning...

It's funny how our spirits can often mirror the weather... If the day is sunny... people tend to be sunny as well... and if the day is gloomy... well... we can end up being gloomy as well... But does it have to be that way? Clearly tragic things can happen on sunny days as easily as on gloomy days... So, a sunny day is no guarantee that things in our lives won't turn gloomy at some point. But could we wake up to a gloomy day and create a different mood in ourselves... other than gloom and greyness? Clearly we can... we have the choice and we can shift our thinking and our perception of the world... But sometimes that seems to take a bit of effort... but imagine the rewards!

It's you...

I came across a quote in this book that I'm reading that says (and I'm going to make it female centred rather than male centred):

A woman will find that as she alters her thoughts towards things and other people,
things and other people will alter towards her. (James Allen)

Isn't that a powerful quote???!! It's a variation on the idea that the issue is not the issue... it's the relationship you have to the issue that is the issue. People and things aren't the issue... it's the relationship that we have towards them that is the issue... If we alter the way in which we think about things and people... well, we will transform the world... or at the very least, the way in which we interact with the world and the way in which the world interacts with us.

We have a huge amount of power... but we give it away, all the time. We get stuck into thinking that if onnly people or things would change... then our world would be fine... and we would be fine. The truth is... we are the issue... the way in which we hold the world around us is the issue... The only way we are ever going to transform ourselves and the world is... if we alter the things we say in our heads about things... people... and ourselves... most importantly with ourselves... Alter the way in which you talk to yourself and see what happens... Have compassion on yourself and see what happens...

Another Book

So, yes... I do read a lot of books! Usually, I have four on the go at any one time... Today, I'm reading a book that I saw in the SK airport entitled Happiness at Work by Srikumar S. Rao. (It's a library book too... although I might want to buy this one!)... It is VERY good!!

He starts off by talking about how we assign labels to everything that happens in life... some things are "good"... some things are "bad"... It is these judgements that get us stuck!! He talks about story... the drama that we create about things... the emotions that we create around events... He talks about the internal conversations we have in our heads... It's a very readable book... not at all like the End Procrastination Now book (yawn)... The chapters in this book are short, have inspiring stories... and the author is very direct and to the point. He doesn't beat around the bushes and he uses very down to earth language... I'm only half way through... so... you'll have to wait and see how it turns out.

He does give exercises at the end of each chapters (short exercises)... Exercises that are designed to get you take a good look at what you do... or don't do... and how that gets in your way... Read the book!

Bookstore

So, you'll be happy to know that I seized the bull by the horns and actually stopped at the second-hand bookstore near the bottle depot!! I parked, took my box of books out of the car and went into the store. At which point I was asked if these were all previous purchases from the chain of bookstores... If they are, then they'll accept them, but if they're not... if they are "new" second-hand books, then they can't take them. They are the only one in the chain that have that policy!! (I think they are a new location too...)... Sigh... Deep sigh...

Mind you, she did tell me that there was a "real" location just a bit further down McLeod Trail that would take all books. And it wasn't too far away... in fact, it's probably exactly the same distance from home as the bottle depot one. So I went there, and got $33 in credit for more books!! Very good... Mind you, now I have a box of rejects in my truck that need to go somewhere... Wonder how long it will take me to get of those books!!

Procrastination

I know that I must be the only one out there who experiences procrastination (!!)... Or not??? I'm reading a book right now (surprise!) called "End Procrastination Now". It looked good in the bookstore so I got it through the library. It has a bit too much of a psychology edge for my tastes, but I'm working my way through it. His premise is that we can end procrastination by addressing how we think, feel and act about the things in our life. He uses more high-falutin language... but you get the idea... And I can make the connection with the workshops that I lead... alter your conversation (thinking), alter your life... feelings are not facts... and just do it!!! (Thanks Nike!)...

Anyhow... I'm looking at things that I avoid... and push off into the future... the indefinite future usually... For example, there is one item on my to-do list that has been languishing there for a while...

So, I have some used books to bring to the second-hand bookstore. I trade them in and get trade $$ to buy other books there. A very nice system. There are 4 of these bookstores in Calgary (they're a little chain)... and the one I first went to is almost downtown. It's not a very convenient location and parking is usually a bugger. So, I don't get down there all that often, and when I do drive by, I figure it's too much trouble to find parking so... I don't go... And this box of books has been riding around in my truck for about... 2 months... Anyhow... they have another store which is much closer and just kitty corner from the bottle depot... and close to other places that I frequent... So, it's much more convenient! I drive by it more often and parking is not a problem... But... what stops me is the thought that... what if they don't have the same trade $$ system? What if I have to start a new account at this location? What if they won't accept my books? What if... what if... Yes, I know... it's silly... but ultimately, that is what is stopping me!! I am having quite a conversation with them in my head... and creating scenarios in the clouds that don't even exist in reality. The truth is... I won't know until I go in there... And I won't go in there until I alter my thinking and my feelings about this place...

So, guess what... I'm just a few blocks from this place and... will I make it there today?? That is the question... Or will I fob it off till "next time"... till "some time"...

Running Errands

Today is a day of running errands and getting things done... I have a list... I have an idea of where every place is... and I've mapped out a route in my head to get from here to there to there with a minimum of wasted time and gas... Apparently women are good at planning multi-purpose errand trips... while men apparently do more of a spoke approach. They do one errand, come home, do another errand, come home... etc.

There's nothing that pisses me off more than finding I've missed something on my to-do list and now have to go out again! Sometimes things can be postponed to the next outing... other times it's kind of imperative to get it done now (like buying milk). As a visual learner, I find that if I can map out my route in my head, then I'm less likely to miss something. I have a picture in my head of where I'm headed next, and even if I've forgotten why I'm going there, it will come to me eventually!! Or when I look at my list...

As for lists... sometimes, I just right the pertinent to-do items for this errand trip on a sticky note... one of the tiny one inch ones... That isn't always the best thing though... Little tiny to-do lists on sticky notes tend to get lost! Good thing they make bright colours!

Wall Street

I went and saw Wall Street the other week, the new(ish) movie with Michael Douglas. It was a riveting story and a scary one as well. Funny how the scariest movies are often the ones most deeply rooted in real life. The movie looks at financial improprieties on Wall Street... and the bursting bubbles of the last few years. The over-extended mortgage crisis and the global banking crisis of last year. The scary thing is that this could happen again... and next time, there might be no recovery...

I read in the news the other day, that some banks are once again over-extending mortgage lending... loaning more money than the house is worth... kind of scary to think that could happen again... A time when our money is worthless... when deposit insurance is worthless... It would make the Great Depression look like a dip in the road... This would be a serious pothole!

Consumer debt is increasing at an alarming rate. Credit cards are maxed out... We are all living beyond our means... Not just the banks. My question to you is... how is your credit? Are you living beyond your means? Do you carry credit card debt (the biggest scam going...)? How financially solvent are you? Do you buy more than you can afford? ... Stop it!!! For all of our sakes... Sto pit...