Archive for the ‘Life’ Category
Are You In The Middle Of Major Changes?
Posted by: Ann
January 11th, 2010 >> Energy, Life, Uncategorized
Did you ever have an idea come to you and then you start seeing it pop up in other ways?
I had an idea Saturday and wrote it on the cover of my TV Guide. Today I received a newsletter from Jen Blackert that really highlighted it. Since I am seeing it pop up I must write about it.
What popped into my mind on Saturday was a feeling of everyone jockeying for a new position. I know so many people who are in the process of changing their careers. Some people are changing their whole lives in the process. (I know 4 people in seminary or in the process for going to seminary). I am talking about major life changes.
It just reminded me of a horse race. Seeing the jockeys moving the horses around, trying to get in a better position. But I don’t see the object as winning the race but to just reposition themselves.
Jen Blackert wrote “I’m sure you sense that there is a monumental shift taking place in the world.” She goes on to say that even though this shift may have you concerned “The Truth is this shift is poised for major light” (meaning it is for the good).
So even if the world around you is in turmoil there is hope and I do believe things will work themselves out.
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
—– Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist & poet (1803 – 1882)
Sometimes it is hard to trust God. We often think we know better and are unwilling to wait for God’s answer. There were many times in the past when I was forced to trust God, often it was a tentative trust, sometimes it was born of desperation. But God always came through, often in unexpected ways. You would think that the repeated events in my life where God has come through for me would strengthen my trust in the Creator. But I still struggle with letting go and letting God take control of the situation. I have even hung out the fleece, so to speak and had the answer that God was there and handling things.
So why is it so difficult to let go? Maybe that is just part of what I need to learn this time around.
Fruits of the Spirit
Posted by: Ann
January 8th, 2010 >> EFT, God, Life, Meridian Tapping, Relationship, Spirituality
I often say that EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and MTT (Meridian Tapping Techniques) only remove the negative in our lives and leaves the positive because we are born with the fruits of the spirit and as we live our lives we collect negative baggage in the form of negative emotions. Often this negativity occurs from the day we are born and I think some would say from before that.
What exactly do I mean by the fruits of the spirit? According to Galatians 5:22-23, the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Let me take this apart and compare it to what emotions a newborn baby may come into this world with. I can see a baby being born with love and joy, but peace and patience or self-control? I just don’t see it. Let’s dig deeper.
Have you ever known a peaceful baby? I have. So the ones who are not peaceful may have had some contributing baggage already in their young life. It could have been as harsh as a drug abusing mother, or a physically abused mother or maybe something along the lines of a medical problem that cropped up for the baby or the mother while in the womb. I can see any of these leading to a restless, unhappy baby.
Some of these positive emotions are automatically compromised because we start out as helpless babies. Who would not lose patience and self-control when they can’t communicate what they need to those around them. So these positive emotions go out the door real fast.
This leaves goodness, faithfulness and gentleness. These qualities would be hard to see in a young baby. By the time the child is of an age to actually express these qualities in their life, family, friends, society and even TV have already influenced them. The child has had plenty of opportunity to learn the negative traits
What are your thoughts on this?
www.naturallyresilient.com
I am devoting Wednesdays to stories of animals and in my case most of them will be cat stories as cats have been a staple in my life for a number of years. I love dogs, had a great one when I was growing up, but cats are easier to keep. You can leave them with plenty of food and water and litter and go off for the weekend. A dog would eat all the food, knock over the water bowl and cry because their pack has left and all that within the first 2 hours of you leaving.
The hard part is deciding what story to tell first. Well here goes.
I had a very large black and white cat named Barney. This cat was an 18 pounder in his own right. He was not fat, just big. Barney loved people. He was a dog in cat clothing. He had to go greet all that came to the door.
At one point we were living at the back of 68 acres we had purchased. In the process of subdividing this property we were having a road put in. One day one of the workers came to the house to use our phone. This phone was located on a desk right next to the four-foot tall cat scratch post. As the worker sat down to make his call, Barney came in to see who was here. As this contractor was talking, Barney jumped to the top of the cat scratch post right in this man’s face. There was a loud scream. I could just imagine the person on the other end asking, “what’s wrong, what happened”. Then this worker haltingly said “They have a cat as big as a bobcat”. Barney was unperturbed with the screaming man and followed him to the door when he left.
The Spark in Your Life
Posted by: Ann
January 5th, 2010 >> God, Life, Physical/Material, Relationship, Spirituality
What makes some people “great” and most of us mediocre?
I think it has to do with the spark of God (or Creator, Universal Power, whatever your choice is) in each of us. It is not that some have more than others; it is what we do with it.
The spark in each of us is infused with our true desires. Our desires are important, there is a reason they are there. Our desires can lead us to our best use in this life.
Sometimes because of circumstances or obligations or maybe society influences, we deny our “best use” and choose to do something else. It is those who do their true desires that accomplish much as it is in alignment with our purpose for being here.
Sometimes we think that our desires are thwarted. I have heard of women who had a true and overpowering desire to be a mother but were unable to have children. Maybe that desire was put there for them to mother others who did not have mothers, or those who had poor mothering. There is a reason for that strong desire.
You can rewrite your desire contract, but be careful, as there is a reason that desire is there. When I was young, I had a strong desire to learn to fly. In college I took a sample class where they take you up in a plane and show you some of the basics. But when I was out on my own and working, I just could not see how I could afford lessons and plane rental fees and I asked for the desire to be taken from me and it was. But guess what, not too many years later I fell in love with some one who had a plane and loved to fly! Now I enjoy going up with my flying husband but much to his chagrin I have no real desire to learn. It would have added another dimension to our marriage if I had a strong flying desire like my husband.
I don’t really care for black-eyed peas but I have found a recipe that makes them palatable. But I am sure to eat them on New Years Day. It is suppose to bring luck for the new-year. My husband threw in a twist I did not know. He said you had to eat at least one pea for each day you want good luck, so I found a recipe that made the peas taste great. But this blog is not about a recipe. It is about what happens if you do not eat your peas and why we eat them every New Years day now.
About 10 years ago, my husband was putting in a runway on some land we had. New Years morning he went out to do a little grading on the runway. Before long he came in and said he had broken the axle on the grader. He went back out to try and move it with the backhoe as the grader was stuck on the runway. With the help of a neighbor he managed to limp the grader down the runway and around the corner of a taxiway using the backhoe to support the broken axle. Just as he turned the corner and got the grader clear of the runway, the axle on the backhoe broke! Both machines had their right-front wheels broken off! Before noon!
When he came home he said he was through for the day and was not doing anything else all day long. This was all before noon and before the black-eyed peas.
Did you make a new years resolution?
I don’t do that. I like to see what the year brings and live day-by-day, moment-by-moment.
We all know we should live better. Just make it a daily choice or even a moment-to-moment choice. I choose this moment to do some stretching. I choose this moment to eat this chocolate and live with the consequences. Ok, some choices are not going to be healthy but you made them. Why beat your self up about it.
At the start of a new year I like to look back at the past year and see what changes have occurred, what I have learned and accomplished. Am I the same person as I was at the beginning of the year? Have I grown, changed, and learned new things? What opportunities came to me that I took advantage of?
These are all great things to reflect on and you may be amazed at what has occurred. I know I usually am.
Our pets are a major part of our lives. They can help us in so many ways if we let them. I am not talking just about working animals such as service dogs or sheep dogs but your normal house pet whether it is a snake or a horse (I guess this is more of a barn pet than a house pet) or something in between.
When I look at my pets, I mean really look, I see multi layers of relationships and I see a lot of symbolism.
I often think of my relationship with my cats as similar to God’s relationship with us. I am like God to my cats. I take care of them and take joy in them. I also sometimes wish I could make them understand what is going on and that there is no need to be fearful. I had a huge cat once that was real concerned with food. This cat was large boned and not fat and he required a lot of food. Whenever the food dish got low (in his eyes) he would come and complain to me until I did something about it. He was worried. The food was not out, just low. He did not understand that I would not let him go hungry.
I believe God would like for us to understand that we will be taken care of. If we are not so consumed by worry and fear we can see the opportunities around us and live a more abundant life. If we could just live in the joy of the moment we could live a happier life.
You See What You Want To See
Posted by: Ann
December 27th, 2009 >> Books, Censorship, Life, Physical/Material
Have you ever heard of an SEP? We have a running joke in our family about SEPs. SEP stands for Somebody Else’s Problem. The idea was introduced to us in Douglas Adams 5 book trilogy “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe
I experienced an SEP first hand. I was living in the country about 12 miles from Georgetown, Texas. Everyday I traveled to Georgetown at least once a day sometime more often. It wasn’t until it came out in our weekly paper that I saw it. A fuel tank from a Saturn V rocket had fallen through the atmosphere to land on earth about 50 feet from the road. The same road I traveled back and forth on to go to Georgetown daily. It had been lying there for 5 days before I saw it! This was hard to miss. It was big. Tour buses started stopping at it. NASA denied it could be theirs; they were sure something that big would burn up when it entered the atmosphere. After about a month, NASA finally sent a crew to look at it and then they agreed it was theirs and they hauled it off.
The mind plays a big part in SEPs. I understand that our mind gets so many sensory inputs that it has to weed through them and only brings out what is pertinent to the situation at hand. How much are we really missing?
My son’s science class did an experiment where you stare at a red spot for a minute then look at a white sheet. The premise is that when you stare at red, the red receptors get tired and shut down and your brain takes over and says you are still seeing red. When you look at the white paper, it takes a while for the red receptors to wake back up and realize the scene has changed but your brain realized you are seeing something else and activates the other receptors while red wakes back up therefore you see green (all the other colors without red).
We kid our teenager about something being an SEP because he doesn’t want to deal with it. But seriously, how many things do we miss in life because it is an SEP?
For the last 15 years during the week after Thanksgiving we have gone to a “cut your own” lot to pick a tree. They are fresher and last longer when fresh cut. I also felt I was helping a local business. When we were through with the tree, we would toss it over the fence for our goats. They loved the present. I always made sure the tree was goat safe with no tinsel or hooks on any ornaments. The goats really appreciated that bit of green when everything was brown and the tree was usually devoured within a few hours. After that it looked like a skeleton lying in the field, all bear of leaves.
We have not had goats for over 10 years but I still do not use hooks or tinsel. But this year the irony struck me as we were choosing a tree. Why were we cutting down a perfectly good tree, basically killing it to celebrate a holiday about life? I think this may be the last year for a live tree for us.