great article on perception

i came across this article in The New Yorker today, referred by something in the New York Times. NLPers especially may be interested, because it's about perception, the brain and nervous system, and meaning.

the article is long, 8 pages, but you can start reading at the bottom of page 4 if you don't want to read a gruesome story about a woman with an incessant, horrible itch on her scalp. you might feel better if you skip that part.

toward the end you can read about using mirror therapy to work with phantom limb pain. there's a way to retrain the brain's sensors. no drugs or surgery needed. end suffering quickly.

one fascinating factoid i read is an estimate that only 10 to 20% of what we see is actually information entering the visual cortex through the eye. the rest comes from elsewhere in the brain, like memories.

click the title of this posting to go to the article.

bumper sticker

i put a bumper sticker on my white 2003 honda civic hybrid. it says:

the earth does not belong to us. we belong to the earth.--chief seattle

by the way, i've put 1,600 miles on my car since i got it at the end of april. that includes a couple of round-trips to dallas.

average gas mileage is 41.6 mpg. it can get 50 on the highway.

hybrids rock.

dream: no conscious memory

i awoke on friday, june 27, with a sense of having had a full, complete, satisfying dream sometime before i woke. the dream left me feeling intact and congruent, maybe even entertained.

i have absolutely no conscious memory of the content of the dream. not an image, sound, word--just a feeling that all was right with me and the world.

i used to feel disappointed when i didn't remember dream content.

not any more.

it's worthwhile to explore what i do have a sense of when i awaken, instead of focusing on what is missing. i know my unconscious mind is working for me. even the dreams i don't consciously remember have an energetic impact. they can be healing and peaceful and joyful and build congruency, even though i don't remember any content.

if i wake up at the "right" time in the sleep cycle, or a dream has enough "news of difference" to remember, i will. if not, my dreams are still working for me.

dream: singing in a convertible in LA

dreamed on june 21, solstice.

i am in los angeles. (I lived there when i was 3. it's where my first memories are. haven't spent any time besides layovers there since then.)

i meet up with people. we are all dressed nicely, in linen dresses and summer suits, summer hats, sunglasses. we look polished.

we are going to an art museum with beautiful grounds. we're riding in a very large convertible with the top down. it's so big, there must be 10 of us sitting in it. we pull into the parking lot. someone else in the parking lot asks a question of us.

in response, we spontaneously burst into song, singing "jesu, joy of man's desiring" in beautiful harmony.

i'm glad i'm with these people. i enjoy spontaneous singing a lot. others at the museum are more sedate, and curious about our joy.

people from various stages of my life appear: lela and hannah, paul, roger, suzy, bj and her kids. they join us.

someone wants to go see the ocean. i've been in LA for awhile but haven't seen it yet. we are driving down the mountains, and the air is hazy. i can't see the ocean from here.

the group splits up. the LA people go off together, leaving us visitors on our own inside the art museum. end of dream.

==

i was thinking about booking my flight to maui for october, and after this dream, i made sure to book through LA. it's done. oct 8-22. for details, click the title of this post.

charisma

so much has been going on, i'm catching up. i did two full days of public speaking boot camp on monday and tuesday. i went in wondering what i'd learn, with kind of a "show me" attitude. i've done some public speaking, but not a lot. i'd like to get better at it.

by the end, i felt like it was definitely a learnable skill that i could practice. so now i'm looking for a toastmasters group to join and practice with.

one thing the teacher said that stayed with me is that i have charisma and can learn to trust it.

whew! i'm not sure what he saw in me to say that. i don't feel like i have charisma. barack obama has charisma. i know that sometimes i'm "on". present, grounded, capable, conneced to the source. maybe that was what he was picking up on. i think it must have to do with having done yoga for 10 years. yoga is good for my energy. i'm teaching kj some yoga that she can take with her.

keith pointed out that hitler had considerable charisma. so that's something to keep in mind--you can use it for various purposes. hitler was trying to build up the german people, who suffered greatly after losing in world war I. in his mind, he wasn't evil. he saw a need and filled it.

charisma is being congruent, putting yourself 100% on the line. JFK supposedly had it too. i was a child when he was president and paid more attention to his speech--"cuber" and that massachusetts accent, which was strange to my ears--and how much hair he had.

keith says i have a kind of stillness to my energy. that may not be putting it well. my energy is more quiet and powerful, is i guess what he's saying. i'd like to meet someone with that energy so i can know what he's talking about.

i think of charisma as being present, being able to influence people, being a leader. it can be dazzling, really giving attention, really being in the moment, thinking on one's feet, having good eye contact.

perhaps a presupposition of having charisma is that the universe is friendly. i've been working with that one. i recognize that i didn't believe it for much of my life, but that doesn't mean it's not true.

i like what tom best says about beliefs. try on the opposite and see which you like more. in this case, i like believing that the universe is basically friendly, and that what we human do has some positive intent.

dream: visiting a church

dreamed on 6/18/2008.

i am in a church. it is a rather large church. the service hasn't yet begun, the choir is singing, pews are filling up as people enter and get settled, waiting for the service to begin.

i find a stray purse and want to connect it to its owner, only i don't know who it belongs to. i carry it with me, holding it out so its owner can recognize it.

i go up into the choir area, and someone in the choir says, "you can leave that here--i'll get it to its owner." i set it down on the floor.

i am in a foyer, reading the bulletin board. i am reading an account of a visit to another church by a member of this church. the writer, a woman, is telling the story at the same time i am reading it. i hear her voice. it is not exactly simultaneous with what i am reading, but not too far off, either.

the written part is typed up like in an old-fashioned church bulletin.

the church she and her husband visited is on a college campus where they are visiting their daughter. it is a notable church, old and historic.

==

i wonder if this is the first time i have ever dreamed that i was reading something simultaneously with hearing someone tell the same story i'm reading. it was like harmony or stereo, deepening the experience.

there is something about church in my life--my father was an episcopal priest full time until i was 11, when he went to grad school and changed careers. i went to church just about every sunday of my childhood. i wouldn't say that i "got it" but i value the experience--the exposure to the liturgy, the words, the ritual, the progression of the service.

what i remember most is feeling like i was a good person, spiritually clean and uplifted, after attending a church service. even when i didn't know what the words meant. church gave me a new start every week.

one inspiration for this dream is playing church music. i have stayed at glenda's several times now, and in the evening right before bed, she plays her piano. she asks first if i mind. heck no! i love hearing people play who know how to play.

glenda plays hymns--nothing too complex, but with skill and feeling. her playing is a wonderful send-off to slumber.

the last time i was at her house, she played several hymns saturday night. sunday morning, i got ready for eNLP early and wondered if anyone minded if i sat down at the piano and played. no.

it had been years--so long ago i don't remember--since i played the piano. i started with treble clef only, reading music from glenda's hymnal, which is a baptist hymnal, i imagine--at least that explains why i didn't recognize so many of the tunes, having been raised episcopalian.

i searched out hymns in the key of C, or with only one sharp or flat, feeling rusty at reading anything more complex. i found some i could play that had harmony in just the treble clef. the rhythm just came to me.

glenda was full of praise for my sight-reading. beam!

then i found a hymn i know well, "morning has broken," which i will forever think of as an old cat stevens song, although the hymnal attributed the tune as traditional gaelic. i pointed that out to keith, my scotch-irish friend (and glenda's son-in-law) who plays pennywhistle. he hung around a bit and sang.

i love that tune, and the words in the hymnal. click the title of this post to read the lyrics.

i got bolder and added the bass clef notes, slowing me down considerably, but it came back to me. and i knew what i would need to do to quickly learn to read and play bass clef better than i ever have.

right then, after playing it twice reading both clefs, i spotted what i thought might be a flute in its case. sure enough, it was. i took it out and put it together and played it.

oh, my. it's been at least 10 years since i've played flute. mine is sitting on my bookshelf in its case, not functional.

the beauty of playing music and wanting to get better at it is something i would like to have more of in my life. maybe it's time to get that flute fixed.

walker's island review

Here's my review of K. J. Radebaugh's astonishing first novel, Walker's Island. Click the title of this post to see this review on Amazon and order the book.

==

K. J. Radebaugh is a born story teller. I started reading Walker's Island several months ago and finally finished it last week. Completing the book felt like saying goodbye to a dear friend, complete with tears spilt on the last page.

This story, which rambles through the period from 1865 to 1898, is set in a fictional county in south central Florida. The main characters are cowboys. Now, I am not someone who seeks out stories about cowboys in Florida, set two centuries ago. I just want a good reading experience, something that opens me up and moves me somewhere.

I got that from this book. Like life, the story moves sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, enjoying the telling. It makes life bigger and richer. Let me share a few sentences from the book.

Raymond "fell into a waking sleep that rode the current of his breath until it joined the creek and flowed away, past the cold ground beneath him, past Beely's farm, past the raiders and Lieutenant Fitz and the war, all the way back to the beginning."

"The church, the hotel and cafe, the railroad track, and the road itself were Jessie's world, bounded by a sash and frame and separated from her by a piece of real glass with a watery ripple in one corner."

Red's hair "was the hot, brilliant red of a pitch pine fire, shot through with gleaming copper lights and piled on top of her head in a heap of curls and tendrils and waves that were barely contained by three large tortoiseshell combs. Its weight seemed to bear down on the woman beneath it, who supported herself with an elbow on a rough cypress table, head in hand."

"Jack was different. It wasn't his odor, which was grassy and sweet like cured hay, or his hair, which was fine and thin and floated on his head like dandelion silk. It wasn't even his peckish appetite or small, skinny, fragile-looking frame. The problem, at least in the beginning, was Jack's speech. He made odd sounds. Jack trilled, hooted, squeaked, and twittered. He hiccupped, snorted, sneezed, coughed, and popped his lips like a feeding bream. He twitched, too, tapping and fluttering fingers as thin as chicken bones. And he watched things as he tweeted and twitched - bugs and dust motes, sunlight reflecting off a pot, Jessie's hands on the biscuit dough - with an absorption that went beyond concentration."

That kind of writing made reading Walker's Island immensely enjoyable through all the ins and outs of 33 years in the lives of some people who now seem realer than real.

I'm happy to know this is the first novel in a trilogy, so I have more of K. J. Radebaugh's writing to look forward to!

dream: blue leaves

dreamed june 15.

the first part i remember of this rambling dream is that i am at work in an office. i have an intern, a young woman with sweet energy. we go outside in a very clean urban downtown to go to a drugstore to get something (not drugs).

the scene shifts. it's fairly early on a saturday morning. i'm with hannah/lela/little girl. i have a car, and she's going to get in. where the passenger puts her feet, blue leaves are piled up. i gaze at them intently. they are multi-pointed, like japanese maple or red oak leaves, only blue, and curled up, drying, but not crunchy dry. beautiful and unusual.

i scoop the leaves out of the car so the little girl will have a place for her feet. under the leaves are the little girl's dirty clothes and other odds and ends, including a car battery.

now i am on a bicycle. i realize i really need to find a boyfriend, so i'm going to take the little girl (now clearly hannah) home to her mom, lela. we will stop by the sonic on the way home and get some food to take to lela.

i start pedalling my bike north to the intersection of congress and riverside. the city is very clean and orderly. i stop and wait for hannah, who's running to catch up with me.

i believe i will find a boyfriend that day, and i know just where to look--the mountain out by lake travis that has two campgrounds. i've been to the lower one in past dreams. i know about the upper one but have yet to visit it.

==

blue leaves can be an adjective and noun or noun and verb. typical dream pun!

my extinct miata is sitting in my driveway with a car battery in the passenger footwell.

on eNLP weekends, we've stopped by the sonic so glenda could get something.

if only finding a boyfriend were that quick!

dream: witness

dreamed on june 12.

i am with my friend fantasia, and we are standing next to a screen on which credits are scrolling past, like in the movies, only it's daytime. in black print on a white background, a credit says "Witnessing", and under it is my name, "Mary Ann Reynolds".

i know that it was fantasia's idea to put my name in the credits. it's as if it's my work or talent.

--

i like this dream! "the witness" is something i've been playing with from eNLP. it is "merely observing," without seeking. it is transcendent of contraction, separation, attachment, needing, illusion. it makes no effort. it is simple awareness, and attention--the motion toward things--arises spontaneously and superimposes itsel on it.

dream: funny toilet

dreamed on june 11.

i work at a newspaper and go on vacation in a rented house somewhere in rural louisiana, near a small town. i'm with a woman friend. i'm really grateful for this vacation. i'm off work for a week.

i am with a man in this rented vacation house. (the woman friend is not present.) in one room, there's a very high toilet, like 4 feet high. he's sitting on it, posed like rodin's "the thinker" statue. he gets off it and puts me up there. there's a sheet of saran wrap across the bowl. he tricked me! i start laughing, and so does he.

we go outside and see a rough road cut into the dirt. it goes up a hill. we see where the driveway leaves the road and comes to the house.

==

i worked at two different newspapers when i was in my twenties, in small towns in western oklahoma.

this seems like a feel-good, goof-off, having fun dream.

brain agreement

just a short note. this morning i went to see nina davis for my monthly cranio-sacral therapy session.

i was lying on the table, and nina's hands were on my head. i've been calibrating what's happening in my body to the best of my ability.

suddenly i got an image of two parts of my brain, one from the left hemisphere and one from the right, rising up and reaching across the chasm between the hemispheres and shaking hands. they were kind of sponge-like and had arms and hands like spongebob squarepants.

i told nina about it, and she asked about the intention of the handshake.

i reflected and realized it wasn't like these two brain parts were just meeting. they knew about each other. the handshake sealed an agreement between them to work together.

then she worked on the back of my head, and i felt a nice glowing energy all the way down my spine to the tailbone. sweet!

The Top 10 Reasons to Travel with Mary Ann Reynolds

the list below made my day! my friend katie raver included it in an email this morning. she and her husband, keith fail, rode with me to and from our last weekend of eNLP (evolutionary neuro-linguistic programming--what a mouthful!) in dallas.

i got home about 1 o'clock this morning, then got up at the usual time to go to work this morning. i'm draggin' a little bit. that katie, she's got a lot more energy than i do today!

The Top 10 Reasons to Travel with Mary Ann Reynolds

10. She has a fancy hybrid car that gets over 40 miles to the gallon!
9. She's very flexible, in her muscles, in her brain, and in her planning.
8. She tells me funny stories about her granddaughter.
7. She plays Coleman Barks reading Rumi, in the car, while traveling at night - wow!
6. If she sees someone else do something physical (a girl dog-paddling in the pool, a Bollywood star dancing on TV) she does what they do--with great curiosity and joy!
5. She knows a lot about many things: NLP, the enneagram, organic food, yoga, how to change your state.
4. She knows that sometimes, people are just tired and hungry. They're not necessarily psychically out of balance or dealing with childhood trauma--sometimes, they're just tired or hungry.
3. She's been to Maui.
2. She's willing to take little side adventures, on gravel roads, even late at night!
1. You'll experience happiness and joy and grace and glee!

thanks, katie!

reworking a dream

the other day i posted about a dream i had in which i come home late to find a bunch of people at a party in my house. i decline to have everyone cleared out so i can go to bed. the energy shifts AND there are still loose ends. it doesn't feel right to me.

since i recently read "dreaming true" by robert moss and am taking evolutionary NLP and need to turn in a homework assignment, i decided to rework this dream to prep for my homework, a written procedure.

this is possible any time you have a dream that leaves you feeling in a way you'd rather not be feeling.

one of the practices we encountered in eNLP is to notice what you didn't notice before.

moss says to ask for help from allies and protectors. he specified doing that BEFORE going back into a dream, but i applied it to my dream.

i noticed that big al offered to help me. duh! my big al-ly--get it? that's a dream pun. he didn't offer exactly what i wanted, and i declined in the original dream, but hmm, everything can be negotiated.

other possibilities were available.

i asked myself what i did want, and then reworked the dream from there.

so here's the rework: big al offers to clear everyone out. i tell him i have a better idea and ask him to do two things.

first, to gather a few of my trusted friends together. he's very tall and can easily do this. we meet in an empty room.

i tell this group that this party is occurring without my previous knowledge or consent, and that i am very tired. they are concerned--what can they do? i ask them to help wind down the energy and end the party early. also to ask if anyone is willing to give me a short massage and if anyone else would play soothing music to usher me into much-needed rest.

i tell them i would like to have another party--i enjoyed seeing people enjoying my nice big house--that i can plan and enjoy in the not-too-distant future.

i also ask big al to find out who got my code and told people to come to my party without consulting me. i would like to talk with him or her--tomorrow.

big al asks what's on my mind to do with this person. i don't know yet, but i do know now is not the time to decide. maybe i need to hear from them first.

i feel much better about this ending.

about the unwanted guest, i realized he's basically harmless, just sorely lacking in some relationship skills that most of us take for granted.

i also realized that there are people in the body choir crowd whom i enjoy and connect with. i don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater just because there are some things about BC i don't enjoy.

scoliosis update

a couple of months ago, i started seeing a healer. her name is patrice, and she's good, and i can tell you now that she's not taking new clients.

patrice does acupuncture, myo-fascial deep tissue work like rolfing. she knows iridology, nutrition, massage, energy work, NLP, ayurveda, and probably a lot more i don't know about. i consider her a real physician.

at the first session, she told me to make a sling out of sheets that i could use to hang upside down twice a day. this allows gravity to pull down on my torso, helping my spine straighten. how brilliant is that?

she also prescribed using a spine aligner on my back and feet.

i realized today that one thing i really like about working with her is that my progress is rapid enough that i feel results. after the second session, i began to feel that my left leg was really under me. the awareness of my neck that hanging upside down has brought means my neck feels loose and aligned.

so right now for my scoliosis, i hang upside down twice a day for 7 minutes and do twists, twirls, and bends as well as surrender to gravity. i take two yoga classes a week and do it other times as needed. i flex my feet and spread my toes often to have a better energetic and physical connection with the ground. i do a couple of internal rolfing exercises patrice taught me. i use the spine aligner twice a day on my back and use it on my feet whenever i can.

i pay more attention to my stance, footstrike, and symmetry. i feel uneven between left and right sides in the lower back/upper butt area, and there are places that "catch". the left side is weaker than the right; the left muscles feel tighter.

on the whole, i notice far fewer pains in the left piriformis where it attaches to my sacrum. i have more awareness of my butt and sitz bones. i generally feel better.

patrice has also advised me on summer shoes (keen brand is recommended), and on cleansing. she advocates harmony with nature.

i go to the chiropractor less often, and my last session with my cranio-sacral therapist was amazing.

the body can really heal! it's pretty amazing, and finding the practitioners who can accelerate that is truly a blessing.

and patrice is adorable!

dream: people are partying in my house

dreamed on 6/9.

i am wealthy and have a really nice big house. i come home late one night, and people from body choir are having a party in my house! it's late, i am tired, and this is not a welcome sight.

i walk in and turn off a big TV that no one is watching (a waking life pet peeve). i consider what to do. there are a couple of dozen people here, standing in knots talking, spread throughout the living areas, feeling comfortable and at home. in MY house! WITHOUT my permission! i don't like this.

i take someone aside and ask how they got in. the person says that someone knew the code.

i see a certain person whom i dislike in waking life and know that had i had anything to do with planning this party, i would not have invited him.

so i'm feeling rather sour while walking among these people, who are enjoying my home.

i see big al and tell him my situation. apparently most of the people don't know this party is occurring in my house without my permission. he offers to clear everybody out.

i tell him it's not necessary. i don't want to make a scene or disappoint people. i'm getting used to the idea, accepting what is. no harm is being done.

i wander through my house, seeing who all is there. i recognize most of them by face if not name. i see a male friend lying back comfortably in a large room. i sit next to him, and we talk.

the energy of the party has changed by now, and people are starting to leave, although a few look like they're going to stay awhile.

--

wow, this dream has a lot to work with!

what i want to know now is, who had the code and invited these people into my house without my permission? why did they think they didn't need to consult me first before doing that? how did they get the code?

this dream does not have an outcome i want.

although i am tired and dismayed, i allow the party to continue. the energy does shift, and i begin to enjoy myself a little. there are people there who are friends and allies, and the one who is not blessedly leaves me alone.

dream: kathleen and hannah make friends

dreamed on 6/6 when i fell asleep on the spine aligner.

in my dream, i am in my house sleeping. kathleen had moved in with me and a little girl who was a composite of lela and hannah. i awoke to see that they made great friends while i was asleep.

--

i like this dream! kathleen really is coming to stay with me for a month!

dream: two men

dreamed on 6/6.

people, mellow feeling. two men, among others. the men would come and go, first one, then the other. i enjoyed each man's company. i had no attachment to whether they came or went. i was involved in what i was doing and didn't miss them.

once, one of the men got cuddly with me. i really liked that!

truth be told needs help

i received an email (included below) last week from nathalie sorrell, my friend and the co-founder of truth be told, a nonprofit that works with women in and after prison, using respectful listening to help them tell/write/move their stories and providing classes that provide the women with opportunities to express themselves, be creative, and learn new tools.

truth be told has been very successful changing women's lives, helping them find grace as well as communication skills and self-esteem.

click the title of this post (or click the TBT link in the "favorite links" area of this page) to learn more. read the newsletters to hear the voices of the women whom TBT serves and who serve them. consider going to a graduation ceremony next fall or spring--it is a deep heart-opening experience.

i was on TBT's board for a couple of years, and one of our long-term goals was to expand this volunteer-based program to other prisons around the state. TBT started with volunteers working at the prison in lockhart in 2000 and more recently expanded to provide programs at the travis county jail.

TBT is now ready to expand even more.

nathalie is requesting donations to help get started on a video to train volunteers to take this program into prisons statewide. later there will be a curriculum and hopefully grants, but they need dollars now to start the filming in mid-july.

yay for this fantastic progress! this makes my heart sing, to see this good work expand and ripple through the world, touching the lives of many individuals and communities.

i'm donating money, and if you would like to follow suit (and get a tax deductible receipt), please send it to:

Truth Be Told
P.O. Box 161763
Austin, TX 78716

include a note that earmarks your donation for the Model Program Video.

here's nathalie's letter:

Dear Bobby, Keith, Mary and S/Zan!!!

We want you to share in our joy and we need your help for TBT's next big step!

Attached you will find a letter to Warden Barry at Lockhart prison, asking for permission to create a training film this summer and fall, to enable us to take Truth Be Told into other prisons. Remember when we created our Vision to take TBT into other Texas women's prisons and realized we'd need to train volunteers in other areas outside Austin to do this work?

In order to make this film, we need some funding asap. We will be writing grants that we've been invited to write for $30,000 - hopefully this will enable us to create the entire Model Program Training Manual and DVD by the beginning of 2009. However, in order to begin filming on July 18th, 2008 at our Orientation for fall classes - we need $2500.

We've already been given $500 seed money.

Can you pass the word to your friends and other supporters of Truth Be Told, and let us see how this next step will be funded? When you were on the Board, you helped us envision this big dream, and your hard work and financial support has helped us get this far!

Now ... can you help with this next big step?

Gratefully and with Joy!
Nathalie

the opera

last night i went to see "die fledermaus," which means the fluttering mouse in german, or the bat. the austin lyric opera presented it at the new long center for the performing arts, the replacement for palmer auditorium.

i got to see it courtesy of a generous editing client, who has season tickets but was unable to go to this production.

my friend john gough, who plays cello with the williamson county orchestra and who LOVES opera, came with me. our seats--row M, orchestra level--were excellent.

i'd seen one live opera before this, when i was in junior high or high school, and it was confusing and boring to me. in german. it was mozart's "the magic flute," and although i enjoyed the music, i hadn't a clue what was going on. i've listened to arias and appreciate them, but wasn't too interested in watching an entire opera. until now.

die fliedermaus was earthy, bawdy, funny, and in english. in short, accessible. the libretto was rewritten by three esther's follies writers, who moved johann strauss jr.'s opera to austin.

thus, the set for the first act had a backdrop of the capital, UT tower, and frost bank tower. the second act is set at the driskill hotel, and the final act takes place at the travis county jail.

the storyline had holes a mile wide, but i don't think anyone cared. the cast seemed to be having a blast.

there were even bits of the overture (the first part that the orchestra plays by itself, says john) that were familiar to me from bugs bunny cartoons! click the title of this post to hear the overture on youtube. go to 2:40 and 4:58 to hear. i can just see bugs, daffy, and porky dancing!

it's not all singing, either, and even when there IS singing (in english), there are still supertitles in english, because, you know, when the soprano, tenor, and baritone are all singing different words at once, it can be hard to understand. i appreciated that.

the second act's costume party featured willie nelson, stevie ray vaughn, the capitol building, the UT tower, a pink flamingo, peter pan (of mini-golf fame--he's gay, don't you know?), the mangia pizza dinosaur, the hyde park bar & grill fork and french fries, and more. then the biscuit brothers AND the quebe sisters entertained the party guests (and us, the audience). nice!

the bat was definitely an in-the-know wink at austin life.

oh, and the singer who played the warden looked just like david dewhurst, our illustrious lieutenant governor!

it's 3 hours long, with two intermissions, during which you can go out on the long center's patio and view the rapidly changing austin skyline--and a few bats fluttering around.

eat, pray, love group

my friend and esteemed NLP colleague katie raver is sponsoring a changework class based on the memoir "eat, pray, love." this book, by journalist elizabeth gilbert, has been a major bestseller. she recounts the year she spent healing from relationship wounds, first in italy, focusing on food, then in india meditating and praying at an ashram, and finally in bali's sensual embrace. thus the title of the book.

katie's class--3 wednesday nights in july--will explore eating, praying, and loving, while looking at our patterns, practices, and goals in these important areas of life. participants will take away new processes for transformation.

i know katie, and she really will make it fun!

click the title of this post to learn more.

dream: i'm in a rock band

dreamed on june 5.

i am with several other women my current age. we move from scene to scene.

we are at a christmas bazaar, wandering through rooms of stuff. i look at earrings hanging on a string from the wall. i see some i like.

we get some special tea and sit together and talk. somehow the fact that i used to compile the daily news clippings comes up.

we're in a library on the UT campus, the "original" library. (i've dreamed this setting before.)

two other women and i are in a band. one of them is sarah irwin. we are listening to an early beatles song that rocks, and we decide to play that. it's instrumental, in the vein of chuck berry or muddy waters. i like it. i have on beatle boots and play guitar.

i feel comfortable with these women. i am embodies, wandering through life, with these women for companions.

dream: play and work

dreamed on june 3.

i am in maui, at the beach. surfers are surfing. the water recedes way out. i know this is a sign of a tidal wave coming,and i tell everyone to run inland. i look back--no sign of the tidal wave, and the water has receded way out. i worry that we won't be able to get high enough before it comes to escape being engulfed.

in the next scene, i'm in a relationship with a man. we keep meeting, separating, meeting, as if some intrigue is occurring between us that we don't want other people to know about. we seem to be actors, and we are enacting something we have planned. we are in a theater-like setting, partly open, in maui. (nothing about a tidal wave.)

in the last scene, i am with jeri, a former colleague. she is jolly. we are not at work.

dream: i have a room at work

dreamed on june 1, while staying at glenda's.

i have a room at work. i have an apartment or house elsewhere, but my room at work doesn't match the rest of the workplace. it is more like a room in an old house. the rest of the workplace is very modern, steel, glass, brick. my room has beadboard walls, a single bed, a table and chair, a mini-fridge, a dresser, a computer. very spare.

a few other people have a room at work, but most don't.

groups of people are walking down the halls. these are people i recognize from my waking life job.

i am with some people on the first floor. a large group of people from india are sitting in a dark conference room, watching a presentation. we pass it and come to an area where individuals are sitting at "stations," each watching their own TV screen.

at the end of the hall, there is a stairway to the second foor. i tell my companions i am going to go to my room.

i consider moving entirely into the room. i will save a lot of money if i do this. but my room at work won't hold all my stuff, and it doesn't seem to be entirely private. i have misgivings about doing this.

the cool thing about having this dream is that i awoke aware of having dreamed, but without any memory of the content. i was able to focus on the words "room at work" and the images came back to me. i've lost countless dreams because i couldn't remember. now i have a strategy: focus on something descriptive of the dream and invite the images back.

dream: i like the music

dreamed this on may 28.

i was hanging around with donna, a former colleague and then manager. we were going from place to place via car. she had some samba or chaos music playing that i really liked. we went to her house to get the music for me. we seemed to be in arlington.

jill bolte taylor gets an article in the NY Times

the article gives her background (in short, if you haven't heard anything about it, a Harvard brain anatomist has a stroke, losing her left brain capacities, experiences deep peace--some say nirvana--from her right brain, and goes public with it after recovering), and then describes the growing interest in her experience.

over 2 million have viewed her video, which gets viewed 20,000 times a day, and she was selected as one of time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2008.

mind over matter

a monkey can control a robotic arm to feed itself, using only its thoughts. click the title of this post to go to the NY Times article, published 5/29/2008.

Poetry in Motion

Moving Our Body

Our bodies love movement. When we stretch or dance, our bodies adjust, realign and start to become fluid with the rhythm of life. Our mood lifts and we feel more connected with the world around us. If you are feeling stuck, ready to release old energy, or eager to feel more alive, try moving your body. By giving your muscles a chance to do what they were created for, you may find that all areas of your body and your life benefit as well.

Many times we can be so busy that we forget moving our body is even an option. Some of us remain seated at our computer for hours every day or rush from task to task with robotic precision. When we are caught up in crossing items off our to-do lists, we tend to neglect all the opportunities there are to enjoy our bodies in the process of living. If this is true for you, begin looking for opportunities to move. You might try dancing or moving about freely as you clean your home, tend your garden or care for your children. If you are able to devote a set amount of time to self-care, practices such as yoga, dance, tai chi and walking are all great ways to keep your body in motion.

Imagine how freeing it would feel to trust your body’s movements completely, knowing it has a perfect strength and rhythm of its own. See if you can sense your bones providing graceful support, your muscles and tendons expanding and contracting in just the right measure, your lungs changing pace to fill deeply with fresh air. Movement is a vital celebration of life. It is a way to proclaim your own existence and relish in the joy of being alive. Today, and into the future, give yourself the gift of your body in motion.

from today's DailyOM email

great gas mileage!

i drove my "new" 2003 honda civic hybrid to dallas and back this weekend for eNLP. i tracked my gas mileage.

i got 49.2 mpg on the way up there! driving the speed limit or slightly over.

then i dropped karan off at sherron's in keller and drove to glenda's in southlake. rode with glenda on saturday. on sunday, i drove from glenda's to pete's in irving, and karan and i left from there.

average gas mileage on the way back was slightly lower, perhaps because i was driving into the wind. i got 45.2 overall for the round-trip. not bad, and just a little more than the 43.5 i've averaged since acquiring the car 700+ miles ago.

i'll blog more about eNLP later. need time to integrate. our homework assignment will certainly help me do that!