poem: fresh

Fresh

To move
Cleanly.
Needing to be
Nowhere else.
Wanting nothing
From any store.
To lift something
You already had
And set it down in
A new place.
Awakened eye
Seeing freshly.
What does that do to
The old blood moving through
Its channels?

~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~


(You & Yours)

click the title of this post to see it online with a beautiful photo.

inner communication

i recently finished reading frogs into princes by richard bandler and john grinder. it's one of the early NLP books.

in the last part, they talk about parts and reframing and hypnosis.

what i got from that was an understanding that all my parts except what's in conscious awareness at any given moment are unconscious, and they all want something positive for me. much of my life is run by my unconscious. it keeps me going, doing a huge amount of work, and sometimes it seems like my conscious mind just gets in the way, bungling around with this belief and that, trying to manage.

so i thought it would be really a good idea to give my unconscious parts permission to all be aware of each other and to work together congruently, creatively, and intelligently to give me the best possible life they can. i want them to all appreciate all of the work they've been doing. some of it has been truly great work.

i don't need to be consciously aware of what they've done, are doing, and will do. what i want is for them to get even better at running my health, spiritual awareness, energy conservation and use, relationships, developing talents, manifesting, making decisions, and happiness. and do this all behind the scenes, but well. so i can consciously be surprised and delighted by how well my life is going, by the opportunities and messages that show up.

i wrote this in my journal on sunday morning.

this morning i dreamed that i talked to someone i haven't talked to in two years, a relationship that i ended because i realized i did not trust him.

when i woke up, i knew something had shifted inside.

in my dream i talked to him as if i could trust him, as if he understood emotional consequences. he didn't talk in monologues in the dream. he was actually responsive.

it feels like my inner communication is working. my body feels different inside, like there are fewer boundaries, less tension, less strain. i feel more relaxed and at peace. i feel more congruent.

i have given up so much of the present dealing with the past. i want to be more present and let the past stay in the past. it's gone. there's no need to dwell on the many weirdnesses of my history.

it's like my inner control freak just relaxed. sweet!

three mini-meditations

for those times you don't have 20 or 30 minutes...

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

follow-up on how to read produce stickers

i just received a comment from "anonymous" about something i posted back in april about produce codes.

anonymous says that the 5-digit code on produce stickers that starts with 9 indicates the item is organic. i had written that 8 was organic, 9 was GMO.

anonymous is correct. i have 17 (so far) produce stickers stuck to the frame of my computer. 9 is organic (the sticker also says "organic"), 4 is conventional (doesn't say "conventional").

i guess 8 means GMO, and luckily i have avoided them.

thanks, anonymous!

the girl effect

wow, check out this new organization by clicking the title post. it's a new approach to solving the world's problems by helping adolescent girls. i don't know much more than that at this time, but the video is impressive, as are the facts that teenage girls are good risks, and that helping them with education and economics pays off in reducing hunger, AIDS, war, poverty, etc., and that these changes affect future generations.

sad news--randy pausch has died

he was the carnegie mellon professor famous for his last lecture, which was reprised on oprah. his new york times obituary has links. click the title of this post to read and link to his blog and the video.

solution to the zombie problem

from today's austin chronicle, writer mary jo pehl addresses the important question, why don't zombies just eat one another? enjoy!

wall-e

hannah is back from her dad's! she was gone for weeks, and it's great to have her back. she looks bigger, and her front teeth have grown in even more.

she's glad to be home.

we (and lela and bruce) went to see wall-e last night. hannah and i had seen the preview when we went to the indiana jones film and decided then we'd like to see it.

we all liked it. it's a love story, comedy, science fiction, hero's tale. there isn't much dialogue. the characterization of the robots is pretty amazing.

i give it two thumbs up.

if you like shining eyes...

you will enjoy this video. it's 20 minutes, but well worth it. be prepared for some chopin.

thanks to keith for sending me this link, addressed to all eNLPers and labeled as MUST SEE!

new research on treating fear related disorders

click the title link to go to the article in Science Daily, and related articles. relates to how the NLP counter-example (allergy) cure and the phobia/trauma cure may actually be working.

it's the weekend!

what i enjoy most about getting off work on friday afternoons is that i have the whole weekend to call my time my own. kj is visiting friends in wisconsin this weekend, but even if she were here, i'm able to call my time my own. i putter while she writes. sometimes we both write, though she is much more focused than i, having agents interested in the memoir she's working on, and a deadline for sending the completed manuscript.

did i mention she was one of 20 writers whose manuscripts were accepted in a writing contest? they will critique each other's work and receive feedback from an editor in a one-day workshop. one manuscript will be selected for a prize of $3,000. will she win? i'll let you know! it's been eye-opening to see her process, especially when we did clean space for a couple of hours and she threw herself into a volcano! i'll never think of that lampshade in the same way again!

this weekend i will water katie's plants while she and keith are enjoying the gulf coast (and she can practice her swimming after taking lessons), and attend a dream discussion gathering at peggy's. those are my only obligations.

the rest of the time i imagine i will do some housework, run some errands, do my exercises, and putter around, wander, and drift through this precious time, the weekend.

time with no demands=my delight. time for allowing whatever to arise--knowing, curiosity, chaos, insight, beingness--all are welcome here.

i'm reading autobiography of a yogi, a book that's long been on my list of books to read, and enjoying it tremendously. today i received a gently used copy of alex grey's sacred mirrors. taking my time to really look at those marvelous pictures will be sweet.

maybe i will swim, bike, dance, meditate, work on my presentation of the 12 states of attention for the NLP meetup in september, spend time with lela, watch the diving bell and the butterfly on DVD, buy a swimsuit to replace the one with aged elastic, take naps!

life is very, very good.

looking up a tree's dress

one of my favorite perspectives is to stand next to a tree trunk and look up into the canopy.

the pattern of leaves, twigs, and branches silhouetted against a paler sky is so full of beauty, i can get lost in it. i don't look for anything in particular--i take it all in: the marvelous complexity. it's a visual external wide (VEW) experience that has an uplifting kinesthetic component.

try it sometime, if you like!

west texas refresher

i spent a few days in the davis mountains of west texas. what a delight! it changed my mind about west texas. i had thought of it as a desert, impossibly hot in summer. as it turned out, nights were cool, around 60, and days got up to around 85. perfect.

impressions:

clean air.

big skies.

wonderful panoramic views of mountains and desert.

night skies filled with stars.

rocks. ancient rocks everywhere. i developed friendships with them and brought a few home.

balmorhea. cool clear spring water. big black catfish. schools of hovering silvery fish. ropes of light dancing across the bottom, so incredibly alive. being sure the universe was at play.

mcdonald observatory by night and by day. awesome!

hiking for 3 hours. hot, sunny. doing "legs-up-the-wall" pose and other asanas, rolling my back with my spine aligner afterwards and feeling just the weariness, no pain.

riding in the back of a pickup truck on the 4th of july in fort davis, texas, in this, my 55th year. sweet!

eating a whole pint of ben & jerry's by myself after hiking.

shadows of clouds on the land.

birds.

the smell of javelinas looking for something to eat in our campsite.

being served whole romaine leaves dipped in dressing at a restaurant in marfa.

having coffee on the patio of the hotel paisano in marfa, listening to a female singer do patsy cline songs and the longest version of the star spangled banner i've ever heard.

buying a punched tin, bejeweled lampshade for $22 from a vendor at the fort davis 4th of july celebration.

driving the 75-mile loop west of fort davis and marveling at the beauty of the land.

falling asleep in my tent with an image of the night sky and billions of stars etched on the inside of my eyelids.

driving out there with peggy and two bikes and camping gear and not getting very good mileage in my hybrid but enjoying the company very much.

peggy and john duvall from lockhart cracking up over "waiting for guffman". learning it was filmed in lockhart.

learning fort davis is the highest town in texas, at over 5,000 feet in elevation.

seeing the amazing way meals are prepared and cleaned up after on sierra club trips.

not seeing the marfa lights. next time.