Th'Muse

Jason Wright says that a life can be changed in about seventeen seconds. He calls them miracles. There is even a book and a website and a facebook application to record those that happen to you, and those that you engage in and perform. I know Jason personally, and can say easily that his life definitely reflects the sense of fun and service an d the joy of existing that a little bit of extra effort produces. My thoughts today surround my own little seventeen second miracles. I call it Feedback. It is something that often takes just about seventeen seconds (or a minute or two, depending on how verbose you are!). It is the little moments we take to respond to someone. It can be about a service, a little ‘Thank you for. . . ‘ or a birthday. . . I had almost a hundred people wish me a great day. It absolutely surrounded me with awe to think that that many people thought about me, and took the seconds required to tell me so. I’m still walking around in the glow of it. Yet I doubt that ...

We just had the wonderful experience of hosting a Japanese student for a couple of weeks. We had a wonderful time showing him our world. He was delightful and curious, loved everything about America. (Except oatmeal and tomatoes!). Many tastes were new experiences for him. He loved RootBeer, though his friends said it tasted like medicine. He took a six-pack home. While we were taking him around and listening to ‘Oooo, it’s gootd, so goodt’ a lot, it occurred to me that perhaps I was missing much of the ‘soo, soooo goodt’  things in my life. Diane Ackerman, a sensual (as in the five senses) writer who describes things in succulent language filled with imagry, talks about the dulling of the senses in the modern world. So many times we forget to just stop, take a long look at something with new eyes. Having Kakeru here did that for me. I often wondered what he thought about things. How we appeared to him and what sorts of ideas he was getting with the ‘too much English!’ all...

Frankly, neither does ‘won’t’ power. Let’s face it. Strong-arm muscling goals gets us mostly just frustrated, down on ourselves and shoved into helplessness. Ever tried to ‘push a river’? Going against the natural flow of things makes life rougher, not easier. Struggle wasn’t meant for an every-day lifestyle. So, how do we improve? How do we get out of bad habits and into good ones? The trouble is, bad habits are EASY to start, and HARD to break. Good habits are HARD to start and EASY to break. I know, not fair! But it is what it is. You have spent years learning how to do things a certain way. Think a certain way, act and respond a certain way. You have all these wonderful desires, and want to do things a NEW way, so you sit down, make some ‘goals’ and then expect change to happen quickly! Guess what. . . it doesn’t. You usually fail, then berate yourself, give up, become depressed and decide it wasn’t possible anyway. What if you are just going about it in the wrong way? A riv...

Notice I did not say, Order OR Chaos. It is the “and” that makes all the difference. Have you noticed a living room on the day after Christmas? If there are little children involved, certainly there will be chaos. Paper, ribbons, tape, bows, boxes, toys (probably some already broken) and even plates, glasses, contents of stockings, camera paraphernalia and all sorts of decorations (one or two broken or tumbled from its graceful pre-Christmas perch no doubt) strewn about. Can we say cyclone? My daughter calls it a ‘happy mess’ and so it is, filled with memories, love, service and a lot of joy. Still, it is chaos, and it needs to be put back in order before the next week passes. Sometimes our lives are like that aren’t they? Chaotic, but joyful, crazy and messy and topsy-turvy--but all good stuff. Then there are times (sometimes too long of a span) of difficult chaos. Broken dreams, unexpected consequences, Loss, failure, financial ruins and all sorts of craziness that makes u...

I promise.    Just because it is stormy outside, it doesn’t mean you have to feel stormy inside.   Now this example won’t work for those of us who flourish in rain, or will it?    Let’s compare Bill (assuming he hates bad weather) and me.  I was raised in South San Francisco.   It was foggy and bleak, nearly every day.   Really.   I’d have to call my friend down the hill to see what to wear, because the pea soup I lived in, I could never tell.   So, the weather man says rain.   I smile, pull out my favorite boots and maybe the camera.   Bill on the other hand, gets up, grumbles at his wife, slams the door to the car and yells at the cat. “I hate this weather, it always puts me in a bad mood!”  Really?   The weather has that power?   The weather causes Bill to have a bad day?   How about people?   “He makes me so mad!” . . . “She really irritates me!” . . . Oh?   “That makes me crazy!”  ...

I Read this today about Children. . . “We can hurt a child’s self-esteem by: 1. Putting them down. 2. Breaking Promises. 3. Not allowing them choices and independence 4. Not giving them respect and privacy 5. Denying their feelings and personal identify. 6. Not being consistent. Joyce and Dennis Ashton 9n “But If Not” V3p71 All excellent advice and certainly very true. BUT. . . Doesn’t each one of these apply to all people? Adults included? I believe so. What happens when someone puts YOU down? Does it increase your awareness? Do you immediately respond with ‘Well now, that was insightful, I think I’ll change right away?” I highly doubt it. Usually we respond in one of two ways, defensiveness or ignoring. Neither are helpful or uplifting. What about a broken promise? While it causes the person who broke the promise to diminish in your estimation, don’t we often thing, “Well, s/he must not really care about me. . . S/he must think I’m not worth following th...

Have you ever wondered why nothing good ever seems to happen?  Why your house is falling apart, your relationships, though not terrible, never have that magical feel that so many other talk about?  Feel like food doesn’t look as appetizing as it once did, that smells don’t even bring that bliss that once you remember feeling just at a whiff of home-made bread?  Sometimes, not always, but sometimes. . . it is simply because we look, but do not see.  Humans are interesting beings.  We are made up of this little self-fulfilling mind-set that always bends towards being right.  We like to see, what we expect.  Did you know that if there is a black speck on the windshield, and if you don’t look directly at it, but slightly to the side, it will disappear?  That is because our brains automatically fill in the gaps.  It creates symmetry, even where there is none.  Look directly back at the speck however, and it is right there, specky as alwa...