Sunday, January 31, 2016

Climb that ladder

Everyone has their own idea of why we are here on this planet called earth. My personal opinion changes from time to time as new information is added to my book of knowledge. Today I believe we are here to experience. Our journey is much like steps up a ladder. When we reach the top we (our soul) returns to where it came from and moves on to a new experience.

Several years ago I began collecting what I feel are inspirational images and thoughts in a book I titled Inspirational Stuff. I have since shared it with others and have often allowed people to make copies of things that inspired them in thought or deed.

This morning I remembered this little picture and it became the focus of this post..

I wanted to give you space to view it for yourself. I love it! To me it represents life and the freedom we are given to make choices. You don't see anyone else in the picture- right? That's because the choices we make are entirely up to us. They determine whether we take another step up the ladder or stay right where we are.

Notice that wall is pretty darn high, making it impossible to see what is on the other side. This picture also answered a question I have had for some time. Why do I leave others behind as I climb my ladder. I think the answer is that I no longer need their assistance. I am ready to take the next step alone.

Every now and then I do find other souls who seem to be on a parallel path. Our experiences and thoughts seem to be similar. It is fun to connect with these souls and it feels much like finding a member of a universal family.

Those are my thoughts today on why I am residing on this planet called earth. I invite all of my readers to add their own by commenting in the appropriate place.

Friday, January 29, 2016

My feedback is important too

After a week of serious pain I am still searching for the source. I have been to my PA, had lumbar xrays taken and an exam by my former physical therapist. Next I will visit my surgeon on Wednesday where I will no doubt have an xray or two taken of my operated hip to erase any doubt that it is what is causing a problem in my leg.

I really appreciate the fact that all of my medical people are willing to share their findings with each other. It's like little pieces of the same puzzle. Yesterday I told my PT that it didn't seem that anyone was listening to me. He responded, "I am" and yes I believe he is and I appreciate that.

Granted I'm not a doctor, but this is my body and I'm the only one who knows what hurts and just how much. When something is going on in your body that isn't right that period of trying to figure out the cause is very frustrating.

All I can do at this point is follow the suggestions given to me by my medical people and give them feedback on what is happening.

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Never make assumptions

Physically everything in my life has been going great until a couple of weeks ago. I have developed a problem with my right leg and knee- it hurts! To make matters worse it is on the same side as my hip replacement. It would be easy to assume the pain is related, but my intuition is saying never make assumptions. It has been almost 6 months since the surgery and problems at this point do not make sense to me.

After trying all the normal things to ease the pain, with little or no relief, I ended up in my local doctor's office yesterday morning. He was just as much in the dark as I am. We mutually decided it might be something in my lower back that is causing pain to radiate down my leg. This thought resulted in a trip across the street to Cibola Hospital to have lumbar xrays taken. The results of which should be back Monday.

Meanwhile, nothing is helping with the pain and I am trying to come up with reasons that could  have caused this problem to suddenly crop up out of the blue. Did I send out negative energy that has decided to return to me? Is the Universe paying me back for something or trying to teach me another lesson?

Looking at my calendar I see that Mercury won't be finished  with its current retrograde until Tuesday, perhaps that's it. One last shot just to make sure that I never make assumptions about anything, including my health.

One good thing about my little journey yesterday is that I now have my Medicare B deductible paid for the year, and with a discount because I paid it before I left the hospital. As my friend, Lois, would say- onward and upward!

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Motivation from a friend

Yesterday a friend asked this question: If you don't think you are special enough to date yourself how can you expect anyone else to ask for a date? I promised her I would get out of the house and go for a walk in our park, better known as the Riverwalk. I further promised to post a Facebook picture of my date with myself on her wall.

My date turned out to be not only beneficial to my health, but a really fun morning.

Lately I have been having problems with unexpected pain in my operated leg and have been trying to decide what is the cause. I decided it is partly due to sitting too much and also using a treadmill that needs some adjustment.  Remember the saying, "if you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem"? I believe that applies to my situation.

I used to walk at the Riverwalk all the time but stopped last fall when I discovered I was due to have surgery. I just never got back to it until this morning. It felt great to be outside.The morning air was brisk, but not really cold. I took my camera along on my journey and was really happy for that decision.

For your enjoyment, these are a few of the pictures I snapped as I walked and remembered similar  trips.

The first was a half frozen pond occupied by two brave ducks. Perhaps they were on a date too.

As I continued  walking I stopped to take a picture of the amphitheater. During the summer groups offer free concerts to the community.


Reaching the other end of the Riverwalk I found the rest of the ducks that make the park their home. Some of them were getting a free meal. It brought back memories of the many times I brought my grandson to feed the ducks and geese and to skip rocks in the water.


Up the street from the Riverwalk is a gallery/gift shop that until recently I didn't even know existed. I spent a very enjoyable time talking to the owner of Fusions and have a feeling we might be getting together in the not too distant future. I couldn't resist making a purchase to mark the end of my first date with myself. It is a beautiful glass ring one of her talented sons creates.



Thanks for the motivation Lois I just might have to do this again!



Monday, January 18, 2016

MLK Jr.-my thoughts

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. For many, probably mostly white people, it may simply mean a day off work or school. Some might be asking what in the heck did he do that was so great to warrant a day in his honor?

Mr. King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. During his life, which was ended on April 4, 1968 by an assassin's bullet, he was a reverend, a cavil rights leader and in 1964 a Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
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As a civil rights leader he delivered a very important speech on August 28, 1963 in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.. The speech, which has gone down in history as one of his best, is known as "I have a dream".

This morning I was asking myself, have I ever actually read the famous I Have a Dream Speech? My answer was no. How could that be I wondered. With the help of Google I fixed that little error. I now have a better idea of the plight of people of color. Although Mr. King had many dreams, there was one paragraph that stood out for me. I'm sure he was a wonderful reverend and Civil Rights Leader but he was first a loving father. The paragraph that captured my attention was:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

These are my thoughts of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.



Sunday, January 17, 2016

Rewriting the past

We can't relive the past but as a writer I can rewrite the past, or at least what I previously wrote. Going through my archives I found a really good piece, originally titled, Connecting the Colors. When I read it my first thought was to submit it to our local newspaper. Then my intuition overruled and I decided to use my very own space instead. Here I have nobody telling me what I can and cannot share, although I have had people try. That was before I realized it is my space and I will write whatever I choose. I don't intentionally set out to offend others, but occasionally that happens because no two people have the same memory of a shared event or experience.

There are people who are so prejudiced that they refer to others by their skin color rather than by their name. What makes that even more interesting is that some of those people claim to be religious. I wonder if they think our Creator has a back room where he/she produces souls who are not white, just to annoy those who are?

There is a whole lot of prejudice going on in the world today and it needs to stop. In my opinion we all came from the same place and therefore are one, no matter what color our skin is.

I remember moving to Laguna, New Mexico in 1976 and the thoughts I had at the time about Native Americans. I believed they were a lazy bunch of people. It didn't take me long to realize that my opinion was a bit flawed. At the time I was married to a man who was 1/4 Laguna and never gave it much thought. Even when our daughter was born or when my son married a full Native American it really didn't matter. The next step in my education was when one of my twin grand-daughters married an African American, producing my first great grandchild. It would probably take more than two hands to count his nationalities.

I grew up in the state of Washington at a time when skin color was never noticed. It was not until I moved to California that I became aware of a difference. It was due to illegal immigrants from Mexico. I worked as a supervisor for a garment manufacturing company owned by an arrogant man from India. It was referred to as a sweat shop, although it was not quite that bad. The experience caused me to feel that it was not right that the employees were illegally taking American jobs.

A more recent experience while walking at the Riverwalk one morning got my attention. It caused me to question just how accepting of other races I have become since moving here. The park attracts people who have a problem with alcohol and sometimes sleep there during the night. It is fair to say they are usually Native Americans. As I walked I spotted a group of these obviously drunk men sitting on a bench on my path. I became alert. I also noticed a man and woman sitting on another bench with a group of ducks and geese surrounding them. I at first thought they were part of the drunken group simply because they were Native American.

Lesson coming up!

As I approached the couple I noticed the McDonald bags on their laps and that the ducks and geese were loudly begging for a handout. I started laughing because their honking and quacking was so loud. When I realized I had been wrong in my assessment of the couple I stopped to chat with them. They said they were originally from Gallup, NM but found Grants, NM much more peaceful.

We were observing the ducks when I commented that many of the younger ones displayed some pretty strange colors. Some of the adult ducks are white and some are Mallards. We decided there must have been some odd bedfellows in our little park. Apparently ducks don't care what color their friends are.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

What to save and what to toss out

It looks as if I haven't written a blog post for a week. It isn't like I haven't thought about it. I have, but I have also been busy sorting through things in my office and as my grandmother used to tell me, "find a place for everything and put everything in its place". Thanks Nana, just what I have been doing. In addition, several years ago a friend advised me to check my archives, which I began doing this morning. Thanks John, in my case that would be a folder in my files that I labeled "research" long ago. Interesting the things I have saved. I wouldn't be at all surprised if my guide had something to do with that.

Slowly going through the papers I found a copy of an email I had sent to a now deceased friend who believed Edgar Casey was one of her guides. Who knows he may have been. In any case I found this particular piece of forgotten information (written in 2007) to be very interesting and desire to share it. I hope it will give my readers food for thought and possibly a chuckle or two, even though it was originally written in all seriousness.

Hi Marilyne,

I had an idiot phone call at 3:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep so I finally got up and turned on my computer. There is a quote from Many Mansions (Edgar Cayce) that I want to share, "There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come".

I found a really good website on your friend, Edgar Cayce. I was reading about his predictions, especially the one stating Jesus may already have been reborn. It gave me chills to think that any child born around 2000 could be the rebirth of the "only" son of God referred to in the Bible. But then, if we are all sons and daughters of God why is Jesus more special then the rest of us? (food for thought here)

It is not nice of God to play favorites! No wonder most of us have self-esteem problems to deal with. We are just never going to measure up to the perfect "first child", no matter how many times we are reincarnated. Although Buddha does believe in Nirvana, the egoless place. Imagine how many reincarnations that takes!

Anyway have a nice Sunday.

That's all folks, back to saving and tossing out.

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Almost there

As I was walking across my living room floor this morning holding a cup of green tea I suddenly noticed how confident my gait was. I immediately realized a flow of gratitude for the hip replacement I had five months ago. I have one month to go for what is generally considered complete healing.

There are still a couple of leg movements that cause a minor struggle, but hey no more pain!

I endured four years of daily pain before I was financially able to seek the help of one of the best orthopedic surgeons in New Mexico. I don’t like to remember the pain, but I am grateful it is over.

I really want to encourage anyone who has the financial means to have this surgery to get it done. If your only reason for holding back is fear- stop that! The surgery only takes about an hour and the hospital stay is a couple of days. Then you come home and the healing is mostly up to you, with the help of a physical therapist.

This is an example of how normal things can be. On the second day I was released from the hospital and because it was so late in the day and we live an hour away, my son and I decided to get something to eat before leaving Albuquerque. Arby’s never tasted as good! I had been thinking about it all day. Keep in mind I had just been in the operating room the morning before this tasty event. I did have the assistance of a walker provided by the hospital, but I was walking on my own two feet.

It’s odd that even though I have an implant in my body, that is partly metal and partly plastic, I rarely think about it being there. There have been days of soreness, which is very different from pain. I will always be grateful for having the courage to have the surgery.

Friday, January 1, 2016

Who are you?

A Facebook friend posted another great bit of information this morning and I feel it is my duty to share it because that's what I'm here for. Benefiting from it is entirely your choice. This came from the site tinybuddha.com

It listed the following five questions to answer. I am only listing the questions, the answers are personal, but I have to say both have helped me to realize just who I am.

question #1. Who or what would you be if you knew you couldn't fail?

question #2. What is your 90 second elevator speech? (sell yourself)

question #3. What are your core values?

question #4. What makes you genuinely happy?

question #5. If money were no object how would you live your life differently?

There you are. As in my case your answers are private