Peek-a-Boo

Remember Peek-a-Boo?  You drape a blanket over the baby's head, and then lift it up and say, "Peek-a-boo!" and the baby laughs and you laugh and you do it again and you both laugh some more.  The advanced version involves the baby figuring out it's even more fun when covers it eyes with its hands and chooses when to spring the surprise. 

Funny that the name of the game has never changed to You're Not There and Then You Are.  Students of growth patterns in early childhood are likely to point out that it takes a while for babies to get that they are not left for good when they cannot see their important people.  The game helps that scary first stage. 

I might add that dogs never get it.  It's like a miracle to them when you show up again. 

I expect you see this one coming and yes, I'm going to do it.  I am going to tell you that you are not alone and you are better at figuring this out than a baby or a dog.  Well, maybe the dog knows already.  At the risk of squeezing the heck out of a metaphor, I say you simply need to lift the blanket.

Breathe deeply, let go of all the distractions and allow your heart to tell you what you already know.  You are loved.  You are not alone.

Sticks and Notices

Final Notice!

I got one of those calls today.  I don't have the dimmest recall of a first notice, and if they are serious about not calling again, that would be more than fine with me.  They will, though.  They will do some slick form of auto-dialing and leave another recorded terribly urgent final notice message.  This will do nothing to get me the tiniest bit closer to choosing their stuff.  Makes me concerned about how they're going to stay in business.

I'm imagining now, how "This is your final notice!" would look done up in a sampler.  Instead of "Don't leave for tomorrow what you can get done today," for example.  I can't remember that moving me either. 

Fact:  You cannot get folks to do things by poking them with a stick for any longer than the stick is stuck in them.

If you find yourself poking yourself with that figurative stick, it's time to choose a better way.  I'm going to lay it out here for you to try.  It might make you feel self-conscious (okay, foolish) at the beginning.  Give it a week and see how you feel about it then:

Every time you do something that is the least bit not fun, exciting, uplifting and yet needs to get done, say, "That was great what you just did!  Thank you so very much!  I really appreciate that you  __________!" Every time.  Not necessarily out loud.

You're gonna love it!  I promise!

Do Overs

I worked for a time for a jewelry designer.  Fabulous things came out of his head, and most often worked out when they got to three dimensions.  When they didn't, the first attempt would be given back to the fabricator, usually with a re-thought description, for this thing called a do over.  That's all it took for something that had gone very wrong to turn into something perfect and beautiful. 

Wouldn't it be amazing if we could have do overs for those times and things that don't work out the way we hoped.  It will come as no surprise when I say we will not be getting them. 

This is not a place where everything is meant to be perfect and beautiful.  This is a place that is messy and turbulent and unpredictable and what goes on in our heads and hearts rarely comes out looking the same when it hits the ground.  What would we learn if we got everything right, or should I say, what we see as right?  

So let's try to get over our imperfect selves.  Set aside the guilt, take up the strength that is always embedded in our sorrow, see where we are in need of learning and do that.  Learn.

Color Game

The Fourth of July is over.  Without any big fun events coming around for months, we could get a little bored, like kids on the in-between stretches of a road trip.   In the spirit of livening things up, I've got a little game to play that's good for at least a week of distraction, and maybe even fun:

• Choose a color from the selection below.  This will be the color of the day.
•  It will pop up, like magic, everywhere.
• When you see it, breathe your color in on your in breath, out on your out breath.
• Play at being a color resonator for seconds or minutes, you and your color just hanging out together.
• Tomorrow, choose a new color for the day and do it all over again.  Delicious!

                                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                                           
  

Creature Comforts

I am a student of humans.  Also of a few kinds of animals.   Dogs, cats, snakes, and horses at the top of the list.  Also porpoises, who I have discovered see themselves as our brothers, have a consciousness connection with us and try to help when they can.  That may be a later post. . . .

In my on-going study of humans I have noticed that things stick to us.  Or, what is likely closer to the truth, we put stuff in them and then we can't seem to let them go.  Because now they have meaning. 

I, for example, have a drawer of pens that have meaning.  No one gets to use them.  They have gone from being the messengers of thoughts to holding my thoughts of them.  We are in a relationship.  Completely one-sided. 

If you are a human observing my one-sided relationship, essentially keeping pens from being pens, you will at the least overlook it.  You may even see it as being not all that strange.  Because lots of us, and maybe all, do this. 

I point this out so that what we choose to have sticking to us, and we are going to do it, is done with our eyes open.  Then we are in the position to know what we have invested our energy in and see what has crossed from creating comfort to weighing us down.  And then we are free to let go.