Proud of Arnold

I’m so proud of Arnold Schwarzenegger, our Governator. I am a registered Democrat (at heart an independent, but I had to choose one of the two to have any voice at all in American politics, and I usually detest Republican policies anyway), but I love Arnold. He is a free-thinking, brain-using, common sense, ecologically concerned Republican and I only wish he could run for President (see my older post “Naturalized Presidents“).

Arnold let President Bush know in no uncertain terms that he disagrees with lifting a decades old ban on offshore oil drilling in California coastal waters. Arnold said:

“We are in this situation because of our dependence on traditional petroleum-based oil; the direction our nation needs to go in, and where California is already headed, is toward greater innovation in new technologies and new fuel choices for consumers. That is the way we will ultimately reduce fuel costs and also protect our environment.”

Thank you Arnold. I think you are one of our best governors ever. I’m so glad I voted for you.

photos from AtPictures.com

Sounds Wonderful

I was laying down taking a nap this past weekend; as I lay there next to an open window with the sun drawing patterns on the walls, I could hear the sounds of my neighborhood drift in and out of the room. I realized how grateful I am for the gift of hearing (I do have a slight hearing loss in my right ear) and started making a mental list of all the sounds that I really love. I’m not trying to write a sentimental, corny post here, but I couldn’t help sharing this once I thought about it (although my list will be much gentler than that expressed by Elton John in Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting – “a couple of the sounds that I really like are the sounds of a switchblade and a motorbike…”) :

the crisp unfolding of my parrots’ wings as they stretch after sleeping

the rustle of the wind through the leaves of trees

the rough striking of a match

the clip-clop of clogs or wooden heels on tile floors

the swish and tumble of ocean waves meeting the shore

the lone call of a mockingbird in the middle of the night

the drone of a distant lawn mower, reminding me of childhood summers

the click-click of little parrot feet walking down the hallway

the plunking of a pebble as it hits the bottom of a well

the crunch of boots on packed snow

Sex and the City

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!! This post contains information about the “Sex and the City” movie currently in theaters. If you haven’t seen the movie and want to, you may not want to read this post!!

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photo from Baltimoresun.com

The other day a group of us gals went to see the new “Sex and the City” movie. I was a big fan of the HBO show and was looking forward to seeing the girls again. I must say I enjoyed the show; the setting of the movie was 5 years after the last tv episode ended. Being on the other side of 40 myself, I really got a kick out of the girls being portrayed as just at the brink of aging – Carrie is at the age where she needs glasses to read (a rite of passage for the middle-aged) but since she won’t get them, she holds reading material at arm’s length for focus. This made me laugh because I had a hairdresser who did the same thing because she “wasn’t ready” for glasses (probably the reason why my haircuts started to look bad).

Anyway, now that I am older and wiser, I have made some realizations about life in general. In the movie, Carrie and her long-time beau Mr. Big (played by the darkly gorgeous Chris Noth) make a joint decision to get married (no ring, no kneeling, just a spontaneous”decision”). Mr. Big, having been married twice before, is dismayed to discover that the simple wedding he had hoped for has spiraled into a huge New York City event; this causes him to start having doubts about getting married and escalates into fear of a third failed marriage. Eventually, on the wedding day, after Carrie arrives at the NY Public LIbrary (where the wedding is to be glamorously held – a library wedding sounds good to me!), Big calls her from his limo in front of the library (after unsuccessfully trying to reach Carrie all day), and tells her he just can’t go through with it, then starts to drive away. He changes his mind seconds later and as Carrie’s limo passes his on the street, he gets out to tell her he still wants to marry her – she however has spiraled into one hell of an angry hissy fit and hits him repeatedly with her bridal bouquet, led away by her loyal and ever-present girlfriends. Carrie becomes miserable, depressed, and suffers horribly for months after the humiliation she suffered.

Upon watching this, I reflected a bit on this situation. Yes, I understand this was just a movie. Movies need conflict and drama to be entertaining. But I know there are people in real life who have these very same problems and handle them the same way that Carrie and Big did. And it seems to me that all the unnecessary suffering resulting from this very-human event could be avoided if two things were attended to: communication and ego control.

It’s normal for people to get cold feet; not fun for the other person, but it happens. It’s part of being human. If the bride had had any compassion and understanding for the person she purports to “love”, than she should have been glad of the opportunity to hear him say he’d had cold feet, but was over it now and wanted to resume the wedding. But her perception was that the world revolved around her, so she was unable to open her heart to him, thus suffered months of pain as a result. Of course, they are reunited at the end and have their City Hall wedding and the world is once again a beautiful place. But how much time was wasted in the name of ego?

All I’m saying here is communicate with those you love and set your ego aside. Listen to others and don’t fall for the “victim” mentality. Don’t be a doormat, but use discernment before condemning the choices of others. Ego can cause so much heartbreak. Let it go. Listen and forgive and watch how much better your life becomes.

Dental Hy-jinks

My dentist Dr.G is very skilled. Due to a connective tissue disease and past jaw surgery, I can’t open my mouth as wide as “normal” people, so it takes a particularly skillful and experienced dentist to do the work correctly in the back of my mouth. Also, Dr.G doesn’t believe in mercury amalgam fillings because when he disposes of them, he legally needs to note them as “toxic waste” – he and I both believe that doesn’t belong in anyone’s mouth.

Another thing about Dr. G is his sense of humor. He told this little story that made me crack up, even though I had just had three numbing shots (I have an extra nerve on the left top gum area) and would rather have been somewhere else. He was nice enough to remove the drill before telling the story…

At one point, he had a dental assistant (the one who hands him the tools as he’s working) named Amy. I guess she was rather quiet, which with Dr. G is an invitation for teasing.

They were working on a patient and the patient asked for Vaseline to put in the corners of his mouth – it helps keep the lips from cracking I think. Anyway Amy plunged a cotton swab into the jar and came out with a big blob of Vaseline.

As she handed the blob to the patient, Dr. G remarked “Amy, that’s enough for a whole honeymoon.”

Amy blushed bright red.

Thank You, Shirley

I have been rather ill for about a month or so. I changed into “The Lone Wolf” which I tend to do when I’m sick – that is I go off by myself to “lick my wounds”, try to gather my energy, and heal while becoming a hermit in the process.

My dear friend Shirley was very concerned about me. She called me, sent me emails, and sent me healing energy to help me feel better. She understands my lone wolf proclivities and checks up on me once in awhile to make sure I’m still drawing breath.

This last bout of illness lasted a long time. I had been very depressed and had horrible headaches and digestive problems and just felt like crap. I am a huge reader, and it took effort for me to even pick up a book at times – that’s how you know I really feel bad.

So yesterday I woke up and there was some kind of framed object covered with a blanket sitting in our TV room. I had no idea what it could be…I uncovered it…and it was a piece of artwork my friend Shirley had created many years ago! It is an “Articulator”- Shirley innovated new materials and techniques inspired by an ancient art form to create these works of art. She calls them “Articulators” because the canvas is “articulated” – it has regular fan-like folds in it which allow her to paint one scene on one side of the fold, and another on the other side. As a result, when you look at the picture from the left you see one scene; as you move to the right of the picture it dissolves into a different scene. These works of art are a labor of love and can take many weeks to complete.

She had given it to us to cheer me up after all these weeks of illness! It certainly did that!!

So I was blessed with the gift of this Articulator, entitled “The Spirit of Life Dancing in the Winds of Change”. It has pride of place on my wall to all who enter the house. I love this painting because I have always been a lover of trees (yes, I am the original “tree hugger”). Trees are such an ancient form of life and I believe they are part of an overall Earth consciousness…as of course are we. The tree that becomes the Spirit of Life Dancing reflects, to me, that we all come from the same Source, all is made of energy dancing through its many configurations. As the leaves of the trees dance and bend to the winds of life, so we too adapt and change our dance.

The tree view

Walk to the right of the art and you see…

The Spirit of Life view

Note: The lighting conditions caused by flash photography do not highlight the full beauty of the work.

Isn’t it beautiful? Giving me this artwork was truly an act of spirituality by Shirley. She knew how much I liked this piece, it was hanging in her home and several months ago I had asked her rather sheepishly if she would leave it to me in her will. And now…here it is on my wall. To create such a beautiful thing and to able to detach from it and give it away for someone else to enjoy is a rare act in today’s world. I am so lucky to have a friend like Shirley.

I love you, Shirley. Thanks for the art and also for sticking by me and checking up on me when I’m ill. You and I are soulmates.

Here you can see how the two images are interconnected.

Gloves are Better

photo by steeleman2004

My neighbor Bill likes to take his black Labrador Retriever Bear for a walk around the neighborhood every night.

On a particularly chilly evening a few months ago, we drove on the street past him while he was walking Bear. Being the good citizen that he is, Bill always cleans up after Bear by scooping up the poop in an inside-out plastic grocery bag, then turning in rightside-out before throwing it away. On this occasion, Bill had in his hand a plastic bag containing the dog poop that Bear had previously deposited on the ground. We stopped the car to say hello and teased him about the contents of the bag he was holding.

“How can you stand picking that up and holding it in your hands?” I asked. I’ve never had a dog and poop pickup is one reason why.

“Well, it makes a great handwarmer” said neighbor Bill.

**photo by reusablebags ********photos of Cinder by Steeleman2004********

Beautiful Laguna Beach

A few weeks ago my friends and I took a little drive to Laguna Beach for lunch. It was a hot, beautiful sunny California day and after a scrumptious lunch at Las Brisas, a restaurant overlooking the beach, we took a walk in the cliffs above the beach. Here is a video to inspire you to head for the water!

In the service of…?

My nephew just signed up for the army. He’s almost 18 and I personally was in shock that a young person would join the service at this point in our history.

Why would someone with his whole life ahead of him join a combat-weary army?

I asked him why, and he explained that this was the only way he was going to be able to afford going to college one day. And also to be of service to his country.

But seeing the plight of veterans and returning soldiers, I can’t see how anyone can expect to receive any gains from this experience. I can only hope that he will be able to learn a skill in the army that will enable him to support himself in later life.

I am usually an optimist, but this situation has me turned around.

Virtual Driving

My hubby Bill is a laid-back kind of guy. Sweet, gentle, polite, compassionate. A soft-spoken “giant” (Bill is 6’4″), he has a wonderful sense of humor and is a very loving person.

He undergoes a slight metamorphosis when he gets in a car.

Aside from yelling about bad drivers (very understandable), he has this habit of “virtual driving”. What I mean by that is that as I drive, I notice he’s driving as a passenger, too – moving his foot from place to place as he pushes down on his virtual brake. I only realized that he does this recently. It never bothered me before; I had a partner when I worked at Xerox who used to do this when we went to service calls.

He also tends to look around when I back up and make turns. For some reason, it annoys me. Maybe I feel like he doesn’t trust me, although I’ve never had a moving accident (I did hit a PARKED car once).

Bill if you are reading this, I love you very much. I’ll try to ignore your virtual driving.

Do You Work Here?

Many times I find myself browsing through a store and people stop me and either ask me where something is located in the store, or if I work at the store. For the longest time I could not figure out why this was so – was I projecting a “Can I help you?” vibe, or some sort of welcoming aura?

The mystery was solved today. I was at Borders checking out some titles, and a lady asked me “do you work here?” I answered no but that I practically lived at the store so maybe I could help her anyway. Turns out I couldn’t as she was looking for a special book. Before she walked away she said “since you weren’t carrying a purse, I thought you worked here.” Voila!! That made perfect sense. I do, in fact, refuse to carry a purse, preferring instead to tuck a checkbook and credit card in my jeans pocket – I enjoy the “hands free” convenience and the absence of so much weight hanging off my shoulders keeps me from requiring more frequent chiropractic nudges. And I don’t have to dig for stuff I need…I used to hate that, rummaging around in a stupid handbag which had accumulated so much crap I didn’t need.

So happily I walk through life helping those in retail need and enjoying the use of both hands when a tactile check of merchandise is needed.