Fifteen Shadow Puppets

http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/galleries/people/hands_shadow_puppetry.php

I've been concentrating on making money of late, and not writing. Marketing is taking up most of my time. I missed the last two first days b/c I worked a festival and show. And on Saturday, I'm working a large playgroup of 230 families. Ought to be interesting.

My balloon twisting skills are improving by leaps and bounds. When I was tested for a job a while back, as part of the recruiting process...I remember the psychologist calling me a "conceptual leaper"...I like the sound of that too...and it is interesting for me to reflect on how I teach myself a certain new skill...the process is usually a battle most of the time...I beat myself up for not getting it the first time...I work through it, review, try, reflect, and usually the third time I get it and it sticks.

Today, a woman I know asked me to make a bouquet of flower balloons for her sister's birthday. (for money) And she was amazed at my twisting talent. Making flowers have become second nature for me...after making over 200 of them by now...I'm making them in interesting ways...my search for the new...once I've learned a basic skill, stretching in all directions doesn't hurt my brain. I really like finding variation on a theme really. That woman thought I was genius. Spatial relationships do come easy for me. She wanted to try making a flower and she struggled. Her struggle made my skill seem even more awesome to her.

I performed at Mr. Food - No Fuss Meals on Tuesday night too. Chip Wilson is awesome, what a great concept. We have the same target market. I hope to do more with him in the future. He gave me the lead for the playgroup.

Fail More (Often)

I’ve been laid-off now for about 10 months from a well-known project management firm. Luckily for me my basic needs are not in jeopardy. I have a new house with hefty savings, I’m learning to eat low on the food chain, I have a dog that listens with her heart but despite her sincerity and pedigree she couldn't shoulder the financial burden after the savings run out-—and I wouldn't let her either...dry humor.

I took the summer off to be with my son on a regular basis, enrolled in a few insurance programs at the community college, and I do some career counseling…help someone with an occasional resume, as well as some painting, and now I’m exploring something that is fun to do and makes people crazy happy, especially children…balloon twisting…

Through all this I’m compelled to simplify everything, and now I'm letting go of luxuries like my fitness club membership, eating out at restaurants, leaving the lights on, taking long showers....now I’ve made a sport out of buying less. Oh I am looking for work, but nobody is hiring recruiters right now. The unexpected bump in this journey is how I slowly began to let go of my self worth. I saw my skill sets as useless, my strengths as impediments, my passions as frivolous, and a huge divide grew between my old work life, and my new ventures. It may not be manly to say but I fight daily with a swelling collection of negative beliefs.

I’ve told many a client, who is looking at a career change…it is inevitable when a person is committed to self-reinvention, that negative self talk will rise up and attach to every great idea, plan or action simply because it's new and different, and presents a big shift for the ego.I make a terrible client…but in my case, I’m gradually beginning to see that my everyday mindtalk is an opportunity for me to own my new experiences, passions and new found skills as every bit as important as the work I’d been formerly paid for as a recruiter. My daily learning: to appreciate the practical and spiritual value of everything I do moving forward.

I need to remember my favorite Japanese manager’s mantra, “you need to fail more.” And do what I love. Do what is of value. I need to put the cart before the horse and make some mistakes. My work life will not look the same, but then again, I don’t want it to.

Accept No Permanent Solution

I'm working on the grass in my front yard. Again. Present continuous tense. It used to be bright orange dirt a year ago. So it has gotten better, even green at times. The plot I'm working on is a 50x50 area and it's in the very front. the lower part of the front yard cannot be seen from the road, b/c it is at the bottom of the hill...And last spring this front plot was green perfection. A lush carpet of middle class splendor. All my work actualized. Neatly tonchered weekly with pride by me and not some service. Then the heat of summer arrived and I got busy doing something else. Call it life. I was worried about driving up the water bill. So, I didn't water it. I left it to deal with the heat on its own. It was drought resistant seed FGS! My neighbor, who also has a new house, put sod on his small front plot. He waters it daily, the sprinklers come on even when it is raining at 8am and 2pm. His grass is green, thick. And he has a water bill 5x's bigger most likely.

I dethatched, as Pepper watched the cars and the the squirrels go by...I spread new dirt and mossed the surface lightly and then seeded in the afternoon...waiting for the rain that is promised...it will grow I know...again...mostly it was fun to be outside today. Chickadees, rain storm looming...the rain...and then the wind...it took 4 hours to get it all done.

Happines IS Contagious!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/magazine/13contagion-t.html?em

As you may or may not know I'm a career coach...and yesterday I met with a woman with whom I have been working on/off for 3 months...she has been unemployed and now underemployed for a year. what continues to enliven my spirit each time I meet with her is how she is approaching her challenge. She is contagious. She is still hopeful. She is happy...but not PollyAnna about it ..she knows her situation, is working on improving it...and she is working on her goals...but it is her enduring spirit that always pumps me up...then I read this very recent NYT article, see above link...which validated my thoughts...well worth reading even though it is 8 pages long. Here is an astonishing statement from the article...

"As Fowler pointed out, if you want to improve the world with your good behavior, math is on your side. For most of us, within three degrees we are connected to more than 1,000 people — all of whom we can theoretically help make healthier, fitter and happier just by our contagious example. “If someone tells you that you can influence 1,000 people,” Fowler said, “it changes your way of seeing the world.”

Napoleon And Trout Fishing

I did my swimming at Marion Diehl Center today. VERY different from Foxcroft. The water was 88 degrees, passably clean...but an old and dinghy pool. Not sure if I'm going to continue. I may just start jogging, the weather is getting cooler for it.

While swimming I thought about the afterglow experiences I've had. Spaces that have left me with a lasting impression of unbounded sacredness.

http://www.rothkochapel.org/index.htm

Mission Statement

The Rothko Chapel is a scared space open to all, every day of the year, to provide a place of worship, meditation and prayer for people of all faiths; to provide a focal-point for people to gather and explore spiritual bonds common to all, to discuss human problems of world-wide interest, and to share a spiritual experience, each loyal to his belief, each respectful of the beliefs of others.


I experienced a spiritual afterglow when I visited the Rothko Chapel. The space washed over me the same way it did in meeting last week. And the same with these two experiences:

Trout fishing with my son in Cherokee County last summer.
Notre Dame Cathedral. Napolean Bonaparte was crowned here.

Last Day Of Summer

I did swim my laps yesterday. Even with the distractions. But not today, the last day. D...was upset b/c we got there 45 minutes before it closed for the season. At first he said he was sad b/c we had gotten there too late, I had misread the schedule...but after wards he said he was sad because summer was over when the pool closed. He said he had a great summer. And he didn't want it to be over. I remember last year we drove by and climbed the hill over looking the pool to take a look at it. The trees around the pool had lost their leaves. The pool had long been covered. the parking lot empty. We weren't there long. I think I will do that again for him, in a few weeks. To say goodbye. Until next summer.

No Half -Shadows

I experienced an afterglow of meeting last week.
Very tangible. Y'all were like light golden on the roses in the garden
extremely palpable. How fine it is that the children
get to step into this afterglow like a warm spiritual bath.

Balloon Swords and Human Bread

http://bangkokdaytours.com/QuirkyThailand/Human-Bread.html

One of my favorite stories about Pope John Paul II tells a truth about his humor filled groundedness. While celebrating Mass, one of the priests that was distributing communion with him dropped a host (symbolic of the body of Christ) onto the floor, and Pope John Paul saw that the Priest was visibly upset for doing so, and the Pope walked over to the priest and calmly told the priest that it was only bread, not to worry so much...John Paul probably said this with a smile in a Polish accent.

And on the same note, mostly for fun...the link above is for a baker/artist making bread that is shaped to REALLY look like human body parts...AND it is still edible bread...and so to with balloons...they are just balloons, not the objects they represent. I attached the William Penn story to them to illustrate our Quaker history. And balloon swords are easy for kids to make...good story here...one of the members making balloon shapes, turned the sword he made into a plowshare...Quakers and balloons in rightful action. You got to chuckle at that one. After wards, more for the reason not to create trash, I transformed the swords left behind and the other shapes into flowers and gave them away to the remaining women.

Raised By Wolves

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_wolves_raise_babies

In a very recent response to what I'd written in my bio that was in the August newsletter, A very puzzled but curious CFM member asked,..."Were you really raised by wolves"...almost...My Mother had 9 children. My Mother and Father both worked, very busy bread winners. And so, my older siblings, much like wolves, older wolves who were not ready to mate were responsible for watching younger wolves, so my very competent sisters and brother watched my twin brother and I, as well as watching my younger brothers.

Again, almost alone in the pool today...one other swimmer...cold...but clear and clean and refreshing...I'm able to swim my 32 laps in 25 minutes now. I will swim 32 laps in 20 minutes tomorrow...4 days left to swim.

Will be twisting balloons for the kids at First Day school. A chance to practice my shape making...twisting is good!