Wishing on a star

Big Dipper, Karen Elzinga, see and purchase her art

“Life is a dream, what you make of it is reality.” S.T. Holmes

“There's no point having wishes if you don't at least try to do them” - Sally Nicholls, Ways to Live Forever


“I've wished for things and never really had the chance...It's time to stop dreaming and do something about it. You've got to know what you want, then...go.” - Deb Caletti, The Six Rules of Maybe


It is unusual that I get to see anything "cool" during Ohio winters.  Last Wednesday morning's lunar eclipse was no exception.  I got up early hoping to see the full moon turn red as lipstick, but the skies were clouded over and the weather station predicted snow.  The moon didn't appear nor did the stars.  I was relegated to watch the eclipse via NASA internet streaming.     

This month I'm switching to another aspect of Xi Wangmu: the Big Dipper.  I learned to identify this star pattern in Girl Scouts (NOTE: a pattern not a constellation, but part of one).  It was probably a requirement for a badge and I was into acquiring badges.  What fascinated me, and still does, is how the seven stars move around the fix point, the North Star (Polaris).  Each season being in a different position of scooping and pouring out.       

It was the Phoenicians who showed Greek astronomer Thales, (600 BC) how they used the the Little Dipper to navigate the sea.  Thales in turn showed the Greek sailors a new way to steer by the stars.  When I look up at the Dippers on the occasional clear winter night, I wish my life could be as easy as following the Polaris star.  

~~~

The Falling Star
Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

“I saw a star slide down the sky,
Blinding the north as it went by,
Too burning and too quick to hold,
Too lovely to be bought or sold,
Good only to make wishes on
And then forever to be gone.”

~~~

I have been re-thinking, what do I need in my life to make me happy? Yes a yellow mustang convertible would be fun, but would I be happy. Similarly, It would be nice to have a mansion in the woods, but would I be happy? My annual intention setting is different this year. I have scaled it back to: what do I need to be happy. With this in mind, I answered the following affirmation statements.

I am
I create
I allow
I see
I cultivate
I manifest
I believe in the possibility that

What I realized from this exercise, I needed to move, dance, twirl; and I needed to express more joy and love.  The mansion didn't appear.  Instead, I need to manifest spontaneous laughter.     

These are what I am wishing for this year.  These are my intentions.  

Backwards one step

Sisyphus Vik Muniz - Photograph (2011)

Yearning Moon - What desires, deep within, are yearning to be fulfilled, and how might you begin to take steps toward fulfilling them?

“When giving careful and calculated thought on how else you might see certain situations differently than you now see them - including your entire life, for that matter - please keep in mind, that occasionally being on "the fringe," is good.” TUT: a note from the Universe

“It’s helpful to step back and see the bigger picture” Richard Carlson

Dreams Checklist

SMART Goals – check

Affirmations – check

Able to use all 5 senses to visualize completion of goals - check

Announcement Ritual – check

Belief – check

Creative Visualization Collage – check

Baby Steps towards goal – check

Asking for help – check

Shake in some magic - check

Purposefully take a backwards step – Are you crazy?

As you can guess by now, I’m a little structured in how I go about getting my dreams and goals (Maybe it is because there is always a Capricorn Moon present in January?).  But, purposefully stepping back or stepping say a little to the right or to left is healthy.  It gives you a different perspective like a camera zooming out or zooming in for detail.  I’ve found that it helps me to stay on track and maybe adjust my course setting to something better.      

Last year I received training to become a circle leader for the Wild Woman Project’s New Moon Meditation. This international project’s purpose is to bring women together (note: some circles are co-ed) in order to create a trusting and supportive space to express what’s on their hearts.  Holding the circles on the New Moon is symbolic.  The New Moon is seen as a time of new beginnings and setting your intentions.  It’s a time to start fresh with a clean canvas and new paints; or seed packets for newly tilled loamy soil; or soft blue wool to cast on; or a new document in word. 

January’s New Moon Circle was on soulful structure for getting our goals and dreams.  I was jazzed for this.  I had created my re-solution list earlier this month.  I had my SMART Goals written into my dream book.  I’d plan out my ritual to announce to Motherfather Spirit my intention on the new moon.  And, then I looked at the circle leader’s curriculum guide.  The curriculum asked me to take a step backward and rethink my approach in getting my dreams and goals.  My initial response – are you crazy?  I’ve got a good system going on here why break it.

The curriculum exercises are based on Danielle LaPorte’s work.  Basically, it challenges us to examine what it means to be successful.  The activities make us take a step back away from our tangible dreams, resolution lists, SMART goals and bucket lists.  We’re asked: 1) Are these things and goals really that important to us?  2) Why do we want to get them? 3) Do we want them because of what others think or believe?

Looking at my list, many of my goals for the year sit in the professional, fame and money categories.  Working through the exercises, I quickly realized that these have been heavily influenced by what people have told me means to be successful.  True, I feel called to do some of the goals and dreams, but is this really what I’m looking for?

~#~

“The appearance of things changes according to the emotions; and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.”  ~ Khalil Gibran

“[E]motions are feelings caused by physiological changes such as sweating or a racing heart.” Jean-Paul Sartre

~#~

One of my SMART Written re-solutions is to walk two ½ marathons this year.  I’ve walked ½ marathons before.  Stepping back I examined the feelings I get walking across the finish line:  tears of joy, wooowee heart dance, and confidence come to mind.  LaPorte says these emotions are how I define being successful.  These emotions should be more important than all the bucket lists and things I do.  These emotions should be what I’m trying to manifest with all the things I do or create.

My goal list should look like this

Interconnected

Creative

Joyful heart

Dancing heart

Relax

Peace
Loved

The SMART Written re-solution lists should be aligned with these emotions that make me feel successful.  If they aren’t, I really need to ask why they are on my list or why I’m even doing them. 

~#~

Activity – Reexamine your Re-solution list

Journal on the following

What emotions make you feel successful?  How do you feel when you’re successful?  Are the activities that you are planning to do this year – make you feel this way?

If you were to get your dream/SMART Goal how do you want to feel?  Who will be the first three people you tell? Include the answers in your dream journal.


Note on the photograph: You should check out the work by Vik Muniz who is a Brazilian Photographer.  Muniz creates art by working with the Brazilian trash pickers, arranging garbage and taking photographs of them from a distance.  The work brings focus to the trash pickers and why they do this work.  The documentary Waste Land is moving. makes us examine our thoughts about living in poverty.

Baby steps: The Charm for Getting Here to There

Hare and the Tortoise. Arthur Rackham (1912) Illustration

Yearning Moon - What desires, deep within, are yearning to be fulfilled, and how might you begin to take steps toward fulfilling them?

 “Inspiration exists, but it must find you working.” ~ Pablo Picasso

 “There are two types of people: The ones who give you 50 reasons it can’t be done … and the ones who just do it.” ~ Hoda Kotb

“It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage that we move on to better things.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” -Lao-tzu

I know everyone has heard the ad nauseam phrase: Rome wasn’t built in a day.  The same is true with your dreams.  You just don’t announce your intent to Motherfather Spirit and voila you have it.  And, it’s also been my experience that you’ll be waiting around a long time if you think Cindy’s Fairy Godmother will show up and wave her magic wand to help you out.  You must be willing to take the baby steps towards your yearning desires.  You need to roll-up your sleeves and put some work into it.

Think about it – you didn’t just pop out the womb and begin walking a marathon.  You took small developmental steps: rolling over, sitting-up, crawling, pulling yourself up, table top walking and all out walking.  These were manageable tasks that helped build up your confidence towards that marathon of a first step.  Likewise, Rome’s city concept probably started off as several villages getting together to help each other out.  Needless to say, Rome of today probably went beyond what they dreamed of.  But, somebody had to take the baby steps.  Somebody had to put out continued energy to keep that dream alive, even those times when things didn't come out as planned.

Here’s how I see it - the initial announcement of to Motherfather Spirit is the first step in your dream.  You visualize your specific outcome using all 5 of your senses; you write it down in SMART format; and through a ritual you direct creative energy out to attract this dream.  What happens in most cases is we put all our energy up front rather than continuing to tend the fire.  We think Motherfather Spirit will do all the work after our ritual.  And, when we don’t get the dream we blame Motherfather Spirit.  But, it doesn’t work that way. 

Most people will tell you that it wasn’t courage or willpower that kept them from their dreams.  What kept them from their dreams was consistency.  My dreams that have come true were the result of continued creative energy being directed towards the outcome.  I had to be the co-creator even if that meant committing 5 minutes daily to think about that dream.  Or, in the case of being a PBP blogger, typing for at least 10 minutes a day on a topic to post; or setting aside daily time to work some stitches for that magical scarf I’m knitting for Yule 2013; or putting in daily steps and following a training plan for the half marathon in May; or setting aside time to write the two required essays and fill out the application for graduate school. 

~#~

Garden Song - John Denver

by David Mallett

CHORUS:

Inch by inch, row by row

Gonna make this garden grow

Gonna mulch it deep and low

Gonna make it fertile ground

Inch by inch, row by row

Please bless these seeds I sow

Please keep them safe below

'Till the rain comes tumbling down

Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones

We are made of dreams and bones

Need a place to call my own

'Cause the time is close at hand

Grain for grain, sun and rain

Find my way in nature's chain

Till my body and my brain

Tell the music of the land

CHORUS

Plant your rows straight and long

Season with a prayer and song

Mother Earth will make you strong

If you give her loving care

~#~

I spoke with T the engineer about energy.  I wanted to know scientifically if it was better to put all you energy up front or use constant energy to get a task done. 

He gave me a bike riding analogy. 

You can approach riding a distance via bike two ways.  1) You put up all you energy up front.   Yes, it will put you up front of the crowd but the increased wind drag will cause you to expend a lot of energy.  Most times you may not get to the point you intended to.  2) You use a constant steady energy across the distance.  You will get there and may be able to go farther. 

You can watch this same principle viewing Disney’s Tortoise and the Hare Story.  Putting aside the Hare bragging he’d make it to the finish line first, the Hare poops out and takes a nap.  Meanwhile the Tortoise with slow and steady ways wins the race.

~#~

Activity: New Moon Dream Remembrance Ritual

Purple Pillar Candle for Creativity – to be burn for the entire year.  I use Healing Reiki Candles.  and I purchase them from one of my favorite local stores – Pearls of Wisdom

Silver charm baby shoe tied around the candle

Notebook of Dreams (I have a dream notebook and on each page the dream listed at the top.)

On the New Moon, I review my goals and dreams for the year and reflect on how it feels to get that dream completed.  What is the emotion that I’m looking for when I get that dream?

I light the candle each month and write notes about where I’m at on my dreams. And ways to remind myself on those feelings.    Meaning – when I’m down and have to rip out an entire row of stitches because I goofed – what can I do now to make myself feel the emotion of casting off?

Asking for Help - Law of Giving and Receiving Love

Christ Washing the Feet of the Apostles
Meister des Hausbuches (1473) see it at
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin

Yearning Moon - What desires, deep within, are yearningto be fulfilled, and how might you begin to take steps toward fulfilling them?


“Sometimes letting other people serve us can be as profoundly valuable, nurturing, and connecting as giving to others.” David Simon, MD

“The healthy and strong individual is the one who asks for help when he needs it. Whether he’s got an abscess on his knee or in his soul.” -Rona Barrett

Asking for Help –Law of Giving and Receiving Love
I don’t know about you, but it is easier for me to ask Motherfather Spirit for help to get my dreams and goals accomplished than a real person (Zazen Zen Meditation – self growth by meditating on areas of self).  Why is this?  I find it’s easier for to look up the answers in a book or use Google even if the answers may be wrong rather than ask a real person.  And, I’m not just talking about cooking a new recipe; learning a new knitting stitch; or figuring out how to do something in excel.  I also have this problem even when it comes to spiritual practice.  Oh – don’t get me started on delegating work.  And why is this?

1.       I was taught that by asking for help somehow made you weak.  That you couldn’t be independent, self-sufficient and take care of yourself if you asked for help. 

2.       There was a whole lot of shame surrounding asking for help. 

3.       There was guilt in asking for help, because there might be someone else who really needs help and you are taking away the needed resources.

4.       I really didn’t have any role models who showed me how to ask for help.  And, if I did have to ask for help I felt intimidated and weak (i.e., Organic Chemistry and spelling).

5.       I was taught if you want something done right – do it yourself.  It is just easier to do it yourself than have to correct someone else’s work.

6.       I had a lot of role models showing me that it was better to serve than to be the recipient of that service.  This was wrapped up into what I believe as a one-sided interpretation of Christ’s teachings.

~#~

Knitting Shop Story

This past week I went to one of few independent yarnshops in C’Bus.  For over a year I have wanted to do the Conceptual Sky Scarf.  I thought the pattern was a cool way to bring an urbanite and CCWWW closer to nature.  When I first found the pattern, I immediately saw that it could reinforce my connection to the earth even running back and forth between my house to my car to my wherever I’m going.

Pattern in hand, I entered the store and did my typical walk around the store rather than seeking help.  There must have been something in my look or how I was wandering around the store because the store’s owner quickly came asking: “Can I help?”  Instead of saying my typical response of “I’m just looking,” I showed her my pattern and said I didn’t know where to begin.  She quickly moved to the front of the store with the lace weight yarn.  This is yarn that I’ve never used because it is so thin and tangles easily.  There were two women knitting away in the comfy couches up front.  They too became interested in my sky project and dropped their knitting to join us.  The choosing of my Ohio sky yarn became a group project.  The owner laid out the potential colors on the table and the group gave the thumbs up and thumbs down.

I was reserved about their choice with the thunderstorm colored yarn of blue, browns, yellows and rusts.  I said that it looked too much like tornado colors and I surely didn’t want tornados coming to Ohio.  They dismissed my fear telling me that my knitting project was also about making a beautiful scarf for myself.  The women oohed over the colors and asked for a copy of the pattern.

Yarn to be used:

Malabrigo – Azules (bright blue day)
Malabrigo – Bobby Blue (light blue day)
Malabrigo – Natural (clouds)
Malabrigo – Piedras (thunderstorm, snowstorm, tornado)
Isager – Charcoal Gray (gray days, fog, light rain and light snow)

~#~

From the Song of the Three Cauldrons

 “The Cauldron of Life-Work

gives and is replenished,
promotes and is enlarged,
nourishes and is given life,
ennobles and is exalted,
requests and is filled with answers,
sings and is filled with song,
preserves and is made strong,
arranges and receives arrangements,
maintains and is maintained.
Good is the well of measure.”

~#~

Law of Giving and Receiving Blessings
This law is known by many names: “You reap what you sow” or “What you put out you’ll back 3 times.”  When someone talks about this law, I get it.  I really get revved up by giving and helping someone out.  I find this an essential part of being interconnected with creation and keeping true to my spiritual path (CCWWW).  Meaning: my CO2 helps the trees and the trees’ O2 helps me. 

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is about foot washing.  Foot washing was considered a form of hospitality back in the day when traveling was done all on foot.  Having healthy feet was a necessity.    A host would provide water for guests to wash up their feet before joining the meal.  This Bible story occurs during the last supper before Jesus’ death.  Before dinner, Jesus begins washing the Disciple’s feet (John 13:14-17).  Peter, one of the Disciples begins protesting that his beloved teacher shouldn’t be washing his feet; it should be the other way around.  Peter demands to take over the task.  But, Jesus tells the group: “a servant is not greater than his master.”

How this story has been interpreted to me is that everyone is a servant or a friend to another.  This friendliness isn’t dependent on who the person is or who the person is receiving this gift of service.  No one is greater than another; and there are no strings attached in this type of action.  You serve others because it’s part being active in this earthy cycle of giving and receiving.

What I have realized in this Zazen Zen Meditation is there is another part to this story: allowing others the opportunity to be givers and servants to me.  When I don’t ask for help or allow someone to help me out  - I’m denying this other person access to this cycle.  I’m not allowing them to have a generous giving heart.  I turn into a Peter in a sense. 

I have been reflecting back on what my big desires are this year.  The desires I feel nudged by Motherfather Spirit to get done.  Several of them I know that I’ll need to ask for someone’s help.  One of my re-solutions this year will be to practice asking for help. 

~#~ 

Activity:

KAL (Knit Along or Crochet Along) 2013 – Getting in touch with the sky and weather.

I don't know if you have this problem in the winter?  It is hard to stay connected with the earth from inside during the cold.  I think it is so easy in our modern society to be camped out in cubicle land, drive home and camp out in front of the television.  I believe when we follow this pattern it leads us to be out of touch with the land and frankly out of harmony with everything.  Part of being a CCWWW is walking with nature through the seasons and being observant of her Wowness.  Knowing the phases of the moon and sun and watching the trees change their clothes; this is the mystery and magic around you.

I would like to invite you to join me for KAL project for yourself.  It is a scarf that will put you in touch with the sky color and weather pattern throughout an entire year.  The finished project will be a reminder that you are part of nature and all her Wowness. 

Challenge #1:  Go into a yarn store with a print out of the directions and ask for help picking out the yarn.  

Challenge #2:  If you don’t know how to knit or crochet ask someone to teach you.

Challenge #3: If you know how to knit or crochet ask someone to share a pattern with you.

Challenge #4: Ask someone how they would classify the sky for the day.

Feather and Fan pattern:

Cast on 40 stitches.  Knit 3 rows. 
Row 1 (Right Side) Knit to the end of row
Row 2 (Wrong Side) Knit two and place a marker.  Purl until you get to the last 2 stitches, place a marker and Knit last 2 stitches
Row 3 (Right side) Knit 2, * (Knit 2 together) 3 times, (yo, Knit 1) 6 times, (Knit 2 together) 3 times *place a marker.  Repeat the portion between the **s once; Knit last 2 stitches.

Row 4 (Wrong Side) Knit to end of row.

 

Announcing your intention

The Birth of Liquid Desire by Salvador Dali

Yearning Moon - What desires, deep within, are yearning to be fulfilled, and how might you begin to take steps toward fulfilling them?

“Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be.” ~Jose Ortega y Gasset

“Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.” ~ Eric Hoffer

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Many of us have many wishes and dreams.  I could quickly make a list of 10.  Examining that list, once again I find most of these wants are frivolous and heavily influenced by social media and advertising.  It is my brain these mediums attract with sparkly colored jewels and perfectly decorated homes and flashy dresses that I subconsciously know don’t fit on my body type.   

If I run my list through my heart, I swiftly cross off the senseless things and what are left are my true desires.  These are the yearnings that will transform me to help humanity’s collective.  They are the dreams that come from another place and I always sigh at them because of their enormous demand.  They are the ones that I know require high walls and rocky mountains to be climbed over, tests and papers to be written, soil to be tilled and scarves to be knitted.  They are the real callings that beckon my heart to be fulfilled. 

They are also the dreams only I can see and if I’d shared these dreams – I know I’ll be laughed at or told they should be uprooted because they’re dangerous weeds or that my pants are too big for my britches. 

These are the very reasons I’ve found it is better to keep these dreams to myself.  These are the dreams I'm only in converstation with Motherfather Spirit.

Any gardener knows that if you want to harvest green beans, you need to get the right seed package and be able to taste the first bean in the garden.  The same is true for dreams.  If you want to publish a bestselling book, you need to see to see it on the book racks at Barnes and Nobles or listed in the NY Times Best Selling Booklist.  If you want to blog weekly for the next 52 weeks, you need to see yourself pushing “publish” each week until next December 29, 2013.

Dr. Wayne Dyer describes these seed thoughts as setting an intention or creating “a plan to direct the mind.”  An intention is a clear goal statement that the mind can aim for.  It is a process for focusing and taking ownership for a dream.   It is a mechanism to help prepare you to follow through with energy and action.  This announcement is directed to Motherfather Spirit and the universal consciousness who will help you see it through.

Writing Clear Intentions

As a health educator (professional hat) having measurable objectives is very important.  It helps me keep course on all the projects I’m working on.  It helps me see how far along I’m coming on a project; or if a project isn’t looking to successful and I can quickly evaluate why.  When I graduated in the ‘80s they just called it writing measurable objectives now they have a fancy name for them: SMART objectives.  (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Focused and Time Bound).

In my spiritual and personal life, I use the same method.  I have found that if I have clear written goal statements, I’m more apt to making my dreams come true.  I can focus on the end of the project.

Sample:

By December 29,^, 2013 (time bound), I will have blogged 52 weeks (measurable and achievable) with the PBP on alphabetic topics that enable me to share my insights about my spiritual path’s studies, reflections and practices (specific and relevant).

Blogging Beginning Ritual:

In announcing my intention to Motherfather Spirit, I lean to doing an activity that is more formal.  I create a ritual to mark the beginning of my project.  A ritual allows me to slow down; allows me to focus on seeing the project or dream fullfilled; and allows me to make this goal sacred and special.  A ritual allows me to "jump-start" my desired goal with purposeful energy.

3 candles (yellow-communications, purple – spirit and orange – creativity)

Essential oil – tangerine and sandalwood

2013 Notebook for blogging

Ribbon yellow and orange

Scissors

Anoint the candles and the notebook with the essential oils.

Write down your intention inside your notebook. 
Cut the ribbons and say: “Today I begin a powerful journey – (announce your intention.)  I intend to discover who I am.  Along this path may I be nourished; may I be healed; may I keep my ears opened and judgment aside to learn from others and the messages Motherfather Spirit may be sending; and may I approach this journey with the same curiosity that I had as a child.  May this path be filled with joy, love and abundance of creativity.  I ask for your blessings and help Motherfather Spirit.  Thy will be done.  So mote it be.”

Bibbidi Bobbidi boo or would that be faldera and fiddle-dee-dee?



www.disneyclips.com

Faith is believing in something when common sense tells you not to.  Miracle on 34th Street

We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have some power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.  Louise May Alcott

[I]f you have a purpose in which you can believe, there's no end to the amount of things you can accomplish.  Marian Anderson

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.  Eleanor Roosevelt

Based on my 48 plus years of data collections, magic and miracles and "things are happening every day" (Rogers and Hammerstein, 1957). 

These past three weeks I have been reading many blogs in the PBP project.  And, I now have to confess – I grew up in a liberal Christian household.  The Bible was to be debated on.  Why?  No one personally knew the guys who wrote the book thus no one has the insider’s interpretation for each verse.  Interpretation is based on an individual’s age, experience, sex, race, income…….

During the sermons, my favorite pastime was to read the Bible's accounts of miracles.  (Liberal household – as long as you were quiet was the key during the service).  I equated Jesus’ miracle making the same as Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother.  I know, Fairy Godmother was a fictional character; but if Jesus was real why couldn’t I make magic or create miracles too?  Why couldn't I help someone in a magical way.


If you google the web you will find out quickly this type of thinking is called Magical Thinking.  It’s considered a primitive and childlike way of thinking, having an irrational belief system, and associated with several mental health disorders.  Frankly, I turn my nose up to those skeptics who may think I'm a "zanny fool" (Rogers and Hammerstein).  I believe the problem is we have forgotten how to see these miracles and magical elements in our life, including those researchers.  Sometimes it is so small it goes unnoticed.  Maybe one of the problems is some of us are sitting around waiting for a Fairy Godmother to show up and do all the work.

~#~

My Instructions for Living a Magical Life Part 1:

I know everyone wants to jump in and get it started by cooking up some neat dish, lighting some candles, braiding some ribbon or making some other cool crafty item – but you really need to take a step back.  It's important that you are able to see the magic occurring around you before you begin to make it.  Additionally, you should understand how it works both in your world and in your life.  And, to sound like my mother: “you need to practice to be good at it.”  It has been my experience that you need to be willing to devote some time in your day to this craft or else you'll only be mediocre.

I remember reading about Merlin’s teaching of Arthur.  One of his first lessons: to sit and listen to the birds.  Arthur’s task was to be able to distinguish the different songs between birds. What struck me in this story was that magic is a sensory experience.  If you can't hear the different songs than you aren't fully aware.  And, this is true for all of your senses. 

I had to drive to Canton this morning.  It’s a two and a half hour drive up and back.  Besides listening to WOSU celebrate Mozart’s birthday and my CD of Bossa music.  I tried to come-up with activities people could do for becoming aware of the magic occurring.  I began creating a list of my magical occurrences for the past week - only one I put out some energy on. 

1. The trees along the highway were dusted with confectionary sugar (it was snowing as I drove)
2. The birds were flying over the highway in triangular patterns.
3. They put enough cream in my coffee from McDonalds.
4. I had to get a new transmission for my car.  I was pulling out the Visa card and my student ID popped out.  The cashier asked if I was a student.  I said yes.  She tells me I get 10% off the entire bill.  
5. The transmission bill didn’t blow my entire savings account.  Thus I won’t be charged for going under the minimum balance.
6. I got 100% on my Mary Oliver paper.
7. The salt truck pelleted my car in time to the Samba music.  (Weird but cool)
8. I got 20 hours worth of music for $20.  (My work area has become very quiet to the point it is distracting.)
9. My gas light flashed on on Rt. 30 between 10 miles worth of no gas stations.  I put it out there I needed to get to the gas station.

 A side note:  You will notice most of these these occurrences don't appear to be much based on what the TV says I need. 

~#~

Even An Old Pros Needs Reminders

At my house during the holiday season we celebrate many traditions and cultures.  The first time I knitted this Christmas Sock pattern everything was going great.  I was happily using up some of my stash of green, red and white yarn.  The three color pattern was looking nice and I knew there was enough room for lots of treats and chocolates.  That was until I came to the heel flap.  

I must have read the pattern 16 gzillion times (gzillion my son’s favorite term).  Each time, heel portion made no sense.

Knit 14 sts, k2tog, turn.

Slip first st, purl 6, purl 2 tog, turn.

Slip first st, k7, k2tog, turn.

Slip first st, p8, p2tog, turn.

(Sorry to those non-knitters – but reading above you probably better understand my anxiety at the time.)

I tried to visualize what was going on by comparing it to a store made sock.  Determined, I would knit two rows and immediately tear it all out.  To me, what I was knitting clearly couldn’t be right.  I don’t know how many times I repeated this pattern: knit and rip out.  Frustration was taking over and the words in the directions were beginning to blur.  I concluded that the directions weren’t right.

As a last ditch effort, I took the pattern to my co-worker (a Fairy Godmother in disguise who’s obsessed with knitting socks).  She glanced at the pattern, shrugged and said there isn’t anything wrong.  She told me I was the one who was having the problem.  She patted my arm and said:  “Just trust the pattern and you’ll have a heel.  It’s magic.  Socks are guaranteed magical event every time.”

She then went on to explain in knitting terms what was happening.  Which went into my brain like when a someone is talking about (Name a subject you don’t understand)  - what I took from it was when doing the heel flap you don’t knit across the entire row.  (This still doesn’t make sense to me - I mean: logically speaking why wouldn’t you knit across the entire row?)  But, my co-worker insisted that I just follow the directions no matter how crazy it sounds.  I needed to believe it would work.  So I picked up the needles and thirty minutes later magic had happened.  My Christmas sock had a heel. 

http://www.planetshoup.com/easy/holiday/xstockknit1.shtml

~#~

Non-knitting Activities:

Make a list of the magical occurances that are going on right now in your life.