Give-away day! A tin of Mary’s Skin Survival Balm

My skin balm (you can read about it here) http://www.marysskinsurvivalbalm.com

I think it’s about time for another give-away.  A tin of the skin balm that I make is the gift. To enter, just comment with an “impossible wish”…something that would be beyond your wildest dreams (but that you would love to see happen anyway). Have fun with this. Your comment can be as silly as “I’d like to jump over a pine tree” or as practical as, “I would love a new pink Volkswagen Bug to be sitting in my driveway on Christmas morning”.

Most of us did this kind of fun imagining when we were kids. It is high-time we started using our imaginations again.

“I don’t want the money. I don’t want the drama. I just want to do my show. I want to have fun again.” Dave Chappelle

P.S. I’ll choose a random comment on November 29th. If you are the winner, I will mail the skin balm to you (or if you’d like it sent to someone as a gift, I’ll do that too).

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Wouldn’t it be interesting if….

The new cat bed..with Ben inside

When we returned home from Mexico, I unpacked my small suitcase and stuck it on top of the dresser. I had planned on putting it away (but am never very fast about that kind of stuff) and the next thing I knew, Ben had found his new favorite place to sleep.

Each time I looked at it, I would think, “I need to put that suitcase away and clean off all the cat hair, dirt and assorted other unidentifiable things, before it is ruined” (since in addition to sleeping in it, this became Ben’s chosen place to “clean up” after a rough night outside roaming the hills).

The furry, dirty suitcase was not bothering Ben but it seemed like it was saying to me, “You are an unorganized and undisciplined person Mary and here is the evidence.” I know enough not to keep something in front of me that makes me feel bad, and yet the only option seemed to be to clean it up and put it away….like that was the “responsible” thing to do… after all, a suitcase is for travel and was not made for cats to sleep in. But who makes these rules, that I think I should follow, and feel bad about when I don’t?

I grabbed an old silk scarf, draped it over the suitcase and now I’m short one suitcase (which I only used, at most, once a year) and Ben has gained a permanent napping spot… and we are both delighted about it!

Trust that little voice in your head that says “Wouldn’t it be interesting if…”  And then do it.  ~Duane Michals (American Photographer)

(a funny little aside here…I always read my posts to Jack before they go out into the world, and when I read him this quote, he said, “I know Duane quite well…he visits my store almost every Sunday during the summer months!”)

Weekend Challenge (for all who choose to take it!):  Think about one area of your life that has been troubling you (that you have labeled as “wrong”) and ask your Higher Self to see it through new eyes….ask to see the good in it, that you may have missed in your rush to get it “cleaned up”.

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a “lucky” day, a daring adventure

a close-up picture of my locket

It is Friday the 13th today. Growing up, there was so much hype around the “bad things” that might happen on this day. I never believed them, but now I am so much more aware of how expectations create events and circumstances (both good and bad) and mass-expectation is even more powerful, so I make it my intention to expect very good things to happen on this day. Several years ago, I found a gold locket on-line that I loved the look of.  This side of the locket was not shown (maybe the seller feared that no one would want it if it said Friday the 13th) so it was quite a surprise when I read the inscription, “13th Birthday, Friday May 13, 1910″ and inside was a photograph of a very sweet-faced girl.

When my son Matt went out on the Bering Sea last winter, I put a four-leaf clover inside along with a little note. I am not superstitious, but love “reminders” that there is a huge benevolent force at work in this Universe and that we are all connected, (and I love wearing something meaningful near my heart).

What if we expected this to be an auspicious day; a lucky day (even though I don’t believe in luck) and looked forward to it with a spirit of play and fun and adventure? Over the years, I’ve collected affirmation cards, quotes and sentences that felt meaningful to me at the time.  If you would like me to choose one for you,  just say so in a comment (of any length) and I will reply to you with the sentence that I pick (without looking of course!).

Maybe it will end up being a good meditation for you over the weekend, or will provide some guidance to a question that you have been pondering (the Spirit of God does move in mysterious ways!).

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing“. Helen Keller

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What is the gift in this?!

little gift

My car is in the shop….again. It started acting funny on Christmas Day and has been in and out of the mechanic’s ever since. A  few months ago, the head gasket was replaced which left me without a car for 3 weeks, waiting for parts. I got it home and within a week it was back in…the head gasket was gone again! I feel strange without my own car to come and go when I want to…..have had my own car since I was in my 20′s. Now, I need to coordinate all of my appointments with Jack and have no ability to spontaneously go anywhere.

Coincidentally (and I don’t believe in coincidences), I started  meditating the day after Christmas too. I’ve meditated, off and on, through the years but  I always found reasons not to do it consistently …like, “What can you really get accomplished just sitting?, you know lots of people who mediate and they are far from enlightened, I run every morning and that is my meditation time, I don’t have time right now, I need to do a Google search on the evolution of the fishing pole….” …on and on.

But the real reason was, I found it extremely difficult to stop myself; my body and my mind, long enough to sit still for 15 or 20 minutes and “do nothing”. There was this “jumpy” part of me that resisted sitting perfectly still….felt that if I had “extra” time, I should be doing something “productive”.

A few years ago, I spent some time with an elderly man who was dying of cancer. He had been extremely busy his entire life….huge garden, very involved with his church and yet he always had a somewhat “frantic” quality about him. He was not comfortable slowing down, did not know how to relax. The cancer was forcing this to happen and he was resisting it, saying things like, “This is awful, I can’t stand it”. He wanted to interact with life as he always had; tough, in control. Yet, the more he lost brain function, the easier he was to be with. He laughed more, said, “I have no idea” when asked a question, instead of thinking he had to know. He was a much more enjoyable man to be around…even to himself.

Bernie Siegle (in his book, Love, Medicine and Miracles) talked about illness as “God’s wake up call”….it can be an opportunity to re-evaluate our lives, slow down, laugh more, be more real…But can’t every challenge (thing that we don’t want to happen that happens anyway) hold the same opportunity for becoming more of the person that we would ultimately like to be? I love the question,”What is the gift in this?”…I believe it opens unseen doors inside.

When I get these little pangs of “I NEED my car! I can’t stand this!” I don’t get my car back sooner,  I am just making my life into a rough ride. Life has a wisdom beyond my understanding….there are many little and big gift boxes waiting to be opened, but they don’t hand them out at the drive through window.

 

p.s. It is Spring Cleaning time…every year I like to go through my stuff and give away things that I no longer wear/use/need. Since you took the time to read ALL THE WAY to the bottom of this, I am giving away the pair of earrings in the photo. They are small, one of a kind, sterling earrings that I just never wore. If you would like them, just comment on my blog with the word in capitals, YES someplace and I will do a random pick for the winner on Friday, the 25.

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