Was thinking earlier today over at the Achalasia board how badly GIs handle the disease. It's sorta like: I don't have to know anything about it because it's rare, and I don't have to find out anything about it because I'll never see another case. Meanwhile, your Primary Care doc bows out because of territorial restrictions, so in the end NO ONE cares about what's happening to you. If you are lucky, you'll stumble on a surgeon before it kills you. I was lucky, but there are a couple on the board right now I'm not certain will. Absolutely goofy the way medical fiefdoms are set up. Ironic that the best advice and most information is coming from a random group of people who *had* to study up on the disease because no one else will. If you can keep *nothing* down, going to ER every couple of days for rehydration is really a *lousy* solution. And nope, this isn't just our problem: it's at least also Canada's and Australia's, too. And I think I remember a couple from the UK, too. It's the working of the medical mind, in action.
June 1, 2012, 1:02 pm Economy, and Obama, Mired in Down Data By NATE SILVER
Once we introduce our presidential forecasting model next week, which is based in part on current and projected economic data in addition to the polls, we’ll be able to estimate in real time how something like the poor May jobs report would imperil President Obama’s re-election chances.
The short version: this is a case where our model’s insight would match the conventional wisdom — the bad economic numbers over the past weeks are sapping Mr. Obama of the edge he might have had on Mitt Romney.
It would be one thing if there were just one poor set of jobs figures. Economic data, like political polls, can be subject to measurement error and other idiosyncrasies. One data point — however good or bad — doesn’t usually tell you all that much. The model accounts for this problem by looking at several different economic data series in addition to the jobs numbers.
However, almost every significant economic figure that has come out over the past week has come in below expectations, reversing a pattern from earlier in the year.
The stock market is also down sharply as investors assess their concerns over the American economy as well as the problems in Europe. There are also some troubling numbers from China, which had been one of the few bright spots in the global economy over the past few years.
Sometimes the internals of a jobs report look better than the headline numbers, but this isn’t really one of those cases. Read more…
good morning! rain and wind here and same is forecast until at least Wednesday - ugh! My niece and I were going to make the 1.5 hour drive to the family cemetery today to plant flowers but cancelled due to the weather. We usually take my Mom as well but she wouldn't be able to handle the trip any longer re: no bathrooms once we get up into the boonies near the plots and thinking about her family members who have passed now distresses her so much. I hope we can coordinate another day to go together but she has such a busy schedule that may not happen this year, I wouldn't be much help planting anyway but we really enjoy the time together.
Thinking of you Shirlee and hope you're feelong better soon!
Barb, did you get that invitation to be a blog author that I sent to you? If so just reply to it and you'll be all set and if not let me know and I will send it again.
puddle, I love your offering as always - great thoughts, great poetry, great lady!
Jo, sorry about the crappy weather aborting your trip! We sure missed the most of it here: glad I *really* watered the tomatoes as I planted them, and didn't count on the predicted rain! Also glad they escaped the predicted hail! Some places nearby didn't do nearly so well.
Thoughts, prayers, light and love focused souther for Miss Shirlee. . . .
The Goobey let me sleep in until 7:30. And actually *barked* to wake me up, lol! Usually he just starts moving, shaking and scratching and I'm on notice that I need to get up an attend. I was actually kind of surprised: I'd gotten him in earlier than usual last night as he was stirring up great fusses about the deer, so I actually expected to be up before six.
Thanks for all the good wishes and thoughts while I was gone. Just got home a couple of hours ago.Things went well. The place on the tongue required much less work than I have had in the past.
The mucus membrane on the inside of the cheek was a new adventure. Scraped, biopsied and then five stitches to pull it together to heal. Swollen and sore but should heal fairly fast--so the doc says. Final results on the spread of damaged tissue available this week.
Reading the posts just now I am wondering whether a thread on the medical profession and its oddities:) might be appropriate and/or useful.
My new goal is to be in shape to go to the Carolina Theater next week-end to see Ralph Stanley in a previously scheduled concert which will now be dedicated to Doc. R.S will play Doc's music. An exhibit about Doc will be in the lobby and his name on the marquee. Brenda --in addition to her other full time job--does data entry for the Carolina. We have had tickets lined up since Ralph Stanley was booked.
Again, thanks for thinking of me. Be sure, I will have Brenda post in the future if anything goes awry.
We had some of the same storm cells here that Puddle had yesterday--mostly on the south edge of town. a fair bit of tree damage, etc.
Shirlee, thanx for the promise of updates from Brenda if needed! My kiddle did that on facebook for me in December. It helps!
And delighted you are home! Nothing like home for healing, I think.
Doctoring is interesting -- in China and Russia, where salaries are set for doctors, most docs are women. Somehow, removing the profit incentive from helping isn't a turn on for da fellas. . . . Be interesting to compare testosterone levels for the different specialties in this country, lol!
And moving the subject to politics, someone postulated about the time the Kennedy escapades were being made public that it takes SO much testosterone to run for President that we're krezzy for thinking there won't be "escapades" from our leaders. . . .
I've thought for long that come our life reviews and vis a vis our choices that we're going to be outright startled about how *little* choice we've had in this life. . . . I simply vote that every self-satisfied blowhard about how wonderful/virtuous they are that they're thin and fit at 58 get my metabolism the next time around, lol! Out of the nine kids, ONE is thin. And he's anorectic. The rest are fit, active, watch what they eat, and fail. My next brother down has five daughters. Four with eating disorders. All beautiful, big boned square Scandinavian milkmaids. All of them miserable about the pattern they can't fit into. Their mother is tiny. And eats virtually nothing. Poo. Enough. This is just a reaction to a self-satisfied jerk on my dating site, ack!
Just did a long-winded post on choices and then proceeded to push the wrong key--ah, well another day!
Now time to listen to Garrison Keillor on his Summer Tour. They will be at an outdoor venue in Durham, NC--30 miles east of GSO. bound to be some good stories and songs.
Sometimes (well, ALL the time, lol!) I *really* wish I could get NPR without driving to VA. I could, sometimes, till the guy at the garage loused up my button setting. Now I have to drive back over to bring it in clear enough for the radio to allow me to play it. . . . And set it. Even when it's set, it's iffy. And only in the car. Love Prairie Home Companion. GK is a pretty good writer, too. Don't remember titles, but read several before the advent of the nets in my life.
Life would be less interesting without NPR. GK has been a part of our family life from sometime in the late 70's. We ate Saturday night supper listening to his stories and Burl Ives records. I may have had a few weeks here and there where I missed him--but try not to.
I have a couple of his books, but when reading them I always miss his voice. He now has such an archive of programs that I hope will be available for a long time. His weekly monologues are great treasures by themselves.
Good night my friends--I am so glad we are all here at Jo's Place.
Well, the floor's pretty much shimmed. Sanded in a few place. One place is simply going to BE spongy -- the underfloor where it has to be nailed still wobbles. And the board is not long enough to make a joist on either end. Dang.
This is a patch up for a really bad decision I made when I built the house. . . . There were a pair of trees growing together right where I needed to build. I notched the house around them, and put in a "tree window" (not fer nuthin' am I known locally as the Crazy Tree Lady). The tree both knocked the house in windstorms, and also funneled water down the sides and into the floor joists.
Two years ago my genius son dropped the two trees, a section at a time right down the notch, took out the three walls of the notch, put in a big widow on the outside, and "mended" the sub-flooring. The spongy place is the old wafer board just under the old tree window. Can't be taken out without taking out most of the kitchen floor. . . . So I'll live with a foot of spongy floor, lol! Not too bad, actually.
The sanded spots are going to have to be "re-aged." Coffee usually works fine.
puddle, click 'listen' and then you have a choice of programs to listen to or a 24/7 stream - it doesn't take as much bandwidth as videos so I think you might be able to hear the stream while still doing other things on the net......
clip... Elizabeth Warren will not have to face a Democratic primary challenger in the Massachusetts Senate race. At the state's Democratic Convention today, Warren secured more than 95 percent of the delegate vote.
Lynn Jolicoeur of member station WBUR tells our Newscast Unit that is the largest margin ever in such a race in Massachusetts. Warren's challenge now is incumbent Sen. Scott Brown.
The Boston Herald reports state Democratic Party chair John Walsh said Warren would "make Massachusetts families proud":
"Elizabeth Warren made history today because of the strength of her impressive grassroots organization and her record as a tireless advocate for middle class families throughout Massachusetts."
Avoiding a primary with immigration attorney Marisa DeFranco, Jolicoeur says Warren is now focusing all her attention on a tight race with Brown. Warren did so in her speech before the vote:
"Whoever he once was, I can tell you who he is now: Scott Brown is a Wall Street Republican. A big oil Republican. A Mitt Romney Republican."
Warren also evoked Sen. Ted Kennedy, saying she would do her "best to honor his memory" and that "it's a long way from Ted Kennedy to Scott Brown."
New polls from The Boston Globe and Western New England University show Warren and Brown are in for a battle, with only a couple percentage points between them.
sooo my friends, now that I am past the intense pain of overdoing my PT I have hit a new level in the use of my hip - my gait is smoother, less painful and has me feeling that I just moved past an old 'blockage' and am well on my way to my new 'normal'!
I have another pool session on Monday and feel that I can push it w/o going too far and going thru that again! it's so hard knowing what is the right amount of pain to feel in order to make progress w/o overdoing it but I think me and my PT guy Dan may have a better handle on it now.......
hope you all have a wonderful Sunday! I'm going to my granddaughter's house to celebrate her 6th burthday and will get to see my other grands and also hope to cuddle up to my new nephew who is one month old today!
NDEs experienced by people who do not have sight in everyday life are quite intriguing. In 1994, researchers Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper decided to undertake a search for cases of NDE-based perception in the blind. They reasoned that such cases would represent the ultimate demonstration of veridical perceptions during NDEs. If a blind person was able to report on verifiable events that took place when they were clinically dead, that would mean something real was occurring. They interviewed 31 individuals, of whom 14 were blind from birth. Twenty-one of the participants had had an NDE; the others had had OBEs only. Strikingly, the experiences they reported conform to the classic NDE pattern, whether they were born blind or had lost their sight in later life. The results of the study were published in 1997. Based on all the cases they investigated, Ring and Cooper concluded that what happens during an NDE affords another perspective to perceive reality that does not depend on the senses of the physical body. They proposed to call this other mode of perception mindsight.
Jo, am glad you're mending. It is indeed a tough learning curve, that pain thang. And balance. Have a glorious fun day wit' da grands!! They grow way too fast to suit me, lol! I lurv the sense of wonder and wide eyed sheer observing that the littles have before they morph into those intense self inspecting teen years, lol! Lord save us all, and them from those years.
Ya. I miss rd and Phil enormously. Guess you can't have *everything* eh? This is one lovely place you've created here, and thank you again and again and again.
Don't know about accomplishing a *lot* -- took me til midnight Saturday to get anywhere near what I'd planned to do on Tuesday. . . . But, I did do *something* and that's pretty much different than all of last year when my only jobs were The Goobey, and stayin' alive.
Yesterday, visits to children and grandchild, and lovely rain though too brief and not enough. But, then isn't that true of so much.
This morning found new branches on weeping cherry chewed off. So disappointing, but that's where we live. One of the benefits is the wild critters, but then they eat the lovely trees and plants we work so hard to nourish. Again, that's life.
I think I may give up on fruit trees and aspens. If it isn't the pocket gophers who eat the roots, it's the rabbits who eat the leaves and the deer and elk who eat the bark and leaves. We'll see how stubborn they are or I am.
I miss what seemed like a cafe atmosphere with people dropping in as time allowed, rd, Phil between chores, late nighters, occasionally an essay or explanation of a position for Tom. It was nice.
But, there are other memories I'm glad are memories. So much anger, hatred, propaganda. It was illuminating in learning how a movement can decay and be taken over by the most disruptive and alienated, and I really don't have any solution. But, certainly the old blog was quite a journey and won't be forgotten.
Another perception for what it's worth: the sexism and difficulties among the sexes are still with us, particularly in our generation. I'm sorry for that, but there's been a whole human history of antagonism and power struggles between men and women. In the Navajo legends and myths, men and women at one point separated and went their own ways and later found out that they were really better as complements to each other.
But, cheers for this blog, Jo, Puddle, Barb, Shirlee, Listener. It's a good place to be and will become even more so, I believe. It just takes a little time.
Brenda came this afternoon bearing fixings for a fish dish she created--Tilapia poached in coconut milk with mango chunks and a bit of a curry. Served with squash--all soft enough for me to eat. Yep--she is a great cook also!
Interesting information on non-visual perception(?), Puddle. But, now I need to Google NDE's and OBE's to truly understand this.
The fish sounds *wonderful*!! As does the daughter. . . .
I've been so stiff from yesterday, and a night of crampy muscles, that I've done jack shoot today. Just tried to stay warm, and awake, lol!
NDEs and OBEs have been part of my spiritual vocabulary for a long time, but I've experienced neither. My own "flavor" of mystical experience has been pretty consistently Oceanic. When they started, I was in my late teens, and had NO idea I wasn't totally alone in the experience. They stopped in my late twenties, and didn't return until I began meditating regularly. And NO I don't consider TM to be meditating: it's a *warm up* exercise. Still can't predict when they will, and take the great mystics word for it that they are NOT to be sought after. Have a book on my bookcase called After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. I.e., one's life needs to be *lived.* But they've always been great reminders to me that we have other business here than new carpets and cars, so to speak.
Whew, glad I didn't stop the conversation. Thank you, Shirlee.
What a gift to have such a loving daughter. The food, I can taste. Wonderful.
I had my favorite aunt say: "Some days, I do nothing." She had 7 children and was always welcoming to her many nieces and nephews. I've never forgotten that. Some days, just stop.
I have tried to see auras, but haven't, though I had my Tarot cards read, my palm read, and my aura in Jackson Square in New Orleans. I told the reader that I didn't want to know any of the bad stuff. He said that I'd be traveling more, that my lifeline was long, and I'd never worry about money. But, then, I've worried about money my whole life, and come to realize it's like a cousin said, it's supposed to flow back and forth like water. That was a comfort, that it wasn't something you hoard like Silas Marner or that had any real intrinsic value. It's supposed to be used.
I would love to have some inkling of more than just my senses. I do sometimes anticipate hearing from people I care about, and sometimes there's a presentiment of something happening.
I met someone at a seminar with Thomas Moore at the Naropa University in Boulder for a weekend seminar. She said that from childhood on she had perceptions that were predictive, that she saw things, that people asked her advice. She also said that it was sometimes very difficult and frightening to have various insights.
It's a mind/soul/body talent, I think like any other talent that can bring knowledge and insight. I wish I had it.
Tell us more, if you are so inclined, Puddle, and if not, that's fine too. It is a wonderful gift, I think.
Loving all the notes about Grands! Our middle Grand was here for an overnight over the weekend. We had a Blast! (She's 4)
NDE's ~ I had a near death experience when I was 2 1/2 years old. I had chicken pox and measles together, my fever spiked to 106F, at which point I had a febrile seizure, went into a coma and was rushed to the hospital. I was in the coma for about three hours. When I came out of the coma, I told the doctor, my parents and an uncle "I saw God in a pink mist" and "God said I could come home." The interesting thing is that my parents had sworn off religion, so I didn't have God language at home.
Loved the article! One of the best I've ever read.
Finally got a good solid sleep. Two parts, but each part strong, deep, and sweet! AND da goob let me sleep in til after eight!
This moon is also known as Full Rose Moon, and Full Honey Moon. It's clearly a most beloved moon.
Oceanic experiences -- My first is the one I remember most clearly -- perhaps I needed to work at remembering it most because I absolutely didn't believe it could happen again. And didn't, in the same way. My best friend and I had been walking all night. Just wandering around the city, talking talking talking. It was around four a.m., and we were meandering homewards. There was an interesting street just below Thirteenth South, and we turned down it. Almost to the end of the block, in the dark was a streetlight making shadows on the ground. It was spring, and green, and the leaves moved a little. All of the sudden, I was there and not there. I was part of the light, and the tree and the street, and they were part of me. I was wholly the light and the trees and the street and they were wholly me. I had the sense that if I moved my consciousness out to the city, the country, the world, the universe, that that oneness would remain whole and solid. I strongly did *not* want to come back. Happiness, peace, joy at the state were beyond words. If I had had a vote, I would have just resided there, forever. When I returned, it was with a great sense of loss. When I returned, we just looked at each other, and quietly turned at went back up the street to Thirteenth South, and continued home.
I struggled to put it into words. Words failed me then, and still do. Have never gotten close. The other thing that struck me fairly quickly was that the church of my family of origin had absolutely no name/place/honor for any such experience. Indeed, I finally left the church in search of a "home" for the experience(s). At 21, when I was leaving, at my mother's request/behest, and arrangement, I had a conference of sorts with one of the Church's newest Apostles, Hugh B Brown. (I didn't know at the time how she knew him intimately enough to arrange such a meeting, but did go, dutiful daughter that I was. Turns out that she likely knew him politically, since they were both active and life-long Democrats.) I made a stab at telling of the experience. And was pretty much told in no uncertain terms that it was diabolical possession. Reason? I was leaving the church -- therefore it MUST be of the Devil. It was no contest: I knew I had experienced what I had experienced. I also knew it was good and not evil. I wasn't about to be talked out of it by a silver tongued devil. I was baptized Catholic soon after that, having read enough St. John of the Cross to understand that there was at least one Church that didn't find my experience outrageous nor evil. I finally left there, too.
Before I knew I wasn't alone in the experience, I named the occasions of it: Sheladows. One of the aftermaths of Sheladows was a "knowledge" -- bone deep -- of the inherent goodness and benign purpose of the Universe. And Catholicism's need to bathe in "sinfulness" basically clashed with that. At a very core level. I drifted for a few years, unable to find a spiritual home. I didn't church my kids because I didn't want them subjected to any doctrine while they were too young to defend themselves. Found a nest with the Ethical Society for almost two decades simply because they were pretty non-judgmental -- simply focused on doing good works. Eventually, it wasn't enough: I *needed* a spiritual component. At that point, my spiritual mad money consisted of the Quakers. So I went to my first Meeting. Trembling -- because if that didn't work, I was SOL. It did. It met both of my needs: good works and a Godde connection that did not question my method. Quaker prayer is a very close thing to Buddhist meditation. My Meeting in Berkeley was about half Buddhists who'd discovered about the same. "Sheladows" began happening again. Some more located locally like the first tree/light/me, and some more galactic/universal. But locale, scope doesn't really seem to change anything. Just "flavors." The central sense of total interconnectedness and positive intent covers all and each occasion. I'd early felt that Buddhists and Hindus *knew,* but had not felt especially at home with their particular bells and whistles. For Quakers, it seems enough that you are there with them, and do not question their system.
Finally. About fifteen years ago, at a time of maximum stress, a good friend gifted me with her methodology for "self hypnosis" that she'd picked up from her Sikh MD at her pain clinic. It wasn't gifted as meditation, just pain control. Her experience and mine were pretty close: Sheladows! She took that back to her doctor, who simply smiled beatifically and said: Yes. Some experience it that way. Be grateful. She is. I am.
This is the bare bones of the method (you may add any imagery you're at home with): Lay flat on your back, with arms at your side. Roll your eyes upwards towards the top of your head. It will begin to hurt. When it hurts too much, close your eyes, relax and take three counted short breaths, and one long (count of ten in/ten out) breath. Then imagine you are heavy: use every image of heavy/falling you can find. When you have become as heavy as possible, imagine light, floating airy. Up. As you begin to rise, your arms will rise on their own. If they do not, go back to the beginning, or wait and try again later. If you have to use volition to raise them, you are not where you need to be. (Use images here, too: I've used being held a a small girl by my parents, birthday cake candles, roses -- everything you love and which loves you.) As you are moving up, don't be upset if you start to cry. I do. As you move up/out, faster and faster, you can begin to shape your destination. And your intention. When you are ready to come back, clench your hands for a count of three, repeat you are done, but can come back. And when you come back, it will be deeper than last time. Clench your hands again, and open your eyes. Sometimes I just find a quiet place and work on an issue. Other times, it simply takes me. Either is fine. Often when I'm coming up, I'll see/be in a group of six or ten, tall, dressed in green hooded robes. I don't see faces, which are hooded, but feel such enormous love from these figures I've named them The Mothers. I think the impulse is personal. I'd feel equally comfortable with angels, lol!
Prolly should mention that I practiced (and still occasionally practice) TM. It's good and healthy if you stay away from the philosophy, which is el stinko, lol! The mere *practice* does work. Without intent. Also see: The Relaxation Response, which just leaves the pseudo philosophy out of it. As I said: good preparation. But nowhere near the whole megillah, lol!
Prolly also need to say -- it's wonderful and grounding, but in no way essential. Good lives, kindness, joy, fun are possible without it. It just one available guide. Luck and electrolytes, mebbe? A gift, for sure. But nothing to feel *proud* of.
Similar perhaps to being raised in a good family, with great values: makes the pathway a bit easier. But, overall, I actually have a great deal of awe for those who find their way without such help.
I'm close to without prejudice, and glad for it, but I was raised that way, and it was no kind of struggle to accept that. I more admire a friend of mine who was raised in a bed of hate, struggled with it, and emerged without hate. Now *that* was a journey to be proud of.
Thanks, Puddle for your clear explanation of your Sheladows. And Jo--for your experience.
The only experience(s) I have had was having my last two children by hypnosis. Taught to me by my gyn/ob/pediatrician.He was middle aged at the time had given up band directing to go to medical school. My last two were born in 1958 and 1962. Afterwards I was able for a while to destress using the same techniques. Then as Listener says life got--or I let it get in the way. in the way.
These weren't OBEs but the certainly concentrated the mind!
Yes Jo, I received your invite. It's been crezzy bizzy bizzy. Burt and I have been working on the book. A seriously OCD friend read the book and marked some typos. Since he didn't have a pen with him (on the plane (of course, I imagine no one around him had one))he simply folded the pages where the typos were sure that he would be able to find them again. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Right! So Burt and I had to re-read each page until we found the error. if neither of us found anything after 3 reads apiece, we decided that our friend was seeing things.
So we made the changes (nothing really noticable, but like I said, our friend is seriously OCD) and uploaded it for publication again and ordered another 20 books.
Then we worked on the Kindle version. OY! looked great on the preview so uploaded that. Then we discovered that an ACTUAL Kindle only displays one page, not like Nook that displays two pages together (really really cool!) so now we have to go back in and eliminate the extra pages. I suspect that it will be the same thing for the iPad version.
Then we are working hard on marketing which is a real bear. So much to learn. But I promise, I'll go back and post that piece about my experience in the Congressional District Caucus. Two years ago, I also attended the caucus, however I ran a concession stand to raise money to help pay for the space. I think we raised over $1,000, but it's been a long time so I'm not sure.
Yay!, Barb. Whatta lotta werk!!! Hope some fun in there, too. Learning experiences is very good for the mind. And keeping it, lol!
Shirlee, raising five kids and getting back to school in the midst of it is surely enough work for a life. My mom went to college for the first time, as a freshman, after my dad died. She still had five or six at home, the youngest was five. By then they were offering undergrad degrees in Social Work, so that's what she got. She never did get a "job" though -- by then she had enough grandbabies to keep her occupied. She had 42 when she died. I have three, and can feel overwhelmed by that number on occasion, lol!
Shirlee, since you can do/know self hypnosis, you might try "playing" with it. Once you get to that deep state, just "let go" and see where it goes?
My friend Trish, who taught me, had been having major Tic Douloureux, and was considering having the nerve cut. It became a non-issue after. Still shows up from time to time, but she can back it out to bearable. But even when she was doing the work just for pain control, it was working as a mystical experience, too.
The tears are funny, too. I began to see the ability to weep easily as a gauge of how well I was doing spiritually. Tears of sorrow, or joy. Which is still true. When I dry up, I know I've strayed, and need to get back on working on the path.
Thanks, Puddle--I may well try and see what happens. For a period of time while in Texas I went to a good Reiki practitioner.
I really had my doubts--but after weekly sessions I began to feel less stressed--which helped with the pain of RA. Decreased the frequency of sessions, continued to improve--and finally we both knew when it was time to stop. I was so relaxed all I wanted to do was get the 60 miles home and get in bed. And Jan my Reiki Lady was totally exhausted at the last sessions.
If you choose Reiki be sure to find some one who has the training and certification--and makes a good personality fit. It is a bit pricey--but it was well worth it at the time for me.
I still have no idea what makes it work--mind over matter--:) :)
Puddle--do you know that Guilford County-- GSO the county seat--has a large Quaker community? They migrated down from Pennsylvania when land prices there got too high. They built their Meeting houses, their communities--and what is now known as Guilford college. they are located mostly in the northwest of the county.
Many years ago, I was dating a guy interested in all kinds of new age healing. We spent a very informative three day weekend at a healing conference. I tried on all kinds of thangs. The homeopathy people left me just giggling (ya: eating kidney beans because they're the same shape as your kidneys, and you'll never need dialysis. . . .). Iridology was interesting: everyone in the room but me was a vegan/non-smoker. And I had the best/healthiest irises. . . .
Reiki at least left me with my belief system in place, lol! I was talking to a guy at Plenty of Fish for a while who was a Reiki master, and to tell the truth, he didn't know why, either. Just that it worked. Interesting Dude: he had another friend whose wolf spirits (she'd raised a number of them) followed him around. He found out later (mother fessed up) that he was First Nations. Wolf clan. Which he'd never known. She'd left her tribe when she married, and never told the kids. He faded before we ever met, but it was a very interesting correspondence.
Edwin stumbled across Guilford College one weekend when I'd come home to tend the animals. He was impressed. http://ncpedia.org/culture/religion/quaker-abolitionists (It was before the show opened, so he still had Sundays off.)
Target Selling Pride Shirts to Help Pro-Gay Marriage Group — and Reportedly Blocking Emails From Those Complaining
Posted on June 3, 2012 at 10:05am by Madeleine Morgenstern
Target Corp. is selling gay pride T-shirts to raise money for a group working to defeat a same-sex marriage ban in Minnesota — and is reportedly blocking emails from one group complaining about it.
The Minneapolis-based retailer — which came under fire two years ago for a $150,000 campaign donation in support of a gay marriage opponent — is currently selling special shirts with all proceeds benefiting the Family Equality Council.
In response, the American Family Association mobilized its supporters to urge Target to pull the shirts, but has since said the corporation is blocking emails sent through the organization’s internal system.
“I hope you will not let Target silence your voice. I encourage you to call their corporate office and share your personal thoughts,” the group told supporters.
Target has pledged up to $120,000 to the Washington, D.C.-based Family Equality Council, which is working against a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage slated for the November ballot. Target started selling the shirts in late May and will continue through the end of June. Available only on the retailer’s website, the $12.99 apiece shirts come in four designs with words including “pride” and “harmony.” One, designed by singer Gwen Stefani, features the phrase “love is love.”
According to the Associated Press, Target hasn‘t taken a stance on Minnesota’s ballot question. A spokeswoman said the T-shirt promotion was organized by a group of gay Target employees and that it’s the second time Target has had an initiative benefiting a specific group. The first raised money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“Target is pleased to be able to bring our guests products they want while, in turn, helping support the LGBT community through the donation of 100 percent of the purchase price to the Family Equality Council,” the company said in a statement.
A spokesman for Minnesota for Marriage, a group that supports the constitutional amendment, said Target’s actions are “an insult to the overwhelming majority of their customers.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'd say: if you can, let Target know you support them. And why.
41 comments:
Howard is the FF! (First Force, lol!)
Thinking about Shirlee, hoping this went well today, regretting that I didn't think to ask how long she'd be in.
My giant line of very hot storms has almost all but passed me by. So the ploy of moving the car up the hill worked. Again.
Was thinking earlier today over at the Achalasia board how badly GIs handle the disease. It's sorta like: I don't have to know anything about it because it's rare, and I don't have to find out anything about it because I'll never see another case. Meanwhile, your Primary Care doc bows out because of territorial restrictions, so in the end NO ONE cares about what's happening to you. If you are lucky, you'll stumble on a surgeon before it kills you. I was lucky, but there are a couple on the board right now I'm not certain will. Absolutely goofy the way medical fiefdoms are set up. Ironic that the best advice and most information is coming from a random group of people who *had* to study up on the disease because no one else will. If you can keep *nothing* down, going to ER every couple of days for rehydration is really a *lousy* solution. And nope, this isn't just our problem: it's at least also Canada's and Australia's, too. And I think I remember a couple from the UK, too. It's the working of the medical mind, in action.
June 1, 2012, 1:02 pm
Economy, and Obama, Mired in Down Data
By NATE SILVER
Once we introduce our presidential forecasting model next week, which is based in part on current and projected economic data in addition to the polls, we’ll be able to estimate in real time how something like the poor May jobs report would imperil President Obama’s re-election chances.
The short version: this is a case where our model’s insight would match the conventional wisdom — the bad economic numbers over the past weeks are sapping Mr. Obama of the edge he might have had on Mitt Romney.
It would be one thing if there were just one poor set of jobs figures. Economic data, like political polls, can be subject to measurement error and other idiosyncrasies. One data point — however good or bad — doesn’t usually tell you all that much. The model accounts for this problem by looking at several different economic data series in addition to the jobs numbers.
However, almost every significant economic figure that has come out over the past week has come in below expectations, reversing a pattern from earlier in the year.
The stock market is also down sharply as investors assess their concerns over the American economy as well as the problems in Europe. There are also some troubling numbers from China, which had been one of the few bright spots in the global economy over the past few years.
Sometimes the internals of a jobs report look better than the headline numbers, but this isn’t really one of those cases. Read more…
good morning! rain and wind here and same is forecast until at least Wednesday - ugh! My niece and I were going to make the 1.5 hour drive to the family cemetery today to plant flowers but cancelled due to the weather. We usually take my Mom as well but she wouldn't be able to handle the trip any longer re: no bathrooms once we get up into the boonies near the plots and thinking about her family members who have passed now distresses her so much. I hope we can coordinate another day to go together but she has such a busy schedule that may not happen this year, I wouldn't be much help planting anyway but we really enjoy the time together.
Thinking of you Shirlee and hope you're feelong better soon!
Barb, did you get that invitation to be a blog author that I sent to you? If so just reply to it and you'll be all set and if not let me know and I will send it again.
puddle, I love your offering as always - great thoughts, great poetry, great lady!
Jo, sorry about the crappy weather aborting your trip! We sure missed the most of it here: glad I *really* watered the tomatoes as I planted them, and didn't count on the predicted rain! Also glad they escaped the predicted hail! Some places nearby didn't do nearly so well.
Thoughts, prayers, light and love focused souther for Miss Shirlee. . . .
The Goobey let me sleep in until 7:30. And actually *barked* to wake me up, lol! Usually he just starts moving, shaking and scratching and I'm on notice that I need to get up an attend. I was actually kind of surprised: I'd gotten him in earlier than usual last night as he was stirring up great fusses about the deer, so I actually expected to be up before six.
Thanks for all the good wishes and thoughts while I was gone. Just got home a couple of hours ago.Things went well. The place on the tongue required much less work than I have had in the past.
The mucus membrane on the inside of the cheek was a new adventure. Scraped, biopsied and then five stitches to pull it together to heal. Swollen and sore but should heal fairly fast--so the doc says. Final results on the spread of damaged tissue available this week.
Reading the posts just now I am wondering whether a thread on the medical profession and its oddities:)
might be appropriate and/or useful.
My new goal is to be in shape to go to the Carolina Theater next week-end to see Ralph Stanley in a previously scheduled concert which will now be dedicated to Doc. R.S will play Doc's music. An exhibit about Doc will be in the lobby
and his name on the marquee.
Brenda --in addition to her other full time job--does data entry for the Carolina. We have had tickets lined
up since Ralph Stanley was booked.
Again, thanks for thinking of me. Be sure, I will have Brenda post in the future if anything goes awry.
We had some of the same storm cells here that Puddle had yesterday--mostly on the south edge of town. a fair bit of tree damage, etc.
Wonderful to be home-
Shirlee, thanx for the promise of updates from Brenda if needed! My kiddle did that on facebook for me in December. It helps!
And delighted you are home! Nothing like home for healing, I think.
Doctoring is interesting -- in China and Russia, where salaries are set for doctors, most docs are women. Somehow, removing the profit incentive from helping isn't a turn on for da fellas. . . . Be interesting to compare testosterone levels for the different specialties in this country, lol!
And moving the subject to politics, someone postulated about the time the Kennedy escapades were being made public that it takes SO much testosterone to run for President that we're krezzy for thinking there won't be "escapades" from our leaders. . . .
I've thought for long that come our life reviews and vis a vis our choices that we're going to be outright startled about how *little* choice we've had in this life. . . . I simply vote that every self-satisfied blowhard about how wonderful/virtuous they are that they're thin and fit at 58 get my metabolism the next time around, lol!
Out of the nine kids, ONE is thin. And he's anorectic. The rest are fit, active, watch what they eat, and fail. My next brother down has five daughters. Four with eating disorders. All beautiful, big boned square Scandinavian milkmaids. All of them miserable about the pattern they can't fit into. Their mother is tiny. And eats virtually nothing.
Poo. Enough. This is just a reaction to a self-satisfied jerk on my dating site, ack!
Hey all!
Sorry I haven't been around.
Life keeps running ahead of my capacity.
Soon. ♥
Just did a long-winded post on choices and then proceeded to push the
wrong key--ah, well another day!
Now time to listen to Garrison Keillor on his Summer Tour. They will be at an outdoor venue in Durham, NC--30 miles east of GSO. bound to be some good stories and songs.
Sometimes (well, ALL the time, lol!) I *really* wish I could get NPR without driving to VA. I could, sometimes, till the guy at the garage loused up my button setting. Now I have to drive back over to bring it in clear enough for the radio to allow me to play it. . . . And set it. Even when it's set, it's iffy. And only in the car. Love Prairie Home Companion. GK is a pretty good writer, too. Don't remember titles, but read several before the advent of the nets in my life.
Life would be less interesting without NPR. GK has been a part of our family life from sometime in the late 70's. We ate Saturday night supper listening to his stories and Burl Ives records. I may have had a few weeks here and there where I missed him--but try not to.
I have a couple of his books, but when reading them I always miss his voice. He now has such an archive of programs that I hope will be available for a long time. His weekly monologues are great treasures by themselves.
Good night my friends--I am so glad we are all here
at Jo's Place.
Well, the floor's pretty much shimmed. Sanded in a few place. One place is simply going to BE spongy -- the underfloor where it has to be nailed still wobbles. And the board is not long enough to make a joist on either end. Dang.
This is a patch up for a really bad decision I made when I built the house. . . . There were a pair of trees growing together right where I needed to build. I notched the house around them, and put in a "tree window" (not fer nuthin' am I known locally as the Crazy Tree Lady). The tree both knocked the house in windstorms, and also funneled water down the sides and into the floor joists.
Two years ago my genius son dropped the two trees, a section at a time right down the notch, took out the three walls of the notch, put in a big widow on the outside, and "mended" the sub-flooring. The spongy place is the old wafer board just under the old tree window. Can't be taken out without taking out most of the kitchen floor. . . . So I'll live with a foot of spongy floor, lol! Not too bad, actually.
The sanded spots are going to have to be "re-aged." Coffee usually works fine.
And I'm gonna have some sore muscles tomorrow.
Night all. Love ya! Do.
♥ Shirlee! ♥
puddle, click 'listen' and then you have a choice of programs to listen to or a 24/7 stream - it doesn't take as much bandwidth as videos so I think you might be able to hear the stream while still doing other things on the net......
http://www.npr.org/
and can I get a WOOT??!!!
clip... Elizabeth Warren will not have to face a Democratic primary challenger in the Massachusetts Senate race. At the state's Democratic Convention today, Warren secured more than 95 percent of the delegate vote.
Lynn Jolicoeur of member station WBUR tells our Newscast Unit that is the largest margin ever in such a race in Massachusetts. Warren's challenge now is incumbent Sen. Scott Brown.
The Boston Herald reports state Democratic Party chair John Walsh said Warren would "make Massachusetts families proud":
"Elizabeth Warren made history today because of the strength of her impressive grassroots organization and her record as a tireless advocate for middle class families throughout Massachusetts."
Avoiding a primary with immigration attorney Marisa DeFranco, Jolicoeur says Warren is now focusing all her attention on a tight race with Brown. Warren did so in her speech before the vote:
"Whoever he once was, I can tell you who he is now: Scott Brown is a Wall Street Republican. A big oil Republican. A Mitt Romney Republican."
Warren also evoked Sen. Ted Kennedy, saying she would do her "best to honor his memory" and that "it's a long way from Ted Kennedy to Scott Brown."
New polls from The Boston Globe and Western New England University show Warren and Brown are in for a battle, with only a couple percentage points between them.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/06/02/154222963/elizabeth-warren-leaps-over-primary-challenge-in-massachusetts
hugs Shirlee! glad you are home and the healing has begun!
puddle, ouch! I don't know how you accomplish all that you do but good onya, pioneer woman!
a new quote for today...
"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter."
-- Mark Twain
sooo my friends, now that I am past the intense pain of overdoing my PT I have hit a new level in the use of my hip - my gait is smoother, less painful and has me feeling that I just moved past an old 'blockage' and am well on my way to my new 'normal'!
I have another pool session on Monday and feel that I can push it w/o going too far and going thru that again! it's so hard knowing what is the right amount of pain to feel in order to make progress w/o overdoing it but I think me and my PT guy Dan may have a better handle on it now.......
I wish rdorgan was here to share his joy of the news on Elizabeth Warren! I do miss some of the voices from the old blog, to be sure.
hope you all have a wonderful Sunday! I'm going to my granddaughter's house to celebrate her 6th burthday and will get to see my other grands and also hope to cuddle up to my new nephew who is one month old today!
Thought about Doc, reading this:
NDEs experienced by people who do not have sight in everyday life are quite intriguing. In 1994, researchers Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper decided to undertake a search for cases of NDE-based perception in the blind. They reasoned that such cases would represent the ultimate demonstration of veridical perceptions during NDEs. If a blind person was able to report on verifiable events that took place when they were clinically dead, that would mean something real was occurring. They interviewed 31 individuals, of whom 14 were blind from birth. Twenty-one of the participants had had an NDE; the others had had OBEs only. Strikingly, the experiences they reported conform to the classic NDE pattern, whether they were born blind or had lost their sight in later life. The results of the study were published in 1997. Based on all the cases they investigated, Ring and Cooper concluded that what happens during an NDE affords another perspective to perceive reality that does not depend on the senses of the physical body. They proposed to call this other mode of perception mindsight.
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/21/near_death_explained/singleton/
Jo, am glad you're mending. It is indeed a tough learning curve, that pain thang. And balance. Have a glorious fun day wit' da grands!! They grow way too fast to suit me, lol! I lurv the sense of wonder and wide eyed sheer observing that the littles have before they morph into those intense self inspecting teen years, lol! Lord save us all, and them from those years.
Ya. I miss rd and Phil enormously. Guess you can't have *everything* eh? This is one lovely place you've created here, and thank you again and again and again.
Don't know about accomplishing a *lot* -- took me til midnight Saturday to get anywhere near what I'd planned to do on Tuesday. . . . But, I did do *something* and that's pretty much different than all of last year when my only jobs were The Goobey, and stayin' alive.
Good Morning,
Yesterday, visits to children and grandchild, and lovely rain though too brief and not enough. But, then isn't that true of so much.
This morning found new branches on weeping cherry chewed off. So disappointing, but that's where we live. One of the benefits is the wild critters, but then they eat the lovely trees and plants we work so hard to nourish. Again, that's life.
I think I may give up on fruit trees and aspens. If it isn't the pocket gophers who eat the roots, it's the rabbits who eat the leaves and the deer and elk who eat the bark and leaves. We'll see how stubborn they are or I am.
I miss what seemed like a cafe atmosphere with people dropping in as time allowed, rd, Phil between chores, late nighters, occasionally an essay or explanation of a position for Tom. It was nice.
But, there are other memories I'm glad are memories. So much anger, hatred, propaganda. It was illuminating in learning how a movement can decay and be taken over by the most disruptive and alienated, and I really don't have any solution. But, certainly the old blog was quite a journey and won't be forgotten.
Another perception for what it's worth: the sexism and difficulties among the sexes are still with us, particularly in our generation. I'm sorry for that, but there's been a whole human history of antagonism and power struggles between men and women. In the Navajo legends and myths, men and women at one point separated and went their own ways and later found out that they were really better as complements to each other.
But, cheers for this blog, Jo, Puddle, Barb, Shirlee, Listener. It's a good place to be and will become even more so, I believe. It just takes a little time.
Have a good day, folks.
Hi Y'all,
Did I shut the conversation down? I hope not.
Sprinkles of rain here, and off to feed a neighbor's cat.
Nope, you didn't shut the conversation down, Pat.
Brenda came this afternoon bearing fixings for a fish dish she created--Tilapia poached in coconut milk with mango chunks and a bit of a curry. Served with squash--all soft enough for me to eat.
Yep--she is a great cook also!
Interesting information on non-visual perception(?), Puddle.
But, now I need to Google NDE's and OBE's to truly understand this.
The fish sounds *wonderful*!! As does the daughter. . . .
I've been so stiff from yesterday, and a night of crampy muscles, that I've done jack shoot today. Just tried to stay warm, and awake, lol!
NDEs and OBEs have been part of my spiritual vocabulary for a long time, but I've experienced neither. My own "flavor" of mystical experience has been pretty consistently Oceanic. When they started, I was in my late teens, and had NO idea I wasn't totally alone in the experience. They stopped in my late twenties, and didn't return until I began meditating regularly. And NO I don't consider TM to be meditating: it's a *warm up* exercise. Still can't predict when they will, and take the great mystics word for it that they are NOT to be sought after. Have a book on my bookcase called After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. I.e., one's life needs to be *lived.* But they've always been great reminders to me that we have other business here than new carpets and cars, so to speak.
Whew, glad I didn't stop the conversation. Thank you, Shirlee.
What a gift to have such a loving daughter. The food, I can taste. Wonderful.
I had my favorite aunt say: "Some days, I do nothing." She had 7 children and was always welcoming to her many nieces and nephews. I've never forgotten that. Some days, just stop.
I have tried to see auras, but haven't, though I had my Tarot cards read, my palm read, and my aura in Jackson Square in New Orleans. I told the reader that I didn't want to know any of the bad stuff. He said that I'd be traveling more, that my lifeline was long, and I'd never worry about money. But, then, I've worried about money my whole life, and come to realize it's like a cousin said, it's supposed to flow back and forth like water. That was a comfort, that it wasn't something you hoard like Silas Marner or that had any real intrinsic value. It's supposed to be used.
I would love to have some inkling of more than just my senses. I do sometimes anticipate hearing from people I care about, and sometimes there's a presentiment of something happening.
I met someone at a seminar with Thomas Moore at the Naropa University in Boulder for a weekend seminar. She said that from childhood on she had perceptions that were predictive, that she saw things, that people asked her advice. She also said that it was sometimes very difficult and frightening to have various insights.
It's a mind/soul/body talent, I think like any other talent that can bring knowledge and insight. I wish I had it.
Tell us more, if you are so inclined, Puddle, and if not, that's fine too. It is a wonderful gift, I think.
Well, busy day, off for a while.
Just barely time tonight to add a word or two:
Jo... wOOt!
Loving all the notes about Grands! Our middle Grand was here for an overnight over the weekend. We had a Blast! (She's 4)
NDE's ~ I had a near death experience when I was 2 1/2 years old. I had chicken pox and measles together, my fever spiked to 106F, at which point I had a febrile seizure, went into a coma and was rushed to the hospital. I was in the coma for about three hours. When I came out of the coma, I told the doctor, my parents and an uncle "I saw God in a pink mist" and "God said I could come home." The interesting thing is that my parents had sworn off religion, so I didn't have God language at home.
Loved the article! One of the best I've ever read.
Happy Full Stawberry Moon, everbody!
Finally got a good solid sleep. Two parts, but each part strong, deep, and sweet! AND da goob let me sleep in til after eight!
This moon is also known as Full Rose Moon, and Full Honey Moon. It's clearly a most beloved moon.
Oceanic experiences -- My first is the one I remember most clearly -- perhaps I needed to work at remembering it most because I absolutely didn't believe it could happen again. And didn't, in the same way. My best friend and I had been walking all night. Just wandering around the city, talking talking talking. It was around four a.m., and we were meandering homewards. There was an interesting street just below Thirteenth South, and we turned down it. Almost to the end of the block, in the dark was a streetlight making shadows on the ground. It was spring, and green, and the leaves moved a little. All of the sudden, I was there and not there. I was part of the light, and the tree and the street, and they were part of me. I was wholly the light and the trees and the street and they were wholly me. I had the sense that if I moved my consciousness out to the city, the country, the world, the universe, that that oneness would remain whole and solid. I strongly did *not* want to come back. Happiness, peace, joy at the state were beyond words. If I had had a vote, I would have just resided there, forever. When I returned, it was with a great sense of loss. When I returned, we just looked at each other, and quietly turned at went back up the street to Thirteenth South, and continued home.
I struggled to put it into words. Words failed me then, and still do. Have never gotten close. The other thing that struck me fairly quickly was that the church of my family of origin had absolutely no name/place/honor for any such experience. Indeed, I finally left the church in search of a "home" for the experience(s). At 21, when I was leaving, at my mother's request/behest, and arrangement, I had a conference of sorts with one of the Church's newest Apostles, Hugh B Brown. (I didn't know at the time how she knew him intimately enough to arrange such a meeting, but did go, dutiful daughter that I was. Turns out that she likely knew him politically, since they were both active and life-long Democrats.) I made a stab at telling of the experience. And was pretty much told in no uncertain terms that it was diabolical possession. Reason? I was leaving the church -- therefore it MUST be of the Devil. It was no contest: I knew I had experienced what I had experienced. I also knew it was good and not evil. I wasn't about to be talked out of it by a silver tongued devil. I was baptized Catholic soon after that, having read enough St. John of the Cross to understand that there was at least one Church that didn't find my experience outrageous nor evil. I finally left there, too.
[cont'd]
Before I knew I wasn't alone in the experience, I named the occasions of it: Sheladows. One of the aftermaths of Sheladows was a "knowledge" -- bone deep -- of the inherent goodness and benign purpose of the Universe. And Catholicism's need to bathe in "sinfulness" basically clashed with that. At a very core level. I drifted for a few years, unable to find a spiritual home. I didn't church my kids because I didn't want them subjected to any doctrine while they were too young to defend themselves. Found a nest with the Ethical Society for almost two decades simply because they were pretty non-judgmental -- simply focused on doing good works. Eventually, it wasn't enough: I *needed* a spiritual component. At that point, my spiritual mad money consisted of the Quakers. So I went to my first Meeting. Trembling -- because if that didn't work, I was SOL. It did. It met both of my needs: good works and a Godde connection that did not question my method. Quaker prayer is a very close thing to Buddhist meditation. My Meeting in Berkeley was about half Buddhists who'd discovered about the same. "Sheladows" began happening again. Some more located locally like the first tree/light/me, and some more galactic/universal. But locale, scope doesn't really seem to change anything. Just "flavors." The central sense of total interconnectedness and positive intent covers all and each occasion. I'd early felt that Buddhists and Hindus *knew,* but had not felt especially at home with their particular bells and whistles. For Quakers, it seems enough that you are there with them, and do not question their system.
Finally. About fifteen years ago, at a time of maximum stress, a good friend gifted me with her methodology for "self hypnosis" that she'd picked up from her Sikh MD at her pain clinic. It wasn't gifted as meditation, just pain control. Her experience and mine were pretty close: Sheladows! She took that back to her doctor, who simply smiled beatifically and said: Yes. Some experience it that way. Be grateful. She is. I am.
[cont'd]
This is the bare bones of the method (you may add any imagery you're at home with): Lay flat on your back, with arms at your side. Roll your eyes upwards towards the top of your head. It will begin to hurt. When it hurts too much, close your eyes, relax and take three counted short breaths, and one long (count of ten in/ten out) breath. Then imagine you are heavy: use every image of heavy/falling you can find. When you have become as heavy as possible, imagine light, floating airy. Up. As you begin to rise, your arms will rise on their own. If they do not, go back to the beginning, or wait and try again later. If you have to use volition to raise them, you are not where you need to be. (Use images here, too: I've used being held a a small girl by my parents, birthday cake candles, roses -- everything you love and which loves you.) As you are moving up, don't be upset if you start to cry. I do. As you move up/out, faster and faster, you can begin to shape your destination. And your intention. When you are ready to come back, clench your hands for a count of three, repeat you are done, but can come back. And when you come back, it will be deeper than last time. Clench your hands again, and open your eyes. Sometimes I just find a quiet place and work on an issue. Other times, it simply takes me. Either is fine. Often when I'm coming up, I'll see/be in a group of six or ten, tall, dressed in green hooded robes. I don't see faces, which are hooded, but feel such enormous love from these figures I've named them The Mothers. I think the impulse is personal. I'd feel equally comfortable with angels, lol!
Prolly should mention that I practiced (and still occasionally practice) TM. It's good and healthy if you stay away from the philosophy, which is el stinko, lol! The mere *practice* does work. Without intent. Also see: The Relaxation Response, which just leaves the pseudo philosophy out of it. As I said: good preparation. But nowhere near the whole megillah, lol!
Hope that wasn't TMI, grin.
Prolly also need to say -- it's wonderful and grounding, but in no way essential. Good lives, kindness, joy, fun are possible without it. It just one available guide. Luck and electrolytes, mebbe? A gift, for sure. But nothing to feel *proud* of.
Similar perhaps to being raised in a good family, with great values: makes the pathway a bit easier. But, overall, I actually have a great deal of awe for those who find their way without such help.
I'm close to without prejudice, and glad for it, but I was raised that way, and it was no kind of struggle to accept that. I more admire a friend of mine who was raised in a bed of hate, struggled with it, and emerged without hate. Now *that* was a journey to be proud of.
Thanks, Puddle for your clear explanation
of your Sheladows. And Jo--for your experience.
The only experience(s)
I have had was having my last two children
by hypnosis. Taught to me by my gyn/ob/pediatrician.He was middle aged at the time had given up band directing to go to medical school.
My last two were born in 1958 and 1962. Afterwards I was able for a while to destress using the same techniques. Then as Listener says life got--or I let it get in the way. in the way.
These weren't OBEs
but the certainly concentrated the mind!
Yes Jo, I received your invite. It's been crezzy bizzy bizzy. Burt and I have been working on the book. A seriously OCD friend read the book and marked some typos. Since he didn't have a pen with him (on the plane (of course, I imagine no one around him had one))he simply folded the pages where the typos were sure that he would be able to find them again. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Right! So Burt and I had to re-read each page until we found the error. if neither of us found anything after 3 reads apiece, we decided that our friend was seeing things.
So we made the changes (nothing really noticable, but like I said, our friend is seriously OCD) and uploaded it for publication again and ordered another 20 books.
Then we worked on the Kindle version. OY! looked great on the preview so uploaded that. Then we discovered that an ACTUAL Kindle only displays one page, not like Nook that displays two pages together (really really cool!) so now we have to go back in and eliminate the extra pages. I suspect that it will be the same thing for the iPad version.
Then we are working hard on marketing which is a real bear. So much to learn. But I promise, I'll go back and post that piece about my experience in the Congressional District Caucus. Two years ago, I also attended the caucus, however I ran a concession stand to raise money to help pay for the space. I think we raised over $1,000, but it's been a long time so I'm not sure.
Thanks so much for checking on me.
Yay!, Barb. Whatta lotta werk!!! Hope some fun in there, too. Learning experiences is very good for the mind. And keeping it, lol!
Shirlee, raising five kids and getting back to school in the midst of it is surely enough work for a life. My mom went to college for the first time, as a freshman, after my dad died. She still had five or six at home, the youngest was five. By then they were offering undergrad degrees in Social Work, so that's what she got. She never did get a "job" though -- by then she had enough grandbabies to keep her occupied. She had 42 when she died. I have three, and can feel overwhelmed by that number on occasion, lol!
Shirlee, since you can do/know self hypnosis, you might try "playing" with it. Once you get to that deep state, just "let go" and see where it goes?
My friend Trish, who taught me, had been having major Tic Douloureux, and was considering having the nerve cut. It became a non-issue after. Still shows up from time to time, but she can back it out to bearable. But even when she was doing the work just for pain control, it was working as a mystical experience, too.
The tears are funny, too. I began to see the ability to weep easily as a gauge of how well I was doing spiritually. Tears of sorrow, or joy. Which is still true. When I dry up, I know I've strayed, and need to get back on working on the path.
Thanks, Puddle--I may well try and see what happens. For a period of time while in Texas
I went to a good Reiki practitioner.
I really had my doubts--but after weekly sessions I began to feel less stressed--which helped with the pain
of RA. Decreased the frequency of sessions, continued to improve--and finally we both knew
when it was time to stop. I was so relaxed all I wanted to do was get the 60 miles home and get in bed. And Jan my Reiki Lady was totally exhausted at the last sessions.
If you choose Reiki be sure to find some one who has the training and certification--and makes a good personality fit.
It is a bit pricey--but it was well worth it at the time for me.
I still have no idea what makes it work--mind over matter--:) :)
Puddle--do you know that Guilford County--
GSO the county seat--has a large Quaker community?
They migrated down from Pennsylvania when land prices there got too high.
They built their Meeting houses, their communities--and what is now known as Guilford college. they are located mostly in the northwest of the county.
Many years ago, I was dating a guy interested in all kinds of new age healing. We spent a very informative three day weekend at a healing conference. I tried on all kinds of thangs. The homeopathy people left me just giggling (ya: eating kidney beans because they're the same shape as your kidneys, and you'll never need dialysis. . . .). Iridology was interesting: everyone in the room but me was a vegan/non-smoker. And I had the best/healthiest irises. . . .
Reiki at least left me with my belief system in place, lol! I was talking to a guy at Plenty of Fish for a while who was a Reiki master, and to tell the truth, he didn't know why, either. Just that it worked. Interesting Dude: he had another friend whose wolf spirits (she'd raised a number of them) followed him around. He found out later (mother fessed up) that he was First Nations. Wolf clan. Which he'd never known. She'd left her tribe when she married, and never told the kids. He faded before we ever met, but it was a very interesting correspondence.
Edwin stumbled across Guilford College one weekend when I'd come home to tend the animals. He was impressed. http://ncpedia.org/culture/religion/quaker-abolitionists (It was before the show opened, so he still had Sundays off.)
Target Selling Pride Shirts to Help Pro-Gay Marriage Group — and Reportedly Blocking Emails From Those Complaining
Posted on June 3, 2012 at 10:05am by Madeleine Morgenstern
Target Corp. is selling gay pride T-shirts to raise money for a group working to defeat a same-sex marriage ban in Minnesota — and is reportedly blocking emails from one group complaining about it.
The Minneapolis-based retailer — which came under fire two years ago for a $150,000 campaign donation in support of a gay marriage opponent — is currently selling special shirts with all proceeds benefiting the Family Equality Council.
In response, the American Family Association mobilized its supporters to urge Target to pull the shirts, but has since said the corporation is blocking emails sent through the organization’s internal system.
“I hope you will not let Target silence your voice. I encourage you to call their corporate office and share your personal thoughts,” the group told supporters.
Target has pledged up to $120,000 to the Washington, D.C.-based Family Equality Council, which is working against a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage slated for the November ballot. Target started selling the shirts in late May and will continue through the end of June. Available only on the retailer’s website, the $12.99 apiece shirts come in four designs with words including “pride” and “harmony.” One, designed by singer Gwen Stefani, features the phrase “love is love.”
According to the Associated Press, Target hasn‘t taken a stance on Minnesota’s ballot question. A spokeswoman said the T-shirt promotion was organized by a group of gay Target employees and that it’s the second time Target has had an initiative benefiting a specific group. The first raised money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“Target is pleased to be able to bring our guests products they want while, in turn, helping support the LGBT community through the donation of 100 percent of the purchase price to the Family Equality Council,” the company said in a statement.
A spokesman for Minnesota for Marriage, a group that supports the constitutional amendment, said Target’s actions are “an insult to the overwhelming majority of their customers.”
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I'd say: if you can, let Target know you support them. And why.
New thread!!
? Where?
I say if you want to support target, go to their website and get their T-shirt!
I am.
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