Blog...Write...Journal

Blog, Write, Journal:  After writing yesterday's blog, I started thinking even more about the idea of waiting to do things until the "perfect time."  Write about the idea of the perfect time. Does such a thing exist?  What makes us believe we've hit the perfect time? 

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After yesterday's blog, I realized something.  And that's the it's not only the fun things in life that I sometimes defer unless I think I can do them perfectly.  It's also the not fun things.  Like calling to set up appointments for the dentist or my daughter's driving school. 

Why do I put off the things I don't want to do?  It's just as unpleasant (sorry dentist) to go to the dentist in three days as it is in three weeks or three months.  I am not going to make the perfect phone call or set up a perfect appointment. I'm not going to magically transform into the perfect patient (sorry dentist.)  It's not like I have to save up the money because I have dental insurance, so there is really no reason at all to wait. Putting off this type of thing only leads to me feeling anxious about it.  It doesn't get easier.  It becomes a burden at the back of my mind. 

Yes, this is me avoiding something unpleasant.  But it's also me trying to make everything all perfect, even choosing the perfect time to go.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  It just has to get done.  Sometimes in life, it's okay to say....I'm going to call, and my voice might hesitate,  and I might not pick the perfect time, and I might not (will not) be the perfect patient, but it is okay.  I am human, and I am worth good care.  The dentist would be unhappy if all of his patients were perfect, anyway. He wouldn't make any money that way. :) 

So, maybe there is no perfect time to go to the dentist.  Is there a perfect time for other things?  Maybe in some ways.  Maybe there are some times that are more comfortable.  Maybe some times that are more accommodating of your schedule and of others schedules as well.  Maybe some times that are more affordable.  Maybe some times that make more than one person happy.  Maybe some times that make other people more comfortable and give everyone a better chance at feeling safe, secure, loved, and comfortable.

In embracing the idea that every time is actually imperfect, there's a lot that I can let go.  For example, I have been struggling with a writing project.  I know that often, things will all come together just as they should, and that the struggle will resolve itself.  However, I am also deciding that it is okay to show an imperfect draft to someone else.  To reveal that maybe my work isn't always almost-perfect.  To show someone the thought-gaps and the randomness that sometimes appear before I share. 

Does letting go of the perfect time concept mean giving up?  No.  Does it mean doing nothing?  No.  Does it mean not trying?  No.  Actually, giving up on the idea of being perfect means doing more, trying more, caring about myself more, enjoying life more, and having more fun. 

Is now the perfect time to publish this blog post?  Maybe yes, maybe no, but I'm going to hit the button, anyway. 

Rachel

What a relief to understand that there is no perfect time for anything. 

Blog, Write, Journal: What are your thoughts on perfection? Do you feel like you'd rather not doing anything than do something poorly? 

Write about how perfection has impacted your life, in both positive and negative ways.  Make up your own definition for the word "fail."  Go try something new and write about how you succeeded or failed at it. 

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I am recently back from a spring break trip with my daughter.  We stayed at a nearby resort and planned to spend our days sleeping in and shopping, having spa treatments and doing other fun things, like taking painting classes.

Although I'm the one who suggested the painting class, I wasn't really sure of my decision right after I clicked the "buy" button.  I have never considered myself to be an artist or to be artistic, even though I have an eye for photography and was published several times in the past for handmade cards and scrapbook pages I created.  A painting class, even one geared towards a wide audience of ages and skill sets....well, I wasn't sure about it. 

What if I couldn't do it?

What if I wasn't good enough at it?

What if I was the worst student the teacher had ever had?

I went anyway. 

I went anyway, and I had a great time.  A really relaxing time where I learned how to paint mountains and how to blend paint.   I enjoyed myself because I didn't have to be perfect.  The class wasn't about how perfectly I could paint or about how perfectly I could do anything. 

It was just fun. 

And that's when I started thinking: you don't have to do something perfectly to enjoy it. 

Later in the week, we played pool.  I once had a friend try his best to teach me to play, but I am still not even a good pool player.  But, you don't have to play perfectly to enjoy pool.  You don't have to be a perfect bowler to go to the bowling alley.  You don't have to be a championship ping pong player to enjoy playing ping pong.  Maybe it's more fun sometimes to do something imperfectly.

We did all of those things that week on break, and I loved doing all of them.  Because I didn't try to do them perfectly.  I didn't have to expect to do them perfectly.  Because I realized that there's a lot of fun in doing things just for the sake of doing them. 

Yes, there are experts in art, bowling, ping pong, and pool.  But those experts weren't on my vacation.  And they weren't there to judge me on how well as I doing or to give me a score.  And if they had been, they probably would have just been happy to see someone having fun doing something they love.

Why is it that we sometimes think we must do things perfectly or not at all?  Is perfection the shield that protects us from others laughing at our attempts or giving us an unkind critique?  Do we think that perfection keep us safe?  Perhaps. 

There's a saying that goes like this: "what would you do if you knew you wouldn't fail?"  I think this quote is contingent upon the definition of failing.  Failing has always been a very negative thing to me.  I would do almost anything to avoid it.  But what is failing really?  Isn't it really the absence of perfectionism? 

In bowling, is failing throwing a gutter ball?  In painting, is failing a tree that looks like  dancing ghost?  In ping pong, is failing when you don't return the volley and/or the ball goes under the vending machine?  It doesn't sound so awful when you think of it that way. It doesn't sound so awful when you realize that you can "fail" but still have quite a bit of fun doing it. 

What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?  What would you try, anyway, if you knew there was a good chance you would?

I'll wrap this post up here before it gets too philosophical.  Before I make an attempt to make it perfect.  And while I'm still having fun with it. 

Rachel

Blog, Write, Journal: Write about how you experience time. Are there times in your life when time speeds up or holds still?  Have you ever deliberately slowed down a rushed action to see what would happen? 

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This year, as I've studied topics such as abundance and gratitude, I've noticed little shifts in different areas of my life.  Although philosophers might say that every shift is a deliberate manifestation of my thinking, I would respond that some of the shifts are more deliberate than others. 

One of my less deliberate experiences has to do with time. I didn't say to the universe....universe, change how I experience time....but I am experiencing a change nonetheless. And it's a good one.  Let me tell you what I've noticed so far. 

First, time slowed down in one place catches up to itself somewhere else.  Call this Rachel's First Unscientific Law of Time.  You would think if you got up in the morning and spent ten extra minutes getting dressed that you'll wind up being ten minutes late to work.  10 minutes behind=10 minutes behind, right?  Well, not necessarily.  I'm finding that time sometimes slows down (the idea of being late) and sometimes speeds up in compensation.  I know it sounds weird.  Time seems so measureable.  I mean, we have the second and the minute and the hour for a reason, right?  Or so it would seem.  Without any deliberate rushing on my part, I've seen time compensate for itself, putting me exactly where I need to be, on time, even when at first, it looked like I would be late.

Second, certain things that I used to rush to finish?  Well, I've reevaluated my need to rush.  A good example is dinner. I like to cook, but I don't like to cook when I'm rushed. When I'm rushed, I will still cook, but I deliberately choose meals that can be prepared quickly.  The rush of cooking seems to lead to a rush of eating.  And that's not fun. 

The last two Mondays, I've slowed down my cooking because the recipes I made required several steps.  And I realized by deliberately choosing to spend more time cooking, I was immersing myself in the cooking zone (which is a lot like the writing zone) and creating a good experience, not just creating a good meal (although that has definitely been a wonderful part of the process.) 

So, we eat later....my daughter and I have agreed it's worth it.  She's happy because she's learning how to cook for herself when she's in college and beyond, and we both love to create, so cooking satisfies that need for us as well.   I'm not sure when or where I decided that it was more important to serve dinner quickly than to create a quality experience. :)  But I'm glad I discovered this now.

Third, I've realized how much I love the "time slowing down" feeling.  Doesn't matter what I'm doing.  Even something that feels as silly as having as much time as I want to take a shower and do my hair makes me feel really good.  Time slowing down=immersion in whatever I'm doing, and immersion feels good. Really good.  I experienced this "lost in time" sensation at the grocery store last week, and while it wasn't the most efficient trip ever (probably the least, ha ha), there was still something about it...

We've named time.  We've named the different components of it.  Seconds, minutes, hours.  We've done this so that we can communicate, so that we know what time it is in London when it's 4AM in Utah, so that we know when to get to the airport and how long to stay at the party.  But through our naming, and even through our experiences of daylight and darkness, time may have more depth than we've ever imagined. 

Rachel

Blog, Write, Journal: What are the little pleasures in your life that make you happy? 
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Sometimes in life, it starts to feel like you are scheduling your life around the "big" moments.  Life can somehow get swept away as you work towards making the big moments happen.  And I'm not saying that big moments are a bad thing or that it's wrong to set goals and work towards them.  But there's also a lot of gold to be found along the way to the treasure.  :) 

A recent horoscope reminded me of how much I enjoy life's little pleasures:

"It's life's little pleasures that make you light up today, so don't worry about any setbacks or big-picture stresses. Smell the roses, enjoy that first cup of coffee and smile at everyone you meet."

With that reminder, I decided to write a really simple blog post.  A post about the little treasures and small pleasures in my life.  Here are just a few of mine from today:

Good morning notes, hot coffee, good hair days, the wonderful feeling of choosing heels over boots, a favorite skirt, a soft blouse, talking to friends, kind remarks, helpful people, a favorite perfume, smiling, laughing, silly things, conversations, notification that a new book has shipped, ideas to write about, birds singing, pretty pictures, inspiring quotes, a word for the day, talking to friends, the color blue, the way the Wasatch mountains outline against the sky, predicted temperatures in the low 70's, hugs, the good feeling of finishing work projects before Spring Break, and I'm sure there are more. :) 

But that's a good starting point. :) 

Rachel

Blog, Write, Journal: Give yourself permission to write something and not finish it.  A poem, a short story, a blog post, a novel, a recipe.....whatever.  If you feel like finishing what you start, you should.  If you don't, then consider it complete where you ended it.  It may be interesting later to see where you stopped and perhaps to understand why.

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This morning I woke up with an idea for a project.  Actually two ideas.  One for a short story novel, and one for a non-fiction book. 

Whenever I have a creative idea, it usually goes like this:
1. The idea floats into my mind.  I love it--it's great!  It will change the world. :)  Funny how many of my ideas take on a spin that "this will change the world!"....I guess it must be the idealist in me. :)

2. I imagine myself beginning to write the idea.  My imagination kind of takes over the idea and starts exploring it.  Everything feels good; I'm still in a zone of creativity. I could say this, I could say that, what if this, what if that?  All the components of the idea are wonderful!  The ideas flourish!

3.  I envision the project complete, designed, ready for sale, people buying it, what the comments on Amazon might be, how the project could take me in a new life direction, and so on.

4.  My mind switches from creativity to analysis, and I start thinking in detail about all the things that would need to happen to make the project a success (this morning, that included who I would hire to do the illustrations for one of the projects because it needs illustrations if it's going to work.)

5.  Paralyzed by thoughts of marketability and stifled by too many details, I don't write anything.

That's right.  I don't write anything. 

And that is sad.  Because I love to write for fun.  And I want to bring that back into my life.  I want to welcome writing for writing back into my life.  I had dozens of journals when I was a little girl.  I had folders and folders of half-written projects and notebooks full of ideas.

And although some (edit round: leaving the word some here, I meant to write none)  of my ideas never turned into best selling novels, at least I had fun writing them down.

Why so much pressure on myself as an adult to only write to sell?  To only write if I can see a clear ending?  Who says that you can't start writing a piece unless you know who your illustrator will be when you put down the first word?  It's so not me to feel like I must have every detail figured out, but for some reason, that's the logic I've adopted in terms of my own creative writing. I'm using this unRachel-like logic to block myself from doing something that I enjoy.

So clear to me this morning that this is what I'm doing.  So clear, and I'm grateful that I was able to type out what's going on in my head here.  And the solution is clear to me, too.  It's giving myself permission to be myself.  My sometimes random and flighty self who loves to start new projects and only likes to finish them when it feels rewarding.

There is no rule that says that I must start a creative project with the intent to finish it. There's no rule about that anywhere in life.  Finish what you start?  Who every came up with that phrase?  Maybe that works with a practical project. For example, if I decided to paint my living room, I guess I'd see a clear path from start to finish.  It would be a good thing to make the plan, to choose the paint, to hire the painter, to schedule the work, to envision the final project, to put all the furniture back when done.  Finished! Complete!

But in the creative process that happens within my own mind, there's not a clear path. And honestly, knowing the outcome of a creative story when I write the first word sounds pretty horrible to me.  Why would I not want to be surprised by the ending? Why would I not want to open myself up to a project that became even more than I ever expected or that simply kept me entertained for two hours one afternoon? 

So, my new brave step in reclaiming my love of creative writing is this: I don't have to finish anything I start.  I don't have to plan how to sell anything I write.  I don't have to deal with any details unless I want to do it.  As my brother recently suggested when I was talking to him about a different problem: "find someone else to take care of the details so that you can keep your head in the clouds." 

My head in the clouds. 

This blog post?  Well, it looks like I finished it. :)  But who knows if I will finish my short story or my non-fiction book project that I woke up thinking about this morning.  Maybe I will.  Maybe I won't.  Either way, the only things that matters is that I honor my own thoughts and that I embrace who I really am as a creative writer.

Rachel

Blog, Write, Journal: When you see a clever play on words, write it down (or pin it.)  When you think of one, acknowledge it.  Write it down or say it or find a pin and pin it. It doesn't matter how silly it seems at the moment...just acknowledge it.

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When you write and get paid for it, it's a wonderful thing.  Payment for words in dollars can feel really amazing and getting paid well for writing is definitely appreciated.  However, sometimes when you trade words for cash, you prearrange the words will meet a certain criteria.  You make a trade: you will give your client what he wants in exchange for payment. 

That's not necessarily a bad thing, however, if you're not aware of it, your creativity can start to slowly slip away from you.  Your writing can become less about self-expression and your own creativity and more about what is marketable.  (I know this well.  I have put many ideas on hold because I pre-judge them as being unmarketable.  Working on this.) 

But this doesn't have to happen.  There are tricks for staying on top of your own creativity, and one of those tricks is to be open to having fun with words, no matter what anyone else thinks (you see, I don't care how cheesy or dumb my plays on words might sound to others because it's just something fun for me.)

Let me give you some examples of words I had fun with this week:
1.  On Wednesday, it was extremely windy at my daughter's school.  When I dropped her off, I said, "oh, Happy Windsday."  (I found this extremely amusing, but she did not.  Doesn't matter.)
2.  I was pinning to my boards on Pinterest and think about a play on words between "pinning" and "pining" (romantic longing.) 
3.  My daughter and I were walking out of the bookstore and talking about which months are also verbs.  She said March, so I did.  The other verb month is May.  I'm sure we'll have some fun with that one, soon. 

Sometimes, it's just good to have fun with words.  Words can be quite serious, but they can also be quite fun.  Don't let the fun of words slip away from you just because decided to make them into your career. 

Rachel

Blog, Write, Journal:  What do you think about today's trilogy trend in writing?  Are you happy to have more books to read or do you sometimes feel like the books were written just to sell?  Write about your favorite or least favorite trilogy or write about a single book that you wish was part of something more. Describe why series books appeal to you. What series book could you not WAIT to read next?  Or, write about how your reading habits as a child influence your writing habits today.  <So many choices!>
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I've been reading quite a bit lately.  Finishing two or three books a week.  Part of this is the reintroduction of the library into my life (although my daughter doesn't like to read, recent term papers for school have found us at the library almost every weekend....hooray!) and part is just that I am in a reading mood. 

I grew up loving books that come in series.  Our local librarian started me down this path when I was old enough to check books out of the junior's section of the library (a step above the children's section.)  We're talking chapter books with characters that you got to know and love--the Wizard of Oz series, the Nancy Drew series, the Litltle House on the Prairie series, the Betsy-Tacy series (oh, how I loved those books), the Happy Hollisters series, and more. 

See the photo in this post?  That's a little bit like what the shelves of my childhood bedroom looked like.....from the floor, to the ceiling, packed with books, many of them series. 

Oh how I love a good series. 
And oh how disappointed I am by a bad one.

In reading so much lately, I'm noticing trends in today's series (Hunger Games, Allegiant, The Selection, Matching, and predicting the same for Archetype) that make me wish the author had stopped with the first book.

Here are a few I've noticed:

1. The first book is amazing.  Great characters, fresh story line, interesting details. The first book is told from the point of view of one character.  You like her, you pull for her, you struggle with her, you want her to succeed. There are things about the time when the story is written that you just can't believe!  You are fascinated and engaged.  There's likely a love story involving her choosing between two men, both of whom she loves but in different ways.  You can't stop reading...you must learn more about what happens to her! 
Emphasis: characters, relationship, love.
2.  The second book is less amazing.  it's often narrated by two characters.  You still have your first narrator, but now maybe one of her love interests tells the second part of the story.  Instead of being told in the interesting first setting, the second book now becomes a trek or a journey.  There's less emphasis on relationships between the characters and more emphasis on the trek.  She's pretty much already selected which guy she wants, but they don't spend much time together because he's either disappeared to save her or been transported off somewhere, and she has to find him. 
Emphasis: trek, journey (outer or inner)
3.  The third book.....well, you don't even know if you want to read it or not.  The author may now be telling the story from three different character's point of view.  The first interesting story is over.  The trek is over.  And now the characters are involved in some sort of rebellion or uprising.  The story becomes less about the characters and more about a fight to take back society.  It's like the author has lost her connection to the character's stories and is more focused on describing fight scenes. *sigh*  
Emphasis: rebellion, fighting

I feel like my disappointment in what I'm calling a "bad" series is that it sometimes feels like the second and third books have been deliberately crafted to become movie sequels.  Romance+a journey+a rebellion=box office success, over and over and over again, right?

Or, maybe it's just me. 

Maybe I am just in love with a love stories and the romance has to come first for me.  The love and romance needing to be priorities over the journey and the rebellion.  And maybe I get too attached to the first person who tells the story and then I really don't want to listen to other people telling me their version of what she could say on her own. 

I'm tempted to read just the first book of any series these days and leave the rest on the shelves. 

But I know I won't.  Even if I only read half of book three. 

Rachel

Blog, Write, Journal: Do you love memes or hate them?   Why or why not?  Write a few of your own memes. It's good practice in writing short copy and getting a message across in just a few words. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
A friend recently mentioned how much she dislikes memes.  No, not mimes--that would be truly cruel.  Memes.  You know, pictures with words on them, commonly found on Pinterest and Facebook?  When I asked her why she disliked them so much, she told me that she finds them to be ridiculous sound bites of philosophy, often misquoted. 

While I can see her point of view, I must admit that I do love memes.So I asked myself the same question that I asked her. Why do I love them? 

Here are my reasons why:

1.  A meme is indeed a sound bite, and sometimes, that's what I want.  Sometimes I just need one good quote and a pretty picture to get me through the day.  I've actually started picking a quote for each day, and it's nice to always have a touchstone of sorts, especially in the middle of a day that is crazy or exhausting. 
2.  Memes are an introduction to authors I've never read.  Through collecting memes, I have been introduced to works by authors that I might never have read before.  Sometimes seeing a collection of memes from one author (say Rumi) leads me to wanting more, more, and more.  I bought the Eckhart Tolle book "The Power of Now" because of a meme.  A quote from a Woody Allen movie on a meme recently led to a conversation that led to me watching one of his other films.
3. Memes are a cute, fun, pretty, beautiful, adorable way to introduce a little happiness into my life.  This is the same as sharing a cartoon, or a song, or a video that makes you laugh.  Really no difference.  I love the socially awkward penguin memes because they make me laugh.
4. Memes are a great way to start a conversation and connect with others.  I don't always have time to have a whole discussion on every word in a book of philosophy, but I can have a lot of fun discussing one sentence.  And sometimes, just a picture and a few words are all it takes to realize how much something (or someone) means to you. 
5. Memes show patterns.  I've noticed as I select and share memes, I begin to see patterns: what I'm dreaming about, what I want to discover, experiences I want to have. Sometimes it seems like all of a day's memes are pointing to something that I really want to focus on, maybe something new I want to learn or something I want to attract into my life.
6.  Memes are like a collection of visual wishes.  I have 4,000 wishes (at the moment) pinned to my boards on Pinterest.  Some of those pins are links to articles or websites I want to go and read or recipes for meals I want to make in the tiny home where I want to live.  But some of those pins are memes. 

So here's to memes.  The silly ones, the serious ones, the ones that make me laugh, the ones that make me feel, the ones that make me think, and the ones with the heart-shaped leaves. 

Rachel

Blog, Write, Journal: Where do you feel stuck in your life? If the complicated solutions feel overwhelming, is there a simple solution that you can employ today? Or, write about how you choose to refresh yourself when you feel stuck. 

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Sometimes life seems incredibly complicated.  There have been times in my past where I've felt sadness because I feel stuck.  Stuck in my middle age, stuck in my geography, stuck in the responsibilities that I chose for myself. Stuck in a place where there's nothing new to see, nothing new to learn, and nothing left to create.

That sounds awful, doesn't it?  As I look at what I typed in the paragraph above, I am filled with gratitude that I no longer experience that feeling as often.  I am realizing every day that there are hundreds and thousands of experiences in life, yes, even in midlife, waiting for me to say YES.   It's a free and empowering freedom to realize that I am never really stuck at all. 

But what do I do if I have that feeling?  In the past, feeling stuck built upon itself.  A feeling of being stuck in one area lead to a feeling of being stuck in another area and rapidly, all those feelings would get stuck together (ha ha) and form a force that seemed insurmountable. 

So now I do this instead:

First, when I do feel stuck, I recognize the feeling for what it is.  Something is off.  I'm not feeling how I want to feel.  I've placed some barrier in my way.  I'm resisting something. 

Second, I am thankful for the feeling.  Thankful for feeling stuck?  Yes.  Because it's information that my body and my feelings are giving me.  And I am thankful that I have listened and heard the message.

Third, I quit whatever I don't like.  Oh wait.  Sorry, I don't do that. :)  Sometimes I think about it, a short-lived fantasy.
 
Fourth, I remember.  I have the key to the door.  I don't have to stay locked inside.  If I want to feel better, I can feel better. 

Fifth, I reorient myself.  I ask myself a question: how do I want to feel?  I want to feel good. 

Sixth, I hit the refresh button.  I say the words to myself: "I want to feel good."  And then close my eyes and I see, hear, and feel my heart beating.  And in that moment, I have a moment of peace, of love, of pure joy.  A pure and simple moment of feeling better.  

I realized today that what I'm doing is kind of like hitting the refresh button on my computer.  Because deciding that I want to feel good is just as simple as hitting F5.  Hitting my own virtual refresh button clears away any accumulated cookies (the past holding on?)  and gives me a moment of pure peace.  And I can hit that button and I can have that feeling whenever I want it or need it. 

It's just a matter of being aware of how I am feeling and deciding how I want to feel.   Five little words: I want to feel good.   I don't know yet how my life is going to turn out by choosing to refresh, refresh, refresh.  But it feels so good to do it, that I will continue to do it, anyway. 

There's not a "be stuck here for the rest of your life" button on my computer. 

Probably for a very good reason. 

Rachel

Blog, Write, Journal: Blog about a time when you knew something before it happened.  How did it make you feel?  Curious? Resistant? Powerful? Scared?

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Since Christmas, I've been studying the idea of abundance daily.  When I first started studying this topic, I really thought I wanted to attract the measurable, like money.  I love attracting money, and love attracting the intangibles, too.  Who knew that I wanted an abundance of joy, happiness, inspiration, peace, playfulness, fun, connection, and love?  I did, and I do.  Yes, yes, yes, and please and thank you.

In practicing abundance and gratitude, I've opened up my mind's ability to create what I want and to know things before they happen. This doesn't always happen in big ways (you'll see below), but it does happen and sometimes in surprising ways.  By letting my imagination be free and by thinking of everything I want, I am tapping into my ability to create and sometimes it happens very fast. What does that mean?  Let me give a couple of vague and specific examples. 

On Monday morning, I was getting ready for work.  And I had a feeling about a conversation that I was going to happen later that day.  I dismissed it as me being worried and letting my mind roam down a path of negativity, so I got myself refocused on good things.  But when I got to work, I had almost the exact conversation that I had thought of in my head.  (Vague)

On Wednesday morning, I imagined something in great detail as I walked into work.  I even imagined the dialogue. I dismissed this as my mind processing thoughts in a random sort of way.  Later that afternoon, someone shared exactly what I'd thought about with me.  I couldn't believe it.  Writing this out here, it still feels beyond my comprehension. (Vague.)

On Thursday morning, my daughter and I reviewed our Thursday dinner plan when I dropped her off at school.  We always plan our meals and shop for groceries on Sunday, so this was just a quick review of our day.  On Thursday afternoon, I thought about changing the dinner plan to something more simple and basic.  On Thursday night, when I got home from work, my daughter asked me to change the dinner plan to something more simple and basic.  In fact, to exactly what I'd thought about during my meeting. (Specific and silly, right?)

I am becoming more and more aware of my power to know and to create and less and less inclined to dismiss what I feel.  I am curious to see how this will continue to play out in my life; I remember once meeting with a psychic who told me that my career goal was to do what he did.  And I rather dismissed the idea, and said: "what do you mean? You mean I want to be a psychic? You can't just become psychic."

But maybe you can?

Rachel