DC Chair Nap

DC Chair Nap,
originally uploaded by bwaters.

Here's a picture of my kitty cat, DC. He's a major inspiration to me in my journey to perfection.

-Becky

Kitten Chow Shuffleboard

There's nothing like a good game of 'Kitten Chow Shuffleboard' to unscramble your mind and get the creative juices flowing!

I've been up in my office doing research for the next issue of my newsletter since about 7:00 pm. (It's almost 11:00 now.) Thought I'd focus it on "Meditation" since that subject seems to have come up a lot lately over the past week.

Not a problem except for the fact that after spending the last three plus hours going through the first four pages of the 12,800,000 results from a Google search, I'm a teensie bit overwhelmed. (Note the sarcasm?)

When I finally stop to take a breath... DC, my kitty cat, is dutifully laying on a small filing cabinet near my chair. When I ask him if he's ready to take a break, he charges out of the room, bounces down the stairs and runs into the kitchen.... poised in "ready" position for the first shuffleboard toss.

KCS (Kitten Chow Shuffleboard) has become a nightly ritual for us. I pour myself a glass of white wine - usually some brand of Pinot Grigio, (Ecco Domani is my favorite), and pour DC some fresh Kitten Chow. Then I sit on a small step stool that I keep in the kitchen (at 4'10" step stools are a necessity!) and pull his food bowl over beside me. Then I choose a piece of the dry kitten food and make the first toss.

Sometimes he gets so excited about playing, his whole body vibrates. If he was a dog, his tail would be wagging so hard he wouldn't be able to walk straight! The small kitchen is long and narrow, making a perfect shuffle board. DC runs from one end to the next, chasing the Kitten Chow tosses and gobbling them up. We sometimes play 10-15 minutes... or until he starts to just lay there and watch the tosses go by.

All in all, this is very good for both of us. We both get "quality" mother-kitten time, DC gets food, attention, excercise, and I give my brain a much needed rest as well as its own "play" time.

During the game, my brain is free to wander around, thinking what it will. Tonight, fretting over what to write about in my next blog post.... the obvious hit me - write about Kitten Chow Shuffleboard!

And so I did. :o)

Here's to continuing the Journey.... and taking time out for quality play time.

-Becky

Overwhelm

o·ver·whelm - tr.v. o·ver·whelmed, o·ver·whelm·ing, o·ver·whelms

1. To surge over and submerge; engulf: waves overwhelming the rocky shoreline.
2. 1. To defeat completely and decisively: Our team overwhelmed the visitors by 40 points.
   2. To affect deeply in mind or emotion: Despair overwhelmed me.
3. To present with an excessive amount: They overwhelmed us with expensive gifts.
4. To turn over; upset: The small craft was overwhelmed by the enormous waves.

Yup, that's me. Here's the latest contributing factors:

• Traveling always has it's own brand of overwhelm.
• Very intense 24-hour workshop this past weekend.
• Woke up sick Tuesday morning with stomach virus... still not completely well.
• Still recovering from my computer crash and loss of data.
• Over 800 emails still in my inbox - mostly resulting from the "miracle" of getting ALL my emails back after getting my computer reset up after the crash.... all of them since Sept 15, 2004!
• Just volunteered to take my first acting role in a local theatre - which for an introvert who is not totally comfortable speaking in front of groups (but really wants to get over this!), I consider this a graduate crash course on 'Face Your Fears and Get Over It!'

.... perhaps that's why I've been throwing up?

According to Louise Hay's book, Heal Your Body, the mental thought pattern behind vomiting is: "Violent rejection of ideas. Fear of the new." The affirmation she suggests to build a new thought pattern is: "I digest life safely and joyously. Only good comes to me and through me."

Hm. Something to think about....

Here's to continuing the Journey... trudging through overwhelm, facing fears and learning to digest life safely and joyously!

-Becky

Running Late

Okay.... so I should be about half way to Knoxville by now.... going to the Power of Love workshop this weekend. It starts tomorrow morning at 9:00, so technically, I've got plenty of time to get there, right?

Since I've never driven to Knoxville, I was planning to leave somewhere between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon so that I'd get there before dark. From looking at the map and talking to people, it's anywhere from a 3-4 hour drive plus a time change (from CST to EST). I'm thinking now, at 12:42 p.m., clothes in the dryer, still not dressed or packed, that if I can be in the car driving away by 2:00 p.m. it won't be dark too much by the time I get there.... (?)

So.... what have I been doing all morning?

I've actually gotten a lot of little stuff done that I've been putting off. I've also finished three big projects - finalizing the first sale of my children's musical, getting pictures uploaded from my students' piano/organ party last weekend, and getting user names and passwords set up for the Members-Only area of my teaching website, Water Music Studio.

Yipee!

Oh yes, and post an entry to this blog. I made a promise to myself to write a post every other day - which works out to be the even numbered days.

Double Yipee!!

Here's to continuing the Journey... making progress in small steps and adjusting the finish line as needed!

-Becky

The Distance Between

The distance between where I want to be in life compared to where I am now is.... probably a 5th or a 6th - measured by musical intervals, that is.

A musical interval refers to the distance between two notes. This "distance" is called an interval, and can be 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths and 8ths, which are called octaves.

I've been thinking about intervals a lot lately.... Each one has a certain recognizable sound, and in my article, Melody Codes, (which I'm considering turning into my first e-book), I give examples of each interval as used in common tunes. I wrote it several years ago, so I'm thinking about offering a contest to my piano/organ students to come up with more up-to-date examples.

All this must have gotten the creative juices flowing because after checking my email this morning, I turned off the world (i.e. my email program) and wrote a song - for the first time in about a year.

It felt GREAT!

Of course, then I did the obsessed tunnel-vision thing and couldn't stop until it was done. (My plan was to just write for an hour and establish this as a new morning habit.) That was at 8:30 a.m. CT. It is now 1:00 p.m. CT.

Oh well.... Here's to continuing the Journey... and letting the creativity flow!

-Becky

Here's a copy of the first page. Made an mp3 file too. When I figure out how to upload it, I'll share it with you!

I Love. Do You?

Trying to think of some kind of special Valentine's Day post to write this morning, I got an email announcement from a friend about a blog she had just started. The Valentine's thought she proposes is perfect in it's simplicity and in it's relevance to all people, whether married or single.

I'm definitely taking on this new-thought challenge!

I love. Do you?

Here's to continuing the Journey.... and affirming Love.

-Becky

Asking for Help

If you have not discovered BeliefNet.com I encourage you to explore this site. It has a wealth of information including articles, quizes and an assortment of daily quotes that you can subcribe to.

My favorite is the Angel Wisdom daily quote. And the timing of today's quote was exactly what I needed:

Dear Angels, help me know where to put my foot down next. Please make it REALLY clear, so I won't miss it. - Barbara Mark and Trudy Griswold, The Angelspeake Storybook

Sometimes I get so focused on "doing" and plowing-through-by-golly that I forget to take a step back and survey the land, so to speak, and ask, "Ok... what's next? Where do I go from here?"

Think I'll try that all day today and see what happens!

Here's to continuing the Journey.... and having the wisdom to ask for help.

-Becky

What if....

"What if," my friend said to me last night, "what if money was no concern and you could do anything you wanted. What would you be doing? How would you spend your time?"

After some thought, I answered, "I'd be going to women's shelters and homeless shelters, talking to people, listening to their stories, trying help them, if they chose, to let go of being the "victim" and helping them find the way to take control of their own lives again."

"So why don't you do that now?"

Thinking about that conversation this morning, my mind is filled with fears and thoughts of self-doubt:

• "Who do you think you are?!"
• "What could you possibly have to share?"
• "You wouldn't know what to say anyway."
• "That would be such a 'patronizing' thing to do!"
• "You don't have time. You can't even get the things done that you already have to do."
• "You don't have the skills, training or credentials do do that sort of thing."
• "You don't even know where those places are in Huntsville, anyway."
• "That's way outside of your comfort zone."
  

About that time I got this email:

We often have to shhhh'em-up, Becky, here in the unseen. It's just that they become so excited when they see that a really HUGE dream is about to manifest in the seen, they completely forget that from where you are, nothing, yet, appears any different.

SHU-U-USH IT!
The Universe

P.S. Becky, never trust appearances (unless they make you happy).

Hm.... here's to continuing the Journey.... and getting up the courage to see beyond appearances.

- Becky

P.S. The Universe daily ezine is from www.tut.com

What Do You Really Want?

We all have different desires and needs, but if we don't discover what we want from ourselves and what we stand for, we will live passively and unfulfilled.

- Bill Watterson

Through December and the first part of January, the internet was brimming with on-line newsletters giving advice and helpful hints for New Years Resolutions and setting goals for 2005. Each had their own individual way of expressing it, but the basic steps boiled down to these:

• decide what you want
• design a plan
• go for it

Now, that's all fine and good - IF you know what you want. My challenge has always been trying to decide exactly what DO I want?

My recent computer crash (read Computer Crash Course) helped me remember that the foundation for deciding what I want (verses going from this to that in endless circles) is in knowing my purpose for being here.

When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.

- W. Clement Stone

With a mission in hand, I have a direction and a set of guidelines for evaluating large and small decisions and choices that come my way.

I'm finding, though, that even with these self-determined "boundries" it's still not always blatently clear where the road is.... It's like driving on a snow covered highway and you're in the lead car making the first tracks, surrounded by "white" all all sides. You have a good guess where the boundries of the road are - or should be - but you have to drive slowly and very intuitively, watching out for curves in the road.

I'd much rather have neon signs flashing and big arrows pointing the way!

But I guess that's just part of the Journey.... driving intuitively, watching for curves in the road.

-Becky

P.S. For ideas on finding your purpose and creating a mission statement for your life, read the latest issue of Create a Happy 'Tude - Desire.

What's Your Spirituality?

Click on the title link above (What's Your Spirituality) to go to a fun on-line test that was introduced to me by a fellow blogger, Paul Willis. (check out his blog, 'Off The Beaten Track'...)

Just answer the 20 questions around your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and other sorts of things, and it will tell you what religion you practice... or should be practicing!

Try it out..... I was very surprised at my results. (I didn't even know there WAS a "New Thought" religion!) Here they are:

1. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (100%)
2. New Thought (100%)
3. New Age (97%)
4. Unitarian Universalism (92%)
5. Scientology (85%)
6. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (84%)
7. Neo-Pagan (83%)
8. Liberal Quakers (81%)
9. Mahayana Buddhism (64%)
10. Taoism (59%)
11. Reform Judaism (54%)
12. Theravada Buddhism (48%)
13. Secular Humanism (42%)
14. Bahá'í Faith (41%)
15. Hinduism (40%)
16. Sikhism (37%)
17. Orthodox Quaker (36%)
18. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (26%)
19. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (22%)
20. Nontheist (22%)
21. Jehovah's Witness (14%)
22. Jainism (10%)
23. Orthodox Judaism (10%)
24. Islam (6%)
25. Seventh Day Adventist (1%)
26. Eastern Orthodox (0%)
27. Roman Catholic (0%)

Here's to continuing the Journey.... and finding your preferred path.

-Becky