no more phonebooths = no more heroes - is anyone investigating the possible connection - call Soledad

anyone can be a superhero

Being a hero was a tricky job.

Besides being able to change into your superhero cape in a tiny little phonebooth and besides being able to leap tall buildings in a  single bound, well, we pretty much required that you be ... perfect.

And because this perfection, this state of rightness, doesn't really exist it required some conspiratorial bullshit to keep your superhero cape on straight.

We are living in a time of incredible change - the beginning of ... well, something else - something real.

A world where real trumps right;

a place where there is no perfect and the real heroes are the makers

(anyone making a real life and making real choices, even when things get messy and scary and we don't know what the hell we are doing yet or where the hell this is all going)

who are scared to death but putting ourselves out there anyway. This stuff is not for sissies.

Courage is telling our story,

not being immune to criticism

- Brene Brown

(and if you haven't watched her TED talk lately, it's HERE)

This new paradigm has the superhero confused.

(and we can't really blame her because we are the ones who gave her that cape, and pointed her toward the tallest building and told her she could fly in the first place)

Tomorrow is hub's birthday and I just bought the makings for his cake (and yes, we're talking Duncan Hines here). It reminded me of his 21st birthday when I made him a cake and it was such a mess that I tossed it and bought him a store made one. Then he called and said he couldn't wait to come over and eat the cake I baked. Ugh. So, I tossed the bakery box in with the cake I'd baked and presented the faked-baked-cake as my own.

Now, this is not such a terrible thing to do, obviously - I've done way worse things than this to hubs over the years, but George has gone on and on about this cake for decades - I swear to God he married me because he thought I would bake a cake like this faked-baked-cake everyday for the rest of his life (poor guy). This morning when I asked what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday his eyes sort of glazed over (this could be a dry eye thing - we are old now) and lamented, "remember that cake .....".

Our heroes, like everything else we see, are mirrors. We see ourselves in them and now that life is requiring us to go deeper we are not always liking what we are finding.

(like mistresses and performance enhancing drugs and drones and cake boxes hidden in garbage cans)

And whether we believe this go-deeper thing is a planetary cycle change where everything that isn't like our current vibration comes up to be looked at (like I do) or that this go-deeper thing is an internet, nothing can hide here anymore thing (like I do, too) - it doesn't matter - it only matters that we somehow, someway find the guts to be real.

Maybe we can't be right and learn something.

And yes, I'm going to confess to that faked-baked-cake or maybe just let hubs read this post. I think he might be as disappointed in me as the world is in Lance Armstrong. Marriage is not for sissies either.

all decisions are really two decisions ... (on why there are no wrong choices)

Let's not take action to make up for a lack of focus ... but once we decide we must take action.  

"A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided." 

- Tony Robbins

And once we decide and then take action we make a second decision.

"We choose and in making that choice then have to choose again to be right with that decision or to be bitter and regretful." 

- Kathy

 

and of course if everything falls (as grandma would say) to hell in a hand basket we always have this

a little words of wisdom from the good doctor today

print by sweet daisy designs

you can't miss the boat and if you do, it wasn't YOUR boat

rock the boat locket by me

We either live in a world of lack or a world of abundance

and we get to live in the world we believe we live in.

Yup, it's as simple as that. 

(and, if we say, of course I believe in abundance, I focus on abundance .. well, let's just take a breath with this and maybe even a little step backwards)

Because if we have some belief that we missed out on something somewhere - that our boat came in - and we were sleeping

(or looking at pretty pictures on Pinterest)

that by the time we woke up and stumbled into our UGGs and brushed our teeth and got our asses down to the dock - our ship has sailed

or if we believe that someone else is ahead of us - that if we don't hurry up and get something someone else is going to get it

or if we believe that we made a mistake in our past that we regret (yes, I mean any regret here, regrets are always about fear and lack)

then maybe this abundance thinking is just something we think we are doing; maybe our real beliefs are rooted in lack.

Lack says there isn't enough for all of us, so I'd better get mine, we only get one chance, one great idea, one soul-mate - we have to be vigilant or we might just blow it or even worse we already have blown it.

This isn't the way the world works, but it could be the way our world works. It doesn't have to be.

The truth of an abundant world is that we get lots of chances, lots of ideas and yes, even lots of soul-mates.

And this isn't an excuse to be all lazy and sit around looking at pretty pictures on Pinterest all day or to say that when one of these things comes along we shouldn't grab it - for God's sake - GRAB IT!

BUT we can't miss our boat and if we do - it wasn't our boat! And guess what - the flipside of this in an abundant universe is also true - if we get on the boat - it is our boat!

We simply can't screw this up.

No one can steal our thunder because it's our thunder and if it looks like they have - it's because it's their thunder - and there's always another thunder storm anyway.

No one is ahead of us (well, actually that new born baby could be more evolved than we are and she most likely is) and when we think someone is we have lost trust in an abundant universe, lost trust in ourselves. And this is good news, because it creates a space for us to recognize this; a space to shift our thinking.

So, we recognize this thought - we don't judge ourselves for it- we just recognize it "isn't this interesting", we let go of this thought of lack and then we reattach to the vibration of abundance - we can do this in an instant, we don't need 20 years of therapy to do this ruminating on what we have lost, on what has been taken. Nothing's been taken.

Now there are absolutely times when things fall into place for us or we have an idea and I absolutely believe we need to act on these things when they come up. But there is not one thing out there for us - there are lots of things - every choice just brings a different path and brings a different adventure.

There might have been a time in this planet's history when we could have missed our boat, I'm not sure - but if there was those days are gone- because we're steering it now - our boat can't leave the dock without us.

our kids are not science experiments - what we can do about GMOs in our food supply

The Non-GMO Project is a great resource for all of us concerned with what is happening with the food we are eating and feeding our children (much of the information below is taken from their site). They now have an iPhone app shopping guide that's a huge help when grocery shopping.

(since I only have a stupid-phone I have been copying and pasting from their site onto my grocery delivery service - yes, I've been having my groceries delivered - it's winter, I'm cold and lazy, but eating less GMOs these days)

GMOs, or “genetically modified organisms,” are plants or animals created through the gene splicing techniques of biotechnology (also called genetic engineering which sound scary because it is). This experimental technology merges DNA from different species, creating unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and viral genes that cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding.

If you are wondering why Monsanto is the scariest word in the English language this is why (well this plus agent orange, DDT, polystyrene - ranked 5th in total hazardous waste production with this one product alone, Round Up, PCBs, 300,000 dead Indian farmers and millions of dead everybody elses)

The most common GMOs are soy, cotton, canola, corn, sugar beets, Hawaiian papaya, alfalfa, and squash (zucchini  and yellow). Many of these items appear as added ingredients in a large amount of the foods we eat. For instance, your family may not eat tofu or drink soy milk, but soy is most likely present in a large percentage of the foods in your pantry.

GMOs may be hidden in common processed food ingredients such as: Amino Acids, Aspartame, Ascorbic Acid, Sodium Ascorbate, Vitamin C, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Flavorings (“natural” and “artificial”), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, Lactic Acid, Maltodextrins, Molasses, Monosodium Glutamate, Sucrose, Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP), Xanthan Gum, Vitamins, Yeast Products.

(the oil that little box of raisins is packed in that parents pack in their kids lunch as a "healthy" snack is a very high GMO risk- we need labeling!)

There is a great link HERE to GMO myths and truths and is a great wake-up call if this is an issue that is not on your radar. GMO foods are highly regulated and even banned in Australia, Japan, all the countries of the European Union and 50 other nations. In the U.S. we let the chemical companies tell us they are safe - they're not.

Cereals, snack bars, snack boxes, cookies, processed lunch meats, and crackers all contain large amounts of high risk food ingredients. In the U.S., over 80% of our food contains GMOs. Studies around the word have linked GMOs to cancer and infertility and we are ingesting them and feeding them to our children everyday.

(makes me furious - and that's a good things - mad moms can change things - just ask the alcohol industry)

We can't let this overwhelm us into passivity - we need it to stir all of us into action. There is a lot we can do - there is a great list HERE.

To make our voices heard by congressman, Obama, etc HERE

Saturn Saturday - and a full moon tonight in LEO

moon and stars prints by eve sand

There is a Full Moon tonight in Leo!

Because brave Leo rules our heart this is a wonderful time to release anything we are holding in our heart that is not for our highest good - the shoulda's and coulda's, old grievances and griefs - the opportunity for healing during this Leo full moon is immense. Make a list of what you want to release and set that baby on fire!

(I was just reading an article about how much dogs pick up the personality traits of their owners and I think this has more to do with them being under our energy the way young children are, but anyway, it got me thinking about Olive's one bad habit. She is just terrible to walk on a leash. She is constantly stopping to look behind her - it takes forever to get anywhere - drives me nuts! When we finally turn around and she is going somewhere she has already been she stops doing this and walks just fine - it makes me wonder how much of this looking backwards I am doing in my own life)

This week's charts are HOPE AND CHARITY (names changed to protect the innocent).

the cups part 5 - the secret of right timing called LUCK

Did you know 1 in 3 pieces of jewelry are worn for luck?

Another secret of that perfect cup of tea or coffee or hot cocoa (yum) is knowing when the temperature is just right.

(and I am starting to tire of the cup metaphor after 5 long posts and my teeny, tiny attention span and I'm sure you are, too, so if I switch to peppers or chicken wings or toasters to talk about temperature - I know you'll thank me)

Anyhoo, this right timing with tea is one of the secrets of right timing with everything. 

Many years ago, hub's lease was about to expire on his garage and we set up a meeting with the owners of the building to sign a new lease. When we arrived they told us their son had dropped out of college and had decided to ... open a truck repair business in our shop. So instead of renting to us they were going to rent to him and because our lease was about to expire we were basically out of luck.

As you can guess this was not good news. Hubs had just spent 3 years building his business in this location; working a gazillion hours. He was stressed. I was stressed, too and Olive, well Olive wasn't around yet, but let's just say, this was not a good day.

We started looking everywhere for a new location, but because we work on trucks and need larger doors than typical garages and because most locations are not zoned for trucks and because we didn't want to lose our existing accounts by moving too far away we were out of luck.

There was actually a perfect shop within blocks of our house, but it was an empty building next to a repair business that worked on cars and trucks and we didn't think they would want to rent to us (the competition), but finally, in desperation hubs went over to talk to them. The owner of the business said he didn't really work on that many trucks, but he didn't really need the rent money either - he'd think about it. 

We started to get our hopes up a little. We were only a couple weeks from having to move the shop. We thought maybe we were in luck.

The next day the owner of the business talked to the owner of the buildings who was an old woman and she said, "No, I don't know these people, I don't want to rent to them." Hubs set up a meeting, but she wasn't looking for any tenants she didn't know and she said, "No". We were out of luck.

The day before we had to move we heard about an empty airplane hanger at a nearby airport. Hubs, quite illegally I'm sure, moved his operation into the airplane hanger. We were in luck - sort of. His mechanic took a job somewhere else and hub's workload slowed down enough to make it all just barely do-able (no welding, no water, no heat, no windows). After a few months in the airplane hanger an old man moved into the hanger next door with a glider plane. He was in his 80's and getting his pilot's license.

Hubs and the old man became friends and one day he asked hubs why he was working in an airplane hanger. Hubs explained our situation and the old man said he knew an empty shop owned by one of his very oldest and best friends and he would talk to her. We were in luck.

It turned out this oldest and best friend was the woman who owned the shop down the street - it also turned out that in the few months we had been in the airport - the owner of the repair shop and main mechanic had developed carpal tunnel syndrome and was actually looking to do even less work. This all fell together. We were really in luck.

Now what is the chance that hubs would move into an airplane hanger next to a man who was best friend's with the woman who only rented to people she knew (so now she felt like she knew us because her friend did) and that the main mechanic would get carpal tunnel syndrome and now needed our rent money to make up the income he was losing from not being able to work as much.

This is the kind of win-win that life/the Universe/God can put together - it happens all the time. Sometimes we try to push and pull and make things happen instead of letting things fall into place and we muck this all up.

(sometimes there are a whole lot of things going on that we can't see - things that need to fall into their own places to make room for us to fit into ours)
 
Maybe the things we call unlucky - are actually the very steps that get us to the lucky - if we just stay on the path.

And staying on the path does not mean continuing to do the same thing - the very thing that isn't working for us, but it does mean doing something.

If we know what we want and if we know why we want it and we take action, maybe life can use whatever action we take - to get us where we want to be.

Maybe we really can get what we want from where we are with what we have!

 (we may have to let go of a few things first, often the idea of a rescuer - when we really get that no one is climbing down that well to pull us out, and we may need to grieve the loss of this myth for a while, but when we really get that - we can really start to make our journey to LUCKY happen)

Hubs is much more decisive than me. He is much more likely to know what he wants. My own right timing usually works differently and I'll talk about that in part VI (damn I love roman numerals!).

xo all