Thank you

I have been very remiss. I owe a big thank you to Emily for coming over here and helping me make my blog purple. She spent 2 hours on her day off helping me. What a gal!!!

THANK YOU EMILY, YOUR THE BEST. And I love the color purple (another movie title).

Excerpt

Well, I actually started my life story. This is an excerpt, I was two or three and obviously not very sensitive to animals, I am much nicer to them now. (possibly trying to make amends for earlier transgressions, and I haven't even told you about the cat yet)

We leased a ranch and stocked it with sheep and goats. In the spring there are always a few mothers who won’t or can’t feed their babies so it’s up to the humans to feed them. In that time we used empty soda pop bottles with rubber nipples that slipped over the rim. The trouble with this method is that the animal’s natural instinct is to “hunch” it’s mother to encourage more milk. Unfortunately, when the rubber nipple is “hunched” it comes off the bottle and the milk spills all over your feet. I am told (I don’t actually remember this myself) that “my” kid had crooked horns because I would hit him over the head with the bottle every time this happened. Apparently I was trying behavior modification at an early age.

So what do you think? Too honest?

Influence

Have you ever wondered what influence you have on other people?

Last month during the holidays I was lucky enough to have a young woman tell me that I had once had a large impact in her life and on who she is today. Let me say she is a lovely young woman, a wife and mother, and the thought that I could have had anything to do with it had never even occured to me. A year or so ago her younger brother had told my son something along the same lines, so let me explain. Some years ago their family was going through a difficult time, the kind most of us have at one time or another. I talked to the children, reassuring them and I took the brother for some ice cream (yes, as a Mom I still equate love and food). Anyway,( my point is and I do have one-Ellen DeGeneres) that I had totally forgotten what part I played in this scenario, but they hadn't. I was so grateful to be told what my small kindnesses meant to them. How often do we actually get that kind of feedback? How often do we give that kind of feedback? Do the people who have had a big impact on your life have any idea how important what they did or said was to you? If not, I urge you to tell them the next time you see them. It will mean a great deal to them. Trust me.

The title

So, just for fun, does anyone know what the title of my blog refers to? Just curious. Please let me know.

The psychic said

Well it was a fun evening. The psychics name is Kim O'neill and she has a web page. www. Kimoneillpsychic.com if you are interested in that sort of thing. Anyway, she gave some of her predictions for the year. Nothing too shocking or surprising. Mostly upbeat. Then she drew names out of a basket and answered one question per person. Well I couldn't really settle on a question, everytime someone else asked a question, I thought "I could ask about that too". Then as the evening wore on and it was running really late, I figured my name wasn't going to be drawn so I didn't even think about it anymore. Then at 10:40 the last name drawn was mine. I was so flustered I couldn't really choose a question, so I said "I quess I want to know what my life's work is". And she answered right away "writing, your first book is to be non fiction, your memoirs, your life story up until now". Martha just burst out laughing. She has been telling me this for several months. Kim also said Martha and I "channel" for each other, and I think that we have been doing just that. BUT WRITING!!! I can't possibly tell you how much resistance I have to this idea. So I'm just trying to be open to the idea, but mostly I am noticing how much resistance I DO have to this. I mean, I'm not that interesting a person, and my life has not been that interesting either. (See what I mean about resistance?)

I will manage to overcome this resistance, as I recognize it as the voice in my head I call the "critic", "naysayer", or "doubting Thomas" among other things. Does everyone have that voice? I think most of us do, but I don't know it for a fact. I mean do you think Donald Trump has it? Anyway, it also occured to me that I may need to write it just for my family's history, not for publication. I quess that would be less scary. Part of the scariness is about really reviewing my whole life. I mean, do I really want to go there? Part of me does. I once spent 4 days in a monastery because I just wanted to sit under a tree and look at my life to see what were the patterns or lessons I was working on, to sort of make sense of it all. The part of me that did that wants to do it again. But there is also another part, maybe the critic, that says "No way". Anyway, I don't think I will put the whole thing on my blog, maybe just some of the more interesting stories. We'll see.

Help?

Does anyone know how I can change the color of the template on my blog? I would like the color purple (sounds like a movie), but don't know how to get it done. I suspect my friend Emily has some answers here, as she has changed her blog several times.

So here's a question. What is your biggest fault? Mine is procrastination. I mean I am a serious procrastinator, and everyone who knows me will testify to same. I am especially bad if it is something I don't really want to do, like clean or take down the Christmas tree. So of course you know my tree is still up, but it's days are numbered. I wanted it down today but maybe tomorrow.

I'm going out to dinner with a friend and then we are going to a workshop called "an evening of channeling" by a psychic, with her predictions for the new year. I'll let you know if she says anything interesting. I've only gone to a couple of these kinds of things in my whole life but I find them sort of interesting, and this one seemed like a good idea. . . . we'll see.

The start

Well, here goes. After much foot dragging on my part, I have given in to pressure from friends to create a blog.

In keeping with the title of my blog, I will start with one of the things I know, (I don't always practice this bit of wisdom, but I do try to remember it) So here goes. Drum roll.....

If something doesn't work, don't keep doing it!

This came to me from someone I never met through a mutual friend. I think it is so simple sounding, but really hard to do. I mean, how many times do we keep on trying the same action while hoping for a different result. Another friend says this is the definition of insanity, but we think, "if I just try a little harder, or say it a little louder, or keeping repeating myself, THIS time it will work". If I had learned this, I mean really learned this a long time ago, I could have saved myself a lot of time. Maybe it's that old "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" thing, but I mean really, after a few tries, figure it out "it's not working!!". Try something else.

So there you have it, my very first blog. Not terribly profound, but still a good one.