Musing on the Old & New Year

Hi everyone. Here are my thoughts on the old and new year.
How are you going to be different in 2012? What are you going to change?

I just love the new year, plans for doing things different, new ideas, new projects, new hope. Of course, that doesn't always carry though the year and all those plans can fade as days go by.  For me, and I suspect for lots of people, as years go 2011 wasn't that great. It definitely had more stress than I care to manage. (Ultimately, I know how fortunate I am as some of my friends had significant loses, and all the people losing homes and jobs. Mostly my stressors are things I brought upon myself.)

Personally, I don't make resolutions - cognitively they're very bad.
I make no promises, no resolutions, but my mind will always be working and my efforts to work hard, be genuine, and grow, will be ever present.

In review of this last year it appears the hard work I've done in my business and my life is gaining momentum and effecting change. Bits and pieces of change happened over the last couple years, with more self aware and accountable, less critical, people coming into my life, which is very nice and encouraging. Looking back it seems things have been getting 'set up' for what's to come. That's a little exciting ('cause I gotta say I was really bored in 2011).

This Christmas a couple Santas came my way with gifts of possibilities.
Please don't get me wrong here, but keeping things working is not that hard. Most of the time you just ride the procedures in place (in one's life and business), and stick with comfortable policies or patterns. (i.e., undefined, and defined, attitudes, beliefs, tendencies.)  The trick is to keep things flourishing not floundering, and it is taking those possibilities and using them for change that is the real challenge.

And while I don't make promises, it seems to me that 2012 is promising to be a productive and successful year!
(my definition of success: how much love and laughter one has in life - ok, and this year it could include growing a couple businesses).

Ponder the past, plan for the future, enjoy the moment.

Here is a little ditty for your new year ...

20'11 has passed, what can I say,
Life moved on, days ticked away.
I settled down in the same old grind,
But this year, this year, I’m making mine!
Changing my patterns, my voice calling out,
I’ve things to say, I’m gonna shout.
So, in 20'12 everyone take each day,
And make sure there’s more time to PLAY!

Wising you a productive, healthy, happy, and fun year.
Happy New Year
Kathy

I 'wanna-be' a writer

     Which is funny since I don't read. I can, but not well. Think I've read 10 books my whole life. I was able to earn 3 college degrees, but even then I didn't read a text book from cover to cover, just a chapter or two, and paragraphs here and there. Though somehow I can write. I write volumes, much of which never gets read.
      I didn't discover I could write until 1985, when I got my first Macintosh. I was 26.  My boss had one and said I could write reports and notes from home. Yes!  It was then I started writing reports, assessments, and programs. I learned from a few good professors and supervisors some writing tools. As those skills developed and my typing improved, I started writing some stories and poems. 
     And then blogging was born. When blogging was hitting the mainstream I though how silly. Everyone has some opinion, we all know that, and why would you send your thoughts out there where there's a zillion blogs and no one is going to find yours? OK, so I was wrong. It's inspiring to think someone might stumble upon my musings and perhaps want to read more. As an aspiring writer I need to practice, right?
     Now, at 55 with my life experience, education, observations, study of human nature, and listening to the thousands of children and adults tell their stories in my work as a therapist - I have something to say ....

Generators are best bought in summer!

February 2011

I bought a generator yesterday. The worst time to buy one, of course. It was an impulse buy. I had to “save the food” .... and keep from going stir crazy. 

Sometimes I just don't think these things through. In the middle of the storm, I drive to town knowing I was crazy (turns out many other fools were out there, too). Town was shut down, no power, though a couple stores were open.  I hung out at the hardware store for awhile. We all watched the snow fall, the old guys talking about a time when Grass Valley had 10ft banks every winter. Now we only get one or two small storms, snows gone in a day. It was nice to be around people, and I don't often say that. One gal at the store took me to their break room for coffee and we drank hot coffee and chatted. They had a big generator, and lots of coffee. They were sold out of household generators! 

So, once warmed up and with my fill of social time I cross the street to the Honda store. The Honda store! Could I have gone to a more expensive spot?  Then I buy an item I can barely lift (70 lbs) much less carry the 50 ft to where it would go. Turns out that didn't matter anyway because I couldn't get my 4 wheel drive up my steep driveway. But I was determined so I walk the 1,000 ft, 20% grade, driveway up to the house, get the snow shovel, walk down, do my best to shovel me out. A few tears of frustration, with lots of pep talks - all the while hoping I don't have a heart attack. 

A path was cleared, I get in and move. Yea! Careful now, whoa, no wait. OK. So I move the car about 10 ft and its stuck again. Slid sideways right back in to the ditch. Out with the shovel, more digging. I try to move it again. Oh, no. Now I’m afraid the car is going to fall over. (Yes, I heard, cars don’t just fall over.) That's enough of that. So I walk back up the drive thinking I'm going to use a dolly and pull the thing up the hill. I just spent a fortune on this and I'm using it, darn it! With bungie cords in hand it took forever to find the dolly in the dark, messy garage. I'm cursing my beloved yard guy for his workers barricading the dolly with all the summer umbrellas and furniture. Once again, noting how fortunate I am that I have him and a pool that requires a lot of summer umbrellas. Ah, summer, my old friend. If I were only complaining about the heat .... apparently I lapsed into a fantasy.  
I finally get the dolly out and the wheels are flat (Could I have checked the tires before I struggled to get it out? I could have reached in there, but no, that would be thinking ahead which I was not going to do that day). The flat tires were a blessing, though, because I would've dragged the dolly down the hill and tried to get the generator out of the car and securely tied to the dolly, and drag it, step by step up a 20% grade with 6 in. of snow. Or so I thought.  The farthest I could have gotten would be to get it on the ground ... and then have to leave it there. Sometimes my determination interferes with common sense, which I usually have a lot of. 

I walked back down the drive to get some things from the car and a young man stopped. OK, so I flagged him down. He was able to back the car down to the road so it was parked and stable. He was reassuring when I said “Its ok if the car slides into the ditch and falls over. We’ll just pull out the generator so the gas doesn’t leak, and I have AAA”.  See, I was trying to think ahead. Apparently it is really hard to get a car to fall over. And if it did the generator would have gone through glass, it would have been a hughes mess. Thank goodness cars just don't do that. This fellow had a jacked up truck, that could easily cruse over the snow, but his tires were bald.  So he left a message for his friend (and a neighbor I’ve not met) to stop by when he returned home. The neighbor had chains on his truck and was out picking up employees for his girlfriend's boss. How good is that? He was a hero for many that day, including me. He loaded up his truck with the generator, set it up for me, and now I have some power!!  What a treat. 

And whomever invented generators was a genus. It saved the food and me from going crazy. Of course, that will be that last power outage while I’m living here. But I have my super duper generator, just in case I am prepared! 

"Evil triumphs when good people do nothing."

“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”

(Edmund Burke)

Edmund Burke was an Irish political philosopher, Whig politician, and statesman.  He is regarded as the “father of modern conservatism”.  When I was reading about Burke, it reminded me of how polarized people are with politics today - how we treat contemporary politics like we do sporting teams.  “What SIDE are you on?”  I wish we (us regular folks in the USA) would stop fighting among ourselves about politics – and write, call, and/or visit mayors, governors on up to the Prez himself (well probably hard to get an appointment but he has an address). One’s politics are personal and, if so desired, private.  Please skip the op-ed, and ramblings at lunch or the check out stand – and tell your officials what you think. In all due respect, I really don’t care about your politics - I care about how you drive because I want you, me, and our loved ones alive … to vote.  

Meanwhile, regardless of your politics, make your voice heard!  From your local school and road initiatives, all the way to issues of war, make your voice heard.  Hold your elected officials and American companies accountable.  The Internet makes it so easy to contact every official and the oversight agencies responsible for making sure government offices and companies play by the rules. And don’t forget advertisers. We have so much power to influence the media and we haven’t used it. Advertisers respond to the public.

Write your senators, companies, et. al., and let them know what you think is important -  how you want to have your money spent and your country to grow.  What you think matters!  These people have someone read all correspondence; they look at trends and points of particular interests.  You might not think your voice is that important and that you will just get canned responses, but this is not true.  Of course some responses are pre-written but I’ve received very cogent and personal letters from different people, including Ben Bernanke’s office.  (The fellow apologized that Dr. Bernacke could not answer directly because he is “very busy”, and added, they appreciated my kind words because  “He doesn’t get a lot of that”.)  

Don’t just write to complain, either. Remember; pass on complements and encouragement where you see the ‘Right’ thing being done.

It is important to let your government officials and CEOs know what you want (sounder decisions, support for specific issues, greener packaging, decency in TV or advertising, etc.)  Hold them accountable beyond the day you voted for them, or shopped at their company.  Once you give a kid the keys to the car, you don’t stop monitoring their competency and never discuss their progress, Right?

We have the Right to access our officials,

that which so many from around the world

are losing their lives fighting for!

Exercise that Right – so we may never lose it.

Find your Senator

Remember - a poem from 1996

Please feel free to comment. What does it say or mean to you? What do you think its about? 

Remember

September 1996

Disappear, if you say you must.

But in the night sky you should lend trust,

that my kisses will guide you on your way,

and dreams are always what they say.

You’ll know your going in the right direction,

my eyes will sparkle in every reflection.

So go, go if you will,

but move quiet and be still.

Hear my pounding heart,

if you can as we part.

With every step you further away,

don’t look back, you might stay.

Run, run as far as you can.

There was a moment when you held my hand,

but somewhere in there lost the choice.

Don’t worry, you’ll still hear my voice, 

when someone speaks (or in a soft summer wind).

Never forget you found, and lost, your spirit twin.

Fly away, fly away fast.

Fallen image - the only die cast.

Timing was the curse of all 

and this seems to be the longest fall.

Spirits fly by like wisps of a breath,

when do we call the final one death?

As we hurry in our earth bound feet.

Will we have the chance to really meet?

With blinders we go from day to day

and guide ourselves by what others say.

Can we ever transcend to a higher place

and see each other in the light of Grace ?