Results @ MindSay

The verdict is in, and unfortunately, I didn't pass sophomore VCD portfolio review. This means that I can not continue in the program until I "fix" the "problem". I made an appointment with the director for Monday, the fifth. That was the earliest available. I don't know what is going to happen. I could be instructed to take a summer class, and then be allowed to continue the program, re-do review, which means I would have to wait until next spring semester to do ANYTHING, which would put me another year behind, or I could be encouraged to drop out of the major completely. Also, this is the last week of classes, next week is finals week, and yes, I have one on Monday, shortly after my appointment. I am waiting to hear from a job, but I can't accept it(I've already been hired, but I have to wait for the school to send me conformation stuff) if I have to take a summer class. If I am not taking classes until next spring, I want a job that will last through Christmas break, not just for over the summer! But now I have to wait until the very last moment to do anything because the Director can't pencil me in any sooner. How nice and accommodating not only the VCD program is, but Kent State in general. As a reminder, scheduling was done and over with almost two months ago. I scheduled during Spring Break. So, wtf? I'll write on Monday when I figure out what the hell I'm doing with my life. cheers!

Coworker has a bad chest infection, but nothing contagious and nothing that is permanent.  She also does not have asthma, just severe allergies.  It was good to have her back, and not because she lightened the work load considerably, but because we have quite a few laughs during the work day.  We also know what the other is thinking all the time.  Usually a helpful skill, but sometimes is detrimental to our professional mien. 

I saw a different PT yest because the usual one was off running in the Boston Marathon (I think he needs his head read, but who am I to judge).  Different guy says my two arm bones have too much mobility where they meat at the wrist, the wrist is swollen and I'm just going to keep having pain unless I can get some sort of bracing and work adjustment to stop injuring the tendons.  I've modified many working practices so it doesn't hurt nearly as much as before, but it's still sore and gets tired very easily.  He tried a new way of taping my wrist/arm so I could move, but restricted and supported.  Of course I didn't work yest, so don't know if it would have worked.  I did a similar kind of wrapping today and didn't seem to get the same amt of support. 

Did I mention I got the radiology report back for my pinkie?  The Dr didn't think it looked swollen at all and the radiologist said it looked wnl but might show some early arthritic changes.  WTH?  Seriously, that fibromyalgia thing is sounding more and more like me.

Well I'm just a few days into my 46th year as a physical being on this jewel we call planet Earth.  Yet another profound summer has just whizzed by in a blink and again I've come the end of it looking back over my shoulder asking, "What the heck was that?!"

In conversation with an old friend a couple of days ago, we talked about how as children, we seemed to always grow quicker in the summer.  As soon as school was dismissed, it was like someone hit the "turbo button" on life, there always seemed to be an exponential boost of growth in the few weeks before the next school year began.  I always owed the phenomenon to the added sunshine and outdoor activity – we are just like plants in a lot of ways I figure.  I recall the many times as I was growing up, receiving comments upon my return to "real life" like, "Wow, you really grew fast over the summer!"  Later, as a new Mother I was able to see the same dynamics play out watching my son grow.

My friend and I came to the co-creative realization that those dynamics are still alive and well indeed, and playing out as we continue to grow mentally and spiritually!  As I look back over the past 3 or 4 months, I can authentically say to my Self, "Wow, you really grew fast over the summer!"

I question my own theory now though, I'm not entirely convinced the growth is so much about the extra sunshine and outdoor exercise…now I know it's more about the additional freedom, ease and letting go of a lot of what we "should" be or are programmed to be doing.  Can you hear it yet?  "No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks!"  That's an incredible amount of instantly released resistance; expansion is always freer to flourish when the resistance is gone.  We go forth into our summers expecting different things to show up so we manifest different results!

In fact, I think I sang that same song above just 3 years ago when I found out I was leaving my corporate position...no small coincidence that I have experienced exponential growth since my release from that!

 

On this first day of fall, summer 2007 was by no means an exception to the phenomenon; in fact, I see it as the epitome of it!  I have always instinctively been drawn to want to reflect on and recap my summer's activities…sort of an essay to myself on "What I Did This Summer".  I now see that I'm programmed to respond that way, the reflection is always a mixture of delicious emotions and happy memories. By writing it all out I can recapture the feeling and later use those vibrations to inspire me onto the next one!

 

I'm a work hard and play hard kind of being.  I'm getting the hang of letting go of the former (still) and that it's the latter – the playing hard - that produces the stellar results in my life and causes the forces of manifestation to respond in kind.

I was blessed as a young teen, and I am largely grateful as I realize my summers were nothing short of "magical".  Between the ages of 12 and 15 or so, my grandparents were semi-retired and had taken the job of managing a beautiful, charming and well established northern family resort for a company based out of my home town.   SC Johnson & Son was originally called "Johnson's Wax" way back when my Grandfather cut grass for them as a teen.  The resort was a perk for the employees, charged a minimal fee, one could take their family on a beautiful week's vacation almost entirely on the company.  Decades later, Papa left "the plant" as a successful manager and technological innovator, taking my grandmother with him – newly added to the SC Johnson payroll - to live out their days in nature's bliss.  My grandmother's older brother and his wife had run the resort previous to them so "The Resort" was familiar to our family because we had all stayed there as guests over the years.

Every summer, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and March break I would be there like a shot!  I had my own room, my own boats – motor, sail and canoe, my own snowmobile, water skis, snow skis, a beachfront on a pristine lake, a fresh rotation of new friends every week (two maximum), lots of untouched Precambrian nature to explore, a boys summer camp up the road and VERY allowing grandparents; all in exchange for just Being more of Me…and a few hours of cleaning cottages on Friday and Saturday mornings, cutting some grass, raking the beach once in a while after a storm blew in, bailing out boats, running small errands, oh and, filleting the fish the guests caught because they didn't usually know how.  I spent my time off in perpetual celebration from the time the school bell rang for the last time of the last semester until the day before I had to return to it!!

As I celebrate my 45th birthday this past week I am well into the 4th Harry Potter book, I am loving the luxury of getting lost in the story of Harry!!  I am grateful I acted on the decision to read Rowling's masterpieces!  I am also enjoying the story of Harry Potter as a close metaphor to my own life.

"The Resort" was my Hogwarts, and summers were indeed magical and experiential!  Today I still create the venues for my learning and growth in some unconventional and fantastically fun ways!

This summer has certainly been one of adventure and growth and more than a touch of magic – but mostly it's been about "letting go", of learning how to tap into the flow of my own life and get more in tune with my own "nature" and the dance of it.  My day's activities have shifted, become more focused, more efficient; I am getting back to the necessity of simplicity and ease and learning the art of living all of life as if it is "summer" all year 'round!

From the declarations bestowed upon us at Harv Eker's "Never Work Again" in June, my favorite one states, "The less I work the more I earn."  As a programmed work-a-holic, getting to the feeling place of believing that has been "the work".

I have literally "reinvented" myself, my daily activities and the ways I "work" over the summer weeks.  I got good and mad at myself at some point, rolled up my sleeves and got to the work of learning how to play and get paid!  The results of doing things differently are obvious and showing up all around me!   I am slowly figuring how to "get out of my own way", it's a process, and patience with my Self is virtuous!

I learned from Tim Ferris while devouring his "The 4-Hour Workweek" book, the distinction between "efficient" and "effective" and shifted my focus to achieve mastery in the latter…

Julia Cameron's book "The Artist's Way" has been a daily practice the last month and a half, again I am amazed by the simplicity of what works for me.  This book has been in my sphere of influence for 10 years and I clearly see why NOW is the perfect time for it to present itself to me.  I don't know what my day would be like without writing out the morning pages before it starts…and, I don't take the chance of skipping them to find out!

All in all, after the summer seminars, camping trips, the perfect books and rich experiences with a diverse set of good friends and just the perfect amount of contrast, I am somehow much bigger now than I was this Spring, causing me to remark with pride  again, "Wow, you really grew fast this summer!"

The Radiant Chocolate Goddess

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Raise Your Vibration With Healthy Chocolate!

I just finished one of the best and most entertaining books I've ever read!  Upon being lured into the bookstore by my inner guidance as I passed by it, the book almost jumped off the shelf into my hands.  I have always had the best results when I let a book pick me!  It's a great way of letting the Universe provide the answers and solutions I have been asking for.  It is exactly what I needed to hear to both alleviate anxiety through confirmation and fill in some pieces that I felt were missing…thing is I don't always consciously know what pieces are missing until they find me!!

Timothy Ferriss's "The 4-Hour Workweek" is a must read for anyone "dissatisfied" with any aspect of their lifestyle.  It is a targeted to both employees and entrepreneurs.  He defines the term for a new subculture called the "New Rich".  It is encouraging to me to know that I am very comfortable in this "subculture".  One of the biggest "ahas" I personally had was the fact that I am still operating in many way like a "corporate employee", despite having left the corporate game almost 3 years ago!

A few days ago I was having a discussion with my house mate, Kat.  The discussion centered on the reading of books, specifically the fact that it is becoming increasingly more challenging to find a book that captures our attention and focus all the way through.  Years ago I would read a book or two a week, gobbling up almost everything in it!

After having eaten personal growth for breakfast for so many years, most books I pick up and flip through smack of the "same-old-same-old".   That's not to say they are not valuable, nurturing, confirming and mind-expanding for most, it just seems many of them are saying the same things in different ways to me, to the point where it seems as though "I've heard that before."  I know that if I read the book anyway I will inevitably discover a golden nugget here and there…and, I find myself asking, "Do I want to read a whole book to capture the odd nugget?"   And besides, I caution myself about using the phrase, "I already know that", it's a statement that I find mind-closing.

I realized that my own work and experiences have caught up to – and in some cases exceeded - the perspectives of those I call "mentors".  I also realized this is a function of living on the "creative leading edge of thought".  As my friend Abraham says, "There's never a crowd out here on the leading edge."   As a result of this "analysis" and my conversations with others it has become clear that it is time to share my own perspective in a much bigger way!  It has me asking some different questions of myself, provoking some refreshing and different answers that have ever come back before!

Timothy Ferriss is certainly an individual on the leading edge!  His book is just plain fun and appeals to my naturally rebellious nature.  In it, he lays out a process and system for showing others how to re-organize their lives and enjoy their retirement NOW, not 20, 30 or more years from NOW.   In essence he has made total sense of the magic I have witnessed in my own life, the message coming in loud and clear is "get free first, then get rich".  Tim isn't the only one touting this message lately!  And I can clearly see how my priorities were bang on by instinct when I finally cut the ties to my own corporate career.  It was a life-saving decision made with little to no fear or hesitation once the timing was "perfect".

I read it cover to cover first, laughing out loud to the point of snorting – the author's a riot!  I started reading it at the mall over lunch and people were looking at me funny as I read and enjoyed my meal.  I read it all the way home as I walked, still laughing all the way.  Hearing the giggling coming from my room, my house mates could have labeled me as insane if they weren't the cool and allowing people they are…and besides they bought their own copy to enjoy!  I am going through it a second time with highlighter and pencil in hand, it's one of those books that I could highlight every line!  I intend to capture and model the "missing pieces" that I sent the Universe to find for me.

Below is a few of my favorite quotes and passages, wander on over to the website to read part of the book yourself!  It's available in audio and e-book as well as hardcover.

The 4-Hour Workweek
Escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the New Rich.

The "New Rich":

• Follow an uncommon set of rules.
• …are those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility.  This is an art and a science we will refer to as Lifestyle Design.
• …can be separated from the crowd based on their goals, which reflect very distinct priorities and life philosophies.

"Life doesn't have to be so damn hard.  It really doesn't."

"It's time to have fun and let the rest follow."

"I'll show you how a small underground uses economic sleight-of-hand to do what most consider impossible."

"The commonsense rules of the "real world" are a fragile collection of socially reinforced illusions."

"Reality is negotiable.  Outside of science and law, all rules can be bent or broken, and it doesn't require being unethical."

"People don't want to be millionaires – they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy."

"$1,000,000 in the bank isn't the fantasy.  The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows.  The question is then, How can one achieve the millionaire lifestyle of complete freedom without first having $1,000,000?"

"The objective is to create freedom of time and place and use both however you want."

"Most of the role models in this book didn't go to the Harvards of the world, and some are dropouts.  Top academic institutions are wonderful, but there are unrecognized benefits to not coming out of one."

"So, what do you do?"…"The beauty is, I'm not a multimillionaire, nor do I particularly care to be.I never enjoyed answering this cocktail question because it reflects an epidemic I was long part of: job descriptions as self-descriptions."

"…what I do with my time and what I do for money are completely different things…I work less than four hours per week and make more per month than I used to make in a year"

"Options – the ability to choose – is real power."

"…each path begins with the same first step: replacing assumptions."

"Don't follow a model that doesn't work.  If the recipe sucks, it doesn't matter how good a cook you are."