Every time you suppress some part of yourself or allow others to play you small, you are in essence ignoring the owner’s manual your creator gave you and destroying your design.
-Oprah Winfrey
Archives for December 2007
Wow
Sometimes Ignorance Really Is Bliss
My husband: “I was reading the Darwin Awards book this afternoon.”
Me: “How was it?”
My husband: “Well, apparently there are a lot of really bad things that can happen to testicles.”
What Do Mayflowers Bring?
Lately I’ve been reading the book Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. I always enjoy learning the stories behind history, but this particular part of history has a special place in my heart because I am the 15th generation descendant of 4 people who came over to the New World on that ship.(Important Side Note: Which does not at all cause my husband to crack frequent jokes about “inbreeding” at my expense.)
This material is dovetailing nicely with all the things I was thinking about after reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, back before my intestines became the unfortunately fertile breeding ground for Hostile Alien Bacteria. Specifically it’s helping me to answer the question, “What’s my word?” Because not only have I realized that, of course, my word cannot be anything other than FREE, all this reading about my ancestors has given me a good idea of where that might have come from.
Of course we all know the traditional story of the Pilgrims and their desire for freedom from the king of England and his church, but it’s the way that Philbrick describes these desires that sometimes has all my hair standing on end in amazed recognition.
When I read things like, “…the Puritans had chosen to spurn thousands of years of accumulated tradition in favor of a text that gave them a direct and personal connection to God,” I remember how powerful an experience it was for me to go through the workbook of A Course In Miracles for the first time (Philbrick, p.8).
Or when I read that they wanted to be “…free to establish themselves on their own terms”, I think about how I have done the very same thing in creating my own work, my own contribution to the world, and my own role within my marriage (Philbrick, p.16).
And when I read that during their services, “…the entire congregation had participated in a passionate search for divine truth”, I almost shot out the top of my head, because that is what my entire life has been devoted to (Philbrick, p. 12).
And In Geek And Nerd News
Need I say more?
I believe I qualify in the categories of Trek, Portable, Book and TV Geeks.
You can order your very own copy here.
I’m It
My friend, Elliott, has tagged me for a meme that requires me to produce 8 random facts about myself. So, here goes.
1. If I won the lottery, the very first thing I would do would be to install a soda fountain in my office so that I could enjoy the ambrosia of a fountain Coke whenever I wanted.
2. My husband and I refer to our cats in the third person, as in, “The Pip really enjoys expressing her love for us via the judicious application of her ass to our faces.”
3. Growing up I was of course not allowed to swear, but I was also not even allowed to say “shut up”. So during the spring of my freshman year of college I began my extremely late adolescent rebellion by calling up my husband (then boyfriend) for the express purpose of yelling out my very first swear word. (Do I know how to be a rebel or WHAT?!)
4. Thanks to nine years at Evangel Christian School I can sing all the books of the New Testament in order.
5. I passionately hate the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Just ‘cuz.
6. My favorite word is “creamy”.
7. When I was a senior in high school I was offered a partial music scholarship to Southern Methodist University for my piano playing ability, but I turned it down.
8. I must, at every second of the day including the times when I am asleep, be located near a bottle of hand lotion.
Why It’s A Really Good Thing I Have A Coach
Lately I’ve been in another one of my having-trouble-sleeping phases. My coach and I have been working on this together, and one of the things she suggested was that I pull out my relaxation/meditation CD’s and listen to them before I go to bed.
So yesterday when I checked in with her she asked if I’d been doing that.
Me: Um no, I haven’t.
My Coach: Hm.
Me: I even got it out and put it in my nightstand drawer, but that’s it.
My Coach: OK well tonight, I want you to ACTUALLY LISTEN TO IT.
That’s why I pay her the big bucks.
