Facebook Break

There are moments in life that are meant to be shared with our friends and family. We rejoice in celebrating some of these moments together, while other moments bring us closer by sharing our pains and agonies. Facebook has been a wonderful instrument for sharing these moments. But not everyone agrees on what, when and how some of these moments are shared. 

And Facebook isn't the only medium we use to share. Some people share more than others. I use several formats of social media for both personal and professional sharing. As a self employed yoga therapist, I rely heavily on these formats to get the word out about my classes, services, and even to sell some of my handmade items. 

But as of late, I've noticed that I spend way too much time browsing and not enough time developing myself professionally, so I've decided to take a hiatus from my personal Facebook. I will continue to use my business page to share yoga news and events. I will also be using my instagram to simul-post to Twitter and Facebook. I hope to use this time saved to reflect and meditate on my future. All things being equal, I hope to realize a direction for my future with a clarity I feel I cannot achieve with my face buried in that book. 

When and if the time comes that I feel the urge to come back to the book of faces, I look forward to catching back up on all these moments. In the meantime, if you want to share any moments with me, you'll have to do it the old fashioned way.

Peace, love and applesauce, my friends.

How to manifest anything

I've spent the better part of the last 18 months creating a new reality for myself. It began a long, long time ago, but it didn't really pick up momentum until I started yoga teacher training a year ago January. This is when everything I had learned and experienced previously started to come into sharp focus.

I have been on this journey for as long as I can remember, but what I didn't understand then, that I understand now, is that until you create new patterns of behavior, you will generally respond to situations from your default settings, and my defaults needed to be reset.

If you Google "Manifest" you will likely find an entry from WikiHow on "How to Manifest Anything". It is bizarre for me how readily available this information is, yet how few people realize how simple changing your life can be. One of my teachers explained to me that you can read something a hundred times, but until you are ready to understand it, the knowledge will not take root in your mind. 

Over the course of my lifetime I have had countless experiences with manifesting results by the sheer power of my thoughts. Being the skeptic I had been, I generally perceived the results to be either a fluke, a coincidence, or possibly the result of some unseen force that chooses to allow some events to happen, while disallowing others. Often the result would lead to some less than desirable situations that left me feeling like maybe I was wrong in thinking I could create a wonderful life for myself. Even more often, this would lead to depression and/or anxiety, filling me with regrets that I had even attempted to change my fate. 

So what changed? My brain did. I have been fully immersed in a course in changing my life, by changing my mind. I have been surrounded by teachers that have helped me to "see clearly now." I have tested the theories and repeatedly gotten the same results and I can safely say, you CAN create a wonderful life for yourself, too!

Here are the simple (easier done than said!) steps to creating a new reality for yourself, according to the WikiHow page:

1

Accept and acknowledge that your thoughts are forms of energy that contain the seeds of your future experience.

2

Learn to still your mind. Meditation is both easy and difficult. Once you master the meditative state, begin to introduce a specific word like 'happiness' or an image (sort of like your personal logo) in which you have invested some meaning (like a check with a specific amount on it).

3

Reinforce this technique by keeping a new reality journal. In it write accounts in the present tense (as if happening now) of what you do, say, think in the experience that you are manifesting.

4

Make way for new experiences by consciously changing old habits and routines. Take a new route to work. Get up earlier. Have something different for breakfast. Give up some things.

5

Create rituals to symbolize your expected outcome. If you are manifesting a new car, buy something small that symbolizes it.

6

Enlist the support of all supportive forces: trusted friends, favorite places, inspiring music, or even your own created talismans.

http://www.wikihow.com/Manifest-Anything

Kony 2012 and Why I Want to Stay in Haiti

In the beginning, my dream was to go to Africa. I mean, doesn't everybody at some point or another have a vision of themselves in the Motherland doing something, whether it be missions work, humanitarian aid, or even just a safari? My initial interest was sparked after seeing the animated film, Hugo the Hippo. It turned me on to Zimbabwe and the political strife of the region. Later, as I started seriously thinking of what type of work I would do in Africa, I realized I wanted to work with children. I looked into several options. For a few years now I've been looking into positions with assorted NGOs and charities in Zimbabwe such as the Zimbabwe Project, a Canadian orphan care organization. But as I do not have a Master's degree in the areas they require, I had been unable to catch a break. I guess true experience and expertise in a field doesn't mean squat when you have shareholders to answer to. 

31 Hours and counting...

So, I am now counting down the hours til my first departure for Haiti. I am leaving Saturday morning and coming back Monday night. I can't wait!!!

I picked up a book in Lansing at a cute little shop that explains everything you ever wanted to know about Michigan. I plan to bring it with me to demonstrate to the children where I come from.

I picked up my passport Wednesday. I'm all set to go.

Wednesday evening I had a meeting with Mendle and Herbert from the foundation. They gave me a pretty good work over. Fingers crossed they decided favorably on my future.

I've got my stuff ready, just gotta get my FAA approved containers filled to take in my carry on.

In 48 hours I will laying down to sleep for my first night in Haiti.

Stay Tuned...

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

It seems like it has been ages since I've had an opportunity to write for fun. I have finally finished school - finished with a 4.0 and most distinguished graduate honors - even got to give the commencement speech. It was an exciting night. My grandma was there along with my children and closest friends. I was interviewed for the local paper, too! My 15 minutes of fame were the highlight of my college career!

Now on to the next adventure - I'm working on going to Haiti for a year. I had lunch with a local icon who is exec director of a charity organization that runs an orphanage in Haiti. I am flying down next weekend to check it out and if all goes well I will be moving there next month.

It is going to be a crazy month between now and then. My son moved home last week and I will be busy packing away my belongings and transferring over many of accounts to keep things going back here while I'm gone. I plan to set up a program so friends and family can donate money or supplies for the orphanage so that the compensation I ask for will be covered so stay tuned for information.

I am so excited!

Movie Review - Long Overdue

I'm not sure what this next semester holds for me...but I'm going to try really hard to post more frequently.

So here's the first movie review of the year - stay tuned for more:

Love and Other Drugs

Maggie has Parkinson's and Jamie is a philandering ne'er-do-well. Somehow the two of them make it work. All thru the movie I kept waiting for the words, "you...complete me". So, at it's worst it was formulaic and predictable. At it's best, it was some steamy hot sexy love story. In the middle it was the story of a boy who never really thought much of himself meeting a girl that had written herself off. Together they made a pretty good pair.

My favorite scene -


Him: I never actually knew anyone, who believed I was enough, til I met you. And then you made me believe it too. So, uh, unfortunately, I need you. And you need me.
Her: no I don't
Him: yes you do
Her: no I don't
Him: yes, you do
Her: stop it! Stop saying that
Him: you need someone to take care of you
Her: no I don't
Him: Everybody does
Her: I'm going to need you, more than you'll need me
Him: that's okay
Her: no it's not! It isn't fair. I have places to go
Him: You'll go there. I just may have to carry you
Her: I can't ask you to do that
Him: you didn't

Even though I kept envisioning him and Heath on that mountaintop - I still give this one 4 out of 5 rages

Take this jobsearch and shove it!

So, I've been looking for meaningful work for going on some 20 months now, and the really depressing thing is, I'm nowhere closer to an interview now, than I was then!

I've got until May before I finish school to get a degree that wont even qualify me for the job I have now and no money to continue my education after that.

Please, oh please, oh please universe, throw me a rope or something. Then at least if things don't start looking up, I'll have the resources to hang myself!

Prayer for the day: Please show me the direction I am supposed to be going in?

New Beginnings

If you could get a job doing anything anywhere, what would it be?

I would be teaching english and bible school in a foreign country. In a perfect world, I would be able to find a way to do this without the 7 years of school it would require for the degrees necessary to get one of these positions.

Any ideas?

My biological clock stopped ticking...

I saw this cute movie the other day called TiMer. The premise of the story is that people can go to this electonics company and have a timer implanted on their wrist. The timer will countdown the exact hours, minutes, and seconds until you can expect to meet your soul mate. Only the timer doesn't activate until your souldmate has a timer installed also.

The idea got me thinking, my luck is so awful when it comes to matters of the heart, I'm quite certain if I installed one it would immediately display negative 175,316hours 15 minutes and 18 seconds(20 years)

If you know any decent eligible bachelors, point them my way!

Let's talk about Psychs, baby!

So I had a psychic reading today. It wasn't at all what I expected. I have always been open minded about the mystical gifts, but also have always been very skeptical of those that perpetrate deceptions in the name of those gifts. I was fully prepared to hear a lot of leading questions and was fully prepared to answer them in the vaguest manner possible.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Although she said she gets the impression that I'm something of a wall-flower and that I need to get out more. :)

She said that if I get invited to go do speed dating in June/July I should jump on the opportunity.

If you'd like more information, let me know. I've got her contact info.

Peace!

New Year, New Decade, New Outlook

So 2010 is looking an awful lot like 2009. And let's all agree that 2009 was just awful!

So what can be done about it?

I wake up every day and think to myself...self, this is the day we are going to be wowed by humanity and our faith will be restored! And sadly, every night I put my head on the pillow and pray, "Please God, let me say good bye to today and may tomorrow be better."

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't experience blessings every day. Some small, some subtle, some may go unnoticed and for that I am truly sorry.

But really, folks...How much yuck is one person supposed to take?

Well, at least now I am back in school. That should keep me busy enough to keep my mind off of the rest of the yuck.

Soon I will be moving out of my home...and I still haven't decided what to do about that. I have options, which is a blessing many folks don't have. And I am very appreciative of that, even if I don't always express that.

I suppose I need to get around to finishing up the packing. I've been cracking at it a little at a time. I suppose the procrastination is my way of avoiding the inevitable. I know it won't work, but hey, I'm human.

Well, it's late and I have an early morning meeting.

I leave with this prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, please look after my children. Guide their actions and decisions along a path that will find them safe and protect them with Your Holy Spirit. Give them the strength to face the challenges of each new day. Help them to see Your ways. Protect my friends and family and co-workers. Give peace to those who are troubled. Heal those that are sick. And may we all delight in your will and walk in your ways. Amen

Y2K 10 year anniversary

I must admit, it didn't occur to me until this afternoon that this Friday marks 10 years since the big Y2K panic. Reflecting back, it has been an exhausting 10 years. My life is in such a different place from where I thought I'd be 10 years later on.

I recall the absolutely unfounded panic. The mission of my old unit. The grueling night shifts at DuPont. The exasperatingly long hours of home schooling! I was really busy back then. I thought I'd never be able to continue on at that pace, then proceeded to throw my hat in the ring for even more arduous tasks as the years cranked on.

Now, here I sit looking at the last five days of this year, this decade and I can't believe it's all gone! All of the goals I had hoped to achieve. The relationships that have come and gone. The friends new and old that have been made and kept, and some that have been left to go. The loved ones I have lost.

Well, even without the impending doom of the end of the world (at least not for another few years according to the Mayans anyway) I am a little fore lorn looking at
the passing of another year. This has been a bittersweet year. I reconciled with my sister, only to lose her. Learned to open my heart again, only to have it crushed, Watched my baby pass from HS to college, only to have him lose his mind (as is wont to happen to young people of his age!)

And so, off to Vegas I go to ring in the new year. I hope if nothing else, I am able to just let go of all the sadness and pain and move on into the new year with a fresh perspective. And who knows, maybe I'll come back a big winner. Lord knows I deserve a little something good to come my way. I mean, really, Mr. Man Upstairs, I've certainly surpassed all expectations! I've taken more than my share. I'm ready to move up and move on...come on next stage!

Time to see a man about a house

No, it's not a typo...today is the day I go see the lawyers about trying to save my house from foreclosure. On the one hand, if I let the house go, I'll be able to stretch my minuscule income further and possibly sock a little away for the future. I'd be able to get a better car. I wouldn't have to worry about all the maintenance and upkeep of this place.

On the other hand, If I let it go, I let go all the privileges that come with home ownership...privileges like privacy, and sense of Independence.

I'm not asking for much. I don't want to be given any extra special dispensations. I just want to be able to come home at the end of my very long days and relax. I'd like to be able to walk into the kitchen and fix something to eat. I'd like to be able to draw a hot bath and soak in it, even to fall asleep in it! lol

So, here's my prayer:

God, whatever happens today, please guide me in seeing that you have a plan for me and comfort me in my time of need. Your will be done, easier spoken than accepted. Whatever your plan, help me to adjust to whatever may come. Give me the strength to do the things I must do. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

Amen!

Throwaway society

This makes me want to cry!

Spinning Wheel

SPINNING WHEEL
D. Clayton / Thomas)
Blood, Sweat, & Tears - 1969

What goes up must come down
Spinning wheel got to go 'round
Talking 'bout your troubles it's a crying sin
Ride a painted pony let the Spinning wheel spin

You got no money and you got no home
Spinning wheel all alone
Talking 'bout your troubles and you never learn
Ride a painted pony let the Spinning wheel turn

Did you find the directing sign on the
Straight and narrow highway
Would you mind a reflecting sign
Just let it shine within your mind
And show you the colours that are real

Someone is waiting just for you
Spinning wheel, Spinning true
Drop all your troubles by the riverside
(1: Catch a painted pony on the spinning wheel ride)
(2: Ride a painted pony let the spinning wheel fly)

Okay, so you wanna know what that has to do with me?

I currently aspire to be spinning my wheels. I'd give anything to at least have that much momentum. Spinning wheels would indicate the engaging of gears of some kind, something I currently can't find the motivation to achieve. I feel like I'm stuck in neutral, just waiting for some source of energy to start me in any direction.

Oh, occasionally some force makes contact with me and I go careening off to complete some task, grocery shopping, a birthday party, a committee meeting. But when the source of motion is long gone, I come to rest again.

Once in awhile I even get to feel the joy of being pushed over the top of a hill. These moments are actually exhilarating. I soon pick up speed, maybe fix my hair, put on some make-up. I really engage with my surroundings. But once again, after the momentum is gone, I come to rest and cannot seem to initiate motion again on my own.

To put it succinctly, this really sucks! I am in such a funk and I can't seem to rescue myself. I pray, I promise, I even try to bribe myself. I make plans, set goals, create to-do lists. But without an outside source of forward momentum, I lay motionless. It's really becoming pitiful.

I thought once the weather improved I would snap out of it, but that hasn't happened yet. I had hoped to get in the motor home and go visiting for a while, but with the transmission leaking, I don't dare take a chance, and my mechanic has been incommunicado for almost a week now so no sign of when that will be repaired.

I have my appointment at the Michigan Works office next week. Maybe that will bring the resolution I have been waiting for to get me out of this blah blah land that I am living in. Hopefully they will have good news for me.

Dear God, It's me, Michele. Please help me to contribute to society in a positive way. Please help me to feel valued. Please comfort me in my times of darkness and despair. I know that you have plans for me. Please help me to be patient in learning what those plans are and give me the courage to go in the direction you are leading me.
Amen

F*** My Life

Today, I was turned down for the China job because I selfishly chose to raise my child with no support from his father or the government and worked my behind off financing really expensive christian education for said child instead of spending the money on finishing my education. My child is graduating this May with a 1.5 GPA. Since I lost my job, I won't be able to pay for his college either. FML

I have the BESTEST friends in the whole wide world!

A very good friend called the other night and said she had something she was sending me in the mail that would be VERY useful for when I go on job interviews. Knowing this friend it could be just about anything, I mean really, she is WAY out there. But considering the seriousness of my current economic and employment position, I assumed she'd send me some handy "list of things not to forget when going on an interview" or some book on "interview tips for dummies" or something of that nature.

So when I opened up the package and found the t-shirt pictured above, I thought, "You know what they say about ASS-uming!" And then I proceeded to have a 15 minute fit of hard, rib bruising, tears-streaming-down-my-face, hysterical laughter.

Better than 1, you MADE MY DECADE!!!!

I LOVE my friends!

there is no more, I just forgot to remove the HTML! psych!

Michele去中国!

translates: Michele is going to China! No, I haven't heard anything yet. But a good friend told me today to "name it and claim it!" so I am!!!

I'm sooooo psyched!

Pray With Me

As some of you already know, I am losing my job. I have one week left and then I'm out there with the other 3 million people looking for
meaningful work. As much as I would like to find another job in the
area, the cold hard reality is there just aren't that many jobs out
there. I have settled myself on the idea that I'm going to have to
think outside of the box, look in a new direction. This is both an
exciting and terrifying time but I am faithful that God will provide
for me, so that gives me a peace and latitude to look at my situation
from many different angles.

Nikolas graduates in May and since I will more than likely lose my
house to foreclosure, this leaves me with few strings to tie me to the
area. I have always wanted to do mission work, and so I have applied
to several NGOs for positions out of the country. After many weeks of
anticipation, I've finally had a response to my requests. The ELCA is
currently reviewing my application and considering me for a position
to work in China teaching English. They are sending out emails to my
references. If you are contacted by the ELCA, please give me a good
recommendation.

Please join me in lifting this in prayer that the foundation will
place me in a position where I can best do God's work and contribute
to the needs of His kingdom.

Final Countdown

9 working days left...




This really sucks!!!