Me: So Tom, the word on the street is that Turkeys are stupid.
Turkey: Nice, real nice. Treat all your dinner guests this way?
Me: I’m not trying to be rude, I’m just interested. OK?
Turkey: So if you really want to know, I’ll give you straight scoop. Ask away.
Me: So is it true that Turkeys can drown by looking up into the sky and having their beaks fill up with rain?
Turkey: Totally false. However one of us jumped into a bucket and a bunch more thought it was fun. Kind of like pig pile except with Turkeys. Everyone but the top turkey drowned. Tragic.
Me: Interesting. So how about Turkeys no longer having the ability to reproduce without artificial insemination?
Turkey: Define “artificial.” We like to think of it as making you humans mess around with our privates. Funny!
Me: Eeww!
Turkey: C’mon… any other things you want to know?
Me: I heard that if one Turkey dies, a whole flock will die in sympathy.
Turkey: Negative, no, nada. Turkeys mostly die at Thanksgiving. Capice?
Me: Sorry, O.K. one more. Does the Tryptophan in Turkeys make people sleepy after they eat it?
Turkey: You’re talking about “The Turkey’s Revenge?” I wish. Sadly, this is yet one more goofy way that you humans make us out to be monsters.
Me: So, I’m starting to feel a little hungry. Any ideas?
I am authentic, what you experience is me… I’m at home in my own skin. I am creative and constantly generating things and ideas that bring value, peace, ease and beauty.
I am a mentor. By my ability to listen and hear, I connect people to what they are needing and help them awaken to their truth, their passion.
My intuition guides me and my optimism is unwavering, I know there is a gift in everything we experience.
I am courageous because I am the power and presence of God… I am grateful.
Lunch had a new twist for me today. I actually enjoyed creating it blindfolded…yes, you read it correctly… blindfolded.
You may be asking your computer screen, “why would Lauren do that?” I am taking a class with one of my instructors from Quattro University, Sensei Ron Tomas, and this was our homework assignment for one of our meals today. Still curious?
I’d like to share with you my experience…
My kitchen is small and I know it well, so the space was very easy for me to maneuver. I decided on a salad, I wasn’t very hungry. The makings for the most part are in the bottom drawer, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, feta cheese (a few drawers up), hardboiled egg, toasted pine nuts and croutons. Okay I’ve done this a million times before, it can’t be too hard, right?
The first thing I noticed after getting it all out of the frig was that I was completely present. I was aware of everything, noises, smell, temperature and the way things felt in my hands. I reached out for the lettuce, cold and crisp and tore it into the bowl. Next came the tomatoes…these I had to cut…”Danger Will Robinson!”… okay I’ve just dated myself. Actually it was really cool to pick the knife out of the knife caddy and feel it’s weight in my hand. I never really noticed that before!
I had just sharpened my knives 2 days ago so I knew they’d be very sharp, I just had to be accurate. I moved much slower than I normally would and proceeded to hear, feel and guide my way to success. After everything else was processed…again much slower that I would normally be on auto pilot I noticed something else. I was actually seeing myself do these things, I was visualizing the whole experience…way cool!
Time to eat. The part that didn’t turn out well was the amount of dressing that was poured vs. the amount I visualized pouring…I realized I had lost focus, my mind went elsewhere. My first bite was none the less amazing. The flavors were so WOW in my mouth, much more intense than I remember. I chewed slowly and was aware that I don’t take the time when I eat to really savor the meal, especially lunch when it’s in front of my computer…which is most of the time.
I was experiencing heightened sensory awareness, I was in the moment and focused. I realized it doesn’t require me to actually go through life blindfolded, but that I can choose to change up just one aspect of my routine. Do it slowly when I usually do it fast, do it left handed when I usually do it with my right, do the steps in reverse…you get the idea. Be aware.
For those of you that know me I’m a huge Trader Joe fan. I do about 96% of my shopping there. TJ’s, as I fondly call them, introduced me to my first reusable shopping bag about two years ago. I saw them at the checkout… you know the place where every store has all the stuff they want you to buy as you wait in line. These were red with a cool Hawaiian theme, priced at a whopping .99 cents. I figured why not.
Truth be known, I was looking for an alternative as I HATE plastic grocery bags. Sierra Club’s Sierra magazine estimates that Americans throw away almost 100 billion plastic bags each year and only 1% to 3% are recycled. Environmentalists warn paper is not much better than plastic because trees have to be cut down and energy expended to make them.
Most all stores will now give you a credit of some kind for bringing your own bags in. TJ’s has a weekly drawing for $25 in groceries, Texas based Whole Foods give you 5-10 cents back on each bag used and even Target and Ikea are in on it.
Fashionistas are doing their part by making reusable shopping bags trendy. Designers are creating chic (if sometimes pricey) options such as the $960 grocery tote from Hermes or the $495 organic cotton bag from Stella McCartney. One of the hottest bags last summer was one of the more inexpensive options, the $15 “I’m not a plastic bag” cotton tote from British designer Anya Hindmarch. This tote is so sought after that thousands of shoppers competed in a lottery to bag it. On eBay, the prized bag often goes for over $100.
Like I said, it was 2 years ago and I still have the same 3 bags that now sell for $1.99…which in my book is a bargain. A new thermal one has been added to the mix to keep the frozen stuff cold for the trip home. Admittedly it took me awhile to remember to bring them in when I shopped. Many times I found myself running out to my car at checkout to retrieve them…and grateful I did. With 51 stairs leading to my house, I load them to the brim so I don’t have to make more than one trip! These bags are strong and still in great shape.
I wouldn’t call using recycled bags a trend anymore, It’s more like a growing way of life. If you haven’t purchased reusable bags yet, treat yourself, you won’t regret it and you’ll be doing your part to help reduce waste.
We’re all in the same boat. We just have different paddles, and perhaps we find ourselves on different rivers. We all live in human bodies. These are the vehicles in which we move through our world. We are all made of flesh, blood, and bone, with brains, hearts, and lungs to power us. Our paddles—the tools we use to move through the world—vary, as do the bodies of water—the environments—in which we find ourselves.
Some of us use our high IQs to get where we want to go. Some of use our smiles, others use kindness, a gift with language, or athletic ability. Some of these qualities we were born with and others are skills we have learned. Considering this metaphor in light of your own life can be very enlightening. What tools are you using to get from point A to point B in your life? Chances are, you and the people you know have used many different tools in various combinations throughout your lives to get where you needed to go. Just as with oars or paddles, a balanced approach is best. If you rely too much on one thing, like beauty, to open doors, you fail to be well-rounded and you may eventually lose your equilibrium. And if you lose that one quality, you have no paddle at all. This is inspiration to develop multiple tools to navigate your world.
Some of us may be moving along paths that are like rushing rivers; others may be on a large, still lake. We have all felt, at one time or another, tossed about on a stormy ocean. Through all this, we are never really alone, even though it might seem that way. There is inspiration all around us in the form of other people making their way through the world, in the very same boat. Remember to look around you for role models, companionship, and encouragement.
There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life … happiness, freedom, and peace of mind.
These are always attained by giving them to someone else.
- Peyton Conway March
Enjoy the holidays and each other, I’ll be thinking of you
I posted this last night but somehow it became corrupt so here it goes again…
Tonight I had my second class of the 2nd session of Sensei Ron Thomas’s Black Belt in Excellence coaching series. Sensei brought up a very thought provoking topic around anticipation and how it’s different from expectation.
With expectations there are boundaries and limits, “If this happens, then that will happen, or be true.” With anticipation there is flexibility, “I’m thinking this or that may happen, but I’m open to possibility.” …Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about for both, especially with the intention it will help others with Thanksgiving around the corner.
How many of you cook or like to cook and make a big deal over Thanksgiving dinner? Appetizers, turkey, grandma’s secret stuffing, yams, green beans with those onion things on top, Waldorf salad, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and gravy…you know what I’m talking about. Trust me, I’ve had many years cooking for 25 people plus, loving every minute of it. Starting about a week in advance I would create the expectation that all of those that R.S.V.P.’d Yes, would show for dinner… reasonable, right? Well, ask yourself, how would I feel if only half of them actually showed up?…(remember you are not them… Since you have a quantitative expectation (25 were going to show), it can only be measured as “enough showed” or “not enough showed”. This is Win-Lose thinking… how’s that working for you?
How can I structure my thinking to have it be the best holiday season ever? The answer may lie in changing from quantitative expectation to qualitative anticipation. Let me to explain.
A quantitative expectation is a way of looking at the future that can hardwire us to make absolute judgments (“good / bad”). Quantitative means “to measure” flexibility, and expectation is part of a paradigm. I expect the sun to rise, I expect to pay taxes, I expect to die…reasonably rigid. Expectations when reasonable are the meat and potatoes of life that let us make appointments, have children, and engage in social behaviors. Quantitative Expectations are good for some things, but are probably best kept to a minimum.
Qualitative anticipations on the other hand are not part of life paradigms…they are softer and more flexible. The root word for “qualitative” is “quality”, which is subjective, not objective. Anticipation for me trends to the positive, I have no history of anticipating bad things…I anticipate good things. Qualitative anticipations are my personal observations of how things that I expect to be joyful are more or less joyful… to be authentic, there’s not much room for “frustrating.”
It is my utmost hope and desire for each of you to have peace and freedom in your lives, not only this holiday season, but everyday… why not?
Most of us have heard the phrase “the whole nine yards.” It means to “give our all”… right? Not exactly!
The origin of this phrase is a BIG mystery. Some think it came from World War II, where the machine gun belt that holds the bullets was twenty seven feet long (nine yards). Giving someone the “whole nine yards” meant that you shot at them until you ran out of ammunition! Others believe that it relates to the length of sail in a three-masted ship. Three masts times three yards per mast equals nine yards total. There are many competing explanations for the “whole nine yards”, but most if not all are urban legend.
We’re all at risk for the misuse of words. We think that we know the meaning of the phrases that we use, but our measure of understanding is often the degree of criticism or censure that we get from others…not the absolute conviction that we are speaking correctly.
Perhaps we have a duty to our magnificent language…that is one of contemplation and constant learning. The English language is robust and has many options for us to say EXACTLY what we mean, if only we are disciplined and have the will to do so.
The next time that you are inclined to use a colloquialism like the “whole nine yards”, I invite you to dig deeper, Google it, or othewise research it to find out what you are really saying!
Whenever I reach into my purse, the one thing that jumps into my hand is my keyring…it is huge! I have too many keys. Where did they all come from, do I still need them? I decided to stop and figure it out.
My strategy was to remove them all from the ring and to lay them out side by side. Big ones, fat ones, little itty bitty ones…lots and lots of keys. Some are colored, some are wierdly shaped. I even had a couple keys that were duplicates! The original and the spare for emergencies were in the same place. Duh!
I wondered if I should be more concious about what I allowed on my keyring, I wondered if the quality of life is better or worse with more or or less keys. More keys generally means you have more possessions or responsibilities…a mark of success? Perhaps not. If I could have homes all around the world, would I want to carry the keys with me, or would I put them in a keybox and just carry the key for the house I was in? Decisions, decisions.
Some keys have wonderful memories attached to them… a friend’s cabin, a cherished car. Another, suggest a more painful memory, the door to my old home and defunct relationship, Do the keys with good memories belong on my keyring as well-worn reminders? Should I keep a big box of retired keys labelled so that I can paw through them from time to time, feeling the energy of my past? Too much clutter.
Let’s start from scratch…an empty key ring. What possibilities! One by one, I added back the keys that were required, the front door, the car, the mailbox. Just three keys, it seems so simple, so enticing. But what about the back door key, what about the key to my girlfriend’s house. I decide to make a second key ring for all of the keys infrequently used. Brilliant. Unless of course I forget to bring them with me when I need them. I’ll take that chance. The mystique of a small key ring is just so compelling.
Give it a try, pull out that key ring of yours and get ready for some surgery. Pick your keys, pick your life. How do you feel now?
BTW- You might be asking why the Greek in my blog title? …Just a shameless ploy to get you to read my blog !
