A few Warp Threads

Welcome to my home.  I hope you are having a terrific day today.

Before I start on today's post, I would like to clarify my religious views.  Periodically as I write these posts I will paraphrase something from the Bible which I grew up with.  I make mention of them only because something in my life has clarified, in the present moment, these remembered nuggets.  I grew up with the New Testament, as listed by the Council of Nicea a very long time ago, and what I know as the Old Testament.  I am aware of some of the other gospels that have been discovered.  I do not understand the Bible literally; I believe in the concepts it teaches.  I accept the validity of all religions and philosophies.  Man has a great need which religions and/or philosophy try to answer. Different religions exist because they emerged at different times in different cultures.  That incidentally is a very important point.  To fully understand what is being said in any religion, it is very necessary to understand the culture and the times associated with said religion.  It is also necessary to adapt them to your current time and culture.  My current belief has gone far beyond what was taught to me when I was young and incorporates much more.  I do not belong to any specific church right now.  Jesus does happen to be one of my heroes. I greatly admire his consummate ability to deliver his message.  Marshall Mcluhan once said, "the medium is the message".  Of course my interpretation of the word medium is no doubt very different from Mr. McLuhan's.  As I watch the world we live in, it sometimes seems that the content has disappeared completely. We all can remember certain ads but how many can remember what the ad is supposedly selling us.

Which brings me to my post for today.  Recently I watched Disney's version of The Lorax and Frozen back to back. Put them together and you notice similarities.  The theme song for The Lorax is Let It Grow.  The theme song for Frozen is Let it Go.  For those of you who have managed to escape these films, The Lorax, based on the book by Dr. Seuss, is about how trees were destroyed and how one boy started the process of bringing them back. Frozen is about a girl who must freeze herself to exist, discovers a place where that is not so and eventually discovers how to unfreeze herself.  Below are excerpts from the two songs.

Frozen - Let It Go

Couldn't keep it in, Heaven knows I tried.
Don't let them in, don't let them see.
Be the good girl you always have to be.
Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know.
Well, now they know!
Let it go, let it go!
Can't hold it back any more.
Let it go, let it go!

It's funny how some distance,

makes everything seem small.
And the fears that once controlled me, can't get to me at all
It's time to see what I can do,
to test the limits and break through.
Let it go, let it go.


The Lorax - Let It Grow

It don't matter how you got it
It's yours now, don't you hide it
Let it grow, Let it grow
Let the love inside you show it
Just one way to know you're worth it
Let it grow, Let it grow

In the first song, the singer is tired of always pretending to be something else.  She is no longer going to be afraid of who she is.  She is going to be who she is and that is enough. When I read that it sounds like Facebook, thousands of words of self help or the mantras which have dominated some decades and some sectors of our society, "Do Your Own Thing" and "Be Happy."  Certainly there is a need for the concept.  The problem is, as they found out in The Lorax, if you only do your own thing it can affect many others.  None of us exist on an island of one person.  We all are affected by and affect others; in fact what we do impacts far further than we will ever know.  The answer is that once you have found the courage to Let it Go, it is necessary to keep going and Let it Grow.  It being the opposite of fear which is love.  I have heard tell that if you let the fear go, the love which is supposed to be our natural state will automatically come in.  

Have any of you heard the statement that if you ask the right question, you will know the answer? My variation of that is the solution and the problem are the same thing.  What differs is the way you look at the issue.  If I have x amount of anything, it is true that somewhere there are people who would think me fortunate beyond words, people who would give everything they have and more just to have what I have.  It is equally true that there are people who think that what I have is a pittance, who would look down on me for having so little or alternatively think they are better than I am for choosing a different way of living. This statement applies no matter what your x is.  Those people by the way are not necessarily in a far off part of the world.  Therefore the thing that bothers you most is not the issue.  How you feel about it is.  It often is not possible to change a thing but it is possible to change how you feel about it.  In a book I read quite awhile ago, a man complained to his friend about how terribly his father had treated him.  The friend asked the man if he enjoyed his current life.  In this case the answer was yes. The friend then said if it wasn't for your father you wouldn't be here.  He was referring to both the man's physical birth but also the strength the man was required to develop to survive.  That strength had propelled the man to his current enjoyable state.  The problem had turned into a gift and the gift was the solution.

Another thought which I find prevalent is that you should give up your past.  Live for the future, forget what happened in the past.  I'm sorry I don't like this concept.  If you have survived for even a few years on this planet, there are probably some things that you would like to forget.  However, there are many things that were wonderful too.  Don't stop there. Go further into your personal past and the past of your society, culture or the world; much can be learned.  I was thinking about this today.  I started with a particular individual.  As an adult, he is a genealogist, computer security expert, major supporter of an important musical company, photographer and involved in the education of children.  As a teenager he was a very able mathematician and extremely sensitive to people.  He got those particular abilities from both sides of his family.  Without too much work I can see the trail going back to his great grandparents.  Even more interesting, my son exhibits many similar traits while expressing them completely differently.  This knowledge reminds you that you are not alone, gives you an insight into how a person thinks which affects how to talk to them, the best way to educate them and most importantly how they are likely to impact their world.  It also may explain difficulties with other individuals (the individuals are too similar).  Take it a step further.  People who have similar mental characteristics clump together.  How many times have you mentioned a country in the same breath as their common characteristic?  People who are philosophers simply don't think the same way as people who like building machines. A mathematician, musician and computer expert, on the other hand, all speak the same language.  Knowing what type of person an individual or a country is will smooth out a great many relationships.  For that you need to make an effort to understand where they were and where they are.  Finally, whether we want to admit it or not, our memories of our experiences define us for us.  I don't think that throwing away ourselves is going to help much.  We have to have some place to start.

These are three thoughts that I suspect will strongly contribute to my new tapestry.  

1. It is not enough to let a fear go, it must be replaced with something positive.  Otherwise another fear steps in to fill the void.   I overcome the difficulty of getting a new doctor and immediately start to worry about whether I will like the way the doctor treats me!

2. It is time to change my perspective.  Look at the positive that arose at the same time as the negative.  When I was a young child I moved across half the country.  I felt devastated. All my friends were gone, I had no idea how I could make more.  I have repeated that particular scene every time I have moved as an adult.  There was another side that I completely ignored.  I did make friends then and every time. That simple little fact came as a complete surprise to me.  I had been to busy being scared. If I have done it before, then I can probably do it again.  

3. My past is a vital part of who I am; all parts of it.  That statement can be generalized to pretty much everybody and everything.  Understanding that past goes a long way to explaining why certain actions are taken.  Canada and the United States share a great deal today (especially media) yet we are now and always will be very different countries.  The two countries have very different pasts; even the reasons for arriving and settling in the countries are radically different. 

The final words from The Lorax are:

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It's Not! - The Lorax

Let's decide to care a whole awful lot about who we are and who the best possible version of ourselves is.  It's time to get better.  Start by patting yourself on the back.  I know you did something great today. Honour yourself!

Are you Insane?

Okay, this is a lot harder than I suspected but that is nothing new.  I believe I mentioned that I am not a fan of talking about myself, particularly my problems. It is the end of the month and as usual I am panicking about money. Am I going to make all the bills this month seems to be the eternal question.  If I do happen to come into some money, I forget about managing it for the future, it runs out and here I am back with the end of the month's worries again.

Enough already.  This blog is about changing my focus and perhaps other people will pick up some clues along the way to shift their focus.  How exactly does one go about changing their focus?  My former technique would be to hang out in my head, go find someone else who has a miracle cure or pray desperately.  I wouldn't be writing this particular blog today if any of them had worked.  I believe Albert Einstein started the very well known quote. "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".  Today we stop being insane.

No matter where your information comes from; life experiences, religion, society, self-help books, TV or, the catch all for everything, the Internet, the answer can be summed up with one sentence.  Do the exact opposite of what you want.  If you want money, give it away.  If you want to learn, teach.  If you want to receive love, go love someone else.  If you want to be respected,  respect others.  Don't focus on what you don't have and therefore want, focus on what you have, on your blessings.  I grew up with the Christian Bible.  Two very famous quotes which I'm paraphrasing sum it all up.  If you want to receive, ask.  If you want to get into heaven, act like a child.  Excellent advice I'm sure but really, if any of us could make sense of that, would we still be looking for another blog to tell us what to do?

Lets' start by stepping back from ourselves for a bit.  Each of us spends most of our time focusing on the minutia of our days, the individual events of our days which may or may not be causing problems.  There must be multiple studies somewhere that point out that the negative is more powerful and easier to recall than the positive.  What is the bigger picture of our days and lives?  We need nutrition, exercise, sleep, connection and something to engage us. That's pretty much it.  What we do with those areas determines how we live our lives and whether we enjoy our lives or not.

Somewhere along the line I have heard, and ignored repeatedly, that when we make changes we should do so slowly.  Recently through a webinair from MindValleyAcademy.com I came across the information that to create a habit it helps to match what we are doing with a cue. Trying to keep that information in mind along with the bigger picture, I have come up with a few ideas for taking our focus, for a few minutes, off whatever it is that we are stressing about. These are actual acts we can do to start changes in ourselves.

Every day I get up, go to the bathroom, then the kitchen to feed my cats and grab a small drink of water with my medication.  I am changing that process slightly.  When I get my water, I am getting a large glass of water and adding some lemon or lime to it with a touch of honey.  Then I start the rest of my day.  Watching Dr. Oz yesterday I was reminded of chia seeds.  Chia seeds are a natural food which is high in omega 3's, calcium, fiber and protein. Awhile ago, I was religiously taking Omega 3 supplements but they became too expensive. Yesterday I went out and bought some chia seeds at my local bulk food store.  I tried adding them to the water this morning.  Turned out to be a bad idea.  Instead I found an applesauce, oatmeal, blueberry muffin recipe and threw in a tablespoon of chia seeds with the dry mixture.  Now I have healthy muffins and I can get some chia into my husband as well - always a bonus.  I've got a lot of chia seeds so there will be a lot of muffins in this household for awhile.  If you don't want to do that, chia seeds can be added to just about anything especially smoothies.  There are a lot of recipes on the internet.  Lately I have been learning to add spices when I cook.  Tumeric and cinnamon usually find it into my day.  Tumeric is anti-inflammatory, cinnamon and honey have anti-oxidant properties.  For me the cue is what I have to do in the morning anyway.  I don't need a cue to eat muffins.

Exercise is the next on the list.  I like to walk and I have an escarpment near by which has stairs to climb.  I also have a 2 year old grandson.  Between them I get a fair amount of exercise - if it's nice out.  Yoga is always in the back of my mind but that's where it stays most of the time.  There are however some painless ways to increase your exercise level. Last night during some commercial breaks I started to do exercises - some of them were standing up, others I did right where I was sitting.  At other times, I simply move when doing something else that I have to get through like doing my teeth, doing dishes or waiting on hold on the phone.  Adding  music or seeing how silly you look in the mirror can help. Some of these ideas can be used if you are confined to bed.  I find that when I think of them as moving not as exercise and match them with something else to remind me, it is easier to do.  After my accident I found some balls (Miracle balls) that I could use while lying on a flat surface to build strength.  Drinking water before and after working out is a great feeling.

For me, walking provides another way to move my focus to something else.  I connect either with what is inside me or what is around me. By the way if you are not in the habit of walking start with a five or ten minute walk and work up to what you enjoy. A five or ten minute walk is not very far and can be squeezed in quickly. My walks are usually around an hour.   The speed you walk at is not that critical at this point.  Sometimes I observe my body when I'm walking to see what parts are moving. I discovered that if I consciously move my hips when I walk, my stride lengthens, it feels smoother and the pain in my knees disappears.  At other times I look around.  If you really look around you, it can be amazing what small delightful things you discover. I started walking in the country and every time someone or some vehicle went by I smiled.  It was weird at first but eventually became a lot of fun.  Now I live in the city.  It is very easy now to smile, say hi and on occasion have a short chat with the people I meet.  I have yet to find a person who doesn't like being praised for something they are doing or have done.  It may be that you can't get out and about; perhaps your health doesn't let you or perhaps you are just too busy.  That is where the Internet comes in. I started with just finding a couple of sites that I could receive in my email to lift me up.  My son pointed out that all you have to do is go on whichever social media site feels comfortable and find some groups that interest you. Assuming that you follow basic safety protocol you can connect as deeply as you want to.

Sleeping can be a problem.  Part of the problem is that we are completely out of touch with what our bodies actually want which means we do what other people decree is necessary. That will gradually change as we notice ourselves more. I am finding that some of the earlier ideas about nutrition and exercise help with the sleep issue.  Turning off all electronic equipment is probably a good idea too.  I find that deep breathing (stomach up when you inhale, down when you exhale) will often allow me to drift off.  Getting into meditating or anything which activates my mind, while it can be great for some, just wakes me up. Sleeping is when your brain heals your body and processes your day. Whether the people in our lives like it or not, we are going to be useless if we don't get sleep.

The final ingredient is how you choose to engage with your life.  That brings us back to focus and that is what this entire series of blogs is about.  The changes I've mentioned are very small changes to your routine.  The idea is to adopt the ones you want as you want to.  The cool thing about all of them is that one tiny change has multiple effects.  Each change will improve the health of your body.  None of these changes works instantly but if you keep doing them and turn them into a habit you will notice a change.  Each change will also improve your attitude; give you more energy, allow you to feel a little more up.  Finally every time you do something for yourself, you can be proud of yourself.  You care enough about yourself to do something nice for you.  Each tiny change gives you a  three-for-one. You change your body, mind and soul.  You are doing the opposite of what you were doing. Guess what you aren't insane!  The basic self-help mantra is change your thoughts, change your attitude.  Each time you do even one of these things, you are doing precisely that. Congratulations to all of us.  I made it through another blog and you made it through another blog.  We're great!

The Starting Point: Journey With Me

Hi there.  My name is Shirley Weeks.  The title of this blog, Sparkling Force 2 is both a wish and a reality. Sparkling refers to how my eyes were described when I was very young and Force is what I want to be in this world.  The 2 refers to the order in which I am venturing new things.  A few weeks ago I discovered Twitter and my user name required one more letter/number so I added 1 (@sparklingforce1).  This then is 2. The name is a wish because I really, really would like to be this; right now and for the rest of my life.  It is a reality because in my heart of hearts I really do believe that I already am a very powerful individual.  I really am this. Problem is there are a few layers of fear in between my heart of hearts and my daily life.

Lately I have become aware of several messages.  The universe has a very hard time getting through to me some days.  A few days ago (well actually it took several  passes before I got it) I walked past a storefront that was advertising tools for the blind and visually impaired.  I wondered what tools you would provide for an individual that was focus impaired.  In one way or the other that describes all of us.  Our focus narrows and narrows until we see only what is directly in front of us.  Many years ago, my daughter  was doing a painting of a cliff beside the sea in art class.  She became so focused on getting the stones in the cliff just right that she finally had to be told to stop.  She'd forgotten to look at the whole picture. She chose to name it "Looks good from a distance."  It's a beautiful painting that hangs proudly in my house.  She's not the only one who forgets to look at the whole picture.

Thoughts have been coming into my head lately to think about what members of my family need specifically. I should state here that my children are grown and my husband is at the age where he would like to retire and can't.  All of them are grown and living their own life in the way they choose to live it.  I am however still a mother and wife.  The message here is to give them what they need not what I think they should do (not that the latter ever worked anyway).  That requires listening a lot and observing.  For me the response involves either remembering and writing or researching and communicating.

Today's message was from Facebook.  There was a post about a woman who decided to face a fear a day for 100 days.  She chose to video her reactions and put it on YouTube.  As I mentioned I just discovered Twitter; posting on YouTube is an adventure yet to be discovered.  I do however like to write.  If she could do it, perhaps I can.  Besides just the process of doing the blog would, I hope, cover quite a few of my fears.

My biggest problem is I avoid doing whatever is worrying me.  I'm a great procrastinator.  If I actually did all the things that I think I'm going to do I would probably be over the top busy for at least the next year.  By that time all the things that I didn't do would have piled up and here we go again.  The next problem is that for some reason I am terrified to act.  I'm really good at thinking about things.  I have a lot of knowledge stored in my brain - some of which even makes it out of my brain.  Another fear is that what I have to say or do is not important enough for others to listen to or that I won't be able to say it in a way that is acceptable for other people. When I read that, I think wow, how boring.  I'm just like other people.  You see back down there in that heart that is so deep that I can't find it, I rather like the idea of being unique and different - special (yes being special can be a good thing!)

My passions, although I've spent a lifetime telling myself that I have no passion, creativity or ability to imagine, are writing and helping people (which often became people pleasing).  When I write intentionally, I now have 5 books somewhere in progress (novels, biographies) and 3 or 4 more in my head, it comes out like a very boring, dull documentary; no emotion, no life and no me. That is not what I want and neither does anyone else.  It would be nice to be heard.

My profile says that I am an explorer.  If I use this blog to explore the messages and the answers that come from those messages, I can achieve many things.  I will be actually doing something that I want to do.  I will be sharing  the way I cope or don't cope with my fears.  That covers my passions.  I will be communicating in a more natural manner.  The intention is to reach other people who may be struggling.  If I do I hope you will reply in the comments section below. If all these things happen, I will be building a platform for my novels and biographies which I am told is necessary in today's world if you want to get published.  A big thing in the energy healing field or self help field is to be HAPPY.  I first saw that phrase on my six year olds tee shirt a long time ago.  In any case this makes me happy.  I hope you will be able to connect or find something in all of this that relates to you.  Who knows when I finally figure out how to design this blog the way I want it, I might even discover my creativity.

One note I would like to add.  This blog is about me.  I do belong to a family that means a great deal to me. I have to remember that this is the Internet and I am not obtaining their permission. To preserve their anonymity I will only be using their relative designation or at most their first name.  Thanks for understanding. Looking forward to telling my tale and hearing about yours.  Take care.  You are the most wonderful person in the world!