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Showing posts from November, 2006

All you need is love

Keep reading enough spiritual, metaphysical or even psychology books, and you'll find that love is indeed the answer. Today, thanks to a dispute between two of Norway's largest TV stations, I was reintroduced to the Beatles' song "All You Need Is Love". There is a lot of spiritual wisdom (and encouragement) in the lyrics: All You Need Is Love The Beatles (Lennon/McCartney) Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love. There's nothing you can do that can't be done. Nothing you can sing that can't be sung. Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game It's easy. There's nothing you can make that can't be made. No one you can save that can't be saved. Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be in time It's easy. All you need is love, all you need is love, All you need is love, love, love is all you need. Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love. All you need is love, all you need is love, All you n

Respect and balance

That's what it says on my Dove shampoo bottle: Respect and balance. Respect - an action. I admit I don't quite get "respect", what it means exactly, how to conjur it up automatically in myself. Generosity or gratitude seems easier. What I have observed about respect, though, is that it seems more universal than love because every living being recognizes it without fail. I have seen both animals and people with mental handicaps pull away when they were disrespected; they knew right away what was happening and didn't tolerate it. So what does that tell me about respect? That it's about not putting anyone else down, it's about not forcing your will or way onto someone else. It's all those good things: Listening well, being patient, having the attitude "live and let live", understanding that no-one else is exactly like you and still meeting the other as an equal. Respect is about acknowledging the rights of other living creatures to breathe the s

WW2 oil poster

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Last night I went to the local marine museum. Exhibits range from the viking era to today's highly computerized ships. One exhibit is dedicated to the World War 2 experiences of the Norwegian merchant marine, who were torpedoed by German submarines as early as September of 1939. My grandpa sailed on oil tankers in convoys across the Atlantic for 6 years. That's how he came to meet my grandma. She was invited to a party at the Norwegian seaman's church in Brooklyn (New York) and he had shore-leave and attended the party. A small poster hangs in the museum exhibit, telling of the importance of the convoys across the Atlantic. For me, it is also a reminder of romance.

Ego too big for the universe?

My friend Sravana blogged about a talk given by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson . If you like good old-fashioned enthusiasm, you'll enjoy Tyson. What's making me post about it here, is Tyson's explanation for why we often feel so small, so insignificant. About 10.5 minutes into the film, Tyson mentions a letter from a psychologist whose job was to explore "the effects of things that make people feel small". In the letter, the psychologist stated that a show showing a zoom-out from earth had illicit just that feeling in him. Tyson thought this sounded wrong because when he looks up at the universe, he feels large. Then it occurred to him that the letter-writer's problem was that his ego was too large to begin with.

New blog

I have started a new blog today, Budding Yogini . Purpose: A blog dedicated to purely spiritual stuff. Not that my spiritual life is separate from the rest of my life, but I thought I'd gather spiritual and motivational statements that grab my attention in one place. I didn't look at any astrological chart before I started. My mood was "Let's do this" after thinking about it for months. Interestingly, the chart for my first post does have several contacts to my natal chart including MC conjuncting my Jupiter, Venus conjuncting my Sun, and Mars conjuncting my Mercury.

Why Budding Yogini?

Welcome to the first post of my new blog. This blog will be dedicated to spiritual/philosophical musings. "Budding yogini" (a budding female practioner of yoga) is what my yoga instructor has called me. Why this second blog ? I have always had a philosophical bent, and a need for theism. I have always sought to understand the spiritual side of life. This past year, such things have gained focus for me, as my astrology has faded away. I've been subscribing to a Zen page-a-day calendar, and will be musing on quotes that have caught my fancy there. I will also be musing on other quotes, spiritual sayings and the like. That is what this blog is for. For things that make me go "Hmmm" or maybe even "Wow!". Or that motivate me to try something I haven't tried before. And I may even tell you how I and my downward-facing dog are doing.

It's just a coffee mug

Wednesday, we had a departmental meeting in what normally is our coffee break room, which boasts a sofa suite and a coffee table and photos on the walls from parties, company picnics and the like. Each of us has his or her own coffe cup or mug, usually scattered on the coffee table and reused each day (washing is up to the owner). Yesterday I discovered that my coffee mug was missing. Probably scooped up with the rest of the dishes from the meeting and sent to the employee cafeteria. It annoys me. It's just a mug. It's not even pretty; it is plain white sporting only the black text logo of a fungus insurance firm (I kid you not), but it was given to me by a very friendly representative of said firm when I was new at my company, over 20 years ago. And I get a secret kick out of drinking out of something that has "hussopp" (literally: house fungus) in big letters on it. But what I've come to realize really bothers me is that, in spite of that coffee mug being my

OK, enough with the quizzes

I suddenly realized that four posts in a row were me taking tests I knew I could pass with flying colors (i.e. I took them for the hell of it and got results I felt like sharing). So let's talk about tests, shall we? I don't always march to same beat as everyone else, so those of you who find finals hell on earth should stop reading now. I can honestly say that tests don't bother me. I like tests. Tests are fun. Tests can sometimes be frustrating right then and there, but I don't spend the night before a test studying for it, or tossing and turning in my sleep. A bit of nerves, perhaps, on the day itself, but once I've grabbed that #2 pencil (or these days, the mouse), I'm fine. In school, I discovered that if I did all my homework, I wouldn't have to cram for tests. I also discovered that my brain doesn't do cramming very well ("You want me to remember all this for the next 24 hours after ignoring it for 24 weeks? Yeah, right.") and since

Another A

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Your Vocabulary Score: A Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person. How's Your Vocabulary? I don't much care for vocabulary tests because I don't really know a lot of five-syllable words, let alone their meaning. It turns out that there are some two-syllable words that are baffling. But still I got an A. Yay! Now to go look up "multifarious" and "erudite". (Another rip-off from Paula , who got A+.)

And yet not a straight A student

You paid attention during 100% of high school! 85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap! Do you deserve your high school diploma? Create a Quiz By the way, I didn't actually know the answer to every single question, but I made a couple of well-educated (!) guesses. And, silly me, I'm actually quite tickled I got 100%! But I did not pay 100% attention while in high school. Nor did I get straight A's (my grade point average was 3.5). This sentence does not start with a conjunction. (Via Paula )

Dedicated

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader   You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more. Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm   Literate Good Citizen   Book Snob   Fad Reader   Non-Reader   What Kind of Reader Are You? I'm a bit surprised at being labelled dedicated. It must be those piles of to-read books I have. I will admit that I get nervous in homes where not a single book - not even a dictionary, cookbook or bible - is visible. I know that some people do not read books at all. Yes, I think there's something wrong with those people. (Initially read on Literate Good Citizen Beep's LiveJournal .)

I'm a star!

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You are The Star Hope, expectation, Bright promises. The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one. What Tarot Card are You? Take the Test to Find Out. I got this via my friend Sravana who also got the star, too . She picked her card from the Cat People deck. I think the Dragon and the Cat People Star cards are both lovely. For what it's worth, the interpretation for The Star above echos where I'm at right now in my life.

Labels: Duh.

A friend commented that he didn't bother with labels on his blog. And I realized I had forgotten that other choice: No labels. Kind of like there's nothing on TV and you keep switching channels, totally forgetting that other option: The "off" button. So I have removed labels.

Energized in November

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My writing hasn't been that frequent lately. Partly due to the Blogger brown-outs, but mostly due to being distracted by other things, and simply busy. It's a good sign if I go shopping, if I want new things and feel good about getting them, because unlike most women, I don't enjoy shopping for clothes and shoes and stuff like that. It takes energy and patience to go try everything on, so the mood has to strike me, and then I'll go. That's why the big purchases all at once. September and October, thought bringing joy in their own right, did have a sneaky non-joy. I noticed that when I started to feel a familiar pain in my chest a few weeks ago. I recognized the signs of a broken heart. The muscles in the front of my chest have been tight and I get winded walking up the hill to my building. But I know what it is: Grief. Grief taking its own sweet time to work its way out of my system. The first time I felt this was when my dear friend Maria died, May of 2000. Tha

Spillage

New dress for the holidays bought. Wrap-around shape, simple black, long sleeves, below knee in length, and such a low cleavage, I was wondering if I'd fall out. Requires new bra. And some skin care for an area not usually exposes. ;-) Frustrated shopper: Bras hung in such a huge number on the rack in the store, that half a dozen fall off while I'm looking for my size. That got old Real Fast. Frustrated shopper 2: What the heck is my size? These won't keep anything in! And don't you just love that whattle-effect under your own armpits? Reached around for the new package of toilet paper and managed to knock it down and onto the liquid soap dispenser. Soap squirted several feet and onto feet.

Don't you step on my blue suede shoes

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Well, they aren't blue suede. They're actually a midnight Gore-Tex(R) . But I'm just so happy to find footwear that slipped onto my feet and didn't pinch, pull, grab, or stab me. They just sat on my feet and let me move around without thinking. So I bought three pairs: One lamb's wool-lined pair of leather boots (not pictured), one pair of bootlets and one pair of slip-on shoes (excellent for going through airport security). Yoga involves the whole body and lately, with the power yoga class I've been taking, my feet have been getting a lot of extra attention: They are bare, their position is important in getting the poses right, they cramp and protest at being moved into possible but unfamiliar positions, and my yoga instructor will grab them in order to adjust a pose. So suddenly my feet have taken on an importance they haven't had before. I look at the shoe-caused crookedness of my toes and feel a bit sorry for what I've put my feet through in the n

Something new to play with

OK, that last post can be considered a test run. It updated all the comments, too. And now I can play with tags, too! This post shall get the ubiquitous label "miscellaneous". Or maybe I'll do that in Norwegian: Diverse. Easier to spell.

Vil de ikke så skal de

There is a Norwegian idiomatic phrase, "Vil de ikke så skal de." A joking way of noting how things work with one of the most common natural laws: Stubbornness. Literally translated, the phrase says, "If they won't, they shall." I suspect Blogger of being Norwegian. Or that perhaps its users are. It seems too much of a "coincidence" that after weeks of wonky services and longish outages, that suddenly, everything's in place for everyone to move to Blogger Beta. Even us FTP-ing types. So I did. And dammit, Blogger had better behave now, or I'll get - stubborn or something. (Now, what to do with that WordPress account?)

Paper cut

I was forwarded a bunch of photographs of wonderful paper art in e-mail, artist unknown. Fortunately, there a sentence in the e-mail gave me a clue: "We often complain about the lack of resources -- but what if all you had was a single sheet of paper?" That and Google helped me find the artist. Give yourself a bit of wonder and check out Peter Callesen's wonderful paper cut-outs and other art .

All that excitement!

But who needs that kind of drama or trauma or karma?

In just one month

...I turn 46. Don't know why that feels like a big deal. I guess because it so clearly puts me in that part of being in my forties that is closer to fifty than to forty. I'm looking forward to it. I'm curious. And I'm feeling encouraged. I've been to the company doctor and for the second year in a row, my blood pressure has gone down (and my cholesterol up*), and they say that as we age, our blood pressure tends to increase. Not that I ever followed the crowd, but it is an interesting development. I think part of it is no longer having the stress of taking care of Grandma's apartment and finances, and part of it is the change in attitude I had to make a year ago. I do feel better, in general. I'm also rather enthusiastic about my ashtanga yoga class and how it feels for me. My body, aging and stiff, nevertheless does its best and causes me no pain (surprisingly), which tells me that this kind of yoga is just good for me. I can't imagine being 50, o

Orchid surprise

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Orchid gift at work 2006-11-01    —  Originally uploaded by thinkbigshrinktofit I had yesterday off, but just before leaving work Tuesday, I was given a print job that needed to be delivered out of town by Friday. I decided it wasn't worth delegating, so I made up new masters, printed and cut the job myself and was out of here by 5:30 pm Tuesday (vs. leaving at 4 pm). I must've really impressed my customer because the above orchid plant was waiting for me this morning, on my desk. Now I'm impressed. And very happy.