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A place for family and friends to see what I'm up to. Visitors welcome here.

Hail Guest, we ask not what thou art.
If Friend, we greet thee, hand and heart.
If Stranger, such no longer be.
If Foe, our love will conquer thee.
-Old Welsh Door Verse

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Living With Magic...

...is not a bad way to live.

I've reached the halfway point in Summer Break 2012.  So far I've taught a summer school class in creative writing (a great experience) and cleared out a space in the yard to store ugly gardening necessities like compost, potting soil, and miscellaneous tools.  I've cleared enough grass and weeds to fill our huge garden waste barrel three time (with another half barrel sitting here that won't fit.)  I've done a lot of reading, some stitching and started purging boxes of memorabilia, books and old clothes (all with memories attached) from the family room.  I've taken my mom to Disneyland twice (more about our second trip in a minute) and attended two I AM conversation sessions in Venice. 

What do I want to do will I do before school starts again (first faculty meeting is the last week of August):

I will finish the purging of the boxes (starts up again tomorrow).  I will purge my fabric and craft patterns.  I will purge my paperback book collection down to what will fit at the end of my tiny clothes closet (and in the process, get rid of more clothes).  I will continue to weed and prune so that the entire yard is clean when school starts (which, I've learned, makes it MUCH easier to maintain through the fall and winter).

I will finish my Christmas jacket (started last summer).  Then my bear quilt.  Then some little Disney-themed purses for Christmas gifts.  I will finish the floss on the Firefly Faeries, then block and mount it in Qsnaps for the metallics and beading.  I will return to Morning Pages (three pages of writing every morning), daily journaling and daily work on either of the two books I've started.  I will finish Lynne McTaggert's The Field and The Bond, and  Tom Shadyac's Life's Operating Manual.

I will add something each day to the family history.  I will work each week to add something to my teaching plans for next fall.

And I will be grateful every day that I have this time, and in gratitude will not squander it.

I have committed.

Thanks.  I needed that.  I guess I'd better print off the list.

So, this weekend I took my Mom back to Disneyland for another day of music music music in our favorite getaway.   Sometime this week I will post some pictures and video from yesterday's visit.  For now,  though, I want to share my excitement about today's  Sunday Mornings Coffee Talk, where a theater filled with caring people gather once a month to share thoughts and energy inspired by Tom Shadyac's I AM.  Today, if we could have harnessed the energy flowing through the room we could have made a dent in our energy crisis with energy that is pure, non-polluting and completely renewable.  Proven every month in that theater in Venice.

Today:

Nicolle Pritchett, one of the producers of I AM and the force behind making these Coffee Talks come true gifted us with copies of her brother's publication, Blindfold.  First I'd heard of it and I can only say, "Brilliant."


http://www.blindfoldmag.com/home


Tom Shadyac has hosted each gathering and is a force and an inspiration.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Qr2dFYBgU&feature=player_embedded#!

http://iamthedoc.com/


Special guest today was Roko Belic, producer of Happy.  I've been an outspoken supporter of Shadyac's I AM, which will prove to be one of the most important films of the decade.  Happy is right behind it.




By the Way, Happy includes contributions by Sonja Lyubomirsky.  I carry her app, Live Happy, on my ipod.  It's one of my favorite apps!

http://chass.ucr.edu/faculty_book/lyubomirsky/about_author.html

http://www.signalpatterns.com/iphone/livehappy_std.html

As if our happiness wasn't being fed enough, we had been introduced to IN-Q last month.  IN-Q is a powerful poet with a positive message delivered in a hip-hop/rap style.  He decided he liked the phenomenon called Sunday Mornings Coffee Talks enough to return this morning and was given the opportunity to close the meeting with another poem.  By the time he wrapped up the magic of the morning with some of his own, the place was practically shimmering.


http://www.in-q.com/

Finally, as we left, Nicolle gave us a pre-publication copy of Tom's new book, Life's Operating Manual.  He's been reading bits and pieces over the last four meetings.  I can't wait to jump into this one.

Traffic on the PCH was extremely heavy (another beautiful day at the beach) but it is always a lovely drive so who cares if it takes longer.  I indulged myself by stopping at Cosentino's, a nursery I've been passing for decades.  This is the first time I've managed to make it into the gate.  I was a tad disappointed as it is pretty much strictly succulents (not into those) but I'd glad I stopped - finally.


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