Archive for November, 2009
H1N1, Government Blunders & Big Fat Liars
November 30th, 2009 | 
Author: I heard on the radio a few weeks ago that local medical facilities are no longer testing specifically for the H1N1 virus.
Now, I’m not one to care. I didn’t get vaccinated and neither did my children or anyone in my extended family. I’ve been of the belief that this whole H1N1 things is just a big fat lie, frankly. That’s not to say that I don’t think the virus is real, but it sure isn’t the great, big, scary deal that the government and media would have us believe it is.
So, a few weeks ago, when I heard that the CDC (Center for Disease Control), who’s in charge of everything, had formally told doctors to cease checking for H1N1 specifically and just assume it’s all H1N1… I was a little… miffed… at yet amused.
I was in my van with my oldest son, making the trip to take him home after his weekend at our house when we heard it on the radio. I laughed the sarcastic chuckle of someone in disbelief at the pure stupidity of the people who are supposed to be running this country. My son, who is old enough to understand at 15 and studies these things in social studies, inquired as to why I found this announcement so amusing.
I replied by explaining it this way:
Say 100 people in our state get REALLY sick. Eighty of them have a really bad cold that is likely to turn into an upper respiratory infection. Fifteen of them have the plain old seasonal flu that rampages the country for a few months a year. Five of them have H1N1.
Of the eighty who get upper respiratory infections, sixty of them die from breathing complications due to the fact that they were over 70 yrs old or under 4 yrs old. Of the fifteen with the regular flu, ten die. Of the five with H1N1, none die and they make a full recovery after 5-7 days.
They’re STILL going to get on the news, in hysterics, screaming that 70 more people have died from the H1N1 virus!!! When in fact, no one actually died from H1N1 and there’s really nothing to be so afraid of.
He completely understood where I was coming from and agreed with everything I’d said when I finished. I love when that happens :)
So anyway, I’ve been ignoring all the H1N1 hype. The health department came to our schools and vaccinated all the children with permission slips. Mine were not in that group of course. I’ve been keeping up with their daily multi vitamins, extra C, and extra D3. A power house of immune health if ever there was one.
Today, I found a link to these videos on Facebook. One of my fantastic friends had it posted on her wall, so I wanted to take a minute to write a little about what I thought and then post the videos for you all to watch. I don’t know how many of you subscribe to or are even familiar with Dr. Mercola, but he’s a wonderfully intelligent doctor with a natural health website and newsletter. I really can’t recommend him highly enough!
Here’s a link to his site: http://www.mercola.com/
In these videos, Mr. Mercola is interviewing a journalist who went to every state inquiring about H1N1 and found out just how little H1N1 is actually out there, proving yet again that it’s all a great, big scare tactic.
Here is a link to the video on youtube for anyone who can’t see it above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJs3mZlACgM
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Enjoy These Great Resources!
- Need Help? You Can Heal Your Life
- Smile Across Your Heart: The Process of Building Self Love
- Love Your Body, Love Your Life: 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently
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Medium
I have been watching the television show “Medium” for many years now. As long as it’s been on the air as a matter of fact. I even recall the very first show!
For those of you like my friend Ash, who is televisionally challenged, Medium is a show about our favorite psychic/medium, Allison Dubois, and her amazing dream life that leads, on a constant basis, to the capture and arrest of all the bad people residing in Arizona and sometimes further. Her character is actually based on a real woman, which I think is the coolest part of the whole damn thing!
So anyway… I’m sitting on my bed last night watching a rerun on the Fa La La La Lifetime Network (LOL) and Allison is going through her usual turmoil as she tries to decipher a dream that doesn’t make much sense while trying to convince her husband, Joe, her boss, the District Attourney, and her friend/peer/colleague Detective Scanlin that everyone is in grave danger.
Then her husband goes on and on about how sometimes a dream is just a dream and maybe she doesn’t know everything after all etc etc. Her boss goes on and on about how a dream isn’t evidence and how he doesn’t see how he can do anything based on what she’s told him. He finds it unbelievable and tells her that when she has something concrete, she should come back and talk to him. Detective Scanlin usually just balks in disbelief and cracks jokes and makes smart assed remarks at her expense.
This is the make believe life of Mrs. Allison Dubois.
Here’s the thoughts I had while watching….
How totally irritating would it be if you had dreams all the time that ALWAYS came true, even if you couldn’t understand them at the time. And when you had said dreams and then tried to warn the appropriate people of the impending doom, they always blew you off and didn’t believe you until the last second when it all comes together and you become a hero again?
I don’t think I could stay married to a man who doubted every word I said when I’ve been proven to be right 95+% of the time. How infuriating would it be to be doing the job you were actually hired for, and then have to argue with your boss on a regular basis about your current and past accuracies?
I know, I know… it’s only television. It’s not real.
How do they get away with it though? How do they put such ridiculous scenarios on TV on a constant basis and get so many millions of people to constantly swallow it. As much as I’ve always loved Medium, I think I may actually be finishing up my obsession with it now. The only things on the show that ever change is the bad guys and the victims. Everything else from the conversations to the detective work to the constant disbelief is exactly the same.
Maybe I’ll get lucky and a producer for the show will happen upon my blog, and decide that I’m 100% right and change the layout of the show forever. I can see my name in the credits already!!
HA! A girl can dream, right :)
I hope you’re having a wonderful Monday so far. I sure am. I’m getting my daily exercise as I type this! I built myself a little wooden jiggy that fits on the front of my treadmill and actually holds my laptop so I can walk at 3mph and type a post to all you fantastic people at the same time.
*You enjoyed my post and would like to buy me coffee?!
WOW! I really appreciate that!*
Enjoy These Great Resources!
- Need Help? You Can Heal Your Life
- Smile Across Your Heart: The Process of Building Self Love
- Love Your Body, Love Your Life: 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently
*Subscribe to The Smiling Spirit*in a reader or by Email
Blame, Responsibility & Love
As I was leaving the grocery store on Wednesday, after finishing up my Thanksgiving food collecting, I saw something disturbing. There, right outside the grocery store, standing where everyone would drive by on their way out, was a man. A dirty and sad looking man. He was holding a huge cardboard sign that said, in big, hand written, black, marker letters, “Laid off and almost homeless. Will work for money, food, or diapers!”
This is by far the most heart breaking thing I’ve ever had to see, first hand, with my own eyes. I mean, you hear about things like this and even see it on television on prime time dramas and movies. You’re given the impression that things like this are really only in really big cities, but that’s not true. Here, in our pathetically small city of Ashtabula, the proof stood right on that corner, dignity and self respect in hand, begging his fellow man for a leg up of any kind so this poor guy can diaper and feed his kids.
Now, I’m ALL ABOUT the concept that we choose.We choose our lives and circumstances. No exception. Did he purposely choose to suffer along with his family? Of course not. This is where people get all confused about conscious creation and Law of Attraction. This is where people get all mad and say that followers of the LOA are calloused and mean. How can you see someone struggle and blame them for it? They’re the victim, right?
Right! They ARE the victim. Abso-freakin-lutely! Are they to blame? No, of course not. Did they bring these circumstances onto themselves? Yep.
Huh? Say that again…. They ARE the victim, they’re NOT to blame, and they DID bring their circumstances onto themselves.
Well, I’ll be damned if that don’t make no damn sense. I just totally contradicted myself, didn’t I. Only I didn’t… and I’ll tell you why.
- We are all victims of our own thoughts at some point in our lives. We all pick out the worst case scenario before anything at all has even happened and replay the awful possibilities over and over in our heads. Doing this only serves to get you all upset and stressed out and filled with anxiety. Is this productive? Not hardly. Does it create positive circumstances? Nope.In the example of the man above…. I bet he started playing over and over in his head, how he’d be laid off and how his family would suffer from the moment that the country started talking about the bad economy. So he’s to blame for his own circumstances, right? No, of course not…..
- He is NOT to blame for his circumstances! How can that be? If we all create from our thoughts and beliefs… and his thoughts and beliefs have created this situation for him, how can he not be to blame?Blame is a crappy word. We blame when a circumstance comes around that’s unfavorable and we believe someone else is responsible for creating the circumstances. We blame them for our pain. Blame and responsibility are NOT the same thing. Is he responsible? Yeah. That doesn’t mean he wants pain. That doesn’t mean he wants to suffer. It simply means that we are responsible for our own circumstances. We choose our goals, and then choose our thoughts regarding the goal, and then the goal manifests into our lives according to how we specified that we expected to see it according to our thoughts.Also, blame implies that something is wrong. That’s why we get so touchy over that word. Blame automatically means that I’ve been wronged and it’s your fault. In reality, nothing is ever wrong. Things may not be what you wish they were. Things may seem really unfavorable in comparison to what someone elses circumstances are, but life is never wrong or bad. It just Is. It’s what you choose to make of it that decides what you end up with and the lessons you learn and the direction you move in. I really don’t like that word. I prefer responsibility.
- Responsibility. The ability to respond. You choose how you respond to all stimuli. When something “bad” happens in your life, your ability to respond, your choice TO respond, and your decision in HOW to respond is all yours. So you’re not to blame for your life’s circumstances, but you are responsible for the state of your thoughts and life. It is your job to respond.How did the nearly homeless man respond to his circumstances? I’d be willing to bet that it wasn’t in a proactive way. I’d be willing to bet that he didn’t find the positive thoughts and begin looking forward in anticipation to the wonderful changes in store for him and his family.”Wonderful changes? Are you freaking kidding me? How can being starved and homeless a wonderful change?”
When we’re laid off from our job, becoming homeless and starved is NOT the only possible outcome. It’s not even the most likely of outcomes. It takes an awful lot of worry and fear and resistance to get there. An awful lot of wallowing in self pity and victimization. I know, it sounds like I’m blaming him, but I’m not.
We’re all here, on this planet together. We’re all going to live here through this lifetime and then we’re going to leave. Everything we accumulate here will be left behind. Everything that we stress over and worry about and bust our asses to own will be totally irrelevant, useless, and worthless to us when the time comes for us to go. So why is it that we base our entire worth and the value of our lives on the ownership of all these material things?
Missing the point.
Because I come from a Christian background, I tend to go to the Bible for things and I have a Christian base to my beliefs. I know, how weird, a Christian Witch. LOL
Anyway, the word “sin” comes to mind. Sin is an old Greek archery term. It means to miss the mark or point.
Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
The missing of the point.
The point is…. it’s all an illusion. It’s all self created and only exists inside your head. The entire world and your entire life isn’t REAL. It’s only your own personal interpretation of the endless sea of energy and information that you’re floating around in. Your life does NOT look the same to anyone on the planet as it looks to you. Even the people living their lives closely and even intertwined with yours do not see or think of you and your life in the way that you do.
Falling short of the glory of God.
The glory of God is the awareness that the illusion exists. It’s the sheer, unadulterated joy that’s found when you realize you can choose to be happy no matter what. Because no matter how crappy the circumstances, it’s not real. There’s no meaning there. It’s not you. There’s nothing that you can buy or own or have or make or date or marry that will make you happy. Only you can make you happy. Don’t fall into the illusion.
If you continually seek things and people to bring you happiness, you will live out your life wondering desperately why you’re never happy for more than short bursts at a time.
Empathy and understanding.
These are two things that you must find within yourself. Should the man in need be ignored due to the fact that he’s responsible for his own circumstances? Should we walk on by and not help? Should we allow him the suffering he’s subconsciously requested in the hopes that he’ll hit his proverbial “rock bottom” and have a sudden epiphany that will forever change his life and circumstances? Of course not!
We’ve all been in a place where we thought we were screwed. The place where everything you touch turns to shit and there is no foreseeable way out. That terrifying place where your inner movie plays out all the myriad of ways that the current crappy situation can possible become worse. It’s scary. It’s lonely. It’s often hopeless…. in the way that it feels at least.
Someone in that situation doesn’t need to be ignored. They don’t need to be told it’s their “fault” they’re in the position they’re in. They also don’t need to be told to “look on the bright side.” What they need is someone who can empathize with them. Understand their position and how they came to be in it. Someone willing to hang in there with them and help them SEE how it can be improved. To help them SEE that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that they’re not alone.
No matter what your Spiritual or religious affiliation. No matter which of the coming holidays you celebrate in your household. Please reach out to someone this holiday season and share some empathy and understanding. Share some money if you can. Share some food. Share your holiday dinner table. Share your time.
We are each blessed with so much to give. Even if you have NOTHING, you can still give of yourself. You can still make someone’s day by simply being present with them in the face of their loneliness. Let the unconditional love of the Universe that expresses itself through you, be what you share first and foremost with your fellow man this holiday season, and every day of the year.
Here are some resources for sharing what you can. I’m going to take my kids and volunteer at our local food bank this season. As far as I’m concerned, giving of themselves and helping those in need is one of the best lessons I am capable of teaching them and I’m proud and consider myself honored to teach it.
Volunteers of America
Serve.Gov
Volunteer Match
Local Charities
Catholic Charities USA
Local Independent Charities of America
*You enjoyed my post and would like to buy me coffee?!
WOW! I really appreciate that!*
Enjoy These Great Resources!
- Need Help? You Can Heal Your Life
- Smile Across Your Heart: The Process of Building Self Love
- Love Your Body, Love Your Life: 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently
*Subscribe to The Smiling Spirit*
in a reader or by Email
Saturday Morning Surprise
I woke up this morning at 7am. Early for a Saturday but considering I’ve had food poisoning for the past 3 days, I was just happy to be waking up from a sound night’s sleep. I wandered out into the living area of the house where both dogs and both cats were circling the living room. It’s unusual for them all to be in one room together. They don’t fight, but the dogs are a little rough and the cats aren’t very appreciative.
So anyway, I put Bandit outside and the cats both ignored me and went about their business of playing. Abby followed me to my chair at the table where she laid down at my feet while I settled in with my laptop to await my coffee. When the coffee maker let out its final spit and sputter, I went to the kitchen to get a mug of the jolt juice.
When I got back, moments later, and sat back down, Abby had gone over into the living room by the door, presumably to wait for Bandit’s return. I sipped my coffee a couple times and made an appearance on “School of Wizardry” on Facebook, which is my latest addiction!
When movement caught my eye, I looked over and there was Abby, on the floor by the door, chewing on Scott’s work shoe!! We just bought those shoes back in the beginning of the summer. They’re high quality, all leather, Red Wing, work shoes. Damn things were $150, and came with one helluva warranty on them. I jumped from my chair in anger and stomped over to her.
She didn’t even budge. Usually when she’s doing something bad and sees that she’s been spotted, she runs and hides because she knows mommy is mad. Not this time. Odd. When I got to her, I bend down and grabbed the shoe away from her, but was surprised to find that she wasn’t actually holding it in her mouth. She had her mouth… well, her entire snout, shoved INSIDE the shoe.
Huh?!
I swung the front door open to let the light in and held the shoe up to examine the damage. As I looked the shoe over, expecting puncture marks where tiny K9 teeth had bitten in, I was very surprised to find nothing. Not a mark. Not even a wet spot where her spit had soaked in. Nothing.
For a reason I can’t consciously explain, I then turned the shoe long ways with the toe of the shoe farthest away from me, lifted the tongue, and looked into the shoe. You can imagine my surprise when I realized after a brief moment that the skinny little brown stripe along the inside of the shoe wasn’t dirt or a fabric crease, but was, in fact, a tiny little mouse tail.
Holy crap! There’s a mouse in the shoe! I looked down and there’s Abby, sitting ever so pretty at my feet, staring up longingly at the shoe I now hold with her morning appetizer in it. I took the shoe outside and thumped it on the porch until the tiny little field mouse plopped down into the heel. I tipped him out onto the deck and watched him hop swiftly away and off the side of the porch. He looked like a kangaroo that was hit by a shrink ray. Cutest little thing. LOL
Abby was so entirely unimpressed by my act of mercy. I’ve never actually seen a dog scowl before, but I’m pretty sure I did this morning. Scott, while unimpressed with my act of mercy because he feels that sending them outside just makes them come back in to be caught again, was however relieved at the idea of not jamming his foot into a shoe next to a mouse.
HA! Too funny. I can just imagine the jig that would’ve ensued after the realization that he was sharing his shoe with a tiny critter! Hysterical. Of course the tiny critter would’ve been killed, so it’s better this way. I’m a softy. Can’t kill anything.
I hope you all have a fantastic Saturday and I hope any little surprises YOU get today are welcomed and enjoyable.
*You enjoyed my post and would like to buy me coffee?!
WOW! I really appreciate that!*
Enjoy These Great Resources!
- Need Help? You Can Heal Your Life
- Smile Across Your Heart: The Process of Building Self Love
- Love Your Body, Love Your Life: 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently
*Subscribe to The Smiling Spirit*in a reader or by Email
You Deserve a Moment
Taking a moment and doing something for yourself is one of the best mood lifters around. We spend too much time in the rat race going from person to person, job to job, activity to activity, and stressor to stressor. We get all wrapped up in what’s happening in our world and the worlds of those closest to us.
Taking some time, special, just for you, can change your life in ways you wouldn’t even imagine. When you do something that makes you feel good or happy, your body produces endorphins that keep pumping happy juice into your system for hours after. You’ll also raise your white cell count and give your immune system a handy little boost.
Doing something that makes you feel good NOW can raise your mood so much that you can still be feeling fabulous hours later. On top of that, when you feel good, you automatically feel inspired to make other people feel good. They say that misery loves company, but so does joy.
So take a little time today. How ever much you can afford. Sit on a park bench and feed the birds. Have a facial. Play a video game. Take a bath. Read a magazine. You know what you like. You know what you would want to spend some time doing. Chances are, there’s something in the back of your mind that you’ve been wanting to do for a while but you’ve been waiting until you had the time or energy. Do it today! You deserve it.
I’m going to take my own advice today. I intend to find at least 15 minutes to go outside and play in the grass with my dogs. I walk them and I run them but it’s always about the exercise for me and them or just the draining of their energy. I love them and we play, but today I want to make sure that we go outside and play hard for a good 15 minutes. Not because it’s good exercise or because they want my attention, but because I LOVE IT!
It’s so exhilarating to chase a dog and tug a rope and toss a ball. I swear they smile when we play outside. It makes all three of us feel wonderfully happy. I’m smiling now just thinking about it as I’m writing this!
I hope you have a wonderful day today :)
*You enjoyed my post and would like to buy me coffee?!
WOW! I really appreciate that!*
Enjoy These Great Resources!
- Need Help? You Can Heal Your Life
- Smile Across Your Heart: The Process of Building Self Love
- Love Your Body, Love Your Life: 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently
*Subscribe to The Smiling Spirit*in a reader or by Email
A Special Connection
I was sitting on my bed the other night channel surfing, and I came across The Wizard of Oz. It was at the part where Glinda the good witch tells the wicked witch that she’d better scram before someone drops a house on her too. I love this movie. We have it on DVD and it’s right up there in my top five for sure!
This got me thinking about my Gram. My Gram died back in 1997. She was a Christian Bible Thumper like nothing you’ve ever seen, but she was also the kindest and most loving person I’ve ever known. I came to realize over the years that Gram was a lot more tuned into “God” than I ever gave her credit for.
She would wake up in the night and be unable to get back to sleep, so she would pray. For hours. For everyone. For everything. I always thought that was odd as a child. She would occasionally talk about what God said to her. And it was just like that too. “I was praying and God spoke to me and I suddenly just knew where I’d find the answer, so I got up and went to my Bible and looked up the scripture that came to me and it was the exact thing that I needed.”
There was a night, years before I was born, that grandpa (who died 4 years before I arrived) drove off the road into a ditch in the middle of the night while trying to make his way home. It turned out he’d fallen asleep at the wheel. Gram had awoken at that moment in her bed with a dreadful, sinking feeling in her gut. She knew in her heart that her husband was in trouble and immediately launched from bed and hit her knees and started to pray. Grandpa was found quickly and assisted, of course, and was fine.
Gram had a son who died of spinal meningitis when he was five years old. This happened back in 1939. As she held her dying child in her arms, the newly popularized song, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was playing in the background as he took his final breaths. Many years later, in 1974, my mother skipped playfully through the house singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to herself and my Gram hit her knees and began to pray. Her husband died that night… and she knew it was coming because she heard that song and it spoke to her. Or rather God spoke to her through that song.
So as I sat, watching The Wizard of Oz last night, I got to thinking about my Gram and what she was like and the labels that she put on things to suit her belief system. She experienced synchronicity constantly but with her Christian background, it was Jesus speaking to her. She awoke in the night from psychic dreams with a heavy sense of premonition, but it was because Jesus was watching over her husband. God was always speaking to her and directing her. I remember thinking that she must be incredibly special for God to have so much to say.
Turns out I was right. She was special. But it also turns out, we all are. We all have the capacity within us to have an amazing relationship with God. We even have the complete freedom to call it and imagine it any way that suits us. How totally amazing. There are all sorts of titles given to that all encompassing energy that is the source of all that is. God, Source, the Universe, the Higher Self, and even the plain old subconscious. And every person has their own personal idea of what exactly it is. How exactly it works. It’s all a personal perception. You perceive God in ways that you understand so God is merely a perception. Your perception on creation and the ultimate creator. No one else will ever perceive it exactly the same as you.
So anyway, in honor of my straight laced, Bible thumping Gram who I know would never accept or understand the Spiritual path I’ve chosen for myself, I’d like to salute every being. Each individual person on the planet. You, like me, are all here to find your way and see from your perspective and grow and relate to God however you comfortably can.
May the lines of communication between you and the creator of all be always open and moving freely in both directions. May you be open to receiving the light. The light is always there for you. If you find yourself in the dark and alone, it’s not because the light has left you, it’s simply because you’ve got your eyes closed.
Happy Spirit Day :)
Enjoy These Great Resources!
- You don’t have to struggle.
You were Born to Manifest.
- Need a nudge?
Not Manifesting? This Book is for You! - Are you a natural?
Natural Born Intuition: How to Awaken and Develop Your Inner Wisdom - Do you love Osho?
Intuition: Knowing Beyond Logic – OSHO
Cats vs Dogs
About cats…
I’ve been a “cat person” for as long as I can recall. When I was a child, we generally had 4-5 cats in the house at all times. This was partly due to my parents taking in strays and partly to do with us being so dirt poor that having the animal spayed or neutered was out of the question. It’s not all that hard to have a house full if you end up with 2 pregnant females from your 2 or 3 virile males.
Now the dog side…
Read the rest of this entry »