Monthly Archives: September 2014

The October magazine will be a few days later than usual

Hold a vision with me! For the first time in 22 years, if you receive your magazine at your local store, it will be delivered after the 1st of the month. I didn’t notice until 4:00am that the mailers I ordered August 13 never arrived. The magazines are mailed to areas I don’t have drivers in. The mailers were reshipped today, fingers crossed for tomorrow or Saturday delivery so I can mail them first thing Monday morning. I opted not to do the job today using some giant mailers I have on hand. If I use the giant ones, I’d have to cut them in half and secure them with tape, a four step process, then reweigh and change all the weights on the post office paperwork. Then look up the new postage rates based on the additional weight. The postage isn’t much. Changing all the paperwork is the hassle. I opted to deliver magazines to Cassadaga the next day instead. It’ll be fine. It always is.

Update: they arrived Saturday!

I find a work habit to break

I have a habit of logging in payments in too many places. When I work on bookkeeping when I’m sleepy, I toss the work back in the IN box to check again to make sure I did it properly. So today I am doing everything left in the IN box the past few months. Grrrr! A habit to break!

A sudden windfall of dollars, do you play with it or pay back?

A friend attracted an amount of money she’d been wanting for a new project. She considered it a windfall and was excited beyond words she could now make her dream a reality. She began making plans and went to sleep a happy camper. She called me the next day in a quandry. As she was making a list of what to buy, she began to call the friends and family who’d supported her vision to tell them the good news. During their conversations she was reminded that a friend paid her cell phone bill the past year, her mom let her live rent free and her dad loaned her his car. While no one was asking for her to pay them back, she began a tally in her head, deducting those amounts so she could surprise them by repayment. By the time she added it up, she was left a far cry from what she needed for her project. Her question to me was, should she pay everyone back first or do her dream first? Continue reading →

Staying connected

It’s been raining a few days. It’s 3:00am and I’m sitting in the office with the windows open, listening to a gentle rain drip off the leaves outside. It’s 71 degrees, the windows are open to the night air and I can smell the jasmine in the courtyard. I love being awake in the middle of the night time when everyone around me is sound asleep. It’s a time I sit and contemplate how good my life is. It’s a time I bring to mind my friends, advertisers and clients as I pray for them as part of my spiritual practice –> here are my altar and healing bench techniques. It’s also a time I daydream about my partner while he sleeps soundly nearby. It’s one way I stay connected to him when we don’t spend waking time together. Continue reading →

Empaths: A turning point is when you stop allowing sociopaths into your life

An excellent article here –> The Dance – The Sociopath and The Empath. A turning point in our own evolution is when we choose to stop allowing them into our life. I’ve only had the honor of attracting one such troubled individual and gained much wisdom from it. The good news – when you’re being played, you learn the game. When they tell you right away you’re the soul mate they’ve always sought, it’s time to dash. Or at least to step back, reflect and learn the back story. It may take years. That’s ok. You’ve got all the time in the world, and not a moment to lose.

I may scan a friend’s rambling post but I won’t watch his rambling video

I’ve got a friend who I periodically wonder what he’s up to. He no longer makes written posts, they are all on Youtube. In the written word, I can scan over what’s not relevant to me and catch up quickly. But in videos, he rants on and on about political discontent and I just don’t care to sit through that in the hopes of gleaning a gem. A shame, I may miss useful into because I judge the packaging. I usually judge his choice of focus also. This post says everything about me and very little about him, huh?

New Authors: How not to fall for an editing/publishing scam

Self publish? Get an agent? A friend has fallen for “an editor” offering to make her manuscript ready for publication. After a year, all she has is an outlay of dollars, an unfinished draft and the slow realization she didn’t win a contest at all, it was a marketing scheme to get her to pay for hours of “editing and consulting.” Please check everyone out. Not everyone is out to play off your narcissism and rip off your dreams.

General Guidelines & Tips on Avoiding Scams: There are too many scams out there, so in addition to listing the ones we know about, here are some general guidelines and tips to keep in mind when searching for publishers, agents, artists, contests, editors, etc.: Continue reading →

I may not seem to socialize much in person but I socialize with friends all day long

Soul sister Connie Sutherland is putting in her fall garden of pumpkin, squash, tomatoes, basil, sweet potatoes, spearmint, peppermint, thyme, radishes, kale and spinach. I envy her time to do that! For ten years I’ve apologized to friends for not having time to play. I’ve come to realize I’ve created a career that morphed into a lifestyle that, to some, appears to have limited social contact. But that’s not true. I talk to friends all day long. The nature of my business is such that the authors, advertisers, publicists and readers of Horizons Magazine often become friends as we share many of the same interests. Some I speak to or email or text with every month, some every few months, others only every few years. I feel as close to some of them as I do my own in-real-life friends. With rare exception, at least six hours of every day is spent talking, texting and emailing for business. But since my “business” is a lifestyle of discussing mutual interests with friends, it’s a job I do not need a break or vacation from. I wouldn’t want it to be any different. Not right now anyway. Stay tuned.

Mild mannered kirtanee or Paul Bunyan on my roof?

Paul Bunyan and Babe, his blue ox

Shiva and his steed, Nandi the bull

Is that Paul Bunyan on my roof, pulling down entire trees that have begun growing up there? No, it’s a mild mannered kirtan bass player in his alter ego role as Mr. Muscles (and he’s got ’em)! He spent the morning pulling up the 6 foot tall Brazilian Pepper Tree and 4 foot tall Lantana bush that had begun growing atop the aluminum metal roof of the back porch. The mats of roots and leaf mulch was so thick that I didn’t have to plant them. They came down as if in thickly woven welcome mats. I dragged them to the newly bare spot that the tree cutters left open to the view of my neighbor’s home, so now we’re once again hidden 🙂 It’s not every pal who will climb up on the roof in the hot Florida sun and sweep away 4-5 years worth of jungle with a smile on his face and a chant on his lips. Om Gam Ganapataye Namah. Which brings me to: Did you ever notice that you never see Paul Bunyan and Babe at the same time you see Shiva and Nandi? Thoughts that make you go hmmmm…

Those rascals around you are not interrupting your spiritual practice, they ARE your spiritual practice

Sometimes it’s not so easy. You think those people are interrupting your spiritual practice? Those people ARE your spiritual practice. Honor and cherish your darkness and derailment because it puts you on the path to where you really want to be.

Andrea de Michaelis – Creating my own reality, one thought at a time

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