Author Archives: Andrea

Opening the view and letting in the Light

This week I’ve been using my hedge clippers to trim the eleagnus bushes that surround my screened in porch and make up the privacy hedge in my front yard. Also called silverthorn, it’s a large sprawling bush that gets very dense when left on its own. This is the first time I’ve used the hedge clippers on it and it was surprisingly easy.  The past couple of years I’ve let my yard become overgrown under the shadowy tree canopy. Since summertime I’ve been opening it all back up to the sunlight, cutting hedges shorter, trimming them close in so they are more lacy and less a dense wall.  I’ve so severely pruned back the giant philodendron outside my office window that it’s completely opened me up to see the entire courtyard and the street.  It’s a huge view in front of me that I never had before.   I can see the entire southern sky as well.  I feel as though I just gained two acres of front yard. My world is expanding in leaps and bounds. The more exposed and transparent, the less hidden I become, the freer I feel. Thank you God for this life and these realizations.

I set my dining room up restaurant style, complete with menus

I realized last night there’s no longer a need to have 9 chairs and 6 pillows in the living room as if we have a houseful anymore.  I decided to rearrange my living areas to reflect what I actually do every day now: a comfy place to relax after work and dine with my partner. I moved a tall file cabinet out of the dining area and into the back office. I moved a 48 x 60″ table into the dining room, right next to the kitchen as a service table for the toaster oven, convection oven and coffee maker. The wide table surface is a great staging area as well.  I love staging areas… Next to it is the water cooler and beverages. The entire dining area is now set up like restaurant seating with a self service beverage bar where I keep teas and coffees and cups and plates stocked. The dining table includes menus as well! Continue reading →

What did you do as a child that made the hours pass?

What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits. Carl Jung
I drew and made a newsletter telling what the pets did, what did you do? “The Little Kitty Newsletter” was a hit when I was 10. I made sketches of the new kittens and gave their names. Mary Adams just made me realize here I am 50 years later kinda doing the same thing except now I get paid to do it… Who knew??

 

A lesson in vocal harmonizing, in finding our own note

 harmonizeI got a lesson in vocal harmonizing last Sunday and I’ll never listen to singing the same again. “Harmonizing: To bring or come into agreement or harmony.  To make (one thing) compatible with (another)” While I’m cooking up yummy snacks, my partner is usually in the living room on the piano, playing jazz classics and orchestral versions of rock favorites (White Rabbit!)  Through him, I’m learning a lot about music. Last Sunday I got a lesson in vocal harmonizing as we watched some kirtan videos.  Some elements he spoke of were having control of your voice, singing a note in a chord but staying off the notes in the main singer’s melody, counter notes, counter melodies and how harmonizing differs from singing in unison.    Continue reading →

The English of foreign phone techs with accents is far better than my own

There are suddenly new questions on the online customer satisfaction surveys, wanting to know if I am able to understand the English as spoken by their overseas tech. Yes I am, their English is immaculate, but then I am not so annoyed by a foreign accent that I pretend I can’t understand and have to complain to customer service about them. I actually know people who pride themselves on refusing to talk to a tech with a “non-American” accent and insisting on speaking with an American.  That’s like asking the Universe for help and then saying you’ll only accept help if it comes in one particular form. Expand your possibilities. Listen carefully to the whispers of the Universe as it tells you its secrets.  The answer may come in an Indian accent. In communicating with another human being, I am all about content over form, every time.

If he never gets divorced, can you be happy in the Now?

Oh? Still no moves toward divorce? If he promised it on day one and now blows up when you mention it, consider that a red flag.  I did a reading last August for someone who’s seeing a different side of her new partner.  When they met, he was separated and getting divorced.  Then she discovered there was no divorce ever initiated.  Now she questions everything. She feels they are soul mates but now she is afraid. I told her that her guidance system guides her by how she feels in the moment and resistance always has meaning. It doesn’t necessarily mean don’t move forward, but it does mean reconsider. What is the worst that can happen? That she be happy enough living in the Now with him that it doesn’t matter if he ever gets divorced? Or should she take the lie as a red flag and walk away? She is the only one who knows which thought feels best to her. She is the only one who knows what her greater intent is, and which course of action will lead her closer to her goal. She didn’t need a psychic reading to tell her what her heart already knew.

There is another way to be, another way to perceive

From Mimzy Wonka: “Several times throughout the day the pressure was so intense that I just had to stop and pray. Each time the thought that came through was that there was another way to be. That thought felt really good but the fear of not ‘knowing’ the other way was very strong. Ultimately the other way is ALWAYS complete Trust in the Spirit.  If I can remember that any upset (such as hate) that I perceive coming ‘from’ others is really coming from inside, then I can ask for help from Spirit. The help is to correct the perception that I have of my(s)elf. My prayer is: Please help me to see that my perception comes from inner beliefs. Please help me to remember that there is another way of ‘seeing’. Please help me to extend only Love.”

New pajamas send me into the sewing room

pajamasI’m in the midst of final layout for the December magazine. Final layout is a week of 16+ hour days at the computer, so I welcome little breaks when I can get them. Yesterday I took a sewing break!  On the way home from the post office and bank, I decided to run into Kohl’s and buy some new pajamas. Being tall and long waisted, I seldom get a great fit in pants without some tailoring.  Pajama bottoms are no different. Clothes are designed to fit a variety of body shapes and heights.  The waistband sat at my hipbones, a little low for me, but do-able. I came home and cut four inches off the hem of each leg, then sewed them together for one long strip 4″ wide.  Using a seam ripper, I cut open the waistband and sewed it flat. Exposing the elastic in the waistband gave me an extra four inches longer in the rise/the waist, exactly where I needed it. I tried them on and they fit perfect. Being tall, I needed that extra four inches!  I used the long strip cut from the pant legs to finish the waistband by covering the exposed elastic. Wasn’t that a lot of work to do on a $20 pair of pjs? No. I’m used to it.  Having done it all my life, I knew it’d be a quick fix.  It took me about an hour.   As Hilda Charlton said, “Take what you have and make what you want.”

I spend the afternoon in sewing heaven
Clothes shopping always leads me to sewing