Happy Mother’s Day.  Today is my mom’s birthday.  The photo to the right is mommy and her mom in 1953.  Andrea was also my mother’s name.  She later shortened it to Anne and that is what everyone called her.  Everyone except family.  There, she was still Andrea and I was always called a nickname.  When I got to first grade, the teacher had a hard time getting me to answer to Andrea since I’d never been called that.  I always thought Andrea was such a great name for a dark, exotic beauty like my mom.  I always felt like the beige one around her.  Mom was 5’3″ tall, olive skinned with green eyes and lots of dark, wavy hair.  She wore it halfway down her back all the time I was growing up.  I envied her hair, since mine was whiteblonde, thin and stick straight.  I grew up in a Latino neighborhood and went to public schools where blonde and fair was the exception rather than the rule.  I remember grown men calling out from cars or worksites when I was a teenager “ay rubio!” which means “hey blondie”. I was a typical teenager, wanting to fit in with everyone else, and I envied the dark haired, brown skinned look.  People  always seemed surprised we were mother and daughter.  My mom always seemed like some exotic queen out of a fairy tale, and I adored her completely. Continue reading →

Saturday May 9, 2009. On 3-26-09, I wrote at Organizing My Finances, Script From Think and Grow Rich my script for how much income I wanted to bring in the next month. When I write these scripts, I use a dollar figure that is increasingly more than I typically make.   I just did a tally of the income for that period and sent my brother a copy of the report showing the total.  When I ran it, at first I thought that made me just $188.29 short of my goal and I was excited to be so close.  Then I realized I did not add in the $500 I get for a rental unit I own, which goes into a different account.  So my total for that time period was $311.71 over what I had requested and planned for.  Once again, the process worked like a charm. Continue reading →

To those who write and ask me, this is all I know about the lawsuit between Rhonda Byrne and Esther Hicks or anyone else in the matter of the rights to The Secret:

5-17-08 article $150 million battle to keep The Secret  http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/150-million-battle-to-keep-the-secret/2008/05/17/1210765254572.html

8-23-08 article in The Australian  Could the universe be restoring the balance against Rhonda Byrne, producer of The Secret?  http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24223394-5012694,00.html

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When Friends Criticize the Abraham-Hicks and Law of Attraction work

Hear Esther Hicks on Oprah here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E1hZMZWJNY explaining in her own words 

Today is the 33rd anniversary of my brother Bobby’s passing. He was 22 in 1976 when he committed suicide.  I view death differently now.  At the time, he was hanging with a sketchy crowd and I’d had to bail him out of jail for minor offenses.  He had a minimum wage job he enjoyed, and no high school diploma.   He lived with the love of his life, not far from his new daughter. He was going through a lot of things, mental and physical, and apparently it overwhelmed him.  He didn’t talk to anyone about his troubles, so who knows what specific combination of thoughts finally got to him.  Although I felt sadness at the time, I felt mostly relief that we wouldn’t have to worry about him any longer, nor wonder when that middle of the night call would come.  Nor how to tell my parents when it did.  It was something I had never anticipated.   I felt stoked that my heart didn’t feel ripped right out of my body, as it did when my husband died a few years earlier.  I had been meditating and studying yoga philosophy, and viewed each death as a practice in seeing through the illusion.  I began feeling connected to the essence of each loved one who passed and through time, it just seemed both natural and transitory when the bodies fell away- nothing to get upset about.  It is going to happen.  We go to sleep here and wake up there. I will feel blessed when it comes, while eagerly anticipating the next adventure.  That’s the thought I pre-pave for myself.  Continue reading →

Saturday, April 11, 2009. Well, I had an awesome time yesterday.  I goofed off more than I planned to, but that’s a good thing since I don’t plan too much goof off time.  My pal Joy brought me over a container grow box she made for my birthday.  Her yard is a maze of gardens and planters and grow boxes.  Her boxes are full of strawberries and such, but mine has become my herb garden.  I planted basil, peppers, rosemary and stevia in it.    I eat so much fresh basil and rosemary that it just makes sense to grow my own.  That’s not so easy to do in my yard anymore, however, since I have such nice, high shade over most of it.  The herb garden I planted several years ago now has half a dozen very sparse and leggy rosemary plants in it and it no longer gets the sun that it used to.  With the grow box, I can place it smack dab in the middle of the back yard all day long, and just move it when I want to mow.  One year she gave me a really cool homemade herbal vinegar she made, with sprigs of rosemary in it.  I made it last as long as I could.  Now that’s someone who knows how to give a gift.  No wonder they call her Joy. Continue reading →

A Lightworker asked:  “I’m in a place I don’t want to be in… Why am I being punished every day by having to work with these people that are so dark?… They think I’m crazy and don’t honor me or my life… What should I think about this? It’s hard!” “And my answer is:  So you think it’s all about an accident? Or that you’re being punished? Then you have missed the grandeur of a standard Lighthouse. Lighthouses aren’t built in safe places. They choose to be where the storms are! You’re not being punished.. You’re being taken to a difficult place to shine your light.
Physically, what should you be doing with the people around you? Can you love them? Listen to them! Listen to what’s really happening in their lives. Consider every day one where you have an opportunity to create light in a dark place. Watch attitudes change.. You may be “weird” to them, but they know you represent integrity.
Spiritually… you’re a light in a dark place and you wonder why you’re there? It isn’t always about you. Think about them! You’re being given an opportunity.  This is the work you came to do, and it’s not forever. In a place you don’t want to be, working with people you don’t want to be with, is the work of a Lighthouse.  What if you’re the only light they ever see?”
www.kryon.com

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A recently laid off print journalist friend wrote yesterday and her question was so classic and universal, I wanted to share it with you.  She writes, “Where I run into trouble with the subject of money is an understanding of where it comes from. In my mind it is like trading with a toxic substance. Instead I am looking to focus on what it is I would like in my life and desire the end of a monetary system all together.”  I replied, “That’s because you think the money comes from outside yourself.  That’s what we’re taught.  It helped me to see money as coming out of me, just as an oak tree comes out of an acorn.  That yes, I should endeavor to keep jobs in place and buy lotto tickets to give dollars more avenues to come in, but to also expect that dollars can come to me from a source I have no way of expecting it to.  Just leave room for the miracle, so to speak.  Leave a part of your consciousness on the idea that, I would love to see how much money from an unexpected source that the Universe can provide me with. Then look around you every day and see what other people do to make money that you could also do. Continue reading →

I’ve been talking with a friend who is a survivor of lifelong depression. She’s tried various medications throughout the years, even St. John’s Wort and Valerian as herbal remedies, until she found something that works well for her.  There’s such a freedom in finding relief, especially if you have something as debilitating as depression and anxiety can be.  My younger brother Bobby, and my father both suffered from depression.  Both died by suicide.  Relief is exactly what I felt when each had passed, knowing the daily struggles they went through.  I think I’ve always been the lucky one. Mom called me the strong one, but I just never found life to be a struggle and things have come fairly easily for me.  Not so for my younger brother who dropped out of high school and got involved with some shady doings; not so for my father who had a 6th grade education and had a family to support since the time he was 13 years old.  By the time I came along, they were ready for a golden child.  So I got braces and dance lessons while my two older brothers got abandoned. Continue reading →

I’m not a savvy business person. Not in the conventional sense.  I basically just go about my work and pay bills when they come in and don’t keep track of the money too closely.  That way I always have more than I think I’ll need.  I’ve never used a Quicken or Quickbooks type program to organize my finances, although I use a billing program (MYOB Plus 11) for my invoices to advertisers and other clients.  And I just discovered that my MYOB program can also help me keep track of my expenses and make it easy for me to get the info to my tax accountant each quarter.  I’m stoked! Continue reading →

“You don’t need a gazillion clients.  You just need a handful of the right clients.  You don’t need more workers.  You just need the right workers.”  The first time I head those words, I could hear the bells going off signalling a big, giant truth that had just been revealed to me.  And over the years, I’ve found that to be true. While doing the billing this week, I decided to look at my “card list” for all clients and advertisers.  I couldn’t believe how many I had.  Some of them had just advertised once, perhaps, so I didn’t recognize their names.  But many names were very familiar to me. I thought about how I’ve had so many of the same advertisers for the past 10-15 years and how grateful I am that I don’t have to run around selling ads to get each issue printed.  I would be more industrious if I had more time, and make ad calls, but it’s too easy to just keep things the way they are.  Comfortable.  Manageable.  Then I realized, that’s it.  I am comfortable with the clients and advertisers I have now, and we make a good family and it keeps the cats fed. Continue reading →