Saturday Night Is Alright

It will be one year on Friday since I started this blog. I have enjoyed it very much, even though it takes a great deal of time. It doesn't have to take as much time as I have allowed it to take though and I am trying to get a better handle on that. I enjoy reading other bloggers and it has been very nice to connect with them. I didn't quite expect that when I started, so I look forward to more of that.

This has been a busy week, mostly working overtime to keep up with the increase in my work load. Thursday night I went out with my high school friends and we went to Japanese restaurant and sat at that grill while they put on a show and cooked up our dinner. I had never been to one of those places before and it was fun and the food so delicious!

Today was a lazy Saturday. I mostly sat around the house and read all day. I think it is good to have a day like that sometimes. I knew I should have been doing a million other things, but I didn't. I finished the whole book and I will have tomorrow to run errands and catch up on house work.

I am still working on the Course in Miracles. I am going slowly at it though as some days I forget to do a lesson. But it is progress not perfection and it will take as long as it takes, I keep telling myself.

I also decided to sign up for Oprah's global on -line class which will feature the book, The New Earth. A global classroom sounded very interesting to me. She is saying that 90,000 people have signed up for it already. So I bought the book and will spend my Monday evenings hanging out on line with the rest of the world.

Personal Growth

The book I had on reserve at the library came in. I am reading The Law of Attraction, by Esther and Jerry Hicks. Now this book is one of the books that The Secret is based on. Remember, Rhonda Byrne researched many books about the law of attraction and packaged it up and marketed it as The Secret. She is quite open about saying that these laws are ancient.

Over 20 years ago, I read a book called, Guiding Yourself to a Spiritual Reality which talked about the very same thing. Just at that time, Oprah wasn't as far a long in her spiritual journey (or not publicly) to have such topics on her show. Now we have Dr. Oz talking about "energy" on mainstream TV.

Actually, there are many books on the subject the laws of attraction and the movie and book, What The Bleep Do We Know talks about them as well. Now that the concepts are becoming mainstream, businesses are taking them on and there is more of an emphasis about attracting money and success, but the law is about so much more than that. It tells us that we attract things that we don't want to us as well. I find it fascinating and I have a couple of stories to blog about when I get time. I attracted a couple of situations in my life unconsciously, but in hind site I could see exactly how they evolved.

It was about 28 years ago when I started doing a great deal of personal growth work. Reading, journaling, energy rings, women's groups. Sometimes I feel I should be much farther along, but in many ways I know that I didn't always want to grow even though I was doing the work. Does that make sense? Sometimes it was just plain easier to fall back into old habits and patterns and fit in with the mainstream. I never mentioned a word of my experieces to my family, who would not have understood. Only a couple of my friends knew what I was up to in my spare time, but for the most part it was not discussed, because there was no interest on their parts. Now they are all reading The Secret and it makes me chuckle to myself.

When Oprah began to have people like Gary Zukav, Bernie Siegel, M. Scott Peck on her show, I was beside myself with happiness as these were people I was so very interested in and had rare opportunities to see in person. A shift was happening as Oprah was starting her own journey and people were open to listening because she was so beloved and respected. She brought on Maryanne Williamson and she was the first one to pray on a national talk show program. Now she shares her Course in Miracles on the radio. So much as come around!

A lot of this is on my mind today, because of a dream I had last night of a therapist telling me that she was going to help me get the cancer out of me by asking me to stand outside and hold up signs to the cars passing by. I have no idea what the signs said, because I think I woke up before I had the chance to do it. But if I had to guess what those signs were to say, I think they would say that I have no more secrets and I refuse to hide what I believe to be true for myself and my journey.

Oprah Show

I watched Oprah today and she featured a family of hoarders. The woman was a compulsive shopper who went shopping every day and and her home was filled with piles and piles of unopened merchandise. Piles so high that they could not watch TV because they could not see over the piles.

It took 8 weeks and 100 people to clear out 75 tons of stuff from the house. It was so sad and painful to see how they were living amid all that stuff. When I was talking about clutter in one of my posts, it was nothing like this, but I suppose it is like anything else and the possibility of things getting so out of control could be around the corner if given a particular set of circumstances. Oprah made a point of telling the audience that by comparing a messy junk drawer to their home. The woman also experienced a great deal of loss in a short time and she was trying to fill up a void in her life.

The woman was a brave soul to allow the Oprah show into her world and help her to literally dig her way out. Tomorrow is part 2 and I hope I am home to see the end results.

This & That

Thursday night and my favorite show, The Office. I just love it so much because it makes me laugh out loud and reminds me of so many situations of offices past and present. Sometimes Michael is over the top, but he isn't really one of my favorite characters anyways. I like the rest of the cast a lot more, Dwight, Angela, Kelly, Pam, Jim, Toby, Phyllis, they all crack me up. The show is back to its half hour format and I think that works best.

Surprised to hear that Rosie was in talks with MSNBC for her own talk show. I am disappointed that it did not pan out, yet it may be a blessing in disguise. The media would have twisted her every word and made her a target again. Her message would be lost.

I wish I had seen her and Roseanne at Lincoln Center. I thought about getting tickets and making the trek because I knew I would have tripled loved it, but I am so lazy about making plans to go out of state, especially on a work day. The write-ups were fantastic, so I regret not making the effort.

There was sure a nip in the air today. I didn't expect it to be so chilly and I didn't really dress for it. I was cold all day. Guess I have to give in to wearing the fall/winter clothes from now on.

Speaking of clothes... NEWSFLASH..... it is acceptable to wear white and cream color clothing after Labor day now!! As long as the fabrics are heavy for winter. It must be true because I heard it today on the Oprah show! Some fashion expert said that the "fashion law" of no white after Labor day started down south and it pertained to shoes, but as news traveled around all white and cream colors for shoes and clothes became frowned upon after labor day.

Fashion rules make me crazy! How important are they? Who really cares? They were going on making up new fashion rules on the show today, like sneakers should only be worn at the gym and not in public. I turned off the TV, I don't want to be told how to dress, what colors I can wear and that I can't wear my sneakers!!! Oprah is too much into beauty and fashion lately... I hardly watch her anymore.

A three day weekend is coming up... yippee!

Becoming

You can have it all but the "it" is not what you think it is... a quote from the Oprah show.... from some famous woman.

There was much good advice on the show today from Sheryl Crow, Patti La Belle, Reba and others. Most of it I have come up upon in my every day regular folks sort of life. Funny, how famous people are still needing to learn the same life lessons, and it isn't always the lesson that comes before their grand success.

We are all in this together... more alike than different.... as I note everyday in my workplace with many people who are officially labeled as different from the norm.

Went to see the movie Hair Spray yesterday. I never saw the play and didn't know much about the plot of the story. I realized that the show made Ricki Lake a star and that it had something to do with weight.

I found the music to be so uplifting... and it really made me want to get up and dance through out the movie. Instead I could barely walk when it was time to go because the old knees get so stiff from sitting for so long.

The movie tried to make segregation, weight issues and differences in general pretty funny. Although if you ask those who are different it can be pretty painful. Beyond words painful... and the heavy girl in high school is never the star and never, ever gets the guy.

I was sitting with my friend watching the movie and thinking about how different our lives were in high school. She the one always being asked to dance at the dances in the gym, and me sitting on the side lines most of the time.

It was a million years ago... yet movies like that make it seem like yesterday.