A fifty-year-old client, J, related a great example of how to "flow
with the energy." She had gone back to Boulder, Colorado to visit
her brother, whom she had not seen for a long time. Their
relationship had not been good for years, but she thought it was time
to see him. She told me that she started getting signs that the weekend
might not be a good one. The first was that she lost a new jacket
at the Denver airport.
Things did not go well with her brother. He was
argumentative and abusive with her. After a day and a half of
putting up with his increasingly angry and violent remarks and
behavior, she decided to pack up her bag and leave his apartment.
She wasn't quite sure where she was or what to do. Dragging her
rolling luggage bag, she headed in the direction where she vaguely
remembered a pedestrian mall of shops and restaurants.
After about a mile, she reached the area, and went into the first shop
to ask if there were any hotels in the area. When the shop
assistant said that it was a busy week in Boulder and unlikely that
rooms would be vacant, J. broke down in tears. She told the young
women that she had had a fight with her brother, and didn't know where
to go or stay until she could fly home. Immediately, the two
women started searching around and found J the number of a youth hostel
near the University, which had an available room and was low-cost.
Relieved, J. decided to explore the area, and just wandering around,
found a metaphysical book store. She was warmly welcomed and they
offered to look after her luggage. Since there was a hair salon
next door, J. decided to get her hair trimmed. Later a cab driver
suggested a great restaurant. She also went salsa dancing, met
some new people there, and decided to stay on to complete her stay in
Boulder. The hostel was a great bargain, clean, quiet and
perfect, and she made some more new friends there. All in all, J.
had a fabulous time. She realized that she can have other
adventures like this (without the precipitating drama!!) One of the
issue we had been working on together was that she felt isolated here
and missed the days when she used to travel and socialize more.
For some reason, she had narrowed down her world and now realizes the
world is as open to her as it ever was in her youth.
When we open up and express ourselves and look for solutions, we are so often amazed by the response from the environment.
She just phoned to tell me that she got her jacket back from the lost and found department at the airport!
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Just catching up on the emails from the last five days. Fumiko
and I completed the Mt. Shasta retreat, and it was a great
success. The funny thing is that we ran into 3 people who were
visiting Stonebrook Inn who had been in our Mt. Mitake retreat in
Japan in May. Synchronicity hits again.
I interviewed Hiromi Suzuki, the owner of Stoney Brook Inn. We
were sitting outside behind the Inn, as she was overseeing the sweat
lodge that was being conducted for our participants. It was late
afternoon, warm, crisp, the smell of wood smoke in the air and the
sound of tribal drumming. People would emerge from the sweat
lodge, to breathe fresh air, and drink water. Then they went back
in for more ceremony.
I commented on the beauty of the setting, including a meditating figure
of Buddha under a redwood tree. I told her I had been looking for a
Buddha as the centerpiece for my back yard. Hiromi said,
"Oh, you won't believe it but I got the Buddha in Redding at Target."
I loved the idea of getting a Buddha from Redding--from the Target
store. I love Target. I go there just about every week here
in El Cerrito. I grew up in Redding--which is just about as far
from the idea of Asia and Buddhism as a town can be.
When Robert and I drove home yesterday, we took our time driving.
I took him to Shasta Dam . We saw a very old film about the
building of the dam. All these years of living in Redding, and I
never knew that the engineers built a 10 mile long conveyor belt to
haul quarry rock to the dam site. It was quite impressive.
Shasta Dam is a key structure to the health and bounty of the Central
Valley of California.
We drove through Redding and I bought my own Buddha at
Target!!! We also drove past my old Enterprise High School,
and I even found the street and last house that my mother and father
lived in in Redding. Ironically, my father was a contractor and
built many homes in Redding. At the end of their lives, he and my
mom retired to a mobile home in Redding. I know they wanted a
"low-maintenance" lifestyle, so they gave up living in the homes they
had built and chose a (non) mobile home.
It was a good trip all around. My buddha is very happy now under
the tree in my back yard. The house is all re-painted now after
the insulating project.
Now I have to get ready for the trip to Japan. |
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Robert just told me that the new changes to credit card laws go
into effect next month. What this means is that instead of your
minimum payment being interest plus $15, it will be interest plus 1 %
of your outstanding balance. The average credit card balance for
Americans is $10,000. The average minimum payment will go
from $210 to $280.
I am mentioning this because you may not be getting much information from the press or from your bank on this., so be prepared.
The good news on this change, however, means that a person will
actually save a huge amount of money in the long run by paying back the
higher minimum. For example (I used Robert's online calculator at
the hyperlink below) to find out how much a person who owes $10,000
will save by paying the higher minimum.
At the old rate, $10,000 would be paid off in nine years with payments of $210 at a total cost of $21,630.
With the new rate, $10,000 would be paid off in less than 5 years at a total cost of $15,960--a savings of $5,670!
If you want to visit Robert's site here is the
hyperlink:
http://www.intrepid.com/~robertl/loan-pricer1.html |
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I just got my house insulated two days ago. They come and make
holes in the outside walls and pump in insulation. I had
insulation inserted into the floors and caulked the drafty spots in the
stairs. Already the house feels warmer and quieter.
The next day the headlines were noting the big surge in natural gas prices at PG & E.
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Last week in Lake Tahoe, Gunther and Anders went out to the lake front
to fly Anders' new kite. The kite got caught in the branches of
not one, but two trees. It was too high for Gunther to
reach. Nearby two bystanders gave their opinion.
The first man's idea was to drop the string and let it float away, but
that didn't work. The second man--an older guy with the sort of
time-weathered look of someone who lives out of his car, was eating a
can of Pringles potato chips. "If I had my old twelve-guage
shot-gun," he said, "I would blow the string off the kite. Thing
had a barrel the size of this can," and he waved the Pringles
container. Gunther mentioned that he didn't think shooting it out
of the tree was the best way to go. Just then a truck with a man
and his son drove by, and the Pringles guy flagged down the
truck. It turns out that the driver of the truck was a cable TV
installer and had a very large extension ladder on the top of his
truck. He was happy to put it on the tree (made him look good to
his little boy, too) and he easily reached up to retrieve the kite.
Sounds like a children's story, doesn't it? |
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