Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everybody. I hope you have a joyful holiday today. I know there are those who aren’t in the best circumstances right now, and even if the hyper activity of the season offends you take a moment, just 60 seconds when you get the opportunity, to reach down deep into that quiet place within yourself and rest for a moment.

I don’t care if you say you don’t know how to do this. Just pretend. The way I figure it we are all in this together. We are all a part of this world and of other spiritual places, of other planes, the past and the future and the now. It doesn’t matter even if you don’t celebrate Christmas. This isn’t a club.

Pretend and once you are sitting and see this pretend place within your own heart be at peace. It can come. There are those, “on the other side” who wait for you to open your eyes and be welcomed. These Folk in Spirit, as I refer to them, are your own spiritual guides, your own angels, your own loved ones who have passed over, even your own beloved pets gone to doggy or kitty heaven. Guinea pigs. I forgot. Yes, chickens too. Elephants and whales. In any case, you get the picture. Whatever is appropriate for you to see, to experience will be there for you. Trust your higher self.

However you choose to celebrate or don’t celebrate, I hope you might feel the peace of this day.

One, Two, Three - Say Cheese!

How difficult would it be for you to smile at a stranger in the grocery store next time you are there? That simple smile and acknowledgement of them as a fellow human being might be all that they need to pass your smile on to somebody else.

The findings of a study released recently by the Harvard Medical School and the University of California in San Diego and published 12/4/08 in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) pondered the effect of happiness on people, who know people, who know people, who know people. Happiness is passed along to three degrees of separation from yourself. And, it would appear that the happiness lasts up to a year’s time. Conversely, sadness does not travel through the network like happiness does.

Interestingly, the researchers used data that had already been compiled for a study of over 5,000 cardiovascular patients that spanned a period of 20 years.

Smile. You never know who is watching.

Listening to Shelby

Every morning Shelby, our littlest cat, comes to wake me up. Usually, it’s about 5:00 am, sometimes earlier, sometimes later, but my mornings always start with her walking on me. She starts from the bottom of the bed and works her way up with inquisitory meows. I complete the welcome by patting my stomach to have her come settle for a few minutes before I get up.

This morning was no different from any other morning and she made her way up to settle down and have some quiet time with me before I got out of bed. However, that’s when DeeDude commenced to snore. These were loud snores too. Hggghhhhhh….. Hggghhhhh…. Hggghhhh. I could see Shelby’s interest peek. I was thinking she might be thinking DeeDude was awake and ready to play so I held onto her a little tighter so she wouldn’t take a notion to go jump on DeeDude who, though snoring enough to wake the neighborhood, was still fast asleep.

There we were, me holding Shelby as she continued to purr and to watch DeeDude with fascinated interest. And, that’s when I caught the errant thought from Shelby. She was interested in DeeDude’s snoring because she thought he was purring. I have to explain what a particularly interesting moment this was for me. I am psychic. I am a channel. I talk to Spirit Guides and folks in Spirit and animals in Spirit. It’s all one. I can do it easily. What I don’t do as easily is talk to and understand the live animals. It happens once in awhile. But, the times that it happens are few and far between.

It happened this morning when Shelby thought DeeDude was purring.

Thanksgiving Day

My heart goes out to those in terror situations, to those in war, to those under siege. My heart goes out to those in pain, to those who grieve, to those whose hearts are breaking. If I could I would take away your pain, but I cannot. I can only grieve with you and send you whatever thoughts I have of love and of healing.

Today is a day of Thanksgiving in the United States. Everywhere people are gathered, sometimes in large groups with friends and family, sometimes in small groups. Our hearts are lifted in gratitude. I wish all who are celebrating a Happy Thanksgiving and I send my love and prayers to those people in need.

What Seth Looks Like - my 600th post

To celebrate my 600th post, this is a picture of Seth. Robert Butts, Jane Roberts' husband painted it a long time ago.

About Writing

It’s easier to achieve a dream if you break the journey down into steps. Like the prospect of writing a book. Say, we’re talking about 75,000 words. It’s not a huge tome like, “War and Peace”, but then it’s bigger than, “The Little Engine that Could”.

First step would be to have something to write about. Once you’re set on that the rest of it is actually gravy. You’d need to examine your intentions too. If you are writing with the sole intent of being a famous author remembered through the ages for your writing, for your clarity of thought, for your succinct handling of language; forget it. If you are writing just to make money; that too is a bad idea. I don’t know why, but it is.

Why you write should be more along the lines of you can’t do anything else. It’s a driven sort of thing. If you are not exactly driven right now you could develop the habit by writing in small chunks. You could write 500 words a day. Every day. Actually, 500 words isn’t really that much. It’s not even a full page of typewritten material. Write about anything you want to write about. Cut pictures out of magazines or print them off of the internet and write a page about the picture. Describe what is going on. If there are people in the picture pretend that you can see into their hearts and talk about what they are feeling.

Once you are easy with the 500 words a day extend that by a few hundred and do a page and a half. Then, after a week or two of the increased output aim for 2 pages a day. Now, at 2 pages a day you are writing about 1,200 words a day. That is a pretty descent output. The rule of thumb is to write 1,000 words a day, but I figure filling 2 pages is easier than counting. Or you could use the word count feature in your word processing program for awhile until you get sick of it and just count pages of new material.

Once you have the driven thing down you are invited to begin work on your book. That in itself can seem daunting, but just plunge in. You could develop an outline or have index cards filled out. One of my favorite techniques is to write the story in the form of a short sentence: “A wants to go to B and finds herself distracted at every turn.” Then, you go back and expand that sentence a little bit: “A wants to go to B because her sister is being held captive by an ornery old woman. A sets out on her journey but finds obstacle after obstacle is thrown up in her face.” You get the idea. Just keep expanding on these sentences until you’ve got a paragraph of, maybe, 10 sentences. Then, take each one of those sentences and expand each one of them into a paragraph. Now, you’ve got your book on one page and each one of those paragraphs can eventually be a chapter.

You will probably see that your story goes every which way anyway, but the original plan might just carry you through from beginning to end.

You’ll know you’ve hit the driven quality of writing when you find yourself thinking about what you are writing about while you are filling your car with gas, while you are waiting in line at the grocery story, while you are driving to work. There’s a story I love of James Thurber and his wife. They were at a cocktail party and James was standing by himself in the middle of the room. He had a drink in one hand and some hors d'oeuvres in the other. He was just standing there not talking to anybody although people swirled all around him. His wife was across the room. She spied him where he stood all alone in the middle of a room full of people and stalked across to him. She hissed at him, “Quit writing.” I just love that story.

It is important that you write every day. You might feel now that you don’t have a minute to call your own, but you can carve out an hour or two for yourself if you try. My favorite time to write is in the very early morning before everybody gets up and before I go to work; and I do have a full time job. I tend to go to sleep a little earlier when I’m writing so I can get up a little earlier and have that time to myself. I put some headphones on and will either play music or not. Many times I “come to” to find that I’ve been sitting here writing for 45 minutes with headphones on and nothing coming out of them. But, there was a time when I wrote a book mostly listening to Celtic music. One of my favorite pieces is, “Wind Horse” from Bill Douglas' album Celtic Twilight. Another favorite I listen to is Dr. Jeffrey Thompson’s Brainwave Suite. Background music that helps to get me in the mood that helps to sustain the moment and that will mask background noises if I am writing once everybody is awake.

Stephen King, one of my all time favorite authors, listens to rock music while he writes. He also writes every day. Every day. I believe he takes one day off a year which, if I remember correctly, is his birthday. Otherwise, it is every day.

Something else that is going to happen which might alarm you in the beginning but will quickly feel okay is that all that you write is not going to end up in the book. You will probably write yourself into a corner at some point. Speaking from personal experience I can tell you that if you’ve killed off a key character and need them later on to extricate your other folks you will have written yourself into a corner. This is where you go someplace quiet and try to figure out what to do next. A good technique is to begin a separate piece where you allow your characters to speak to you. Just pretend. Let them talk to you and tell you where they think the story should go. This is where you deviate from your original plan, but hey, it happens. Also, you could just go lie down on your bed with a tape recorder and let the free thoughts come. One time I’d written myself into a corner and did the tape recorder thing to not only get myself out of the jam I was in but also had six month’s worth of writing material to work on and I only talked for 15 minutes.

Anyway, getting yourself out of a jam might entail you deleting a portion of what you’ve already written, or changing it somewhat. There are those writers who save that deleted material in other file to be used later on. I just delete it.

Having written a book I can tell now when I read stuff other people have written when they get bored. It’s this draggy quality to the material. These are folks who got bored with what they were doing and pushed on regardless. Been there…done that. Anyway, consider jumping forward to another part of the book and writing that for awhile. You’ve got a plan and can do that. Then, go back to your original spot where you started getting bored and resume writing. It might help. Or, just delete a bit of it and start over.

Doing this writing every day is a lonely thing. There’s nobody but yourself involved though you’ll need some support from your family members. Like, “Don’t talk to me when you see me with my headphones on.” I’m actually thinking about decorating my headphones with flowers or something just to make them special, but that’s sort of silly. Fun, but silly.

I remember reading somewhere that a book might be compared to an iceberg. What you are reading is the part of the iceberg above water. The part you don’t see, the enormous mass of the iceberg that is underwater is the mass of written material that never saw the light of day. It was a necessary part of the book, but you just don’t get to read it. That material might be saved for future projects or it could just be character sketches that you do to get an idea of what your characters are like before you have them hit the pages of your book.

So, my husband is up. I’ve written 1,439 words (which is almost two and a half pages) and that’s enough for today. I’m also running out of steam. These are my thoughts about writing and I hope they help you to achieve a dream that not that many people dare to do. Write a book. And, when people ask you what you do you can honestly say to them that you are a writer.

Where I Find Some Keys

One of the most frequent requests I get from people along the line of “Things Psychic” is help on finding lost articles. You’d think that would actually be an easy one, but, in actuality it is difficult.

Over the years I’ve misplaced tons of stuff. As I’ve gotten older and accumulated more stuff it has gotten worse. But, I have asked for help from my guides and from Spirit many times in finding things I’ve misplaced. Most of the time they would chime in with, “Look up.” This has never seemed to be very helpful and when I’ve gotten that response I figured they were telling me in their own way that they were not going to help me on that one.

But, there have been times when it did help to ask them for help and when their help was forthcoming. I wrote a story about how Seth, my guide, helped me to find a pair of slippers years ago. It’s here at my other website, so I won’t go into that rather long story here.

What I want to talk about here was how my husband, DeeDude, misplaced his keys yesterday and how Spirit helped me to find them for him.

Here’s the scenario: I walk in the door from work. We’re going to a dinner being put on by the Alameda County Historical Society in an hour and a half and I need to get ready for that. I’m already nervous about it because this is the first time in years that I’m going out to a function with my husband. I just don’t get out much being very shy and frightened of crowds. But, I’m thinking that it’s time for me to start getting over these fears and I’ve been working on it. However, I’m still edgy and it’s not going to take much to send me over the edge. Hence, the story gets real interesting.

I walk in the door and DeeDude says to me, “I’m having a minor crisis.” I hate when he says that. My heart leaped up into my throat and I stuffed it all back down to calmly walk in thinking the car has been wrecked, or he’s lost his job or all manner of horrible things. He’s obviously not bleeding, so I don’t have to worry about that. He says, “I can’t find my keys. I’ve been looking for them for over an hour. I was going to go to the store and I went to get them and I couldn’t find them.”

So, although I know it’s sending him over the edge I start grilling him on just what he did when he got home from the errands he was doing earlier in the day. He obviously got into the house using the keys, but, where are they now? I searched through all the places he’d already looked: In the seat cushions in his chair…on all the counters in the kitchen and the bathroom…on the book shelves….in his pockets….again…under the chair….in his other pockets (which was starting to get ridiculous since he hadn’t changed clothes). I dumped over the recycling can to see if they had gotten mixed up in a box he’d thrown away…I looked everywhere. At the same time he’s at the other end of our house looking again in the same places he’d looked before.

I located a spare set of car keys for him and he went down to his car to see if he hadn’t locked them in there because he’d made several trips carrying things up to the house. Nowhere. Nowhere could we find those keys.

I’m moving towards the idea that we’re just going to need to get another set for him. We’ve already got spares for everything. I made him check to see if the fuel lock key and the club key on the spare set work for this car. They do. So, this is where I sort of gave up.

All through this search I’d been asking for help from Spirit. I didn’t actually expect much because I was at such a high level of anxiety about it. The party was looming…I wasn’t doing what I needed to do to get ready…DeeDude was really upset and I was not operating in a cool, calm and collected manner. Spirit gave me that smart ass suggestion of looking up several times so I gathered they weren’t going to be around to help me on this one and we were on our own trying to find DeeDude’s keys, which I thought was a pity since I ought to, as a psychic of many years, at least be able to do this one thing.

I went out onto the patio and leaned over onto the arms of one of our plastic lawn chairs. I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath and I tried to calm down. I knew that trying to tap into that “other space” is very difficult when you’re uptight. I said, “Please, I really need you guys to help me now. If you’ve ever helped me before help me now.” I stayed bent over for a few more seconds until DeeDude came to the door and demanded to know what I was doing. I didn’t say, but I walked back into the house.

I went into the kitchen, stood in front of two of the drawers, pulled them both open at the same time and this is what I saw:




By the way, the dinner was fabulous. They had it at Spenger's in Berkeley and Richard Schwartz, a friend of DeeDude's, gave an interesting presetation of early days in Alameda County. You can see the work he's done at his website: www.richardschwartz.info

Voices of Angels

A Question Answered about Ouija Boards

I got this email today and thought others might find it useful.

The Question: When you start with the Ouija Board (On your site), what do you say?? How do you begin??

My Answer: When I sit at the Ouija Board there is no beginning word to start, it is just on.

The problem when I was learning how, the six months leading up to when it actually worked there was nothing, absolutely nothing I could do to make the stupid thing work. It was horribly frustrating, but I kept trying. I’d sit there and concentrate and meditate and pray for my guide to please, please, please come talk to me. Nothing. Nothing would happen at all.

But, I kept trying.

Now, I sit down and phrase whatever I want to talk about silently in my head and zip, zoom, swoosh, there goes the planchette. There is no sitting politely and reverently asking for my guide to please come talk to me. I know that my guide is always at my side, when I’m sleeping, when I’m driving, when I’m eating, even, Heaven forbid, when I’m sitting on the toilet. No privacy. No privacy at all anymore.

What’s fun about it is that I can do Air Ouija now. I sort of made it up. You don’t need a board or a planchette to make it work. You just sort of imagine the board in front of you and your finger sketches into the air pointing at the invisible letters. For me it’s more useful for Yes and No questions since I can clearly remember where those words are on the board. I sort of forget where the letters are….and I can hear anyway, so I don’t have to see who’s pointing to what to know what it is they are talking about. It’s just a fun and silly thing to do. Make a game of it, but always, always be mature about only asking to speak with your guide.

The stuff you’re going to be hearing in the beginning is going to be strange and off the wall depending on how mature you are, how susceptible you are to superstitious things, how afraid you are of things that go bump in the night and how psychologically well balanced you really are. If you are under a doctor’s care for a psychiatric issue then you do NOT want to do this.

If you make a promise to yourself that you will not be afraid to pay attention to your own psychological growth to include going to see a therapist if it gets to that then you will be okay. Talking to Spirit really pushes your buttons. You will find yourself, whether you want to be there or not, on the fast track of spiritual growth. And spiritual growth includes that your body, both physical and mental be in the best shape you can get to given what you’ve got to work with.

So, be very real and mature about asking for contact with your guide because it will NOT be limited to only the times that you sit there at the Ouija Board. And, once you get things moving with the Ouija Board there is not unmaking the connection with Spirit. You’ve broken through and there ain’t no backing out anymore.

You can find more information about using the Ouija Board at my site Talking to Spirit.

Mend Your Ways

(A preface to this entry...a little way into it the guides stepped in and we began talking. I put their parts of the conversation in italics.)

Have you ever thought that you might miss out on something important if you aren’t constantly vigilant? Like, if you were to relax some terrific deal would pass you by and you’d find out about it later only to berate yourself for not being on the ball.

I think this is stinking thinking.

I can’t say that I haven’t done it myself, but it sort of just occurred to me that maybe I’m a little bit too uptight. So what if it costs $50 more just because I missed the sale. I’m going to buy it, whatever it is, when I’m good and ready to get it. There. I said it. I think I might be on the verge of relaxing a little bit.

What I’m trying to do here is force an article. I do this every month. About half way through the month I start wringing my hands (figuratively) and tying myself up in stress knots trying to think of an imaginative, grab everybody’s attention sort of little article I can use in my newsletter.

Every month I’ve been doing this and I even toyed with the idea of not doing it anymore because the ideas just aren’t flowing the way they used to.

Wrongo. Keep going with it, Pauline. Well, what if I’m boring? So what? Everybody is boring to some extent. Right. I guess it’s okay to be boring. Go ask your husband. Well, that was brilliant. He said I’ve been boring for the last 35 years. Well, you’re still married aren’t you? Yes. You can’t be that boring. I guess not. Maybe my biorhythms are really sucky right now. What other excuse can you think of?

Maybe this is morphing into a learn to channel blog entry. I think not. You probably would not want your students to see you at this shining moment. Why not? You’re not exactly an example for stellar channeling abilities right now. There’s nothing wrong with the way I’m channeling. No, there is not. I guess it’s my attitude. Right. Did you just smack your own behind? Yes. Sort of like Grace might do on the “Saving Grace” show. You’re sick. I am not, I’m your guide. Seth, in fact. Why do you think I’m sick? No one has ever accused me of being sick before. There is nothing perverted about smacking your own behind. Well, it’s just that usually you stick your finger alongside your nose and sort of wink at me when I’ve done something right or thought of something stupendous. I wouldn’t call coming to the conclusion that you have a stinky attitude right now all that stupendous. Yes, I guess I could see that coming.

So, what do you want to talk about now?

How about your need to create these articles you wish. We suggested to you 2 days ago that you might concentrate upon the most numerous emailed requests you get from your readership.

That’s right. I forgot about that. The thing that makes me feel this is most worthwhile is being able to say to folks that their loved ones haven’t just ceased to exist. That there is stuff to do after death and that folks are happy. Also that they don’t miss us horribly and things like that.

Yes, and you might mention no one has any remorse about anything either.

So, what happens to somebody who is a serial killer? What about people like that?

What about them?

Well, isn’t there any justice?

Of course there is justice. They will likely be the victim of someone’s murderous rages for many lifetimes into the future. You would think in balancing things that it goes tit for tat. It doesn’t. The bad things a person does in this lifetime can be multiplied a hundred fold to balance out eventually far into the future. So, for a string of murders in this lifetime a person can expect to be killed ten times for each person they murdered. This is a rough estimate, but you get the idea. Sometimes it takes people a long time to learn.

Well, what about if they are caught and put into prison? Sorry, that won’t wash as part of Karmic justice. That’s justice for humans. There is soul justice and that memory is a very, very long time.

What if some killer reads this and figures if he’s never going to get out of hot water he might just as well continue on. That’s his problem, isn’t it? We would think anyone who has a lick of common sense would begin to think of the consequences of their actions and begin to think they shouldn’t be doing that anymore. Additionally, when they die they will experience exactly what they did to their victims. Exactly. So, if they were to know that perhaps fear might make them stop. This isn’t just Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates directing traffic. This is their own personal judgment day.

Hey, thanks. You are quite welcome. Our blessings to each and every one of you.

Where I Do a Reading - About Getting Married

I got an email the other day. The person said they were curious and needed to know a quick answer to their questions. They wanted to know when and who they were going to marry.

Well, my first inclination was just not to respond to the email. I may be a psychic, but I’m not that kind of psychic. I don’t do fortunetelling. I’m a channel. I trance out and the Guides talk about stuff. They generally don’t consider those types of questions to be worthy of any sort of answer, at least, that’s what they’ve done with me for years. So, based on what we’ve done in the past with those same sorts of questions I figured we’d get the same sort of thing going with this one and I didn’t even want to try. Seth told me once he wasn’t a nickelodeon I could feed with nickels to get answers out of him. I stood, the chela, chastened, but more knowing than I had been 3 minutes before he said that.

That, and I really wouldn’t trust my own channeling on issues like that.

However, I’ve been thinking about it. And, figured I’d give it a go anyway.

I will email the person, but I will also be posting this. First, because I just know in my bones that it’s going to be interesting. I also know it’s not what this person will be expecting to hear and certainly not something they’d want to pay $75 for which is what I used to charge for readings before I stopped doing them.

So, here we go. What follows are the Guides talking:

In this, we would take the time to say we are pleased to be here. We are also equally pleased to answer what you, Pauline, seem to consider an annoying sort of question. You must remember that people the world over would ask the same question and with as much feeling as your reader. They took the time to ask you a question. We, then, with your permission, will take the time to answer it.

This is like watching a pot boil. The longer you watch it, the more intently you concentrate the focus of your attention on the steam that is just now beginning to curl up from the pot, the longer it is going to take to boil. Our advice would be to stop worrying about it.

Marriage is a gamble even in the most informed circumstances. The best bet you have to make a long, lasting and fulfilling contract with another person (and this goes whether you are heterosexual or homosexual) is to love yourself first. Be clear in the things you like and dislike. This does not mean that you become an opinionated and boorish sort of individual. This means that you are clear in your mind and heart. You are not immaturely wishing for Clark Kent to swoop into your living room, hook an arm about your waist and carry you off into the wild blue yonder.

Do fulfilling things for yourself; interests that you enjoy. Get involved with things that you like to do. If you like crowds and are a gregarious sort of person then join up with groups of people who share like interests.

Reach out to other people. It is difficult to meet and get to know people if you hide away in your apartment or house most of the time.

Do not put yourself into dangerous positions and engage in random drinking sessions or drug use. Do not engage in promiscuous behavior. And, if you are doing these things now smarten up and figure out why you are doing them. This is where being a mature individual steps into the picture and where you do some emotional healing and begin to sort things out. Honor yourself, your mind, your heart and your body.

The more clear you are psychologically, the more mature you are, the more grown up you are the greater is the likelihood of you being able to recognize a person you would be happy with for the rest of your life.

That person will not be the most beautiful or handsome person in the world. That person is not going to have the best manners you’ve ever seen. There will be something about that person that reaches out to you and snags onto a piece of your heart. If you are in a good place as far as your own psychological and emotional development goes the likelihood of you being able to commit to a long term relationship with another person is greater.

What also certainly comes into play here is that you become less selfish. If you think that your future significant other is there to serve your interests for the rest of your life you will likely be looking at 3 divorces before you are 54 years old. If you can open your heart to another, take what you need, give what they want, let the little irritating things of life fly by quickly, learn from everything around you all the time you’ve got a good chance for an interesting and happy life.

People may speak of falling in love a great deal. That is only the first step. You fall into infatuation. Love is a conscious act that is practiced over and over again. You might be a shit for a few years while you are trying to cope with painful and frightening health issues, but your husband is understanding and is there to support you through the entire journey of your life together. Love stretches. Love never stops. You can be mad at your significant other but love never stops.

And, please remember that as you continue to grow and mature through the course of your life so too will your significant other. Love is being willing to love the other person 25 years down the road when neither one of you is the same person you were when you first met.

But, you can’t watch the pot boil.

So, our advice would be to get your own house in order. Prepare yourself for the future by growing up. Don’t stop your life waiting for Mr. or Mrs. Wonderful. They will be there for you when you are ready for them.

Our blessings, and we hope that this information will have helped both the reader who wrote and to anyone else who hasn’t had a date in 3 years.

Finding Your Soul in the Spirituality Maze

Inevitably, it happens that you will come across a book that has the ability to change your life.

“Finding Your Soul in the Spirituality Maze” by Thayer White is one of those books.

Thayer, who I have had the honor of calling friend for close to 15 years, is a psychotherapist and a pioneer in the field of New Age spirituality. If you are to invest time, money and attention in each and every one of the New Age schools of thought that have sprung up and continue to spring up you would be, quite understandably, confused and feeling lost in this maze. Thayer has zeroed in on a path that can help you make intelligent decisions about where to invest your attention to the maximum benefit in the development of your own spirituality.

ASHEVILLE NC, August 4, 2008. “The Law of Attraction usually fails folks,” claims New Age author and therapist, Thayer White, in his new book, Finding Your Soul in the Spirituality Maze. “If the Law worked at all well, every city block in Europe and North America would have a few new millionaires by now. There would be Law of Attraction support clinics everywhere curing high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and genetic disorders. The obese would be shrinking.” Available with book purchase is a free bonus audio of Thayer describing why the Law of Attraction usually fails folks. Find out more about the book and special free bonuses.

There is a school of thought that states if you don’t learn a lesson completely in this lifetime you can always spend time with it in your next lifetime. In some instances a person might be inclined to make more inroads and progress on whatever difficult life-lesson they’ve got facing them this time around rather than be faced with more of the same in their next incarnation.

But, the quest for your own spirituality is one of those life-lessons that happens to each and every person in every one of their lifetimes. This is one of the most important lessons and the more progress you make with it the richer your life might be in every one of your incarnations. This is an investment you can make for yourself that has dividends that will continue to pay off, life after life after life.

Here is an excerpt from, "Finding Your Soul in the Spiritualizy Maze - The Path of Non-Attachment"

The pattern of fewer and fewer attachments I call the path of non-attachment. This happens to a more-or-less degree with old souls, with those who are getting old physically, with those who find enlightenment and with those pursuing deeper psychological paths. Folks on the path of non-attachment are moving beyond many of the cyclic patterns, finding themselves dropping many attachments and not replacing them.

It is useful to understand the naturalness of this process. If you are aware of an attachment, it does no good to try to drop it. If you learn the lesson(s) involved with that attachment, then it will drop of its own accord with no effort on your part. What can be beneficial is to become aware of the attachment, to look for the lesson(s) involved and to try to learn the lesson(s). If this is an old pattern of attachment for you, then it may help to ask yourself if you really need that attachment.

For example, assume that your car history has been jalopy, subcompact, mid-size and Cadillac. It may be helpful to ask yourself if you really want the Ferrari about which you have been fantasizing. If there is importance or excitement associated with the Ferrari, then you still are attached and may need to get it. If you are able to eliminate the importance and the excitement by self-change or therapy, then you will have no desire for a Ferrari.”

Visit Thayer White's website at http://www.thayerwhite.com/ for more information.

Captain Jack

We had to put one of our cats to sleep yesterday. Captain Jack was very sick. He was closest to my husband though he warmed up to me in his last few weeks. When he first came to us some six months ago he was totally feral. I’d never had a cat in the house who refused to have anything to do with us and yet wanted us to take care of him.

At meal times we’d put 6 bowls out. Captain Jack got the most because he was the skinniest. Food went right through him. He just couldn’t get any nutrition from what he ate. But, he’d chow down on his food and then systematically push the other cats away from their bowls. They never said a word. They’d just stand aside and let Jack have whatever he wanted to eat. I always thought they knew he was a special needs cat and allowed him those special privileges.

Towards the end he slept a lot. He used to sleep in late every morning. The other cats would be up and walking around but Jack still lay curled up in DeeDude’s chair or on his computer desk.

We bought the expensive food for Jack. A can here and there extra just because.

God, he was so skinny. I picked him up off of the counter the other day and I almost cried at how skinny he was. I could feel every rib. He was so fragile at that point.

We’d told each other that the first time he allowed us to touch him we’d take him to the vets. And, so yesterday DeeDude took him. And, didn’t bring him back. The vet said he weighed less than half of what he should. She said he had a mass on his intestines and that’s why he wasn’t holding onto anything he ate. He only had one working kidney. She said she thought he was in terrible pain all the time.

We did the merciful thing. DeeDude held him while Jack went to sleep for the last time. I’m still crying. I know he’s okay now. I’m a psychic. But, it still hurts. Bye Jack.

Saturday Afternoon at the Street Fair

DeeDude and I wandered down to the Laurel Village Street Fair this afternoon. He spent some time at the Laurel Book Store Booth talking to customers and signing his two books, Oakland's Laurel District and Moutain View Cemetary. I visited all the vendors.

I stopped by a booth for International Sanctuary that had pretty jewelry on display. I bought these earrings. The card the earrings came on were signed by the person who made them. She is a rescued sex trade worker.

Information on the back of the card that held my earrings: "This item was hand-crafted in India by a survivor of sexual exploitation. No longer a victim enslaved in the flesh trade, she is now able to go to school, receive vocational training and live in freedom. Your purchase of this product is helping her to build a brighter future. International Sanctuary is a non-profit organization that empowers survivors of human trafficking with social-enterprising opportunities."

I also bought two cat pencils. Figured they might prove inspirational to either us or the cats or, perhaps to both.

I picked up a jar of shea nut butter. They were giving out samples and it felt wonderful on my hands. This is called Ah Shayh and is also available online.

And, although I didn't purchase anything from the Senses and Scents booth I did have a sniff of some very nice candles. Promised them a link online, so here it is. They are local in Oakland, though they are only selling online at at fairs.

Chair Ahoy

Well, that wasn’t the brightest thing I’ve done lately. I tried to repair my chair. The hydraulic lift went out on it some time ago and I’ve been putting up with the ding donged thing hoiking up fast and falling like a freight elevator other times. Found the manufacturer (since Office Depot no longer carries the chair and doesn’t want to honor their lifetime warranty since I’ve long since misplaced the receipt) and they assured me that for $17.50 I could purchase a new hydraulic. They were a bit vague about putting it on but assured me it wasn’t that difficult.

I should have tapped into my awesome psychic powers at that point and avoided what happened tonight.

So, the hydraulic came today. No instructions. I looked online and found other people in similar positions and printed out some of the discussions about fixing your own chair.

I did get the base off with a few well placed hammer hits. I was unable to withdraw the broken hydraulic. I pounded on that sucker with mighty effort. Tried chisels and screwdrivers and sweated a lot. Even took the hydraulic apart. (Note: Wear safety glasses.) Nothing worked.

Stood there, arms akimbo, having a hot flash considering the mess on my study floor. Put it back together again.

Except, now this piece is poking out from the hydraulic and won’t go back in again. So, I’m sort of teetering on what before was a pretty stable office chair. Can’t wheel it around anymore since the piece poking out is longer than the base. Wonderful.

Okay….took time out for a popsicle and to think about it. Took it apart again and found an extra piece inside the cover….put that on and now it’s back together again good as new...sort of.

What I'll do is take the new hydraulic lift to work and see if any of our guys can fix one of the chairs in the office with a similar problem. They actually did fix one some time ago. I remember them telling me it was a horrible job. I can see why.