TFTD

All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life.
--M. C. Richards

What you do for a living is not who you are. You are more, much more, than that.

It's easy to get so caught up in what we do that we're only identifying ourselves through our daily tasks. I am a mechanic. I am a parking lot attendant. I am a doctor. I am a dishwasher. When we link ourselves too closely to our jobs, we deny ourselves the chance to ever be anything else.

God gave us the power to change. You're more than what you do. You're a vital vibrant soul that came here to experience, grow, and change. Make a masterpiece out of your life.

Long lost twin brother

Reunited

He's HERE!
He's HERE!
He's HERE!!

Stanley is HERE and he's purple and he's spidery and he's HUGE and HAPPY to be outta the box and in his new home where people will hug him and love him and talk to him and hug him some more!!

k.....we can unplug him now and move him to the yard.

He does look kinda cute in the living room though.....

Stanley's here!
Stanley's here!
He's 8 feet and purple and cute and Studley's twin brother, parted at birth don'tchaknow, and he's HERE!!

TFTD

I believe that everyone needs a mentor. --Harry Bartholomew  

We have all had mentors - many of them, in fact. We might not have labeled them as such, but throughout our lives we have been picking up ideas and mannerisms from many people. From some, we sought to learn specific skills, perhaps on the job or while in school. A few inadvertently became our mentors simply because of our proximity to them. 

Along the way, we may have chosen some mentors impulsively and to our detriment. The process of mentoring is how most of us learn, ultimately. Have we forgotten that we, too, have served as mentors for many others who have shared our journey?  We obviously are not through living yet. Thus we are not through mentoring either. 

Every encounter we have with someone is mentoring in action. One moment we're on the learning end; the next, perhaps we're acting as teacher. Mentoring has always been a two-way street.  We have never been able to control another's mentoring, but we have always been free to choose or refuse to follow his or her example. What we can control, and this has always been true, is the content of our own mentoring. Are we satisfied that we've done our best?  Today I'll remember that my role as mentor isn't over yet.

More Fairy Stuff

Our teachers surround us.  When we were young, our parents and siblings served as our teachers, but they weren't always good ones. We may have learned habits that haunt us still. Shame and guilt may still trouble us because of the messages our parents and siblings gave us. We can't undo the past teachings, but we can come to believe those teachers did their best. They passed on to us what they had been taught.

We're students of life and we'll encounter many teachers. From some, we will learn patience; from others, tolerance and acceptance. A few will make us laugh. All will change us in some way. We may be apt to pass judgment on the interactions we have with others, but those with more wisdom than ourselves remind us that we can learn. In fact, we are privileged to learn something of value in absolutely every interaction. Our teachers are all around us. 

Captured Memory7

*ahemmm*

Uh huh…….yesterday it was about candy all over my desk and my ooky spooky lights on.

Today it was candy AGAIN all over the desk, the ooky spooky lights on AND some crappy chair at my desk.

Ohhhh no…..we're not doing THIS quietly!!

Soooo…….  I stole the IT fella's chair, unplugged his monitors (of which there are two) and put the spilled candy all over HIS desk. 

And if it's not him who traded out the chair—oh dear, what a shame, nevermind…….

:-/

Daily Reminder

Moving Forward  

Much as we would like, we cannot bring everyone with us on this journey of change. We are not being disloyal by allowing ourselves to move forward. We don't have to wait for those we love to decide to change as well.  

Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to grow, even though the people we love are not ready to change. 

We may even need to leave people behind in their dysfunction or suffering because we cannot grow for them. We don't need to stay stuck with them.  It doesn't help.  

It doesn't help for us to stay stuck just because someone we love is stuck. The potential for helping others is far greater when we detach, work on ourselves, and stop trying to force others to change with us.  Changing ourselves, allowing ourselves to grow while others seek their own path, is how we have the most beneficial impact on people we love. 

We're accountable for ourselves. They're accountable for themselves. We let them go, and let ourselves grow.  Today,  it is my right to grow and change, even though someone I love may not be growing and changing alongside me.

Captured Memory6

Fairy Reminder!!

At first, I resented it when my friends in the program told me to be God or let God. -- Myrna K.  

Who consciously decided to play God? Not me. Not you. 

But many of us have a terrible time letting God run the world. No matter how much we resolve not to, we take responsibility for things we can't control. 

That's what playing God is, and that's what a lot of us have practiced for a long, long time. 

Playing God is not only hard work, it's also a good way to ruin relationships. People just don't like to be around would-be mortal "gods" whose clay feet are all too visible. Our good intentions don't make people feel less defensive about us.  

Letting go isn't easy. Especially if we confuse letting go with not caring. Of course we care. But that does not and must not mean we are responsible. 

Can we care enough to let others make their own mistakes, earn their own victories, and take responsibility for their own lives? 

Not to do so, no matter how we may feel about it, breeds dependency in both them and us.  

We must care enough to let them be. 

Captured Memory5

:-(

I’m sad.  October 9, 2005 I was gifted Studley, the 8 foot spider.

He tried……really, really hard.

His little body inflated and his little legs got plump, but they just wouldn’t stay that way. 

And himself tried.  And tried.

He repositioned him over and over again.  Check and rechecked to make sure there weren’t any ‘kinks’ that were causing the problems—even sprayed his little spider body with water proofing, hoping it would help to keep the air in.

*sigh*

Poor Studley is just TIRED.  He’s done 9 years of Halloweens, proudly and happily.

And even though we’ve had to stake his little spidery legs in place, he’s been a constant for Halloween.  Kiddo’s have hugged him, sat on him, stabbed at him with their light sabers,  had their photos taken with him year after year after year…..

I gotta retire him.

Too thin—his fabric is just too thin.  He can’t do the elements and he’s just……..tired.  Oh, but he TRIED!

I’m sad.

A ‘new’ spider, himself said—and he immediately went online to see what there was out there.

Red eyes.  Spikey legs. Spinning eyes, colour changing, animated heads that turn, MEAN looking things.  Oh, there’s a couple funny looking ones…….but they’re not Studley.  And they don’t FIT.

Yes, I know---tantrum on my part…….I want Studley.

His fan works really good and there just HAD to be a way to make him work.

One more time I had to try.

And one  more time ……he’s tired.  Thin and struggling to hold his air.

So……retired he is.

*sigh*

I’m sad.

And because I’m not one to surrender, I went online to look for Studley’s twin.

AND I FOUND HIM! 

Used twice and boxed up, he’s now enroute.

The fella told me he was in excellent shape.

And I don’t care if his fan isn’t up to par (Studley’s is!).  I don’t care if he comes with all the ropes and stakes and STUFF that comes to keep him in place.  (Studley has ‘em!)

The itsy bitsy spiders are coming down the water spout already……and there’s an empty place on the corner where Studley’s suppose to be. 

Now I just gotta name him…..maybe once I get him.

WAIT!!!

Stanley.
That's it!!

We shall name him Stanley!

 

Fairy Words for Today

I want somehow to tell the story of how the dispossessed become possessed of their own history without losing sight, without forgetting the meaning or the nature of their journey. 

-Sherley Anne Williams  

To use the past without being controlled by it--that is our responsibility to history. Because the past is irrecoverably vanished, it's sometimes tempting to forget it or to falsify it. But being true to ourselves means being true to our history.  Past cruelties can remain powerful in our lives,  yet to take possession of our history means to free ourselves of bondage to past events. Nothing can ever change them. If we are to make the future good, we'll learn what the past can teach us. But our freedom requires us to make choices based on the needs of the present, not the past. 

 I can act at every moment in such a way as to honor the past and enhance the future.

Captured Memory4

TFTD

I feel best about having helped others believe in themselves. --Bud Sherman  

Encouragement is one of the greatest gifts we can give one another. Chances are we can all remember someone who encouraged us many years ago. Perhaps a teacher or an employer took a special interest in us, and we have never forgotten that person. It's likely we are remembered in much the same way by someone else, too. It's nice to savor these memories, isn't it?  

There is nothing stopping us from continuing to make memories for others. We will experience people and situations today that will benefit if we pass on encouragement and praise. We will benefit as well. It feels good to acknowledge another's contributions to the world. It strengthens our own willingness to contribute.  No conversation is without purpose. Even those exchanges that seem meaningless offer us opportunities for bettering someone else's opinion of themselves. 

What greater offerings have we to make than to be loving and helpful to someone traveling this path with us? If we haven't given much attention to this part of our assignment before, let's begin now. The homework will make all of us feel much better.  A few words of encouragement to another is all that's asked of me today. I can handle that.

Captured Memory3

Fairy Reading for Today

When we do for other people what they should do for themselves, we both stay stuck.  

Perhaps it's human nature to grow and change only when we have to. Unrelenting pain can serve as a motivator. Sometimes ultimatums are effective too. But making excuses for others or taking over their responsibilities, even when it's for their benefit, never inspires change. 

We're learning that the only change we can be certain of is one we make in ourselves.  One of the first changes we can make is to let go of others: their opinions, their behavior, and their responsibilities. 

Our need for them to fulfill our expectations is related to our insecurity, not theirs. Every time we preach or take on others' duties, we must recognize that we are preventing much-needed growth, ours and theirs.  

Our intentions might always have been good. But the time has come to let others live their own lives. It's quite enough to take care of ourselves.  I will not do someone else's task today. Growth comes from each of us being responsible for ourselves.

A wonderful thing about autumn

Daily Message

I was sitting in the chair at the beauty shop getting my hair cut one day and listening to my beautician chatter away. She showed me a picture of one of her friends, a woman who had gotten married and recently had a baby girl.  "She's been so in love since that child was born," she said, showing me a picture of the new mother's smiling face.  "In love with her husband?" I asked.  "No," she said. "Well, that, too. I mean in love with life."  

Have you ever been in love, had your heart beat fast when you anticipated the call of your lover, felt the way the sun felt warmer on your face, the sky appeared bluer, the clouds more fluffy, and the sunset more grand?  

What if you could fall in love with your life and feel that way each day? I'm not saying romantic relationships are bad. They're not. They're part of being human and getting our needs met. But what if we could take all that passion and focus it into falling in love with life?  Maybe that is what is meant by universal love. Maybe that's the part we give back.  

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