“Debunkers misunderstand such stories as the soon-to-be-dead brother, the appearance of the fatal-car-accident victim, and the advancing fire—all of which happened under extreme circumstances—when they ask, with a sneer, why all psychics do not get rich on the stock market, or why robust psychic phenomena cannot be made to appear in the controlled laboratory.
Putting aside for the moment the fact that psychics sometimes do get rich, and that statistically significant but humble forms of psychic phenomena do in fact appear in laboratories, the answer to why robust events like those of Twain, the widowed wife, and the Stockholm fire do not appear in the lab is simple: There is no trauma, love, or loss there. No one is in danger or dying. Your neighborhood is not on fire. The professional debunker’s insistence, then, that the phenomena play by his rules and appear for all to see in a safe and sterile laboratory is little more than a mark of his own ignorance of the nature of the phenomena in question. To play by those rules is like trying to study the stars at midday. It is like going to the North Pole to study those legendary beasts called zebras. No doubt just anecdotes.”
What is it like to be sitting on a shelf? Ok, so I really do NOT want to know that. I like to be in action! In front! Flaming! Splashing! Primal! Did you know that you can be all of those things sitting silent??!? Ok, I’ve gone off onto a think….
I’m posting to say that for the third time now, my computer has a virus. This time, the computer is sitting on a shelf at the repair place, as the repair guy has many helpful contracts and duties and is over-run by storm damage to repair, doctor’s office computers virused and locking in all patients’ ever important information by a virusbook (I mean facebook i swear) virus from a surfing at work employee!! I am a little bit more glad to be simply sitting on that shelf, than to be one of those patients! Well, the way that I write and create has a lot to do with what I am near and what I have at hand to utilize for material. While I LOVE LOVE LOVE the library at the college soooo, it is cold steel, mortar, and very bright lights that trigger neurological events–unpleasant ones. So, I wait…I am very careful NOT to be patient nor to ask for patience. I hiss at those uttering such words at me and have them quickly flush the words down the nearest toilet or garbage disposal orifice! WAITING is acceptable, patience brings to me the MOST horrid of demons! YIKES! So, I’m waiting and not writing. I am not yet comfy with not having access to my access, but I’m not yet ripping off my skin in horror! Progress not perfection! See you all again when the computer is fixed!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO no no no, now I’ve got an association!!! Watching those strings appear to tangle and then become a long ‘straight’ strand……oooo oooooooooo ooooooooo. Tossing a yoyo at Kathy!
This came up in the creative bubbles this morning and then some more urgent creations over rode it. I finished the book I wanted to read and came downstairs to look for Kathy’s trains, over on Lake Superior Spirit.
And now, since I’ve typed some story and some thoughts into it, this has become an Inside Upside Down and Backward Blog. One that seems to be having a lust/ love affair with the Morning Trip, enough to encourage her to dress up and go out on the town for an Evening Trip.
If we get stuck in labeling, however will we get on, to the good stuffs?
I’ve been waffling in despair. I have called it feeling sorry for myself. I have called it being afraid to fail. I have called it denial. I have even looked within it and smiled for a teeeeny-tiny moment and called it knowing what feels good and right, and knowing what I want. And then, I ran me over and called it rationalizing! Seeeeeeeee…I want a prize for expert label name alternatives! I am very good at it! I am also good at distraction away from my own ouchie places. The distraction statement simply leads away from the hot seat to a safer seeming area, which it really is NOT, but YOU(the reader) doesn’t know this! Maybe my halo-ed weinie costume is an OSTRITCH?!?
Ok so now follows what I was thinking. I liked the lyrics so much, that I’m simply posting them below the video, rather than getting other supporting ponderish-type materials. Pre-PS. I would like ginger candy and white tea with raspberry for treats.
“Sometimes my visions are distant and vague Down at the base of the mountain Once in a while I am weak and afraid Tired and sick of it all
I don’t believe that my story is set Nothing is destined or blatant Bound to this body a world full of hate No one will heed if I fall
No one can see it but you know that it’s there Guiding the steps of your soul Holding the truth in the cross that you bear Die with a heart that is bold
Fly on the wings of despair No one is holding you back The call on the wild is internal Conquer the silence you bear Tomorrow will not fade to black A new day is dawning remember No one can save you today
The questions are more than the answers I know That doesn’t mean you are lonely Searching for more Consecutive goal’s Making it worth to go on
No one can see it but you know that it’s there Guiding the steps of your soul Holding the truth in the cross that you bear Die with a heart that is bold
Fly on the wings of despair No one is holding you back The call on the wild is internal Conquer the silence you bear Tomorrow will not fade to black A new day is dawning remember No one can save you today
You, and you alone is forging the path Leave your sorrows with the past
Never believe that the story is set Nothing is destined or blatant Bound to this body a world full of hate No one will heed if you fall
No one can see it but you know that it’s there Guiding the steps of your soul Holding the truth in the cross that you bear Die with a heart that is bold
Fly on the wings of despair No one is holding you back The call on the wild is internal Conquer the silence you bear Tomorrow will not fade to black A new day is dawning remember No one can save you today
Fly on the wings of despair No one is holding you back The call on the wild is internal Conquer the silence you bear Tomorrow will not fade to black A new day is dawning remember No one can save you, no one can save you today“
Today’s recurrent theme is…walking on a tightrope. I feel ambiguous and perhaps lost. And then, I open my eyes, and I am all-together, walking on a tightrope.
The search to unlock and enhance my expression began with this video, embedding is disabled please click the link which will open in a new window for you. I had a very strange reaction while listening to his words and how he felt as he was doing the walk. It took my breath away in that often embarrassing manner when my eyes tear and my body shakes in awe. I do not often share this feeling with others. When I have tried, it seems that others cannot comprehend it, and I keep it private for the most part.
I took my eldest child to college this weekend. I noticed that the process was a lot like walking alongside someone with a terminal illness. I, of course, kept this to myself, trying to know what my daughter required of me and thinking not to be expressive in a manner which she dislikes. I could not tell, while observing the similarities in providing for a dear departing friend, if I was not really knowing what to do, or in a very balanced grounded state observing and coping nicely.
Several bits of my head say, I am confused. Some say, YAY!! Independence for meeee! Other parts say, Look at her goooo!!! Still other parts say, ok I let go of the bike, does she want me to walk away, or watch intently and to remove obstacles or catch the bike before she might fall. Yes, indeed I am walking a tightrope. Images in my mind show me silly things like lily-pads to jump on away from the imagined rope, but then they are just another place to choose to place my feet, one step at a time. I am thinking(thought) this blog after I located the video and the quotes that will follow. Both the quotes and the video helped me to express to the outside, or perhaps they did not help me, but I used them. Semantics are wonderful for expression, denial, and love.
I did not choose one quote today, as at the time of writing I wasn’t/am not completely finished exploring why this theme.
“A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.”
William Arthur Ward
“In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking on a tightrope.” Henri Matisse
“In this day and time, with no competition you are really walking a tightrope. I mean you may think that no competition is good, but in reality no competition is really bad. ” Jerry Lawler
“Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.” Edith Wharton
“My wife says that stage acting is like being on a tightrope with no net, and being in the movies, there is a net – because you stop and go over it again. It’s very technical and mechanical. On stage you’re on your own.” Eli Wallach
“Skill is successfully walking a tightrope between the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center. Intelligence is not trying. ” Marilyn vos Savant
“The leader can never close the gap between himself and the group. If he does, he is no longer what he must be. He must walk a tightrope between the consent he must win and the control he must exert. ” Vince Lombardi
“The world may end up under a Sword of Damocles on a tightrope over the abyss.” Andrei A. Gromyko
This morning, I got up to the sounds of soft rain falling. I stumbled along in a pleasant sleepy stupor headed to the tea getting spot. The cinnamon sticks smelled heavenly and my mind flashed to autumn. Part of my brain jolted awake to promptly smack and shut up the season rusher–we like summer after all! No worries, the stupor returned after three dunks of the teabag. (I didn’t know you cared enough to worry.)
I sat at my desk. Tiny birds in the sand cherry, bouncing and shaking the drops that had been clinging to the branches for a) my own pure delight, b) to help the birds to get clean, or c) for dear life. NO! There are NO other options, tis my own blog so THERE!
I noticed the puddle around the light post and considered going out to run through it with feet bare, was a short consideration, the feet wish to stay unjolted and sleepy too. Kathy’s puddle and still water pictures are most wonderful and they are where my mind turned next. Ok, not next but promptly after I sniffed and slurped my tea. She can be found over at Lake Superior Spirit, all of her blogs are linked there. She might even provide a comment if she has done a blog particularly about puddles.
Fixated upon, I mean engaged by puddles, I thought well perhaps there is something that I am to find today having to do with puddles or some concept others attached to one or to them.
First came:
Is/was very funny to me, that’s how my written expression has been feeling of late, hence no blogs, but lots of movement as if I were working very hard upon it. I might be full of uhmm…Mud. Puddles however are great for ridding self of mud.
Then I thought, well you cannot just put up that video, what kind of blog would that be–this really means that I was worrying what others would think AND that I wanted attention. Some of me rolled our eyes at those parts, go ahead you can do it too. Sometimes it can be easier to roll eyes at others than at selves. I dunno why I just typed that last bit, maybe you might ignore it? I continued my search, it led me to this:
Mark Harden’s Artchive Escher, Maurits Cornelis
Puddle
1952
Woodcut in three colors
24 x 31.9 cm (9 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.)
M.C. Escher
Perhaps…
“Non-being is a mirror, the world an
image and man
is the eye of the image in which the person is hidden
You are the eye of the image, and
the light of the eye.
Who has ever seen the eye
through which all things are seen?
The world has become a man
and man a world.
There is no clearer explanation than this
When you look well into the root of the
matter
He is at once seen both seeing eye
and thing seen.”
– Mahmud Shabistari
Perhaps I was just to look into the puddle! Simple.
(abrupt ending warning!!)
The End!
“So don’t ask yourself what people want. Ask instead, What is true? What really inspires me, excites me? What will really help people and take away their confusion and suffering? It’s sort of a funny, crazy way to go, but I think it’s the only way to bring water to the wasteland Joseph Campbell described. When I read something truthful, something real, I breathe a deep sigh and say, “Fantastic – I wasn’t mad or alone in thinking that, after all!” So often we are left to our own devices, struggling in the dark with this external and internal propaganda system. At that point, for someone to tell us the truth is a gift. In a world where people all around us are lying and confusing us, to be honest is a great kindness.”
– David Edwards
Nothing to Lose but our Illusion
Pondering, thinking, creating, imagination…(all right, delusion also fits in somewhere)
Which is which? Are you sure? OOOOooooo ooooooo!! I know! ASK SOMEONE, RIGHT??
NO!!! Definately not!!
What sort of mixed messages are humans moving about like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to please? AND, why oh WHYyyyyyyy do they think this groupie glue is important? Who cares what people want, unless one is trying to sell something? In trying to sell a thing, asking what will ‘help’ and ‘take away’, only grabs onto their desires and pleases them, like candy for a baby. The baby doesn’t need to have the skills to think or to ponder, only to express gimme-gotcha and throw a little tantrum, et voila!!!
Since when did truth mean identification? A wife-beater can identify with the rage expressed in an abuser sharing and thus validate and justify that it is ok to beat…not because it is a true, but because the wife-beater simply doesn’t know any better, OR even worse, is mentally ill and will glom on to the closest rationalization of inappropriate behavior because denial is a happy friend.
Being kind, isn’t always honest. Feeling ‘nice’ and escaping reality and labeling it truth in order to placate a human’s insides, when simply directing them to take care of their own side of the street, is a disservice to the human race. People still lock people up for avoiding reality…and yet the current self-help, gimme-gotcha trend does just that, avoids reality!
(sits waiting for the, “But ELISAAAAAAA!!! You mean imagination is BAD?!? You blah, negative, unlearned person you–the books told you to label me this, as a defense to your ability of hearing your inner spirit agreeing with me!)
Noooooooooooo!! A healthy imagination is simply an amaaaaaaaaaaazing human gift. When utilized and then expressed, explosions of creativity grow joyfully!! A healthy imagination is the inner flame dancing inside of each moment. It is healthy thinking and processing of reactions, the inner decider of actions. The place to sit right at work(as opposed to escaping) stick your pen into someone’s thigh, catch it with mind, laugh and provide the ‘offender’ with a hug oh gram, a balloon bouquet, and birds flying in joyful expression to assist them with whatever pen-stabbing they were contemplating before you encountered them!
When you are tired at work, think exhilaration!!! Think of scaling Mt. Everest, in brilliant swim trunks, feel the sharp intake of cool air into your lungs, take that feeling and register the brilliant sky and the sun hitting the mind across the peak…raise your hands in triumph–at the same time plant those feet apart on the floor and streeeeeeeetch those arms above your head and wooooohoooooooooo recharged!
You could also recall the York Peppermint Patty commercials, if that helps. Engagement, instead of withdrawal!
Dunno about you, but conversion is MY FRIEND!!
Happy Energy!
😉
(someone said somewhere that emoticons ought not be used…should i worry? lol)
I am adding in the beginning since I have come to an end, and realized that what began as a ponder and became the Morning Trip(14) which did not look nor feel like the average Morning Trip and then slid over more into the Inside Upside Down and Backward Blog (5). I could not slight one or the other. So, laughing at myself for feeling ‘wrong’, especially after readers will see the ‘wrong’ topic below, I posted it as both, let the reader simply read and filter and decide–or perhaps not care so very much about headings. Enjoy! I am going to get a cup of tea.
“The bright side of wrong
Our tendency to err is also what makes us smart. Here’s what we’d gain from embracing it
By Kathryn Schulz
June 13, 2010
There are certain things in life that pretty much everyone can be counted on to despise. Bedbugs, say. Back pain. The RMV. Then there’s an experience we find so embarrassing, agonizing, and infuriating that it puts all of those to shame. This is, of course, the experience of being wrong.
Is there anything at once so routine and so loathed as the revelation that we were mistaken? Like the exam that’s returned to us covered in red ink, being wrong makes us cringe and slouch down in our seats. It makes our hearts sink and our dander rise.
Sometimes we hate being wrong because of the consequences. Mistakes can cost us time and money, expose us to danger or inflict harm on others, and erode the trust extended to us by our community. Yet even when we are wrong about completely trivial matters — when we mispronounce a word, mistake our neighbor Emily for our co-worker Anne, make the dinner reservation for Tuesday instead of Thursday — we often respond with embarrassment, irritation, defensiveness, denial, and blame. Deep down, it is wrongness itself that we hate….” Read the remainder of the article…
I want to thank Kathy’s comment on Morning Trip(12) for the inspiration and the inner push that helped me to move through what I will share. It was a comment back to her about what she said about being wise. (You can find her at Lake Superior Spirit).
The Comment that Became an Inside Upside Down and Backward Blog
Ok, that one has me shy, so…posting something on Wisdom 😉
All right, this portion is an edit. I got up with my tea after sleeping in a bit and wrestling with things in my sleep (yes again), I came into WordPress as I do and read your comment again, thinking ok now what will I answer to it. I still squirm away from the label wise and wisdom. Perhaps if I chose to wrestle with that concept instead of the one that I am, I might be resting more!
My path through an answer this morning began as a trek through youtube. I wanted to see if a manner of expression which I found acceptable would present itself. I thought about easing my feeling of being vulnerable. I chuckled at myself as I said to myself, “Elisa, people do not often know just how vulnerable you have been by your choices in postings of subjects and the feelings that you express through a matching music choice or image.” At the same time the first video I encountered that felt right was:
The chatter in my head said: “Oh dear lord people will not listen to something Star Wars said!”
The emotional response was: “Ut oh, I have been “screwing up” and that I know how to “get me out”, but that I haven’t been attending seemingly disjointed incoming information to redirect myself.” I also cried, which I dislike and pretend to be cranky about, though it tells me, “Yay, on the right track!”
I was still feeling uncomfortably presenting Yoda for a wisdom response. I continued the search, and found this:
I’ve never seen the movie, nor have I read the book. I swore a lot at it, while other parts of my insides nodded in agreement uttering things like, “Seeeeeeeeeee!”
Next followed the Soupy Sales words of wisdom, that I posted above.
And, lastly, this:
Don’t start your soul out so loud or full out……mmm mmmmmmmm mmmm! What a breakfast!
Elisa's Spot 