However, I did want to give everyone a heads up that I am in the process of creating my new website, which will host my blog, information about my new ARTbundance™ Coaching practice, information on the Trinfinity8 treatments I’ll be giving as part of my practice – more on that a little later in this post – and a link to my Etsy store where I’ll be selling my fused glass artwork that I’m starting to make again.  Shortly – although I will also readily admit that I have no idea exactly how long “shortly” will turn out to be – I will be able to import this blog into my new website that I’m creating at Squarespace.com.  I’m still figuring the whole website creation thing out, even though I’ve had two weeks of free trial already.  When everything gets set up there, I’ll  put up a pointer here to redirect you to the new site, since all the new posts will be happening there.

Website creation has come a really long way since I set up my first website for Ringing Rocks Foundation around a dozen years ago.  Back then, everything had to be hand coded in HTML and I really wasn’t all that interested in learning how to do more than the very basics of a text-based website with an occasional photograph.  Now, at Squarespace, you add a new page and then tell the editor what kind of module you want to plug into that page.  You can add journals – their name for blogs – as well as regular web pages, picture galleries, shopping carts, and so on, with the click of a mouse and a little configuration.  So far, it’s still slow and exploratory work, but not bad.  Etsy, on the other hand, is a royal pain in my behind to configure, since it will drop a whole page of changes for a dash or period in the wrong place on their forms!

To change the subject completely, I mentioned the Trinfinity8 earlier.  Since I don’t have information on my new website on the Trinfinity8 yet, here’s the link to the manufacturer’s website with an incredible amount of information, videos, and research citations.  I think that this investment was a very wise one and it will be a great addition to my coaching practice, since the energetic changes that the T8 can bring about will enhance my coaching and vice versa.

The short version of the story is that the T8 will help to re-program your DNA to reverse aging, reduce stress, rejuvenate the tissues and glands to promote health and vitality, help with weight reduction, relieve insomnia, and boost immune function.  I know that sounds like quite a lot of claims for one machine, but when you are affecting the cellular DNA, that in turn affects the whole being.  I’m already seeing effects in several areas after only 4 treatments so far.

My chiropractor, Dr. Adams, is going to be renting me a room in his practice to use for my coaching practice and T8 sessions.  The rent is very reasonable and I’ll have access to his credit card machine for people who want to pay for sessions that way, which is a big convenience.  I have to go out of town for a week, so I’m trying to get that trip scheduled as soon as possible so that I can open the practice as soon as I return.  More news as it breaks…

In the meantime, Woo Hoo!!!  Celebration Time!!!

My last ARTsignment is complete!  The slideshow gives you a look at all the sides of the candle that I altered.  If you’re wondering how I did it, here is the really quick and easy tutorial for how to do it:

1. First, you need to print your text or images onto tissue paper.  If you are a rubber stamper, like me, you can use rubber stamps and any kind of ink to stamp onto the tissue paper.  I used three different colors of tissue paper and Ranger’s Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  If you’re not a rubber stamper, you can iron a sheet of tissue paper to the shiny side of freezer paper that you can get in any grocery store.  Cut it into a sheet that will fit your printer and print onto the tissue paper side whatever text and images you might want to adhere to your candle.  Carefully peel the tissue paper off the freezer paper.  If you have difficulty, you can re-iron a section at a time and pull them apart while still warm.
2. Once you have all of your tissue paper words and images printed, cut them out.  You can either cut close to the words and images, or you can leave a small border, as you prefer.
3. For this next step, you can use a craft heat tool, if you have one.  If not, you can use a hair dryer.  It will also help to have a long handled pair of tweezers or scissors, a chopstick or skewer, or whatever you have handy to keep you from burning your fingers.  Position the word or image where you want it on your candle, hold it in place with your tool, and apply heat gently to the candle just until it starts to soften.  If you are using a heat tool, you should start about 6″ or so from the candle and bring the heat tool closer as needed.  As the top layer of wax softens, the tissue paper will wick up the wax and the word or image will be absorbed into the candle as it cools.  Don’t overheat or you will have wax running all over the place!
4. Repeat step 3 for as many words, images, or embellishments that you want to add to your candle.  That’s it!  As long as you aren’t using a dinner taper or other very skinny candle, you don’t have to worry about the tissue paper catching on fire.  The candle will burn down the middle and the tissue paper images and words will softly glow while the wick is burning.

There is a purpose to this particular candle.  I am using it to help illuminate creative ways of looking at a particular issue.  My issue that I was looking for clarity on was whether I should have my coaching/healing practice separate from my fused art glass business.  Should I use the same name and website for both or should I give them each separate names and websites?  I have my name for my coaching practice now, Creative Gateways, and it just didn’t feel like it suited my glass work.

So, I did a little ritual where I lit the candle, asked for guidance from the Universe, and took dictation for about 25 minutes.  Out of the dictation came the knowing that the two parts really are separate and they should be named that way.  The name for my fused glass work is AMusinGlass.  I love wordplay, can you tell?

I’m not really sure how the two parts of my Blissness will come together as a website yet.  Right now I’m thinking that I’ll just have a single page on my site that has links to my fused glass store.  At the moment, I’m planning on using Etsy, but if anyone has 2 cents to put in the pot with regard to other options, I’m all ears!

So now all I have to do is fill out the last of the record sheet and submit it to Marney and I’m DONE!!!

I used my die cut machine and an album die with tabs to cut my cards out of heavy weight cardstock.  I took pictures of my muse, my M.A.P., my P.E.A.C.E. project, and a digital collage of the Vision principal I created during the course and printed them out as large as my card size.  I also printed out various notes from the class handouts two to a page using the “multiple pages” feature when printing from a .pdf file.  This made them the perfect size for my cards.

My favorite tab is the ARTsignments, since the ARTsignment chart (which quickly and easily shows what ARTsignments work with each of the ARTbundance Principles) fits perfectly on the tab card for that section and then I have each of the ARTsignment descriptions on its own side of a page that follows.  Over time, I plan to do a sample of each ARTsignment myself, photograph it and add it to my card for that ARTsignment.

I do plan to embellish the cards more over time to add an element of inspiration to them.  I just didn’t want to hold up my certification waiting to have the decorating completed.  While this ARTsignment was very enjoyable and easy, I found that since I was going to be using them in my practice I was having a bit of the perfectionist bug biting me again.  I really wanted them to look wonderful enough to display in my office and use during sessions.  I’m glad I got over that and just got it done!

I’ll say it again – WOW!!!  Between the online community of supportive women (men are invited here too, but I haven’t seen any in the directory yet) that she’s brought together, the great handout that we were given to explore our Dream before the class even started, and her enthusiastic and clear leadership and coaching style on the call, I have to say that I’m impressed.  SARK not only admits all of her past failings and missteps, she is actually proud of them because they make her more human and accessible.  Marney Makridakis of Artella was my first exposure to that kind of honesty, humility, and humanity in someone who has accomplished so much.

Between the great examples of these two wonderful women, it feels easier than ever to forgive myself for some of the major missteps I’ve made and blind spots that I haven’t been willing to look into that have been a major part of the situation that I now find myself in.  I haven’t felt comfortable admitting to my own part in what’s happened out loud, especially since I’ve locked myself into the role of victim in this situation.

The energy is really shifting and changing now – well, it has been for some time as I began the process of taking my power back – and as it changes it is freeing up energy that I can use to propel myself forward.  I don’t have to condone everyone’s actions in this, but I can choose to forgive myself and the others involved and begin the process of letting go of the old and moving into the new.

The situation very likely won’t be over for some time, so I’m sure I’ll be going in and out of my currently enlightened point of view as I progress in resolving it.  However, if I can take everyone’s advice of yesterday and be gentle with myself while I handle things, make time to nurture myself as I go through the process, and make time for creativity along the way to help brighten up my outlook, the changes will be more likely go easier and smoother for me than otherwise.

So, after posting this, I’m off to cut some glass and work a bit more on my last two ARTbundance Coach Training certificate requirements!  Progress progresses!

I have been finishing up the last of my ARTsignments for my ARTbundance Coach Training.  We were supposed to create our muse the first week of class, but I could see her so clearly in my mind it didn’t seem all that necessary to bring her into the physical world.  That seemed especially true since I had never made an art doll before and had no idea how to translate what I saw in my head into physical reality.

Now that she’s finished, I have to say that I was wrong, wrong wrong!  She is beautiful and is an inspiration for me to continue on my path – more than I could ever have suspected.  I’m glad that I was willing to get out of my comfort zone and take the plunge.  Along the way, I listened to her urgings and directions for how to bring her into reality.  My muse was helping me create my muse!

Notes about her construction:  She’s made of a base of tin foil, over which I layered some white velvet fabric dyed to create some skin to hide the tin foil (you can see it in the photo between her dress and her face).  I added a face made from polymer clay formed in a mold – which I altered after popping it out of the mold to give her a smile – and colored it with alcohol inks in a sort of reddish-brown tint since she’s out in the sun as often as possible.  Then I added some moss for hair with my hot glue gun and although you really can’t see it very well in the photo, she has a peacock feather tucked into her hair at the top like a crown.  Her dress is made out of printed moleskin with the bird added as an embellishment after I sewed her into her dress.  Her arms and legs are twigs, attached with wire and hot glue.  The wire feet I added at the very end to help stabilize her leg to the base I’ve attached her to.  The base is so lightweight that I may need to add some rocks or something else heavy to stabilize it, since she’s just a tad wobbly.  I have to admit that I’m a little reluctant to do that, since she is so light in spirit!

It’s time again for the annual ‘Stella Awards’! For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald’s in New Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That’s right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy.

Here are the Stellas for this past year  –  2009:

* SEVENTH PLACE *

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

Start scratching!

* SIXTH PLACE *

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn’t notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor’s hubcaps.

Scratch some more…

* FIFTH PLACE *

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn’t re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count ‘em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner’s insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.

Keep scratching.  There are more… Double hand scratching after this one…

* FOURTH PLACE *

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella’s when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor’s beagle – even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner’s fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.

Pick a new spot to scratch, you’re getting a bald spot…

* THIRD PLACE *

Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

Only two more, so ease up on the scratching…

* SECOND PLACE *

Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000… oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.

Ok. Here we go!!

* FIRST PLACE *

This year’s runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner’s manual that she couldn’t actually leave the driver’s seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her – are you sitting down? – $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

Are we, as a society, getting more stupid?

So, really, was that funny?  Personally, I found it rather sad and disappointing.  I find it very sad that we, as individuals of modern society, would do things that foolish, that we would feel no need to take personal responsibility for these actions, that we would think it was OK to ask others for compensation for our foolish actions, and that seven to twelve people of those seated on the jury (depending on whether they were civil or criminal cases) would actually agree that compensation was due these foolish people by the other party.  In some cases, I was smiling as I shook my head in wonder, but it was a smile more related to the justice of the moment – such as the dog biting Mr. Williams after being shot with a pellet gun – than because I thought the case truly funny.

It made me wonder about humor in general, especially slapstick where one person gets physically hurt and we all laugh because it was done in a funny way.  Folks have always enjoyed the Three Stooges and their routines, despite the fact that the three guys are always beating each other up.  Several other comedians either got their start or made a whole career of slapstick.  Personally, it makes me wince more often than it makes me laugh.

Many of the jokes that comedians tell make fun of a particular group of people, whether a certain nationality (Polish jokes are probably the most famous of these), a certain religion (Jewish jokes), a certain career (lawyer jokes), or a certain race.  They may not be politically correct, but they are told over and over anyway.  The characterization of the group in the joke may not even be close to accurate, but if the punch line is good, the joke is a hit.

While some comedians like Rodney Dangerfield made a career out of making fun of themselves, that can sometimes be seen as a problem too.  For instance, if we repeatedly make jokes at our own expense, we might be taken aside and asked if we have self-esteem issues or told not to speak badly of ourselves.

When we make jokes about politicians, we can be seen as unpatriotic or as being un-supportive of our leaders.  When we make jokes about “our own kind,” the jokes seem to either be popular within the group and outsiders find the jokes not funny, or the jokes are popular with the rest of the population and not so popular within the group.  When we make jokes about any particular population segment, that group often tends to find such jokes not amusing.

Is there any topic that is “safe” to make jokes about?  Why are some people funny and others, not so much?  Why are some comedians more universally popular than others?  Are things more universally funny when the group of people who are being made fun of is larger?  Why is that?  Since this post is already getting long, I think I’ll leave these larger questions for your pondering or for future posts…

If the point of humor is to make us laugh and the point of laughter is to make us feel better – about ourselves, our lives, our situations – then anything that makes us laugh should be OK.  I guess what makes a particular joke funny to one person and not to another is whether that joke made both people feel better.  Therein lies the rub.

It seems to me that if you feel pretty good already, then just about any joke has the potential to make you laugh.  If you are in a darker place, then a bit of climbing out of your hole is needed before a joke might make you feel better.  If you, generally speaking, have a good sense of humor, then it might not take very much to help you climb out of the darkness into the light.  On the other had, if your sense of humor is a bit lacking in general, then even several hours of various different types of comedy routines might not serve much purpose in helping you feel better.

Perhaps part of the larger question must be how do people maintain their sense of humor in the first place?  I use the word maintain because we all start out with a great sense of humor.  Babies laugh all of the time – at funny faces, at silly voices, at anything that goes well in their world, even at a simple game of peek-a-boo.  When people lose their sense of humor, what have they lost and how can they get it back?

Personally, I think that those who lose their sense of humor have lost their innocence and trust that the world is, generally speaking, a good place full of good people.  So, how can they get that sense of trust back?  By re-learning to trust in the world around them.  And that process of re-learning to trust has to start by having people around them that are trustworthy.  If the people around you aren’t trustworthy, let them go and surround yourself with people who are trustworthy.  Then it becomes easier to start learning to trust again.

Hmmm, I feel one of those “physician, heal thyself” moments coming on.  It’s time for some honest reflection on this topic and my musings on it before I have to give myself that “would you actually pay attention to the words coming out of your mouth” speech again…

Here at home, there are several pink and white trees in bloom.  I think that the two pink trees are crab apples (from the distinctively tiny size of their fruit) and one of the white trees is an ornamental apricot.  At least I’ve never seen any fruit, even though the blossoms have that distinctive apricot smell.  I’m not so sure about this one myself, but I was told one year that the other white tree (in the photo collage above) is an ornamental cherry.  The bark doesn’t look dark and glossy enough to me for it to be a cherry tree, but I personally have no idea what else it might be since the blossoms have no smell for me to judge by and the leaves and bark of the tree aren’t particularly distinctive to me.

The other trees are either just starting to show their buds or their branch tips are going bright red or yellow or green, depending on the species, but the leaves haven’t started to make their appearances yet.  The manzanita bushes dotted around the place are already almost to the end of their blooming period (a white one is shown at the bottom of the photo collage), which must be an extreme disappointment to the dozens of bees and other insects still busily buzzing around each of them.  There is one pink bush left that still has a lot of blossoms on it and I’ve added it to the photo collage above too.

I must have missed the crocuses this year, because the blooms are nowhere to be seen in the tiny garden area between my office windows and the front door, although I can still see their distinctive foliage.  I haven’t noticed the daffodil either this year.  Yes, there’s only one.  The woman who lived in my home before me must have planted a single daffodil, or perhaps she planted several and the rest of the bulbs were eaten by one of the many critters roaming around the area leaving behind holes of various sorts in the dirt for me to fill back in.

There is also one hyacinth plant (shown in the collage above), which about every other year manages to come up sideways so that the flower winds up growing parallel to the ground.  If anyone happens to know why that might happen on a semi-regular basis, I’m all ears.  This year it has come up straight, but the blossoms are very sparse on the stem, so I’m guessing it needs a little fertilizer for next year before the foliage dies back.

The next thing I’m waiting for is the peeping sounds of newly hatched birds…  I’m seeing fewer quail running around the neighborhood lately, and those that I see are going solo instead of in pairs, so the female half of the resident population is probably busy sitting on eggs.  Watching the newly hatched quail run around with their parents every spring is always one of my favorite spring treats.  Quail, with their permanent question marks above their heads, are always a source of amusement for me, especially when they are running.  The way they streamline their plump bodies and nothing seems to move but their bobbing top knots and racing feet just strikes me as incredibly funny.  Since I live in a housing development named Quail Run, there is no shortage of such fun treats all year round, either.  And these days, anything that can get me to giggle is a very welcome thing!  So, welcome back – both adult quail and new babies – as soon as possible!

The Creator is tuned into the Comedy Channel — and WE are what’s on.
–Swami Beyondananda

I think that I’ve finally been clued into what’s been missing in my life lately — humor.  One of the top five criteria I’ve always listed for a man of my dreams is a great sense of humor.  The really funny thing about that is that humor is one of the first things that turns up missing in my own life when things start to go wrong.  Given the Law of Attraction, it seems that I need to create ways of finding humor in my own life’s situations even when life is handing me lemons that stretch me way out of my comfort zone, if I really want to attract a man with a truly great sense of humor into my life.

So the real question is: how to do that?  Well, I think that it starts with finishing the “Wake Up Laughing” ebook by Steve Bhaerman that I spoke of the other day.  As I’ve said before, I really enjoy his sense of humor for several reasons.  The first reason is that it is although it is enlightening, it is also completely harmless, in that while it pokes fun at the Cosmic Comedy that is human existence, it doesn’t pick on any one person or group in particular, as most comic humor does.  The second reason is that his humor pokes fun at the reality of how we are collectively blind to the ironies and dichotomies of our lives and lifestyles.  The third reason is that there are no sacred cows in his humor; he pokes fun at our political systems (in his book “Swami for Precedent: A 7-Step Plan to Heal the Body Politic and Cure Electile Dysfunction”), our spiritual systems (in his book “Driving Your Own Karma: Swami Beyondananda’s Tourguide to Enlightenment” and his CD “Don’t Squeeze the Shaman”), and even our global crises (in his book with Bruce Lipton “Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There from Here”).  And the last reason is that as his alter ego, Swami Beyondananda, he is willing to go out in the world making a fool of himself in order to help the rest of us enlighten up.  What a role model!

I enjoy being of service in the world and that is one of the reasons for my getting an ARTbunance Coach certification.  (Actually, I may also apply for the Swami’s absurdification.  Getting one is easy and it should round out my qualifications very well!  )  However, as I’ve gotten closer to getting that certification, I’ve started taking it way too seriously and that has made it less of a joy and more of a chore.  Several posts ago, I was talking about a name for my new business and that none of the ones that I had come up with really felt like “it.”  Perhaps that was because the Universe was waiting for me to remember that we’re living in a Cosmic Comedy and hoping I would inject a bit of humor into both the name and the practice itself.

And so, my focus for today has changed from doing my chores to tickling my funny bone to add some Vitamin See to today’s diet of fooly realized thoughts.