Queen of Dreams Radio
Posts Tagged ‘Life is Good’
Last Saturday, I attended Minette’s Birthday Scarf Soiree. I blogged a week or so ago about making these delicious scarves!
I woke up early enough to be on time that day. But when I woke, I had all kinds of ideas riddling through me and the sheer thought of writing them all down left me feeling tired. So I went back to bed for a few minutes…or so it felt.
As soon as I closed my eyes, a familiar visitor showed up. She said, “Come on!” And, as I (in my spirit) climbed aboard her magnificent horse, I felt my entire body take off into a blissful wonderland. Soon, I saw and heard many things related to the work I’ve been wondering about and shortly after that, I felt myself fall into this cavernous nothingness that felt like drifting into a bed of feathers that felt little more than wisps of wind around me.
Something startled me awake at 20 minutes (I had fallen into this peaceful sleep for nearly an hour and a half!) ‘til the party! I woke feeling rested, almost like I had taken a week’s vacation at the beach. I felt happy, alive and so excited about the party.
I jumped in the shower, threw my clothes on and headed downstairs to assemble her gift.
The only thing I can say about this state I ‘stumbled’ out of is that it was juicy, rich and expansive. As I walked out of our bedroom, I remembered I don’t have any tissue paper, and right behind that, I saw very clearly where I had stored tissue paper SEVEN YEARS ago. I followed this vision down to where it was and not only did I find the tissue paper, but I found a ‘kit’ like the one I had been searching for to give Minette, though I didn’t know exactly what I was searching for, I had ‘nixed’ many as they did not feel ‘right’ and just decided to let it go this ‘kit’ thing I had been feeling for her.
When I saw it, I felt… “That’s it!”
Though I left for the party late (I just forgave myself and went along), I felt so much energy moving toward our creations. I felt light, happy and alive.
And, I want to share with you the scarf I made. Plus, last week, a dear friend (Hi Mike!!), sent me two scarves from Afghanistan that will go perfectly with it!
When I started to get dressed, I saw these dandelions as borders and butterflies all over the scarf. I have an idea for one with just butterflies that will have more color on them. As I created, I just went with what came…cherries ‘life is a bowl of cherries,’ and bumblebees ‘buzzing through life,’ and the blue bird ‘fly’ and leaves that go where the wind blows them (just like the dandelions). This was soooo fun! Thank you Minette for giving all of us a wonder-full and art-full gift on your b-day!
![clip_image001[7]](http://www.tinaferguson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/clip_image0017.jpg "right-click and choose Save Picture As... to save the image")
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Aren’t these scarves Mike sent me just BEAUTIFUL? 
They match perfectly and my new art scarf matches the other one he sent that is magenta/maroon/gold. Thanks, Mike!
![clip_image001[12]](http://www.tinaferguson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/clip_image00112.jpg "right-click and choose Save Picture As... to save the image")
![clip_image001[14]](http://www.tinaferguson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/clip_image00114.jpg "right-click and choose Save Picture As... to save the image")
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I wish I would have taken my camera to show you others. But you can make your own. Inspired? Go make one for yourself or someone else!
Looking for a Dream Life:
This morning is Chance’s day off from school. Yes, that’s right. He’s homeschooled and he has Fridays off. Amazingly, he is able to get up nearly an hour and a half earlier today than he was for nearly two weeks of school. Hmmm. I guess he really is a regular kid!
He loves to build. He’ll probably end up being an engineer, creative genius entrepreneur or an attorney (the only thing he does better than build is negotiate – with us – for more, more, more – Chance, it’s time for bed. Give me five more minutes. Okay, but then it’s time for bed. How about 10? Aaaarrgh!)
This morning he showed me his character’s newest outfit in the imaginary building world called Roblox. His hat is a three-tier asymmetrical birthday cake that catches fire and makes the guy twist around. What 9 year old doesn’t want that?
Then he showed me the world he was playing in. Teapots that reach into the sky like a staircase from the middle of nowhere with a sky-blue backdrop that looks like you are hanging mid-air in the clouds. A giant sombrero that works like a trampoline. Wow. Amazing. I’d like to play, too.
Earlier, this morning, I asked Chance to dump the garbage from our master bathroom. He’s pretty compliant and said he would do it. I’m not a micromanager, so I don’t check right away…as long as it is done today, I’m happy.
I’m standing in our downstairs living room behind the couch watching Chance in this imaginary world when Nana walks through with bags of garbage – mini bags that apparently made for really small Barbie-sized bathroom garbage cans. I looked at Chance and said, “Boy, you came into this world blessed. You have so many angels all around you taking care of everything!”
He smiled, giggled and kept on playing.
Nana mumbled something about the bags are thin and flimsy, and she was up there anyway. Chance isn’t the only one she’s offers angelic support to. There’s a reason people call her my second wife. I’m not complaining – she made cornish hens, homemade mashed potatoes, kernel corn, green beans and turnovers for dinner last night. I did the dishes.
But then I thought about it. We all have this much support all around us, all of the time. The only difference for Chance is that he’s open to receive EVERYTHING. And, he’s not afraid to ask for more after he’s been given something (Can I have 10?) He pushes the receiving envelope. That’s why when we have ever taken him anywhere – at EVERY age – he’s ended up being given so much!
Once Mark took him to a fancy to-go restaurant. Remember those walk-up steak take outs where you could order a five-star steak and baked potato for $12 bucks? It was like fine dining for people who want to eat at home. Chance walked in and smiled, and as Mark tells the story, the people in the place – I believe it was called Steak Out – started giving him everything he said he ‘liked.’ He would say, “I like that rose.” They would give it to him. He would say, “I like that cup.” They would give it to him. “I like that pen.” Here you go!
Because we believe in giving and receiving and being a grateful receiver, we don’t say no. Many parents would admonish a child for asking for more – for receiving more. The person decided to give or offer him a gift. He said, “Yes!” We just look at the situation in awe. He not once asked to have anything! People would just give him things he liked.
When he grew a bit older, we would go to Chuck E. Cheese and his charmed life would show up there, too. Wherever he is, there he goes! He would be shy 40 tickets for what he really wanted, and we would redirect him over to the toys he could buy with the tickets he had available. He would say, “But I want that one.” Once, Mark let him have something that the employee said, “It’s fine, here, you can have it.”
That opened up a whole new conversation about how that is actually stealing. The employee doesn’t have the right to give away the company’s stuff outside of the agreement (tickets for toys). Chance learned how to stay in the boundaries and Mark and I learned we can pay for tickets, too. Still, I wondered about that as I have not seen an employee do that, and Chance certainly wasn’t throwing a fit. He was just asking.
Still, this is Chance’s charmed world and we are living in it!
But, what if you were as open to receive as Chance is? What if you said yes and thank you to everything life had to give you? What if you played and had fun, and watched the angels do a lot of the heavy lifting, dirty work (taking out the garbage)?
I bet your life would be charmed, too!
Looking for a Dream Life:
Mark and I were sanding down our kitchen table (the one we eat at each day), and I found myself feeling inexplicably joyful. It prompted me to think of these things I’m grateful for, but would probably not make it to the highest values list…here they are:
1. I can get in touch with Mark (my husband) any time day or night. This is something that hasn’t changed in 10 years. Mark is dependable with a cap D. If you ever want to get in touch with me, call him – 469-831-2450. You will always be able to get an answer or a very quick call back if he’s on the phone. Love you honey!
2. If I am feeling blah or off, I can look at Chance and he’ll smile. If I say something to Chance, he will stop what he’s doing, look right at me and say, “Hi Mom” and smile. Guaranteed. Life should always be that reliable.
3. I have a built-in Comedy Club at my house. Between the three of us, we probably laugh more per day than most people laugh in a week or a month. Mark’s witty humor is dry, silly and guaranteed to earn an out-loud laugh. Chance’s eager comedy style is true straight man, but still can bring me to laughing tears.
4. Rico will always be needier than the average Joe. This dog never ceases to remind me that sometimes a cup is never quite full enough. And, that includes the amount of love given and received. If you pet him for 10 minutes, he’ll want 20. If you pet him 20 minutes, he’ll want 10 more. Need I say more?
5. Manual labor connects you to the present. There’s just something special about cleaning a toilet, scrubbing a bathtub, washing dishes, planting a garden, sanding a table and everything else in between that brings you to the current moment and returns a fresh perspective about everything in general. Thus, the catalyst for this post.
6. A fully-stocked Target (insert your favorite store). Ever go into a store early in the morning when it is just fully stocked? What in life is quite so picture perfect? Rows and rows of Tide lined up like little soldiers ready to go home and fight grease and grime are literally one of my favorite views. I pick Target because the aisles are wider and the floor is so shiny and reflective. The entire shopping experience is a feast for the eyes. Red does something to me that blue doesn’t, and brown can’t.
7. A juicy-unopened magazine or book. I remember the instant I fell in love with magazines. I was about 7 years old and I held a Seventeen Magazine in my lap on the bus ride to school. I read every word of every page and couldn’t wait until the next issue would arrive some 22 days later. I remember dreaming about the clothes, wanting to re-do my room and, of course, write for a magazine that would make others feel just like I did at that moment in time. A new book, beckoning to be explored holds the same experience and feeling. Mmmmm.
8. Diving into a movie again. For me, watching a favorite movie is like going to an old friend’s house. I love I can reconnect to movies in this way and appreciate them over and over again. There’s just something special about some of them that calls to me again and again.
9. A sugar rush. Remember when we were little kids and would lick the little decorations from the cake. After pulling the big Barbie-style ornament from my birthday cake one year, I melted into a sugar-fugue that I’m reminded of every time I eat a cupcake, slice of cake or even watch children licking their fingers and ornamental decorations.
10. A summer’s eve spin. When I was 16, I fell in love with driving, and that love affair has only intensified over the years. Last November, I thought I had died and gone to heaven as Abby and I toodled around in her boyfriend, Cy’s, Porsche convertible and I took in the sweeping ocean front views of San Diego. The moderate temperatures combined with the speed underneath of us of God only know how many horsepower and the wind and sun dancing on our skin was like Heaven on Earth. Mmmmmm, even here in Texas as hot as it is, at 10 or so, you can spin around with the sun roof open sharing a moment or two with the wind, moon and stars. Perfection.
Yesterday, I wrote about anger. But, seriously, is everyone crankier than normal? For me, I float around in a love-bliss state most of the time, but what I have noticed as we’ve been out and about at different times of day and in situations where we normally don’t frequent… is an overall feeling of agitation.
Beyond the headline making stories of Steven Slater and others, I believe this is indicative of the stress most people are dealing with and that there are many, many more people dealing with stress who have not ever really had to deal with stress before – white collar workers, in particular.
What I’ve seen in my companies (from our marketing agency to our current company) is that successful people can laser beam onto a goal better than most, and they can ignore pretty much anything else around them as they focus in on achieving the target set before them.
Well, isn’t that handy? (insert Church Lady voice here)
But, what happens when you don’t have a goal because the entire game board has been turned upside down? What happens when everything you thought you knew isn’t at all acting like what you believed?
Well, welcome to today. Welcome to Crankyville. Where Mr. and Mrs. Overachiever has turned into Mr. and Mrs. Crankypants.
What to do?
Quit trying to do everything the way you used to do it. That’s what is making you so cranky (and perhaps crazy and a bit OVER stressed). Start creating some new neuro pathways in your head and get back into the world – playing a new game.
You just might feel like you are 18 again!
And speaking of CRANKY… 108 degrees for days on end… this is how we feel down here in Texas! Swimming Pool anyone?
Have you eaten any cherries this season? I can’t even believe I never even tasted a fresh cherry until last year at the age of 41! I have never liked those sugary kind so I thought I didn’t like them at all.
There’s something so yummy and satisfying about cherries. You pop the stem out. Then slip one into your mouth, you bite into it, the pit pops out and then you get to crunch down on the firm outside with the juicy inside squirting all around your mouth!
Then the process starts all over again.
It’s almost addictive how yummy they are! Isn’t that how we would love to live life every day? With that kind of juiciness where we can’t wait to bite into another day? I’ve been feeling this and enjoying it so much. It isn’t as predictable as cherries and pits, but equally as satisfying!
Yes, your life can be a bowl of cherries!
This is an actual photo of a bowl of cherries I ate… so goooood. Aren’t they so pretty? I was thinking that God is the best product packager ever!
Oh, and I’ve been talking about this Wonder Woman mug for-ever, so I thought I would share this too. So cute. Who can resist Wonder Woman? Who would want to? LOL
