Grasshopper Quote

This is from this Monday's Grasshopper Note by John Morgan:

Nothing says "inspirational quote" like a pretty landscape. :-) Photo by Andrew Meade.

Quote of the Day

We all make mistakes in life, 
many about which 
we hold regret. 
The one thing we don’t do 
becomes our undoing 
for however many days 
we have left.~John Morgan

HAPPY Saturday

Proper porridge is bubbling on the stove. The girls are snoozing after their breakfast. It's a very ordinary morning. :-) I feel spring just around the corner, even as I'm sitting by the wood stove. Pictured above is a page from a calendar I made for John Morgan with all my favourite Grasshopper quotes with pictures I've taken.

"Acceptance is the catalyst for transformation. Willingness is the catalyst for acceptance."

Acceptance takes away the fight within ourselves. :-)

Quote of the Day

. . . and you can have what you want, or your reasons why not.

The Day Before

Tomorrow begins the season of family dramas. I once had a family counselor friend who said that he had clients who began medication a month before Thanksgiving so that they could get through the holiday season. Others scheduled "business trips" to avoid them. I am fortunate to enjoy my family. Families are the microcosm reflecting the macrocosm. It is the time to see conditioned patterns run themselves without our awareness.

OR

perhaps we begin to notice...

It usually starts with noticing it in others. It's almost a cliche, but Zig Zigler used to say that whenever you point your finger at someone, you have 3 others pointing back at you. Hahaha

I'm going to mention one pattern that is common in so many families: drinking. Dave Dobson used to say that saying "alcoholic" sanitized the person's pattern. He would say, "Well, this patient was a drunk." Because he was. I bring this up because John Morgan did a v. elegant and insightful Grasshopper Note about this topic that went beyond the obvious reasons. He also talked about the role of willpower. If you have been struggling with addressing the pink elephant in the room, this post will remind you of Uncle Bob or Aunt Mary. There's one in every family.

I'm also reminded of a couple quotes from the Open Letter blog post:

Your secrets are transparent. Everyone knows them at some level. Stop hiding.

People who help keep your excuses alive are not true friends.

Clean up your life and let everyone see your light.

And what can you do as you go into the family drama? Something different. Namaste.

Day of Rest: Sometimes

Sometimes the cows are in the barn when you expect to see them in the field . . .


Sometimes you want it to be spring . . .



when the reality of autumn is all there is . . .

Il fait frais!

"The degree to which you suffer is proportionate to your resistence."

"Acceptance is the catalyst for transformation. Willingness is the catalyst for acceptance."

~The Grasshopper

Wishing for spring keeps discomfort locked in place. Accepting the season, the event, the feeling--no matter what it is, is the key to moving through to the other side into peace. I wish you PEACE on this day.

You Already Have It

This is a Grasshopper Quote from John Morgan. He likes to call my quote-of-the-day posts "hair wash days." Hahahaha He can't complain too much when I'm quoting him, right? But it is a hair wash day. And I'm in a daze with a headache. Hehhhhh . . . so most likely I'll driiiiiiiive to see Dr. King for an adjustment. Back tomorrow. :-) H.

Forgetting the Bad

The above picture is a Grasshopper Note quote from John. He said it to me in a conversation. The photo is a shot of one of the hundreds of sunrises I used to watch in my old backyard. *sigh* LOVEly. So I was a bit . . . down, yesterday. Not something I usually admit to, but there it is. Too many notes. So here's the good: the gratitude I feel for friends & fam. THANK YOU for your kind words. Doug is on the road this week for us and called yesterday to get a head count for our seminars last night. He went all Ericksonian on me. It was v. cute. And John, my boss, my friend, manages to say the right thing at the right time. THANK YOU. I really am so blessed.

It is hard to feel anything else when you feel grateful.

P.S. I received a comment from a fellow percussor enthusiast for my Percussor 101 blogpost. A friend! Carol Porter lives in Hawaii & wrote a great Sept. 17th post on her own percussor experiences. (I tried to click on the actual post to create a link, but it didn't work, so that's why I'm giving the date for it). Hi Carol! :-) H.

2 Quotes & a Sunrise

This morning's sunrise off my front porch.

"Your fear of risk

only protects

the mundane existence

you seek to escape from."

~from this week's Grasshopper Note.

When I let go

of what I am

I become

what I might be.

~Lao Tzu

Happy 4th of July!

I'm at Mum's, so no photos til later this weekend. My back is much better, thank you--AND THANK YOU Dr. King. I asked him if he'd be in the office today and he said he was off, but that he'd be at the ice cream store across the street later today and to call him if I needed another treatment. How nice is that?!

Yesterday was Mum's annual 4th of July concert & picnic. We had a splendid time. The community band and the army band play, and Mum is the chorus. One year it was worth it just to hear Mum sing "ain't" when they did a medley of country songs. My sister came with her 3 kids and I finally gave her "5 Generations of Mothers & Daughters," the altered book I made for her. It was worth the wait. :-)

While I was there, I got a phone call from XM Radio Guy. A West Virginian accent on the other line was asking how I pronounce my name. I laughed. He said, "Really, I don't know who I'm talking to. I just found this cell phone in the parking lot." I howled. "You are too funny!" I was about to tell him to do his Mechanic Schtick when I realized it really wasn't XM Radio Guy. So I called his mother and she had gotten a similar phone call. I told her, "I thought it was a joke...you know, because it's your son." She laughed. She thought it was too when she got a similar phone call. 'member that Seinfeld episode about who was first on the speed dial? Anyway, when I spoke with her, he was on his way to get his phone.

Back to the picnic: I got to see my German teacher from when I was 16! So we had a nice chat. She was always so kind and I only had her for a year, but she was a wonderful teacher. At the time, I was a total Beatlemaniac so she lent me John Lennon's first book in German. Then she moved to a different school and I lost track of her. So here we are--I've saved the book for her all these years just in case. And the just-in-case showed up last night--how perfect would it have been if I just happened to have it? Yeah, well. We'll do lunch.

So we had a lovely picnic, and the kids all played, and the band played and then! Fireworks! My favourite! Last year, my nephew who was almost-five, shouted, "WOW! This is better than Christmas!" How sweet is that? Spoken like a visual kid! So it's the highlight of the evening, and everyone waits...and waits...and the band plays...and plays...and some old guy has pages of script he's reading from starting from excerpts of The Declaration of Independence working his way into the 21st century. Hehhhh....and it's dark already and still we wait...every year it's like this. And then! the fireworks start at 10 p.m. I LOVE fireworks. I forget until I remember my favourite sparkley ones--AWESOME. Of course, for a different angle of approach, you can read about fireworks here. Haha

This a.m. Mum made some AWESOME Gluten Free pancakes. The BEST, Jerry! And she pulled a card from her Grasshopper Quotes box & this is what I'll leave you with:

"The prescription for complaining is a dose of gratitude." ~The Grasshopper

Ornament Thursday: INSECTICA

I knew immediately what I'd be featuring for this month's OT. For Christmas, I made Grasshopper Quote cards for the creator of Grasshopper Notes, John Morgan (also my boss and friend). My mother is also a huge fan, so for Mother's Day, I made her Grasshopper Quote cards, too. Here's the bag I sewed to hold the cards. I printed the image of the grasshopper onto T-shirt transfer paper & then ironed on to the fabric.


You could do this with any favourite quotes. I used Publisher and created a template to put the quotes, and then I made the back of the cards with the picture of the grasshopper.

I painted a plain white box with green acrylic paints, and glued an image I printed of the grasshopper onto card stock. I liked "Grasshopper Quotes" because it rhymes with Grasshopper Notes, and because I write my favourite quotes on sticky notes and post them on the wall where my desk is.

Click here for links to the rest of the talented OT gang!