Belated Mum Post

Mum has been and come back from Scotland, but I promised to share a bit of her trip. I would like to credit much of my writing talents to my v. fancy education. However, the greatest influence has been from Mum, who writes the BEST letters and is a wonderful storyteller. I have told her she needs a blog, but she thinks she has nothing to say. Ha!

She went to The Orkneys to visit my cousin J and help her finish painting rooms in the new home. She packed her paint brushes. Well, you have to have the proper tools! [Side note here: on Mum's last visit, she spent all day winding up & down a narrow spiral staircase bringing down boxes of cousin's Hubby K. Mum thought they were books. There were not. They were his ROCK collection. I thought they were a bit heavy, said Mum.]

The Orkneys are off the northern tip of Scotland, v. remote, windy & COLD! When my husband had asked her if it was cold, she said it wasn't that cold. "Not cold?! My SIL was wearing a hat & winter coat with gloves in June!" So then Husband got an atlas. The Orkney's are one degree difference in latitude to Alaska. Yeah, not cold . . . .

You may remember that I shared her first email to me, detailing how she hitchhiked up the coast of Scotland to make her ferry. Here are a few excerpts from her emails:

Dec. 1st

Haven't heard from you for ages ? I did get a very brief note from D but other than that not didly squat from anybody.Hope you had a great thanksgiving. I am making decent progress but the days are SO short ; it is dark by 3-30 and it isn't bright enough in the morning to get started before 9am. J's cooking is incredible .I shall definitely miss all these catered meals. lots of love Mum

I wrote back, Haven't heard from ME??? Who's in the arctic??? Hahahaha

Dec. 9th

J and I are going in to Kirkwall this morning and my comment last night was that we were going to shop till we drop and K and J burst into laughter and and said hey ,yes , this is Kirkwall you're talking about. It takes all of half an hour to get around ALL of the shops .I'm hoping for good sailing weather on Fri.and not the same fiasco as getting up here. Yesterday we had lunch with the local air-traffic controller who said he would guarantee good weather and no cancellations .I shall attempt to keep you informed and I will have my cell on when I get to Dulles.See you Sat. Lots of love,Mum

Dec. 10th

I have put coat no. 3 on the stairs today and now I am going to relax with some knitting which I am doing for J. She completed a sock over a year ago and started on the second one and it was just waiting for me to come along and finish it.I walked across to the pub a few minutes ago to mail some stuff for J (the PO is in the pub) [Oh, come on, Mum. We know you were slugging back a few pints! Hahahahaha Kidding.] It is only a few yards away but I was very glad that I had my quiltty coat ; I could easily have frozen from the wind and sideways rain. TTYL L.M.

Dec. 12th

The sun is shining over Scappa Flow and it is like glass.Looks good for a ferry run tomorrow. Not that it s a guarantee. [insert family stuff here] OK , back to the sock!!!! just have the foot left. Love mum

Dec. 13th

This is probably the last e-mail I shall send before I embark on the return journey.I am gearing up to get on line and get my boarding pass and a seat. As I glance out of the window Scapa flow does not look so calm today ; I see white horses and I see a boat which is tossing about. There are a few hours before sailing and one can hope that it will calm down before the evening.I won't be taking pictures ; we sail at midnight.See you soon. L.M.

As it turns out, the ferries weren't running due to rough seas. Cousin J helped her book a flight to London, so she managed to make it back. And now we are gearing up for the Xmas family gathering tomorrow. I'm going to make a prediction: Mum is going to say, "What's that postcard illustration on this post?" I wanted to do something because Mum didn't take any pictures. Hehhhhh . . . . [This is where she says, "Well! The battery was dead!" Yeah, I know.] Anyway, I wanted to do a some sort of graphic and when I was getting clipart for Scotland, this one showed up. I don't know if Kilt Guy is golfing [Mum will set me straight on this] but I thought it was a funny picture. So that's why. This is where she'll say, "Oh you and your brother are so much alike!" Hahahahaha

P.S. Mum emailed me:

Scottie guy is participating in the Highland Games (that has to be capitalized!) and swinging the shot-put which weighs a ton.

Pattern Interrupts

Dave Dobson used to say that everything is patterns. We have productive ones & less-than-productive ones. Useful & non-useful. Bruce Lipton says that for the first 2 years of life, our brain waves are predominantly delta waves--that v. deep, unconscious state. It's a time when we soak up learning--and patterns, at a rapid rate. Eric Jensen says in Brain-based Learning that the brain needs to feel safe before it can really learn. Credit that to the only part of our brain that is fully formed at birth: the amygdala [uh-MIG-duh-la] It records everything.

Which brings us back to Dave: the primary concern of the unconscious mind (Other-Than-Conscious, as he called it) is to keep us safe. Patterns develop as a safety mechanism. And then we run them like a computer runs a program. OR:

They run us.

What do you do when you become aware of a pattern that you find less than elegant? Dave said there are no good or bad patterns. They all had a purpose at one point in time. All you need to do is to update the pattern. John Morgan says that awareness is the first step in creating a wedge between stimulus & response (pattern). And then you do something to interrupt the pattern. When I was training with Doug O'Brien in Ericksonian hypnosis, he used a v. simple pattern interrupt. He would say, Do you golf?

I have been looking at the pattern of how I make decisions. Or, to be more accurate, how I don't make decisions. I have created a sense of urgency where there needn't be one. It's something that I'm becoming aware of. It's something I need to update.

Perhaps I should take up golf.

On the Road

I'm heading out of town for a coupla weeks. My brother & SIL are in Scotland so I'm babysitting with Mum...or as one of my sibs calls it, "GranAnne Bootcamp." (GranAnne is her "grandma" name). Toys SHALL be put away! Hahaha Bro says that I'm the favourite auntie of one of the nieces because I give massages-- but I think he was saying that to butter me up. Anyway, after that, it's on to a few days with Jerry Stocking.

I'm not sure how regular postings will be, but I will do my best.

Day of Rest

Isn't this a great invitation? Welcome to our church. Now sit over on the left so we can be sure you're not one of us. We need heathens on the left, believers on the right.

Am I the only one who thinks of something completely different when it comes to the word "contest?" Thank you, Seinfeld. You're the BEST, Jerry!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

Yesterday GSF Bess & I scoured through a bin of postcards at an antique shop. Bess found this one sent in 1961. Love the bathing caps! It was to Mrs. Ernest Martin of Brooklyn, NY. & says:

Dear Ann: Hope I have not sent duplicate cards. This is the view from my porch. Enjoying every minute and working hard to keep below 140 lbs. Madge

Yes, of course made me think of another Madge. Have a swell weekend, everyone!