Johanna

• 09:45 @tickyree Marshie is getting crazy hormonal now :\ #
• 09:46 @AdinaLenore Me too. I hope you get another little one. #

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• 08:20 ~ sign you're a grown up... you can finally roll up sleeping bags. #

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• 09:06 thinks Mount Laundry looks intimidating. #

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For the Mario Lovers....



Totally yoinked this video from Dollykat :D

Why is it so easy to feel overwhelmed?  Over a month ago we got all our stuff back from CA.  Much I was very glad to see including the hopechest and book shelf my dad made.  Plus my dad's 30 year clock (Boeing) is now hanging on my wall.  The plaque has long since fallen off.  Silly plaque.  However, the joy of having more clothes and my beeeautiful secretary back, I am plagued by a messy home.  My house is normally cluttered.  Something that bugs me and pesters me and just seems to hang around... clutter.  Well, this is BIG CLUTTER.  Because of the clutter I'm unable to vacuum or clean my kitchen floor.  This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.  I remember having to wear shoes in my childhood home or I'd get black feet.  Now, my floors don't get as dirty as fast as my childhood home for the simple fact we don't wear shoes.  However, it still does gather.  I went to put socks on after a typical barefooted day and nearly lost it when I saw dirt on my feet.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!   No matter how overwhelmed I am, I can't imagine how hard it must be for my husband.  The house he grew up in was tidy.  If it's making me this nuts I can't fathom how out of his mind he is.  So, I'm trying to get a game plan.  I'm still overwhelmed but I have to ignore that ego centered feeling and say, "Okay, what first?"  My first idea is to get boxes and bins designated for other destinations.  Example.  I'm in the livingroom.  I get a box/bin for the kitchen, one for bedroom, one for boy's room, one for get this the hell out of my house (ie: goodwill or garbage).  Throw everything in.  Organize what's left.  go to next room and do same thing.  Yes, slightly easier said than done.  Still some stuff needs to go on Craig's List.  Somethings need to be given away.  And I need to lose emotional ties to a bunch of other garbage. 

Question is.... Should I mow the lawn first?

No, truly.  Literally even.

We got our stuff back from storage in CA.  What a nightmare.  Oh, don't get me wrong.  There were a GREAT many things I was truly giddy for getting back.  HOWEVER.  Somethings were necessary to replace in a timely manner.  The problem now is getting rid of what I don't really need.  I come from a giant line of pack-rats on both sides (one grandmother had quite the stash of magazines and McDonalds' straws and other interesting stuff, the other crafted her way into 2 spare bedrooms packed full of boxes).  I have the worst case of, "I might use that."  Well, for the things I'm iffy on, I'm getting rid of it.  If I truly think I'll use but not how often, I'm giving me time to see if I will use it.  If I don't use it soon it has to go.  Easier said than done.  I will be having a yard sale this weekend to try to get some money back.  We'll see how it goes.

Other than that?  Diet isn't going anywhere.  I'm 7# heavier than my lowest lost.  I am riding my bike all over the place these days.  I love it.  Marsh is getting WAY too big but I'm starting to really like 8.  He's my video game buddy.  We go on bike rides.  We put legos together.  It's fun.  He just earned his Orange belt in Tae Kwon Do.  He's a pretty good kid.

If you're joining me from over at elan I encourage you to add me and I'll add you back in case I decide to make some entries friends only. 

Well, here I am.  I transferred some userpics here from my other journal.  uh, yep.

A friend of mine recently showed me this video. It totally appeals to my logical side and my spiritual side. I guess the woman in the video would say it appealed to both hemisphere's of my brain. Well, instead of explaining it I'll just give you the excerpt from the website and then put in the video itself...

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

I'm around.  I still check out what is going on with people on the FL.  Seriously, feel free to get a hold of me via IM, email or phone.  I'm trying to unplug a bit.  But I *have* to share this.  Oprah has caught on and is using her power of being well known, and being able to turn people on to things is definitely working to help the world.  She has recommended Eckart Tolle's book, "A New Earth."  I, being me, got the audio book ($10 off courtesy of a cool Border's coupon I got in my email).  I LOOOOOOOVE it.  Seriously, its like the primer for what I've been studying for like 4 years now.  There is more to learn after it, but just creating the awareness of what is Ego and what is not is just amazing.  I can't say enough good stuff about it.  I think everyone should read it. 

Well, I hope you are all well.  Much love to you all!

From Deepak Chopra's site...

The Law of Detachment

The Law of Detachment ... In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty . . . in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning. And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe.
I will put the Law of Detachment into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps::
1.Today I will commit myself to detachment. I will allow myself and those around me the freedom to be as they are. I will not rigidly impose my idea of how things should be. I will not force solutions on problems, thereby creating new problems. I will participate in everything with detached involvement.
2. Today I will factor in uncertainty as an essential ingredient of my experience. In my willingness to accept uncertainty, solutions will spontaneously emerge out of the problem, out of the confusion, order and chaos. The more uncertain things seem to be, the more secure I will feel, because uncertainty is my path to freedom. Through the wisdom of uncertainty, I will find my security.
3. I will step into the field of all possibilities and anticipate the excitement that can occur when I remain open to an infinity of choices. When I step into the field of all possibilities, I will experience all the fun, adventure, magic and mystery of life.

Just reading that made me feel good :D

This is so helpful. 
I often catch myself blaming others for my own emotions.  I'm really working on owning my own reactions.

"When enough people undergo personal transformation, it automatically leads to social transformation." ~Deepak Chopra

Yesterday's daily inspiration by Wayne Dyer...

I release the need to determine how things “should” be.
If you are suffering in your life right now, I can guarantee that this condition is tied up with some kind of attachment to how things should be going.

It definitely struck a note with me.

Click HERE and bookmark to keep up with the Daily Inspiration.

This girl really gets it. It is time to crush our egos. We are living in the time of spiritual evolution.

Ugh.  Yes, "ugh."  A rather annoying guttural sound I find myself making and it comes, no surprise, directly from ego.  But what does it mean?  It means times like now I feel stuck.  Rather, my ego is working its hardest to convince me I'm stuck.  And I'm not ignoring it.  Why?  Ugh.  See, there it is again!  I guess I'm going through some conflicts right now and just wish stomping this artificial me wasn't quite so difficult.  Well, that's the whole thing of it, isn't it?  The ego doesn't want to die.  The ego wants control.  Spirit wants to love, wants to be compassionate, and wants to be joyful.  The spirit doesn't want to be attached to "the way things are supposed to be."  The spirit doesn't want to lay in bed feeling lethargic because someone is making you feel a certain way.  How have we just become so passive to letting this false sense of self trample us.  And me?  I feel ragged.  I'd love to just sleep for a year.  No expectations, no "Need to do..." list, but that's the thing.  No matter how much my ego wants me to lie down and feel sorry for myself, wants to be indulgent, wants to be in control my spirit is the one kicking and shouting to get out of where it's at. 

Even now, with exchanges with others.  Every once in a while I feel it rear up. Something or someone goads my ego and I let it out. I will shout and be mean.  And its getting uglier every time.  Feels more and more poisonous.  Feels more twisted and sick.  After one of my outbursts I could just.. throw up.  Instead if it reduces me to anything it'll just be tears.  That's the ego's safest most acceptable way to pout.  Oh, poor Johanna.  Poor Johanna is conflicted.  I just need to get over it.

Anyone who says that the path to enlightenment isn't hard, isn't on it.

So more work done on a second video for Because of the Fear. Its got a new title, Gongs of Change. Instead of the drums that you hear in the first video this one you're able to hear Judy Bernard's gongs. They're in the first one too but tweaked in a way that you cannot hear them. This one has a lot more symbols and such and is more representative of the energy movement. Also, there aren't the gruesome pics that are in the middle of the other one (still a good video but this one was much more pleasant to work on). So.... for your viewing pleasure.....

 All the evil in the world, and all the unhappiness, comes from the I-concept. - Ask the Awakened by Wei Wu Wei

This is truly a labor of love. The members of the I.D.E.A. Foundation, including myself, have made a video. Watch :D

hmmmm.....

http://view.break.com/311805 - Watch more free videos

And my personal take on it?  Who cares if we are wrong?  There are other reasons, other than global warming, that should encourage us to live differently.