Just Me

What a powerful message!!!   I was so touched by this abridged version of Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" that I went to You Tube and watched the entire thing.  There are a total of 10 9:59 min segments (segment "0" is an introduction).

Oh
My
God!!!!

I can't say much more that this message touched me to the core.  I want Randy's attitude and am going to strive to achieve it in my everyday life.  I intend to buy the book when it comes out and I will probably buy the audio version as well.  

I saw a refrigerator magnet at Whole Foods that said "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR???"  I didn't buy it but I'm going to.

Always start with warm wrists.  Dr. B suggested I physically warm my wrists for about 5 minutes with moist heat* before I start these.  I use a this heating pad but a wet wash cloth warmed in the microwave will work fine.

Sit up straight or stand.  For all stretches: DO NOT push past the point of a comfortable stretch!

First stretch:
Place hands together as if to pray: palms together, elbows out.  Move hands down, keeping palms together until you feel a stretch in the wrist.  Hold for 10 seconds.

Second stretch:
Same as the first stretch except the backs of hands together and moving up rather than down.

Third stretch:
Extend one arm straight out in front of you, palm down, elbow straight.  Extend wrist: this will point your fingers toward the ceiling.  With the other hand, pull palm and fingers back until stretch is comfortable.  Hold for 10 seconds.  Repeat with other arm.

Fourth stretch:
Extend one arm straight out in front of you, palm up, elbow straight.  Extend wrist: this will point your fingers toward the floor.  With the other hand, pull palm and fingers back until stretch is comfortable.  Hold for 10 seconds.  Repeat with other arm.

Fifth stretch:
With one hand, pull the thumb of the other hand, wrist down, toward the arm as if to touch the thumb to its own arm.  DO NOT force it to touch unless your wrist is that flexible.  Mine are not.

Sixth stretch (for chest and back to relieve strain from sitting on one position for a long time):
Lace fingers behind your back.  Standing up straight and looking forward, pull chin in.  DO NOT look down to pull the chin in, continue looking forward, if done right, you'll look like you have a double chin.  Gently lift the arms.  You should feel this stretch in the chest just under the collar bones.

Seventh stretch (this is the one you'll need help with):
relax hand and wrist palm up.  Have your partner place their thumbs, one on either side, one the two bony protuberances of the palm just above the wrist and apply gentle pressure pulling the bones apart.  Whilst they are applying pressure, you will extend the fingers, then extend them toward the floor.  Hold for 5 seconds.  When coming back to rest, relax fingers first, then relax wrist, then your partner relaxes pressure.  Repeat 5 times.

*never use a regular heating pad unless you drape it with a damp towel.   Dry heat will pull the moisture from the tissue delaying healing.

"The disease of niceness cripples more lives than alcoholism," said writer Raymond Chandler. That's an exaggeration, in my opinion, but I think his point is important--especially for you Libras right now. As much as I love your ability to cultivate harmony, seek out beauty, and find the common ground between people, I encourage you to let the sweet and polite sides of your nature recede into the background for a while. Emphasize feistiness and grit. Tap into the fiery, primal aspect of your nature that drove you out of your mother's womb and into this world in the hour when you were born. Be inspired by the creator gods and goddesses of ancient myth, who playfully forged millions of beautiful things using wind, mud, tears, and lightning.

I read story after story on Long Hair Community and Long Hair Loom about these horrible salon experiences but it always ends with "I just wanted to pay and get out to of there” I’m sitting here thinking "why?" 

 

Why did you continue to sit in his chair after he insulted you before he even started cutting? 

 

Why did you pay if she butchered your hair? 

 

Why were you not more specific about how much you wanted cut off?  I mean, I know most stylist are cut happy--which is why one should be very specific--but really, why do they just sit and take it?

 

I don’t reply to these posts because I don't want them to feel more like an idiot than they already do.

 

I guess my frustration comes from having been walked on for a long time before I finally found my backbone.  It really pisses me off to see other people allow themselves to be walked on.  I guess I’m kind of like the former-smoker-turned-non-smoker-zealot…

So over a month ago, I stumbled across this page on the Free Will Astrology page called Prayer Warriors Standing By (I wrote an entry about it).  When I found the page, I started a email to these Prayer Warriors but only saved it as a draft and never finished it.  However, in light of recent events I finished it and sent it.  It says Send your mad, rebellious, poignant, ingenious appeals and benedictions to us now! so I did.

I haven't received a reply, not even an automated one but, then, I only sent it today.  I'm anxiously awaiting the result.....

As I've said before, I believe that the entity that I call God is the same entity that other may call, Alah, Budda or Goddess and I believe this entity epitomizes the same basic values and beliefes no matter what an individual chooses to call it.

An email buddy sent this to me and found it to be extremely profound and I wanted to keep a record of it. 

 

        The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.
         Herewith a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important?

        I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife. Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

   Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.       

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.    

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.


      Ben Stein 

  In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

   Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something lik e this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)         Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"       

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school . the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said  OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.      

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

My Best Regards .. honestly and respectfully,

      Anne Graham