delaferriere's Xanga

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:47:47 GMT

My BADASS Baby Kitty. His name is Moses.

Zach gets mad photo skills credit.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:22:53 GMT

1. New electric throws. And these are not your grandmothers hard, stiff, scratchy electric blankets.

2. Great night with friends again last Saturday. 13 of us gathered at a local sushi bar to celebrate my friend Stevi's 42nd birthday. I've been friends with Stevi since like 5th grade. She rocks.

Then Robert and I headed over to a near by pub for festive cheer and drinks with another bunch of friends.

3. Winter caps

4. Finally!An e-mail from the professional photographer at the Marquette Blues Fest:

The fest photos are posted to the MABS website.
I put more of your band than any other because yours was the most visual(not to mention entertaining).

Right on Tom :)) Thanks for the great shots.

5. Dreams. my Aunt Barb came to visit me in a dream not long ago. So good to see her and talk with her again.

6. The new ad for Dec/Jan

MERRY CHRISTMAS and A HAPPY BLUES YEAR!!!

DEANA

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:29:32 GMT

It's hard to take your own pic at midnight w/ 3 of your friends. I don't know how those young kids do it!

Me, Laurie, Gwen and Deana

GRATEFUL

SNOW!

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:20:26 GMT

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:47:00 GMT

1. We finally got some snow this morning. It will be gone by this afternoon but I’ll enjoy it while it’s here.

2. My Alpha Cat Mojo

still does not want anything to do with new baby kitty Moses.

We are going on 2 months. It’s getting a little better.

3. Insights, revelation and disturbing truths that smacked me hard, right in the face... From an episode of House MD, no less. Interesting, scary…not sure how I’m going to deal with it or what I’m going to do about it, if anything, yet. I’m sitting in the awareness and it’s funky…but sit in it I must. I’m grateful to be able to sit in it and look at it. In the past I would have pretended it wasn’t there or ran from it. I’ve learned to sit. GRATEFUL.

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."

- M. Scott Peck

4. I firmly believe that EVERYTHING that happens does so for our greater good.

5. My fabulous 64 year old mother asked for YOGA stuff for Christmas.

6. Grateful for all the Christmas lights. Since it gets dark at 5pm it’s nice to see beautiful lights in that darkness…it makes it a little more bearable. Grateful.

7. The Natural Law will prevail regardless of man-made laws, tribunals, and governments. If you do not know about these natural laws then you should study them. This is one of the best books I’ve found for that :

8. Our annual de la Ferriere Christmas Pot Luck. Grateful to have this group in my life.

9. If I get another "don’t let them take Christ out of Christmas" e-mail I AM GOING TO SCREAM. First of all, Jesus could give a crap what you call Christmas. Jesus is concerned with the hungry being feed, the naked being clothed, the jailed being visited, the homeless/motherless/elderly being taken care of. This is what we should be spending our energy on…and, as a cause I recently joined on FB says:

Because the holidays should be about 'good will towards' all men and women, not just those who belong to the tribe. It's OK to Say Happy Holidays: To Encourage Respect and Communication Between Christians and People of Other Faiths and even people who have no religious faith whatsoever.

Gee Imagine that.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:15:56 GMT

My father says everyone is ASLEEP.

Everybody you know, everybody you see, everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake, and they live in a constant state of total amazement.

From Genesis to Revelation the story is the same.

Over and over and over again.

Return to the Father.

Return to your Source.

In order to do that we must

Be aware of our Father.

Be aware of our Source.

EVERYONES Father

EVERYONES Source

religion, race, social status?

Doesn't matter.

Tribulation

Rapture

Revelation

This is your life

You are a child of God.

Get That.

Live that.

This is true repentance.

Knowing who you are and living it.

And quit calling yourself a sinner.

That just pisses me off.

Why would you want to identify yourself in that way?

Why would you want to hold that image of yourself?

You are a child of God

Hold that image,

THAT identity

This is the TRUE meaning of REPENT

Hello?

Repent.

Change your way of thinking.

WAKE UP.

It isn’t about eternal life AFTER death

It’s about your life right NOW

The Kingdom of God is at hand.

NOW

On earth as it is in heaven

NOT wipe out this place so we can go to heaven.

It's about bringing heaven to earth.

It’s time to wake up.

Be saved.

Be free.

Sleeping is the only real sin.

And it leads to all the rest.

When you clear up that little number you don’t worry about much else.

It all falls in line.

Seek first the Kingdom

It is HERE NOW.

What is the second coming of Christ?

Awakening.

Becoming Christs.

Surrendering with eyes open.

Isn’t that “GOOD NEWS”

JESUS THE CHRIST thought so.

I know, I know...not the story you've been told

What in the world happened?

Well….His own disciples didn’t get it either.

If that makes you feel any better.

the end

***Carl Jung said that the number one purpose of organized religion is to prevent everyone from having a direct experience of God. With spirituality the implication very often is that some people have it and some people don't. And those that have it dispense it to others. And I think it's more than an affliction. It's a huge, huge, huge error to make--each and every being on this planet is a piece of God. We all came from the same source.

Separation from our source. In the first nine months of your life, when you were inside your mother's womb, you were doing nothing, you know? You were just being done. And you surrendered to that completely. And you didn't worry about it, and you didn't pray that your nose would show up on time, and that your fingernails would come and they would be in the right place, and all that. You just surrendered to it. And then, when you're born, we are surrounded by people who suddenly say, well, that was good work, God, but now I'll take over from here.

And then, we develop this ego, which is an acronym for Edging God Out. As we edge God out, we take over ourselves, and we start believing that we're not these divine creations. We start believing that we are what we have and what we do and what we accumulate, and what our reputations are, and we start really believing strongly in all of that stuff. And in the process, we lose our connection to what we really are.

Wayne Dyer

can you handle it?

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:05:10 GMT

1. Philip and Eric Tucker are here today.

2. I had a lovely birthday. I'm grateful for all the love, gifts, wishes, laughter, celebration and food that we shared. I'm 41. Some people on FB would add funny remarks to their Birthday wishes like ..."you're 25 this year right"? I don't wish to be 25 or 34. I hear people say once they get past a certain age "I don't have birthdays any more"...I will always count my birthdays. I've earned every one of them. I consider it a privaledge and an honor to grow old. I find a resistance to aging disrespectful to life. I'm grateful to have been alive for 41 fabulous years. Looking forward to another amazing year.

3. This advice in my in box from Mastin Kipp

Can You Handle It?

This life has an infinite number of potentials for you; we live in a made to order Universe. Whatever you believe is possible for you and take consistent action upon is what becomes your reality. If you keep telling yourself that your dream isn't possible, you will come to find that you are absolutely right.

But my friend, if you draw a line in the sand and tell the Universe that your dreams are a reality RIGHT NOW, and take action as if that were the case, you will come to find that you are absolutely right. The question is how long can you live in the fire of your dreams manifestation?

The price you have to pay to live your dream is facing your deepest darkest fear and the reward you receive from this courageous act is the realization that your fear was an illusion and that your dreams were always real.

So I ask you, my friend, are you willing to go there? Are you willing to sit in fire and sacrifice the comfort of your known world for the potential of something amazing, new and unknown? Don't you want to find out what's on the other side of your fear?

Living in fear is so last season, if you want to be happy and really live your dream you have to take a stand and just put yourself out there. You might fail, yes indeed - but, you might, you just might succeed too! Don't you want to find out? Either way your life will never be the same... Can you handle it?

Love,

Mastin

4. I got to see 3 girls I used to work with 20 years ago. Re-connected through Facebook. Facebook Blessing # 3,065.

Heather, Mary Jo, Heidi, me

5. It's been unseasonably warm for November in Michigan.

6. Meditation and conversations about Gratitude with my Yoga peeps. Wonderful.

7. Asking questions: Ask yourself three questions every day. A powerful way to cultivate gratitude is to focus on what is really happening in our lives, rather than falling into the traps of complaining and drama, The basic practice of Naikan, which translates to "inside-looking," consists of asking oneself three questions every day: "What have I received today? What have I given? What trouble have I caused?" While Naikan doesn't deny the difficult parts of our lives, it puts things into perspective. When you list everything you received and then everything you gave each day, what you have in the giving column is always so much shorter than what's in the receiving column. As we become aware that we've received so much more than we've given, not only does that cultivate gratitude, it also cultivates often a sense of wanting to give something back to the world.

8. The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. ~H.U. Westermayer

9. Much Gratitude for people who are willing to freely share their gifts and talents with others.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving <3

Friday, November 20, 2009

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:17:29 GMT

1. True innocence. Spiritual Warriors.

True innocence is not naivete', nor is it delusion. However, it involves vulnerability. The willingness to be innocent is the willingness to be hurt. This willingness to be vulnerable is what the term "Spiritual Warrior" really means. Vulnerability takes more courage than being cynical, strong or powerful. It takes courage to be open, innocent and willing to be hurt.

2. Being mindful of my thoughts.

3. It's my birthday weekend. I turn 41 on Sunday. Grateful for another year to learn and grow.

4. The path that I'm on goes against tradition and thus sometimes can be a lonely one...but I'm not alone. see the book I'm reading :)

5. I finally get to meet Ms. Deana Watson F2F in about 3 weeks. Grateful. Excited and THRILLED!!

6. My big brother and his lovely wife are driving her new badass Camaro up from Georgia for Thanksgiving.

7. Both my kids are enrolled in college classes.

8. I just completed teaching 8 weeks of Yoga. Always grateful to share this practice with others.

9. It's hibernation season. <3

10. tis also the season for comfort foods, candles, snowmen, giving, fires in the fireplace. These are a few of my favorite things.

The Kingdom is Within

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:31:57 GMT

By inadream39

"Now that we've got the earth and we've got the sky and the mountains and the rivers and the moon and the stars, now we will create man. Where shall we hide the truth of his being from him? One of them said, "Let's hide it on the highest mountain top." "No, eventually he will learn to scale the mountains, He will find it." God said. "Let's take it down to the very deepest part of the ocean." "No, don't hide it in the deepest part of the ocean. Eventually, man will learn how to go to the darkest, deepest part of the ocean. Don't hide it there." "Well, let's hide it on the moon, then." "No, eventually he'll go to the moon and get it there." Finally, they all knew…all at once, exactly where to hide the truth where mankind would never look for it, and that was within himself."

Todays gratitude

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:06:57 GMT

1. Free personal trainers :)

My favorite yoga student < Dawn > is currently about 8 weeks from getting her certification in fitness training and nutrition and she needs people to train. I'm one of those people!!!YAY! So grateful and I need this really bad. I've been going to the gym for two years...I eat healthy and cannot lose a pound. HELP ME. I have high hopes Dawn. Thank you :))

2. Belly dancing. Loving this class. I'm going to continue taking it whenever it is offered. I like the teacher and the other students are fun! It's a great workout too.

3. "The Diamond in your Pocket" the book I'm reading by Gangaji. Here are a few parts I've highlighted so far.

*Every thing is subject to change. All objects, thoughts, feelings, states of mind, health and governments. Every circumstance changes. pg.64

*As long as we settle for the superficial truths, we tragically miss the deeper revelation. pg.66

*Language is an incredible power of the mind. But if we look at it carefully, we see that it is still in the very primitive stages of development. Everyone can recognize this, just from the experience of trying to communicate with someone else. You know what you said, but they think you said something else. pg.93

*When you meet suffering head-on, you make the exquisite, paradoxical discovery that suffering holds the very jewel that was sought in the attempt to escape it. pg. 159

*I invite you for just this moment to stop searching for relief from suffering. The invitation is neither to become oblivious to suffering, nor to give up in despair. It is an invitation to stop searching for something to rescue you from yourself. pg.167

*To be supported, you have to choose to receive the support fully and completely. pg.169

*What a strange creature fear is. It exists only when there is resistance to it's existence! pg.175

*Spiritual maturity has little to do with how people usually conceive it. It is not related to the years you have devoted to spiritual practice, or the number of years you have prayed, gone to church or been good. pg.177

4. Both of my children are enrolled in college and will begin classes in Jan. I by NO MEANS believe that you must have a college education to succeed in life ..as our society would have us believe..but I am a fan of continued education.

5. Discussing life with my husband.

6. Asking tough questions.

7. It's November!! I'm madly in love with the month of November. One of my favorite months for sure!

8. Surrender: You are either in a state of surrender or in a state of war.

Surrender to your current life circumstances humbly and gracefully. What does this mean, exactly?It means stopping the struggle. Giving up the fight. Awakening to the realization that the more you fight something, the stronger and more pervasive it will become in your life. Fighting is not the way to peace - surrender is.

When you read the word "surrender," you probably relate it to "defeat" but the two are entirely different. Defeat means you've lost the battle; it denotes weakness. Surrender means you've chosen not to fight and struggle anymore, and this decision comes from a place of POWER.