Two days, not a word from Shane.
...and still our lives go on. His life is his life and non of us have any say. If this India trip is his vision quest than who am I to create it. How silly to even think that thought.
Okay so he spiraled and even after coming down, he was (or so it felt from his emails)....he was a little hypo-manic. Nothing wrong with that. His blog shows, lined up, clear thinking, ready to go and forge on with the vision quest. His sense
of humor is there. Nothing wrong with being in bliss.
India, the other side of the world, a day ahead minus two and one half hours behind.
Breathe.....over 3 months to go.
He'll never be the same, we'll never be the same...we will all grow and we will all
live thought his vision quest.
Here is a page from my book of positive aspects about Shane.
Shane is gorgeous.
Shane copes well with all kinds of people (even homeless people).
Shane is a wonderful cook.
Shane understands nutrition.
Shane loves nature.
Shane has discipline to walk his talk.
Shane goes the distance.
Shane loves books.
Shane loves to read and read out loud.
Shane is not afraid of being up on a microphone.
Shane is well read.
Shane is cute.
Shane has a beautiful laugh.
Shane can save dollars
Shane has really nice friends.
Shane navigates well around town, any town, anywhere.
Shane understands music.
Shane can write.
Shane can support himself and still sock some away.
Shane attracts helpful people.
Shane's life is very colorful.
Shane understands Yoga.
Shane understands the people of India.
Shane is fun to hang out with.
Shane is capable of more than we think.
Shane is capable of finding his own way.
Shane is a hell of a lot of fun in a Manic state
Shane memories are uplifting.
Shane is a dreamer and a planner.
Shane planned his trip to India.
Shane knows how to create his beautiful life.
I am thinking good thoughts of Shane. All really is well.

And so this is Christmas!
Don and I enjoyed breakfast...Oatmeal and O.J. (same ole' same ole....hahaha) with a beautiful white shinny table setting and Christmas music playing in the background.
We enjoyed opening a few presents from the students and my sisters that were in the middle of the table and from Joy and I got Shane's gift yesterday. It was fun opening
presents and ooing and ahhaing.
Aunt Betty sent some real Chrismassy stuff.
Aunt Pat sent a box of Judith flower stationery.
Joy sent an uplifting card and an interesting "Alabinia" CD...it sounds kind of sit-tar-ish...in another language. Might even be tango music...I like it. (it's playing now.)
We got some chocolate and some candles from students. Fun!
My husband said, "I left your card at work. It was a nice card too".
In the past he would put a nice big check in the Christmas card. He told me no check this year. He has been really busy at work and we will enjoy a weekend away in February or March. That's what I really want anyway, time alone with just him. I just gave him a hug. As you can see...we are not big into the whole Christmas thing.
On an up note, I have been buying myself Christmas presents all month! I got the best stuff for me. Things that I really, really, wanted.
I bought:
1. a life size (resin) human skeleton with a stand. This was ispired by the Feldenkris workshop I took last month. I can't wait. It will hang in my Karate School office. (actually the Karate School paid for this!)
2. a Kodak easy share digital camera 4 pixel's. (actually the Karate School paid for this one too!)
3. a couple of books off the internet. (yup the Karate School paid for this!)
4. a bunch of Abraham tapes! (some motivational tapes)(hahaha.....actually the Karate School paid for these too!)
5.Here's the big one, I signed up for a year of leading edge coaching, an on line
interactive group that checks in once a week for a phone conference. There's lots of homework writing and vizualizing your perfect life! (hahaha...and of course, the Karate business is picking up the tab for the last one. I'm ready to focus on my Karate Business and the body, mind and spirit aspects of ME in 2006....PERFECT! There are many advantages to having a ball and chain like Karate...I love my life.

In just a few minutes, my x-husband will be here. He is bringing a gift from India that our son sent for Christmas. I am looking forward to seeing him. I will show him how to get on to our son's new blog. All is well.
Today is Christmas Eve.
In the past, on Christmas eve, my husband and I have been going to a hotel on the beach to celebrate and we would walk on the Ocean shore and we would do our karate kata in the sand. I'm not sure what the plans are for this eveing. He would usually give me a knock your socks off expensive Christmas present like a year of massages
or $500 cash hummmmm.....wonder what I'll get? I wonder if I'll get anything this year?.....hahahah.....We'll see.
I feel my life is blessed.
I love my husband. He makes me laugh. We are silly and play all day long. His sense of humor use to erk me. Now I flow with it and I out due his dopey fantsies and we make a great team. I love to laugh and so does he.
This year I am going to have the best year of my life.
I am working on some goals to improve my karate buisness and my spiritual life and my physical body.
I plan to:
dress better
eat better
get up early
meditate twice a day
30 minutes of kata minimum on my own
teach fewer karate classes
do things I've never done
laugh more
and just plain old have fun.
Life is good. All is well. More later.

Oh the agony of not being able to make a decision of what to do! I am use to lineing up with what I want. I never do anything unless it feels right.
Here's what's going on:
For the past week a mom from Melbourne, Florida has been trying to re-cruite me to teach at her childs school. It's only one day a week for one hour and I could make up to $350 a month. Ha!
It isn't the money that attracts me. It is my being in control of my passion and doing the teaching thing my way. I want absolute control of how I teach the class.
30 years of experience and of "running the show" so to speak. I know what to do.
I have decided after much back and forth contemplation, and driving the people close to me crazy with my indecision, to finally teach 4 year olds.
Hahahaha............after 20 years in Florida and having reached the high level of 6th degree blackbelt, and the title Jo-Kyoshi I am being sought after to teach a small group of pre-schoolers at their location in Melbourne. Hahahaha.
The mom has approached me three times and each time, I told her: "Nah! This is something I have resisted for many years. 4 year olds are like monkeys! I'm not lineing up with this!"
However, last night I slept on the idea and this morning I finally focused on the positive aspects and kept that focus for maybe 30 seconds,without contradicting and not looking at the negative and then I easily kept going.
Before that I could only talk less than 15 seconds without feeling resistance. It was like trying to take a journey and going from the car to the house....back and forth with out even getting out of the drive way! Funny huh?
Now I see the big picture. I have decided, I figured it out. Ha! I'm going to teach 4 year olds. I am making a commitment at another location for 5 months. This is total of 20 classes. The money will follow. The main thing is I feel GOOOOOOOOOOD! I can see the big picture. More about this to come.

Sunday afternoon 4:45PM. Great news, Shane sounds like himself again. Finally we were able to make a phone connection. His sense of humor is back and he is able to listen and respond! Phew! What a scare, but I knew he would land on his feet. Thanks to the kindness of strangers. If one is to surrender, what better place than India! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..............
I am re-focusing on my own life minute by minute.
We still have guests from the state of Washington visiting and what a breath of fresh air they both are.
My husband is sound asleep snoring,he went back to bed, his job called him in at 2AM and although he had some sleep when he got back at 4AM it takes him a while to spring back.
I think I'll go outside and rake some leaves and fuss with the landscaping. This always give me back my connection to all that is. I'm feeling good but I could use a little focused messing in the dirt! Ha! It's a good feeling to know that I am not needed for anything urgent. Ha! The universe is working perfectly and all is well.

I know all is well:
I am hopeful that "his" India vision quest will have a happy ending. His plan was 4 months!
His journey began bringing his beautiful girlfriend here to meet us and then taking a month to work/study in an ashram in Mass. and then visiting with his dad and the rest of the "family" in NYC. He decided to make his journey alone and he had a wonderful joyous send off....(there can be freedom in a solitary mission) a great start and now the middle path is getting a little bumpy. What I mean is, India is never what one expects or so they tell me. (I have never been to India and I have zero desire to make the trip). The good news is he know's what to do and the other good news is it's not my vison quest.

I am (the mom) here in Florida holding a good thought.
If it is normal to arrive in India excited, confused and overwhelmed, then
relief is what I pesonally would want for him. When I think of his journey, I can only imagine his reality. I am choosing to imagine him finding his relief and then going further on his quest, I am hopeful that he will choose relief first. I already see him in my mind finding ways to soothe the frayed nerves. Number one in my opinion would be his medicine. I cannot make him swallow.

My heart is filled with love and the best comforting thoughts I can think.
However:
My stomach is filled with butterfliles.
My hands were clammy and cold...hummm..... earlier.
Hummm...they have warmed up a bit.
I notice that my butterflies that were in my stomach all morning are gone.
Ha!
It must be the digging in the garden again. I just spent the better part of an hour digging and clipping. It was wonderful. The soil was sandy and yet dirty. Today I wore my gardning gloves. My figernails are clean!
I found my bucket, shovel and potting soil, just where I left them yesterday.
Today I planted "verigated" ivy (another house plant that I had indoors for years) around the big sign post in front of our comm'l parking lot.
The ivy is spread out on the ground. I am going to train it to weave around the massive sign post. It will probaly take a few months or years but in time it will be very attractive.
I hope I choose a good spot for it to be planted in.
This spot gets a full blast of the Flordia sunshine.
Yes the good news is my hands are warm and I am hopeful. I'll take good news in whatever degree I can. If I don't see it, I'll find it. I know all is well.

My nails are dirty. I was digging in the dirt this afternoon planting some flowers and such! I rarely, almost never, get down and mess with the earth. How utterly refreshing to just putter in the soil.
I liked getting my little orange bucket with the potting soil and my kitchen sizzors and a little shovel. I knew where everything was because I did this about two months ago for the first time ever. Today however, I forget to put on my gloves.

I found a huge colony of ants. Instead of just pulling up a chair and watching them live their lives....I ran for the andro (ant killer). In Florida ants bite. They all bite....hahaha....look how quick I can rationalize that.

I spent about an hour digging holes and clipping extra leaves on my vegetable plants and I felt such a connection to the earth and the sky and even the years gone by.
Hey that rhymes.

As I lifted the layers of mulch, the cedar and wood chips, I remembered when the first layers of mulch and plastic to keep the weeds out were added. We're talkin' about 1992ish. I secretly was looking for a sign of something that was buried way back then. When I remember the 90's I remember a lot of happy times here. (Not that I'm not happy now, it's just life seemed a 10X's more challenging, yet fun back then.) There was nothing. No traces of the past, but my mind was swimming in memories. It was kinda' nice. Nothing down in the soil except for oak tree roots, sand and a few rocks. Where I was digging, there weren't even any bugs or worms (thank GOD...hahaha). I mixed some potting soil with some of the dirt and sand and then planted two "painted lady" (a beautiful hybiscus with a wine colored throat) and an old ivy plant that Norman had given me before he left 5 years ago.

Actually all three plants that I planted were house plants. I hope they make it.
I was careful to water them and douse them with a dilute solution of miracle grow. My hands are clean but my nails are filthy. So nice to have something more to do with my hands and my mind and soul than just Karate, Karate, Karate.....

The love of my life, my son is in India.
Is he having a rough time?
No doubt!
Am I worried?
Heck no.
He knows what to do. He's been through so much in his short life. He will
be just fine. I have a knowing. He hasn't complained, he is just reporting
what is all around him, language barrier, cold water showers, no companions,
new sights, new sounds, organized chaos etc. I just emailed the following to
him in response to his 3rd day email in this new frontier on his vision quest.
I don't even know where he is in India or what his next step is...I just know
that he is overwhelmed and you know....that's okay!
Sunday morning day 3:
Shane,
We went to the Brevard County Zoo yesterday with Tim and his girlfriend.
While looking at the monkey cage I thought to myself:
These creatures are so full of life and look at their soulful eyes.
They have nothing.
They live in a wire cage with a few vines and leaves at the bottom of the cage.
They have nothing.
Nothing.
How do they find relief...don't they know they should be miserable...and yet
they looked normal and healthy and loved. One would pick the others nits...
and another mokey would hang from the top of the cage with his legs flipped
over his arms..and they would swing on the vines and chatter.
They have no books, no radios, no computer, no sewing machine, no bath tubs,
no clothes, no anything
zip, zero, nada.
I thought to myself....I couldn't stand having to amuse myself internally all day.
My god.
Then I thought of you.
You have the same.
It's like you are in a cage of sorts no access to your regular stuff.
Shane, there will be an end to your India journey.
You talk of transformation....I believe that transformation is the end of your journey.
I don't think transformation is a verb....isn't more like an adj. or an adverb?
hummmmm.....
Just like the monkeys....I see you as stark naked and with nothing.
Nothing....well, you are a lot better off then the mokeys.
You do have access to stimulation or better yet over-stimulation.
The newness and over-stimulation of your environment would be too much for me.
You sound like you are over-whelmed, yes, over-whelmed is where you are at
right now but finding
relief in your morning routine
and
and this is helping you to get organized.
Yes you are finding relief in your journey to transformation by getting organized
and finding routine.
On another note:
I feel for you, unable to communicate in words.
For me being heard is the basis of my marriage. I fell in love with Don's ear!
I have to be able to communicate my thoughts and feelings.
Thank you for the blog. I use it. It's working for me.
You will find others soon that will speak English.
You are doing just fine.
You are on the path to transformation and doing so well in finding relief here and there.
It's not easy but you know what to do.
Just a little relief...just a few routines will help you feel secure.
You're doing great.
Your tears of joy are wonderful. Keep going. Love and a big fat hug, Mom

Trip to the Zoo with our house guests.
I wore a huge Vietnamese rice patty hat, sun glasses long shirt and long pants. It gets hot here in Florida and I hate the sun. I liked holding my husbands hand and walking a boardwalk that weaved thoughout the Brevard County Zoo. If you asked me my favorite part of the zoo experience:
The squirrel monkeys. They are tiny and perfectly proportioned. It was fun to watch them hold leaves and use their delicate little fingers to pick things up. What keeps them interested all day? To put myself in that situation, if I were at my size caged, I would have about as much room as my very small living room, only there would be no books, no chairs, no sewing machine, no mirror, no nothing to keep me interested. I'd have to amuse myself with leaves and swing from vine to vine and that would be it.
I also liked seeing the brightly colored birds. Turquoise and gold....ummm...and animals with brown and orange paws....and ohhh....the giraffe's, so that's what giraffe fur looks like big, brown squares.
I liked hearing how some male or female animals were rented for a week or two to mate with their resident animals. The rhinorsoursus was getting a female and the giraffes had a female giraffe visiting already. She was a darker brown and she walked around like a queen.
I didn't like the bird area. The bats in their cave scared me and some of the birds were much too free. I don't like being that close to the animals. I couldn't wait to get out of their cage.
I also like my husbands silly comments about how the bald eagles were plastic and he just hates that and then upon closer look you could see one of them blink their eye and
other silly stuff that I can't remember while writing this I just remember the feeling of laughing and laughing some more....oh and I remember that he help me find the ladies room and that he held on to my big Vietnamese hat and sun glasses when I went in!
It was a fun day. I really enjoyed getting out into nature with my husband and our two house guests.

Interesting, life is so interesting. Just when you think you are living one day just like any other day, everything changes.
Shane my 27 year old son is on a vision quest to India. He just sent me a report on day one. His story made me cry. I was filled with emotion. I understood right away that he is an old soul. Shane must have been around many lifetimes because his understanding of our true nature is communicated easily. He is so beyond me and his dad in his maturity and understanding of the essence of life. What a guy!
I know he will be just fine and I expect there is a book in here somewhere or at least some stories for a travel magazine. I emailed him that I would print out his day to day journals so he would have them in hard copy when he gets back in April.
In the meantime our house guests have arrived. They put their bikes together and are riding to Cocoa Beach, a 7 mile bike ride. Tim says they are use to 100 miles a day!
Ha! His girlfriend Gretchin is so perfect. I have nothing to say but, young, smart, athletic, a dimand in the rough. I think they will be gone more than here.
I sold two idems on ebay with a total ebay salels bottom line of $37.
Today, I'm getting on line and buying myself a Christmas present, a full sized hanging skelleton. The perfect Christmas gift for me!

Sunday afternoon, I just checked my email and I got a wonderful connect from Joy. Joy is a pulsating light force....just like me (smile). I love her energy and her focus on spirit. Shane is so fortunate to have her in his life. Her email inspired me to reconnect with my blog, it's been a few days so here goes:
I'm loving my red hair.
Since it now has dark almost black/brown (underneath)sideburns and highlights of same here and there in a few other places it looks really cool. I again used just a tich of "Just for men"...that stuff dosn't last very long. I may have to re-touch weekly. (Oh well at least I don't have to fuss with make-up, never did, never will!) My eyebrows are not so dark, since I just use a toothpick to touch them up. I feel a new sense of dressing and presenting myself to the world. I have gone through my closet and elimated anything or most everything (bumped to museum storage) that isn't brown, green or shades there of...although I am keeping my red cashmere and also my orange cashmere sweather and a few black thing. Autum colors are bringing out my hazel eyes and I feel like myself again. I decided to finally wear things that fit me, tighter jeans and form fitting jackets...I'm looking gooooooooooood.
What's Don up to?
Don is still working on the fence outside, digging post holes, almost finished with the task, it's taking two weekends. He works so hard and he has that drive that all guys do to stay the focus till the job is complete. Not only does he get the job done but it's looks good, straight lines and perfect distance from post to post. It's kinda cool having a barracade of sorts around our property. Soon I'll take a picture and post it here.
I'm going take a bunch of photos and post up on this blog. When?..hummm.....
We have two house guests soon.
We're waiting for Don's son Tim to arrive next weekend for two weeks with his girlfriend. Tim is an expert computer person and he can help me figure out how to better set up this blog. I'm just barely doing it.
We are excited to have company. We will be happy to see them arrive. They will probably set up "camp" in the Museum as the weather is much cooler.
Tim and Gretchin pre-shipped their bikes (bicycles). They will be bike riding to St.Augustine and back! That's like 16 hours or two days.....Hahahaha...........I know it's a little crazy but they are both extremely out-doorzy....Tim finally met someone who can keep up with him, mountain climbing, caving and all that jazz. (I don't get it....hahahaha)
All is well.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh...I did it! I went from a blonde to a red-head. Why? It was on impulsle. Underneath my blondness is, probably a lot of grey hair. What I really wanted to do was just let my hair grow out and be natural again and have the hairstylist snip the fuzz from my bleach on bleach dryed hair tips. I wasn't lined up with red hair....but I was in her chair and I thought, well it has to grow out anyway, might as well see what I look like as a red-head.
It's been maybe 10 or more...hahaha.......years since I've had my natural color.
Do I like how it came out?....at first no! Eeee-gad, I look so phoney, baloney.
Then after I got home I found my precious secret stash of Just for men hair coloring that I use to touch up my eyebrows and I mixed up a batch and moved it through here and there so that my eyebrows would match my hair. Then I felt better.
Buzzing down to my roots would be my first choice, all new growth and a return to natural but, I figure, I'll just give this a chance. See how I feel by Christmas. I can always do the buzz cut. I really believe that the buzz cut is most flattering to me but I do want hair again, so I'll just wait it out!
The problem with coloring is, it's so addictive. I may have to go cold turkey buzz cut on my next visit.....I'll just wait and see.
You know, I have a computer program for hair and make-up, make-over, I promise that
before I do anything impulsive, I will play with looks on my monitor. Whatever, I'll get over this...hahaha...in the meantime, I have to face the world in about 50 minutes...karate classes tonight!

The sun is shinning, it's a beautiful day. I am playing hooky from my Saturday am karte class. I'm wearing my teeth whitner "retainer" filled with the goop for an hour.
I plan to lay in a hot bathtub filled with sea-salts and relax! Don's got the karate class.
Because it's such a beautiful day, I can put my ebay stuff out side to take pictures of and then they'll be ready to go! I really have to start listing my stuff to sell on line, this is the best time to sell.
Ummmmm.........it's such a lovely day to go outside.
Shopping is the last thing I'd want to do today.
The air is crisp and even a tad chilly (70)...hummm... a walk on the shore line sounds like heaven. Yes! Don and I will make the time to breathe in the salty air.
I'll see if I can persuade him to walk with me on the beach, I know
however that he is going to want to focus on our new "castle" fence to keep people from parking in the Museum parking lot. After all it is Saturday night. He says he will have no problem with this project except for digging the six post holes. Maybe we could hire someone to dig post holes....eee-gad, I'm so glad I don't have do do that. There are so many advantages to being a girl and I do my best to take advantage of all of them. Hahahahhahaha............it works for me. I am a girly girl, at heart!

The Friday after Thanksgiving, a day to catch up on my recorded favorite T.V. show, THE APPRENTICE and sew.
I started the day flat on my back doing Feldenkris. Not only am I doing the exercises but I whiten my teeth at the same time, with my new teeth whitner kit in my mouth for the hour.
Next a private session with a new whitebelt and then a trip to Home Depot and the fabric store with Don. I bought some buttons to dress up my latest creation. There is something about being in a fabric store that just relaxes me much as some guys
enjoy browsing through a hardware store.
Today has been a lazy hazy day. I was going to go see the latest grand extravaganza chick flick PRIDE AND THE PREJUDUCE but, I decided to wait till after this Thanksgiving holiday when the lines quiet down.
Don has been busy buying supplies to put a new fence around our
"castle". At last we are going to have a shot at peace and quiet on the weekends. It's a start. More later or tomorrow on whitter teeth and fences to keep the teenagers away from parking in our parking lots....oh the down side of living in a comm'l property! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh............

Thanksgiving at a students house, totally chaotic,(fun but not slow and serene by any means....) conversation wise,
the husband and wife were cooking in the kitchen and nobody was listening
to anybodys comments. We were drinking champange(just a tich) and laughing
but really not connecting. The meal was outrageously good. The husband use to be
a chief at a very fancy restaurant, now he is a design manager for Yaughts.
It was fun. The wife had a beautiful home, airy and uncluttered. I liked the hal-o-peon-yo squash casserole with the cheeze topping
the best, although everything was great. The salad we brought was topped with Basil from
my garden....yummy. We did a little karate at the end. It was fun.
So far the best part of today was getting an email from Shane about
values and unfinished business...I decided to take a stab at mine:
My values (or what I value and am grateful for):
bathtubs
running water
warm blankets
my dirty grungy thrift shop
walks in nature
my just for men (eye brow) hair color
all my kata
Howard Stern
Abraham tapes
My mat for my new thing, Feldenkris movement thearpy
Almond butter sandwhiches
focusing on what feels good
girlfriends
my husband
teaching karate classes
connecting on my computer
laughter of any kind, TV, radio or with friends or whatever
my sewing machine
books
dancing to music
lilbraries

Unfinished business:
Todays blog
the last shorin-ryu kata (I still don't want to learn it!)
growing my hair long
a week long vacation/honeymoon with Don
This months bills
Posting up the next promotion list for February
Awarding our first scholarships from the Museum fund
Holding my first grand child....hahaha
seeing Shane after his India trip

Night before Thanksgiving:
We plan to have Thanksgiving dinner at the home of one our students and
then later on in the evening have dessert at our friend Cathy's house.
We will bring a salad to the first location, and just ourselves to the
second house.

I am looking forward to having a day off to kick back and relax. Don has
been working 5 days a week getting the new main-frame up and running.

My next great adventure is:
I'll be listing stuff on eBay. I gonna' jump in
with both feet and see if I can make some $'s before Xmas. This is the
time of year my karate business slacks off bigtime and that's okay, I
just like to have something to keep myself in the flow so to speak!

Just got back from Sarasota. Feldenkrais seminar. The whole premise, in my eyes, of the Feldenkrais "method" is our bodies are held together by bones. The way they hinge in a flowing movement determines our ease of movement. Sounds simple it was life changing for me. Also self-imaging changing! We were asked us to draw a picture of ourselves in the beginning how we see ourselves and then at the end of the workshop. Just take a minute or two and color it in.
The first drawing was normal. Me with a big smile with my arms outstretched wearing a tank top and karate pants. I had a normal head, normal length arms, my hairstyle looked like me and I used a pencil to, what turned out to be a cartoon of me. My lips were red with a big smile and just for the heck of it, I painted all ten toe-nails. I took up the whole page and used yellow rays of light jutting out all around me. Normal right?
Well at the end of the workshop, we were instructed to draw again and see if our images of ourselves had changed. I drew me as a worm, yes you read right a WORM...hahaha...with a full skeleton inside of me(minus my arms, they just wouldn't fit....hahaha and my mouth had a big red smile. The final touch was light jutting out of me on all sides....hahaha............transformation...huh? Again the bottom line is every movement we as humans do affects our whole body even our eye sockets.
Our bones are conected and if we don't move them all we hold tension. Of course the movements are so small it's barely noticeable. Feldenkris says,the smaller the movement the better. Makes for effortless and aesthetically pleasing! It was a very good experience. My left foot pain got fixed (it use to be painful for me to take long walks) I like the seminar so much that I bought the teachers CD so I plan to work these very slow sublte movements every day. She told me to stop my Physical therapy (for my shoulder that really is basically fine) and do Feldenkris. No problem! (smile)Feldenkris it is! I have an area in the museum with a matt and I plan to do 30 to 40 minutes every day.

I will be in Sarasota all this weekend at a Fieldenkras workshop. When I get back I'll give you one or two highlights. I'm going with a friend of mine. Her name is Jann and she is a massage therapist and a heck of a lot of fun. We are going to have a blissful weekend. I'm in the middle of packing. I plan to workout every morning and journal. I'll bring my digital camera and maybe take a pic. of the gulf of mexico. In the meantime, I gotta' pack. I know it's only two days but I want to make snacks and have everything sitting by the door. We will be leaving at 9:05AM. It's a 3 hour ride. I CAN'T WAIT!

Sensei Judy Barnhart 

It's It's 8:30 AM Monday morning and I'm a little red eyed and again feeling a bit sleep "disturbed"! Two nights in a row stupid parking lot stuff. Living in a comm'l property, even though our part is a residence, still we look like a karate school, makes for visitors at all kinds at odd hours. We could just go ahead and make our karate school look like a normal house and then the problem would be solved. Nobody would park in someone's driveway. Given a choice, I would want our corner our 1 acre property to look like a castle, not a house, but that's another story!
Last night we had more noise and people parked in our parking lots. We have two buildings and two parking lots, our house/Dojo and next door the Karate Museum.
Don announced to me this moring that he would take care of last nights problem of cars and trucks parked outside the bedroom window. He will put a fence in front of the museum parking lot. It's a start.
What I hated about the experience most was that I couldn't get back to sleep at 1:00AM. Don was already (after he went back to bed) snoring but I lay there with my chest tightening up. I kept trying to breathe but my thoughts were...."How dare they"! You know, it's when stuff happens that we get to practice unconditional love and flowing lovely freeing energy....but it was so hard to switch gears....I finally fell asleep. In the morning we spoke about the need for a fence or something and I am sure it will get done soon.
After Don left for work, I called Norman, the artist and my dear friend and someone who thinks out of the box, he said we need motion sensitive lights. I will be going to home depot later and look for some spot-lights! I may not be able to put a wall or a fence up but I could purchase some lights! I just want to do something!

Sunday, a rough night. We're fine, "normal"...hahah...just another night living in paridise...hahaha.......Phone rang for Don to go into work. (This happens at least once a week lately, the mainframe is being replaced and the old mainframe is on it's last legs!) Upon awaking, we discovered trucks and cars parked in both of our parking lots @ 2:00AM. Kids like to party at Rotary park across the street. They think this is a comm'l property and no one is around. Well Don runs out in his bathrobe and yells at them, "We could have you towed. How would you like me to park in your driveway?" Happens too often. I want a fence around our entire place. My home feels like my castle. Don says, "Nah! A moat and a drawbridge is the way to go!"....Yes! No, a fence is better. Someday. In the meantime, it's a good thing I went to bed early 8:30PM...I was exhausted from the excitement of my two day sale.
I will be in the Museum all day tidying up. It has a new look. We now have a big rattan circular table and once again the Museum is looking good. Really nice energy.
I have two Yoga mats placed under my pulley and one side of the Musuem feels inviting to workout. My sewingroom is more inviting too. I got rid of a couple of hundred pounds of junk........ahhhhhhhhhhhh....ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Saturday and another $140 in my pocket. Wow! This was my best garage sale in a long, long time. I never make more than a hundred....It was fun. I played a bunch of different music everything from Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra to Country Western, Elliot Smith, Beatles....
One of todays highlights was sitting in the same chair as yesterday and visiting with a girl from Colorado. We looked out at the sky together. She asked me if I got my pleasure from the indoors or the outdoors, so, I said I use to be an indoor person and now,well...I asked her to follow me to a grouping of trees. These are two "siamees palm tress" that mirror one another. I said nothing
and asked her to tell me what she saw. She said, "It looks like a portal"....Wow! That was amazing.
Like a door to? I couldn't resist, I wanted to move through the portal. The trees both had the same root system were conected at the base but they fanned out about 30 feet high. I stood before them and kind of hesitated as I said, "A portal, a door, a new door is opening." I froze.
She laughed and said, go ahead...and I said hesitating, "Just a minute and then, I went throught."
When I got on the other side, it was magic. I turned around and looked through the two trees and saw her and
the garage sale still in progress with the people milling about and I felt far away from it all. It was a whole new perspective..................what fun.

Friday 1:00 PM, garage sale over for today! In my pocket $115. of which 20 goes back to Don for change, $37. for the ad in Fl. Today and $6. to Barb for her stuff...that leaves me with a grand total of $52...hahahaha..........5 hours sitting there and god only knows how much time for preparation, hummmmmmmmmmm....I guess you could say minimum wage. However it's all set up and tomorrow is another day. It was really kinda fun and kinda' serene. I rarely sit in a comfortable chair on the out door deck and just read, sew, eat or stare into the clouds. It was a beautiful day. Nice people, a few laughs and I did something with my Friday morning. This however could be my last garage sale. Yeah...yeah, I know, that's what I always say.

It's Thursday. I am feeling rushed. Tomorrow begins two days of garage sales here. My focus is get the tables up and the boxes out. Don is working every day and it's just me. I will ask my 10 am class for help before or after class.
Last night's meeting at Carabbas went well. The scholarship fund is looking good. Lots of work this year to locate schools and get the applications just right. We will be awarding two $2,000. scholarships to the applicants who meet the criteria. We will be doing this until Don and I are
older and greyer.
In the meantime my focus is get all my junk onto the outside deck.

Okay, it's Thursday. I taught a private student the 3rd kata this
morning and then went to have the car tuned up for my trip to
Sarrasota next weekend. I am excited about my Felidenkras seminar.
Looks like my friend and massage therapist will be going with me next weekend.
A 3 hour ride. I order tipe ticks and a map from AAA.
This evening the Museum Fund board of directors will meet at
Carrabas for voting on the application mail outs. There are just
a few things to tweek. I'm getting all dressed up. This will be
interesting because will be coming from teaching two karate
classes...karate, karate, nothing ever changes.

Tuesday November 8th, 9:00AM. When is the best time to write in this blog? I missed writing here yesterday. Hummmm....briefly about yesterday, I went to a movie with my friend Marilyn. We saw Elizabethtown. I loved the memorial ceremony with Susan Sarrendon tap-dancing at the memorial service! Ha! Death can be a beautiful celebration. The movie moved me. A quote: "sadness an easy vibration to slip into" (or something like that) and then seeing the main character dance with one arm waving free in a forest made me think of shane doing his Curtain thing.....ahhhh...to choose joy. Ha! I said joy and I'm thinking upliftment even though his girlfriend's name is JOY! Hummm....Today I have 3 karate classes and a Thursday garage sale to prepare for. The hardest part will be carring the big heavy tables out onto the out door deck. Lifting the boxes is just ant work! I got the Fl. Today ad placed and the Salvation Army truck scheduled to pick up next Wednesday. I expect to pocket at least $100. Is it worth all the fuss. YES! I want the echo....and the $'s are welcome. Oh one more thing, I made arrangements to attend a Fieldenkrass seminar next weekend. I'm so excited. 3 hours away and a mini-vacation. I plan to kick back and enjoy.

This is day two of blogging. Sunday1:00PM, the day is not over yet. I have a plan, Library to buy some books at a book sale and then to BCC for 3 one act plays. I must remember to get some kata in and some PT before the day is out. Don is out side doing his mediative lawnmowering thing. I'm back into listening to Abraham and sewing....sweet!