Diana's Blog: Quirky Words and Book Reviews

January 5, 2009
The antidote to the upside-down nature of bad weather and holidays...is creativity. You're already outside the box anyway, so you might as well enjoy it. It just makes you crabby if you try to install rules on rule-less lives. As Whitney Ferre says in her book, THE ARTIST WITHIN: A GUIDE TO BECOMING CREATIVELY FIT, your left-brain is likely over-muscled, and your right brain wants a turn. And what a delightful turn it is! Whitney's got a series of exercises in her book to unleash the creativity -- clay, weaving, collages, drawing. It makes me smile just to list them.
She lovingly tells the story of her five-year old daughter who was not happy and did not want a nap. Whitney gave the little girl paper and crayons. Her daughter drew three pictures, and then asked for a pillow and a blanket. Nap time. She put herself down. So sweet.
Art is a wonderful medium for connecting with our children. The book reminds me of an art class with mixed media that I took with my younger son. OMG, it was so much fun! He and I could communicate, but we were less verbal together than I was with my older son, so the art class was a gift we shared. We are much closer today because we played together in the paint.
Funny, but just a few days ago I resurrected three of the pieces I did in that class. In each, I painted with acrylics, but we would drag the paint with bubble wrap or saran wrap, just to get going.
One piece is dark purple with softer hues of pink -- just two eyes and a lovely pink ribbon draped above and below the eyes, across the face, as if it were a mask. The second looks like a gathering of angels, clustered in a circle, with a waxy paper over it, diffusing the work. And, my favorite is of the Near Death Experience -- the tunnel, the light, the angels, one of whom holds a violin. The thing with all these pieces, is, as Whitney suggests in THE ARTIST WITHIN, that I began with the colors and the media, dragging, and painting, pushing and playing -- and these spiritual works emerged. I framed one of my son's paintings from the high school art class -- it is a butterfly fluttering deep in the multi-hued grass. It is no surprise, then, that he has just graduated UC Santa Cruz with his BS in ecology and evolutionary biology. Art is very much of the moment, and revelatory of what lies within.

Labels: art class, book review, communicating with children, son, THE ARTIST WITHIN A GUIDE TO BECOMING CREATIVELY FIT, transcending the trauma., Whitney Ferre

January 4, 2009
I was at a Christmas party today. Yeah, I know. But we had a huge -- for Portland -- snowstorm just before Christmas that knocked a lot of parties off the calendar. Good thing it was postponed -- there's no way we could have climbed the hill to Amadeus in Milwaukie in that ice and snow. The restaurant is in a stone building that reminds me of Timberline Lodge, a hotel on snowy Mount Hood. And, by the way, it just started snowing again, beginning a refrain in my mind of will I need chains, and how will I get those chains on the car to get to work by four in the morning?
That aside, I am grateful for that party -- it was a group of ten women, of whom I knew only two, and it was the loveliest energy I've experienced in awhile. It was a gift exchange, and I had in my possession the softest white blanket with a cute lamb's face until the very end when it got "stolen" and I ended up with a more appropriate gift -- a gold clutch. I was amused by the choice made for me. It was the energy there that felt good, softer than that blanket -- gentle and accepting.
I used to take happy feelings and torture myself with them, spinning tales that would question the lovely beginnings -- up until a few years ago, I would have asked myself did they like me and will I be invited again and all those ridiculously demeaning questions. During this past year, my consciousness has shifted because of the EMDR I've been doing -- the result is self-confidence. As I've mentioned in these blogs before, having my real dad severed from my life when I was five, about the time my stepfather began raping me, and having my mom alcoholic, schizophrenic, suicidal and neglectful messed up my self-image and motivations.
I love that word, confidence. I break it down into two parts -- con, which means with, and fidel, which means faith. This new confidence -- born of Faith -- is what I am grateful for -- whoppingly huge piles of gratefulness! I'll write it here, and I'll write it in my journal, which I've been keeping most of my adult life, and I'll also write it in GRATITUDE: A DAILY JOURNAL by Jack Canfield and DD Watkins. Obviously, any journal will do, but Jack and DD write in the preface about the importance of living in gratitude, humming with gratitude. The Universe loves to give you what you appreciate, what you focus on. As they put it, "the Law of Attraction will respond to the higher vibration you are creating."
I am grateful for the beautiful quotes sprinkled throughout this book -- one of my favorites: Joy is the simplest form of gratitude (Karl Barth)
After the party, I spent the afternoon listening to authors' audio quotes that I have gathered over the years, designing a seminar for Thursday called Your Best Year Yet: Let's Get It Started. It was so wonderful listening to their brilliant thoughts. One of the authors I will include is Melody Beattie, with her comment about trusting Faith, and letting go of Fear, to make the best choices you can. She's in Jack and DD's book, too. Melody's lovely quote says it all:
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Deep breath.
Thank you!

Labels: book review, DD Watkins, friendship, GRATITUDE A DAILY JOURNAL HONOR AND APPRECIATE THE ABUNDANCE IN YOUR LIFE, Jack Canfield, transcending the trauma, WOMEN

January 3, 2009
With the reversal of fortunes and the ratcheting down of spending, Farrah Gray's THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU RICH could make this young millionaire even richer. But that's not the point.
Gray -- who grew up on the impoverished south side of Chicago and struck it rich with his entrepreneurial ideas at fourteen -- discovered that a lot of what we think is true, simply is not, and in this book, he shares what he knows. His wisdom sounds very familiar to those of us who have read a lot of self-help books -- and interviewed the authors. That's not to discount anything. It is a reminder that we really already know what we need to know. Follow your passion! What are you really good at? Do it! And, practice your talents so you become great at it! Find mentors. Keep an upbeat attitude. You want to be famous first? Fuggedaboutit! Gray says you become the expert in what you love to do, and celebrity might just find you. And don't bankrupt yourself by spending everything you get, when it does! Okay, what if all that hard work at what you believe is your passion finds you against a wall? Gray says step back. Take a look at your skills. Create a new career. Work for yourself.
No secret the world is changing. My career has been mostly in radio and TV, and for years I've been seeing hundreds of my friends laid off with their positions eliminated, and forecasts for more down-sizing. When my turn came about three years ago, I was working for a CBS station, and the very same year CBS flipped format on my station to lay off a dozen of us "talent", the CEO pocketed an $85.5 million dollar bonus. First I looked for "real" jobs -- I picked up a part-time radio job -- they couldn't offer full-time. Then I looked at my skills, and before I knew it, I was calling myself a Multi-Media Entrepreneur, and actually, I've been having a lot of fun podcasting, interviewing, media training, emceeing, doing voiceovers and on-camera, and especially writing. I'm not rich, yet. That's why I'm reading Gray's book. He busts the lies -- and this is helpful, because a lot of our future success lies in our beliefs. He says you don't have to be born lucky; you don't have to hit it big in entertainment or sports to be rich; the path to millions begins with one dollar -- you don't have to have money to make money. Ah relief! But you do have to have ideas, and the guts to play them out. Along with guts, have faith, determination, wisdom, focus and integrity.
Invest in your own dreams. That's it -- in a nutshell. And smile.

Labels: book review, Farrah Gray, Passion, success, THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU RICH

January 2, 2009
Starting the New Year by opening YOUR ASTROLOGY GUIDE 2009, it suddenly flashes in my mind that it was astrology that led me to the work I love best -- interviewing authors. But it's not quite as you might imagine.
Many years ago, I was a news anchor and reporter in Portland, Oregon, only a few months into my job on what was then KYTE, a country station with a news/traffic/sports staff of about ten people. One day, Vicki Lassen, the throaty-voiced afternoon news anchor poked her head into the little studio where I was working and said "Can you please do an interview for me? I have to cover another assignment, and the woman is on her way over."
"What's the interview about?" I asked, not getting up.
"It's an author interview,"she said, pulling her gear together.
"But I haven't read the book!" My voice raised a bit in panic.
"Don't worry," Vicky said, "It's an astrology book. The author is Diana Stone from Vancouver (WA)."
I finished the interview and as I escorted Diana out the door -- who was, by the way, to become a lifelong friend -- I thought Oh, my God! Interviewing authors is exactly what I love to do!
I love how saying yes even when I'm afraid has led me to the most perfect answers in my life. It was Diana Stone who told me that my sun is in Leo, my moon is in Pisces, and my rising sign is Scorpio just a few degrees away from Sagittarius. When I'd had readings before, astrologers had told me my rising sign was Sagittarius, but something didn't feel right. When Diana told me it was Scorpio, and then said that was associated with being sexually-abused as a child, which was held as a family secret, it gave me permission to finally begin the healing I needed to do. It was Divine Timing.
YOUR ASTROLOGY GUIDE 2009 says that -- for the world -- it is a year of hard work, healing and hope.
I open to Leo, and see that the healing energy is around for another year. The energy is on greater self-discipline and control over Leo's day-to-day life. Love, where's love? Ah, good -- looks like romance is on the way, maybe combined with travel, particularly spiritual travel. I had been thinking about doing one of those spiritual cruises, but, well, the book says I'll have to work hard this year just to stay even. Nothing new there. But! perhaps a windfall February fifth and November 15th, if I've been applying myself diligently. I've been praying for perfect health, and the authors Rick Levine and Jeff Jawer predict that Pluto's entry into my sixth house initiates a fourteen-year period in which I can completely rebuild my physical body. Most of my life I've been afraid to truly let people in deeply -- it's one of those lovely trust things that gets demolished when you grow up in a family of abuse and alcholism. And, this year I have been really working hard on ripping off that last piece of armor, so that I can fearlessly enjoy relationships. Jeff and Rick's book says this coming Monday abundant Jupiter enters my seventh house where it remains the rest of the year, bestowing blessings on me through my associations with others. That would, indeed, be a blessing.
Rick and Jeff's Tips for the Year (which I summarize):
Leo: Work hard to reestablish fiscal integrity and self-worth. Be smart, and you'll overcome all challenges and be able to pay for your big plans.
Virgo: Transition from the past to the present. You will succeed if you allow yourself to be a beginner in the process of learning.
Libra: Wrap up what you've already started, to prepare for what lies ahead.
Scorpio: Allow yourself to float as you acclimate to a brand new world.
Sagittarius: Listen with your heart and soul, as well as your mind to expand into higher consciousness.
Capricorn: Imagine your ideal future, and narrow your focus, but don't spread yourself too thin.
Aquarius: Your dreams come true -- if they are not just for yourself, but to benefit the common good.
Pisces: Make small changes with lasting impact rather than dramatic gestures.
Aries: Systematically remove barriers between you and your happiness -- without revolution.
Taurus: Aim high and incorporate a bit of idealism.
Gemini: Find your center -- feel the excitement, but don't lose your balance.
Cancer: Learn to grow by letting go of your outmoded illusions.
More hope for this coming year -- for the world -- Teamwork and cooperation increase as the rigid rules governing institutions shatter. We are headed, they say, to a more equitable relationship between business and labor, profit and sustainability, and personal needs versus collective ones. Also, this is a year of medical miracles. Rick and Jeff also say that if we work hard, put our affairs in order, and stay aware, 2009 could be a remarkably brilliant year.

Labels: awareness, book review., Diana Stone, Jeff Jawer, Rick Levine, YOUR ASTROLOGY GUIDE 2009

January 1st, 2009
Happy New Year!
We set resolutions tonight at Workshop -- my loving, wonderful group of writers, some well-known, some not. Suzy Vitello acts as scribe, and takes down our resolutions, most having to do with writing deadlines and selling our work. Suzy says we act as witness to what we will ourselves to do. We don't want to finish writing our books -- we will finish writing them. Several of us have numerous writing projects -- Chelsea Cain, Cheryl Strayed, Monica Drake, Jim Frost, Lidia Yuknavitch. I, for example, want to finish writing my novel, sell my memoir, finish my screenplay, and sell at least four stories in the coming year to national magazines. Chuck Palahniuk states a string of writing projects that would mind-blowing, if we don't stop and notice that the pages he read tonight are the last chapter from his next book -- which he began writing only three months ago.
Then he tops it. He has a resolution that aims to change the world in a very Chuck-like way -- it's for him to tell, I won't reveal it. But what Chuck does say -- as he prefaces his resolution -- is strong and lovely. "If your resolutions don't make you feel a little embarrassed because they're so lofty, then they're not big enough." That raises the bar. Several of us add another line or two to our resolutions, with Suzy dutifully tapping away. We don't know if/when these resolutions will see the light of day, but I would venture to say we all now feel less cavalier about what we tossed out, and more likely to commit.
The other element of setting resolutions is that you must surrender any attachment to the result you desire. Which prompts me to pick up Guy Finley's newest book called LETTING GO A LITTLE BIT AT A TIME.
Guy writes When it comes to letting go and growing beyond who and what we have been up until that time, the deal is non-negotiable: first comes our gradual awakening to what no longer works for us, followed by the inner work to release the same. Then, and only then, dawns the discovery and realization of what is -- in all cases -- a new and higher order of our self; our life is transformed.
Guy has a comment a day for the entire year. On a page with a bird flying over water, I read Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over. Nothing.
It strikes me that 2008, for me, was all about transformation -- and it was not easy, retracing the ruts in the road I've lived and erasing them, carving out new mental pathways that -- in Faith -- I believe lead to success. I have resolutions in my journal, goals in my HeartSpark group that's all about reinforcing positive patterns, resolutions in Workshop, Vision Maps -- and they depend on knowing Love.
One more from Guy:
If life knocks you flat on your back, open your eyes: above you are the stars!

Labels: book review., Chelsea Cain, Cheryl Strayed, Chuck Palahniuk, Guy Finley, LETTING GO A LITTLE BIT AT A TIME, Monica Drake, resolutions, success, Suzy Vitello

December 31, 2008
It is turning into 2009 around the world, and soon it will be the Pacific Northwest's turn. I am quiet today, not solemn, but calm, with gratitude pulsing through my veins. I am spending this New Year's Eve creating. I've been writing and rewriting my novel, and I just read THE VISION BOARD: THE SECRET TO AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE by Joyce Schwarz, with the intention of beginning a vision board as I did last year on New Year's Eve. I have two large vision boards, and the other is from several years ago. That one has pictures of eyes and mentions of angels and promises of transformation. It is nearly impossible to measure, but I feel changed in those ways since I did that board -- I am aware, I feel magical, and I have transformed my life. I didn't realize until I was telling a friend yesterday what I'd be doing tonight that one of the few physical images I put on the board came true. There, on the bottom, is a silver Mercedes Benz. I traded in my 2000 silver Mustang with 162,000 miles this past January for a 1999 Benz with 55,000 miles. I just glued it on -- and it happened!
Schwarz suggests choosing images and words after meditation, or, onversely, choosing images from magazines that appeal to you, and then divining the theme.
A lot of the images haven't come true yet. Divine Timing is one reason. And, it's possible that I had been blocking the blessings. I put that in the past tense.
If nothing else, Vision Boards are fun to do. They access the left brain and joyfulness and reveal new information. Schwarz suggests gluing ticket stubs or making collages out of ragged pieces from magazines or any other impulse that grabs you. Oh, GRABS -- that's her succes realization system:
G for gratitude; R for release and receive; A for acknowledge and ask; B for be and believe; and S for share.
And when you're done with your vision board, display it proudly. I let my 2008 vision board curl over onto itself, where it was propped in my hallway on top of the stereo. Even if I did pass it dozens of times a day, I couldn't see it. Finally about two months ago, I noticed it all curled over and said "now what kind of message am I sending to the Universe about my desires?" And, I tacked up the laminated poster, and following that, each time I walked by, I would rub my hand over an area of the board. I felt drawn particularly to the passport, which I hadn't used in about four years. Just before Thanksgiving, I received a free trip to Barcelona where I hosted and produced a podcast.
Benz. Barcelona. There's magic in this process, if only to clarify your own personal destiny.
I can't wait to see what I find for my 2009 Vision Board. See you next year ;-)

Labels: book review., divine timing, manifesting your destiny, VISION BOARD: THE SECRET TO AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE by Joyce Schwarz

December 30, 2008
Arielle Ford, the brilliant publicist who helped launch the careers of Deepak Chopra, Neale Donald Walsch, and Jack Canfield, talked with me this morning about using those same principles to find a soulmate. She says she was too focused on her career to be concerned about finding her soulmate until she was about 44 -- and then the light went on! She could use the very same visualization, meditative, and spiritual principles to find her man. And, they worked!
Arielle says there is no secret to THE SOULMATE SECRET -- the answers have been out there in many cultures for centuries. She simply scooped up the best ones and refined them to fit this particular dream goal -- finding her soulmate.
Big Love, she says, is possible.
She says Brian, her soulmate, wasn't as intentional as she, but he had actually dreamt about her, and he knew she was on her way. At the time, Arielle was working in a small office in California where the only men she saw were the FedEx guy, the mail carrier, and the water guy -- and they were all married. Turns out Brian was the man who was asked to go to the airport to pick her up when she came to town -- to Portland, Oregon -- to oversee a shoot with Brian's colleague. Kismet.
Oh, but she was ready. She'd done her Dream Board -- which some people call Vision Board or Treasure Map -- and she'd made her list of the qualities she wanted in a soulmate, and she'd written her goodbye letters to men she had loved, and she had severed their energetic cords, and she had forgiven herself for whatever we women and men do that need forgiving. And then...the trickiest part of all...she let go of all expectations. It was up to Divine Timing.
I thought about the "deserving" part of finding a soulmate -- did I really deserve to find my soulmate. I've been working hard on that, healing the emotional damage within. After our interview I mentioned to Arielle that I am doing EMDR, which she thought was terrific.
I found resonance with her message, and let it play on me the rest of the day. I hadn't really connected the dots that I might use her material midday in therapy.
When I get into my therapist's room, I decide I don't want to live in the pain anymore -- I've been dealing with the childhood rape, abandonment, parental alcoholism, neglect and the requisite reverberations for the past year and a half, and no matter what I take into the EMDR experience, I always find myself in the middle of yet another rape or violent situation. And, yes, these situations generalize after awhile, but -- today, I decide -- no more. Instead, I want to focus on my dreams and successes and -- win for a change. For a moment my child mind gets hung up on Success and yells NO NO NO! And, I'm aware that my "reward" for succeeding as a child was often another round of sex with my stepfather. This time, I choose another direction. And, we go into EMDR with a memory of a good, healthy feeling -- there is a visual, suddenly, it's the Blue Angel -- and I feel a warm buzz in my heart. Then I feel swaddled as a baby would be, and rocked, and I receive a vibration of healing. I can't sing it to repeat what I've heard, but I can hum it. And when I get home, I pull from the top bookshelf a crystal bowl, and I rub the rim, and it is that precise key. The bowl was a gift a decade ago, and as I recall, the tone is associated with the color blue and the throat.
When we are done with EMDR for the session, I am dizzy and I feel different. Welcome, my therapist says, to a new world.
A thought from my interview with Arielle returns, and she says Anyone can do it, find their soulmate. It just takes an open heart and an open mind.

Labels: angel, Arielle Ford, book review., EMDR, THE SOULMATE SECRET MANIFEST THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE WITH THE LAW OF ATTRACTION, transcending the trauma