Listening Well

Gold Rings

Light and Dark - McCullough Peaks

Anyone who says businessmen deal in facts, not fiction, has never read old five-year projections.

Malcolm Forbes

Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.

Theodore Roosevelt

At the Henry's

One little cuddle,

Two milk mustaches,

Three hungry kids

Men who never get carried away should be.

Malcolm Forbes

Five Goats a-dancing...

You can observe a lot, just by watching.

~Yogi Berra~

Wishful Thinking

Puppy Dog Tales

He has a little trill voice that is so sweet, my favorite sound that he makes.  He has managed to wriggle out of his harness and leash four times in two days.  The second time he got his leash wrapped around the garden bench, he yipped and yapped, howled and growled with the best of the pack. By the time I got back from one jog down the lane, he was scratching at the door, and I'm not sure how to break that habit, but I don't want my door ruined.  He's somewhat timid and mild, takes lots of quiet naps and doesn't beg at the table.  I know all about sharp puppy dog teeth, but he hadn't been at all inclined to chew on me, although he had made a start on the living room rugs and the plants.  However, yesterday when I was doing my exercises on the floor, that all changed.  Jeans are no defense to sharp puppy teeth. Crunches are downright dangerous with a playful, bouncy puppy nipping at your nose and getting his paws tangled in your hair.  He is part heeler, and I have no experience with the breed, but I find it funny and interesting that he throws himself repeatedly at my heels when I'm walking.  If I wasn't trying not to trip, and if it wasn't so random, I would like to watch him and see what he's doing, but it feels like a soft, squishy ball trying to un-squish around my ankles.  I guess it's better than nipping them, but I wonder if that will come later.

Kissing Bjarne

Mindy didn't know we had a puppy until she called yesterday. She was jealous and wanted us to bring him to Arizona, but her Dad says no.  I told her that his name is Bjarne, or Barney, because her dad was having trouble with B-yarn-ie.  She said she liked Bjarne better.  My sister actually first suggested the norwegian spelling and pronunciation.  I like it, has a little more class and culture than Barney. It is a little harder to wrap my lazy American tongue around the bya sound, but I've been trying it out.  Mindy said she liked Bjarne better, so I told her dad,and now he's trying it out, too.  This morning he was asking me what I knew about kissing the Blarney Stone. If you kiss the Blarney Stone, the legend says, you get the gift of eloquence. If you can say Blarney, it's not that much harder to say Bjarne. He has had only one accident, a puddle on Jane's carpeted floor, unless you count falling on my desk through the partly open window. That happened three times, because we had the window open to help with drafting the air to dry the carpet, which had gotten wet when the hose was left running all night. Cleaning and drying rugs is not really how I wanted to spend my time this week.  And did I really need any more distractions to my concentration? I don't think so.


Which brings me to another subject.  Self-hypnosis.  It really isn't as weird as it sounds.  We learned some of the technique at an event in Los Angeles, California, put on by Peak Potentials.  The speaker  who was teaching us was named Brian Alman. I use the technique when I get frustrated, to relax, and even for pain relief.  It works for me.  Some people use self-hypnosis for performance training.  


Using a very calm, soothing voice, he instructed us to take long, deep inhalations, and count them.  Then on each long, slow exhale, think your name.  Do this up to 10, 20, 30, depending on how much stress you are feeling.  When you get to your chosen number, then do it backwards, breathing in deeply, and exhaling as before, saying your name.  On occasion my mind has been active when I should be going to sleep, and it helps to calm me.  The training was very cool, and I especially like to remember his voice, so calm, slow and soothing.  


Sitting by a lively creek with water tumbling over the rocks on it's way to the river is even more effective for relaxation.  I think my dad first taught me to listen.  Maybe it was Mom.


Jerry used to open and winterize a small summer cabin up on Kitty Creek on the North Fork in the spring and fall.  I sometimes rode along for company, to take pictures, and do a bit of wandering. I found it sad when I started hiking in Wyoming that in so many places there is no water at all in the mountains. The sound of water in a creek is the best of all surround sounds, drowning out everything else, so refreshing, moment of wonder, delightful. It can be so hard to just listen, but I'm trying to remember, I miss so much when I close my ears, and I don't even know what I have missed!

purple

Wiggle Room

Squeak and Squeal

"Oops, caught in the act...uh...may I?"

It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too

 much about the problem.

Malcolm Forbes

Crazy Mountains - aren't they lovely?