When the cat lady moved I swore I wasn’t going take over feeding feral cats but I soon gave in, making peace with two cats that meowed outside my window. I’ve invested in a big tub of dry cat food and answer the plaintive meows morning and night with a bowl of meow mix.
The problem: A family of chickens (hen, rooster and offspring) has moved to my half acre of tropical Eden. Chickens trump cats. They’re bossier, bigger and peck the cats away. I started to shoo away the chickens so the cats could eat but they sneak back as soon as my back is turned.
I now slide the bowl of cat food way underneath my jeep. The slinky cats eat comfortably and the noisy birds can’t gain access. It’s amusing to watch them try, give up and go off to eat the vegetation. If the cats leave stuff in the bowl the chickens show up to finish the job.
If you’re flexible and able to crawl underneath a car you’re eligible for a meal of dry cat food under my jeep. I have identified my wildlife niche and created a eligibility hoop so I end up with the market I want – furry, hungry and appreciative (when they’re finished they stretch out in the sun below my deck looking sleek and well fed.) They like what I have to offer and how I offer it. They’re return visitors.
But so are the chickens! They too want what I’ve got. If they were paying I’d have a solid income stream.
It made me wonder who the chickens are in my world? Who are the people I’ve decided are not my ‘ideal clients’ who keep showing up? Am I turning a blind eye on people who are asking for what I have to offer because I am focused in another direction?
I’m digesting this food for thought and saying, ” Thank you cats. and chicken family for being the perfect teachers of important life lessons. I have a great photo I wanted to share, but am having technical challenges so will leave the scene to your imagination. Make it vivid and may it bring a smile to your face.
Intentions matter. A powerfully crafted, closely held intention can make all the difference the morning after and the next and the next. Setting intentions invites people, places and things into your life that further your intention. Having an intention creates your future.
I came across an article in Shambala Sun called “Sprouting Seeds of Compassion by Marc Ian Barasch. Marc decides to see what would happen if he simply planted a seed of good intention and waited to see what came up. That seed grew into millions of trees. He started an internation green, tree planting organization.
“There is something within each of us, within each situation, that already knows how to grow, that just needs light and nourishment to potentiate a truly magical creative force.
If you start small, dream big, plant a seed of intention and care for it, it’s not unrealistic to expect something marvelous to come up.”
Since I’ve been doing these Intention calls, the subject and practice of intentional living keeps popping up. My understanding and tool kit grow by leaps and bounds and I’ll keep sharing what I learn to help you create powerful intentions that work magic in your life.
The next Intention Call is Sunday, August 1st. To register go to this link to sign up.
www.lifecoachparadise.com/calls.htm
Start now to plant a seed and set your intention.
On Father’s day I miss my Daddy – Herman Raphael Nayer (1909-2003). I think of all the father’s day gifts that I made him over the years and of all the gifts that he passed on to me:
– my deep set eyes and hook nose
– love of literature, great music and art
– appreciation of intelligence and genius
– curiosity and awe
– the transformational power of great suffering
– the depths and heights of the human heart
– Yiddish stories, Freud and Shakespeare
– off color jokes
– dill pickles and pastrami (in my pre- vegie days)
– cultural judaism
– New York City
– Sunday Times crossword puzzles
– serving and caring for others (he was a physician)
– swimming
– clam digging
– endurance
– warm hugs
– the gift of deep conversation
– love
Happy Father’s Day.
–
Whatever we resist persists. Whatever we focus on expands and, when we’re resisting and struggling and complaining we are focusing on what is getting in our way and pissing us off. Our focus feeds the resistance to match our own determination to push past it. Pretty exhausting! We all do versions of the myth of Sisyphus every day, using up lots of energy in the process.
I’m all for doing things differently. I’m tired of pushing against, judging, feeling self-righteous and like a victim struggling against the current to get to shore or to town or just to a peaceful place in my heart.
So…. I have started telling a new story about resistance. I LOVE RESISTANCE and I’m proclaiming it to the universe. I am grateful every day for the push and pull it sets up in such a rhythmic and musical way. Resistance is my latest favorite dance and, as a dancer from way back, I welcome the spins and twirls, the push-aways and the pullbacks. I love finding and relaxing into exactly the right dance ‘frame’ and moving gracefully. I love coming from a place where leading and being led are part of the same package.
When I think about resistance this way I start to smile and have fun. I become a superhero (Lady Wonder) and leap over resistance, trick it, allow it to spin me and even catapult me in the direction I’m going. I can walk on by – singing the song. I affirm that there is plenty of space for all kinds of energies to co-exist in love and support.
When I encounter someone and am about to but heads, I will compliment their tie pattern or shoes and melt the resistance for a moment, or I’ll spin and know that we are really one spinning dervish energy. Or I’ll get passionate and do a tango or say, “later gator, my dance card is full.”
Creating a new story about resistance is doing me good. Maybe we just created resistance as an excuse to stay safe and stuck. What if resistance doesn’t exist? What if what we call resistance and place outside of ourselves were really drag, ie all the baggage we haul behind us all the time, dragging behind us and holding us back and slowing us down? What if resistance is just a projection of our inner drag onto the outside world?
Just imagine: if we did away with the idea that anything OUT THERE is preventing us from doing anything, then what’s the big deal? Could it be us? Could we be the resistance? If we are – we’re in luck. We can change our thoughts and the way we see things – and then the world changes.
Just for today I’m going to try on this new way of seeing resistance. Next time I feel like I’m pushing up against some person, place or thing I’m going to stop, breathe and say “WANNA DANCE?”
A long time practitioner of Yoga, I have recently started studying Yoga as taught by B.K.S. Iyengar. I am in heaven. Not only do I love the way my body is responding but I love the notion of intentionality and the call to monitor, measure and manage – in life as in Yoga. When I got home I found Light on Yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar’s classic text. What follows is a part of the introduction written by Yehudi Menuhin, a long-time student of Iyengar’s and one of the finest violinists of the 20th century.
“The practice of Yoga induces a primary sense of measure and proportion. Reduced to our own body, our first instrument, we learn to play it, drawing from it maximum resonance and harmony. With unflagging patience, we refine and animate every cell as we return daily to the attack, unlocking and liberating capacities otherwise condemned to frustration and death….
The practice of Yoga over the past fifteen years has convinced me that most of our fundamental attitudes to life have their physical counterparts in the body. Thus comparison and criticism must begin with the alignment of our own left and right sides to a degree at which even finer adjustments are feasible; or strength of will will cause us to start by stretching the body from the toes to the top of the head in defiance of gravity. Impetus and ambition might begin with the sense of weight and speed that comes with free-swinging limbs, instead of with the control of prolonged balance on foot, feet or hands, which gives poise. Tenacity is gained by stretching in various Yoga postures for minutes at a time, while calmness comes with quiet, consistent breathing and the expansion of the lungs. Continuity and a sense of the universal come with the knowledge of the inevitable alternation of tension and relaxation in eternal rhythms of which each inhalation and exhalation constitutes one cycle, wave or vibration among the countless myriads which are the universe.”
Namaste
Breathing