Choice Words...

Ever notice peoples choice of words... very revealing... everything from what they talk about to how they say it.  Example... "I don't know what happened... the thing just broke." Really??  It broke all by itself... or... YOU broke, albeit by accident, but You in fact did break it.  Hm.... lack of willingness to take responsibility (interesting).  Or how bout the all too inexplicable answer to "how are you"... No one person I know actually answers this question.  Fine, Good, Great, Another Day another dollar, soso... all usual answers.

Now, let's take this one step further... people all day long I hear saying things like, "I'm just not a good sleeper".. "my handwriting is terrible".. "I'm not the kind of person who... " (insert any crap on this one)... "I gain weigh just looking at sweets."

All examples of us CREATING our reality.  What if you decided to switch it up a bit... and stop the running dialogue/loop tape in your own head about not sleeping well.  Stop accepting that your reality is of some unknown making, in someone else's charge.  YOU are in charge.  So... all those things you are content with being not content with... decide what you want, and start to say THAT.  "I sleep so well at night I wake up not knowing where I am at times."  "I have so much money in the bank I don't know what to do with it all!"  Just try that one of for size.

You will realize not only how often you say these kinds of things out loud... but how often you say them to yourself... only fostering the design of things you don't want.  However the universe only hears what you SAY...  so change it!
PROACTIVE LIVING, I call it... wake up in the morning... and DECIDE right then.  "I am going to have a splendid day, full of opportunity, everything will just fall into place, I will have a happy good mood all day long... "

Remember what I always say... you can be specific BY ALL MEANS... ask for exactly what you want.  I did that and got the car of my dreams (in a used car lot, I think they didn't know what they had, I got lucky - whoops no such thing as luck... I CREATED IT!)  OR... you stay loose, and just ask for the essence of something (this way you give the Universe creative license to play)... I once asked for the time of my life... and I wound up backstage at a Paul Simon concert having dinner with the band.

Happy creating... MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!!

=========================================================================

This is hilarious... Dane Cook "The LIE"

The TRUTH about LIES...

Ok... topics that I blog about are usually the result of me walking the dog in the late evening, by Caribbean moonlight so bright you see your shadow, with a small glass of really nice whiskey on ice, looking up at the stars.  Sometimes I write as a result of something I read or experienced... and then other times I write as an anthem or quest for knowledge.  This one is a bit of all of the above...  

I recently experienced something that made me take pause and think about the TRUTH vs. LIES... why people lie, and what they CHOOSE to tell the truth about...  And while some people are innately fabulous tennis players, I have a NOSE for the truth, like a bloodhound.  This is a perfect moment when I can say,"See, this is why I'm grateful I have experienced some hard times in my life... it makes me wise enough to SEE the TRUTH!"  This is a great skill I have honed... or maybe I've always had it.  I used to ask my father questions incessantly.  I was the QUEEN of "WHY" as a kid... and he was the king of bullshit, and somehow I always knew... This is probably what create that insatiable quest in me to always seek the truth. 

I think I have it figured out... people tell lies for one of many reason.  But when I see people avoiding the TRUTH, it is almost always for this reason - they want to be loved.  And they think if they tell you the truth, you won't love them, so they tell you something that they THINK will make you love them... IE, your 7 year old and a broken dish... or a wife scratching the new car... or husband loosing his wedding band... or of course much more grave things... like criminal lies... but in the end, we all just want to be loved... 

No excuse however...  We should all just live a life we are proud of, and be involved in things that make us happy... and we will have the courage to live in the world in a TRUE way.   The first stop of course is simply seeing the TRUTH... being honest with ourselves.

People lie about everything from a friend looking fat in "these pants"...  to lovers affairs... to job experience on a resume.  And my statement is... "Isn't the truth always easier?"... it's the same equivalent as RUSHING. If you rush, you spill your coffee on yourself, now you have to change your shirt.. now you are running late for work... and you trip over the leg of your chair and fall and break your toe (happens I know).  So in the end... telling the truth is easier, it makes less work for yourself,  it's usually one answer.  And besides which, I know that I don't have some sort of unique talent...  most everyone has an instinctual gut feeling when you are being told a lie.  Ever notice when you ask someone a question, and they answer, and you KNOW it's crap... you ask that same question over and over and over again... That is your instincts saying... "REJECT BUZZER!" to that answer... 

In the end, compassion will tell me that people lie because they want to tell you something that will make you love them... whether it's your 7 year old and the broken dish, or a criminal about that robbery he didn't commit.  Regardless, developing a good instinct for the truth will help you surround yourself with people who live a life of integrity... people that are "clean" and good...people that contribute to your life with their light!  TRUST trust trust your instincts, and you will avoid having poisonous people in your life.  

I always refer to my "stove is hot" analogy.  If someone says the stove is hot when you are young, you touch it because you don't know what hot is.  However, as an adult, you know not only what hot is... but that the stove is hot... DON'T test your instincts just to be SURE the stove is hot... you can see the heat rising off it, and feel the heat when you are just inches away, now just walk away... 

Occasionally, I find myself testing my instincts, and saying to myself "oh I don't want to be too judgmental..."  But that JUDGMENT is what keeps us alive.  It's an eat or be eaten world out there.  That same instinct that tells us to not to trust someone, is that same instinct an antelope has when they feel a LION watching them... and they RUN!  On that note...

Cheers... here's to the truth... and always telling it... UNLESS of course you are planning a surprise party... THEN by all means... LIE.  LOL

+         +          +          +       +         +          +          +        +         +          +          +          +          +

When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken, or cease to be honest.

-Unknown

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

-Henry David Thoreau

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

-Mark Twain

Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.

-Benjamin Disraeli

From error to error, one discovers the entire truth.

-Sigmund Freud

The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies.

-Thomas Jefferson

Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hablo Espanol?? Un poco...

I have been learning to speak Spanish lately from the local Venezuelan Embassy... great experience.  The first question the teacher asked us was "why do we want to learn to speak Spanish?"  Everywhere I have lived, it would have behooved me to speak Spanish, given that I lived in places where there was a giant population of Latin Americans ... plus half the planet speaks Spanish.  So NOW I am finally learning...

I thought it would be easier, or rather I suppose I had hoped something had seeped in vicariously through osmosis since one of my best friends is Spanish, one is Mexican, and I lived in or around a predominantly Latin American community for 7 years or so. But I was mistaken... and to add insult to injury it's supposed to a BEGINNERS class that I'm in, HOWEVER most of the folks in the class you find out lived in Spain, or Columbia, or Mexico, but they want to learn the "proper way to speak" and they consider themselves beginners in that regard... yeah, my foot.  So the class moves MUY RAPIDO to say the least...

And while I would consider myself a star student, you know, front and center of class, glasses on, notebook, dictionary, and iPhone translator at the ready... always trying my best to answer questions. But there are days when the whole process really escapes me and I get entirely lost.  It doesn't happen often... but you put me in class of not-so-beginners, add the obnoxious German women answering their cell phones, add the funny little Dutch lady that talks TO HERSELF! loudly, then add the crazy Colombian guy that shouts out answers...  and it feels like the perfect storm.

So the other day, we were learning how to conjugate verbs and "food" vocab, and the teacher wanted to do an exercise where he went around the room, and we had to answer a random question about food... but he says "we go very fast"... meaning he wants you to do your best with what is at the tip of your tongue... testing us... books closed.  And because I'm at the front, he starts with me, big mistake, I need more than a second to gather my thoughts and few examples from the class always assist me with my answer.

Well this day was beyond my usual limits with the pace of the class and all the "chatty chuchas" in the class... and when the teacher asked me a question I actually now needed not only a second to come up with my answer, but first a minute to fully comprehend his question.  And when I asked him to repeat it, and the look on my face revealed I clearly still did not understand, one of my colleagues frustratedly shouted at me what the teacher was asking.  This incensed me, because I don't want to be given the answer, I WANT to learn.  Well needless to say the teacher could tell I was about either burst into tears or have my head pop off... I couldn't believe how frustrated I was, and how strongly I reacted.  NOW I finally get to my point... my reaction...

I have obviously been on this life long quest of learning how to live a healthy emotional & physical life.  And at this point in my journey, I now have some "tells" for when I need to pause, and take a step back.  This is one of them.  In moments when I come up against something, and have a very strong reaction, I know HERE is a place I have a lot of learning to do.  Example, if someone said to me, I had three arms - nope... no reaction, simply not true, I KNOW it.  However, when this arrogant woman at the gym made a flip comment about my trainer making me do all these (in her opinion) stupid exercises, and it not making a difference, I had a reallllly strong reaction.  I have been working really hard at my health and struggled with my weight my entire life, so this was difficult for me to dismiss.  What I really needed to look at was why I was reacting so strongly, why so insecure in that moment... Good self analysis to do... good "white lab coat" moment.  Same goes for this moment in the Spanish class.

I guess my point is to share something I have learned in one form or another, from everyone from my various yoga teachers, meditation instructors, analysts, and friends...and that is, when you have a really strong reaction to something or push against something with all your might... you may want to pause, and see what is at the root of that reaction, inevitably, it will have nothing to do with Spanish Class.... if ya know what mean. Nothing to do with my fitness...  but potentially a core insecurity, that needs to be worked out.

Ok... enough "deep thoughts" for the day.... let's go watch Nadal on center court for a bit... and then cheer on USA in the World Cup!!! WOOOHOOO!!!

Cheers all... here's to happy extinguishing of heated moments... ADIOS!

.............................................................................................................................................................

IMAGINE (John Lennon style...)

I was thinking today about the concept of "want"... watching Isner and Mahut at Wimbledon, for the 3rd day (longest tennis match in history), both equally and energetically wanting to win this match... It's interesting to see the energy of one of the opponents inevitably leak out. One opponent has the freedom, unwavering and unabashed desire for the win, while the other inevitably feels not worthy, beaten, and can not clearly and really IMAGINE the win. Imagine having it, knowing it, and feeling it.

The key to this is like I said in an earlier post about wanting, there has to be a freedom in it. When you go into a Mexican restaurant, you EASILY order the fajitas and a Corona, and go back to your conversation munching tortillas chips and guacamole. Eventually, your order comes to your table, no problem. You never not once worried that potentially it wouldn't come, or rather maybe you would get spaghetti marinara instead. It's effortless...

Ah EFFORTLESS... now I start thinking of the things that are effortless... that we just plainly and EFFORTLESSLY expect, like the fajitas the beer. I'm sure there is a list of things you KNOW you are good at, things that are effortless in your life. When I was a child, I remember not trying just being really good at riding horses. I just LOVED it and my JOY assisted in making me great at it. I have a few girlfriends that are thin thin thin... and can eat anything. Key here is they believe that, and so it is. I believe I can just look at food and get heavy... AND SO IT IS. As Abraham Hicks says... You Ask and so you shall receive. The energy in the universe will concede to assist you in anything you imagine. Trouble here is that the effortless things we imagine are often times things we WORRY about. And because we imagined them so clearly/worried about them/pictured them/observed our current state... we received them... Debt, car accidents, failed love affairs... etc.

What if we took a more proactive approach to life, instead of thinking that life happens to us, let's have creative license and do a bit of design work. Deciding at the beginning of the day how things will go. Like the other day with the coffee/necklace story I told, somewhere in my brain I decided, it was going to be a rough day... and SO IT WAS. Ugh. I received comment on that post that painted the picture of my perfect day... and THAT is how we SHOULD wake up... like it's on purpose. Ready for the world to fall at our feet, with genuine confidence.

Now... It's one thing to imagine things and people and places you want in your life... and it's a whole other thing to embody that feeling of having it. You must feel it as well... just as much as you feel the things you worry about. They have equal strength. Something people don't consider when examining this concept... you might not believe in the kinetic energy of things... but think of the last thing you worried about, and how it manifested over and over in your life. Scary to think about - means you have to own the responsibility of creating those things in your life, just as much as you own the recognition for the good stuff... woops...

So now that we have worked out properly IMAGINING our greatest desires... one footnote...beware... a DESPERATE wanting will keep things from you. Because in the DESPERATION, there is a belief you don't REALLY deserve it... it won't ever reallllly come to you.

So... feel it, freely, effortlessly, and knowingly. And STOP WORRYING, 'cause you'll get that stuff too... plus STRESS is sooo bad for your body, spare yourself. Please...

Cheers! Here's to DESIGNING your every desire, every day!

Light it up!
IMAGINE!

IMAGINE by John Lennon

Wimbledon 2010: John Isner v Nicolas Mahut (The Finale To The Longest Ma...

Making of Day & Night

EDDIE IZZARD : Haircuts n' Latin - Definite Article '96 [2]

Domino Effect...

Everyone knows how dominos works... you set them up on their ends... line them up... knock the first one, and in a wave, they all come crashing down.

Same goes true with energy... if you have a little bad energy, mojo, attitude (name not matters)... it will lead to a bigger, deeper worse "bad" feeling... if you are a little happy, you find that it grows to joy, and jubilation... (if you've been reading my blog at all you will already know of my affection for the study of metaphysical science and appreciate my love of energy...)

This might be a new concept to you... however,  ever notice that day that you wake and stub your toe on the corner of the bed... the day seems to just go downhill from there?  I am aware of this concept... and still I let it get the best of me sometimes...

Usually I catch myself... the catch is laughing the minute one of those "not so great things" happens... always looking for the happiness, not focusing on the unfortunate events in life.  Put a theoretical block behind that first domino so the rest can NOT fall.

However, this morning... to my demise, I woke up... well wait, first I ate leftovers too late, watched sportscenter for too long... and got to sleep far to late... THEN I woke up cranky, with not enough sleep.  Here is the CRUCIAL moment... I CHOSE to do all that crap... my decision... gotta own it, that's important.   Now here I am, cranky, not enough sleep, get to the gym... trip on the treadmill, brilliant... shower ready for work, get to work, bend over the coffee table to prep a perfect cup o' joe... managing to dip my very long necklace in the cup, but didn't notice until I stood up straight, out came the necklace splaying brown coffee all over my white dress, Jackson Polluck style...  it only gets worse, now trying to clean up my dress, I make myself late to a meeting... blah blah blah.  You see the domino effect I created... at any moment in that disaster, I could have stopped, and RESET!  But I didn't... yet another CHOICE!  I kept getting more and more frustrated... yuck.

So where does that leave us??  Hopefully, always honing that awareness for those first few dominos, in an effort to reset... laugh IMMEDIATELY if not sooner... and start the dominos cascading in the other direction... JOY.

I read somewhere that finding "fail safe, happy making" music is good to have in your "survival kit"... or a mental list of (forgive me) happy places... things that you can go to when shit hits the preverbal fan... a vacation spot, great meal, a great moment with a friend...

Remember... the responsibility bit in all this... life doesn't just HAPPEN to us... we have some creative license here, believe it or not.

So cheers... here's to the domino effect...  that is stopping them, and sending them descending in the other direction...

clink clink clink....

ah.

Eddie Izzard in Definite Article: Vitamins & Fruit

Lifting weights...

So recently I have been training my butt off... literally.  Finally living in Curacao has afforded me the time I needed to finally get my physical health in order... and that takes more time than the average American work schedule allows.  The Caribbean life style however, no problem making time to work out.  I have a trainer that works me pretty well every day for 2 hours... fantastic..... I spent my 20's working.. that's it.  Now, being 33, it's time I got in shape for myself physically of course but emotionally as well.

And of course now I'm hooked... I own a heart monitor, several pairs of exercise shoes, and read women's health magazines constantly.  It's official... I'm transformed... and really appreciate good health. I found myself standing outside the grocery store the other day, holding a 40 lb. bag of dog food, and having a 20 minutes chat... no problem.  Physical health makes being in the world easier... you recover from trips on the sidewalk and bumps into your desk much easier... and less often...

And while I've always been on a mental health crusade of becoming a more emotionally balanced person... I am learning yet another level of this that is attached to your physical health.  And it makes sense, that your body would be a physical manifestation of your emotional state.

Along the natural course of things... organically I am reminded of some "emotional" weight that needs lifting as well... there's a reason they call it "weight lifted off your shoulders..."

To do so, I think of all my efforts that assist in the process of relieving emotional weight... meditation, yoga, exercise, journaling, being outside, or even something as simple as practicing taking my time and not rushing.  There are of course all the educational forums of self improvements, such as seminars, books, workshops.  Four words... "Been There, Done That."  And I circle back to all of that education often.  One thing that came to mind recently was something I learned from one of those many books and seminars etc... is that clutter is bad...  Any Kind.  One book suggests making a list of all those things that bug you in your personal space... because it actually takes away from your positive attitude and distracts you from that which you dream of...

I made that list once.... it had things on it like the broken light switch cover, the stack of bills, the chipped paint in the living room... and I took one whole weekend... and fixed it ALL.  It was an amazing feeling... Now when I looked around I felt good... not annoyed.  This helped manifest a lot of wonderful things in my life at the time.

Fast forward to today, there isn't near much as clutter as then, however, there are things that still distract. But at the level I am now, that clutter is not as obvious to identify... they're cleverly hidden.

Well today, I stayed home from work sick (knackered from an allergy attack which is always a symptom of lack of rest... which equals clutter in my brain)... and got a list going... lots of work stuff, stack of paperwork, personal relationship connections needed updating... things that had WEIGHED me down... things I thought of occasionally, that brought me down, that I wasn't proud of... that made me feel bad because I had NOT dealt with them.

Well that's all changed... I dealt with all but one... and I feel great... momentum for that last one... and movement forward.  I'm free to just progress... and not worry about the past.   So... ultimately, I lifted some weights today... without even going to the gym... and it affords me the freedom to just enjoy the future, and possibilities...

Now of course there are few stones left unturned.  However, when you write out that list, it manages to make those things seem so insignificant... and easy to resolve... and with the momentum I have from today... easy peasy parcheesi!!

So... lesson today... make your list.... and LIFT SOME WEIGHTS!  It's a choice.  Make it... be free... move forward!

HAPPY TRAILS!!!

Alls Fair in Love and War....

Maybe because I realized it's Memorial Day in the States... or because of a few situations I recently witnessed... I was prompted to examine this concept. The statement of "alls fair in love and war" traces its origin back to Renaissance English poet and playwright John Lyly's 'Euphues' (1578). The quote was "The rules of fair play do not apply in love and war. " 

Funny enough though, I see these two concepts overlapping quite a bit... war in relationships.... and relationships at war.  All kinds of relationships... countries, friends, lovers, coworkers... another quote comes to mind... and that is "Survival of the Fittest." 

I have a theory... as a constant observer of the world and those that inhabit it... and of my own situations... I consider myself to be a "Social Scientist."  I theoretically put my white lab coat on, get the glasses and the clip board out, and analyze what goes right, or for that matter wrong, in every day life... considering all life experiences as one big experiment with different variables. 

That said, I think the rules get thrown out the window in these two situations, love and war, because there is inevitably a vulnerability on some side if not both sides of the situation, both lovers or both combat war fronts.  When someone or someones are vulnerable, there is no telling what they will do to survive.  Just like a mother bear, no matter how much she is not a meat eater, she will still rip you in half just for the sake of keeping her young safe (this example being LOVE).

As I see it, once you are vulnerable, you feel powerless, and this can happen when you're out of tanks and AK47's, or when you give up too much of yourself emotionally.  As they say, knowledge is power, and if you know someone's or some army's weakness, you can attack, if need be.  People tend to act a bit nuts when they know they're vulnerable... that mama bear being a perfect example.  Same thing if you're in any kind of relationship, vulnerability will make you feel powerless, the consequences of which no one knows.

I recently watched someone in a work relationship go a little hay wire because they had volunteered too much information about them-self to a colleague, and that colleague used it against them... madness ensued.  Same thing with a lover I once had... he said I love you.... and I wasn't there yet, so, he is vulnerable... and behaved quite badly... 

I guess in the end, you will never truly be able to manage these situations, apart from having compassion for all involved.  Because now you understand, that the most vulnerable situations... that involve the most "vulnerability"... can cause unreasonable behavior.  Hence the statement, alls fair in love and war... because you instinctively have compassion for those in those situations... afterall, we've all been there... at war in a relationship... for love of country or love of family or love of a lover....

... take John Lennon's advice... Give Peace a Chance.... recognize when you feel vulnerable, and make a different choice.  Don't try to self protect, or act rashly... just be honest... it will probably result in more respect and connection than you anticipated... be not afraid... it's a good thing to connect with people...

Eddie Izzard - Learning French

Screaming inside my head...

Ever have one of those moments... when something happens or someone happens, and you are "not allowed" to react... so you are SCREAMING inside your head?  You don't hear a word they're saying... all you can think (I mean scream inside your head) is "DON'T SHOW EMOTION... STAY CALM... IT WILL BE OVER SOON!"  

I pride myself on being a fairly calm, (ok, fine excitable at times...) but able to handle stress... mostly a jovial, but together person.  However, there is a category of items that GET me.  Where I am unable to stay inside my own God Damn skin!?!?  It's a shame too, because in those moments, you typically need your MOST amount "cool" you have stored up. 

I once heard Richard Dreyfus say in the movie "The Goodbye Girl"... "Just when I need my ego the most, it locks itself in the john."  That's perfect. 

So.  This is my anthem to all those like me that struggle with this lack of cool in times of need.  Let's pool our collective circumstances... take one last look at them... and BURN 'EM!  No more... commit to, every time we encounter one of those dreaded moments... we summon our collective coolness and courage... and boldly fight on!

I have decided, and know to be true, that our reaction, is really a choice.  We have to move forward more proactively, design the moments... You all know as well as I do that you can see them coming at you... your boss with a funny look on his face, a devastatingly handsome man... in that VERY moment... DECIDE... you WILL have your MOST amount of coolness available to you... and be as calm as you are standing on a street corner daydreaming and sipping a latte.

Deal? deal.  

 Whew.

JUST A BIT OF FUNNY

Laws of Nature

I got to thinking about human nature today. It's funny how we operate. Just like magnets. Or as all the scientist I have read would say, bodies of energy: same thing. When conditions are right, we attract or repel perfectly. But then again the size of magnets need to be considered. A giant one could pull another smaller magnet from across a room or send it there if flipped.

Now that we've worked that out, seems to me (and some "scientists") humans operate similarly. Tricky. Where does this leave us? Searching for magnets... flipped "our" way! Some theorists call this concept the Law of Attraction. Like the Law of Gravity, it is infalible and unwaivering. It suggests that our energy (however vast you define this) will draw things/people/places to us or rather, away from us.

Now, I have never been one for laws or rules, but you can't argue that if you threw a ball into the air, it is true that it will ALWAYS come back down. So I suppose Law of Gravity, ya got me there. As for Law of Attraction, this one has me sold fairly well too. The trick I think is really understanding your energy force field and what it will do to draw or push anything to or away from you.

Possibly really knowing the power of your thoughts and the truth of them. You can tell yourself over and over again you are ready for a romance, however deep down you don't feel ready, or maybe feel you deserve it.... the outcome = no relationship. The energy of those thoughts keeps it away from you. Same thing for money... Or success... Or happiness....

When it comes to choosing who will be in your life, I recommend valuing their "Yeeee-Haaaaaaa!" quality above all others.

Changing what you have, comes from changing who you are.

And changing who you are comes from changing what you think.

Food for thought... hmmmm I'm starved!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Caracasbaaiweg,Jan Thiel,Netherlands Antilles

DAYS GONE BY

Soooo.... Long time eh?  Well LOT'S has happened... and recently I was reading a really fun blog... and thought,"Wait, don't I have a blog?"  "YEAH!" And it was always so fun to have it as a release... so here goes... I'm back!

Where to start... I moved to Curacao... and yes, that picture is actually what it looks like... un-friggin-believable!  I think the biggest difference between living in the US (otherwise known as the "World's Most Largest Biggest Stinkin' Hampster Wheel") and a caribbean island off the coast of Venezuela is the lifestyle... 

My new BFF said (in her broken English mixed with Dutch, we'll call it... Dinglish?) of the US that it's so competitive, it's one big competition... interesting new way of saying the old adage "keeping up with the Jones'."  And she couldn't be more right. I didn't know that that concept really had infected every moment, every intention, every motivation.  Faster, Bigger, Further, More more more.... ahhh.  

Here people live for "fucking off."  When can they sit... just sit.  I asked once what there was to do at a particular location... and the response was "sit... and lounge (another word for sitting)... oh and drink... or chat."  So basically sitting was the new activity I needed to learn.  So to practice I went and purchased a Hammock.  And with my "handy" drill.... hang that baby between two posts on my porch and SAT.   Just sat, no drink, no book, no electronic device (computer, ipod, iphone or kindle).   The conclusion: sitting is a wonderful pastime... and a close second is cloud watching... this is terrifically splendid.  But I digress... as in the 7 months of living here s I've now learned LOTS of new things... relaxing, drinking, dancing... to name a few.  

That said... I should probably get back to it... there is a cold beer, waiting by a lonely hammock swinging in the breeze and clouds just itching to be watched....