Great anniversary outing

Stu and I spent today, our 16th wedding anniversary, together on a FUN outing. We started out the day at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. The Chihuly: The Nature of Glass exhibit is in its final days at the garden. We saw a number of incredibly beautiful pieces. We actually left the garden before noon because the heat finally got to us. We definitely went prepared with hats, water, snacks, cameras etc. Stu rented a scooter to ride around on. By the time we left, I wished I had rented one as well. We should have gone to see the exhibit earlier in the spring but it was still worth it to go. We both realized that a night tour of the garden would be even more beautiful.

After leaving the garden we went to one of the best meals I have ever had. We went to Lon's restaurant at the Hermosa. Thank you Danny White, one of our trading mentors, for the recommendation. We had a leisurely two hour lunch with a nice bottle of wine, lots of ambience, and as I said some of the best food I have had in a long time. Certainly the best I have ever had in the Valley of the Sun.

A beautiful way to celebrate another GREAT year together.

In joyful partnership,

Cathy

cathy.the.teacher@gmail.com

Poem from sailing days

When Stu and I first retired in 1997, we lived aboard our 38' sailboat and sailed the east coast and the caribbean. We always planned to spend 6 months a year on the boat and 6 months a year in Costa Rica or Mexico. We had no other home for two years except the boat and a few casitas.

In preparing for the live aboard life style we read many books. Must of which we still own. Just for old times sake. The poem below was one that came in to my life as our retirement date approached.

For the truth is that I already know as much about my fate as I need to know. The day will come when I will die. So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my alloted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed by fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze. Author Unknown

We chose then as we still do dip and soar in the breeze. This goes for sailing as well as other areas in our life.

In joyful partnership,

Cathy

Discovering Your Purpose

Below is a link to a site I found to help you discover your purpose. He has a few related links that are good as well. He claims you can do this in 20 minutes. Even if you can't, I think it is a good exercise to journal about and talk to your friends about. Hope you find this helpful. Again, share with whoever you think would be interested. I decided to get this posted on the blog today. I'll post on the web site later. It is still a work in progress.

Discovering Your Purpose

In joyful partnership,

Cathy

cathy.the.teacher@gmail.com

Thursday at the computer club

One last thing, I will be at the Sun City computer club on Thursday mornings to offer help to anyone who needs it. My plan is to be there every Thursday from 9 am to 11 am unless I am teaching or out of town.

I will post a comment to this thread to let you know if I will NOT be there. Otherwise, stop by and see me. If nothing else we can shoot the breeze. I'll also be posting this on my web site when I get it up and running. I am committed to having the Cathy The Teacher web site up before June 14th. I'll keep you posted.

In joyful partnership,

Cathy

cathy.the.teacher@gmail.com

Gone fishing

Stu and I are off to go fly fishing with our fishing club. We are going to Hawley Lake in the White Mountains to have some fun. That means I am off the clock, computer and cell phone.

Have a GREAT Memorial Day week-end.

In joyful partnership,

Cathy

cathy.the.teacher@gmail.com

Past conversations for me...Habitat for Humanity

This morning the universe gave me time off from journaling to find something I already had. Finding things I already have has happened a lot lately. I am creating my office/bedroom sanctuary, front porch sanctuary, art room, and I have re-purposed many things lately.

Back to what I found. I found one of the most powerful conversations I have ever had the honor and privilege to play in. It was a rolled up on a flip chart that had hundreds of pictures I had collected. It was for a talk about "Why Do You Love Habitat?" I use to give this talk when I traveled around in my Habitat world. That is why it was in the flip chart tube. The pictures were in excellent shape. They were all mounted on colored paper and pasted on a flip chart. I was able to do my dog and pony show for Habitat just about anywhere the spirit called me.

Well I took all the pictures off the flip chart pages with the colored paper that I used to make a mat and put each flip chart page in a zip lock bag so I could corral that group of pictures and that thought. I now have them placed under my old "live aboard" books. I knew they would come in handy for something. I used these to flatten out the pictures. Once flattened out I am going to scan and put this in to a Powerpoint presentation and offer to do this presentation again for Habitat for Humanity. I may do something else with the actual pictures as well. Hmm!

One reason we left Habitat for Humanity International is because we didn't want to live in Americus, Georgia which was the only place you could play at the time with HFHI. Four years of that was enough. Even though I met some wonderful people there and had a GREAT time. I even got in touch with my Christianity there. But Stu and I left Americus and moved back to Texas ready to start over without Habitat. That's when Stu got a job with them as Affiliate Support Manager for southeast Texas and Louisiana. I also went back to work for them as an extended volunteer doing the accounting help desk. Life happened. Reorgs happened and full time Habitat was in our past.

We still play with this community. We are even on the Subject Expert Team (SET) and get to participate from time to time when they remember we are out here. I am and always have been committed to having the Habitat for Humanity conversation live outside the little boxes that "they" have to put you in to get you to play in their game. Even though it is an incredibly BIG game. It covers almost every county in the world. I don't think they are building in outer space yet. But like I say I don't play there everyday anymore so I am not sure.

So watch out Habitat, I am back in the game. Even if you don't have a place BIG enough for me to play. A place where I can be free to have fun and play and share Habitat the way I want to share Habitat. This revamped presentation is going to live in a way and in such a place that will call Habitat to be in a new way for me and others who love Habitat. To be a new way that never existed before. You know how I know...because I said so.

I'm back.....

Ya, ya, ya but they did this to me

You're saying ya but so and so did this and that to me. Just get over it and move on.

One of my spiritual guides Marianne Williamson says it best in two of her recent podcasts. A link to these is included below. I do not know how these links will work and/or not work but if you are interested give it a try. If they don't work, first sign up for Marianne's free daily podcasts for yourself on Oprah.com. Just look under the Radio tab and select Marianne Williamson and sign up for her daily e-mails. Second, contact me and we will attempt to figure out how to get them to work. If you use these links you will get an advertisement from Oprah.com at the beginning of each podcast.

Anger and Revenge 5/19/09

The Big Mistake 5/20/09

Just listen to both of these and see if you have it in you to open up your heart and to forgive. I believe it is only yourself you are hurting when you don't forgive. When you hold grudges. When you can't forgive the past, present, or future.

Would love to hear how you feel and what you think. There is a comment field at the bottom of each post in the middle. Post your comments here or send me an e-mail if you would rather not share your comments in public so to speak.

In joyful partnership,

Cathy

cathy.the.teacher@gmail.com

Using your best judgment....that's a good thing

We've been taught since we were babies to use our judgment or at least to try to use good judgment. In all likelihood using your good judgment has kept you out of a lot of trouble in your life just like it has me.

The kind of judgment I'll be sharing about today is not the "good" kind. It's the kind where you are critical about everything somebody else does. Where your way is right and their way is wrong not matter if it is about cooking mushrooms, making tea, or your sports bra. Believe me I am talking from first hand experience here about some of my dear friends and family who often think they are right about everything. It's there way or the highway. This may happen more then we care to remember in our close relationships and with our families.

What I want to say sometimes to people like this is who appointed you king or queen of the universe but I only just recently made that up. It's ok if I wear that sports bra etc. etc. etc. Lighten up a little bit. Chill out. Don't worry be happy. Life is too short. Forgive me and forgive yourself we are all doing the best we can. I love you but there might just be more than one way to do it and I'll betcha there is no "right" way to do it.

Hopefully, I've made my point for the day but I would love to hear your opinion, questions, comments. Just post them right here or send me an e-mail and remember to roll with the flow.

In joyful partnership,

Cathy

cathy.the.teacher@gmail.com

Blog is ready for prime time viewing

Well I just declared my blog ready for prime time viewing. Drum roll please. The blog name and link are: Ramblings of a Gypsy Soul

Hopefully, you will be able to access my blog and find it interesting enough to come back and visit on a regular basis. If you have trouble accessing let me know. We'll figure it out. Please, please, please feel free to comment right on the blog about anything I write or say. Ask question. Tell me I am crazy. Point me in a different direction or whatever else you have to share. If you want to do this in private, send me an e-mail at cathy.the.teacher@gmail.com. There should be a small Comment link in the middle at the bottom of each post for you to leave your thoughts and ideas right here in the blog.

I would love to hear from you. Let's have some fun and make a difference in our lives and the lives of others.

In joyful partnership,

Cathy

Cathy the Teacher

P.S. My Web page will be up soon. But I've been running and playing pretty hard and fast lately so the blog is it for now.

You can't build possibility on top of "do do"

When I am making major transitions in my life one thing I've found to be most important to get myself started in a new direction is to complete the past. This is especially true if you didn't want the "do do" that came in to your life in the first place or you feel guilty about changing your mind and going another direction. There was a time that I didn't know what the word completion really meant. I didn't have the distinction. It is one of the most powerful tools in my in my tool belt.

Let me give you a few examples from my past. I have been blessed to have two soul mates in my life. I was in a relationship with the first one for nearly ten years. It was a VERY powerful relationship. He is to this day one of the great teachers and coaches of my life. One day he just walked out of my life and we have never seen each other since. You can imagine there were a few tears and sleeplessness nights. Now I can't say that there weren't some good reason for the break up but it mostly had to do with building the relationship on a rocking, unstable foundation. Even though we have never seen each other since, we continued to communicate by phone on a regular basis for nearly two years after the break up and are still friends to this day.

During that time God sent me an angel named George in the form of a bank president who introduced me to Landmark Education. Over time the distinction completion began to take hold and through the help of one of my newly found friends, Nancy, I was able to put the past behind me. My first soul mate and I were able to talk about the good and the bad of our relationship and to forgive ourselves and each other to be best of our abilities for the pain and harm we had caused each other . We wrote a powerful completion declaration which both of us signed. After the declaration was signed Nancy and I even took it another step further and had a burning ceremony to burn some things from his and my past together.

After that I was ready to create a new even more powerful relationship with someone new. Within just a few months I met and fell in love with Stu, soul mate number two. Isn't it funny how things work out like that. How Stu's and my relationship all happened is a story for another day. Understanding completion and taking steps to have that show up for you is a powerful way to put the past behind you and begin a future that you couldn't even have imagined.

Here's another example. When Stu and I retired in 1997 we went sailing off in to the sunset on our 38' Irwin sailboat. That was going to be our retirement for the rest of our lives. We were going to spend half a year on the boat and half a year in Costa Rica. Well we had no other home for nearly two years. After our first trip to Costa Rica we decided Mexico might be better for the off season because we could drive our car. Well we were sitting down in Mexico when we both got that what we were doing was "not it".

We went back to Houston, had the boat shipped from Florida to Houston and started to create a new life. Now we could have beaten ourselves up for all the money, time and energy we put in to the boating life but we talked it out and forgave ourselves for the money we had spent and the dreams we had lost. After that we set out to create our new life and that is when Habitat for Humanity came in to our lives. We fell in love with this organization almost from the start. We worked and/or volunteered full time for Habitat for nearly eight years. We still do volunteer project work for them on occasion. Again, when you powerfully complete the past it's funny how quickly things move forward to an even more powerful future that you couldn't even have imagined when you started.

Look at who you need to forgive including yourself and others to move forward. I'll talk more about forgiveness in the next few days. But for now, please share with me your experiences about forgiving the past and moving forward. How have you been able to do that? Have you been able to move forward with or without forgiveness? What have your experiences been in this area? You can put your comments right here in this blog or e-mail them to be privately.

In joyful partnership,

Cathy

cathy.the.teacher@gmail.com

Thank you for listening

Thank you for being interested enough to listen to my ramblings. You may be interested in some parts of this and not others.

I once took a course with Landmark Education called Listenings. The people in the course were just listening to a very powerful group of course leaders create the future of the organization. They believe that a powerful listening creates you to BE someone bigger than you would have been without that person's listening. You've probably had friends who think you are more powerful than what you think of yourself.

So it is my honor to have you listening and I believe your listening will make a difference in the converation for us all. I would love it if you would do more than listen. My request of you is to participate. If you find something that interests you or that you disagree with let me know. Let me know what you have a passion for doing as well as what you just have fun doing. If you want to share about your journey and how these conversations relate to what you are up to or not up to that would be GREAT also. Let these conversations add value for us all.

If you ever have any questions about anything I write, please feel free to send me an e-mail, give me a call or let me know and we can talk in person.

Life is a magical mystery tour. So, join me in my commitment to have fun and make a difference in my life and the lives of others. I am back in to music in a BIG way so here is a link to a YouTube video Magical Mystery Tour by the Beatles. It is a GREAT song and one of my favorites.

Thanks again fellow traveler. Let's have some fun and play together.


In joyful partnership.

Cathy

Rumors of Stu's demise are greatly exaggerated

Stu wants me to share with you that rumors of his demise are greatly exaggerated. Yes, he is not doing as well as he use to. I think that goes for all of us. He is on oxygen at night and carries it with him some times in case he chooses to use it. He is still able to get on the treadmill at the gym and exercise. He just told me to tell you that the doctor said he can't play ultimate frisbee anymore. He and I have both lost some weight this year so that is making life a little easier for us.

At a recent seminar I attended, I did get in touch with my feelings about his declining health. I've always know I'll probably have to travel this road without him but I just am not and wasn't planning on it anytime soon. He and I have been together for nearly 18 years. Who'd a thunk it. It has been and continues to be an incredible relationship. He wraps my gypsy soul in his loving arms.

Thank you God for allowing Stu and I to share this journey together. Thank you for the blessing he is in my life. May I be able to keep him, his wonderful mind, great wit, and incredible sense of humor with me as long as possible.

When and if it comes time to travel this road alone, I know I will get by with a little help from my friends.

Thank you friends and fellow travelers.

Cathy

The hits just keep on coming

I had some concerns when I first started thinking about writing this blog. Concerns about what I might say everyday. Whether it would be important enough or anyone would care. Whether I would have enough good ideas ya da ya da ya da. Well the universe has been broadcasting on the Cathy channel recently. I haven't had a chance to count the ideas yet (which I am writing down) but it is a few hundred and the hits just keep on coming. Now I just have to categorize all that music. I know there is a book in there somewhere and maybe a seminar or two.

Love to all my fellow travelers.

Cathy

Magical mystery tour

Got my blog and web page set up today. Now I just have to figure out what to do with all of this. Lately its been a magical mystery tour but I'm up for the ride.

Publish Post

I am committed to doing what I love, having fun doing it, helping other people along the way to do the same thing, and making money doing it.

My second attempt at blogging

I've been journaling a lot lately and I knew I needed to start this blog. Lots of changes going on in my life...but there is a time for being and a time for doing. So I just did it. Much more to come.