Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve probably heard or read something about “Occupy Wall Street” or “Occupy–insert-your-home-town-here”.  I just read an interesting blog today about Occupy Los Angeles by Ryan Torok.  I think this might be one of my favorite write ups about Occupy info thus far because it reveals a response to our question “what the hell are all these people talking about” re: Occupy insert-name-here.  I’ll leave it to you to read Ryan’s blog or watch his video interview to get the message.

Out of the five definitions I found for the word “occupy” on Dictionary.com, my favorite was this one:

For those of you who may be ignorant to the whole scaling of the gums procedure, it is when the Periodontist cleans your teeth and gums down to the root. Usually, such as my case for example, your dental hygienist/dentist will recommend that you visit a Periodontist for their opinion if you’ve got some deep pockets (where the gum  pocket is deep and exposed around the tooth).

Why, you may be asking, is this Life Coach blogging about a gum scaling procedure from hell?  Well, I would reply, that is such a good question.  One of the topics of coaching that comes up almost immediately is “how well are you caring for yourself”.  You might be surprised to know how many people, very successful, intelligent, competent people, who do not care for themselves….very….well.  One area that very busy executives can allow to slip by is their teeth.  Now once you’ve realized the error of your ways and get into a regular dental regime of brushing twice a day and flossing at least once a day plus getting your teeth cleaned by a professional twice a year…..well….let me put it this way…you become hyper sensitive to those around you who do not. I won’t even go into the kissing part…bleh, bleh! bleh!!!

For some of us, in spite of having good dental hygiene, you may have been dealt the cards for naturally poor teeth or gums like I have been.  I haven’t had to worry about deep pockets for at least 8 years, so I’ve been lucky.  I don’t know why when my hygienist recommended the Periodontist this time, that I didn’t remind her of the good one that I had seen previously. But I didn’t and I trusted their judgment.  Besides, the Office Manager said he was really cute!    How did things end up going down hill for me?  Well, for one thing the two Halcion tablets that they gave me before the procedure didn’t seem to be effecting me in the slightest (I was able to read an entire four pages about Steve Jobs in Time Magazine) so the assistant gave me one more.

The next thing I knew, I had my face completely covered except for my mouth and the Periodontist was shooting Novocaine into my gums. Now, I admit, the Dentist I’ve been going to for at least twenty years now is really, really good and spoils his patients wonderfully but I don’t remember the Periodontist telling me he was going to shoot my gums, nor did he gently give a little bit to numb the area at first and then give the deeper one.  Plus, he didn’t tell me that I was going to feel a tug.  It was very uncomfortable.  At one point I remember trying to grab his hand so he couldn’t hurt me anymore and him telling me (nicely) not to grab his hand and me telling him I wanted to hit him because he was hurting me.  Then I told him that he might want to watch how my Dentist does it because he never hurts me.  Okay, I know that was like committing hari kari suicide with this Periodontist. In fact, no one from his office has called to check up on me 24 hours later….

I’m sharing this with you dear readers not to scare you away from taking care of yourselves but rather to encourage you to ask a whole lot of questions of the doctor/periodontist before you have a procedure so that you can get a feel for them and then LISTEN TO YOUR GUT (or your heart, or mind) and pay attention to any little inklings that you get.

Oh, and they gave me some pain medication to take after the procedure that caused me to throw up bile twice this morning.  Not sure what that was about except that when I googled the medication it did say if you feel nauseous when taking it to take it with food.  Really, though I don’t seem to need any kind of pain medication today.  So that’s good.  I’ll give that to the Periodontist. My Australian Shepherd was beside himself trying to figure out how to help me as I retched into the commode.  Luckily, he has never seen me sick!

I’m happy to say that the doctors who I see for my general upkeep are excellent and make me feel cared for and heard.  I also realize that because they are  so good they have helped me to raise my standards in terms of medical care.  And that’s a good thing.  Hold out for the good ones but go see them when you find them.

Who do you need to make an appointment with today?

Today I am older, much older than the age my father was when he came to my graduation from boarding school.    In fact, it wasn’t until the last decade or two that I could even begin to understand what my parents were going through in their lives back when I was a nubile 18 year old. You know how it is when you’re that age…..there is nothing quite as important as being with the person you pine for—and for me it was about spending as little time as I could with the adults.

Boarding school had a deeper spin to it then partly because it was the first school that I had spent more than a year at since elementary school and mostly because I lived with my friends for three years.  You can imagine that we all went through a very tender part of our growing up years together.  And, for me, I totally focused on my peers and did not get very close to many of the adults although I certainly could have. When I tell my story in recovery meetings, I liken my boarding school experience to being similar to “Lord of the Flies”.  It was also a time period (mid-70′s) when we were able to get away with a lot even though the school was religious AND military for the boys. I returned to school years later to talk with the woman who had been the Dean of girls at the time (and who I adored) about how we could have gotten away with so much and she said that they just were very ignorant and naive about what was going on in the world back when we were kids.

Even with all the good and not so good memories, over the years as I’ve come to know myself and accept myself for who I am with all the bells and whistles, reunions have had a push pull effect on me.  I love seeing people who I haven’t seen in years and catching up with who they are now and how their lives have turned out but at the same time there are some that I have no interest in knowing at all.  I also feel quite a bit different from many of my friends from back then. I had no idea that they were so conservative and I was so independent!!  Who thought of politics back then? Certainly not me. I just followed what my father believed because I respected him so much.  Didn’t give it a second thought until I was out on my own.

And then there are the friends who I loved and still love but who are still in to heavy drinking and even some “partying” as they like to call it with other imbibing accessories.  Really?!?!  It’s a good reminder for me of where I’ve come from. After all, it was after our five year reunion when returned to the local liquor store to buy some supplies that the owner recognized me from when we used to sneak across town to purchase liquor. I’m sure they thought we were college kids back then.  I was the one who would egg all my friends on to go get something to drink before a dance at school or to  just “take one more”. There used to be a restaurant on the edge of town that made delicious homemade/natural comfort food and served really good beer in pitchers.  Somehow, I got away with getting the taxis to take us out there and back without turning us in.  It’s just today there is so many interesting things to learn about and ideas to explore that I want all my brain particles working as best I can.

Going back to high school reunions is a pull for me because as mixed a bag of nuts as we were back then, all those kids and teachers and adults were my “family” for three years of my life.   I have kept a few of my friends from back then in my life today because they are people who I want to know even if we hadn’t shared our high school years together.

But just like family, when we’re good solid adults way into our adulthood, we get to choose who we spend our time with because “time” is precious.  It’s an opportunity for us to accept who we are and also accept who everyone else is as well.   Luckily, I’m in a very good marriage so I certainly am not looking to get laid and I don’t drink or do drugs so I’m not looking to score.  I really like my life today, so I’m not looking for a fantasy weekend get-away.  I suppose one of the reasons I still want to go to my high school reunion is because I want to understand who I was back then and who everyone else was too. It’s a time to compare notes about our experiences to fill in the missing puzzle pieces. After all, someday I just may get that screenplay written about my life story!

How about you?  If you feel a pull to go to your high school reunion, why do you? What is that pull?

Just in time for celebrating the High Holidays, my husband and I watched the PBC Masterpiece movie, “God on Trial” which was inspired by the legend that a group of concentration camp prisoners conducted a mock trial against the Almighty God. From all walks of life, a physicist, a glove maker, rabbis, a law professor and at least one criminal weigh the evidence and offer thoughtful arguments taken from history, science, theology and personal experience.

Needless to say,  afterward we washed our brains out with two back-to-back episodes of “Modern Family“.

Don’t get me wrong, “God on Trial” is an excellent movie full of all kinds of  beliefs and feelings worthy of exploring, it’s just you can imagine that it is pretty intense.  Earlier today, I interviewed prominent teacher of healing and shamanism, Llyn Roberts about her newly released book, “Shapeshifting Into Higher Consciousness“.  Llyn holds a Master’s Degree in Tibetan Buddhist and Western Psychology and has undergone extensive training with traditional Andean healers as well as having been initiated into shamanic circles by Quechua peoples in South America and Siberia.  And earlier this week I met Rennie Davis and learned some of what he is offering in his workshops on Earth Whispering training.

It seems no matter where you (and I) look today, we will find people asking questions and talking about all the changes that seems to be afoot from the changing weather conditions (drought in Texas, other States and countries, extensive rains, etc.) to political regimes either in turmoil or completely reforming into something completely different.  Where I want to focus my input right now is to those peoples who are looking at this time as one of possibility, one of hope, one of remembering the magic that surrounds us all as one of Llyn Robert’s shamans told her.

The movie, “God on Trial” explored the various beliefs of several of the Jewish concentration camp victims in their most desperate of times. It seems that we humans are compelled to share our beliefs and thoughts mostly when we experience fear and pain.  It’s very easy for me to go back to sleep in my consciousness and be lulled into complacency when all is well.  Not to say that I don’t explore my beliefs when I am feeling good, but to remind myself that when situations do arise that challenge what I believe that is when I am more likely to know what I truly think and also to feel where the gaps are in my trust.

All reason enough for me to keep doing those things I do to keep growing in my awareness and investigating what I do and don’t believe.  Taking care of ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually by eating good nutritious foods in moderation, exercising, handling issues with the help of counselors or a trusted spiritual adviser, meditating, enjoying the world around us are all deposits into our insurance policy of — well, I would call it faith but you may call it something else — so that when things around us are changing at a rapid pace we have a deep unending resource within us that keeps us going.

Really, when you come down to it,  this life on Earth thing it is not that the God of our understanding (or misunderstanding as it were) is on trial but it is more that our perspectives and beliefs are up for examination under a really big and bright mircroscope.

What kind of deposits are you making into your spiritual bank these days?

Today while I was talking with my mentor I realized that I “know” more than I think I know (not to be confused with “I don’t know what I don’t think I know”).  Over the past couple of weeks, we’d been throwing around the idea of either leading a teleclass together (workshop done over the phone) or I’d offer one on my own. On occasion, we’d also talk about my offering a retreat again.

The last time I offered a retreat was two years ago and that particular one was at a very expensive place that ended up costing me (in fact, I had to pay to attend my own retreat).  It was a humbling experience and a learning experience for me being as how it was the first retreat I’d lead where I lost rather than earned money.  So I put leading retreats on the back burner.

When my mentor prompted me to see if I would commit to leading a teleclass, I realized that what I really wanted to do was offer a retreat and when she started asking me questions about the retreat (that I had just committed to), I soon realized that I already “knew” what the retreat would be about, what materials I would use, where it would be, what it would cost and within a relatively short period of time I knew when I would have it.   I knew more than I thought I knew.

I bet all of us have examples of times when we found out that we knew more than we thought we knew.  When has that happened for you?  What happened for you to realize you already had the answer?

It took listening to coverage on NPR about Kurt Cobain (inspired the Grunge movement, died as a rising star back in 1994) for me to finally consider getting really intentional about my work (coaching, writing, web radio interviewing).  I mean, don’t get me wrong, when I was working in an 9-6 job going 90 to nothing recruiting people from all over the world and attracting new clients I had “to do lists” all over the place. And I did quite well. And made good dinero too!  I realize now, that I was using my “to do lists” also as my intentions list.

So back to Kurt. In the story, they talked about how successful Kurt was and, of course, how he wrestled with his fame as well. One of the practices that Kurt did everyday was to write down what he intended to do with his songs and music. And he was very specific about it.  I don’t know, maybe it’s the rebellious spirit in me (smells like teen spirit) but for some reason just knowing that Kurt wrote down his intentions/goals and was specific about them (and very successful, did I say that? very successful) was enough for me to begin writing down my intentions/goals again and getting really specific. I figure if Kurt could do it, I sure can too.

Although I’m very connected on social networking sites and I use my Android all the time, for me, there is nothing better than writing down my days intentions on a yellow legal pad. And the ink has to be blue.  I put dashes out to the side of each intention and check them off as I get them done. I also label the top of each page “TO DO” and date it.  What I don’t get done, I transfer to the next day and re-prioritize.  As I’m doing my day if an idea pops into my head for something that I want to get done, I write it down on my list.  If there are phone numbers/emails/addresses to go with it, I put that down too. Yes, I know it would be much more efficient to use a program in my phone but for some reason I really prefer writing it out.

Maybe writing out my goals enacts a chemical release in my brain much like crying tears releases chemicals too. Who knows? I just know writing down what I want to do and accomplish helps me to get things done.

How about you?  What intentions can you be specific about and write down/type up?

Warning, the blogger writing this post has a mind filled with conversations and information from Political Science class this afternoon!

On my very first day in boarding school at the tender young age of 15, I walked into my room with Pink Floyd’s “Us and Them” blaring from my room mate’s stereo.  That was the fall of 1973 and the song continued to follow me along my journey at the Academy.  Here it is a few decades later and this song popped into my head again while hearing the Poli-Sci Professor explain the “definition of poverty” and the disagreement and definitions between the Liberals and the Conservatives.

I realized again that “we” are getting all caught up in the us vs. them syndrome again.  For instance, it was said that “liberals talked about the near poor, those who would be in poverty without some kind of governmental benefit and the conservatives say that “the poverty rate only takes into account income and not assets such as cars, homes, etc.  Then we talked about welfare and for the first time since this class began, a number of students began to talk.  Some of the students had some pretty grounded opinions but others seemed to be parroting what they had been fed. At least, I remember that was how I was when I first began college lo those many years ago. I respected my father so much that I never stopped to consider how I really felt about what was going on around me politically nor cared to learn what it all meant.  So glad I’m in a different place about it today!

There’s examples of us vs. them all around us, we humans seem to know how to pit ourselves against each other really well.  Must be some kind of reptilian brain response to step out of the egg and on to someone’s head before they can do it to us.  But in the real scheme of things, in growing and expanding our beings as much as we possibly can…isn’t it really about listening to each other and finding a common ground to then find a way to work together better?  For example, there is someone who I’ve had long and involved conversations about Global Warming.  I realized soon into our first conversations that this person was very hot under the collar about what they believed (there is no such thing as Global Warming) and so no matter what I said to them, they were not going to “hear” (or care to hear) my point of view.  So, I had to step out of my own opinion about Global Warming and look at the bigger picture…set aside the labels.  I asked this person if they could agree that the major ice caps were melting (yes) and could they agree that Texas is experiencing a horrific drought (yes) and could the agree that the North and East seems to be having harsher winters (yes)…so then we could both walk in agreement towards finding solutions of how to either help heal or prevent the situations.

Let go of the labels.  Lean forward into understanding.

It’s not about us vs. them, actually it’s about the we.  Who can you lean forward into understanding better?

Shine on you crazy diamond!

Shine on you crazy diamond!!

Or so they say that the “real world” is the one where we are working for a living, providing for ourselves and others, etc.  I always notice when I’ve been away from the busy life that I lead, the level of the energy that circulates in and around me.  It is truly amazing.  So nice to be able to ratchet yourself down enough to really take in what is happening in the moment without feeling like you have to do something.

Today we took one whole day to tour around the island.  Stopped at a couple of places along the north side where the waves are big and the currents are vicious but the water is the most incredible color of greens and blues.  There are sticks stuck in the  sand all up and down the beaches to mark where the turtles have come up to lay their eggs so the biologists know where to return the hatchlings so they can make their annual trek to the sea.

Now not only does my brain feel full from all that it is taking in, but my heart feels full as well.  I feel grateful to be alive.  what are you grateful for today?

Oy vey! The good news about today is that I finally enjoyed a thorough swim through of the Palancar Reefs in

Palancar reef - Cozumel

Cozumel–complete with swim throughs and diving at 84 feet without ANY panic attacks. It was pure joy.  The animal life is extraordinary.  There were baby fish nurseries everywhere, two big sea turtles and lots of beautiful coral and sponges.  It was so nice to just enjoy the dive instead of being afraid for the onset of a panic attack.

Then we decided to go back to Paradise Reef (maximum depth of 45) to see the Sea Horses (which were bigger than anyone had ever seen before and all kinds of solid colors).  My husband and I were the last into the water and had stood up with our BC’s on and were scooting to the seat where we could put on our fins and I inadvertently knocked a full tank right onto the arch of my foot. YOWSER!  I think it may be sprained but I’m happy to report that I am going to live (insert smile).

Instead of getting all melodramatic about missing the Sea Horses and a long dive (75 minutes!), I had a nice broken English/broken Spanish conversation with the Captain of the boat and one of the dive helpers about the Independence Day celebrations tomorrow.  They both took such good care of me with bags of ice and concern.  After it happened and I assured the Dive Master that my foot was not broken, I was taking off my wet suit and noticed the our dive assistant, Oscar, had the most concerned and worried look on his face.  I assured him that he was no problemo and that the tank falling was certainly not his fault.  You just can’t imagine how loving the Mexican and Mayan people are down here you guys.

Need to do some more exploring about Cozumel, according to the taxi driver last night who, conveniently, used to be a tour guide for Cozumel, has a history of being considered a holy place for the Mayans who also believed that every Mayan should make a pilgrimage at least once in their life times.  And to think that I’ve been here so very many times, how truly blessed I am.

I’m off to eat dinner in the Restaurant on site. I believe it is Italian tonight.

Where in your heart of hearts do you think you need to make a pilgrimage at least once in your lifetime?

Blue Parrot Fish

…even when it is clearly not!  That’s one of my favorite Thomas Leonard sayings (father of Coaching).  We landed in Cozumel today, thank you sweet Spirit above for green grass, vibrant green trees, all kinds of shades of blue ocean water and plenty of delicious guacamole!   Our main purpose for enjoying Cozumel is for the diving, of course!  And as we are getting just a wee bit older….we now get to indicate what meds we’re on when we sign up for the week.

Today, my husband has been temporarily derailed (thank you mom for all your help stateside!) because of a particular med that he is on etc. etc. etc.  So he’s understandably disappointed that he may not be able to dive tomorrow a.m.  but hey, so we don’t go diving right off the bat and we get to sleep around the beautiful pool and catch up on one of several books.  Sometimes I really do trust when things work out this way.  Besides, I’m feeling so mellow just from smelling the beautiful ocean that I’m just going to decide to see how perfect this present really is, even though it doesn’t appear to be right now.

Also, there will be no graphics on this blog until I can get David to show me how to use his lap top.

Until tomorrow, I wish you much happiness and a peaceful heart!

There’s no place like home away from home, there’s no place like home away from home…..