Monday, August 20, 2012

Some Good Ideas About Stretching a Dollar in Tough Times

     Many are having hard times, and there is a lot of uncertainty for the future of many Americans.  I have decided to pull myself up by my bootstraps, rather than how depressed I have been feeling about politics and bad possibilities, going around with a sense of sorrow and feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders, sorrow for every nonhumanitarian event in history and every tragedy, thinking that I will be an unwanted burden and feeling like everyone is looking at me like "why are even here?..."  I know, silly, self-pity.  Truthfully I am concerned about society and our country and many many people who I do not want to suffer.
     So, I no longer watch the news, but I have some good ideas for making a dollar stretch and maintaining a fairly comfortable lifestyle.
     One thing is utilities, saving on the water bill by taking shorter showers, although I know the therapeutic value a long hot shower and washing one's hair and body can have, so there are other alternatives to saving water which is also good for the planet.  You can run less water when washing dishes, put more clothing in the washing machine, and do not buy bottled water, but filter it in a water filtering pitcher.
     Another thing to save on is the electric bill or what good ole' country folk call the light bill.  Light hurts my eyes, so for me it is not a problem to have less lights on.  No, I am goth sometimes in my attitude but not a vampire thank you very much, it is just the retinitis pigmentosa.  I also find it not necessary to keep one's home really cold, perhaps 79degrees is cool enough and 65 in winter.
     OK, this may be a bit goofy, but I am having fun.  You can buy stuff at Goodwill and just wash it really well.  I do.  I admit I like nice clothes and kitchen, housewares, etc, but I have decided to only treat myself to one nice thing a month.  Also, I will only buy where I can find the cheapest.  For example, I have to use really expensive over the counter eye drops, but I found the kind I am supposed to use, or close anyway, for much cheaper at Dollar General.
      Now, food is a big important thing.  We all have to eat and get nutrition.  I find that if I shop for fresh fruits and vegetables very carefully in terms of price, that I can economize.  I also buy the least expensive coffee, etc, and now I eat very little meat, just soy milk, free range cage free eggs if on sale and yogurt, sometimes cottage cheese.  I buy the cheapest healthy bread I can find that has the least amount of wheat because I have become gluten and dairy intolerant for the most part, but not totally.
      I usually buy the cheapest toilet paper and paper towels. As far as hygiene and house cleaning products, I like them to be the least toxic, the ones not antibacterial, because those are bad for the ecosystem and water, and also bad for your natural immunity.  Sometimes if a product is really better and only a dollar or so more I think it is worth it.  
     When I have to use caustic substances, as we all do from time to time, I wear a mask and gloves, and of course my glasses cover my eyes. 
     When I had cats, I had to buy decent cat food, because the neutered males have sensitive urinary systems, and good cat litter is important.  The dog in the picture is Coco Puffs a friend's dog.  Sometimes I take care of Ruben, my mother's dog, and dog food is another necessity for dog owners. You pretty much have to buy the kind they will eat.
     I guess I have basically covered it.  Of course, if you drive, you have to look for cheaper gas, but I do not drive so that is one thing I do not have to worry about.
     Well, I guess that covers it.  One last thing, just because something is torn or messed up, the art of mending things and darning socks still exists.  LOL

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Parents and Children, Grown or Otherwise

     Although we do not own our children, and when they grow up and make their own decisions, obtain their own goals, find their own relationships as they have all along, as well as build their own talents strengths and abilities, we often feel a normal strong attachment and bond.  Still, we eventually have to be more detached.  As a parent, it may be OK to advise but not to control, perhaps not even advise.
     It is interesting how the personality forms itself, and we are only a small influence in some ways.  The human being we witness is full of surprises.  You know how when your kids are little and they say outrageous things, and people say "out of the mouths of babes," because there is often truth in what they say.
     I sang my son The Wedding Song, the one by Paul from Peter, Paul and Mary, that used to be so popular.  I sang it for a girlfriend from work long ago at her wedding, during the ceremony.  I like that song, beautiful words and melody, "wherever two or more of you are gathered in his name, there is love..."  He is engaged, so that is why I wanted him to hear the song.

     

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Reiki, Meditation and Orchids

     As a Reiki Master, I realize there is controversy as to whether or not the symbols should be seen or not.  I researched it, and different Reiki practitioners had different opinions.  I had purchased a pendant which I wear always for protection with the symbol for protection, one of the symbols used before a treatment.
     I find that I feel better when I wear it.  One morning I was in conflict with people, one of whom I felt was attacking me verbally and began to feel extremely nauseated and just sick to my stomach.  I removed my pendant from its green velvet pouch and put it on.  The sick feeling faded away.
     Another way I deal with bad vibes and sickening feelings of attack, is I do yoga and meditate.  Sometimes I say a workbook lesson from a Course in Miracles like, "God is the light in which I see," "Love holds no grievances," "I am the light of the world," or other mantras like Om Mane Pad Me Hum, the Tibetan chant meaning "the lotus is beautiful.  Listen to the silence."  Sometimes I just say Shanti, shanti, shant, meaning peace, peace, peace.  Then if I have time, I close my eyes and breath, thinking of nothing, so that my mind is void and empty as a slate.  Sometimes I look at a burning candle and stare at the flame, unless everyone has stolen my only lighter.  I do not smoke, but I have sons who smoke cigarettes outside, and sometimes one of them, the older one, does not buy his own lighter.  So much for lighters.  I do not burn incense, because of chronic eye infections, which are under control now, a byproduct of my eye disease.
     Another good thing to do is make a little shrine in your home for meditation with things you hold dear and beautiful to inspire a spiritual experience.
     Today I was at the supermarket with my mother, and they were selling orchids in white, lavender and fuscia I think, the prettiest.  Orchids are like an art form to grow.  They are very classy.  The smell is gorgeous too, like roses and cinnamon combined.  I could smell them all day.  They are like the martini of flowers.
    Well this is all I have today.  Much love.  Namaste. 

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Being a Single Woman

     I recently read a book called Women Food, and God, and I cannot recall the author's name, only that her father said to her after a talk she gave, "you have charisma, but so did Hitler."  And, her father's family died in the gas chambers.  My point is many of us women, just have not been encouraged enough at one point or another to feel good about ourselves.  
     Some of us are overachievers and think we have to have the perfect figure or have the perfect house or perfect family or give the perfect birthday party for our kids.  Some use food as a drug of choice and others have other vices, but we all want to be beautiful and loved.  The truth is that we are God, not I am God, but God is within us and no matter what  we can appreciate and accept as well as respect ourselves.  
     Food is not a drug for me.  It never has been, but I have in my life felt that I was imperfect in many ways, and have been told so all too much.  
     We are also, many of us, caught up in our stories.  For example, here is mine:  I was beautiful, young, smart, a good addition to the business for my talent with numbers and administrative secretarial skill, but my husband stopped loving me, and left me, and found a woman younger, even though as crazy as it sounds he was already quite a bit older than me.  I never really understood it, except to accept that he just did not like or want me, who I was, and it was OK for her to be whoever she was because she was in essence the kind of woman he wanted.
    Truthfully, after he left I found someone too, and that relationship went on for four years, but I ended up having to support the person I was with.  I think I just liked him because he was good lucking and a musician, a good one, but he was not what you would call really nice to tell the truth, but I am sure he might be to someone.  He eventually wanted to marry me too little too late, and by then I just could not bring myself to do it.  Too much had gone down.
     In the meantime, I lost my house, my savings, was working but eventually got sick and had to quit working, had to get assistance from the government.  Then when I started getting better, I started going blind.   
     Recently I read an article about how some of us are just not really matched with anyone correctly in our karma in this life and that is OK.  No woman in her forties or fifty like me or even older should feel like a loser because she is on her own in terms of relationship status.  I know women and men as well, in their sixties, seventies, even eighties who would like to find someone, but know how to be on their own and be self-contained.   Being in a relationship or marriage does not define one, although it can be a blessing and a wonderful, beautiful thing to be celebrated, like The Wedding Song, "wherever two or more of you are gathered in his name there is love, there is love..." , and if it does define one and one cannot survive without the relationship, then one is codependent.  Maybe I am wrong and it is more like Romeo and Juliet, where they could not live without each other.  I know couples sometimes die in short distance from one another.  I would not know.  My parents were such duel but separate entities, entwined by Meher Baba even in name, but headstrong in their own right, both of them.
     I used to be told by a married friend who depended on her husband for everything financially, did not even know how to pay a bill, that I did not need a man.  Truthfully, I do not, but coming from this person, it was ridicules.  How can a woman who does not even have any idea how much her water bill is and has to ask her husband for money to do anything, say to an independent self-sufficient woman who takes care of a house, a family, kids, animals, bills and is blind, that she does not need a man?  Theoretically true, yes but entirely hypocritical even if well meaning.  I suppose at the time I wanted to be with someone or was perhaps struggling with a relationship already.  No matter, not all of us have to be in a relationship or be married, but those of us who are independent and unafraid to be alone because we have already faced ourselves, do not need to be lectured by those who have never walked in our shoes before.