I’ve been practicing meditation as a means of stress management for a long time. In more recent times, I’ve used meditation as an active healing tool. Today I read A Guide to Handling Guilt and Self-Punishment and found it to be pretty amazing, so here’s the link. (Note: I put this same post in my trauma and recovery blog, but as that one doesn’t allow the archived pages to be indexed by Google or anyone else (for privacy, and because I also record dreams there and that could turn up some really, really weird Google results!), I’m also putting the link here, as this blog does get indexed and I think this could be helpful to people.) Go on. Heal yourself. It feels pretty good.
♥ 29 January 2008 , Tags : good stuff, life , Comments Off
As I noted, I made a New Year’s resolution (okay, I actually decided it on Boxing Day, i.e., the day after Christmas) to be happy. I’m doing okay with it. It’s not as difficult as you might imagine… Even when I’m feeling irritable and cross and worried, I can reach into a place beyond or above or behind all of that (hard to describe) and find the joy.
I’m not claiming to be happy all the time. I think, as I did when I decided to be happy, that it’s impossible to be happy every moment of every day. But… I can find true joy EVERY day (except for a couple or three days there earlier this month when I was physically quite ill, but even then I managed to at least find moments of peace).
I actually have quite a lot to worry about at the moment. I haven’t written about it, and I won’t, but I’ve got some pretty major concerns on all fronts, and thus far, no real way to deal with any of them. If I can be happy through that, well, I’m doing pretty well, I think.
Happiness is a worthy goal. I highly recommend it. It’s your choice, just as it was and is mine.
♥ 26 January 2008 , Tags : anecdote, life , Comments Off
A few months ago, as I’ve previously written, we had a hatched nest of baby spiders in our bedroom (just follow that link if you haven’t heard the story or want to refresh your memory, and also the followup post). In a nutsell, we caught them over a period of days (nights, really; they’re nocturnal) and let them outside. In total there were about thirty of them. Only a couple were injured or killed in the capture process, and those deaths/injuries were entirely accidental.
In the process of capturing baby spiders (which, by the way, got a lot faster as the days passed and they got older!), I learned the fine art of spider wrangling. Basically, if you put a cup or jar over them, they’ll pretty much climb into it and you have them. Well, most spiders, anyway. The one that was in the house today required me to catch it on a piece of paper and scoop it into the cup.
The thing is, the spider that was in the house today was pretty weird looking. I hadn’t seen one like it before, so when I got it outside, I had a good look at it, to note any distinguishing features. As it happens, it had a distinctive white tip on its tail. (Australians who are reading this are now saying something like, “Bloody hell!” or similar.)
It seems it was a White Tail Spider. They’re quite venomous. There are stories of the bites of these spiders leaving gigantic boils or welts, and even developing into “necrotising arachnidism” (i.e., infection sets in and the flesh actually dies, i.e., necrotises, on a wide scale… YUCK and OUCH). Some sources, though say that no verified cases of White Tail bites have resulted in anything like that, and that it was just media hype. Necrotitis or not, the bite of a White Tail Spider can be very painful and cause swelling and possible infection. It’s not something you want to have happen to you.
It’s probably lucky for the spider that I didn’t know what it was when I caught it. I might have just squished it. I mean, as it turns out, it didn’t do me any harm whatsoever, and I am quite careful with unknown spiders, but still…
Anyway, it seems that White Tail Spiders actually prey on other spiders. The best way to keep them away from your house is to sweep down the webs of common house spiders. Yes, I did catch and release some thirty common house spiders a couple months ago, and yes, I did release them right outside the door…. Hmmmmmm…..
Now I’m kind of torn. I actually like house spiders (so long as the webs are outside and not inside), because they eat flies and other bugs that I don’t want in my house. But I’m not keen on the idea that I’m actually attracting venomous spiders by doing that. Bit of a dilemma, actually.
I do wish I’d taken that little White Tail a bit farther away from the house when I released it. Had I known what it was… then again, had I known what it was, it might not have gotten released at all.
I don’t know what’s up with me and spiders lately, I really don’t.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I am no fan of Tom Cruise. That being said, I’m not going to post links to his now-infamous Scientology videos (you can find them for yourself, I’m sure; they’re all over the web). I will, however post this hilarious parody video starring Jerry O’Connell. I never thought much about him one way or the other prior to seeing this, but now, I actually like him. He should do more comedy! (Note: You don’t need to have seen the original Tom Cruise videos to enjoy this parody; it’s funny all on its own.)
♥ 20 January 2008 , Tags : personal , Comments Off
Over at The Dilbert Blog, Scott Adams issued an interesting challenge. Describe yourself in one word. There was more to his post than that, which is why I linked it, but I was intrigued.
Didn’t take me long to settle on one word that I think can describe me the most expressively: eccentric.
Andrew thought the word that best described him was “theorist”. I thought “geek” fit better, but I get his point. Theoretically.
