Hey, you dropped your shoe!

OK quick update about my life. I FINALLY got a job working as a hostess at Cracker Barrel.  It's kinda weird working at a place I've eaten hundreds of times in my life but overall it's a pretty fun job if you make it fun and don't take it too seriously.  The pay is pretty bad right now but they offer pretty frequent pay raises so I'll be making more soon.

Now that that's done with, on to the blog.  I can't help but notice that American network TV is offering us up not one, but two shows this season with the premise that fairy tales are real.  I watched Once Upon A Time last night. Anyway, this is nothing new.  This premise has probably been around almost as long as some of the stories they use in the plot.  I also can't help but notice that sci-fi and fantasy shows and movies are becoming more and more mainstream.  As a card-carrying anglophile I'd like to think the return of Doctor Who and the Harry Potter phenomenon are responsible for this.  Why are we so fascinated by these stories?  I think it's because deep down we want to believe that magic is real.  Well, my friends as a professional day dreamer I can tell you that magic is real!  Again look at Harry Potter.  JK Rowling is definitely a modern day Cinderella.  Speaking of Cindy, I'm sure you've been exposed to enough feminist lit to know that this particular fairy tale takes a lot of flack for screwing up women's expectations about their lives, waiting to be rescued by some fairy godmother or prince charming.  I agree somewhat because if you wait, you'll be waiting a long time.  I have been watching Oprah's Lifeclass (stop laughing, the woman has some real insights and a talent  for recognizing good teachers) and she said if there was one thing people took away from her 25 years on TV it's that we are responsible for our own lives. We make our own destinies.  She is a perfect example of how someone can go from absolute poverty to being one of the richest, well-known and well-loved people on the planet.  Anyone can be a Cinderella, you just have to be your own fairy godmother.  Make a little magic in your life today!

That gnawing feeling

Maybe it was having a few days to myself or maybe it's the working world's sudden interest in me but I'm starting to get that annoying hope feeling again.  Hope is a hard emotion for me because I've had my hopes dashed so many times in the last two years, but I refuse to admit defeat!  I am reveling in the lessons the universe has for me and the very fact that I still feel the slight stirrings of hope makes me hopeful.  If I am full of hope there is no room for despair.

Coloring Books for Adults?

First up today is another free charity website I found- www.goodsearch.com You register your favorite charity and then use this site in place of other search engines and your cause will get 1cent for every search, more if you purchase items.

The next is the importance of coloring in circles.  A mainstay of of Tibetan Buddhism is the mandala, an incredibly intricate sand sculpture, literally tapped out grain by grain. When it is completed it is destroyed in a ritualistic ceremony celebrating the impermanence of all things.  The process of creating mandalas requires extreme concentration and meditation.  When I was in college I worked in the museum and was blessed to have seen a group of monks from the Dalai Lhama's monastery create a white Tara, a healing energy as it was after 9/11.  Most of us don't have the skill or the time to work for months on a mandala, but we can color in paper ones.  I like to use colored pencils or crayola makes crayon sized markers that work great.  Be sure to start from the outside and work your way in, to relax and center yourself.  There are coloring books available but you can also find many cool designs for free online.  Use goodsearch.com to find them!  Destruction is optional.

Find Your Bliss

As much as this phrase has a similar effect to ipecac on me I find it a noble quest.  I have endless admiration for people who do what they love regardless of its prestige or paycheck.  The other day I heard Jerry Seinfeld say this it's so true-If you wan't to make a lot of money do something so fun you don't care about getting paid and you will get paid.  This is a philosophy that's a bit easier for him to follow than most of us.  Still, I thought I'd give it a try.  All this time unemployed going for jobs that are practical and I have less money now than a year ago.  My bliss is most definitely writing.  Unfortunately my job hunt takes too much time for me to do any serious writing but a blog I think I could manage.

Now here's your bliss tip of the day: I turned on my CBS Sunday Morning a little early and I caught the end of a sermon.  The story was about a man who took $500,000 to his church to make a donation.  Very calmly the priest refused him.  "Void this check.  Give it away in dollars and cents." "But that will take my whole life" "That, my son is the point."  Many of us are financially strapped but we can still find a little bliss here and there.  Put your change in donation jars.  Look for donation tags for Children's Hospital or Cancer and add that dollar to your grocery purchase.  If even that is too much to spare visit www.freerice.com and www.thehungersite.com  With the latter you can click once a day on their many causes and corporate donors will provide support.  The former is totally addictive-you simply answer trivia questions and for every correct answer 10 grains of rice are donated.  You can play as long as you want and donate as much as you can earn.  Also remember thrift stores like the Salvation Army.  Everybody has stuff around their house they don't need and they could either be donated to shelters or resold in the shops.

Tomorrow, why coloring in a circle is very grown up...