December 28, 2007

Be it resolved that...

If you read my post from yesterday, I'm sure that you may have the idea that I intend to comment on various political situations, in which case you have applied a "label" to this space. Wrong!! And just when you thought you could go back in the water.....

Well kiddies, today we are going to talk about resolutions - yes, New Year's Resolutions. We've been doing them in our house for about 15 years and I never cease to be amazed at the experience. We actually write them down and each keep a binder with our plans inside. We categorize them according to major areas of our lives like health, money, travel, career, relationships, education and often other major and minor areas of interest. The most interesting part of the process is reading over some of last year's plans. I usually forget many of them and when I check a year later, the amazement comes with realizing how many of the resolutions have come to pass (except for the fitness ones, of course).

I am a strong believer in the Law of Attraction and absolutely know that it works all of the time whether we consciously want it to, or not. If you are unfamiliar with it, simply stated it is, "What we focus on, we create." In other words, if we focus on debts, guess what we get. If we focus on sickness or disease, guess what we get. If we turn those thoughts to abundance or flexible joints or joyfulness or, you get it, something that we really wish to expand in our lives, guess what we get. The actual practice can be a little trickier than the definition but much has been written on the topic and you might like to Google, Louise Hay or Catherine Ponder for a more complete look at the Law.

In any case, I find as I age, that my desires turn from things that I want, to attitudes, experiences and feelings. Peace, comfort and joy are becoming more than seasonal wishes, but it is the season for me to wish them for you.

May everything that you desire come true in 2008.

December 27, 2007

Labels

December 27, 2008



This is me getting dragged, kicking and screaming into the age of technology! I hardly know how to spell Blog, let alone create one, but I am inspired by several different sources to record my semi-regular, or is that irregular, thoughts and notions. As many people have pointed out, I rarely lack for an opinion, just for an audience that wants to hear it. I can't give you the benefit of a definite focus for this effort but as the title, Mind Gass would suggest, I expect it will be somewhat irreverent, occasionally unexpected, possibly a relief and rarely politically correct.



The idea of "Labels" has been floating around in my mind for the past few days and some of our assumptions surrounding labels, frankly scare me. At this moment in time, I can be labelled a blogger and if this is the last thing you read from me, then the label sticks forever. It means that I can never become anything else. The same holds true for many public figures especially politicians who are almost always labelled Conservative, Democratic, Socialist, Liberal and all those other capitalized words. They usually do this by choice but then paint themselves into a corner as a result. The public, influenced by a too-powerful media, can't accept them as anything other than what the one word label implies. The "conservative" politician who eschews socialized medicine or embraces environmental causes, is an aberration that we attribute to some sort of sleazy, slight of hand designed to further a secret agenda. I suppose that what I am trying to say is that we need to be careful of single word descriptions that forever condemn someone to one course of action. Public leaders should be able to change their minds when confronted with new information, without the withering condemnation of their peers and the media. To see how dangerous this practice is, use 25 words to describe yourself ( words that explain your various interests) and then imagine a scare-mongering, media snoop looking for anything that may be conflicting and then implying to the world that you are some sort of fraud. No wonder that we are left with the lowest common denominator in our government leaders. Only a milquetoast with no real opinions or wide ranging experiences can stand up to the scrutiny.

That's my opinion, it doesn't have to be yours.