The Pen is Mightier than the Sword, but the Mind is Mightier than the Pen.

Sometimes, Moms have to sit down and write a blog just as a way of pinching themselves to see if they are really awake. I mean, sometimes I find myself thinking that I really can't believe my life and the things that happen “to” me. We all absorb a lot of drama dealing with even the everyday mundane things, but how many of us can take the drama and say it happens “for” them instead of “to” them?

For example, I recently took the girls to Target. We were shopping for school supplies and using one of those two-seater carts that the girls were getting way too big for. I kept mentioning this fact as we went through the store along with the usual litany of items such as keep your hands in the cart, don't stand up, sit down, stop talking so mean, please keep your hands to yourself, you don't really need to tie yourself in, etc etc. Oh, is this boring you? Seem pretty routine? Well then how about the drama of me not being able to locate my pen? Yes, I was very determined to find my pen, searching and searching for it while the kids were busying themselves looking at things on the shelves. I could picture it so vividly in my mind, the clear Bic pen with black lettering. Only it wasn't in my purse. After giving up on the pen, the real drama presented itself.

Sophie was reaching out of the cart while standing up and to place something back on a rack that she had previously lifted. As she leaned out, she missed her placement for her hand and swung around to collide with the side of the cart against her rib cage. I could tell that it hit her in such a way that it would most likely bruise, and her face grew bright red as she looked like she was about to wail. Instead, something else happened. She seized up tight and apparently couldn't get any air. She was also not responding to me asking her if she was okay. I continued to escalate my voice as I grew more and more alarmed and her face began to turn a little blue. I decided that perhaps she had choked on something so I tried to turn her around. She was completely limp in my arms and I as I began to run through my mental checklist of what to do, she began to stand on her own and breathe a little.

Well I guess that is when our Target trip really turned into an adventure. As I sat there trying not to faint out into the isle I noticed a small crowd had gathered and people were talking to me trying to see if we were all okay. Target employees came around and asked if we wanted water. I had water and offered it to Sophie who was now looking like she had downed a bunch of cold medicine. Her eyes were glazed, she had no blood in her face and she acted like she was ready to go to sleep. As she sat there swooning in her seat I decided to hit the road.

I called my doctor on the way to the van and they confirmed that a trip to the E.R. was in order. We all took turns in the car saying prayers for Sophie to feel better, for me to get us to the Hospital okay, and for everything to work out fine. Hours later we determined that she had simply knocked the breath out of her lungs which can be quite a shock to someone. They x-rayed her chest and said she would be bruised but just fine.

The woman giving the x-ray remarked on the girls being twins. “I'm a twin!” she exclaimed and suddenly I had a recollection of meeting this woman before. She had been in the hallway outside of an elevator I was on while in the same hospital some 5 ½ years prior, while visiting my twins in the N.I.C.U. I recounted that visit with her and while she didn't remember it, she did not deny that it could have happened. “We both work here and quite frequently are on that floor,” she told me. I suddenly had a strong urge to hug her and felt that everything was going to be just fine.

Mike had come down to the E.R. to help us get back to the car and back home. Sophie began coming around and was really acting a little strange so we talked about what happened so that she knew nothing was her fault and that everything was ultimately okay.

Maggie was the true teacher in the situation. She kept saying that she couldn't believe how many people came to see if Sophie was okay. She kept saying, “just think about how many people at Target love you Sophie!”

It is so very true. We are connected to each other in such deep and meaningful ways that we are not aware of it until we are faced with circumstances beyond our control. There were a lot of people standing around us, wanting to help, each hearing my concerned cries to my daughter and wanting to DO something. That desire, the one to DO something, exists inside each and every one of us even though we teach ourselves to shut it off sometimes. This desire should really be explored within each and every one of us. How much satisfaction would we all receive in our life if we were always DOING something that mattered? What if we were to tap into that innate concern we have for each other and use it when we need it most? At a time when we are tempted to judge or claim that we are owed more than someone else? In my humble opinion, I think that our natural state is the state that those people found themselves in today while feeling that concern for me and our situation. Our natural state is that of caring for our fellow human beings, not for conquering them. Our natural state is that of loving our fellow humans, not of hating them.

Oh, and one last thing, just to tie it all together in one neat little package? As I was checking Sophie into the Emergency room, I was handed a folder that contained brochures on the hospital, privacy policy and … you guessed it... a message from the Universe that my prayers are always answered, in the form of a clear Bic pen with black lettering. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?

Your Soul and Your Backpack

As a Mom, I constantly find myself in the car driving my twin daughters around to various outings. We try to converse in the car, rather than listen to music or watch the DVD player. Of course the kids would love to watch the DVD player even if its just for a trip to the school and back if I let them, but I prefer conversation and so the TV stays off as we drive around.

This weekend, we were driving up to see my Mom for a day-long visit and the kids decided that they wanted a snack. I offered them up a granola bar and Sophie says, “I want chocolate chip” and Maggie says, “I want peanut butter!”. So I reached into the bag beside me while keeping my eyes on the road and said out loud, “Okay, a chocolate chip for Sophie,” and promptly pulled a chocolate chip granola bar out of the bag. I wasn't too surprised, even though there were other flavors of granola bars in the same bag as well as lots of other items that I had packed. I handed the granola bar to Sophie and reached in again, keeping my eyes on the road, while saying out loud, “and a peanut butter for Maggie!” As I pulled my hand out I could see it was indeed a peanut butter granola bar.

Then I said to the girls, “Wow! How did I do that?” knowing that it wasn't all that surprising. This kind of thing happens to us all of the time. Maggie said, “Magic!” and I said, “Well it could certainly seem like magic!” I explained to them that this kind of thing always happens so it doesn't seem like magic as much to me anymore, but to someone else, it may very well seem as though I had performed a really cool trick.

The truth is, anyone can use “magic” if they wanted to. Whether you are looking for a granola bar, or a parking space, we all have the power to “manifest” our wishes. Of course, many of my readers already know this, but many people do not. They don't understand how it works nor could they if they have never tried. To those people, they may be fearful of some of the things a true “magician” could do. They don't understand that we all have this inherent ability to really affect our own reality, we just have to use our backpacks, just like a certain Hispanic girl does each time she needs a hand on her explorations.

And this is exactly how I explained the whole thing to my girls, who were really quite fascinated, as it turned out:

Before we were born, and before we got ourselves into our human bodies, we were just a spirit, a soul, without a body. We were able to go anywhere we wanted to go, just by thinking about it. So driving in the car was not necessary as we could just think about Grandma's house and be there. We could fly, walk through walls, and we didn't ever need to eat granola bars, because we didn't have a tummy that would get rumbly. We could even be at our school and at home at the same exact time, although we never needed to go to school because we already knew everything there was to know about everything.

When we decided to come down into our bodies, there wasn't very much room in there to hold everything that we knew how to do. Our brains are so small that they couldn't hold all of the knowledge and wisdom that we have when we are not in our bodies. So we had to pack them into our backpacks and leave them in the coat closet, just like we do at school. And just like we have to get our lunch and supplies out of our backpacks from time to time in school, the same goes for our soul's backpack.

In school, you simply get up from your seat and go in the closet and reach in to get your stuff. But with your soul, you have to sit down, be very quiet and meditate to get into your backpack. Its really hard to do because there are lots of thoughts that run through our head and get in the way. In order to get through them all you have to try to watch them come and go and just take notes about them. You really have to sit so very still that there are no thoughts going through your mind at all, and then you'll see your backpack. And the more times you look into your backpack, the better you get at using the things inside your backpack.

Of course this was a great way to explain to my children about why we meditate, but there are lots of other benefits to meditating that some might not know about. Those are also great reasons to begin a steady meditation practice, such as the ability to remain calm in situations that might otherwise make you lose your temper, the ability to make wise decisions regarding your life and purpose, health and body improvements, and a wide variety of psychic abilities, although everyone is different. I never would have considered myself psychic even just 5 years ago, but I have been meditating for about 3 years now and I have to admit that sometimes I do just “know” things. I really enjoy using my backpack and I hope you'll try it to!

Why is that song stuck in my head?

We've all had that song get stuck in our head from time to time. Usually there is a reason for it, like all those songs you listen to in the car with your kids that are still sounding off in your brain as you drift away to la-la land. So its easy to understand where the song comes from and why it gets stuck in your head.

Recently, however, I have had some interesting things happen for me with regard to "songs in the head". For me, I wake up and there's a song in my head and usually its a song that I have not heard in awhile. I wake up in the morning, and the song is ringing my mind so loudly that I have no choice but to sing along. It always starts with a lyric or two in the middle of the song, but not always. And I usually have to work out some things in my mind to get the song to go away.

Some recent examples are "Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera, "Rocket Man" by Elton John, and "I Got a Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas.

These songs can last for days, sometimes weeks, before I can get them to stop hijacking my brain waves. Lately, the song in my head is this one from my early college days at Northwest Missouri State (back when I was known as Angie Richardson) although this particular performance is not the one I was a part of. I just found it on YouTube so that you can hear what I have been hearing:



In the past, when these types of songs get stuck, I am usually reminded of something from my past that is tied to that song. I have learned that this is the way my intuition speaks to me sometimes and that there is a reason that I am causing myself to remember these past events. Once it helped me to find a very old school friend of mine and we have both experienced some healing in our feelings over old arguments. I have learned to trust the song that is stuck because I have learned that it is stuck for a reason.

This Godspell song was a song that I enjoyed singing even though there was no way that I would be allowed to sing that part in a real production as a college freshman. But I would practice singing it over and over with a boy I met there and whom I fell in love with and had a drawn out and ultimately destructive relationship with. So I am not really ready to walk where it is leading me and I am hoping that I can work through this without having to reach out to him. Rather I feel that the focus should remain in the feelings that I had while singing this song. Its such a beautiful sounding song. The tones and harmonies that are used really bring a lot of love to my heart.

I hope you feel that too!