I would love to live
Like a river flows
Carried by the surprise
Of its own unfolding.
John O'Donohue 1956-2008
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Fluent
Sunday, February 08, 2009
That's my girl
They say that the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime. Well it's true. Today we found ourselves back in the bookshop from which I, ahem, "stole" a book a couple of years ago. (I put the word stole in inverted commas there trying, unsuccessfully, to make it sound less wrong!) It was a book about cosmic ordering (which I've still not got round to writing about!), and I did eventually take the book back to pay for it, admittedly some months after I had originally taken it.Today's purchase (yes, purchase... I paid for it) was a book by Susan Jeffers called Embracing Uncertainty (Mobius, 2003), a book that I thought might help me s I consider a career break. Dr Jeffers seems to be one of the more successful self-help authors, with over 20 books under her belt. Her best known contribution to the literature is her book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, a phrase that would now appear to be a registered trademark (and might even be taken by some to be condoning shoplifting! Or is it only me that reads it that way?). But you'll be pleased to learn that I did indeed pay for this book, along with the book of Rupert the Bear stories Rachel had chosen for Freya, who was being very good in her pushchair ("booky... booky!"). So, unlike my first visit to this shop, I was able to walk out proudly clutching my book complete with receipt!
As we walked through the shopping mall, Rachel turned to me and asked "Did you give her that?".
"Give her what?" I asked back.
"That...". I looked down at Freya in her pushchair as she looked innocently back up at me gently chewing on the end of a plastic container of Winnie the Pooh blowing bubbles. A plastic container of Winnie the Pooh blowing bubbles that she hadn't had a moment ago.
The irony didn't pass us by... but we did go back and pay for them.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
O well...
I just had a quick look and it would seem that the article by Ben Sherwood for O, The Oprah Magazine is now published and is available here.I don't even get a mention. O well...
Friday, February 06, 2009
Luck is no accident
A book arrived from Amazon this morning as a consequence of having looked at Richard Wiseman’s blog last week. One of his recent posts mentioned that the current issue of Newsweek included an article that featured his research on luck. The article was actually adapted from a new book written by Ben Sherwood called The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science That Could Save Your Life (Grand Central Publishing, 2009). Ben had been the guy who had interviewed me about luck last year for an article for O, The Oprah magazine (I wonder if that is published yet?).
However, the book that arrived this morning isn’t the one by Ben Sherwood (though perhaps I should order that one too!). No, it’s actually a book I discovered by following the link Richard had included to another website, called Get Rich Slowly, that also referred to the Newsweek article but focused more on Richard's work. It was this website that linked to an earlier article (are you following this?) that reviewed a book called Luck is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career by John Krumboltz and Al Levin (Impact Publishers, 2004). It was this book that I ordered from Amazon and which arrived this morning. The message of the book is very similar to that of Richard’s book The Luck Factor (2004, Arrow Books), although the focus here is on making the most of unplanned events.
However, the book that arrived this morning isn’t the one by Ben Sherwood (though perhaps I should order that one too!). No, it’s actually a book I discovered by following the link Richard had included to another website, called Get Rich Slowly, that also referred to the Newsweek article but focused more on Richard's work. It was this website that linked to an earlier article (are you following this?) that reviewed a book called Luck is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career by John Krumboltz and Al Levin (Impact Publishers, 2004). It was this book that I ordered from Amazon and which arrived this morning. The message of the book is very similar to that of Richard’s book The Luck Factor (2004, Arrow Books), although the focus here is on making the most of unplanned events.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
It's Groundhog Day!*
Every year, on February 2nd, the world's media (or rather a small proportion of it) turns its attention to the small town of Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania, USA. In particular they go there to observe a character called Punxsutawney Phil. Phil is a groundhog. But not just any groundhog... Phil is a special groundhog, because legend has it he has an uncanny ability to predict how long winter is going to last. According to his very own website, http://www.punxsutawneyphil.com/:
That's all very well, but the thing that actually interests me about this rather strange tradition is the 1993 movie Groundhog Day that's based around this rather quaint annual event. In the film Bill Murray plays TV wea
ther forecaster Phil Connors who is assigned to cover the event for something like the third or fourth year running. Connors is, to say the least, fairly cynical about the whole thing and can't wait till the piece is done so he can get the hell out of Punxsutawney and back to civilization. The trouble is, a blizzard means that all routes out of Punxsutawney are blocked and so he has to stay there for a second night. The next morning he is woken up at 6am, just like the morning before, by the same song on the radio (Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe). He initially thinks that the local radio presenters must have simply forgotten to change the script from the previous morning, but slowly as he goes about his day he realizes that he is actually living the previous day again. It's still Groundhog Day! Eventually the end of the day comes again and he's back in his hotel bed (because just as with the previous day a blizzard prevents him from leaving town). At 6am the next morning he wakes again to the same song on the radio! And so it goes on... every morning he awakes only to relive Groundhog Day. Imagine that! Imagine having to live the same day over and over and over again. Once the realization sets in that no matter what he does, Phil Connors is going to relive the same day again and again he even tries a variety of ways of killing himself... only to find himself waking up at 6am on Groundhog Day to the sound of I Got You Babe. There's no way out.
Eventually Connors resigns himself to the fact he is going to have to relive Groundhog Day ad infinitum, and so starts throwing himself into his recurrent daily activities. By doing this he finds he actually enjoys having the opportunity to relive the events of the day again and again and discovers that he can learn from his earlier encounters with the day's events. The question is, will he ever live to see the day that follows Groundhog Day or is he destined to remain in this day for ever? And do you ever get that feeling you've been here before?
*Is this joke beginning to wear thin now?
"At sunrise, Phil will emerge from his burrow at Gobbler's Knob, and his handlers will announce whether or not Phil has seen his shadow. If Phil sees his shadow, legend has it that we can expect six more weeks of winter weather. No shadow indicates an early spring."Back in 2001, one guy, an economist, even undertook some kind of analysis of Phil's forecasting data and concluded that over the years he had been around 70% successful and predicting either an early or late Spring.
That's all very well, but the thing that actually interests me about this rather strange tradition is the 1993 movie Groundhog Day that's based around this rather quaint annual event. In the film Bill Murray plays TV wea
ther forecaster Phil Connors who is assigned to cover the event for something like the third or fourth year running. Connors is, to say the least, fairly cynical about the whole thing and can't wait till the piece is done so he can get the hell out of Punxsutawney and back to civilization. The trouble is, a blizzard means that all routes out of Punxsutawney are blocked and so he has to stay there for a second night. The next morning he is woken up at 6am, just like the morning before, by the same song on the radio (Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe). He initially thinks that the local radio presenters must have simply forgotten to change the script from the previous morning, but slowly as he goes about his day he realizes that he is actually living the previous day again. It's still Groundhog Day! Eventually the end of the day comes again and he's back in his hotel bed (because just as with the previous day a blizzard prevents him from leaving town). At 6am the next morning he wakes again to the same song on the radio! And so it goes on... every morning he awakes only to relive Groundhog Day. Imagine that! Imagine having to live the same day over and over and over again. Once the realization sets in that no matter what he does, Phil Connors is going to relive the same day again and again he even tries a variety of ways of killing himself... only to find himself waking up at 6am on Groundhog Day to the sound of I Got You Babe. There's no way out.Eventually Connors resigns himself to the fact he is going to have to relive Groundhog Day ad infinitum, and so starts throwing himself into his recurrent daily activities. By doing this he finds he actually enjoys having the opportunity to relive the events of the day again and again and discovers that he can learn from his earlier encounters with the day's events. The question is, will he ever live to see the day that follows Groundhog Day or is he destined to remain in this day for ever? And do you ever get that feeling you've been here before?
*Is this joke beginning to wear thin now?
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
It's Groundhog Day!
Every year, on February 2nd, the world's media (or rather a small proportion of it) turns its attention to the small town of Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania, USA. In particular they go there to observe a character called Punxsutawney Phil. Phil is a groundhog. But not just any groundhog... Phil is a special groundhog, because legend has it he has an uncanny ability to predict how long winter is going to last. According to his very own website, http://www.punxsutawneyphil.com/:
That's all very well, but the thing that actually interests me about this rather strange tradition is the 1993 movie Groundhog Day that's based around this rather quaint annual event. In the film Bill Murray plays TV weather forecaster Phil Connors who is assigned to cover the event for something like the third or fourth year running. Connors is, to say the least, fairly cynical about the whole thing and can't wait till the piece is done so he can get the hell out of Punxsutawney and back to civilization. The trouble is, a blizzard means that all routes out of Punxsutawney are blocked and so he has to stay there for a second night. The next morning he is woken up at 6am, just like the morning before, by the same song on the radio (Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe). He initially thinks that the local radio presenters must have simply forgotten to change the script from the previous morning, but slowly as he goes about his day he realizes that he is actually living the previous day again. It's still Groundhog Day! Eventually the end of the day comes again and he's back in his hotel bed (because just as with the previous day a blizzard prevents him from leaving town). At 6am the next morning he wakes again to the same song on the radio! And so it goes on... every morning he awakes only to relive Groundhog Day. Imagine that! Imagine having to live the same day over and over and over again. Once the realization sets in that no matter what he does, Phil Connors is going to relive the same day again and again he even tries a variety of ways of killing himself... only to find himself waking up at 6am on Groundhog Day to the sound of I Got You Babe. There's no way out.
Eventually Connors resigns himself to the fact he is going to have to relive Groundhog Day ad infinitum, and so starts throwing himself into his recurrent daily activities. By doing this he finds he actually enjoys having the opportunity to relive the events of the day again and again and discovers that he can learn from his earlier encounters with the day's events. The question is, will he ever live to see the day that follows Groundhog Day or is he destined to remain in this day for ever? And do you ever get that feeling you've been here before?
"At sunrise, Phil will emerge from his burrow at Gobbler's Knob, and his handlers will announce whether or not Phil has seen his shadow. If Phil sees his shadow, legend has it that we can expect six more weeks of winter weather. No shadow indicates an early spring."Back in 2001, one guy, an economist, even undertook some kind of analysis of Phil's forecasting data and concluded that over the years he had been around 70% successful and predicting either an early or late Spring.
That's all very well, but the thing that actually interests me about this rather strange tradition is the 1993 movie Groundhog Day that's based around this rather quaint annual event. In the film Bill Murray plays TV wea
ther forecaster Phil Connors who is assigned to cover the event for something like the third or fourth year running. Connors is, to say the least, fairly cynical about the whole thing and can't wait till the piece is done so he can get the hell out of Punxsutawney and back to civilization. The trouble is, a blizzard means that all routes out of Punxsutawney are blocked and so he has to stay there for a second night. The next morning he is woken up at 6am, just like the morning before, by the same song on the radio (Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe). He initially thinks that the local radio presenters must have simply forgotten to change the script from the previous morning, but slowly as he goes about his day he realizes that he is actually living the previous day again. It's still Groundhog Day! Eventually the end of the day comes again and he's back in his hotel bed (because just as with the previous day a blizzard prevents him from leaving town). At 6am the next morning he wakes again to the same song on the radio! And so it goes on... every morning he awakes only to relive Groundhog Day. Imagine that! Imagine having to live the same day over and over and over again. Once the realization sets in that no matter what he does, Phil Connors is going to relive the same day again and again he even tries a variety of ways of killing himself... only to find himself waking up at 6am on Groundhog Day to the sound of I Got You Babe. There's no way out.Eventually Connors resigns himself to the fact he is going to have to relive Groundhog Day ad infinitum, and so starts throwing himself into his recurrent daily activities. By doing this he finds he actually enjoys having the opportunity to relive the events of the day again and again and discovers that he can learn from his earlier encounters with the day's events. The question is, will he ever live to see the day that follows Groundhog Day or is he destined to remain in this day for ever? And do you ever get that feeling you've been here before?
Monday, February 02, 2009
It's Groundhog Day!
Every year, on February 2nd, the world's media (or rather a small proportion of it) turns its attention to the small town of Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania, USA. In particular they go there to observe a character called Punxsutawney Phil. Phil is a groundhog. But not just any groundhog... Phil is a special groundhog, because legend has it he has an uncanny ability to predict how long winter is going to last. According to his very own website, http://www.punxsutawneyphil.com/:
That's all very well, but the thing that actually interests me about this rather strange tradition is the 1993 movie Groundhog Day that's based around this rather quaint annual event. In the film Bill Murray plays TV weather forecaster Phil Connors who is assigned to cover the event for something like the third or fourth year running. Connors is, to say the least, fairly cynical about the whole thing and can't wait till the piece is done so he can get the hell out of Punxsutawney and back to civilization. The trouble is, a blizzard means that all routes out of Punxsutawney are blocked and so he has to stay there for a second night. The next morning he is woken up at 6am, just like the morning before, by the same song on the radio (Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe). He initially thinks that the local radio presenters must have simply forgotten to change the script from the previous morning, but slowly as he goes about his day he realizes that he is actually living the previous day again. It's still Groundhog Day! Eventually the end of the day comes again and he's back in his hotel bed (because just as with the previous day a blizzard prevents him from leaving town). At 6am the next morning he wakes again to the same song on the radio! And so it goes on... every morning he awakes only to relive Groundhog Day. Imagine that! Imagine having to live the same day over and over and over again. Once the realization sets in that no matter what he does, Phil Connors is going to relive the same day again and again he even tries a variety of ways of killing himself... only to find himself waking up at 6am on Groundhog Day to the sound of I Got You Babe. There's no way out.
Eventually Connors resigns himself to the fact he is going to have to relive Groundhog Day ad infinitum, and so starts throwing himself into his recurrent daily activities. By doing this he finds he actually enjoys having the opportunity to relive the events of the day again and again and discovers that he can learn from his earlier encounters with the day's events. The question is, will he ever live to see the day that follows Groundhog Day or is he destined to remain in this day for ever? And do you ever get that feeling you've been here before?
"At sunrise, Phil will emerge from his burrow at Gobbler's Knob, and his handlers will announce whether or not Phil has seen his shadow. If Phil sees his shadow, legend has it that we can expect six more weeks of winter weather. No shadow indicates an early spring."Back in 2001, one guy, an economist, even undertook some kind of analysis of Phil's forecasting data and concluded that over the years he had been around 70% successful and predicting either an early or late Spring.
That's all very well, but the thing that actually interests me about this rather strange tradition is the 1993 movie Groundhog Day that's based around this rather quaint annual event. In the film Bill Murray plays TV wea
ther forecaster Phil Connors who is assigned to cover the event for something like the third or fourth year running. Connors is, to say the least, fairly cynical about the whole thing and can't wait till the piece is done so he can get the hell out of Punxsutawney and back to civilization. The trouble is, a blizzard means that all routes out of Punxsutawney are blocked and so he has to stay there for a second night. The next morning he is woken up at 6am, just like the morning before, by the same song on the radio (Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe). He initially thinks that the local radio presenters must have simply forgotten to change the script from the previous morning, but slowly as he goes about his day he realizes that he is actually living the previous day again. It's still Groundhog Day! Eventually the end of the day comes again and he's back in his hotel bed (because just as with the previous day a blizzard prevents him from leaving town). At 6am the next morning he wakes again to the same song on the radio! And so it goes on... every morning he awakes only to relive Groundhog Day. Imagine that! Imagine having to live the same day over and over and over again. Once the realization sets in that no matter what he does, Phil Connors is going to relive the same day again and again he even tries a variety of ways of killing himself... only to find himself waking up at 6am on Groundhog Day to the sound of I Got You Babe. There's no way out.Eventually Connors resigns himself to the fact he is going to have to relive Groundhog Day ad infinitum, and so starts throwing himself into his recurrent daily activities. By doing this he finds he actually enjoys having the opportunity to relive the events of the day again and again and discovers that he can learn from his earlier encounters with the day's events. The question is, will he ever live to see the day that follows Groundhog Day or is he destined to remain in this day for ever? And do you ever get that feeling you've been here before?
Sunday, February 01, 2009
A wise man?
The final card of my reading spoke of advice from some kind of 'authority figure' and indicated that I could be about to embark on a new course of learning:
As it turned out we didn't really do much (didn't dare walk the dogs!), other than eat lots of lovely food expertly cooked by Rachel's dad before driving back home in time to watch Lost. In an idle moment on the internet I did have a read of Richard Wiseman's blog, and I would regard Richard as one of my mentors what with him being my PhD supervisor an' all. Richard has only just taken to blogging this month but a few days ago his blog was apparently already in the top 50 on Wordpress! Bloody smartarse. Or is there a lesson to be learnt here?
The Hierophant: It is time to take sound advice from someone you trust. The Hierophant often reveals an authority figure, such as a father, teacher, or other mentor. He symbolizes practical wisdom, so his influence can help you resolve a challenge. This card also denotes a spiritual dimension, so it can indicate that you are about to embark on a new course of learning that will bring you closer to your soul's purpose.One of the original reasons we had arranged to go down to Rachel's parents this weekend was because there was a possibility that we might attend a Beginners' Psychic Development Workshop down that way today (well, if I'm gonna learn tarot I should also try and develop my psychic awareness, don't you think?). If that had worked out, that could have been a been a nice hit for the tarot. But. alas, it didn't happen: There were no spaces. You thought I was going to say it was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances didn't you? Now come on, you know me better than that.
As it turned out we didn't really do much (didn't dare walk the dogs!), other than eat lots of lovely food expertly cooked by Rachel's dad before driving back home in time to watch Lost. In an idle moment on the internet I did have a read of Richard Wiseman's blog, and I would regard Richard as one of my mentors what with him being my PhD supervisor an' all. Richard has only just taken to blogging this month but a few days ago his blog was apparently already in the top 50 on Wordpress! Bloody smartarse. Or is there a lesson to be learnt here?
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