Dappled Air

My twins born in 1978 have the same birth date as Michael Jackson: August 29. When the kids were 4 years old 'Thriller' came out and they were so proud to share their birthday with a famous person. Over the years that association was not always something to be proud of, but then again we all share our birthday with a famous or infamous person. It is up to us to decide how much we want to identify with that fact. I have fond memories or Michael's early songs and send my condolences to his family and friends.

We hear a lot about staying in the moment or NOW lately. It is talked about in the movie ' the Secret - the law of attraction ' and on Oprah . That's when I was surprised to read this blog post titled: Pay Attention at www.lateralaction.com. I like it when I get confirmation of the way I see things from totally different directions. Living in the NOW put everything into a different perspective. What if we let go of the past and the future and only concentrate on the NOW. All the baggage we have in relationships because of the past, can be ignored and the other person(s) dealt with in the present. Do we change our behavior when we see the other person the way they are right now and not the way we remember and all the stuff that bugs us about them? I think it is worthwhile to give it a try and see what the result will be. I would love to get your feedback on this and am looking forward to reading your comments.

How time flies. I just realized that I have been blogging at Dappled Air for over a year. My first post appeared on June 16/2008 . Now after a year I have gotten the hang of blogging and am in the middle of redoing my main website Marlies' Creative Universe. The website has gotten so big and so diverse since its inception in 1997, that it is time to split it up and switch to a different CMS. Currently I am using TYPO3, but the new sites will be in Wordpress. For the last half year I have been immersing myself in the intricacies of Wordpress. Thank goodness I learned to use TYPO3 and now switching to a different CMS is much easier. I will keep on using Dappled Air as my blog for my personal musings. Specific interests will be taken over by the various sub blogs. I am in the middle of activating them which is quite a big job in itself. If you check out the links below you will find that they are in various states of readiness, but from each one there is also a link to the section on ...

In the last few months my daily yoga exercise has been replaced with gardening and looking back it seems that we had very few rainy weekdays and so I did a lot more gardening than yoga. Today was the first day in over a month that I am indoors and so it yoga time. I really enjoyed my workout and noticed an effect that had not happened before. From my EFT practice I know that yawning is a sign when a release occurs. EFT Theory: "The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system" - Wikipedia At this morning's session during and after some exercises I was busy yawning and I realized that yoga does also stimulate the meridians and as my body is now recognizing this stimulation it automatically goes into release mode. I have no idea what blocks are released, however. I have not heard or read of this anywhere, but I am very pleased. Related links: EFT - Gary Craig EFT - Wikipedia Yoga - Wikipedia Meridian (Chinese Medicine) - Wikipedia

While digging in my garden this week I came across these two salamanders. At first they did not move at all, so I quickly ran for my camera and took the picture. Some quick research revealed that they are Redback Salamanders (Plethodon cinereus): "This salamander is more of a land creature. It lives in all sorts of moist forests and often invades suburban backyards. Its eggs are laid in damp places under rocks or logs, so there is no aquatic stage at all. Redback Salamanders have no lungs. The animals breathe through their skins, and the lining of the roof of the mouth. Read the rest at the above link from the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History."

On our daily walk around the lake we came across some elementary school aged kids with one of them holding something in his hand. It turned out to be a 'Spotted Salamander'. They had found it by turning over a rock. Always having my camera with me allowed me to take a picture. The animal was scared and peeing, so they decided to put it back where they found it. Here is the info I found at Wikipedia about the Salamander: Latin name: Ambystoma maculatum "The spotted salamander is about 6-7 1/2 inches long. The spotted salamander's main color is black, but can sometimes be blue-black, dark gray, or even dark brown. There are two rows of yellow/orange spots that run from the top of the head (near the eyes) to the tip of the tail. These rows are uneven. An interesting fact is that the spotted salamander's spots near the top of the head are more orange and the rest of the spots are more yellow. The underside of the spotted salamander is slate gray." "The spott...

That depends of where you live. Growing up in Switzerland, I remember as a small girl 3 or 4 collecting May bugs in the evening (they seem to be nocturnal) with my dad. That was before I was grossed out touching bugs and worms. We collected them in a glass jar. They made a funny sound and smelled strange. Then we let them go again. When I arrived in Canada (1975) I noticed that there were no May bugs, but the same kind of bug appeared in June and therefore was called June bug. I just chalked it up to the cooler temperatures in Canada. Fast forward to 2009, the last week of May I noticed that there were bugs flying against my bathroom window at night. They sounded just like June bugs, but it was still May. So I guess with the climate change they have now also turned into May bugs. Digging in my garden I noticed that the bugs hid during the day in the earth and only come out at night when they are attracted to light and bump against lit up windows. Ok, now that my curiosity was pe...

In last week's newsletter from Sheila Betker: Freedom to Dream I came across this very interesting and helpful article. The Road to Forgiveness is a Journey Toward Freedom "If unresolved anger is a toxin to the spirit, forgiveness is the antidote," wrote Brian Luke Seaward in his book, Stand Like Mountain, Flow Like Water: Reflections on Stress and Human Spirituality. When people get hurt, they often react with resentment, anger, rage, even hatred. While some of these emotions may feel like appropriate responses in the short term, holding on to them will cause further pain and stress. Nurturing old wounds and resentments is like tending weeds in a garden. The more care you give them, the more they take over until there's no room for the positive feelings that can nourish you. Forgiveness doesn't mean condoning inappropriate behaviour or excusing personal violations. It doesn't mean giving up or hiding or denying what was done. To forgive someone of something d...

This Wired.com article: The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online continues my thread of thought from my May 13/09 post . I am always amazed how people come to the same understanding from so many different directions. It is like the saying says: " All roads lead to Rome ". I wonder how long it will take mainstream and governments to realize that we have more in common with each other than what separates us. That our natural inclination is to share and communicate and thanks to the Internet and computers it is becoming easier than ever to find likeminded others. It does not matter how large or how small that group is. It is the fact that there are others like us that's important. Before the Internet we were like little islands floating in a huge sea where we could not even see other islands. Now, distance, country and time zone does not even matter any more. We find a way to connect to others with the same ideas.