All of now

Sometimes, in life, we have to focus on the little things to get us through the big crashing waves of change. My mom directed me to this Ralph Marston Daily Motivator from Saturday:

All of now

The bright sun shines in the clear blue sky. Shimmering waves glisten on a restless sea.

Beauty fills the world. Possibility fills your life.

The problems are real. Yet in each one is the opportunity to move forward.

This sparkling moment is one of a kind. Take it in with love and with gratitude, and remember to live it fully.

This magical mystery that is your life knows only the limits you choose to give it. In the heart of your spirit you can experience anything you decide to experience.

Life is in all of now. See it, feel it and know it as it fills you with wonder and joy.

Here is Julian "cooking" eggs, one of the many things that fills me with wonder and joy.

It is a privilege to be his mother.

Beware the netiraptor

Julian has been feeling under the weather lately. He's had this lingering hack for weeks, and it got juicier over the weekend. His nose has been running and he even had a fever a couple of times. The hard thing about sickness in kids is that with these symptoms (well, minus the cough), it could just be teething. And being in Austin, it could just be allergies. Or it might be something that could lead to freakin' pneumonia! So we're taking him in to the doc to make sure it's not the latter. He's supposed to have a well-check this week (he'll be 15 months in a few days), so we'll do the two-times-in-one-week doctor's visits, which is how it always seems to work, right mommas?

Poor little guy. You can just tell his body's doing
its best to get rid of whatever it's got.

In our collective hazy April state (see Austin allergies, above), talk always comes back around to the neti pot. I hadn't heard of this device until I moved here, which probably says a lot about not only what's in the air in Missouri, but also the traditional approach toward medicine people use. Vince introduced me to the neti when I was living at the Cathedral, and lots of folks swear by them. Next time I'm saddled by a sinus infection, I'll probably go get one of my own. Here's how one guys uses them:



And since I'm YouTubing this post already, here's what Erin does with her inner velociraptor:

Spare any change?

RonD has some points to consider about this What Not to Wear thing. How change is inevitable, essential, and at its root, a little bit scary.

Humans seem hard-wired to reinvent themselves every six, seven, eight years. But how often can one accomplish such a TOTAL update -- hair, makeup and that BAD ASS WARDROBE you get to pick -- in such sweeping fashion? And without doling out any of your own dimes! Goddamn, but that's fine.

Enjoy the experience. You should feel excited, and a little out of breath. Dashes of sweet anticipation. You will change in ways you don't know, but they'll be good and cool changes ... The Japanese like to say that you can do nothing about your feelings; change your behavior and your feelings will follow. I'm excited to see what the new exterior will do for the inside you.

On the surface, What Not to Wear is about fashion, of course. But if you've watched the show more than a couple of times, you know it also extends deeper than that. Even in the lamest of cases, a change in appearance, for the better, is going to affect the made-over person on many nuanced layers, which are different for every person. The show thrusts them into reinvention, a total update, as RonD puts it, something we all could use every few years. And, YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO PAY FOR IT. I mean, seriously, I am awash in gratitude for Ian and the universe powers that be lined this up for me. It's like I won the lottery and hit the Mega Millions jackpot of inflicted personal change and growth.

And with winning the lottery comes all kinds of unexpected changes, which I'll do my best to be prepared for. Stacy and Clinton aren't known for being polite in this process. They are as much life coaches as stylists. They dig into the psychology behind weight and overall physical appearance. There is often crying.

As in life, just as you start thinking you know exactly how it will be, something else will come along and mix it up. Television show or notwithstanding, I will try to take Mr. Davis' advice about enjoying the anticipation of the unknown and remembering the very "Ask and it is Given" mindset that you cannot change how you feel, only how you choose to behave and react.