Glen Of Scotland

People Lie

People get very upset when others lie to them, or feel that people aren't being truthful, or with holding information, yet everyone does it or has  done it in the past. People lie for all sorts of reasons, knowing we wouldn't like the truthful answer, our past reactions to the truth before, shame, guilt, fear of  punishment, being judged, the list is endless.

If you are running into this situation frequently you may find it helpful to examine your reaction to this person and see if you are receptive to the truth even if that truth is not what you want to hear. If you get angry hearing it, then consider a more even or less aggressive response, you may find people being more truthful with you.

 Keep in mind that telling the truth can be painful for the other person, the more you can demonstrate, that while you may not like what the truth is, you can can show appreciation for hearing the truth and move forward most people will respond favorably in time. This is a good practice especially  with your children.

Fast Moving

Here is a quick video clip of the fast moving stream, you can hear the noise of the water well before you see it.

Aspen 4

Sometimes the universe sends some messengers along just to say hello, today it was a grasshopper, at first it was playing in front of me, then to really get my attention, chose to hop on my shoe.

Aspen 3

Aspen 2

The higher up.....

Late summer last year I returned to Aspen, to explore more of the area. The ski lift was open so I took advantage of an fast trip up the mountain, it was very beautiful. I noticed that the higher up you go the more you can see, that's true of our our vibration, the higher we go, the more we can see (and feel)

 

Getting Creative

I was on a flight recently and was sat next to a couple of youngsters, one was 11 and the other 13. They were very chatty and were having a good time. I noticed how easily they were able to entertain themselves and have fun during the almost 4 hour flight. They had the ipod and were playing games and listening to music, stretching from time to get comfortable, talking sharing, checking out my kindle too.

It was very entertaining for me, especially when the 11 year old boy was talking to me, with his sunglasses on backwards, telling his sister he could still see her. How can you not have fun around all of that.

Kids get very creative with the most basic of things and have fun, it was a great lesson and a reminder to just have fun. It doesn't matter what others might think.

Now where are my sunglasses

Blame Game

Congress is busy working on rescuing us from global warming at the moment. It would be nice if they would get out of the way, however they seem stuck on blaming fossil fuels and other things like that. This is actually progress as blame goes, back in the biblical times, all the famine, fires and floods and locusts were blamed on the wrath of God, it was supposed to be punishment for all the bad stuff were doing back then.

I haven't heard of much burning of fossil fuels back in the biblical times, maybe God was blamed back then  to control our behavior, or make us feel bad, create some of that fear too. Wait, that sounds like Al Gore and his documentary, fear, make us feel bad, control our behavior. I wonder how long he would have given the planet back then if he had made his documentary about the great flood.

We can just accept that our planet goes through changes and we have adjusted well in the past, we are still here. Or we can look for the blame and go with that, if we do, then follow the money and see who gets rich from it.

Have you noticed?

Gas prices have dropped, now 25cents a gallon less than a few weeks ago, and $2 plus per gallon less than last year. Nice to have that extra cash available isn't it?

Yes, but can your baby do this?

Enjoy this video:

Observing 4

After waiting in line for a flashlight, I ventured up the fire escape to my 14th floor room and repacked my bag and back pack. I was feeling very grateful for whoever created a flashlight, made life easier for me.

As I made my way down stairs, my 40 pound bag in one had and the flashlight in the other, I could feel some annoyance and frustration develop within me, I knew I had to get back in alignment quickly as it was going to make things worse. I had enough to carry downstairs without bringing all those emotions down with me too, I looked for something to appreciate, I really wanted to find something and it wasn't easy. I focused on how I was looking forward to sleeping at the new hotel, to have air conditioning and sleeping well. That did the trick and another couple of floors down I ran into someone else in the same situation. We were able to have a good laugh about things as we made our way downstairs.

 I felt so much better, I was still coming downstairs with a 40 pound bag in one hand and a flashlight in the other, in a hotel that had no power or water, none of that had changed. I had changed from being annoyed to having a good laugh.

Which is the final lesson from this experience, everyone is going to come out of alignment at times, there are simply too many situations and people on this planet for that not to happen. The key is what are you going to do when it happens? I had a choice to stay annoyed and frustrated or find some way to feel happy again. I can tell you it was much easier coming downstairs laughing than it was being annoyed and frustrated, had I not found a way back into alignment I may not have run into the other person to laugh with. I may not have been assigned a more luxurious hotel if I stayed annoyed, maybe it was just luck or maybe it was because I was happy. When you experience that "luck" happening time and time again, it might help keep you focused on getting back in alignment quickly.

I was very grateful for this one incident, I was able to observe so much, learn from it, share it and expand as a result, oh and have a good time too.

Observing 3

The hotel was faced with a situation that doesn't happen very often, a hotel with no power or water and an initial uncertainty when it would be restored. All the right people were there tracing the electric wiring to see what could be done. It was determined that power would not be restored for a day or two and now the hotel had to find other rooms for a large number of guests.

There were two lines, one to be rehoused and the other for a flashlight to go up to your room and bring your luggage etc down. The hotel did a lot right, one thing they didn't do is communicate well. This is typical in situations like this all over the world, it leads to frustration and people saying things they both should and shouldn't say. It can happen at home too, when one person is told one thing and another person told a variation of that.

Which brings us to another lesson, when communicating about or during an event, it is imperative that everyone communicate exactly the same thing to everyone. It might be better to write it all out and hand it to everyone, so everyone has the same information and nothing else. People talk to each other in these situations, comparing what information they have and don't have, emotions are already heightened so they pounce on any difference, might even take it personally.

I found it quite amazing how even managers at the hotel were saying different things to people, creating confusion and frustration, and creating more work for themselves.

Observing 2

As I didn't feel danger, I chose to go down the fire escape, using my cell phone for light, the others chose to do so as well. Importantly, I was going down irrespective of what others were going to do. If I felt danger in that situation, I would have chosen not to go down the fire escape. It would not matter what others were thinking or doing, I would stay put and call for more information.

As we started walking down the stairs, using cell phones for light, people were mostly calm. However given the  darkness and presence of smoke, the fears were increasing and then the comments started. We are going to die and the like and there is not much you can do other than to tell people to stay calm and we will live and how far down we are and how the smoke is not getting worse, that can be enough to calm people down, though they can't hear much of that, the key is to keep moving, that they can do too.

We all got down without incident and were met outside with a number of fire trucks and medics, the latter were not needed as everyone was fine. It turned out to be an electrical fire  the basement which had been extinguished.

As everyone was waiting outside, the shock etc started to kick in and then the comments really started. It was interesting to stand back and observe this, there was no  point in engaging anyone, nor did I feel the need to. The comments were all the "could haves" could have died, could have fallen, could have been killed etc.

That brings us to the second lesson here, the more you engage in the "could haves" you are actually making the situation worse, a lot worse. Everyone has done this, so think back to when you did, what do you remember? Do you remember almost getting killed at a hotel, road or  whatever or do you remember getting out of the hotel easily, or the fact that the other car did actually miss you?

For most people they remember the could have been, not that they were okay. Of course by the time you tell everyone the story, it becomes more ingrained and more difficult to let go of the experience. It makes the experience bigger and more traumatic than it has to be and keeps that active in your energy.

This example may just be a coincidence, a couple who were supposed to have been on the recent Air France plane crash, were interviewed about missing the flight. Less than 3 weeks later, they were in a car crash, the lady was killed in the crash.

Observing

I had a business trip planned to a city in the USA and I received a lot more than I was expecting. I was able to observe human reactions to a situation that I would like to share with you in the hope you may find some ease when you are faced with situations in future. So relax and read on for the next few days.

A couple of days before my trip, I had a feeling something was off with this trip, I looked at changing flights or hotels and also just letting the whole thing go. None of that felt with any ease, though I could have canceled the trip, I chose to proceed anyway.

On the first night, I am in the shower at the hotel getting ready for dinner and the lights flickered in the bathroom, then went out. I thought it was just a bulb gone, however I discovered after my shower,the lights were out in the bedroom too. The office building next door had lights on, so the power failure was either just in my room or just the hotel. I was able to get dressed and looked out in the hallway which was dark too, there were no alarms ringing so I thought nothing of it.

About 15 minutes later, there was a fire alarm, an intermittent one, it was time to go downstairs, other guests on the 14th floor started leaving their rooms too and we headed for the fire escape.

There was smoke, and the fire escape was dark, try the next fire escape,  smoke and darkness there too. Some were starting to panic a little, yet I didn't feel danger here, I paid attention to that feeling without bringing thought into it as I wanted to feel as opposed to thinking. I have been in situations in the past where I could feel danger, so it was easy to feel the difference and most importantly was able to trust that.

That was the first important lesson here, trust your feelings and don't bring thoughts in to confuse you. This provides you with reassurance and a feeling of calm to continue with what to do next.

Up high 2

Up high

I took the opportunity to drive along the highest continuous road in the USA, yes right here in Colorado through the national park. At it's highest point the road is at 12,100 feet, above the tree line as you will see from the photos. The road is closed in the winter and usually opens again in May due to the snow and blowing snow, it gets very windy up there.

Happy July

Here in Colorado the last month saw record rainfall, this has created a lush green color everywhere, instead of a golden brown, the wild flowers are in full bloom so the mountains are alive with color. It's nice to be out in nature: