My Dragon Muse - Farloft

Cherrie McKenzie of CoActive Dreams asked me where my dragon, Farloft, came from. 

In this 'spot' I explain my dragon muse.

Podcast with CoActive Dreams - Cherrie McKenzie

LIVE YOUR DREAMS ... THE DREAM IS YOURS

That is the header on Cherrie's website. CoActive Dreams a station with podcast interviews of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

I was please when Cherrie asked me to appear on her show. We met on Twitter and hit it off immediately. We were kindred spirits. I have always believed in visualization and the power of the mind. The same things Cherrie teaches.

Cherrie sent me a list of five questions she said we might, or might not, get through in the 20-25 minute interview she would conduct from which to edit the 18 minute podcast. We made it through all the questions and then the real conversation started. We chatted away for another hour and a half. It was like catching up with an old friend.

I should stop being amazed at the wonderful people I meet on Twitter, but I just can't. It is like the universe has opened a channel and technology has allowed us all to reach out and touch those we lost track of from past lives.

I hope you enjoy the show.
Fun, Fantasy and Farloft

Unexpected Visitations

I tweet perhaps 3-4 hours a day. In a little over a year I have acquired over 10,000 followers, many of whom I consider friends. It is amazing to me how attached and involved one can become with other folks on Twitter. 

You meet someone, you share something, you connect. You laugh a lot, you cry a little, soon you are exchanging emails and Skyping someone in a country half-way round the world.

It is a rare and delightful pleasure when you can actually meet one of those fellow internet friends in person. In May, I had the pleasure of meeting Cheri Matthynssens in Astoria for the day. 

This past Labor Day weekend I was delighted when I heard Charlotte Ashlock was going to be in town. I met Charlotte online and have been pleased to share numerous enlightening conversations with her over the past year or so. She is a thoughtful young woman who never ceases to amaze me with the depth of her intellect. 

I asked her to share tea with me in the Moroccan Room and she accepted. We had a delightful visit. When I found out it was her first trip to Oregon I asked her if she would like to take a drive up The Gorge. She said yes and we were off. 

I hope she will consider visiting again sometime for a bit longer, so I can play tour guide and show her some more of the lovely state I live in and call home.

Thoughts of Being Green - Author Unknown

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right - our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same battles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. 

But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220-volts - wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers or popcorn to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and replaced the razor blades instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?