I am haunted by waters....

Came across this quote (above) again the other day.  It's from the novella, "A River Runs Through It"  that inspired the famous movie with the same title (think Brad Pitt).

If you haven't read this story, you should.  It's relatively short and so beautifully written.  I have a place in my heart for elegantly structured sentences and a well-woven story and this short book provides just that.

Anyway, I wanted to share my favorite few sentences of the book so I have listed them below.  Not sure why they touch me so much, but they do.

Enjoy:

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.

 I am haunted by waters.

– Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

The Daily Routine

First off, the picture of Bo-Bo here is only for pure cute-ness value.  It is a classic "Bo-Bo" moment---sitting in his bed--looking a little confused.  Love it.

Anyway, back to the reason I'm posting.  As I was getting ready for work today I had to inwardly laugh at how ridiculous my routine has become.  This is a typical weekday morning for me:

6:15 AM---Alarm goes off---snooze button is hit--annoyed nice dream was so rudely interrupted 

6:20 AM--Alarm goes off-snooze button is hit--trying to recapture that dream

6:30 AM---repeat

6:35 AM---contemplate how much longer I could sleep and still have enough time to get ready

6:38 AM---realize I need to get up NOW if I'm going to get to work at a decent hour.  Push Bo-Bo out of bed (lazy little guy) and we both get up for the day

6:40 AM---Shower---contemplate exactly how many more days I have until I actually have to purchase more shampoo---consider what kind of shampoo I will buy---oooh, that new Pantene Pro-V Naturals looked good--I bet Walgreen's on the Mall will have it...

6:55 AM--emerge from shower---towel off, get dressed

7:05 AM--feed the animals.  Rinse the water bowl out--refill with (filtered) water.  Place back on floor.  Fill new food bowl (Bo-Bo) with 1/4 c. dry dog food (organic of course)--top off with a few tablespoons of wet food.  Place on floor.  Top off Aria's food bowl with cat food

7:07:  Bo-Bo sniffs food...walks away--apparently disgusted.

7:08:  Put together my breakfast of champions---1/2 C. dry oatmeal, 1/2 C. frozen berries, put in Tupperware, place in work bag.  Rinse out and refill my SIGG water bottle.  Place in bag for work.

7:09:  Bo-Bo still has not touched food.  I top it off with some of my dry oatmeal--he comes running to eat.

7:10:  Turn on Alice 105.9, blow-dry portion of hair, clip back, start on make-up, contemplate best way to conceal under eye circles...

7:25:  Almost ready---finish blow-drying hair.  Realize I can't leave door open to bedroom while at work else face a destroyed comforter upon return by Bo-Bo.

7:26:  Go to close door to bedroom, realize Aria is under bed, must get her out

7:29:  Flicky toy is out---trying to entice Aria to get out from under bed.  Bo-Bo thinks the toy if for his entertainment---he lunges around it...I put him in a sit to which he immediately rolls onto his back for a belly rub

7:30: Rubbing Bo-Bo's belly while still trying to coax Aria from under bed.  She is amused--scoots further under the bed.

7:32:  I move Bo-Bo out of the way and manage to get a hold of Aria's middle and pull her out from under the bed.  Bo-Bo immediately tries to jump on top of her....I lift her up and out of his reach---get them both out of the bedroom and shut the door.  I place Aria gingerly on the coffee table

7:35:  Ack!  Have to leave now to catch my train

7:36: Run out the door, saying a prayer asking, no begging that the animals behave themselves while I'm out.

7:37:  Leaving apartment...upon exiting elevator and into lobby little boy grabs onto my jeans---I look ahead and see a big dog---I smile at the boy and coax him over to his mom.  Walking faster now, running late.

7:47: Out of breath, climb into the lightrail

7:48: On the lightrail off to work.  Panting, take a swig from my SIGG bottle.  Glad I brought it!  Headphones on...enjoying the ride.

In other news...

Well, it's Sunday afternoon and I must say I've had a great weekend so far! I had my first Reiki class in Cheyenne yesterday and it went really well. It was really exhausting, though. Teaching for nearly 5 hours wears you out. I got pretty positive feedback from the students and hope to teach a full Reiki II Class in Cheyenne this summer. I would love to teach again in Cheyenne since many people there haven't even heard of Reiki so it's good to teach others how to do it and share the positive energy and healing it offers.

Several students had some pretty great experiences with the Reiki attunements and with their first Reiki treatments. Tears were shed as some even had emotional releases. It made me feel grateful to be a part of that.

Anyway, that's all to report for now...more news later ;)

-N

To Pray.

I really adore the author/psychoanalyst, Clarissa Pinkola Estes (C.P.E). I've been listening to her works (she is a talented story-teller as well, she uses stories to teach and records them) since I was 14 years old. She has a beautiful gift for sharing ideas and lessons through the spoken word and she is also an amazing poet.

This past weekend I was listening to one of her c.d's about intuition and the spiritual life. In it she spoke about her experience with working as one of the Trauma-Specialists immediately after the Columbine HS massacre (she is a local to the Denver area).

After the tragic event that took many student's lives and deeply affected countless others, a vigil was held at one of the churches near the school in Littleton, CO. Thousands upon thousands of people showed up--many of them students of Columbine. C.P.E gathered many of the students together in a group at the vigil and asked that one of them either read or say a prayer. She was astounded that these teenagers, many of them 17 & 18 years of age, had no idea how to pray. Not even a memorized prayer or two. Most of them did not even know how to prepare to pray---folding hands, arms, etc. and she had to demonstrate a few ways to do so. C.P.E. went on to mention how saddening it was that these near-adults were not given such a basic and important skill--how to pray.

This experience of C.P.E.'s really touched me. I paused and thought of how grateful I am that I know how to pray. Even though I may not continue to practice other religious rituals that I was taught growing up, I certainly still pray and hearing this story, I am even more full of thanks towards my parents for instilling in me this basic yet such vital gift---knowing how to speak to our Creator, God, Source without Source---our Father in Heaven.

I had to share this on my blog because I think we oftentimes forget how blessed we are for the way we were brought up. The little things, like prayer, make a big difference in our own lives and so many others. As Abraham Lincoln once said,

"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go."

Thank goodness we have that option. And, speaking of prayer---click HERE to go to my post about prayer sites where you can request prayer.

I'm an Author--er-ish!

Some of you probably already saw this, but I had to post it on my blog because I'm pretty happy about this! I've published my first Examiner.com article on Reiki! Click below for the article:

Using reiki to heal a broken heart

This is a first article of many, I hope. Also, my former college roommate, who is an excellent writer, is going to profile me in an article about Reiki and that will be submitted to some online magazines as well. This will happen sometime in November of this year, most likely. Thanks again, Mindy!!

Okay, so that's it for now. Enjoy the last weekend of summer!

Just a quick one

I have to share this link---I stumbled across it looking for some coupons when placing an order for Beau's heartworm preventive at 1800PetMeds. Anyway, this site has ZILLIONS of coupon codes for online shopping PLUS printable coupons, too. If you ever shop online, check out this site before checking out with your online purchase. You'll probably save some $$$

COUPONS GALORE LINK!!! CLICK HERE

We're gonna party like it's 1999!

This past weekend I headed up to Chey-town for my TEN YEAR REUNION! What? It's been TEN years since I graduated from HS? Man, it is crazy how fast time has flown. I still remember leaving home to move to Provo ten years ago and all the adventures that followed.

Anyway, I was looking forward to meeting up with some old friends. It was a lot of fun, but sadly, only about 50 people showed up to the actual "Reunion" portion out of a class of about 300 students! I guess the mixer the night before had a lot more people show up, but only about 70 total. Still, it made me wish I had just gone to the mixer instead. But, at least I had an excuse to dress up so it was worth going to the official Reunion portion--a girl has gotta dress up once in awhile!

Overall, the reunion was what you would expect. Most people looked the same +10 years of extra "padding"--but some people looked great! I think we all gained at least a bit of weight; however, some of the girls I went to HS with looked even better than they did when they graduated. Crazy. I will admit, I was kinda happy about a "frienemy" (friend/enemy) who packed on some weight. Yes, it was wrong of me, but still...it was a bit vindicating since she was definitely a brat most of our growing up years together. Yes, I need to work on letting it go, but I should be allowed a bit of pleasure...just a tiny bit?

On a different note: Another interesting fact was how many of my old classmates now live in CO! I was happy to find out that one of my friends who I adored in HS is now in Highlands Ranch and several others are just 20-45 mins away in other cities (Johnstown, Fort Collins, etc) and several are right in Denver. A few of us decided to get together in Denver soon and I want to make sure that happens. Besides, my friend who lives in Highlands Ranch wanted to introduce me to a hot chiropractor that she is friends with. I'm in! And, it's always nice to have some more girlfriends to hang out with. Two of my friends are now lawyers! Seriously! Smart people--at least now if I ever get in trouble with the law I will have some one to defend me...jk!--hahaha!

Okay, so I only took like 5 pics of the whole event. Of course there are tons on Facebook now from other people, but I don't have access to FB at the moment (at work and they blocked it...haha) so you will only see a handful for now.

All in all, it was fun and I'm really glad I went.


My childhood through HS friend, Rachel and her boyfriend. She's a Distrcit Attorney in Fort Collins! You go girl!



Rachel, me and my friend Kristen--Kristen is the one in Highlands Ranch--and just graduated from UW law school!



The girls.