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January 2010 
What helps you deepen into the present moment?
Posted on Sep 10th, 2009
by 
sandi
sandi
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for September 10, 2009:
I have no desire to deepen into the present moment. It is my purpose and design that I am ever moving forward, not standing still while everything else surges around me, like a boulder lodged in a sandbar. For those who must stand and take heavy, deep breaths, to finalize their intentions, to alter their perception of reality, I have one piece of advice......for God's Sake, don't do it in the middle of the road!!! Take yourself off somewhere and meditate on where you are to your heart's content. Just don't do it where you are impeding the flow and are liable to get yourself hurt in the bargain. Why not get up and move to the music of the Spheres like all the rest of life? Because it's going to move on, with or without you.
Access: Public
I love it! big grins & deep breathing while I let the dance of life dance me : )
Sandi - I thoroughly enjoy your practical, no-nonsense approach to life. I think you should be the host of a morning talk radio show where listeners call in for their daily dose of Dr. Sandi. The perfect tag line would be:
”Like a spoonful of sugar – she helps the medicine go down!”
OMG do I laugh do I cry do I make a cherry pie, adore adore this answer and btw,man you are funny ,a truly funny bunny,I could just bite myself.
Take it down, Break it down, Move it , Groove it !! Dance, Tara, Dance!!
Thanks, laugh, I got a smile out of that! First, they would be given a bucket and knife to cut okra with, instead of a microphone. Next, I'm afraid it would not translate into sugar, more like STP. Thank you for your confidence in my common sense, I showed none of it this morning when I got into my truck and found a snake in the floor. Time to change clothes! It wasn't the size of the snake that threw me, I wondered where the rest of them were because it is a hatchling. Granted, my truck only gets emptied once a week, I hadn't thought to look for snake's nests in there. I'm going to think about this before I go to the store, I really didn't need to go that bad anyway.
The cherry pie! Bake the cherry pie! I love cherry pie and now that you put it in my mind, I'll clean the snakes out of my truck (large dose of B.S ) and go to the store anyway. I have to rely on Sara Lee for my pie needs. Glad you liked it BB, I always enjoy your visits!
I do like most creatures great and small. However, certain species I make a point of giving a wide – very wide – berth to; snakes included. Had I been in your situation this morning, it would definitely have been newsworthy because I would have have been airborne, post haste!
Nice photo (are you out of your mind?!)
Love the baby snake. I had a baby garter snake when I was 16. My Dad snuck her in to the hospital when I was getting my broken leg patched up. I also had a shiny baby king snake my little sis caught in a field. What kind of snake is the lil' fella. It's the big ones that have me walking on tip toes. Most of them are harmless around here, cept' the rattlers of course!
Oh hot and spicey hurts going in and clears everything on the way out. Well said. Sandi
Ok in defense of snakes Laurie,not though to ridicule your concerns, I too had a snake as a pet much easier to care for let me tell you. They are not the demanding cuddle up on the couch pet, more under the rock watching for the next meal sort of pet.
There are no little bags that you have to carry around when you don't take them for walks or do for that matter and you get to collect their skin hoping some day to make a belt you never get around too.
So by and by I learned alot from that snake, patience, sticking to your spot, knowing it's ok to stick your tongue out every once and a while, and in time you can even grow a new outlook.
Thanks
Just Me - In the world of animals, insects, fish and birds there is so much to be learned (i.e., animal totems - mine is a kestrel); but this is the best by far, “… knowing it's ok to stick your tongue out every once and a while.”
Hi, Laurie, If I had no clue to the nature of this snake, believe me, I would have been wearing gloves. It is a baby king snake, probably off-spring of the one I saw in the chicken house this spring. Good snake, eats mice and rats, not a bad thing to have around as I will not use poison except as a last resort. I put him carefully into Big's micro-system where he can find some bugs just his size.
Hi, Jeannie, well, talk about being “in the moment”. That little guy was faster than he looks, not to have any legs. I've always liked unusual pets and had a small garter too that lived in a large terrarium for a while, until the girls were playing with him one day and lost him. I can only hope he made his escape good and got out. I never did find him. When I lived up on Burnt Mountain, I kept a sawed-off 12 gauge loaded with birdshot because that place was eat up with snakes, copperheads, eastern diamond backs, and cotton-mouths to name a few. It was their environment, but MY GARDEN. The rattlers would coil under the tomato plants to wait for the mice and rats that would eat tomatoes at night. I've sent more than one to Jesus when they interfered with my space, but mostly we eyed each other cautiously and went on. I bet a snake is not too hard to hide in a hospital, but could startle
a nurse pulling back the sheets!
Sandi - a good portion of my growing up years were done in a little community in Southern California called Del Dios, right along the shore of Lake Hodges. If we wanted to play outside – and we did – we had to share our space with rattlesnakes and tarantula's. As such, my dad did an OVERLY good job at putting the FEAR of God into us when it came to these two items. Wait, that's not true. There was one more thing. Lake Hodges is a dam – he didn't want us playing on or near the dam either.
I know (logically) that there are really good/nice snakes (and spiders for that matter). Unfortunately, I feel (emotionally) that I'm OUTTA HERE when I even think a spider and/or snake may be in the viscinity.
Did my Dad's methods work when it came to the dam (or any body of water)? Nope! I can't begin to tell you the number of times … Well, I better stop right there. Dad's still alive and well. And let me tell you, it's not only the law that has a mighty long arm!
Hi, JM, STP makes everything run better, I'm a Mario Andretti fan from way back, remember the screwdriver commercial where they dipped it into a can of STP and then couldn't hold on to it? Performance enhancer, couldn't be beat with a stick! I like your snake story, they really don't eat much at all. Funny, I never thought to learn anything from a snake, you're very perceptive that way, look how much you picked up from a chicken.
Ah,ha, Laurie, I see you do know about snakes, I couldn't remember what kind they have in Illinois, yes, So. Cal. does have it's fair share. I learned to fear and respect snakes before I ever handled one. My Dad was like your to a degree, ” the only good snake is a dead snake” As for spiders, well, that's another thing altogether. I can't abide them or scorpions, and both have sunk their teeth into me more times than I care to recall. If I had to, I would dis-embody myself to get out of a roomful of spiders and wouldn't you know it, they're the only kind of insect in my house.
Oh, geeze Sandi - I completely and totally forgot about scorpions! We used to sleep in teepees at camp and every morning we had to shake our shoes out before putting our feet into them.
Years ago I was test driving a used car and while out on the road, a scorpion fell from the visor and dropped onto my lap. We found out in a quick hurry that the brakes worked! I think I bald all four of the poor guys tires and he had a difficult time getting his teeth out of the dashboard. Needless to say, I didn't buy the car.
I'm so happy I left my Dr. Pepper in the kitchen! I just opened it and it's still super-fizzy. Oh, that would have hurt my nose! I can just see it, immediate reflex action, tires smoking, brakes screaming, guy wondering “What the ….!”
The first time I was stung, not really knowing anything about them except the Biblical phrase, 'O Death, where is thy sting”, l looked at my hand and thought, “here it is , I'm going to die of a bug.” Since I was alone on the mountain, with no-one due for hours, I sat down on the couch and waited to die. In a minute I got up, fixed my hair and washed up, all the time watching it swell. I sat back down, waiting for death, heard the chickens, thought, “well, they shouldn't have to suffer” went out , fed and watered them, got the eggs, came back and sat down. Thought, well, I can go pick the tomatoes while I'm waiting. Did that, said to myself, irritated by then, “this sure is taking a long time”, decided to die on my feet and went on. It did make me sick and caused a bad sore, but the scorpion died and I didn't.
Sandi - Your waiting to die story is great. Now here's the difference between us: You fixed your hair and washed up. I wouldn't have cared. On the other hand, I would have tidied my drawers and closets in the event I died. That way people going through my things could have confirmed, “Yepper, she was one anal woman!”
“… the scorpion died and I didn't.” I like that – those are words to live by!
I believe in retribution in the here and now for things that want to cause me mortal harm, first thing I did was kill the S.O.B. This happened to me back in the 80's when if I had to die young I was going to leave a good looking corpse. These days it no longer bothers me. My plans include cremation and a trip down the Chattahoochee to the Gulf of Mexico, a long time from now, God willing, when I have finally conquered vanity. I figure a 1/2 gallon Mason jar will just about fit the bill, give or take a cup or two. If there are ashes they can't fit in jar, I'm good with them throwing them around on the flower beds and get some use out of them.
Sandi - I'm tellin' ya – we must a been separated at birth. I want to end up in our new compost bin!
[We got it moved tonight – pictures forthcoming tomorrow].
I had a pet snake when I played little league baseball. It was actually in a plastic apple and when you twisted the two halves of the apple, it would appear. It was a good luck charm for me. Once, I hit a home run when the bases were loaded to win the game. Needless to say, I named it, Homer. True story. Another example of the power of intention. Life is beautiful that way.
Okay, if you planned to be cremated first, other wise Len will have a Devil of a time keeping Willa and the rest of the bunch from ……you know. We had some dogs on the mountain that kept digging up a horse and dragging it's damned old bones around, grossing every body out. You get my drift.
Gabby, that's a neat story, was it a real snake? That you batted in grand slam is even better. I'm a firm believer in the power of intention, it's uncanny the stuff that has come about since I began to purposely use it. Thank God for his patience with me, he could have knocked me off at anytime and I'm still here, dodging cars. Thanks for coming to visit, I appreciate it.
'
Sandi - I'm fairly confident that I will have died of natural causes and be cremated first. However, Len has offered – on more than one occasion – to hold my head under water until the bubbles stop.
Hmmmm … he would have to hide the incriminating evidence somewhere, now wouldn't he? …
Double Hmmmmm … good thing our back yard already looks like a prison. All he needs now is some concertina wire around the top.
Actually, it was a plastic worm who thought it was a snake. Talk about the power of intention!
Sorry, just had to ask…..I didn't think a snake would enjoy living in plastic apple very long!
Sandi, would that ring on your middle finger happen to be your mothers?
Gabriel - I am thinking that it was her father's. I bet that when she gets back from photographing trees this afternoon she will let us know.
Hi, Y'all, Gabby, I do have my Mother's jg itewelry, although I don't wear it. It is safely tucked away and has been since she passed away. I don't feel comfortable wearing it, her rings on my fingers make me sad. I don't have pierced ears and the only necklace I wear is a cross on a leather cord. Since I have severe metal allergies, I've never developed the habit of wearing jewelry, and I've actually lost two nice engagement rings from working outside. The ring on my left hand is one Jim gave me the year we split up and the one the right is one my Dad made for me when I was 15. It is a very nice star sapphire he polished and set for me while he was in Viet Nam. Oddly enough, of all the rings I've been given by men through the years, class rings, promise rings, engagement and wedding rings, the one from my Dad is the only one I've cared enough to keep.
“… the one from my Dad is the only one I've cared enough to keep.” That says volumes about the type of man your Dad was, Sandi.
I sense your mother would love hearing from you more often, Sandi. There may be some important issues to address.