Music to Move the Stars

Here's my new favorite music CD. If you go to the site below, you can even listen to the songs. It's called Spanish Dances performed by the Harp Consort. The CD has selections from Luz Y Norte composed by Lucas Ruiz de Ribayaz y Foncea in 1677 in Madrid, Spain. It's classical baroque, but unusual. Instruments played include the guitar, harps, organ, lute, archlute, banduria, theorbo, viola da gamba, lira, percussion and harpsicord. It's very stirring and beautiful. To listen to the songs, look near the bottom of the page where it says "listen to samples".

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The Speed of Life

Are you living in the fast lane? Is your life speeding by and you're wondering why?

It's all about choices. Life is not inherently fast, we make it so. Life is meant to be experienced, felt, enjoyed and understood. When your life slows down, you have time to reflect, time to enjoy, time to choose wisely, time to relate, time to think. When your life is fast, you miss so much of what makes life worth living: our families, our friends, our interests, our purpose, our spirituality, our community. You make mistakes because there is not enough time for analyzing or judging. You just jump in, thinking that you don't have time. Many folks report they don't have a clue about what they want to be when they "grow up" or what their dreams are. It's no wonder! When do we have time to sit and reflect upon our lives, our choices, our desires.

We usually just go with the program already set up. We get up, go to to work, come home, fix dinner, eat, go to bed. And in among all that is studying, cleaning, paying bills, caring for our children and grandchildren, working on relationships, volunteering, hobbies, etc. If major changes occur such as relocation or a career change, it is usually due to circumstances (not choices) or extreme unhappiness, the kind we can't ignore any more. Often crises occur because we are too out of tune with our own feelings and bodies to know we are in trouble. We wait until we become seriously ill (mentally, emotionally, physically or spiritually) and finally comes to our notice. Then we must make a change. This is no way to live. We are choosing by default, rather than consciously and wisely.

So how do we slow down? Just start now.

1. Make one day a week a "no-work" day. That means no cleaning, no chores, no reading for work, no working on relationships, no work. Spend this day relaxing, seeking pleasure, reflecting or playing.

2. Say no more often. Notice I said, more often, not exclusively. When asked to work overtime, say no. When asked to volunteer for one more thing you're not passionate about, say no. When asked for a favor and it's not something you want to do, say no.

3. Change your traditions. Holidays can be extremely stressful and busy. Eat out on Thanksgiving or have a potluck. Have a non-traditional meal, one that takes less effort and planning. Go to someone else's home. Have a smaller tree or no tree for Christmas. Cut back on the decorating and partying, unless you truly love doing it. Don't do the traditional Halloween excess. Create new traditions that are easier on you.

4. Build into your daily calendar time for thought and reflection or meditation. Make an appointment with yourself to slow down. Or give yourself at least a half hour every day of free time to do nothing. Sit and look out your window or take a stroll outside.

5. Really look at why you feel the need to be so busy. Sometimes busy-ness is a way of avoiding our feelings. If you feel very uncomfortable when you take time out or are one of those folks who "must" stay busy, examine this. You are robbed of your choices, if you can't sit down and be alone comfortably.

6. Simplify your life. Every aspect of your life can be simplified: clothing, cleaning, home, career, school, finances, child care, beauty care, etc. Look for ways to reduce the amount of effort you spend in doing anything and everything. You can literally save hours a day by simplifying. Start small, choose something today to do easier and more simply.

Please leave a comment if this was helpful.

Seize the Day

I found this article by Paul Farrell inspiring and energizing. Hope you do, too! It's actually about retiring early, but so much more.


http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/5315/paulfarrell.htm

It's All in the Perspective

My three year old grandson visited me yesterday. As we were out running around, we turned down a street that has speed bumps. I really dislike speed bumps. I always feel like my car is being torn up and, of course, it slows me down.

As we drove down the street and went over a speed bump, I hear the gleeful sound "Wheeeee!!" coming from the back seat. The grandson was having a ball going over the speed bumps. It's all in the perspective.

All blog content is copyrighted, all rights reserved, Mary Anne Fields and Life Unfolds, 2006

Can You Retire Early?

Here's a few websites about retiring early that you might find useful and interesting.

retireearlylifestyle.com
(written by a couple who retired at age 38 with $500k and live on 24k a year, traveling around the world, with a home base in Arizona, very inspiring and practical)

early-retirement.org/
(has great financial calculators and early retirement forums)

www.retireearlyhomepage.com/
(everything early retirement!, forums, calculators, white papers, reports, etc.)

raddr-pages.com/
(research topics for financial management)

raddr-pages.com/forums (early retirees forum)

http://www.simpleliving.net/main/
(all about simple living including Your Money or Your Life, a program to get you to financial independence)

Are You Grateful?

Each and every day we have a thousand opportunities to be grateful. We even know this is good for us and good for the world. But do we practice it? Typically we wake up and eat breakfast, drive to work, work all day, come home, watch TV or read, go to bed to sleep and start all over again. Not one bit of gratitude felt or expressed.

I call gratitude (or appreciation) the base-note of the Universe. It is the feeling tone that we must aspire to. Gratitude felt and expressed tells the Universe I WANT MORE! Being grateful for kindnesses, for plenty, for love, for goodness is the way of ordering up more of it. The more grateful you are, the more riches you'll have in your life.

So what can you be grateful for today? How about:
1. I wake up! (think of the alternative)
2. I have a roof over my head, a beautiful one at that.
3. I am healthy and can get out of bed.
4. I have food for breakfast, chosen by me from my plentiful grocery near my house.
5. I have a great car that gets me to my workplace with air conditioning.
6. I thank the man who let me merge into traffic this morning.
7. I have a job.
8. I work in a place that values my skills.
9. I get a paycheck that pays my bills and then some.
10. I appreciate the security guard who opens the door for me each morning.
11. My office is clean because someone cleaned it overnight.
12. I love elevators and automatic doors.
13. I have family who loves me.
14. I have the tools necessary to do my job, computers, paper, pens, lighting, a desk, a comfortable chair, training.
15. I have a boss who does her job so that I can do mine.
16. I have an assistant and co-workers who do their jobs so I can do mine.

I think you are getting the idea, that there are literally dozens of opportunities for us all to feel and express gratitude each and every day. Try to bring some awareness into your day about how much you have to be grateful for, not just things, but people, events, places. Express your gratitude out loud and frequently. The Universe is listening and waiting for your orders.

All blog content is copyrighted, all rights reserved, Mary Anne Fields and Life Unfolds, 2006

What Are You Settling For?

What are you settling for? What are you just tolerating in your life? How did your expectations for happiness and joy get so diminished? As youngsters, we lived life as if we had a tiger by the tail. We wanted things and we went after them. We fully expected great things to be ours. We thought we could be and do anything. You can see this with a young child: simply ask them what they want to be when they grow up? Even a child in a poor environment with uneducated parents might say "an astronaut" or "a doctor". As we grow older, reality seeps in. We are faced with obstacles and our own limitations.

By the time we are in our thirties or forties, we may have stopped expecting anything more than what we have. We've let ourselves be boxed in, whipped by life and events, seemingly out of our control. Many of us are caretakers, never getting what we need, only meeting others' needs. Some of us lack self-confidence and believe we are not worthy of more. Some of us lack the energy, drive, ambition or time to seek more. Some of us lack assertiveness skills or live with confusion so that important decisions are not made and kept to.

But there is a huge cost to settling for less, for just tolerating what your life has become. There is a cost to your spirit or soul, your life's purpose is not being expressed and this is painful and debilitating even if you aren't aware of it consciously. There is the cost to your energy and vitality. Being boxed in or settling for less drains your energy tremendously. Taking the "easy way out" by staying where you are is not truly the easy way. It is by far the more difficult, just not always real obvious to you.

Here are some questions to help you look for areas where you are settling for less than you deserve:

1. Put a grade on each of the following areas in your life, from 1 to 10, with one being "it sucks" and 10 being "wow, lucky me".
Family
Friends
Home
Career or vocation or business
Health
Community
Finances
Spirituality
Beauty/Body
Hobbies/Interests
Anything that gets below a 7 may be a place where you've settled or are tolerating less than you deserve.

2. If you had only a couple of years to live, what do you regret not doing?

3. If a fairy godmother stepped into your living room today and gave you three wishes that would be instantly granted, what would you ask for?

4. What upsets you on a daily or regular basis? (e.g., mad at your wife?, hate your boss?, wish you had children?, etc.)

5. If you had your life to live over, what would you have done differently?

6. Do you often say to yourself "oh, well, it doesn't matter" or "that's just the way it is"? These are indications you are settling.

7. Do you have trouble knowing what you want to do, saying no, and sticking to your decisions?

Each of your answers gives you food for thought. Where do you think that you are settling for less than you could have (or be)? Are there small steps you can take to begin changing your expections, reaching a little higher, being a little happier?
Take one today.

All blog content is copyrighted, all rights reserved, Mary Anne Fields and Life Unfolds, 2006

Loosening Your Grip

One of the things I love about being older is that I've loosened my grip on things. Things that used to loom so large or seem so critical just aren't any more. I do not cling so tightly to life's crises, injustices, mishaps, blunders, mistakes, pain, having or not having, and all the other things that are a normal part of life that can make us so miserable. I let go much easier now.

Folks who have known me a long time will tell you that I used to be very Type A, very uptight and serious. Midlife has brought me to a place where I wonder why I was so uptight, why I thought everything was so serious. I look back at the damage I did to my family and friends, by behaving as if everything mattered, needed to be judged and corrected, when in fact, very little truly matters in the grand scheme of things. I spilled a lot of negativity in the world trying to make things better. You can see this most easily when you see a parent berating their child, making them feel bad or diminished in the name of "training" or "discipline". This is not a case of not caring or giving up, it is more one of balance, and of seeing things as just part of the human existence. Of seeing things on the highest plane, that we are all here wanting the same things, to be happy and loved and at peace.

All blog content is copyrighted, all rights reserved, Mary Anne Fields and Life Unfolds, 2006