From Haircuts to Death

I have been blogging - just not here! I've been helping Adrian set up a blog for our Junior Forest Wardens group, and it's been taking my time away from here. :(

Ah well. Dd and I went for haircuts today. My friend, L, who is a hairdresser does it for us. It's nice not to have hair hanging in my face anymore.

Last night I was watching Oprah, and there was a hilarious and insightful woman on there. Her name is Paula Deen. She's a cook who's gotten rich from her cookbooks, etc. What I love about her is her outlook on life. She used to suffer from Agoraphobia. So, it's amazing that she was even on the Oprah show. She got over it by simply changing the way she thinks. The Serenity Prayer was a principal part of that change, but also once she accepted that her own death was inevitable she was able to start living again. What the heck does that mean, you wonder? Accept your own death?! Well, I got IT when she said it because of a lesson I learned when taking a "Teach Your Children to Read" course, of all places. The course was three full days, and the instructor was really motivating. She believed that in order to "grow" (spiritually, emotionally, etc.) you had to do the things that made you uncomfortable. Like talking in front of a large group would be painful for some. After she taught a lesson, she had us stand in front of everyone and teach back what we'd learned. "Are you nervous?" she'd ask, and we'd reply, "Yes". "Good!" she'd say. Eeek!! During one of our breaks we explored why we'd be afraid of embarrassing ourselves. She started with and continued asking us the question: What's the worse thing that could happen? The answers began with: We would be embarrassed and everyone would laugh. Then the answers went to: We might lose all of our friends, we'd be all alone, and we'd have no one to depend on. Until the final answer: We would die! It became the joke among us when faced with something we were afraid to do. "Don't worry, you won't die." Big ah ha moment for me. It put the things we worry about on a daily basis in prospective. Try it the next time you're faced with a fear. It's amazing how quickly you get down to the REAL cause of your anxieties.

So, Paula Deen. A cook, but also a life teacher. She was pretty darn funny on the show, too.