Five Things You Don't Know About Me

I was tagged by ayla, who was tagged by Samme, who was tagged by Michael, who was tagged by.... Pass it on y'all! So, five things that you don't know about me...

1. Today, my daughter was visited by the birthday fairy and was crowned 7 years old. The birthday fairy visits our family and leaves a tiny little doll (about 3 inches) to grace the birthday recipient's pillow for the day. Dominique shared her
hopes and wishes throughout the day with the doll.

The little doll, hand-made by moi several years ago, graces my underwear drawer in between birthdays. Sshhh!

2. I have made some major "spontaneous" decisions through "helpful" inspiration.

- I never wanted children until I was 38 and when practising a Course in 'Miracles exercise, started entertaining the possibility of stepping aside and allowing more love to come into my marriage with the addition of children. My daughter was born the following year.

I had had years prior of well-meaning friends and family try to convince me of all of the positives of having children. Nothing penetrated until that year, when, aided by my running out of my regular birth control that I get in Jamaica ($1.30 a month!), and sitting in meditative silence, I allowed a new course to emerge. I listened and acted from divine inspiration, I feel.

- I tried many years to go vegetarian. Nothing took. Nothing stuck. I detested all of these strange foods with exotic names. I did cut back on meat, sodium and sugar while adding more fruit, vegetables and water though.

One day in a book study, our group went way off on a tangent and started talking about fasting. I was so intrigued by this idea... went home, did some research and jumped right into my first day of a water only fast the next day. I spoke to one of the authors of "Fasting to Freedom" Stacy Lagerquist later that day for guidance. I can't remember why I initially called, but she steered me away from fasting because I was still breast-feeding and steered me towards a raw food diet as an alternative. Naturally, I jumped on that too!

One and a half months later, I lost 18 pounds that I had been unsuccessful at losing since my second child, Mikkel, was born.

My venture down raw food lane led me to another author, Cheryl Stoycoff who
wrote Raw Kids: Transitioning Children to a Raw Food Diet. Cheryl is now known
as Solomae Sananda and has revised her message some. On her website, I was
reading several spiritual and vegetarian articles (link below) that she had written.
Her take on intuitive eating made perfect sense to me and then her article, "What
is Sentience?" struck an instant chord. It provided the "why?" that fit for me to
immediately go vegetarian. Four years and counting!

- One nasty hangover back in 1985, I couldn't stomach the thought of having a cigarette. When it dawned on me that I had gone the whole day without one, I felt
inspired to keep going. No cigarettes and all of a sudden, alcohol didn't taste the
same. Co-incidentally, I had recently taken a job as a drug rehab. counsellor and it started feeling a little hypocrital for me to be getting drunk and hanging out in bars and asking clients to make major changes in their substance use. No fuss, no muss, I quit. When the light goes on, I move. 22 years later, yeah!

3. If you have read my earlier blogs and "Enlightenment, or World Cup Football?",
you know that I am a passionate football fan of Brasil. My husband once
deliberated long and hard about whether or not to buy me a huge Bob Marley "flag",or a Brasilian one!

Yesterday, my daughter was at her Geography club and they were handing out
assignments to research and talk about for next month's country. Dominique was given Brazil as the country and sports as the topic! That will be the most
pleasurable research that I assist with!

4. I recently taught my new black, labrador retriever how to relax!

Katie is the newest addition to our household. She is a 4 year old girl who was left behind by her owners when they moved out of state. Puppies drive me nuts, so I wisely passed on the torture and opted for Katie.

I was told that she loves to fetch and that I should invest in a case of tennis balls. They weren't kidding! This dog was obsessed and fanatical about this ball
throwing! I was up in a tree with my kids and that crazy dog was trying to toss it to me to throw. Hel-lo!!! We are in the woods, surrounded by trees and bushes.
I am up a tree and there really isn't any room to throw Katie! She barked at me. Loudly. Repeatedly.

Then, I am transplanting some plants (in case you didn't know, I have
decided that Winter is a great time to plant). I have a shovel in hand, a big hole
and pile of dirt before me and this dog is pitching her ball into the hole to play
fetch! You do catch on that I am not liking this game anymore?! After several
loud barks, I said, "Nope, that's it!" Took the ball with Katie running alongside me, tossed it into the shed and closed the door. A few more times with the ball locked up in jail because something felt excessive to me about her behaviour and the dog has calmed down.

She reminded me of some people who feel so driven to perform for attention,
recognition. Something felt a little off. Now, Katie is happy to be with us and play without needing to do anything. Weird as it may sound, it felt like there was some connection with being loved and having to do a task. She seems to bask in being loved and played with now - ball or no crazy ball!

If my husband dares to throw anything (stick, chew bone) for her to fetch,
Dominique starts begging him to leave the poor dog alone. I have noticed that she her fetching has taken on a different flavour to it. She will chase it down a couple of times, may or may not bring it back to the thrower. Usually lies down and chews the bone happily. Sometimes, she comes over to me (not the initiator of this game) wagging her tail for a little love and attention.

5. I had a dream long ago of going to the Olympics, representing my country and
delighting in hearing our National anthem played. Like most people, there is an
incredibly emotional feeling that I get whenever I hear my anthem.

I was back home in Jamaica last month and went to see "Happy Feet" at the
movies. It is still a tradition there, to play the national anthem before movies and
for the audience to stand. I cried, as usual.

I just did a search to see if I could find the name of our anthem and found this
awesome link with the words and a link to hear it played. I don't know who the
singer is, but she brought chills listening to her. Anybody recognise the singer,
please let me know... (words and link below)

The five people that I am tagging (this is fun and quite enlightening you guys!) are:

(i) Mi Ka El
(ii) Mary
(iii) John
(iv) Nikki
(v) Magnum Vox

Hope you enjoyed my adventure down memory lane!

Love, Nicola


http://www.livingspiritfoundation.org/vegarticles.htm (Vegetarian articles by Solomae)

http://www.jis.gov.jm/special_sections/Independence/anthem&Pledge.html (words to the Jamaican national anthem)

rtsp://qcs3.qcslink.com/JIS/Zinc%20Fence.rm (link to play read player audio)

NATIONAL ANTHEM

Eternal Father bless our land,
Guard us with Thy Mighty Hand,
Keep us free from evil powers,
Be our light through countless hours.
To our Leaders, Great Defender,
Grant true wisdom from above.
Justice, Truth be ours forever,
Jamaica, Land we love.
Jamaica, Jamaica, Jamaica land we love.

Teach us true respect for all,
Stir response to duty's call, strengthen us the weak to cherish,
Give us vision lest we perish.
Knowledge send us Heavenly Father,
Grant true wisdom from above.
Justice, Truth be ours forever,
Jamaica, land we love.
Jamaica, Jamaica, Jamaica land we love.

Listen to the National Anthem (rtsp://qcs3.qcslink.com/JIS/Zinc%20Fence.rm)

The Anthem is the creative work of four persons:
The late Rev. & Hon. Hugh Sherlock, OJ, OBE, the late Hon. Robert Lightbourne, OJ, the late Mapletoft Poulle and Mrs Poulle (now Mrs Raymond Lindo)