Sunday 9 May 2010

The Power of Feelings

Here is a video that is well worth watching.

Gregg Braden, in his illustrated interview 'Miracles of Healing', gives evidence of how our feelings can change our physical bodies and the world around us.

He says "We must feel the feeling as if the prayer has already been answered, and in that feeling, we are speaking to the forces of creation, allowing the world to respond to us." "The words aren't the prayer - it's the feeling behind the prayer that gets the results." If we pray for peace we can feel as if we are participating in that peace. "As we feel the peace in our world or the healing in the bodies of our loved ones, we are actually empowering the field of energy (or God) to mirror that back to us in a way that will bring those changes about in our lives and in our world."

He goes on to give evidence of healing and peace brought about by the collective feeling, believing or knowing of the immaculate concept.

Wednesday 5 May 2010

Shannon the Cat


Before I leave this house I must post about the cats here. Well actually they are kittens.

They are posh kittens in that they have certificates of pedigree and cost a lot of money. Because of their cost they aren't allowed outside in case someone steals them. The cats didn't know they were missing anything and never attempted to go outside, until they were taken away on a fishing trip. I don't think they actually participated in any fishing, they just went with the family to save the hassle and expense of boarding them in a cattery. They didn't appear to enjoy the journey. I know this because they were difficult to extract from under the car seats when they got home. But now, they know there is something interesting outside the front door they sometimes make a dash for it if they see it open.

I must say that only one cat has a full pedigree, the ugly one. She really is ugly. She has a face that has a permanent scowl on it. She looks very bad tempered. Fortunately she doesn't seem to actually have a bad temper. She, along with the other cat, a male called Peewee, who has only a partial pedigree, get hauled around all over the house, used as toys and get cuddled and squeezed to within an inch of their life. They are both remarkably docile with the amount of unintentional mistreatment they get, and only occasionally strike back with a scratch. I think this was the thinking behind spending so much money. The family has had several pets but some have not been suitable.

As soon as I saw the cat Marshmallow she reminded me of a girl who went to a school I taught at. Her name is Shannon. I looked at a picture I have of her the other day and was disappointed to see the picture looked nothing like the cat. She had smiled for the camera so wasn't wearing her habitual expression.


Sunday 2 May 2010

Moving On Again

Today I was offered a job. I hadn't applied for it - well, I had applied for it at the beginning of February and hadn't been given an interview. I was disappointed. I was told my frequent job changes had been against me plus I was overqualified for the job. They thought a teacher would not be content with a housekeeper/cook job.

The person they appointed is leaving. She has been given a chance of a home of her own. She's been looking after other people all her working life and at the age of 60 didn't want to turn the offer down.

When I applied for the job I loved the area - a small country village just outside Taunton in Somerset. I've always wanted to live in the country and have never managed it yet. The job is part time, working weekends plus a few hours on Fridays and Mondays. It's a live-in position looking after 3 elderly ladies in a manor house. http://www.thurloxtonmanor.co.uk/

I've been visiting my Mother this weekend and although she's said she doesn't want to live in a home for the elderly, I wanted to visit it and thought if she saw it, she might decide it was a lovely place and change her mind. She doesn't need care and this place doesn't cater for that but they do help people once it has become their home. Mum liked the place but doesn't want to move, however, they offered the job to me to save them advertising it again.

So now I'll give you the background on why I've (almost) decided to take it.

Last Sunday night my employers came back from a business trip to China. They had been away 11 days. I had not had a day off in 14 days and quite frankly I was exhausted. They had only planned on being away for 7 days but the volcanic ash extended their stay. When they got back it became clear they weren't planning on giving me a day off until the following weekend (which would have been 19 days without a break) but jet-lag caught up with them and they didn't go into work on the Monday. I stayed in my room and caught up with tasks I had promised people I would do but hadn't been able to due to not having any time to do them. I went down in the afternoon and the youngest girl asked me to do an activity with her. I panicked and asked the mum if I could please have the day off because I had so much to do. She relented. The next day the dad was ill and spent it on the sofa so I just took the day off, but I did relent and offered to get them all some food at lunchtime.

I had been given my normal wages but no extra. After releasing the resentment I felt about the whole situation using the violet flame http://www.transformnet.org/ and EFT http://www.eftfree.net/discover-eft/, I sent the parents an email asking to be paid for my time. I told them my wages for that time period worked out at £1.50 and hour. I gave them the going rate for 24 hour care and mentioned it was common to give double time pay for weekends worked over and above the week's work. I deducted 2 week's pay I'd already been given, plus one weekend's double time because I'd just had two days off after the 14 days and deducted another £100 because the house hadn't been as clean as the mum had wanted, so I was asking for an extra £500.

The next day they had a talk with me about my request. It was refused. The reasons were
  • They had told me when I first started that I would be getting no extra money for trips because the girls were at school and the time for the (weekend business trips which they were talking about) would be balanced out by having time off whilst the girls were at school
  • It was my choice to educate them at home. He said I had insisted and he hadn't wanted to take the girls out of school when he did. So therefore it was my fault that I hadn't had any breaks whilst they were away.
  • It wasn't their fault the trip was extended
  • He had provided me with a nice car, and even though it was to take the girls places it was available for my use when I had time off. (I reiterated that I had paid for all petrol that I had used for my own trips.)
  • They couldn't understand how I could have been tired because I was allowed to do anything I wanted during the days (apart from having a break from looking after the girls of course).
  • They didn't have rules for me to follow.
  • They also threw in that they thought it was odd behaviour of mine to stay in my room each evening and not watch TV with them all in the lounge.
I explained that as an introvert I renewed my energy by being on my own, whereas extroverts renew their energy by being with others. I also told them that whilst I appreciated all he had said (although I disagreed that he had taken the girls out of school at my insistence) I felt that another person who had a high enough self esteem would also be asking to be recompensed fairly for the work they did. He then went on to tell me that some young girl they had interviewed for the job before, had worked from 7 am to 7 pm each day for £85 a week. I said that she probably wanted to leave to get more money.

Whilst I was still in my resentful phase I had decided to get another job, but after 'the talk' I'd decided to stay because I like the girls and the mum and I did have autonomy over how I spent the days and the car is lovely, and no family is perfect, and it's a big hassle applying for jobs.

When the mum gave me my wages she mimed zipped lips and gave me an extra £40. Quite a lot short of the £500 I asked for but was probably as much as she could get away with without questions being asked.

So the people at Thurloxton Manor are waiting to see if when I give in my notice the dad will relent and cough up the cash.

A Voting Dilemma

For the first time in my voting career my vote in these parliamentary elections may actually count!

I've always lived in an area which has been a safe Labour seat. This time, although the sitting MP is Labour, it isn't a safe seat. I usually vote Conservative because they are the only party, as far as I can see, who is as keen on personal responsibility as I am.

I have never voted Labour and never will, because the socialist party does not promote personal responsibility. In fact they have the opposite view, that it's the state that should take responsibility for the individual.

So you may think I'd be rejoicing, that this time, when I vote Conservative it might make a difference and contribute to the nation by creating another Conservative MP.
However, I have a problem and it's about the local Conservative candidate.
You see she is a mother of three young children and is separated from their father. Now, I'm sure at this point, some people who are keen on women's rights etc. will be getting a little hot under the collar and may even have stopped reading at this point.

Let me explain. I believe that young children need to have their mothers around and available for most of the time. This way, they feel secure and are able to grow up secure in the fact of their mother's love for them. The words "I love you" ring hollow to a child unless they see that love in action, and the action a young child understands is the loving attention the mother bestows on them. One of the largest problems of today's youth is that their mothers worked outside the home and had no time for them and this affected their self esteem. Of course this is a sweeping generalisation and there are also other factors involved, but the lack of loving attention bestowed upon the child by his mother has enormous consequences.

The period of time a child is young is so short when the life-span of the mother is taken into account. A woman taking full time care of her offspring is indeed contributing greatly to society by producing stable and caring citizens. She can certainly contribute to the wider society in other ways once her children aren't so dependent on her for their feeling of security.

So if I vote for the Conservative candidate and she wins the seat, then that would be good for the country, but bad for her children. However loving she is, and however quality the time she plans to spend with her children, they will lose out on quantity time with their mum. MPs spend long hours away from home in order to do their job properly. If I don't vote Conservative, and the Labour candidate retains the seat, it may be disastrous for the country but three children will be able to spend more time with their mother - or will they?