MERRY CHRISTMAS

What a Christmas!! On the 19th the power went out and I really expected it to pop right back on. Late on the 19th the cat and I went to South Whitley to my mom's. Though SW was somewhat without power for a part of the day, by the time I got there at 10:30 that night all the power was back on except for a few houses. I stayed with my Mom for four days. Fritzie was there too. He was a riot. A scaredy cat for sure. I put his cat box down in a corner of the utility room and he stood up on his back legs in a corner of the box, in the corner of the room, with his nose in the corner. He looked like a naughty little boy on time out. When he finally quit standing in the corner, he hid under couches and beds. Sometime during the night he got out and walked around exploring, and he jumped up on mom's bed and looked at her for awhile. Then he wandered around some more. Whenever a train would go by on the train tracks he'd go hide again. During the next day he spent the entire day hiding under couches...but he came out again when the sun went down. It wasn't until the last day there that he managed to stay out longer in the daylight.

On Monday I drove Mon's car back to Fort Wayne to check on my house and do some Xmas shopping for her. Fritzie stayed behind. I had loaded up my car with all the stuff I was going to need for Xmas ... all the presents, my medicine, more clothes, more food for Fritzie, and I had it all packed in the car and ready to go. I came back in to my house (26 degrees in the living room) and was surveying the house looking for anything I should also take along when I heard the furnace ignition click on. Then the FIOS box came on and my tv started up. The Xmas lights on the porch were on. I went out on the front step and shouted Hallelujah!!! Course the neighborhood was deserted except for John down the street. I had already checked all the water and it was running all right, (thank God for leaky toilets) so I went back around and turned off all the faucets. Then I started unpacking the car and put everything back where it belonged. The house had warmed up to 40 by the time I vaccuumed the floor and dusted. Then I spent another couple hours completing Mom's Xmas shopping and I drove back to SW and Fritzie was glad to see me. I slept that night at Mom's and the next morning packed everything up and went back home. I was so glad to be back home and so was Fritzie. He was purring like crazy and then he laid down on the floor on his back to let me know how glad he was to be home. I got the "kitty I love you blinks" from him. Only trouble was, I had taken fancy feast along for convenience, and now he's addicted to it, and demands his fancy feast treat every morning. I'm weaning him down to a quarter can of it every morning.

The first Google I did on the computer was for natural gas emergency generators. I could have survived in the basement at 45 to 50 degrees if I'd had to, but I don't want to ever have to make the choice again. I didn't leave the house because I was afraid of the cold, however. I left because I felt threatened by the marauders I caught invading the neighborhood in the dark. A car pulled up and discharged half a dozen guys who ran in all directions looking for houses they could get into. They didn't come to my house because I had windows lit up with oil lamps,but all of the empty houses were their targets. I called the cops immediately and they were here in seconds. But I started packing up and then called a friend to come and guard me as I loaded the car and left for SW.

I should have been braver and known that my guardian angels are watching out for me all the time, but with the lack of communication ( my phone went out when my FIOS backup battery ran out...) And I couldn't find my car charger for my cell phone in the dark. (It was in my suitcase!...I found it when I unpacked at Mother's house).

I got back home in time to have my traditional Xmas eve party with Becky and her kids, and Whitney made the most delicious spaghetti sauce that we had over whole wheat spaghetti. We had apple salad as well. Then Xmas morning i got up early, baked some corn pudding and some scalloped potatoes packed the rest of the Xmas presents I'd got for Mom to give to people and repacked the car to go to my brother's for our family Xmas. Leigh and her husband and kids were there, and we won't be seeing them for three years as they are going to Italy, where he'll be stationed in Naples.

Zach still didn't make it home for Christmas, but he spent Xmas with his Dad again this year. He got to talk to all his cousins though and we visited on the phone. He's working taking care of an Alzheimer's patient part of every day, while he's waiting on his perfect job in the hospital.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Love and Kisses. Jana

I'M ONLY RESPONSIBLE FOR MY LIFE

I've been in mourning for our country, because of the results of the election. I've gotten myself to a better place by not watching television, not reading the paper and dumping all the emails that look the tiniest bit political. I fear for the safety of our country.

In the meantime, the best and only thing I can do is look out for myself. The country may be in a poor financial condition, but I'm not. We may lose some of our freedoms, but I won't. We may all mourn life as it used to be. But my life is just fine and I'm doing great.

There's only a recession if you believe there is. You will only be poor if you believe you will be.

YOU ARE ONLY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU

I've been in mourning since the election. I believe our country is in great danger. There's nothing I can do about it. So I'll be not watching the news on television, and I will be deleting any political alerts, and I will be not reading the newspaper. I am only responsible for me. I'll get along fine. I figured out a long time ago that I am only responsible for me and I can only change the way I think. I am comfortable with who I am and how I think. I am comfortable in my faith.

I believe this country will be severely tested in the next couple of years with regard to our faith.

If you're interested in learning The Law of Attraction, goto this web site

Politics & Religion

Celebrities touting their views on politics and religion turn me off. Do they really think they're so important that their views are going to change our views? Yes they do! Do they change our views? I think they do, but most of the time all they change is our views of them to a negative. Those celebrities who share their views on politics have been known to turn me against them for that very reason.

Let's take Barry Manilow. I love his songs. I'm not sure I think much of his political views, and I'd just as soon he kept them to himself, so I could keep on enjoying his songs.

Let's take Sally Field's views on religion. I used to just love Sally Field, but I lost complete respect for her when she voiced her opinions about God's place in her winning an award.

I don't understand the intense hatred that exudes from people expressing their political views for the "other party". Don't they understand their hatred only reflects on themselves? I do feel there is a plus for the side I encourage, inasmuch as the intense hatred spewed by those on the other side merely intensifies the happenings of that which they don't want. It's how the Universe works!!

Be for the ones you want to win. Bless those you don't want to win. Bless those who express the anger against "your side" for their Universal support, even though they don't really mean to be working for your side.

FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES

I was just watching John Edward Cross Country where they talked about explaining death to a child. I think my child did the best job of explaining death to everyone.

His great-grandfather Harv died when Zach was about three. We were at the funeral home, and he and his same-age cousin, Jeremiah were sitting on the floor in front of the casket playing with little cars. Whenever someone walked up to the casket to look at Grandpa, Zach would tell them, "that used to be Grampa, but he's not in there anymore...he went to heaven."

A little later that evening we were driving home and from the back seat Zach said, "Mom, we need to get a big long ladder so we can go visit Grampa in heaven." I told him there was no need because Heaven was just above us, and we could talk to him any time we wanted.

YOU CREATE YOUR SITUATION BY WHAT YOU THINK

More stuff from The Law of Attraction by Esther & Jerry Hicks
You are much more than you see here in your physical body, for while you are, indeed, a wondrous physical creator, you exist simultaneously, in another dimension. There is a part of you, a Non-Physical part of you–we call it your Inner Being–that exists right now while you are here in this physical body.
Your emotions are your physical indication of your relationship with your Inner Being. In other words, as you are focused upon a subject and have your specific perspective and opinion about it, your Inner Being is also focused upon it and has a perspective and opinion about it. The emotions that you feel are your indication of the match or mismatch of those opinions. For example, something may have happened and your current opinion of yourself is that you should have done better or that you are not smart, or that you are unworthy. Since the current opinion of your Inner Being is that you are doing fine and that you are smart and eternally worthy, there is a definite mismatch in these opinions, and you would feel this mismatch in the form of negative emotions. On the other hand, when you feel proud of yourself or love yourself or someone else, your current opinion is a much closer match to what your Inner Being is feeling in the moment; and in that case you would feel the positive emotions of pride, love or appreciation.
Your Inner Being, or Source Energy, always offers a perspective that is to your greatest advantage, and when your perspective matches that, then positive attraction is occurring . In other words, the better you feel, the better your point of attraction, and the better things are turning out for you. The comparative vibrations of your perspective and that of your Inner Being are responsible for this magnificent Guidance that is always available to you.
More later.... But think about this stuff. It is cool.

Waking Up Happy and Joyful

I have a book....The Amazing Power of Emotions....by Esther and Jerry Hicks you need to study that book when you are not doing anything else. I think it holds the key for your learning to move your thoughts in the right direction. Thoughts are things. I have another called Money and the Law of Attraction, by the same people and I wanted to give you this part:

"Most people believe, or want to believe, that everything in the universe responds to their words in the same way that other people around them can sometimes be trained to behave. When you tell someone, "Yes, come to me." you expect them to come. When you say "No, go away from me." you expect them to go. But you live in an attraction-based Universe (an inclusion-based Universe), which simply means there is no such thing as NO.

When you give your attention to something wanted and you say, "Yes, come to me." you include it in your vibration, and the Law of Attraction begins the process of bringing it. But when you look at something unwanted and you say "No. I do not want you--go away!" the Universe brings that, also. Your attention to it, and therefore your vibrational alignment with it, is what is causing the response--not your words.

And so, as you say, "Perfect health, I seek you...I want you--I bask in the idea of perfect health," you are attracting health. But as you say "Sickness, I do not want you" you are attracting sickness. As you say. No, no, no." It is coming closer, closer, closer, because the more you struggle against something you do not want, the more engulfed in it you become.

People often believe once they find their perfect mate, or achieve their perfect body weight, or accumulate enough money, then, once and for all, they will also find the happiness they seek...but nowhere is there a little corner of something where only positive aspects exist. The perfect balance of the Universe says that positive and negative (wanted and unwanted exists in all parts of the Universe. When you, as the creator, the chooser, the definer, the decider, look for the positive aspect, that becomes what you live--in all aspects of your life. You do not have to wait around for that perfect thing to show itself to you so you can then have a positive response to it. Instead, you positively train your thoughts and vibrations, and then you become the attractor of it, or the creator of it.

...encourage you to begin each day with the statement. Today---no matter where I go, no matter what I am doing, and no matter who I am doing it with--it is my dominant intent to look for what I am wanting to see.

Remember, when you awaken in the morning, you are reborn. While you have slumbered, all attraction has stopped. That sequestering away for a few hours of sleep--where your Consciousness is no longer attracting--gives you a refreshing new beginning. And so, unless you wake up in the morning and begin regurgitating what troubled you the day before, it will not trouble you in your new day, in your new birth, in your new beginning."

When my son was little, I used to wake him up in the morning singing, "When the Red Red Robin comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along, Along. There'll be no more sobbing as he starts throbbing his old sweet song...Wake Up, Wake Up, you Sleepy Head, Get Up, Get Up, Get Out of Bed, The Red Red Robin is Bob, Bob Bobbin Along."

That's how I feel when I wake up. I feel joyful for a new day of wonder and adventure and excitement.

See if you can't begin your day that way. You may get some ugly looks if you begin your day singing, but just smile and go on.



Jana L. Shellman Author of The Wish Factory: How to Make Wishes Come True.Instructor of Creating Characters at http://www.writerscollege.com/ Visit my web site at http://www.thewishfactory.com/

The Sky is Falling - The Stock Market - How to Feel Rich

The sky is falling, the stock market is falling, gas prices are falling, mortgage rates are falling, housing that has been priced too high is not selling at those too high prices!!! Maybe people who have average wages can now afford to buy a house in the price range they can afford! Maybe now we can afford to buy gas!

When things appear to be bad, work your thoughts to a happier place. Look for the silver lining. Expect good. Expect to be happy. Expect good things. If you expect good things you'll get them. If you expect bad, guess what? You'll get bad.

Let's look at mortgage payments. I think somewhere the formula my father taught me got lost. He always said "never pay more per month for rent or mortgage payments than you earn in a week." That's real simple isn't it!?? I've sort of wiggled the rules a tiny bit and said to myself at times that I can rent a place or buy a place for what I gross as opposed to what I net per week, but other than that, I stick pretty much with that formula. Now I include the cost of taxes and insurance in that formula when I think about mortgage payments. At present I'm obligated to pay $248.00 a month for those things, and it is actually a bit high for being on Social Security, but its comfortable.

The other formula my father taught me was Priority Paying. First you should pay for your shelter, then you should pay for your means of getting to work (i.e., your car and your insurance for your car), then you should pay for your food, utilities, and phone (communications, including cell phone and/or internet) should come last on that list. After that comes clothing and then you can buy things you want.

How to feel rich all the time: My formula for that is to take the first $100 I don't know what to do with and get a $100 bill. Put it in a secret place in your wallet. Then when you go shopping you can look at things you might want and think "I have the money to buy that if I want to".... I've been carrying that $100 bill for five years. I haven't done without anything, I really wanted or needed to buy but at the same time I've saved money and started 3 savings accounts and I feel richer all the time.

Now the bad news...I was forced to file bankruptcy in 2004. I had a triple bypass surgery and I didn't have insurance. Even if I had insurance it would have left me owing nearly $40,000 that I didn't have the money to pay. I didn't lose my house, or my car, or anything else. The only choice I had was to file bankruptcy or go on Medicaid, i.e., let the state pay the bill and then when I'm dead and gone they get my house. In the meantime, they would have had the right to annoy me interminably for the rest of my life. The bankruptcy wasn't hard, I'd quit using credit cards in 1996, so I didn't really have to worry about credit, except perhaps to buy a car. I hadn't had credit to buy a car since 1986, so that wasn't a big problem either. I reaffirmed my mortgage, so I kept my house.

PS the bankruptcy wasn't hard because as a paralegal I sometimes prepare bankruptcy paperwork for people. I always tell them to see an attorney about it before hand so they know what their rights are. Then if its a simple bankruptcy I can prepare the paperwork for them.

PPS See my previous posts about credit cards

My blog has moved!!!

I have to go in now and change things on my email signature so people can find my blog at the new spot on the Blogspot. Have to have Margie change it for http://www.thewishfactory.com/ too. It was very easy to change it from the AOL site. AOL is getting chintzy in their old age, not supporting the bloggers on AOL anymore, but at least Google made it easy to change. Hope everyone enjoys reading my blogs, and I'll have to get better at it again, since I haven't done one since the end of July!

Look forward to hearing from people about my strange thoughts and ideas, and will put more in for my stories as well.

If you are looking for free books on positive thinking, check out Free Books at my website, http://www.thewishfactory.com/ and you can also order books from me and use PayPal for the ones that cost.

I've got the Shawnee Dictionary and the Wish Factory books for sale.

Cleaning Out the Closet

I was cleaning out a closet and I found one of a set of prints that used to hang over my kitchen table when I lived in an apartment in Champaign, Illinois...on 6th Street.  I took them down when I moved away from there and never put them back up.  They held special meaning for me.  Now, some 44 years later I found the one.  I have no idea what happened to the other.  The last time I paid any attention to them was about June of 1963.  I noticed they were hanging upside down.  I knew who turned them upside down and I thought for a moment he'd returned.  Then I realized I'd been so distraught for so many months I hadn't noticed he'd turned them upside down the last time he was there which was in January of 1963.    We were together briefly a couple years later, but there was so much to talk about and so many questions, I guess I didn't ask any or get any answers.  Oh well, we'll always have Disneyland.    I think I'll hang this print back up in my kitchen....maybe I'll hang it upside down.  Love and kisses....

Tags: closets, movies, Mad Money, wishes

I GUESS I FIT THE TERRORIST PROFILE

I TOOK MY 88 YEAR OLD MOTHER WITH ME ON A TRIP TO CALIFORNIA TO VISIT MY SON.  I PUSHED HER IN A WHEELCHAIR THROUGH A LOT OF AIRPORTS.  FIRST WE HAD TO GO THRU SECURITY AT FORT WAYNE AND IT WAS FAIRLY SIMPLE.  WE STILL HAD TO TAKE OFF OUR SHOES ETC., BUT WE WERE THE ONLY PEOPLE THERE.  WHEN WE GOT TO DETROIT I HAD TO PUSH HER IN A WHEELCHAIR A VERY LONG DISTANCE, AND WE DIDN'T HAVE TO DO SECURITY.  THEN WE FLEW TO PHOENIX AZ...I DON'T EVER WANT TO GO TO PHOENIX AGAIN!!!!!!!!   FIRST OF ALL, A GUY GRABBED MOTHER AND ANOTHER WOMAN IN A WHEELCHAIR AND TOOK OFF RUNNING WITH THEM AND I HAD TO RUN TO KEEP UP, CARRYING HER CARRYONS AND PURSE AND MY CARRYONS AND PURSE ETC...  RUN!!  HE HELD OUT HIS HAND FOR MONEY, AND MOTHER GAVE HIM $4.  HE SAID "IS THAT ALL?"   THEN HE DUMPED US OUTSIDE THE TERMINAL TO WAIT FOR A BUS!!!!!!!   HE DIDN'T STAY TO HELP US GET THE WHEELCHAIR ON OR ANYTHING.  IT WAS 119 DEGREES IN THE SUN.  THEN WE HAD TO TAKE A BUS TO ANOTHER TERMINAL, AND GO THROUGH SECURITY AGAIN!!!   THIS TIME MOTHER WAS DOUBLE SEARCHED AND MADE TO STAND UP OUT OF HER WHEELCHAIR AND THEY KEPT HER IN A GLASS ROOM AND WOULDN'T LET ME NEAR HER!!!  THEY SEARCHED THROUGH ALL OF OUR LUGGAGE AND WERE VERY BRUTAL!!  THEY WERE NOT NICE!!!   THEN WHEN WE FINALLY GOT TO OUR GATE, WE HAD TO WAIT UNTIL THEY TALKED SOMEONE ELSE INTO TAKING ANOTHER FLIGHT BECAUSE THEY HAD OVERBOOKED OUR FLIGHT TO SACRAMENTO.    WHEN WE FINALLY GOT ON THE PLANE, INSTEAD OF BEING BOARDED FIRST AND GETTING IN THE FIRST ROW, WE WERE LAST, AND HAD TO GO TO THE VERY BACK ROW.  WE FINALLY MADE IT TO SACRAMENTO AND THINGS WENT SMOOTHLY AND WE HAD A LOVELY VISIT.  WE WERE WELL ENTERTAINED FOR THE WEEKEND.  ZACH TOOK US BACK TO THE AIRPORT ON MONDAY MORNING VERY EARLY, AFTER ONCE AGAIN BEING DOUBLE-SEARCHED WE FLEW BACK THROUGH SALT LAKE CITY.  IT WAS NICE THERE, AND WE HAD TO SIT AROUND FOR 3 HOURS, BUT IT WAS PLEASANT.  THEN WE FLEW STRAIGHT TO DETROIT AND HOME TO FORT WAYNE.  IT WAS NICE.   I LOST TWO POUNDS ON THAT TRIP!!!   WE HAD A GREAT TIME.   (I was severely tempted to curse in Arabic...I can do that....but I refrained from uttering the curse near TSA...    And I can count to three in Arabic and speak baby-talk Arabic   ...and I knew a lot of Arabs, muslim and non-muslim ones, in college 45 or more years ago...but why are we being targetted by computers?  Perhaps its the eyeliner I buy from Pakistan?)  Might I point out we are part Native American and have more right to be here than just about anyone? 

Tags: AIRPORT SECURITY

Retiring, not retiring, and other non-related things

I tried to retire a couple of years ago.  It seemed practical since I could collect social security and be home and not worry about things.  It got very boring, very fast.  You can only do so many New York Times Crossword Puzzles with a pen before the challenge is gone.  I found I had lots of time to write, but something was missing.  Interaction with people where I get my ideas for characters was one of the things that was missing.  The characters I write are a combination of many people I've met. 

The cat was getting tired of me waking him up every three minutes.  So he started waking me up throughout the night to tell me when a car drove by or a raccoon climbed a tree in the back yard.  Or even when a mouse ventured out to steal his food.  His method of awakening me was to run at the side of my bed and then violently bounce off the side of it continuously until I woke up.   I finally went out and purchased a baby gate to keep him out of my bedroom.  I hate to sleep with the bedroom door shut. 

I volunteered to be the primary plaintiff in a bunch of class action suits I was eligible for, and that took up some time and gave me interesting research to read.  But then I was really bored and wanting more information.  I relate to that robot who was learning to think and kept demanding more "input".  

Don't you just love the internet and all of the things you can learn?  But sometimes, if you're retired it just gets silly.  I'd watch Jeopardy and if there was something I didn't know I'd write it down, Google it, and then read up on it until I did.  Then people who were playing Trivia with me made me count to ten before I was allowed to answer.  Sometimes they'd look at me for the answer and I'd count to ten just to irritate them.  I am not usually a mean person, so I decided I needed to be busier. 

Then my last boss called me to do some more work, and I jumped at the chance.  I do contract work as a paralegal doing research and document preparation, and I also do work for others organizing their bookkeeping and so forth.    I love doing legal research.  Sometimes I get side-tracked though and take off in directions I didn't mean to go.  In other words, sometimes I learn more than anybody really wants to know about a subject and that can get boring for others.  Sometimes I get very excited about it, and there's no one to tell!  

I've been known to call up the class action lawyers in Chicago and tell them of new research I've discovered.  I'd like to get them to do a Class Action suit against credit card companies for unconscionable contract.  I no longer carry credit cards.  I haven't used any kind of credit (except my house mortgage) since 1997, and I haven't bought a car on credit since the early 80's.   My credit rating is probably the pits but what does it matter if I don't buy anything on credit? 

Enough for now, I've got some work to do.   Love and kisses.  Jana

Tags: Credit cards, living without credit, retirement, working after retirement, class action suits against credit card companies.

The rules for loving

You know that country song, the words 'if you can't be with the one you love, you love the one you're with'...I always hated that concept.  Then I realized its pretty much how I lived the years from 1963 thru 1989.    I have come to realize there's nothing wrong with loving two people at the same time.  Then I decided I didn't need to waste my time any more and just went on loving the one I wasn't with.   But I do understand at the same time, it is possible to love two people at the same time. 

I'm not saying it's the same kind of love, but it is having respect for the feelings of another, trying to lead them in the direction of finding their own happiness, and appreciating the things they added to your life.  You have to appreciate the things you shared and the value the other person added to your life.  Even when you are no longer with the other person you have to acknowledge the value they added to your life, and the things you learned from that relationship.  

All in all, I now believe things have worked out exactly the way they were supposed to work out.  We were supposed to be with the people we were with at the time we were with them.  We weren't supposed to be with them when we weren't.  I believe our souls planned the whole thing, and even the souls of those we spent time with who didn't turn out to be the loves of our lives were planned to be in our lives at the times they were.   We had things to accomplish and we had to do certain things on our own.  I wouldn't be the person I am today without all of the people who touched my life in the past.  

I don't resent the events that happened in my life, though I wish I'd remembered some things I've always known.  I wish I'd remembered always I'm in charge of how I feel about things.  I wish I'd remembered I'm not responsible for how anyone else feels about me, I'm only responsible about how I feel about them.  I wish I'd acknowledged I was loved all those years I believed I was merely lost.  I wish I'd understood the words that were said to me.  I'm glad I remembered those words and have come to understand them now. 

I wouldn't change a thing that's happened in the past.  It was all a part of the growth of my soul.  I'm excited about the future and what it will bring.  No matter how things turn out, I will always know I'm loved, and whether I'm with the one I love on this side, or when we both arrive on the Other Side matters not.  It would be cool to spend more time together on this side, but the one thing I understand is Forever is a wonderfully long time to be loved.

Tags: the wish factory: how to make wishes come true. Shellman.