Miracle Bank Account

     If someone were to make sure that you received $960 deposited into your checking account everyday how would it change your life? Would you continue working your job ? Would you go on a permanent vacation? Perhaps you'd take it as a chance to give to all the worthwhile charities that you've been longing to contribute to and could gift people you know and even those you don't know at will and impromptu. It sounds wonderful doesn't it?

     Now, imagine this: that bank account needs to be emptied each day or it automatically defaults to zero. You cannot transfer the money to any other account. It promptly starts again at the above amount each day. That means you would have to get cracking on spending that money as soon as possible every day and maybe spend to the exclusion of all other activities. What a concept, huh ? Perhaps you'd hire someone to help you spend the cash so you wouldn't lose out on your entitlement. You'd get very clever in making sure that you spent every dime so you didn't lose out.

     As a matter of fact we have that deal already in the form of time. That's right. Excluding the time we spend valuably resting up for the next day we have 960 minutes everyday at our disposal. Knowing that our time may be more valuable than money I wonder if you'll change some of your activities and put that time to different or better use. Perhaps the above concepts of making sure that the time was wisely and thoroughly spent will put you in a different frame of reference for your life.

     It's your time account. What are you waiting for ?

Does anybody really know what time it is?

Does anybody really care

about time...

The Castle Lady 

The Don't Diet

     As you all know, I am not a dieter. I don't believe in following someone else's idea of what I need to eat in order to keep my weight under control. It's not that I can't. I have plenty of willpower which I choose to use for other more important things such as exercise and patience . One of the reasons I don't diet is because I found that they throw your metabolism and physical being out of whack. If you want to really mess with yourself just go on a fad diet. The more trendy they are the worse they are for your constitution.

     One of the worst trends in dieting occurred in 1977 after a government subsidized study was finally unveiled. All the newspapers carried the story about how fat was making everybody fat. The truth is that the American public was much leaner, overall, before the report came out. I wonder why no one has ever noticed that before. Probably because they were too busy trying to figure out a new no or low fat diet. There have been a lot of crazy ones. I remember the Beverly Hills diet. It consisted mainly of eating fruit until you wanted to puke. I remember the sores in my mouth from eating pineapple! That's when I decided that diets were for lunatics and never went on a proscribed diet ever again.

     For about twenty years now I have become what most people would consider to be a nutritionist. I learned that you have to try everything- except for insects. I draw the line there. I never eat anything unless I want to eat it. I chew my food well even if I am ravenously hungry. I enjoy adding spices and seasonings to food instead of excesses of salt and butter but I don't avoid salt or butter. I don't eat substitutes such as trans fats, margarine, artificial sweeteners or diet anything. I have learned to enjoy steaming vegetables instead of boiling the life out of them. I don't eat packaged, processed food unless it's pasta, couscous or rice. I allow those as my staples- carbs to balance with protein and fat. I like fruit in summer as an addition to my meals and they are a great substitute for dessert.

     This isn't anything you haven't already heard I'm sure. Just eat a balanced diet and all that weight will just fall off. Easier said than done and also not quite true. All this sounds right until you get to the point of talking about calories, exercise, hypnotism and genetic predisposition. I've had all the conversations I'm ever going to have on those subjects and I can give you a fast rundown on my opinions on all of them without having to go into much detail. Be prepared to be surprised and amazed.

     Let's start with calories. Calories do count in summer unless you spend most of your time in air conditioning. Any other time of year you can forget about calories. They do exist but do you really know what they are ? First, I want you to look up the word calorie in your dictionary. You should have found two definitions that read something like this : 1. a unit for measuring a quantity of heat 2. a unit for measuring the energy value of food. How curious, huh ? You thought it was only for the second definition and have never heard anybody use the word for the first. Truth be told, there is no difference. The food value equates to keeping your metabolism to a certain rhythm and temperature which is expected to be 98.6 most of the time. Remember feed a cold, starve a fever ? That's where that theory comes from and it doesn't exactly work when you're sick. It holds true when your metabolism is basically normal. How will you know if your metabolism is normal ? If you don't feel like eating when you're overheated and you do want to eat a lot during the winter months, then you're normal. Get in tune with your body and basically decide if it is hungry or thirsty. Many times people will eat when they are thirsty and drink too much when they are hungry. Both contain calories that count but act very different on your system. After a workout or just plain work in summer heat, when you rehydrate, make sure you drink water that is half-chilled or straight from the tap without ice. It will prevent your body from going into shock and do weird things like drastically lower your heart rate or stop digestion for up to 12 hours ! 

     Exercise is another thing altogether. It doesn't have anything to do with a diet. Phil was wrong about that, okay ? My advice is find something that you will definitely take the time to do and make sure you do it everyday. Compound exercise is marvelous and you can do it at any level- from beginner to pro athlete. Just do it.

     Being hypnotized to lose weight has its rewards but remember that all you are doing is tricking your mind into making your body do something when what you really need to do is examine the problems which have either made you out-of-shape, obese or just out-of-control. A little bit of soul-searching could save you money, time and trouble. Don't leave God out of the equation when it comes to dealing with problems such as these. Jesus said, "I came that you might have life and more abundantly." He wants you to be your best.

     Genetic predisposition is just a very long word for saying you'll never change your basic body shape or anything else your parents ever had or didn't. People beat the odds on quite a few things everyday of the week and in all walks of life. Don't let something like inherited problems tell you it'll never work. Did your Dad die of a heart attack ? That does not mean you will. Examine his life and ask yourself what you will do different. Did he hold a lot of unexpressed anger inside ? Don't let yourself repeat those same mistakes. Take anger management courses and make sure that your story will be different. It's all up to you.

     Now, for my favorite subject. Food. Yummy food. Eating helps you lose weight. I'm not kidding. If you starve yourself to be thin you may eventually achieve ultra thin status but at what price? Haven't you ever seen anyone with anorexia nervosa ? If you experiment with eating good food and avoid stuff that is obviously going to cause you to have acquired diabetes you'll eventually have a healthy, beautiful body. Find out what food does to your body and make it work for you because food is one of the best medicines in the world and the only way to give your body what it needs to stay healthy. There is no health in a pill. When's the last time you saw an ad for a drug to actually make you healthy? Have you noticed that all the prescription ads on T.V. have at least five side effects that sound more uncomfortable than what the actual disease or condition causes ? Find out about food. Did you know eating asparagus will actually make you beautiful? It has a dynamic effect on your bloodstream that will literally give you the glow of health. Jacqueline Onassis would go to restaurants and only order asparagus. She was excessively thin but her skin was always radiant. Bananas are a type of super food. They are packed with meganutrients and the fiber in one banana is a sufficient amount your internal organs need each day to run efficiently and easy. There's more but I think you get the idea and now it's time for you to get out there and educate yourself on the most important element your body needs to help you have energy during the day and most importantly, will help you sleep at night. Have fun !

    

Summertime...

Is the living easy this year? Well, I wouldn't, as yet, put this period into the category of being exactly idyllic yet, especially since yesterday was, largely, one of the rainiest, gloomiest Sundays we've had yet for 2014. It was beautifully sunny real early and then...I'm not going to get negative here, though. (At least, I'll try not to, for sure.) Everything's green, blooming and getting all new again. You have to love that ! Instead of clearing off snow again, it's time to get that lawn mower out. There's no use trying to stop the effects of spring and impending summer. I'm sure I've already zapped about 200 weeds-easy ! My roses out front are a riot of lush blooms and that heavenly light rosy fragrance is permeating my front walk. Nice. Winter is OVER, whew !

I've been feeling more like my regular self for about two months now and I want to keep going with those feelings. I've been getting a lot of writing accomplished and am doing better than ever, overall, on my daily baskets. (Usually better than my average which is about two out of three!) Two turtle doves have taken up residence in the pine tree outside my office window and periodically they peer in at me like I'm invading their space! It just makes me giggle. Oh yeah, I've been giggling a lot more, too.

I've decided that I'm not doing much good burying myself in memories of days gone by- good though they may be. It's time to pick myself up, dust myself off, look around, see what needs to be done and just do it. As Obama said in the middle of his campaign, "It's better to light a candle than sit back and curse the darkness." Indeed. It's not so dark, though, and we all need to take a break from futility. Nothing is futile if you make a concerted effort toward goals and, incidentally, prayer changes a lot of things; More than you might think. I've been going over possessions and keepsakes with such buried thought that you'd think everything was priceless. I know better than that, of course, and you can't keep everything I keep telling myself. What I wanted to keep the most is now far away except in my dreams.

An estate sale is impending and I just need to find a couple of helpful volunteers to help me wrap things up, get things sorted and tagged and get it all out there where someone else can get a chance at some very nice stuff. All I've ever found myself deeply attached to is books and now that I've gone through and sorted about 10,000 of my own it's starting to look like audiobook city. There's nothing like getting your reading done while taking a walk, knitting or clearing up the dishes and straightening up a kitchen. I'm still looking for a change to come real soon. I can feel it in the air. Very soon no one will be able to hold me back and I'll be soaring the skies again and taking all kinds of calculated risks. It's good to be back with the human race.

 Racing with the stars...

The Castle Lady

Not Just Words

     All writers cope with the daily dilemma of living life fully or sitting down to write. If you aren't out there getting your feet wet in it, you won't have anything to write about and if you don't take a good amount of time sitting down and writing about your experiences you won't have a true impetus or drive for your craft and may lose perspective of your writing objective. It's called writer's block. Writer's block is a terminal disease I've never had and never will. I have quite a backlog of ideas just waiting for me to get to them. I'm afraid I'll never have enough time to finish all of them. Only writers will really know what I am saying and understand this entry at all. That's the main problem. We're the most misunderstood people in the world but most of the world is unaware of it. They think they know us. We're that lazy slob that won't get a job. We spend way too much time reading and writing everything down. We can't help it. It's in our genes and our blood. 

     In order for the writing life to work well, a balance must be prevalent which is tricky and, at times, fraught with peril, exhaustion and (most times) crushing frustration. Add to that, the drive it takes to succeed business-wise and you will have enough stress and tension to break stones! We don't show it on the surface, however. We're busy writing about the writing experience- or something else. There is always something to write about- it's inevitable.

     It may be very difficult for a world of non-writers to believe that a profession, in which it appears that you sit and type all day, to be anything more than a very cushy life. If they could see the inner workings in our heads played out in their own, they would run screaming from their own body- if that were possible. Most people would not be able to take it, I'm convinced. (All my fellow writers are saying, "Amen to that, sister!") All of this is the basis for a misunderstanding which has never been discussed well enough between writers and non-writers. To understand who and what the writer is you have to read between the lines and visualize. It is like staring through the bars of a cage to see a tiger. A good writer is well hidden behind his world of words and he likes it that way. We may not want to be found. We may not want to be personally understood. Sometimes, we don't care if you read what we write or not. Our motivations are the most mysterious aspect of our profession but not to us. Figuring us out is your problem- not ours !

     This may sound off putting but what I wanted to convey the most in writing this entry, has more to do with the complicated life of being a writer. We may or may not be antisocial but for some strange reason we prefer a blank page and a pen to all other forms of communication and enjoy the fact that we do this better than most people. Given enough time at the keyboard or writing pad, we are in our realm (our kingdom, if you will) and there is a whole world out there to illuminate through the written word. It isn't just words....it's life.

and everyday at that....

The Castle Lady

Don't Miss This...

If you love the game like I do 

you'll be there or be square, if you can stand that !

 

The Castle Lady

          

Google Takes Over Blogspot

     This is literally what has happened in a matter of months. I figure that the minute we were enticed to add Google Plus to these accounts we'd been had by the powers that be. It was almost concurrent to the takeover of Blogger by Google. When I saw that in the news it sounded ominous then. Now it's just a pain in the drain. The powers that be are merely the machinations of Google trying to take over the planet. I remember when they criticized Bill Gates on the same premise. All I know is that I can no longer find two of my blogs on my so-called dashboard and the one Blogspot that I did not switch over to Google Plus tries to give me access to my dashboard but absolutely refuses to stop giving me error message pages blocking access to the dashboard that tries to come up. What we have here is a failure to make an upgrade an actual upgrade and a possible conspiracy.

     All that Google Plus nonsense is for all the thumb typers anyway and their teeny, tiny P.C.s which we could crush like bugs on a windshield. You can't write much of anything that way so what do they care about blogs? If you can get one sentence out of them each hour on those things you're getting more dialogue than they will ever convey to their parents, verbally or otherwise. A tweet may be sweet but a letter is better. You can quote me on that- and you'd better! Maybe I should copyright it right here and now so my rights won't be infringed by some half-wit trying to take credit where credit isn't due.

     Can you feel the sarcasm yet ? It wouldn't be so bad if I could call someone up and read them the riot act. They must be too shy for that sort of thing so we don't even get the pleasure of being given a wrong number. Perhaps we could take the planet back if we do one thing in particular that our competition would never do in a million years. Answer the phone. What do you think ? I think our First Amendment rights are being violated. I'll find out when I post this and I hope everyone understands that freedom came with a price. Someone had to stand up and tell someone off. I hope that whoever knows what's going on reads this and then feels ashamed. It's our only hope.

 P.S. Hmmm. Back to normal heee hee hee
It pays to tell people off. Trust me.

Conceit: The Evil Invention

     Inventions capture curiosity and the keenest interest of humankind more than any branch of science and it has always been this way. Ask any applicant who's ever sat in patent office waiting to be the next approved. We prize the tinkerers and fabricators of our world because of the possibilities behind each device. All of it is fueled by great and complex imaginations. I'm sure everyone has, at one time or another, toyed with the idea of inventing something that will make a lot of money. Imagination is one of the most precious attributes we inherited from God, our creator and we, in turn, were his greatest invention because we were made as duplicates, capable of even greater inventions, according to Jesus. (John 14:12)

     However, these same attributes which contribute so much to our increasing cache of innovation can turn ruinous in certain instances, bringing to mind such thing as the A-Bomb, the fateful Hindenburg or the Titanic. Most of human manufactured disasters occurred because of error or misuse but there is also willful and wanton destruction at the behest of human imagination such as 9-11. Our world is staggering back from the glut of violent or greedy acts, increasingly.

     We stand back, even those of us who profess no allegiance to religion or God, asking, "How can such evil exist in beings who are also capable of great compassion, mercy and charity toward other humans and creatures suffering?" As a student of the Holy Bible and believer of God's sacrifice of His son, Jesus, for all our sin, I feel compelled to introduce you to another creation of God- His only failure- Satan. You may ask if this is possible for an omnipotent God. In this particular case it is but only because the failure began with Lucifer. If you read the 14th chapter of Isaiah you will get a true and faithful portrait of Satan. It illuminates what he was and what became of him.

     That event brought about the ruination of this once honored angel who, with words of plain conceit, brought about the first fall of God's creation. What he became is the archenemy to God and the rest of His creation. Lucifer's attempted act of usurpation brought about his sole invention; conceit. He uses it in continuity.

     Conceit is the catalyst to every weapon Satan uses against us. He generally chooses the path of least resistance when he comes at us and conceit makes his work easy. It is so prevalent that it's unusual for people to guard themselves against it. We often confuse self-esteem with conceit concerning ourselves and how we view others. It can be a dangerous assumption.

     In the verse James 4:10 we are urged by Paul to humble ourselves so the Lord can raise us to the level he desires for us. When we give into conceit, either by offense or ambition, we can easily become the tool of Satan. He loves conceit because he fuels himself and his minions on the momentum of it. As the quintessential bottom-dweller he will manipulate you through conceit and, he believes, bring you down to his level and that's where he does his dirty work on your true self-esteem. If you want to check yourself for this pitfall ask yourself how easily you are offended. Be honest with yourself.

     Getting control of your character and your self-esteem will require that you humble yourself. You can do this more easily if you will recognize and acknowledge God's sovereignty. Then, turn a deaf ear to Satan's dialogue which is demeaning or degrading and filled with lies and confusion. Thwart his attempts at putting you down by asking our almighty Father to lift you up. If you ask, He will do it. (Job 5:11)

     If this is a struggle for you, remind yourself that Jesus met with a similar struggle (read Luke, chapter 4) and came out victorious because he was given authority by God, the Father to rebuke Satan's words and still humble himself before God who had given him that authority. (Philippians 2:5-8) This displays true and proper self-esteem which will carry you with confidence. I cannot guarantee how others will perceive your new found assurance but you will please God and that is a blessed assurance. The best kind.

© February 6, 2012, Evelyn M. Wallace

All rights reserved by author

Be blessed,

The Castle Lady

Winter Woes

     I don't like to be negative for a new year but I think I'm going to scream if I see another snowflake or if I touch another thing that's as cold as ice. I have never experienced a winter in Denver like this one. To have day after day after day of freezing temperatures without a let up or change is just not Denver and more like Alaska! It's been like this since the beginning of December and January has continued the trend to the bitter end. You know the weirdest part? We still get sunshine nearly every day just like always. It's almost like a constant artic blast is coming through from the north pole of Saturn. Ever get one of those chills that no amount of warmed up bed buddies or fifty blankets can shake ? That happened to me around the end of December just before bed time. I'm considering moving south. South America that is !

     After the anniversary date of my Mom's birthday, which was on the 25th, I started thinking about how much she hated snow and cold. Winter has never bothered me until this recent two month bout but she never ceased to complain about it and I marvel that she never moved any place warmer. Her best friend, Willa, of whom I'm in regular contact moved to Arizona some years ago and now I wonder if she ever dreamed of packing her bags in winter and going to be with her friend before the first snowflake hit the ground. I'll bet she did but she never threatened to do so. I think she felt trapped in winter, as well.

     Today it didn't get above 20 degrees but I put on all my warm clothes, grabbed my basketball and hiking boots and took my trek into the winter wonderland that is now my home. I've always been in awe of how the world looks under a blanket of snow and if you're bundled up warm it's a bit refreshing to walk around in all that blowing snow and icy wind. However, it does get old and perhaps the reason why I enjoyed winter most of my life is because Denver's weather usually doesn't stay the same within the same day, normally. I have come to embrace the constant changing weather of my native locale and this just doesn't feel like home.

     Winter ? Bah, humbug !

 

Brrrrr,

The Castle Lady

      

Wopila Kaniyeyapi

Happy Thanksgiving everybody !

Happy Thanksgiving everybody !

The Castle Lady

The Day After Kennedy Was Shot

My earliest toddler and childhood memories are surreal to me. I'm not sure when they became that way but it seems like my memories from that period of my life have always been wrapped in some type of haze. I can make a few summations about the phenomenon that would probably have psychologists and psychoanalysts running for their pads, pencils and their phones to call me. The earliest memory I have that is crystal clear to me is the Saturday after Kennedy was shot in Dallas. Being a mere five years old at the time, I got up and turned on the television to watch my favorite cartoons.

     Instead of watching my usual round of shows I watched a film of John F. Kennedy being shot over and over again. I waited patiently for hours, changing the channels and hoping that something would finally make it through the constant footage. One particular segment was a film taken from directly behind the car and at street level. I watched this particular clip on every channel I tuned in on and so the memory of it is as clear as a bell- a memorized vision so to speak. I watched as his head suddenly moved forward as if it had been pushed then immediately his head went backward with the same sudden, jolting motion. At that point Jackie had turned to him and her alarm was already evident and his head made another sudden jolting movement toward her. As I continued to watch, her reaction looked hysterical and before the film abruptly ends she was trying to climb out the back of the car perhaps thinking of her own safety.

     Many years later, books and films were written and produced which suggested otherwise from what I witnessed. The titles are almost endless but a few that I personally own are On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison, Crossfire The Plot that Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs and Best Evidence which was written by David S. Lifton. Even though two of these books claimed to be the inspiration for Oliver Stone's film JFK none of these extensively written and researched books correspond, completely, with what I witnessed that day in watching that particular film over many times. I'm not sure how many times I watched it but if it was fifty separate viewings I would not be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that I watched more times than that and I couldn't count that high anyway. Not yet. My memory of what I watched says that he was shot three times and at three different angles. Eyewitnesses in Dallas shortly afterward stated that they heard shots come from the grassy knoll near the site but that would've been in the direction which his head never moved away from and if they had come from that area then Jackie would have been shot as well.

     I'm not trying to split hairs but it has seemed to me that nothing has been quite right about people ever since that day. I learned that no one is safe and that human life couldn't be more fragile. I learned that respected men in important offices may lie to save their own skin. I learned that a good man might have dangerous enemies. Perhaps everything that I experienced prior to that Saturday was a viewpoint about people and life in general that made for a secure existence and everything since then woke me up to a reality I have had to accept regardless of my finer sensibilities and aspirations. No wonder my memories prior to that day seem surreal. Everything changed after that and I knew for certain that nothing would be the same.

Respectfully submitted by,

The Castle Lady