Watching, Reading and Writing

I've been making a conscious effort to select lighter fare for my viewing and reading material. The other day I watched a 1999 movie with Diane Lane set in 1969: A Walk on the Moon. The sets alone were worth the ride, taking me back to the days of my youth when my family took summer vacations to cabins in Northern Minnesota. The cabin in this movie, however, was near Woodstock, NY. Nostalgia was rampant for me in the inner turmoil of the characters, the dynamics of the relationships and the visual reminders of my childhood and my own hippie days gone by. I loved, loved, loved it. The movie and my memories.

I found a book by Jennifer Weiner, "In Her Shoes" that was a far cry from the mysteries and suspense I have always preferred. It took a bit of getting used to because, instead of the fast escape into a world of an action thriller, the conversation of the book was familial, emotional and pushed some buttons inside me. Although not always easy to read, it was real. Through the pages I felt a sweet kinship with my sister and how our lives have weaved in and out through the years.

Both the movie and the book inspired me to stay the course to explore new books, movies, experiences, and see what opens up for me in the process. For one, reading and watching "slice of life" books and movies inspires me to write more.

My homework for this half of August is completion. I've taken on little things to finish (since the big things seem too big to complete at the moment). Easy things. Then perhaps, one day soon, I'll once again set the course to finishing the many books I have in process. For now, it's one step at a time. Breathe in, breathe out. Clean the linen closet, make a sales call, fill an order, make the bed. One thing at a time. My gift to myself each day is to write a short piece to share with you here in this blog. We all have stories to tell. Each one valuable to the whole.

- Raphaella Vaisseau

Morning - by Raphaella Vaisseau

Not a waste of time - Learn, baby, learn

To place this post in context, I'm at the age where I'm excited to be getting my social security checks starting in 2 months. Hah. I can remember when telephone answering machines were on the leading edge of technology. According to recording-history.org: "In 1878, shortly after inventing his phonograph, Thomas Edison created a "top ten list" of uses of the phonograph. Number ten read: connection with the telephone ...." -

In the 1980s when the answering machine became popular for home and office, I remember hearing a resistance to change from a segment of the population (usually older, but not exclusively so) and was fascinated by people who adamantly refused ("I won't use those new-fangled machines") to make their life easier and more effective by using modern tools invented for that purpose.

I hear similar comments today in reference to the web ("I don't have a computer" "I don't do e-mail" "I don't use the internet"). It amazes me, and I wonder if these people now have an answering machine or voicemail. I wonder if the resistance goes beyond the web itself and applies to anything new across the board (new food, new restaurants, new fashion) or just to new inventions in the world of technology (cell phones, computers, internet and now .... new media, which includes social networking, blogging and the like).

It's okay these people exist. They have a right to their resistance. But oh my, what a different world this is becoming around them. Einstein said, “Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” Although I'm not a proponent of "shoulds," I count my lucky stars I am rarely resistant to change. I embrace it, flow with it and choose to focus on the joy of discovery rather than the loss of the comfortable. Helen Keller said, "When one door closes, another opens."

I'm so very grateful to be alive at this time of global awareness and marvel at the speed of light with which we are coming together to make this a better world. I watch our new president, Barack Obama, blasting forward with one new thing after another and I hear (mostly older) people cry out, "He's doing too much, he's moving to fast ..." No people, he's a man of action, a man of integrity and he's a Web 2.0 kind of guy. He's showing us what a new thing looks like, not just talking about it. He's on the leading edge and we get to come along for the ride. I don't know where all the changes will lead us as a world community, but make no mistake about it, things are changing. Fast.

If you hear a new term, a new idea, or talk of a new technology, you can always start by asking Google, the wizard of the web. One link leads to another and suddenly you're in the know. Then you can decide where to go from there and if you want to know more.

A few years ago my parents were visiting me in San Franciso from Miami. My parents are self-employed and have an export company selling building products (Florida International Trading of Miami). My mom used my computer to check her e-mail and noticed an inquiry from a customer in the Caribbean which sounded big. My dad (who doesn't do much online except play bridge and read the VMB611 WWII veterans webpage) felt anxious about the fact that he wouldn't be back in Miami for two weeks and therefore he assumed he would lose the sale. I took a look at the e-mail, found a few words I could search on, did my Google search and voila! found the page in a suppliers catalog that was the exact thing he would have used in his home office to gather the information for the quote. This took all of five minutes. He was amazed and relieved. He put the quote together which my mom then e-mailed to the client and the sale was a done deal.

The internet makes things easier, saves time, and is FOR you, not against you. One of my spiritual teachers (John-Roger) has said for years and years, "If it works for you, use it. If it doesn't, let it go." However, if you never try it you can't find out if it's going to work for you or not.

-Raphaella Vaisseau, www.heartfulart.com

Ada Lovelace Day - Pledge to Honor Women in Technology on March 24, 2009

I took the pledge along with 1,500 other people as of now. More information here. Join us.

clipped from anitaborg.org Ada Lovelace Day is the brainchild of Suw Charman-Anderson, a London-based social media consultant and digital rights activist. Recognizing that women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, she issued a challenge: “I will publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same.” — Suw Charman-Anderson

Ah-Ha Moment at Theresa Foley's Writers' Group in Venice

Theresa Foley read a passage from p. 72 of The Vein of Gold by Julia Cameron at last evening's Writer's Group in Venice, Florida.

"When I teach the concept of creative ceilings," writes Julia about what I had earlier that evening described as my own glass ceiling, "I often talk about Chicago, a city filled with old buildings that feature wonderful, high, ornate pressed-tin ceilings -- ceilings often obscured by a lower, "modern" Styrofoam ceiling. It used to be a game of mine to tap the panels of these Styrofoam ceilings (they weren't really solid) and see what glories they had hiding up above. In many ways, we are a lot like those buildings with the artificially low ceilings. The hidden gifts we believe to be far above our creative capacities are often merely obscured from our view. A tiny whisper of the gift may remain, tapping at our consciousness like a mouse scratching at the ceiling. When we hear the whispered wish of that gift, we say, "Oh, I could never do that! That's so far above my head...."

OMG. Immediately the Light dawned in my consciousness and I perceived the illusion of the ceiling and the gifts hidden above. That was my "Ah-ha" moment.

Like the writing practice I learned and loved from Natalie Goldberg's book about living the writer's life, Wild Mind, our next exercise in class was to write for six minutes about "The Gift". Here is my six-minute essay:

"The Gift" by Raphaella Vaisseau

How intriguing to visualize the hidden ceiling above the glass ceiling that I have felt so inadequate to crash through. Suddenly it felt light and airy up there, with smiling faces and cheering crowds who have been waiting for me to climb on up, jump up, rise up to be on a level I have held myself back from. I've known it was me all along, but still, nothing seemed to lift me above until now. I'm enjoying the effortlessness of it all, the floating, joyous feeling of ease and accomplishment I would have thought would come from hard work and breaking glass to force my way in, but the accomplishment that has a sense of knowing and a confidence and also has a joke about it. I'm falling into the arms of the wise ones, my guides and angels and all who have gone before me. It's a celebration and a party. I'm dancing now on what once was the glass ceiling I could not see above.