Category Archives: mixed media

Change Your Life!

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Many years ago when I wasn’t so happy, in fact I was miserable, I knew something had to change. My life was not going the way I wanted it to go, and I was getting nippy, and nasty. I didn’t like my job, or anything else around me, I didn’t even life myself. I did however love my kids, and looking back I think part of my misery was that I wanted a better life for my kids, and myself.

Believe me, it took a lot of serious talks with myself before I came to a life altering conclusion. It wasn’t going to be easy, but then nothing worth doing is easy. I felt I was out on a limb that was about to break, and it was hanging over a very deep canyon.

Happiness is being with nature!

Somehow I found myself in the possession of a small paperback book. How I got it I haven’t any idea, but it literally changed my life!

The book, if I can remember correcttly was, Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life by Eric Pace. I should have a copy in my library, but I must have loaned it to someone who needed to read it. I now have learned if you think you are loaning a book, you are really giving it away. Few of the books I’ve loaned have found their way back home.

Happiness is giving a kiss to a tiny lizard!

This book taught me how to switch my negative thoughts, to positive thoughts. Yes! It doesn’t happen oven night! I was extremely negative, and unhappy beyond words. As I said things had to change.

On day when I was just finishing my house cleaning. My husband came walking into the kitchen with “great news!” So I patiently sat down at the counter, and was gifted with a story he couldn’t wait to tell me.

He told me of this wonderful waitress he had met, and started dating. Because I was such a great wife, understanding, and easy going, he decided against all the warnings his friends had, to tell me about her, and he did! He described her, her personality, and how much I would like her. Really, I’d like her? Actually I loved her, she just saved my life!

This was my golden opportunity…literally. After trying to figure out how my life could be happier, my sweet, dear husband figured it out for me. Some husbands work in misterious ways, don’t they?

Happiness is getting donuts just because!

So my husband, and this little book gave me the courage to change my life. In the process and because of my thoughtful husband at the time I was able to pull my life together, get my feet under me, and start a new life. In the process I was borrowing a car, furniture, and anything else I could find to put my new condo together with my three kids. Fortunately, my boys were in San Dugito Hi School, but my daughter was in Middle School. The boys were self sufficient, and I didn’t have to worry to much about them. But my daughter, I had to be much more protective in the next few years with me. It all turned out alright, with ups and downs here and there, but who doesn’t have those raising kids.

Back to the book…

Each time I had a bad thought, I’d struggle to find a positive was of thinking about it. Sometimes I had to really think to find that tidbit of positivity, but adventually it started to come naturally, and today I find myself with few negative thoughts. I catch myself, and tell myself I can’t do that and be happy. You may think it sounds cheesy, and unobtainable, but it isn’t. I truly appreciate, and love all people. That doesn’t mean I like them, but I see the good in everyone, even if they are not so good. Sometimes good people make bad choices, and sometimes people are bad to the bone. But within each of them is a little spark of goodness they probably don’t even know is there.

Happiness is being by the lake!

I’m not a Saint, nor do I want to be one. I’m just trying to be the best human being I can be!

Thank you for stopping to read Karen’s Stone Soup. I promised a mix of ideas and thoughts when I started this blog, and I’m being true to my word.

New Beginnings

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Todays post is a repost from a friend who owne’s Big Sky Lavender Farms with her husband, and brother-in-law in Montana.
When I read her news letter, it impressed me so much, I had to repost it. I hope it moves you the same way it moved me.



Each week I begin again. I sit down to write this newsletter with an idea or thought I’d like to share and where I end up is usually not where I think I’m going. (Basically, life:)
This week I’m writing about new beginnings. Partly because of what’s been happening in our world lately, but also because I believe we start everyday with a clean slate. A chance to begin again.
I didn’t know 2 years ago when my brother-in-law invited my husband to grow lavender as a business, I would end up moving back to Montana. This place I called home until I was 21, but hadn’t lived in for 30 years. 
I didn’t know after selling a business we owned for 27 years, I would take what I learned from having a traditional store front business and use it to create an online business, something we had never done before.
I’ve learned about the application process to get into farmer’s markets, craft shows and festivals to sell our products. Again, something totally new for me.
Everyone involved in starting the lavender farm is in their early to mid fifties. We all made a choice to begin again, starting a business none of us had ever done before.
(I will say, becoming a lavender farmer in your fifties is probably not the easiest career choice you can make, but there you go. Live & learn:)
Farming is hard work, but when you’re invested in the health and well-being of 2500 baby lavender plants, you learn quickly.
For instance, weeds love to grow under the weed mat you put down to prevent weeds. It turns out it’s a great place for them to get away from the sun. Who knew?

Anyway, the long way back to my thought for the week:
If you don’t have a job to go back to, start thinking about new possibilities. That’s my favorite thing! Possibilities open the world up wide for you and show you things you never knew existed.
And don’t you dare tell me you’re too old or too (fill in the blank). I don’t believe it!
If you’re like me, you don’t give yourself enough credit for everything you know and have learned in your lifetime. Write down what life has taught you along with your work experience. It all has value.
Be creative with how you might use it at a new job. Or create your own business! There is so much opportunity in you.
And opportunities come from realizing possibilities that were there all along. We just don’t notice until we need them.

I took a lavender picture  last week. The babies are 2 years old and it’s hard to believe in 6 weeks or so they’ll be in full bloom and bigger than the plants on the right.
They already know their full potential, they just haven’t reached it yet. But everyday, they grow and expand into their full, beautiful selves.
Everyday you have the potential to grow into your full, beautiful self. The self that lives life everyday, to the best of your ability, virus or not.
Everyday, look for the new possibilities and opportunities that already exist inside you. Even if you don’t know what you want, you’ll figure it out. I can see it happening already.
Well, my words wandered in ways I could never foresee. But never mind. They end exactly as they’re meant to.
 And I’m just as surprised as anyone else.

We met a customer this past weekend who told us how much our Magnesium Cream has helped her daughter’s growing pains.
She rubs it on her daughter’s legs before she goes to bed and the magnesium helps relieve all her aches and pains. The lavender in the cream also helps her get a better night’s sleep.
If you have sore muscles or leg cramps, feel anxious, have trouble sleeping, or all of the above, our Magnesium Cream is the key to you feeling better.
Rub it on your arms or legs before you go to sleep and the magnesium does it’s job while your body rests.

Big Sky Lavender Farms is located in the beautiful Bitterroot Valley, just south of Missoula, Montana. We make all natural, healthy products to help you live your best life today. 
Share the love and share the lavender. 

The Invisible Fence

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‘The memory is a living thing – it too is in transit. But during the moment, all that is remembered joins and lives – the old and the young, the past…

The Invisible Fence

Lisa it’s been so long since I have red one of your amazing stories. I’ve missed them. I posted for the first time in over two years this last Monday. If you get a chance to read it you’ll understand. Many blessings to you. Karen

Peace and Love

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Magic Trees

I have been thinking about how I could write a post about the healing that is so desperately needed in our world today. After sitting quietly and meditating, it came to me much more simply than I had imagined.

Josef Siegle is a mentor, and I consider him a friend. I respect him immensely, have taken many of his classes, and always come away better than I started.

Face Book is a go to for me because I can check on my friends and family easily. Sometimes I get information my daughter hasn’t thought to tell me. Or a friend mentions they aren’t feeling well, so I can call them to check on them. It has it’s place! In the process of all this, I have noticed the nasty, hateful comments people post, and I can’t help thinking how much better off our world if we toned it down. When I say toned it down, what I really mean is this…

We all come from different places, we have different colors of skin, different thoughts, ideas, political preferences, and ways we’ve been raised. We come from different places, and different religious beliefs. Because of these differences it is sometimes difficult to understand someone else’s perspective, or point of view. Why do some people talk differently, or louder, or their English seems a little scrambled? Why do some of us wear clothes that show how conservative they are, while some clothes seem louder, or gaudier, blinger, or more colorful? How can we understand one another’s point of view if they are a different religion, or come from an entirely different part of the world?

One thing I’ve learned from traveling, and reading is that people/parents all want the same thing for their families, and children. Most people are peaceful, and loving. We are all working, and struggling to pay for our homes, cars, credit card bills, and anything else that is a necessity at the time.

So what’s the answer?

Well I haven’t answers for the immediate problems, however I will tell you that what came to me during a meditation is this…

If we toned it down, stopped posting, or talking so hateful about the other person, and made an effort to hear their point of view regardless of how different they are than us, shouldn’t that be a starting point to bringing peace and healing to our planet. I don’t think it’s as important to change our views as it is to listen. People want to be recognized, heard and this isn’t happening at the moment.

We are spending so much time pointing out the differences each of us has, and not even giving thought to the similarities we share.

Everyone that knows me knows that I am a liberal. In my eyes, I’m viewed as a left wing democrat that wants to spend money that our country doesn’t have, helping people that don’t deserve it. My view is that the other side, the Republicans don’t want to help the sick, poor, or anyone else they consider doesn’t work for it. Are these perceptions true? Does it matter if they are true or not? Certainly they can’t all be true, but if we just sat down and took time to learn why the other has the ideas, and ideals they have, we would have a much better understanding of one another. I would respect someone for sanely discussing our differences. I’m not trying to change yours, I want to understand your point of view!

The same goes for our racial differences, religious differences and any other difference we have with each other. How can we be so different and so much alike at the same time. We are all created the same, our differences make us interesting, and I for one want to know more.

I’ve never been into religion, more into culture, and languages. I love hearing the music of different cultures, or the way others talk. The cadence in the way others speak, I love it, and I love the way people from another culture dresses, the fabric the use, the way others design, it’s all inspiring to me.

I have posted, along with my words, the meditation for healing the world, bring peace to each of us and those around us. The meditation is 33 minutes long, so I’d suggest you listen to it when your household quiets down. I found it soothing, and it made me feel better about life, and the craziness we are experiencing when I was finished. I hope you feel the same.

Thank you for stopping by and reading Stone Soup. Please listen to the meditation, I know you’ll find it relaxing, and it fills you with love!

More Cookies….

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Last Sunday, my grandson Nolan and I planned to bake and decorate cookies.  I had purchased one of those rolling pins that imprint something into the dough before baking and they always look so perfect.   Right….I tried!

IMG_2992We made a real mess, but everyone got involved, Mom, Dad, Nolan and Myself.

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After an afternoon of decorating, and licking the frosting off our fingers (OH what fun), we finally decided to donate the entire two batches of decorated cookies to Nolan’s class.  Let the school kids get a sugar high, and not on my watch either!

All four of us had a great time, with the fire going and the tree decorated, it was a perfect Norman Rockwell afternoon!

Thank you for stopping to check in on us.  Happy Holidays, see you soon.

 

The Divas Celebrate Christmas

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Maxine Custer in front, and along the back from left to right….Myself, Karin deBaay, Susan Kopp, and LaRetta Zamora on right.

Last Saturday the Divas celebrated our yearly Christmas Party. Since we don’t have a project, nor do we critique each others work. We do however have a gift exchange.

I always look forward to this because we each work in different ways, and it’s fun to receive a piece of work from someone else.  We probably all feel this way.  At one time we would create a piece for everyone, and that took so much time and energy at a time when we didn’t have a lot of energy and time.

Since we don’t do a project, I decided to pick up a box kit for “Decorating Ugly Sweater Cookies”  from Trader Joe’s.  It took a little time to get everyone interested, but we had fun decorating  cookies.  Quick and easy, I just couldn’t decorate another gingerbread house.

Karen deBaay created the best, most clean cookie, so she wins the prize. The prize being bragging rights.

Doesn’t it seem silly to decorate Ugly Sweater Cookies?  It is silly, we get silly, and for that matter we all believe now’s the time to get as silly as we want.  We aren’t mean or nasty, not even bad in any way.  We don’t have to worry about the elves seeing us do something wrong, we are perfect angles, all five of us!

The rest of us just laughed while decorating, and the cookies turned out exactly how they were suppose to…..Ugly Sweater Cookies!

 

Since the holidays are so busy for most of us, I’m really, really, really bad at time management, and I have not been posting.  I love writing, but sometimes I’m just not feeling it.  So I don’t…

Thank you for stopping to read Stone Soup,  the Happiest of Holidays to everyone,  see you soon…