I just got wireless, so I'm sending one last blog before I head out for Reno to gamble, party with friends, and practice being a bad girl!
When I get home, I'll be doing one of my very favorite things--starting a new book! The working title is "Dead-Central", and it's about Mojo Sheepshanks, my new romantic suspense heroine. She's juggling ex-husband, Nick, (who is severely hampered by the fact that he's--well--dead) and Tucker Darroch, handsome but often scruffy undercover cop. The setting is Arizona, with many of the same locales as the Clare & Tony books.
Once I get a handle on this wireless internet thing, I'll be taking my computer along when I travel and doing a blog. Linda Lael Miller, on the road.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Friday, July 22, 2005
Boundaries
Do you have boundaries?
Mine sometimes seem to be made of jelly. It's still a struggle for me.
When is enough ENOUGH?
For me, with a certain issue, and with which I will not bore you further, it is TODAY.
I'm tired of tap-dancing on the decks of the Good Ship Lollipop.
This "good girl" is gonna go bad, big time. (For an excellent definition of bad girls, read November 22 in "Simple Abundance.")
I'm off to Reno.
I really need this vacation.
Can you tell?
And I intend to behave very badly indeed.
Mine sometimes seem to be made of jelly. It's still a struggle for me.
When is enough ENOUGH?
For me, with a certain issue, and with which I will not bore you further, it is TODAY.
I'm tired of tap-dancing on the decks of the Good Ship Lollipop.
This "good girl" is gonna go bad, big time. (For an excellent definition of bad girls, read November 22 in "Simple Abundance.")
I'm off to Reno.
I really need this vacation.
Can you tell?
And I intend to behave very badly indeed.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Invisibility Cloaks
Harry Potter's invisibility cloak comes in handy. Certainly, no young wizard should be without one. How else to spy on Professor Snape and Draco Malfoy? How else to prowl the halls of Hogwarts on a vital mission?
For the rest of us, though, I think invisibility cloaks are definitely a disadvantage.
You might be wondering what the heck I'm talking about. "I don't own an invisibility cloak, for heaven's sake," you may be thinking. "I wish I did!"
Well, the truth is, you probably have a closet full of them, just as I do. Invisibility cloaks are the ways we sneak under the radar, play small, don't speak up for ourselves or others when it's important to take a stand. Putting on weight can be an invisibility cloak. Not pursuing your personal dream is an invisibility cloak. Accepting unacceptable behavior from others is an invisibility cloak.
What the world needs now is people--particularly women--who are willing to throw off their cloaks and speak the truth. The planet is in peril, and we cannot afford to be invisible.
We cannot wait for the wise ones to come along. We must become the wise ones.
For the rest of us, though, I think invisibility cloaks are definitely a disadvantage.
You might be wondering what the heck I'm talking about. "I don't own an invisibility cloak, for heaven's sake," you may be thinking. "I wish I did!"
Well, the truth is, you probably have a closet full of them, just as I do. Invisibility cloaks are the ways we sneak under the radar, play small, don't speak up for ourselves or others when it's important to take a stand. Putting on weight can be an invisibility cloak. Not pursuing your personal dream is an invisibility cloak. Accepting unacceptable behavior from others is an invisibility cloak.
What the world needs now is people--particularly women--who are willing to throw off their cloaks and speak the truth. The planet is in peril, and we cannot afford to be invisible.
We cannot wait for the wise ones to come along. We must become the wise ones.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Dragons Four through 999,000
There are, of course, a great many more dragons lined up outside the door of our cozy little mental cottage, and dealing with them will take a lifetime. Let's agree--remember, I am no further ahead on this journey than you are--to greet these visitors one at a time. We've got the idea now, and we can take it from here. I have my dragons, and you have yours. I suspect yours bear a certain resemblance to mine, and vice versa. I can only say that we will have an easier time if we don't let them stampede across the threshold in a herd, but we mustn't try to ignore them, either. They will huff and puff and blow our house down if we do that.
Today, I want to recommend a book, and here's a surprise for you: it isn't mine! It's "Radical Forgiveness", by Colin Tipping. Check out his website at www.radicalforgiveness.com. You can buy the book there, and I suggest you get the CD, too. The one called "The 13 Steps to Forgiveness". I had a powerful breakthrough, listening to that CD. Fair warning: you will probably want Karen Taylor Good's music, after hearing it on the 13 Steps. I swear, it washed over my soul like healing balm.
We all have things, people and situations we need to forgive. Radical Forgiveness is a simple but very deep process, and it bears little or no resemblance to the kind of bite-the-bullet forgiveness you were probably conditioned to expect. If you have a resistance to this idea, the Victim Dragon has crept back into your cottage. True forgiveness has little or nothing to do with the person or circumstance you're forgiving, and everything to do with your journey to wholeness. You have probably wondered, as I did, what is blocking you. What is holding you back.
Mr. Tipping's book will clear that up for you, and even if you read only the first and sixteenth chapters, you will experience profound healing. Just remember--it's a process.
On Saturday morning, I'll be leaving on a vacation, which means there won't be a blog until the morning of August 1. I will be here tomorrow morning, however, and Friday, and I haven't forgotten that promise to set up some kind of response system. I've got people working on it.
And so, for today, may you be blessed. May you be centered.
May you be more fully yourself.
Today, I want to recommend a book, and here's a surprise for you: it isn't mine! It's "Radical Forgiveness", by Colin Tipping. Check out his website at www.radicalforgiveness.com. You can buy the book there, and I suggest you get the CD, too. The one called "The 13 Steps to Forgiveness". I had a powerful breakthrough, listening to that CD. Fair warning: you will probably want Karen Taylor Good's music, after hearing it on the 13 Steps. I swear, it washed over my soul like healing balm.
We all have things, people and situations we need to forgive. Radical Forgiveness is a simple but very deep process, and it bears little or no resemblance to the kind of bite-the-bullet forgiveness you were probably conditioned to expect. If you have a resistance to this idea, the Victim Dragon has crept back into your cottage. True forgiveness has little or nothing to do with the person or circumstance you're forgiving, and everything to do with your journey to wholeness. You have probably wondered, as I did, what is blocking you. What is holding you back.
Mr. Tipping's book will clear that up for you, and even if you read only the first and sixteenth chapters, you will experience profound healing. Just remember--it's a process.
On Saturday morning, I'll be leaving on a vacation, which means there won't be a blog until the morning of August 1. I will be here tomorrow morning, however, and Friday, and I haven't forgotten that promise to set up some kind of response system. I've got people working on it.
And so, for today, may you be blessed. May you be centered.
May you be more fully yourself.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Dragon Three
BLAME.
I really didn't want to let this one into my cozy little mental cottage at all. I just got through picking up all the wadded tissues from Victim's visit, and now this.
Blame is an angry dragon, first cousin to Victim, and she does breathe fire. The walls are scorched and sooty, and I will be a while washing them down.
Blame's motto is, IT'S SOMEBODY ELSE'S FAULT.
I can't be happy--Somebody Else is ruining my life.
I can't (read: won't) take responsibility for my situation--I wouldn't be like this, if it weren't for that Somebody Else. I wouldn't be fat, stuck, depressed--you fill in the rest.
Oh, that mean, rotten Somebody Else, I thought, temporarily buying in, because Blame is very convincing, you know. She's so in-your-face angry that you get singed by the heat of her fury, and it's hard to concentrate and stay centered when your eyebrows are on fire.
Once I caught my breath, though, I began to get some perspective.
Wait a minute, I said. I led Blame to the mirror, and she did not go willingly, I assure you. But I made her look. At HERSELF. (Funny, how much she resembles me, when you look past the scales and the flames shooting out of the nostrils.)
There's your problem, I said. You don't see Somebody Else in there, do you? Is Somebody Else making your choices? (They will, actually, in an indirect sort of way, if you let them, but even THAT is a choice, isn't it?) Don't give me any crap, here. If Viktor Frankl can make a choice in Nazi captivity, we certainly don't have an excuse.
Blame is a way of letting ourselves off the hook. Letting Somebody Else be responsible.
Sheep dip. Always, always, the choice belongs to you, and you alone. Maybe you can't choose what other people do. But you CAN choose your response. (Remember Viktor Frankl if you're tempted to snivel.)
Think about it. I certainly am.
I need something to do while I wait for my eyebrows to grow back.
I really didn't want to let this one into my cozy little mental cottage at all. I just got through picking up all the wadded tissues from Victim's visit, and now this.
Blame is an angry dragon, first cousin to Victim, and she does breathe fire. The walls are scorched and sooty, and I will be a while washing them down.
Blame's motto is, IT'S SOMEBODY ELSE'S FAULT.
I can't be happy--Somebody Else is ruining my life.
I can't (read: won't) take responsibility for my situation--I wouldn't be like this, if it weren't for that Somebody Else. I wouldn't be fat, stuck, depressed--you fill in the rest.
Oh, that mean, rotten Somebody Else, I thought, temporarily buying in, because Blame is very convincing, you know. She's so in-your-face angry that you get singed by the heat of her fury, and it's hard to concentrate and stay centered when your eyebrows are on fire.
Once I caught my breath, though, I began to get some perspective.
Wait a minute, I said. I led Blame to the mirror, and she did not go willingly, I assure you. But I made her look. At HERSELF. (Funny, how much she resembles me, when you look past the scales and the flames shooting out of the nostrils.)
There's your problem, I said. You don't see Somebody Else in there, do you? Is Somebody Else making your choices? (They will, actually, in an indirect sort of way, if you let them, but even THAT is a choice, isn't it?) Don't give me any crap, here. If Viktor Frankl can make a choice in Nazi captivity, we certainly don't have an excuse.
Blame is a way of letting ourselves off the hook. Letting Somebody Else be responsible.
Sheep dip. Always, always, the choice belongs to you, and you alone. Maybe you can't choose what other people do. But you CAN choose your response. (Remember Viktor Frankl if you're tempted to snivel.)
Think about it. I certainly am.
I need something to do while I wait for my eyebrows to grow back.
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