VernetteOutLoud

BBQ: Save yourself!

Save yourself

It’s Saturday so you know it’s BBQ time! This week the down-to-earth Vikki Caflin kept it all kinds of real on her blog Laugh Lines with this hilarious post on the joys of menopause, kids moving out and turning the BIG FIVE-OH.

Now while I am nowhere near menopause nor do I have any kids…far less grown ones, that line of hers really made me laugh and commiserate. Because it describes me to a tee. When I’m in my dark place and there is no coming out…you better save yourself!!! I almost feel sorry for my future husband and kids when that time comes!

Vikki describes herself as “Goofy, often irreverent (usually at the most inopportune times!)” and you can read more about her shenanigans on her blog: Laugh Lines. Trust me, you wont be disappointed.

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I’m participating in this wonderful series created by Kozo over at everydaygurus.com If you haven’t heard about it please click here to read more.

BBQ
If you want to be part of this awesomeesauce BBQ, here’s how you do it:

  • Take a quotation from a favourite blogger
  • Create a BBQ post with the quotation
  • Link back to the blogger you quoted
  • Tag your post BBQLUV
  • Link to other BBQLUV posts (optional)

Yup! It’s that simple.

You can't google everything

I use Google pretty much everyday. So much so…today I googled “how to get rid of red and brown ants”. I kid you not. I have an ant problem and I tried this baking soda and icing sugar trick and that did not work. No exploding ants here. They are now on full-scale invasion mode and I need to get rid of them in the most humane way possible. Suggestions welcome…feel free to share your tips below.

Right, so I use Google everyday but let’s face it, while the internet is an invaluable source for information it is also chock full of opinions, made up facts and porn. Yes I said it. The internet has porn. Nuff said.

George Bernard Shaw said, “Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”

…and I agree with him…believing a lie is worse than living in a bubble. At least if you’re in a bubble it will burst eventually and you will have access to the truth. But if all the information you have is a lie…then you’re like those poor people duped by that fake sign language interpreter.

Of course nothing is true, unless and until you believe it to be so. Thus, you better know that what you know is in fact true!

When I chose my One Word:Truth for 2013 it was with the specific intention to get comfortable in my own skin because this is where I live. Getting comfortable in my own skin means being authentic. It means listening to my “gut” more often. It means tapping into and listening to that “woman’s intuition” which some women I am guilty of dumbing down and disregarding. If something doesn’t feel right…it probably isn’t. I’ve learned the hard way that believing a lie is worse than ignorance!

How do you know that what you know is true:

Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. ~ Miguel Angel Ruiz

And that my dear friends…is something you can’t google!

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I’m participating in BlogHer’s NaBloPoMo Challenge for the month of December:

NaBloPoMo_MoreLess

You can read some awesome entries here: NaBloPoMo December.

My hours

We all get the same 24 hours in a day. No more, no less. If you’re like me, you spend 5-6 hours sleeping…on a good night. That leaves 18 hours. Then I spend 8-9 hours working on my employer’s dream. I got 9 hours left. My commute to and from work is roughly an hour. I’m now down to 8. By the time I shower/play Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook/check Twitter/read blogs/respond to emails/eat/study/write my own blog/work on my side hustle…tomorrow has arrived. And it’s time to do it all over again.

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I refuse to spend even one hour of my day with someone I cannot stand. Life is way too short for that. I truly believe that time is the only real currency we have because we exchange it for everything else in this life. I cannot be fully present to the present if I’m bitching about just how much I can’t stand someone now can I? Besides the less time I spend with people who rub me the wrong way..is the more time I have for the people who matter.

So tell me…how are you using your 24 hours? Are you robbing yourself of even a moment of happiness doing something, spending time with someone…living a life that is not your best life? Or are you living authentically?

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I’m participating in BlogHer’s NaBloPoMo Challenge for the month of December:

NaBloPoMo_MoreLess

You can read some awesome entries here: NaBloPoMo December.

Wordless Wednesday

2013-04-06 09.08.14 Tobago

Stone Soup

There once was a traveller who came to a small village, tired and weary from his long journey. The traveller did not have anything to eat and hoped that a friendly villager would be able to feed him. He came to the first house and knocked on the door. He asked the woman who answered, if she could spare just a small bit of food as he had travelled a long journey and was very hungry. The woman replied, “I’m sorry I have nothing to give you. I can barely feed my own family.”

So the traveller went to another door and asked again. The answer was the same: “I have nothing to give you.” He went from door to door and each time was turned away.

Undaunted, the traveller went to the village square, took a small tin cooking pot from his bag, filled it with water, started a fire and dropped a stone in the pot. As he boiled the water, a passing villager stopped and asked him what he was doing. The traveller replied, “I’m making stone soup. Would you like to join me?” The villager said yes, and he asked if carrots were good in stone soup. “Sure,” said the traveller. The villager went home and returned with carrots from his garden to add to the boiling water.

Soon, another curious villager came by and was invited to join them. She went home and returned with some potatoes. A young boy passed by and soon joined the group, bringing his mother and dinner plates from their home.

In time, a crowd gathered with everyone offering their own favourite ingredient: mushrooms, onions, salt, black pepper, acorn, squash. Everyone wanted to be part of the creation. Finally, the traveller removed the stone and declared, “The stone soup is ready!” And the whole community joined in a feast where there was none before.

-adapted from a Swedish folktale and from Marcia Brown’s retelling of the fable in her book Stone Soup.

When I first heard this story as a child, it was a nail and not a stone. But whether it’s a nail or a stone, the message is always the same. You can share whatever little you have and it is possible to make something great with just a little effort. This story was referenced in one of my daily meditations and it made me think about today’s NaBloPoMo prompt:

C.S. Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” How good are you of placing others before yourself?

Well, it depends…

My greatest lesson in placing others before myself was taking care of my mum during her battle with Ovarian Cancer. But you know, it wasn’t a question of humility, or thinking of myself less…this was my mother and she needed me.

Since then though…I think I’ve grown into a selfish little thing. It’s a struggle.

When things are going well and the sun is shining it’s easy to share our gifts and good fortune with each other. But the world we exist in sometimes, can be a sad place full of lack…whatever that “lack” might be – love, energy, ideas, money. No matter how positive you are, in times like this your go-to response would be to hoard what little you do have.

I’m guilty of this. I am the villagers in the story and I’m about to bail on this prompt.

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I’m participating in BlogHer’s NaBloPoMo Challenge for the month of December:

NaBloPoMo_MoreLess

You can read some awesome entries here: NaBloPoMo December