Miss Charlotte’s Babblings

It’s just over a week before Thanksgiving, and I have buds opening on an apaganthus plant by my back door. Aka Nile Lily, this flower has blue, lily shaped flowers that radiate from a central stem. They don’t bloom in November.

Perhaps the plant is confused about the weather, but it has been the usual near freezing at night and mid 60s on the sunny days, so that seems unusual. Another plant I bought at the same time has already bloomed and has an interesting, star-shaped end on a stalk, where I assume it already bloomed.

I hope the plant doesn’t freeze before it blooms. It is close to the house and the concrete driveway that absorbs solar heat during sunny days, which might be enough for it to open up. It’s a perennial, so its green leaves are still feeding its roots, whether it blooms or not.

It makes me happy to see it, because I feel like I am blooming in the autumn of my life. I hope I won’t be too afraid to open up, even though I might get a cold reception. My roots are strong, and there is always spring coming, one way or another.

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I have not looked at the election results yet this morning–another case of ignorant bliss, guilty as charged. I’ll know in a few minutes who won, yet I am at peace regardless of the outcome.

The president elect has many challenges to deal with, but at least neither of them has spawned a sitcom. No one is laughing at either of the presidential candidates, though many rumors and comedy sketches abound. No one is accusing either McCain or Obama of stupidity or of riding on the family’s coattails.

How lucky we are to live in a society that can change government without violence, where the biggest complaint about election day is the long lines. I went to the polls when they opened, and waited for an hour, but my daughter went after lunch and had only two people in front of her.

Of course, part of the reason for that is the low turnout in most years. I heard yesterday that in some years the list of voters did not fill the first page in my precinct–only 50 names to a page.  But yesterday, three first-time voters, young African-Americans were applauded for their excercise of their rights.  A woman in my office voted for the first time yesterday, as she felt that she needed to protect her rights as an “old” person–she is 50.  I envy her that she has both of her parents, to whom she looks for guidance, discussing how she should vote with her father.  My  mom and I are on different sides of the middle, but we can still talk about the people and the issues and agree to disagree.

The system works, despite greasy wheels, monkey wrenches and the occasional wooden shoe (sabot) in the gears. It’s easy to forget about a machine, like the refrigerator, when it works all the time. YEt it needs the maintenance of working the gears, whether with a pencil and paper ballot, a mechanical lever or an electronic touch system.

I’ll check the news in a few minutes. Either way, I’ll be at peace with the answer.  Unless we can each feel the peace within, there won’t ever be peace without.

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My boss is 5 years older than my daughter. She’s sweet, a young mother witt an adorable toddler, a loving husband and a great sense of how to soften my often blunt comments.  She’s the head of PR, and she was not born when I graduated from college.  She’s a joy to work with. She listens to my suggestions and then  makes a decision about what we need to do.

For many boomers, it’s bound to happen.  Any change to a new job is likely to change the hierarchal structure that so many of us expect, but it’s not so common any more for the person  on the top of the org chart to be the oldest fart in the building.

The president of my college is a bit older, but still young enought to be my child. He is sharp though, and like many Gen-Xers, more willing to work with people instead of commanding or browbeating them. I came in on Saturday to make a short presentation to our board of trustees. Now, I am on salary and “exempt” so that means i don’t get overtime for this kind of thing. I’m new to the college and the board needs to know what we are doing differently with the website. It was not a problem.

On Monday I got a hand-written thank you note from the President. not only did he thank me for showing up on a Saturday, he praised what I said. I really feel valued. This is so different from the experiences I have had in the past. Maybe it’s just because I don’t work for the state anymore.

But if this is how the world may shift as we Boomers get out of the way and let the Gen-X and Millennials take over, I’m all for it. Right on.

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Watch it. Listen.  Do it.  While you still can….

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I read Listening and Communicating with Energy by Ginger Bowler this weekend, while I was at the Aiken children’s Book Festival.  My friend describes it as a tutorial about working with energy wrapped up in a memoir about her teacher, herbalist and naturopath, Hannah Kroeger.  The information works at a deeper level than you might expect reading it once.  This morning I had a thread of an old country song float through my awareness, and the information from the book crystallized into a metaphor.

The title  of the song by Billy Joe Shaver is “I’m just an old lump of coal, (but I’m going to be a diamond someday).” Shaver wrote it about his decision to give up drugs. The song was recorded by Johnny Cash in 1978. As it wandered through my mind, I thought about the way coal becomes diamond, usually described in science books as through great heat and pressure. But the people I know who are under great heat and pressure generally jut burn up or burn out.

Then I thought about crystals, that their primary property is the perfect alignment of the molecules. A diamond’s carbon atoms are arranged in tetrahedrons or octahedrons (four- and eight-sided solids) so that they can be cut to refract light in four planes.

What is the difference between black, crumbly coal and a sparkling diamond?  The coal has other elements such as hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur, but the diamond is pure carbon.  The vibration of the diamond is much higher because its atoms are aligned with each other in a tight matrix.  A cut diamond has had many pieces cut off to reveal the refractions of light inside it.

My thought was that as we work to live “above the line” as Ginger Bowler describes it, aiming for the better-feeling-thought and the lifestyle that is consistent with health, our atoms align with each other to reveal and refract the light within us.  The pieces that we release are the elements of unhappiness: gossip, envy, jealousy, green, fear, violence, self-pity, addictions, unforgiveness, guilt.

As we release these elements of darkness, our light begins to shine through, and we can reflect the light we can now see in others.  Even diamonds have imperfections, yet as we work to raise our vibration, our inner light brings out our individuality, our unique tone.

I may be just a lump of coal, but I’m working to be a diamond some day. Thanks, Billy, Johnny, and Ginger.

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The late nights, websites and rewrites are keeping my chiropractic interns busy this week. I just sent the submission package for Maven off tonight, this time with everything I hope my agent, Holly McClure of Sullivan Maxx needs to pitch me and Maven to her contacts.  BTW, Holly is looking for interns in the Atlanta area, if you are interested in learning the publishing industry from inside out.

It’s been a long trip, and while I might be able to see the top of the mountain, the goal I seek is on the other side of it. Still every revision makes the manuscript better, and now that I am gathering the pieces for the second volume, I’m seeing why I wrote things the way I did even years ago.  Maven is now her own person, as are Jones and some of the other characters who originally looked a lot like some of my friends.

When I got to talk to Peter Miller last summer about MAven, he wanted to know if I thought Angelina Jolie should play her. But I think Kathy Bates would be perfect, with Maggie Smith as Triona, and maybe Judi Dench as Belle–that would take some CGI as Dench is not a large woman, and it would certainly be different from the usual queenly types she plays. But it could be fun! An aging Harrison Ford might make a perfect Jones, and that would certainly please the person on whom Jones is based. As for other characaters, I like a lot of the characters in the Heroes TV show. Kristen Bell (Elle) would make a great Fern,  and  Zachary Quinto (Gabriel/Syler) would be perfect for a later character, an alter ego of Jones. But then, I forget that you guys don’t know these people like I do.

But soon, I hope, very soon you will!

Tags: Maven Fairy Godmother, Uncategorized // 2 Comments »

Eva Hiers New Book A Spiritual Awakening

It’s a treat when you get a thank you note from someone you didn’t sell something to. I’ll share the warm fuzzy that I got from Eva Hiers today.

Hello Ms. Babb,

I don’t know if you remember me or not. We emailed a couple of times before the Writers Conference this year.

I am from Hazlehurst, Georgia and had sent a couple of writings to you. Your suggestion was that I needed a publisher not a conference. I took your advice after I knew, that I knew, the Lord was pushing me to do the book. Well I did, and guess what! the book is now out! My newly released book is titled “A Spiritual Awakening” Inspirational Writings From The Holy Spirit”

I wanted to thank you personally.

As I look back over this summer, I realize now that the Lord had other plans for me and wanted everyone to know this was his work no training from other sources, just his guidance.

If you would like to view the book you can go to http://www.aspiritualawakening.org or a href=”http://www.evahiers.com/”>http://www.evahiers.com. My book is also available on Amazon and barnes and noble etc.

Thank you,
Eva Hiers

Tags: Thanks! // 4 Comments »

J. K. Rowling’s Tales of Beedle the Bard to be released December 4th.

From the review at Amazon.com: In December 2007, J.K. Rowling unveiled The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a very special book of five fairy tales illustrated by the bard herself, embellished with silver ornaments and mounted moonstones. Amazon was fortunate to come into possession of one of the original copies, and it was our privilege to share images and reviews of this incredible artifact. Now J.K. Rowling is giving millions of Harry Potter fans worldwide cause for celebration with a new edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, available December 4, 2008.

Offering the trademark wit and imagination familiar to Rowling’s legions of readers–as well as Aesop’s wisdom and the occasional darkness of the Brothers Grimm–each of these five tales reveals a lesson befitting children and parents alike: the strength gained with a trusted friendship, the redemptive power of love, and the true magic that exists in the hearts of all of us. Rowling’s new introduction also comments on the personal lessons she has taken from the Tales, noting that the characters in Beedle’s collection “take their fates into their own hands, rather than taking a prolonged nap or waiting for someone to return a lost shoe,” and “that magic causes as much trouble as it cures.”

But the true jewel of this new edition is the enlightening and comprehensive commentary (including extensive footnotes!) by Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who brings his unique wizard’s-eye perspective to the collection. Discovered “among the many papers which Dumbledore left in his will to the Hogwarts Archives,” the venerable wizard’s ruminations on the Tales allow today’s readers to place them in the context of 16th century Muggle society, even allowing that “Beedle was somewhat out of step with his times in preaching a message of brotherly love for Muggles” during the era of witch hunts that would eventually drive the wizarding community into self-imposed exile. In fact, versions of the same stories told in wizarding households would shock many for their uncharitable treatment of their Muggle characters.

Professor Dumbledore also includes fascinating historical backstory, including tidbits such as the history and pursuit of magic wands, a brief comment on the Dark Arts and its practitioners, and the struggles with censorship that eventually led “a certain Beatrix Bloxam” to cleanse the Tales of “much of the darker themes that she found distasteful,” forever altering the meaning of the stories for their Muggle audience. Dumbledore also allows us a glimpse of his personal relationship to the Tales, remarking that it was through “Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump” that “many of us [wizards] first discovered that magic could not bring back the dead.”

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Sherman College had its annual fun day on Wednesday, and I got a chance to dance with the president, Dr. Jon Swartzbauer in his role as lead singer of the DCGees…flashback disco fun to “Give an Ajdustment! See it here:

Being my third week on the job, I didn’t realize that it was the president at first–he was wearing a wig and a ruffled shirt, after all, and we had just watched the first quarter students do their rendition of Achy Breaky Back and Welcome to Scallon. I’ll spare you the pickle eating contest.

Remember when you are manifesting your new job to add FUN to the list.

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Don’t complain. Don’t explain.

Diet has taken on so many overtones of meaning that the descriptive meaning–that which we eat–has almost been lost.

As I have been following the suggestions of my EPFX practitioner, Nelli Biddix of Be Natural in Spartanburg, I have found that I feel better. I am more rested and calmer.
I have also lost at least 16 pounds (7.3 KG, 1.1 stone). How much more than that, I don’t know, but the last time I weighed in before working up my medical history with my new chiropractic intern, Jaime, I maxed out the scale. (YIKES!!! Did I say that out loud?).

But this time I didn’t.

I am wearing the clothes I didn’t clear out of my closet because I liked them. They are loose. So for once, Due not only to the foods I am eating–nuts, berries, seeds, stems and leaves–my body is shedding fat. I have not been exercising, other than parking my car under a shade tree rather than close to the door.

Yet if I mention my eating plan, people don’tunderstand that it is not about losing weight–many folks would find 16 pounds in 6 months way too slow for a successful weight-loss diet. It is about allowing my body to heal itself by reducing the foods that are stressors.

I have seen a number of internet doctors, such as Dr. Susan Lark, who recommend that all women over 40 stop eating gluten, and some people recommend that no one over the age of 5 should use dairy products. Different blood types supposedly have different enzymes for metabolizing foods–Type A like me should be vegetarian.

Well, I’m getting there…no dairy, no gluten, no sugar, no kidney beans, no red meat,no pork, no chicken, no tuna, no pumpkin seeds.

But fruit, nuts, greens, rice, corn, soy, and turkey are all right. So that’s what I eat.

But it’s not about losing weight, although that is a nice plus. It’s about being healthy, giving my body the nutrients it needs and not stressing it out with toxins. Many of the foods on my Don’t List are produced in factory farms with fertilizers, genetically modified plants or animals, growth hormones, antibiotics and goddess only knows what else. So, okay, I can live without them.

But that’s hard to explain to a person who says she will work off the calories by working out as she eats another gluten, dairy,and sugar laden cookie.

Its easier not to. Don’t complain. Don’t explain.

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