Susan Sierra

If 40 is the new 30 and brown is the new black, then June is the new December. I guess if you’ve got kids older than mine you’re already used to this. My 2 youngest aren’t in school yet and my oldest has just finished Grade 2, so I am just now catching on to the nuttiness of June.

In just the last couple weeks, there was a drumming concert and picnic at school, sports day, an evening at Playland, preschool graduation, Freezie Fridays, 3 baseball wrap parties and 4 birthday parties. I had some extra work commitments too…a luncheon and a boat cruise (if you can call that work).

Sure, the weather is a bit different than Christmastime, but the frenzy is much the same.

I got these new beach sandals.

You can’t really tell from the picture, but they’re black with light pink stripes. I love that about them. But, whose idea was it to put those pokey things on sandals? I thought they would feel great, but instead they feel like rows of pushpins.

I haven’t entirely given up…I wear them around the house a few minutes at a time to try to break them in. But how do you break in pushpins?

Amidst all the questionable stuff I receive in my inbox, this one is quite a jewel. It’s daily notes from the universe, written by one of the Secret teachers, Mike Dooley. Great little tidbits of inspiration, and funny too. I love how he intertwines your name into the message to make it feel like it’s just for you. The one I received today is…

“Did you know, Susan, that your primitive little computer already has about 672 powerful options, shortcuts, and functions you don’t even know about that could make your life simpler, happier and zippier with just a few clicks?

Cool.

And did you know that the Universe has about 672 giga-trillion powerful options, shortcuts, and functions; friends, allies, and confidants; secrets, solutions, and answers; ideas, inventions, and dimensions; angels, wizards, and fairies; engineers, strategists, and specialists; plotters, planners, and diagrammers; nooks, crannies, and hideouts; games, adventures, and thrills; stories, legends, and fables; flavors, scents, and melodies; pleasures, pleasantries, and passions; eurekas, cowabungas, and yeehaas you don’t even know about that could make your life simpler, happier, and zippier with just a little visualizing?

Yeah, cooler.

You can start now.

The Universe”

You can click here for own personalized messages from “The Universe”.

We have 2 kids in ball, 2 different teams, 2 different sets of games, one other kid to occupy and only 2 parents (one of which coaches both teams).

This past weekend was the big ball tourney of the year…and the wettest weekend in awhile. We spent all day Saturday and Sunday getting kids ready for ball, getting them to ball, getting them back home to dry off and then getting them ready to go back to the ballpark.

My biggest challenge was trying to watch an inning or two while keeping Jayla happy at the same time. 2-year-olds aren’t that keen on sitting still for more than, well, 5 seconds. So, I scrolled through my interior list of parental tips and came up with the perfect solution.

Candy.

That one actually comes from the old list of “things I will never do when I’m a parent” but now do.

During just one bag of Skittles, I got to see Jacob (8) get someone out at first base and crack a double, walk over to the other diamond (kid and candy in tow), and see Jackson (5) whack the ball and run around the bases with the look of “that’s my mom watching me play!” plastered on his face.

Sugar…is sweet.

I hadn’t heard we were getting new license plates, but I’ve seen 6 of them since yesterday. Unless 6 people from a city that I’ve never heard about are visiting, we’ve got new license plates. I couldn’t see British Columbia on them anywhere though.

Oh, wait. I just went to the ICBC website. They’re 2010 license plates and they do clearly say British Columbia. And you can have one for $35.

Friday was a weird day. I was just off…nothing I’ll bother getting into, but it was just one of those days. After work I was picking out some produce for the weekend, feeling the weight of the day on my shoulders when a bouncy young woman walked by and said “The nectarines are delicious.” Nice, I thought…how friendly. And she kept on talking about them “I just bit into one. They are so juicy. I wish I bought more”.

Simple I know, but her words put a smile on my face and got me back on track. A good reminder how easy it is to brighten someone else’s day.

And the nectarines? The best I’ve ever had.

With the tiny bit of spare time I have, I blog. But, the blogging has taken over my brain. So, whatever it is I’m doing, I try to figure out a way to blog about it.

I wish there was some device that we could attach to our brains so that when we thought about something we wanted to write about, our thoughts would just instantly appear in written form.

Because coming up with the ideas, and putting them on paper are 2 entirely different balls-o-wax.

At dinner we were marveling that Jayla (2) sometimes looks like her cousin Shelby (13) did when she was two. I said to the kids “well, it makes sense because Jayla is part of me, Shelby is part of Auntie and Auntie and I are from the same place.”

And Jacob (7) said “yes, you and Auntie came from the same opening”.

*****

Today we saw the Wendy’s commercial where they are chanting “Big Juicy Burgers, Big Juicy Burgers”.

Jackson (5) asked “Why would they call them juicy? They’re not juicy, they’re greasy” :)

Friday was Jacob’s Sports Day at school. When I rounded the corner I discovered there was no parking where I usually park in front of the school because of all the extra fun going on that day. So, since I wasn’t going to take long, I pulled my car over on the wrong side of the street and walked Jacob to the door.

When I got back, there was a man standing near my car. He was very obviously one of the dad’s helping out with Sports Day (he had khaki shorts and a sticker name tag on), so I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t make eye contact though, because I thought he might want to give me heck for parking on the wrong side of the road.

Then I heard “Excuse me, ma’am”, and he FLASHED ME HIS BADGE. VPD Constable. Gulp.

“Ma’am” he said “You are parked on the wrong side of the road. That’s a $40 ticket. I won’t give you a ticket today, but please don’t do this again. It’s for the kids, ma’am.”

You just never know who is watching.

While I do believe The Secret is an invaluable tool for helping people live happier, more meaningful and more abundant lives, I also think it’s beneficial to do more than just watch the movie.

The Secret doesn’t go into a lot of detail about how to put the principles into effect. A great follow-up book is Ask and it is Given by Esther Hicks. When I first started reading it, I was so excited for Steve to read it that I had to get another copy. I am now reading another one she wrote with her husband Jerry Hicks entitled The Law of Attraction which I am also really enjoying. These books help clarify what the Law of Attraction is all about and how to consciously make it work for you.

Another great resource is the online Secret forum. Lots of your questions will be answered there…or go ahead and ask them if they’re not!

The movie is full of all kinds of one-line tidbits of information. For example - “When the voice and vision on the inside become more profound and clear than the opinions on the outside, then you have mastered your life”. You might like this handy list of the top 100 quotes from the Secret.

One of the most important things to remember is to focus on the things you want in your life, rather than the things you don’t want. It sounds simple, but we’re all guilty of focusing on things we don’t want. We don’t want debt, we don’t want to be stuck in traffic, we don’t want to be sick etc. So instead we need to focus on what we do want…abundance, smooth safe trips to our destination, our wonderful health etc.

Change the words that rattle around in your head and you can change your life.