A Midwest Journal

Geese actually do a great job mowing...

Came to me while mowing the lawn and watching/listening to/experiencing my thoughts rattle around. Not so much a unique experience for anyone familiar with Levensons’ Sedona Method. (I mean being distanced from your own thoughts – not mowing. I’d rather geese do my mowing almost any day.)

In my life I’ve been very busy following all sorts of leads which put all sorts of stuff in front of what I really should be doing.

I should have been listening to my intuition the whole time.

Intuitional living isn’t an easy thing to move over to. It’s not like you just ask the driver to stop at the next corner so you can get off. It’s a transformational thing.

At this point, I know these key points:

• You have to learn to listen.
• It requires working constantly for the most optimal solution around you.
• It means working in abundance in everything you do and more often open-handed giving.

There may be other key points (they’ll come to me if I need to tell you), but let’s go over these individually. While books have been written on each one (and I’ll reference those I know of as we go) you don’t have to get these books to understand and start applying these right now to your own life.

1. You have to learn to listen.

This is listening within as well as without. Most of the time we are so busy thinking that we are tripping over our own thoughts constantly. Our minds run away with our lives.

Several authors, such as Charles Haanel (in his “Master Key System”) said to seek the Silence. His 24-lesson course the book was based on had you practicing sitting still for some time every day and simply learning to control what you were thinking. Others call for meditation as a way to discipline the mind. My favorite is Lester Levenson, who simply said to release the thoughts and feelings which welled up – this quieted the mind and eventually removed its “thinking” influence entirely.

The point is like someone who is talking all the time and doesn’t let a word in edge-wise. Until that person learns to be quiet and listen to others, they can’t learn anything. While Levenson and others tell how a person develops that problem, it’s easier to simply “let go” of that impulse than to figure it out (which involves more thinking, doesn’t it?)

So intuitional thinking requires simply sitting down in a comfortable spot where you won’t be disturbed – several times a day if possible, but at least once daily – and learn to be still and just listen. Don’t contribute to anything that comes in, just allow it and then let it go. Eventually, with practice, you can sit for 5 – 10 – 15 minutes or more and just listen to the world around you. This skill starts to carry forward with you in life and you’ll find yourself taking in and enjoying more life around you.

Until you listen, you won’t be able to have the inspirational, motivational, and intuitional thoughts arrive (they actually are arriving all the time, but we have to get all this noise out of the way in order to begin to see them.)

2. You need to work constantly for the most optimal solution around you.

Now, “work” might not be the best term – it only seems like that at first. Later it becomes fun, a game. But you are changing some life-long mental habits at the outset. So start looking for better solutions, the best possible solution to everything you encounter. Just see if you can’t work out how to live more abundantly and install this abundance in everything you do.

All your situations should result not just in win-win, but in win-win-win. Everyone involved wins from the solution you help evolve – and they then take that to help others live abundantly as well. You really need to not just pay it back, but pay it forward, and then pay it forward in advance.  Wallace Wattles covered this in his classic, “Science of Getting Rich”. He laid out a whole chapter devoted to the idea of doing always more than you are asked to do, taking care with each detail to create the most professional product you can.

3. Work in abundance  – start giving open-handedly.

In nature, there really is no competition. That is a humankind-invented view of things. The oldest writings and teachings on this planet confirm just one thing – we are all connected, there are no limits. Sure, there are the apparency of limits and restrictions, but you’ll find that they are arbitrary and imposed, not occurring naturally.

Look at the things in life which are giving you the most problems – taxes, government, political parties, mass media – these things don’t exist except for us “highly evolved” humanoid-type peoples. And if you look at more “primitive” peoples who don’t have health care, insurance, lawyers – the same sun still lights up their day with warmth and causes things to grow for them. They still enjoy their family, they eat and live with much less stress than we face in our “modern” world. A recent article about some of the oldest-living people found this village where they still went out into the fields every day and harvested their own food, even into their hundreds of years living on this planet.

Competition is only a limiting apparency. Creative action and resolution is unlimited.

And I could really go on and on about open-handed giving – it’s where commerce started out and where online marketing is going again. People don’t want to be consumers, they want to be part of the experience and community that any given product represents.  Online vendors know that they have to give away tons of really valuable stuff before anyone will invest their own hard-earned income with them. It’s a matter of trust. But that trust is built best through open-handed value-giving, not tons of “promotional give-aways” (although the two are related.)

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None of these concepts are new – even Intuitional Living isn’t a new concept. Emerson talked about it in his own way, as did his student, Thoreau. Even Shakespeare touches on it here and there.

It’s just come the time now, in our Internet information age, that we can move anyone who wants to right on up this line and out. Because Intuitional Living is just the next logical step, but it isn’t the final one (if there is one). It’s the next thing after having everything you need and want in life, being whatever you want to be, doing, achieving, acquiring all that you ever really wanted. You’ll get all that on your road to Intuitional Living. All of it. And you’ll find that once you do, you don’t really have to have all that. (Like owning a candy store – you find that you don’t want to eat candy all the time, but are really interested how to improve others diets so they can enjoy candy as a treat – not an have-to-have.)

Try some Intuitional Living for yourself. Just those three simple steps. See how you can work on each one a little bit each day – and see if your world and the worlds of others around you don’t improve just to the degree you work on these. It really only helps improve things. And as you give to others, you will receive. So this is an invitation to immensely improve your life forever.

Don’t take my word for it, don’t believe what I say here. Try it for yourself and see if it’s true for you.

Thanks for visiting my blog and reading this entry.
If you’ve found it valuable, please consider donating via PayPal to enable my continuing research.

Our latest upcoming release, “Freedom Is — (period.)”

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonpatrick17/)

When asked by a friend about the use of pixies and other wee folk as gardening tips, I responded:

Gardening Tips with Pixies

Some of my older ag books cover the subject carefully, trying to be dispassionate and “scientific”. But if you read between the lines, you’ll learn all sorts of things about how to encourage pixies:

Pixies like appropriate gifts. These may change, depending on the local climate. Female pixies like flowers, so it’s good to have some growing at the edges all year – which legend has why certain flowers (marigolds) work to keep pests out. Male pixies like small nuts in the shell, just don’t overdo it or the squirrels take that as a hint. Acorns or hazelnuts – even small buckeyes will do, just not the larger hickory or walnuts. Some pine cones (small ones) can be appropriate. Put these in out of the way places where it’s not obvious you are bribing them – and then they can make a “big deal” to other pixies about what they “discovered”. Easter egg hunt.

Also, they like broad leaves which shade the soil – rhubarb, pumpkin – anything they can nap under during hot summer afternoons (which is where, it is said, the siesta came from).

Generally, they like a neatly organized garden, but also appreciate the ones which also have whirly-ma-gigs that keep the birds away. (Birds, especially the bigger ones, can harass pixies.)

In general, anything that people generally attribute to good garden practice are actually good pixie environments. Clean mulch on paths between rows – anything that promotes earthworms promotes pixies. (However wee-folk experts are actually divided on what that relationship consists of, they just know there’s a relation.)

Most companion planting works due to pixie magic. Also, putting your taller plants in north-south rows so that they shade different parts of the garden each hour – this is helpful to pixies as it allows them to work in the shade all day in different parts of the garden. Constant shade makes lazy pixies, which is evident by how few things grow in constant shade.

Pixies also need your help trimming the larger bushes and shrubs. Like berry vines and orchards. While field pixies (like the ones good farmers encourage) are beyond this discussion, the principles are the same. Good stewardship, adequate moisture, proper mulching – all these things foster a good environment which cries out for pixies.

Now, additionally, Feng Shui is useful – installing decorative items in each corner. Some people put their tomatoes in two corners and broom or sweet corn in the other two. Or sunflowers on the North end. (Pixies like it especially when beans are grown up the corn or sunflower stalks.) So your decorative items could be grown, or simply artwork.

Some face their pieces to each wind, especially in Western states, where the Amerindians had substantial pixie influence. (And if those gods are still around, it doesn’t hurt to respect them, anyway.)

If your garden has a lot of rocks to get rid of, consider putting them into even piles for each wind – these (like Louis Lamour’s “Lonesome Gods”) are for even more ancient gods – who live both in the earth and the sky. As you find rocks, putting them in these piles pays tribute. Pixies may or may not pay homage to these old gods, but they are smart enough not to disrespect them. (Plus, rock piles give them a vantage point to watch over your garden. Butterfly gardens, which often have a big rock for butterflies to sun on, are loved by pixies.)

Toad houses (upside down clay pots with a opening big enough for a toad to enter) are a near essential. Pixies love the idea of these. Toads are an asset in organic vegetable gardening.

While bird houses should be established near by (but not in the garden or on its borders), bat houses can be installed either on a corner, a side, or the center. Not only do they keep insects down, but they are great sport for younger pixies to ride.

However, one of the most key points is to sit out in your garden some time each day (when it’s cool enough to be there and still warm enough to stay for awhile) and just sit and think of all the great things that you appreciate about your garden. Some practice a flute or other musical instrument, some just sit and enjoy and express gratitude. Pixies love a gracious host.

But above all, even as Barrie wrote about Tinkerbell, they like to be believed in.

If you get most of these points in above – mulching, earthworm care and feeding, a tidy layout (pixies love square-foot gardens with raised beds), and some time personally spent in deep appreciation of Nature – then pixies will flock to your garden. And sometimes, late at night when you can have your windows open – if you’re real quiet and just listening – you can hear their quiet whispering voices and maybe even a musical instrument or possibly a small band playing. While disbelievers say it is only the wind, or sound from a nearby highway, true believers know it is the pixies who are planning out how to help you improve your garden and figuring out more of their wonders to work for you.

Two additional points:

1) You can never have too many pixies. If they get crowded in the garden, they’ll spread out to start helping other areas. This is one reason why you can sleep well at night after you’ve helped the garden pixies by removing dead growth and planting new seeds, etc. House pixies have been putting their sleep magic into your bed while you were gone. This is just one of the great things pixies will do for you.

2) Most all good things (serendipity) which happen to you are due to your accumulated pixie-karma. If you look for and appreciate the gifts these pixies have brought into your life, then you’ll see more of these things showing up. And if you constantly give to others and work to help them, pixies see this and will surprise you with more rewards – as you deserve it. (House pixies also talk to you while you are sleeping and can give you hints about how to solve problems and situations – so listen to your dreams and learn from them.)

While these last points go beyond garden pixies, they’re also worth knowing about.

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That covers just about all I know on garden pixies. But if I run across more in my studies (or my old ag books) I’ll let you know.

Thanks for visiting my blog and reading this entry.
If you’ve found it valuable, please consider donating via PayPal to enable my continuing research.

Our latest upcoming release, “Freedom Is — (period.)”

(continued from part 2…)

The Zen of a Medianomic Lifestyle

If you started applying this to your own life, you’d quickly find that this is actually the most economical way to live. And the happiest and most sensible.

The government is actually telling you to be average. If you look over the tax code carefully, you’ll see they are also telling you to start a business and work for yourself – that’s where the real low taxes are. And you’ll see that the bulk of the jobs in the U.S. are created and maintained by small businesses. That’s what makes every recovery in a recession. When you make it harder for the bulk of your small businesses to get started, you are damping everything down.

But a living by Medianomics actually puts you into a sort of “Zone.” While you don’t have to be a big fan of Alan Watts, he did cover very simple explanations of Zen – which are applicable in any Medianomics lifestyle. Your best interests are served by simply enjoying the life you currently live. While you understand and empathize with the extremes, you actually live in the middle. And you live to experience your own life, not based on what “celebrities”, or politicians,  or Wall Street CEO’s do with their lives  – or any other extreme minority group. Your decisions are your own. People who stick with their traditional lifestyles live very mundane, but happy lives.

Like the credit card binge we all are now suffering through as well as the sub-prime mortgage mess our politicians got us into. We erred by moving from traditionally successful finances of savings and layaways. So the credit card industry now looks to be a blip on the radar. Politicians meanwhile tried to get more votes by pressuring finance companies to make risky loans to people who had never done anything before besides pay rent. Because home ownership was equated with a “right”. But it’s always been a privilege you earn. Always will be. And these guys crashed the economy (don’t worry, some group or another does this every 6-8 years like clockwork.)

If you stick to what works, what’s common sense, then you live a simple and happy life. You aren’t striving to keep up with all these fads going. You don’t dress like celebrities or cult guru’s. And you read the stories of stars and starlets who ruin their lives or kill themselves off over drugs or fast cars or psychotic lovers. Most of us don’t.  And that’s living in the Zen of the Medianomic middle.

Just be normal and enjoy it.

Medianomic Predictions

So, now you can predict what is going to happen:

• Every time one political party gets in power, they lose it rapidly. Always have a president of one party and a Congress of the other. Do nothing while they’re there.
• Extremists who threaten the middle (Islamic and other terrorists) will get wiped out. Not popular, as they don’t allow the average lifestyle to continue.
• If you are in a Long Tail group (Gays, Vegans, Environmental and animal “rights” activists) – make it easy to be compromised with in order to get what you want. Don’t run a campaign that everyone should live like you do. Just say you want to be left alone to live your own life. Those that do, can.  But don’t try to get the government to support your cause. Like organic farming, it usually gives you a result you don’t want – and no one else does, either.
• People who want to get elected (a form of celebrity) will stay in office only as long as they are “normal” to their constituents – and really accomplish nothing. You get a lifetime pension and benefits automatically, so why work at standing out from the crowd and risk being defeated in a primary?

And some advice about what you should be doing with your life:

• Use your common sense to pick your own careful path – and you can be in the “zone” all the time.
• Forget about listening to the mass media guru’s or news announcers who are constantly telling you the sky is falling. Realize that the sun will come up tomorrow, and the day after, and even the day after that.  Those extremists live by selling advertising to pitch products to the average Joe and Joleen – so they want to hook you into watching their shows in between commercials. Talk and listen to your neighbor on your block – you know them, the ones who have a house almost like yours…
• Vote for people who think and act like you do – and then hold their feet to the fire. If we had average Joes rotating through our elected positions (and maybe all government positions), we’d start having more common sense actions showing up – and maybe some real service, as well.
• Pick the social network of your choice – one which you can be average in.  Somewhere that you can lurk and watch the postings and not feel pressured to stand out, but can “like” all the stuff you actually do – pretty anonymously.
• Start ignoring the people who stand out from the crowd and try to lead it.

Because the trick to being happy in this seemingly chaotic world we live in is to luxuriate in the average, common-place stuff that surrounds you.  Realize that the average people actually rule this planet, not the titular leaders who change every few years. People vote with their pocket books and wallets and remote controls. Understand that the real power in this country is in your own neighborhood.

The next time some community-organizing activist comes around who says that you should go out and stand up for what is right and make a difference – that your purpose for living is to get your face on the evening news for the cause they are pushing… just quietly smile and nod and show them the door. But when that sales man comes in and says that if you buy “X” detergent because everyone else does – usher him in and get him some coffee and cakes. He’s telling you how great you are for just being yourself.

Thanks for visiting my blog and reading this entry.
If you’ve found it valuable, please consider donating via PayPal to enable my continuing research.

Our latest upcoming release, “Freedom Is — (period.)”