Advent Calendar 2010: The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse-Days 10 to 11

In loving memory of Tessa and taken from this CBC article.

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 10:10 DEC 2010

As we come to Day 10 of the Advent calendar and the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse we find the animals busy fixing up the house for the arrival of the Purple Elephant's herd. As the Purple Elephant explained again this year although most of us were at the Production House last year and had seen them and heard this explanation already...not all the elephants in the Purple Elephant's herd were purple! Well some were blue...some grey like your typical elephant known to man and some were even red...others brown and yes the elephants explained to us...some were even white! And no not just albinos but actually white for you see it was not just a fable...indeed the legend of the Maharaja's white Indian elephant was true! The Purple Elephant's herd also transcended geographical borders and species and so the herd consisted of Asian elephants as well as African ones and they both learned traits from each other! However the greatest kept secret of the herd that we are about to reveal only on this year's Advent calendar since he did not visit the Production House last year...is this!:

One of the members of the Purple Elephant's herd is not even an elephant at all! He is actually a wooly mammoth! Yes indeed! And no your ears aren't playing tricks on ya! The elephant herd found him one day when he had wandered down from Alaska where he had remained frozen but then thawed due to global warming in 2008 and had roamed down to Canada where the elephant herd had gone to the Toronto zoo to visit a relative there. The wooly mammoth then asked since he had learnt from the other elephants that he was the last of his kind...if he could join their herd? The leader of the herd a blue elephant called Akash said then that yes indeed he could join them and the wooly mammoth was very excited and grateful and has been with the herd since then! He was particularly aggrieved when he learnt of the passing of Tessa at the Toronto zoo the following year! As she was the first elephant he had spoken to when he had gotten to the Toronto zoo! We at the Production House had heard of her passing through the Purple Elephant who had left for Toronto when he heard the news together with the Little Mouse! And we had sent our condolences to all at the zoo but in particular to the relative of the Purple Elephant's herd who lived there.

So anyway as the Purple Elephant continued to talk about his relatives and the elephant herd approached all the animals (Purple Elephant included since he talked but also worked)scrubbed and cleaned and casted reinforcements to the Production Houses' foundation.

And so Day 10 of the Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse came to an end with the animals scrubbing and cementing well into dusk...

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 11:11 DEC 2010

The elephant herd was almost upon the Production House oh dear me! Loud and large orchestras of animal trumpeting could be heard in the nearby with the accompaniment of heavy 'footsteps' thumping forward! The owner of the Production House looked at bit nervous but the Little Mouse reassured her that the foundations were strong this year....the monkeys had really given their all in that respect and she needn't worry! :) And the noises got closer and closer until finally!...

The elephants arrived!

A bigger portion of the herd had come to visit the Purple Elephant this year but you could see the owner of the Production House relax as the foundations seem to hold up! In fact after she relaxed a bit more she grabbed one of the monkeys and kissed them on the head! For really it couldn't have been done without the full corporation of the monkeys!

But enough of the monkeys everyone wanted to hear about the elephants! There were really in all the different colours, shapes and sizes! The wooly mammoth was indeed with them but was very, very hard to recognise as he stood there next to Akash at the head of the herd...you see they had shaved his fur off because he was coming to the tropics and so my friends the wooly mammoth had succeeded where the Canadian bears had failed! In fact you could see the Canadian bears mumbling and whispering under their breaths about you see how they had wanted to do the same thing and they were stopped by the Winnie the Pooh related bears! But then the Purple Elephant explained to the Canadian bears that it was a different case. You see elephants have non-hairy skins...and so because the wooly mammoth is suppose to be officially extinct he had to adapt significantly to continue to remain alive now that he thawed. So he had to try to be like the other elephants in this case. Also his wooly fur was much thicker and longer originally than their bear coats were!

So in the end all were happy...humans, monkeys, bears, elephants and well the little mouse but of course there still remained the matter of the cats...but at least for a while as Day 11 of the Christmas tales of the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse came to an end all of the Production House was at peace for a while as they gathered around and sang along to this john denver song...that they felt suited them all!:)

Advent Calendar 2010:Maria's Pastelles!

One of Maria's lovely and delicious pastelles. You can like Maria's Pastelles on Facebook by clicking here.

As promised during the Advent calendar this year in between The Christmas Adventures of The Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse we will be breaking for a treat or two or well sometimes three! :) So keeping to our promise today the Purple Elephant minus the little mouse talks about a recent visit to a friend of the Production House...Maria! The visit was to hear all about her lovely and delicious pastelles. Why minus the little mouse? Well...you see...the Purple Elephant had to explain to the little mouse at length about the stigma society continues to have about little mice and their presence near food...in terms of the health of humans etc. But the little mouse argued he thought such a stigma was cleared up by now...he knew Mickey Mouse did little for mice everywhere in this regard but of recently there was Ratatouille and in particular the Tale of Despereaux would no doubt have done wonders for removing this stigma! But the Purple Elephant said no...despite there being many clean, well behaved, disease free mice like the little mouse humans still didn't like them near their food. And so it was...so it was...and so the Purple Elephant journeyed off on his own to interview Maria about her lovely and delicious pastelles and here is how it all unfolded!

The beautiful Maria of pastelles fame!

The Purple Elephant did his own version of Q&A on Maria and so from here on in we refer to the Purple Elephant as PE and Maria as well Maria! Also writing in brackets () under Maria's answers are things the Purple Elehant jotted in for explanation or just his thoughts:

PE: So when was the first time you made pastelles?

Maria:I've been cooking with my mother and grandmother since I was allowed to use a knife at age 6...pastelle making is a tradition in our family...we made pastelles at our home and my grandmother's home every November and December. My first memory of making pastelles was probably around age 6. When I moved to my own home in 1995 we moved the pastelle making to my home. The entire family would come over and help to make the two household's pastelles for the season.

PE:And did they come out perfect then or is the product you have today...tried, tested and honed over the years?

Maria: My grandmother's and mother's pastelles were always perfect...the recipe has been handed down and tweaked by myself but I've never had a bad pastelle making experience.

PE: When did you first realise you had something here that was great...like was it you just knew it from your own taste and smell of it...or was it from the response you got from friends and relatives on their tasting it? And when you realised your pastelles were a hit what was your first reaction to this? Or do you remember say the first Christmas when you realised perhaps..."Hmmm...Maria you can really make a mean pastelle girl! :)"

Maria:Friends came to our home our first Christmas in 1995 (in our own house i.e. my husband's and I). And I'd have to send pastelles home with them(as they liked them so much). I also took my pastelles to my husband's family in New York in 1995 and they loved them...they all agreed they were the best they had ever had. They shared them with others there...who said the same. I love pastelles...my family love my pastelles...and if I can say so...they are pretty darn good. I love to cook and feeding people makes me happy so I was so happy that people enjoyed the pastelles. We make pastelles maybe twice a year when the supply runs low...not just for Christmas.

PE: Do you have a secret ingredient?

Maria: It wouldn't be secret anymore if I told you! I believe in using Promasa cornmeal, good fresh seasoning, prime meat (the Purple Elephant does not eat meat and so for that there is soya) and a lot of love! (that the Purple Elephant can handle!)

PE: OK...OK...but then is there one thing that makes your pastelles special...that would make them bear your signature? For example the way you wrap them?

Maria: I've been told by restaurant owners , chefs and family members that my corn is absolutely superb...the texture and flavour is unique and amazing! My husband is the wrapper here...he does a great job of folding them and sealing them.

PE: What was the thing that finally inspired you to take your pastelle making to the next level i.e. move from making it for family and friends into a made to order business-Maria's Pastelles?

Maria: My dream is to own and operate my own restaurant/diner. I have been told so many times that I should market my best skill...cooking! I decided to get into the business of selling my pastelles because I knew we could make a superior product at a very good price and to start building my experience toward my dream. I wanted to share a good thing with others who don't have the time to make them also.

PE: And is Maria's Pastelles just pastelles or do you bake other holiday treats for order? Or can you see yourself doing so in the future?

Maria: Right now I'm just doing the pastelles but I hope to add to my products in the very near future.

PE: Do you have any special kinks in making your pastelles...like one particular place where you get your ingredients...or like their must always be this way or that?

Maria: It's a very exact process for making them and we never deviate from that. Locally grown pimentos are a necessary ingredient...they make a huge difference. And they must be wrapped in banana leaves...the flavour that comes from the leaf and the moisture it keeps in...very necessary.

PE:And before I leave you Maria...other than pastelle making what makes the Christmas holidays or Advent special for you?

Maria: Christmas has always been for us a time for family and enjoying each other. My family business never closed for any period of time other than Christmas...it became a time for us to be together and enjoy the holidays...the food, the decorations, the gifts and just being together. We are also Roman Catholic so for us...the celebration of the birth of Jesus is extremely important to us...reminds us of new beginnings and the importance of the family.


And then the Purple Elephant thanked Maria for giving him such a detailed Q&A session on the thoughts behind the making of her tasty treats! He explained to her about how sad he was to have had to leave behind the little mouse and she was very empathetic about it but explained about how it was with the regulatory bodies and all of that!

The Purple Elephant then tasted a bit of her soya pastelle and trumpeted for they were that good! And they he wished Maria the best of sales for the rest of the year and for many years to come. And again trumpeted as he then proceeded to sing this parang tune by way of trumpets and wished her and her family and friends a Merry Christmas and Bright and Prosperous New Year from all at the Production House but in particular on behalf of the little mouse!

If you need to find out how you can order Maria's tasty pastelles go to her Facebook page and be sure to order before Wed 15 Dec 2010 if you need them for Christmas this year!

Advent Calendar 2010: The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse- Days 8 &9

Darn...we really need to get those monkeys off our backs! LOL! As much as we promised to keep updating here daily we keep slip sliding away! But today you are indeed in for a special treat as we will have two blog posts! One will cover day 8 and day 9 in terms of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse. And there will be an entirely separate one talking about a special Trini Christmas treat!:)
THE CHRISTMAS ADVENTURES OF THE PURPLE ELEPHANT AND THE LITTLE MOUSE

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 8:8 DEC 2010

Now as our story left off on Day 7 we were telling you about the intention of the animals and humans at the Production House to use Satyagraha on the cats who were after the little mouse...

Now the Purple Elephant had pulled down books from the top shelves with his trunk while the little mouse scurried below trying to catch them all. And the owner of the Production House went online pulling down and saving to file relevant documents on Satyagraha. Until some of the books before the animals and humans were as follows :

-The Bhagavad Gita
-The Holy Ramayan
-The Holy Bible: Old and New Testaments
-Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet
-The Upanishads
-The Kalpa Sutras of the Jains

And among some of the websites the owner of the Production House had bookmarked were these:

o http://www.quietspaces.com/satyagraha.html
o http://www.satyagraha.org.za/current/

However the animals and humans refrained from using Wikipedia in their research because they got fed up of seeing the image of its founder Jimmy Wales begging for donations and really no one in the house earned cash except for the owner of the Production House and the guy who worked the UCP desk but then he was paid by the owner. So really only one bread winner and so many mouths to feed and they felt it wrong to just go to the site too you know especially when researching such a topic like satyagraha as it made them feel so guilty somehow…and Jimmy Wales looked even cuter in a begging sort of way than the Winnie the Pooh related bears when begging for his pennies so…they refrained.

Now as the animals explored Satyagraha and how to use it on the cats they realised it was indeed going to be a lot of work and for sure they would need all the animals in the house to pull together...so they first needed to contrive how to enlist the help and support of the twenty odd monkeys of the house! They knew they'd be unruly and perhaps they'd even have to use Satyagraha on the monkeys first to get them to cooperate let alone use it on the cats!

So they called in the monkeys one by one or in pairs if they had coupled monkeys...and asked them if they were willing to cooperate and be part of the Satyagraha on the cats...they explained how the Satyagrahi should behave...and really it all went something like this...as the Purple Elephant and other animals and humans in the room took turns talking to each monkey or pair of monkeys:

"As a satyagrahi monkey/s we will expect you to stand for the truth...infact follow your famous Buddhist monkey friends and say no evil, see no evil and speak no evil! Then monkeys you must commit to the satyagraha such that if you are not happy with the Purple Elephant, the little mouse or any of the animals or humans here whose mission you follow you will bring it to this sangam (confluence/meeting) and it should be honestly and openly addressed here. We must our monkey friends commit to the same cause. We must first be satyagrahi(s) onto ourselves before we try to apply the principles of satyagraha with the cats..." And so the speeches went on and on...till one or two monkeys fell asleep but they quickly pulled themselves out of it and apologised for their nodding off with immediate effect!

And stories aside on this Day 8 of our calendar of stories we recall this famous speech given by the apostle and inventor of Satyagraha himself...Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi aka Gandhi Ji aka the Mahatma or simply the Great One!



ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 9:9 DEC 2010

The speeches and briefing of the monkeys continued for two days such that on Day 9 of the Advent Calendar it was still going on. Then finally the Purple Elephant got up from his desk and said:

"Hey guys it's almost been two days enough of these peanuts I need some fresh grass and air! Besides I think I hear steps of an elephant herd on the move and so I suspect some of my elephant relatives must again be visiting us this year!"

The little mouse looked a bit scared and the owner of the Production House started to pull a bit on her head of hair...because they both recalled what happened last year to the house when the elephants came! OMG!

The Purple Elephant seemed to sense this and gave the little mouse a glaring look and then rushed outside to graze in the cool tropical December fresh air. He always likes it this time of year as it's not cold but not hot...just cool...

Whilst the Purple Elephant was out ....the others in the room quickly convened and whispered to themselves that the plan of using satyagraha on the cats would have to be on a hold for a while. Since if the elephants were coming there would be much work to do...much! As last year the house's foundation started to crack when they neared...never mind they stayed outside the house and grazed as the house is only retrofitted enough to allow for one Purple Elephant and not a herd of elephants! But all the same their stampeding still rocked the house...literally!

So they quickly hatched a plan of how to:

1. Prepare for the arrival of the elephant herd.
2. Tell the Purple Elephant what they were up to without hurting his feelings whilst at the same time not being bad satyagrahi(s) themselves...i.e. they could not violate the rule of 'sat' truth!

Anyway the little mouse said he'd handle the Purple Elephant's feelings...and so it was planned that for the next two days while the elephant herd was on the move and nearing the Production House everyone would help plaster additional building blocks and erect certain strategic props such that the house would not shake on their arrival!

And so it was the ninth day of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse ended...

Advent Calendar 2010: 2,3,4,5,6 and 7 Dec 2010

We're sorry for not updating our Advent Calendar on time after unveiling it but we plan to keep it daily from here on in and to make up for the lost days today by doing a post today that has six stories one for each day!

As we promised at the unveiling...yes from time to time we will talk about something we like to eat or some extra special treat...but generally inspired by our nanowrimo experience and the fun we had at the Production House last year with all the animals staying over and the three wise men and the birth of a baby boy...this year we will mostly post stories about the Christmas adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse as daily installations on our Advent Calendar 2010! So let's begin our six stories for today-one for today and one for each day we've missed!


THE CHRISTMAS ADVENTURES OF THE PURPLE ELEPHANT AND THE LITTLE MOUSE!

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 2: 2 DEC 2010

The Purple Elephant was a bit anxious today as he hadn't a clue where the little mouse had disappeared to and he was for some reason worried. You see this Christmas there seems to be quite a proliferation of cats in town...some say they were caught and let loose from another town. So the Purple Elephant has been warning the little mouse not to go out to town alone because in addition to all the people who get scared when they see the little mouse in the market so much so that he has to hide behind the Purple Elephant's big ears well now there are cats! But does the little mouse ever listen to his big purple friend? Well if he does it's less times than more! And so the Purple Elephant had been searching far and wide for the little mouse. He even went in to ask the monkeys who same as last Christmas were watching DVDs in the entertainment room all piled in a hoard of them...twenty odd or so...and guess what DVD they had on? Well no wonder the Purple Elephant's big ears began to flap and his little tail twitch because it was 'Tom and Jerry Special-The Night Before Christmas'! OMG! The Purple Elephant just ran out of there making the whole house shake until he got to the front door and was about to trumpet when he saw the little mouse walking with a bunch of bananas for the monkeys followed by the owner of the Production House with two bags of things from the market in her hands!

The Purple Elephant was never happier to see his little friend than then! He didn't scold him as after all he didn't go out alone but with the owner and lady of the house and he couldn't meddle there! But he was so glad to see him, he started to tickle him with his trunk and the little mouse then slid up his trunk and perched where he normally is… behind his ears.

Then the Purple Elephant complained about those monkeys for being so riot filled in the house...piled up in there all day watching DVDs...but then the little mouse slid down from his ears down his trunk on to the floor before him and gave a long soliloquy about the spirit of Christmas that made him sound a bit like Linus out of the Charlie Brown Christmas special. The speech went something like this:

"My Purple Elephant listen to this message from the little mouse. It is the spirit of Christmas to be giving to all. The monkeys are our friends and part of the animal kingdom. Monkeys will monkeys be and you see as part of the Christmas spirit of giving and sharing we've even gone out to the market to buy them bananas you see. But my purple elephantine friend we've not forgotten you either! For here a bag of peanuts for thee!" the little mouse tossed the peanuts up for the Purple Elephant to catch in his trunk and then he curtsied!

And the owner of the Production House applauded and to that the Purple Elephant then trumpeted and the monkeys actually lo and behold came out to see! They apologized for scaring the Purple Elephant by putting 'The Tom and Jerry Christmas Special-The Night Before Christmas' into the DVD player when he came in. And all forgave them for they said monkeys will be monkeys you see!

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 3: 3 DEC 2010

The cats continued to be in town and the Purple Elephant continued to be worry about the little mouse. So much so that he took to dialing up a dog security firm to protect the little mouse. The monkeys couldn't help but be cheeky and although they had promised not to taunt and tease the Purple Elephant again they went and cue up this Tom and Jerry episode where Jerry gets a dog to protect him from Tom if only for a little while! :)

It was then and there that the Purple Elephant said Christmas or not the monkeys needed to earn their keep around the house and so it would from now on be up to them to protect the little mouse...no dog security firm necessary! Also he reminded the monkeys of how they had reformed for Christmas last year and should recall this and try to again be on best behaviour. Additionally as it was quite a hoard of them not all were needed to guard the little mouse and the others should start building extensions to the production house. After all going from last year's expectancy three not so wise men might show up and that lady could very well be back with her male companion to a baby make. But for sure the bears would be coming they had already sent word via e-mail!

So ten monkeys were put to work on construction and ten were put to take shifts guarding the little mouse. The remaining odd few were to help with odds and ends around the house like cleaning up after all the monkeys and buying bananas for them. Now monkeys… the Purple Elephant explained to them are said to be very smart among the animals in the animal kingdom and if they were to hone their talents and try not to engage in delinquent ways they could for sure devise brilliant ways to protect the little mouse even if the monkeys could not physically fight off the cats. Also they could develop monitoring and tracking devices to keep up with where the little mouse was. After all monkeys were smarter than the average bear!

So the monkeys all lined up with bent heads and listened and amazingly went to work right away obeying the Purple Elephant...well at least for now...

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 4: 4 DEC 2010

As we said yesterday the monkeys were listening to the Purple Elephant but...yep as you might expect the monkeys being monkeys by nature started a set of mayhem as soon as the Purple Elephant had gone to the airport to pick up two bears from the Ashdown Forest in Sussex, England. These bears were distant relatives of the famous Winnie the Pooh and often like Pooh did not know what to do. So the Purple Elephant had a hard time tracking them down in the airport but finally got them on his back and brought them to the Production House. But when the poor Purple Elephant thought he was about to see the new extension completed for the two bears to sleep well... oh bother! What you think? The ten monkeys working on construction for the extension to the house had all gotten into a big gigantic pillow fight with each other! There were down feathers everywhere! And where were the one or two odd monkeys who were there to clean up after all the monkeys? Well oh well...what again do you think? They had felt that there wasn't enough work for them earlier (when all the monkeys were on best behaviour) and so had made some banana splits for themselves and had locked themselves back up in the entertainment room and were looking at this DVD of one of the classic and favourite Christmas movies of all times where a house was being up heaved as well but for other reasons...‘Home Alone’:



And having seen that DVD on the Purple Elephant realized it was best he from now on never leave the monkeys home alone!

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 5:5 DEC 2010

Now the Purple Elephant made the monkeys clean up things and get back to work...he even had the other ten who were in charge of guarding the little mouse come and help since the little mouse was safe at home. This way the extensions were eventually completed such that the two bears could have their own room. However it left another dilemma...none of the pillows in the Production House had any down in them now! So the poor Purple Elephant had to set off to get some from the birds. The birds gave them some but not enough for all the pillows and when the Purple Elephant inquired as to why this was the case he was told because the ducks were on strike and so the volume of down being produced was reduced. From there he went to the bees to get some honey for the bears and luckily so far this year they weren't on strike!

When the Purple Elephant came back to the house the monkeys again had a dawning of enlightenment and were heads bent low. They came up to the Purple Elephant fidgeting and said that they had heard of the duck strike and figured as much… that the Purple Elephant would not get enough down for all the pillows so that the monkeys would be willing to first of all re-stuff all the pillows...well as much as they could with the down that was got. And they would then forfeit sleeping with pillows since monkeys didn't need them as such anyway as they slept in all sorts of contortionist's positions hanging from a tail here and there!

The Purple Elephant was very proud of the monkeys of the house and for their regret, gratitude, seva (service to fellow man or animal as you have it) well he just trumpeted and he and the little mouse made every monkey in the house a banana split while the bears had some honey and said cheerio!

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 6: 6 DEC 2010

The monkeys were really earning their keep now and the house extensions were all complete. And they had moved on to building a crèche outside in case the lady were to show up again this year although really if she did there would be plenty of room inside but then if she came with a donkey he might wish to stay out in the crèche and feed on some hay. Two other bears had also arrived …Canadian Black Bears. They kept complaining about the tropical heat and one started to wonder if they were about to replace the monkeys with mischievous behaviour when they tried to shave all their fur off to beat the heat! The Winnie the Pooh related bears had to stop them and said that they too were from a place not this warm and they weren't complaining or looking to shave off all their fur! Luckily after that talking to between all four bears…good sense prevailed and the Canadian Black Bears began to acclimatize.

But as is known the Production House always has some drama or the other and it normally peaks at Christmas time so if it's not one thing it's the other! The monkeys set up to guard the little mouse had invented a contraption that would send off an alarm if the cats had come within a two metres perimeter of the little mouse however it blew up! And sadly two of the monkeys got injured! Now all the animals were very, very sad and as such they all took turns taking care of these little two injured monkeys. It was surprising here to see how caring the Canadian Black Bears turned out as neither left the side of the monkeys and they used their Canadian health care plan to have medicines shipped to administer to the monkeys.

Luckily the monkeys were on the mend...

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 7: 7 DEC 2010

After the incident with the two monkeys being injured the Purple Elephant, the little mouse, the owner of the Production House and a few of the guys in the Production House who write from the desk of UCP…Meady's Musings sister blog agreed and hatched a plan that instead of trying to ward off or combat the cats from attacking the little mouse...i.e. fighting violence with violence or counter violence...they'd try out the Gandhian principle of satyagraha on the cats!

So off they went to the library to study and research the principles and then the ten monkeys were called in to see how this satyagraha business could be strategized and implemented in the battle of the cats against the little mouse!

Stay tuned for Day 8 of the Advent calendar...tomorrow Wed 8 Dec 2010 when you will find out how this plan of satyagraha fared!

The Grand Opening of Meady's Musings Advent Calendar 2010!

Nanowrimo is done and we are pleased to say we were declared a winner (look to the left for our banner) and have come out of the process with some very key and critical learnings about the writing process, procastination, self discipline and how writing can be done effectively and not so effectively but still the words be done! You see Nanorwrimo is about getting the word out...sure you might have a heck of a task editing after but it sure does get the word out but more so your creative juices get kicked out of you! We were so glad that with the kick we were able to cough up a cast of lovely characters-one of them this gorgeous little four year old girl on whose dress we got a grip of and flew to a parallel world with. You will be sure to hear more from her when we're done with the book and be sure that some of the topics in the book are normally discussed on Tumultuous Thursdays and vice versa! Also the book might even turn into a set of chronicles now since our creative juices are so flowing! So thank you Nanwrimo for giving us the big kick we needed to let her (the four year old in my book) come forth!

But guess what as nanowrimo is through guess what we have to do?

Well open the Advent calendar of course! Now the seamstress is a bit slow and she promises us she is working on lovely new clothes for the animals this year but for now they have donned last year's things because they are so lovely still and they know that the lovely seamstress will be done soon and make them even more aglow!

Brother Greg couldn't come to say an opening prayer over on UCP so we will say one of our own and declare the Advent calendar open there too. But we are sad to say that this year we will not be opening the calendar on the Books and Films Corner...

Here is how our Advent calendars will run this year. We will instead this year run it as a real bonafide Advent calendar in that is will start today 1 Dec 2010 and end on Christmas Day! And it will run only on Meady's Musings and UCP as follows:

-Meady's Musings

As we have so been inspired by Nanowrimo to stories and stories, write and write and last year we really did have fun telling Christmas stories in a sense when we had the monkeys over and this and that...so this year each day we will feature a story about the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse and how they are preparing for Christmas. In the stories they may talk about specific things they like to use, eat, cook, read, watch or listen to but it will always be a story about them and what they are up to and whoever chooses to drop by the production house. And as last year I suspect they will have many guests!:)And who knows at the end of it we may even compile their adventures into a little e-book for you to have a constant continuous look! :)

-UCP:Universal Collective Prayer

We will keep it true to the name of the blog and explore the spiritual themes and meaning of the Advent each day on UCP's Advent calendar. Of course expect too to see Christmas Carols...good ole John Denver and all the angels and earthlings you love to join in UCP with during the Advent and all year through! And of course expect Brother Greg to join us for a special prayer on Christmas Eve night! :)

Now we ordered our lego calendar last minute so we don't have it delivered as yet...you can sure grab one last minute if you like too at Amazon as it sounds so exciting to build a Lego a day until you get to Christmas day!


And we also can't wait to get our copy of the deluxe edition dvd Peanut's Holiday Collection


So on that note...here's a tune from one of those classics!


But that Charlie Brown can be so depressing...come to think of it he ranks right up there with Melvin the depressed robot from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh! We know how it is as this feeling down thing happens to lots of us around the production house and sometimes more so at Christmas time. But hey you gotta cheer up too so here is a funner tune bringing in the Advent too!

Slumbering Saturdays: Gearing Up for Nanowrimo 2010!

We're sorry for not posting any blogs on Maniac Mondays, Tumultuous Thursdays or even Funtastic Fridays this week but the Production House has just been a beehive of activity! Everyone's been swamped with their day jobs (which are needed to bring in much needed cash to buy honey and bread) and with Diwali activities...just check out UCP! So to make up for that we bring you a Slumbering Saturdays post today! Of course the house will be even more a buzz next week because some of us are going to be doing the Nanowrimo challenge for 2010! I think the cartoon says it all though! :)

So on Mon 1st Nov 2010...Nanowrimo 2010 here we come! :)

Funtastic Fridays: Auras Rising!

Today on Funtastic Fridays we decided to take a break from all the talk about writing, writers and novels, and dabble into some fun of a Metaphysics kind! Many or you readers must have heard of or read of auras before...but even though it's a Friday of fun let's get the definitions clear...after all there is no work without play and so if we flip it around play can be funner if it involves and challenges the mind at times too no? Hey it must be...after all why is sudoku and other puzzle games so famously fun then?

So let's have our own kinda metaphysical puzzle fun here today on Funtastic Fridays...

According to Wikipedia an aura can be defined as follows:

Aura: "In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object (like the halo or aureola in religious art). The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. Sometimes, however, all people, or all living things, or all objects whatsoever are said to manifest such an aura. Often it is held to be perceptible, whether spontaneously or with practice: such perception is at times linked with the third eye of Indian spirituality.[1][2] Various writers associate various personality traits with the colors of different layers of the aura.[3][4][5]

Skeptics such as Robert Todd Carroll contend that auras may be seen for reasons such as migraines, synesthesia,[6] epilepsy, a disorder within the visual system, a disorder within the brain, or due to the influence of psychedelic drugs such as LSD.[7][8] Eye fatigue can also produce an aura, sometimes referred to as eye burn."

Now let's say two people of auras of very high intensity of light meet...and well if auras are light well then according to Physics they will have some wave properties and as you study Physics at higher levels such that you bypass Newton and get to Einstein well then you have to deal with wave-particle duality but let's just stick with good ole apple falling on our heads Newtonian Physics then! :) So let's say auras are light and so then they are waves...

So if two beings with high intensity auras were to meet well if their auras were to collide that would be one very bright light! :) Wouldn't it? And wouldn't that be exciting...a meeting of auras...a meeting of minds...such that two very bright auras got even brighter...wow northern lights watch out for that natural fireworks display! :)

So let's look at it as wave theory for some puzzle fun...you see if the two auras meet to do positive i.e. for a greater good it can be seen that they meet as waves interfering in a constructive manner as oppose to a destructive manner...and the Physics of it goes well like as described on this site...

"Let us now consider two waves A and B, such that A moves to the right, and B will move to the left. At any point, the displacement is the sum of the separate displacements due to each wave. This is called the principle of superposition.

Observe what happens as the two waves move towards each other. Note that the maximum displacement of a particle in the medium is the sum of the amplitudes of the waves. If the displacement is in the same direction, as is the case here, we have a superposition called CONSTRUCTIVE INTERFERENCE."

"Consider a special case where two waves have the same amplitude and wavelength (you only see one because the one obscures the other) travelling at the same speed from left to right. The two waves are in phase, since their maxima and minima coincide exactly. The resulting wave is simply one with the same wavelength but double the amplitude:


So you get...that if two big large bright silver auras collide we'd get one big gigantic silver aura of good! :)

And according to those who claim to see, read and analyse auras like on this site...silver auras mean:

SILVER:This is the color of abundance, both spiritual and physical. Lots of bright silver can reflect to plenty of money, and/or awakening of the cosmic mind.

Often when you see a silver aura it is hard to distinguish if you are not also seeing a lot of white...so here is what white auras means as well...

WHITE:Reflects other energy. A pure state of light. Often represents a new, not yet designated energy in the aura. Spiritual, etheric and non-physical qualities, transcendent, higher dimensions. Purity and truth; angelic qualities.

White sparkles or flashes of white light: angels are nearby; can indicate that the person is pregnant or will be soon.

So sounds good huh?! :)

Maniac Mondays: Doing the Nanowrimo Thing Again!

Yep we're back to talking about writing here again on Meady's Musings...the blog action is over and done...we've had our water and cleaning fun and all animals are safe, clean and dry within the house again. Some are tucked into bed...some are watching DVD after DVD in the den while others like the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse included have made it back to the library to get back pen to paper or paw to laptop!

So as readers would know some members of the Meady's Musings Production House are writing a novel...in fact one such member is the leader of the Production House herself and as crazy monkey madness as it might be she's decided to give Nanowrimo a whirl again this year! She sort of signed up for Nanowrimo in 2006 but it was more for the fun of the experience then...she had donated on behalf of the production house, bought the T-shirt and the cool poster but didn't really write much...as really 50,000 words all in the month of November...November Nonsense! But she's decided to be as mad as a March hare...crazy monkey mad and try again this year!

You know why? Cause the monkeys convinced her no doubt! LOL! But nope it's not that...it's cause Nanowrimo might just be the kick start she needs to get those words coming! If she makes the 50,000 words or not that we'll all follow and see!

In the mean time check out Nanowrimo which is a competition held every year in November where writers try to churn out 50,000 words all in the month of November...the prize being...simply meeting your goal or achieving the milestone at the end...and who knows bragging rights for your blog?

Anyway it's not quite November yet so the official word count is yet to begin so in the mean time you can catch us sharing peanuts between the Purple Elephant and the monkeys...not sure if blogging on here will count in the word count or if it must be on a specific writing project but we'll see in November...until then look for our Tumultuous Thursdays posting and remember our Funtastic Fridays blog was completed since last week but held for publishing to this week...so make sure and catch it this Friday!

Blog Action Day 2010-Water for All and Global Handwashing Day!

Copyright Meady's Musings Production 2010

OMG! It's finally here...Blog Action Day 2010 and Global Handwashing Day! But if you look above you'll see the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse have been at it cleaning a while now...you see we at the production house luckily have water but not everyone is so lucky and it's what this Blog Action Day 2010 is about!

However we have a bit of another kinda housekeeping to do before we blog on about it! The Purple Elephant and Little Mouse are all a cleaning today courtesy a member of the production house that doesn't exactly live in the house but comes over ever so often to decorate things! It's the lovely Adriana Ochoa ladies and gentlemen! Thank you again so much Adri for your always fantastic and fantabulous artwork! OMG!And such a Mexican diva you are! Just look at mi elephante morado y mi ratoncito! Aawww...so hardworking are those two! :) Also there will be no Funtastic Fridays posting today although we are still having some fun with a message today but just in a different format on Blog Action Day 2010! But look for Funtastic Fridays next week as we already had a treat prepared but opted to publish this blog instead...so here it goes...

Water!

Everyone needs it to live...the human body is roughly 60% water and ideally we should drink 8 glasses a day...roughly 64 ounces...but the truth is most people can't get that much to drink in many parts of the world...and if they are lucky to even get one glass well they aren't always lucky enough that it is safe for drinking...i.e. free of waterborne diseases! Aaaw and that statement just made my purple elephant's ears droop! :(

The catch too is that disease can also spread not just in water but due to a lack of water and also soap! As many diseases are spread when germs get from one person to another who has not washed their hands properly and to do that you need soap and water! Unfortunately many people have neither!

Which is why we here at the production house are so proud of the Clean the World people for getting soap to the world and celebrated their niceness on Monday last. We hope they continue the good work...and there is always a need so keep those bars coming as they are six million bars and counting! And as a result we are joining with them today to mark Global Handwashing Day!

However the problem of water still remains adrift on the sea of need...last year we here at Meady's Musings blogged quite a bit about water for Blog Action Day 2009 as it was about Climate Change but we figured they were interconnected issues...and we have also explored the fact that water is such a great need that some religions and people of the world have chosen to deify and worship it! Check out our sister blog UCP's posting on the God series about God as Water!

So how we resolve the issue of water though?

Well for starters sign the Blog Action Day 2010 petition that appears on the top left of our screen which lends a positive voice to the UN's work to bring clean, safe water to millions.

Then...well it gets harder but here are a few suggestions from the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse who are all serious now but still having fun cleaning...but they aren't wasting water at all...you see how they are using buckets and not hoses...so there!

But here is the list seriously now of a few charities involved in getting water to the world!

Clean Water for Haiti

Project Clean Water's Give a Drop

The Water Project: Clean Water to Africa and India

Give Water, Give Life

Tumultuous Thursdays: Getting into Character

We slip back into the library for today until we head back out again tomorrow for Blog Action Day 2010. And as we sit here those characters are in our head again as this week on Tumultuous Thursdays we continue our Writing series (producing the blog we should have last Thursday when we ended up slipping down that rabbit hole for too long and never came back in time to write it) So here it is this week...
So recall first of all our cartoon from that Funtastic Fridays posting...



Now recently J.K. Rowling aka Jo shared this on Oprah:
"At age 25, Jo was riding on a delayed train from Manchester to London when one single idea flashed into her mind: Boy doesn't know he's a wizard, goes to wizard school. After that, Jo says her mind was flooded with ideas for Harry Potter.
"I don't think I had ever felt so excited. I thought, 'I'd love to write that,'" she says. "I'd never thought about writing for children—I'd never thought about aiming anything at that age group. And yet it was the thing that I was meant to write."
"
And the lady who wrote the Twilight series, Stephenie Meyer says this about her inspiration to write on the bio of her official website:
"woke up from a dream featuring seemingly real characters that she could not get out of her head.
"Though I had a million things to do, I stayed in bed, thinking about the dream. Unwillingly, I eventually got up and did the immediate necessities, and then put everything that I possibly could on the back burner and sat down at the computer to write—something I hadn't done in so long that I wondered why I was bothering." "

So it's making us here at the Meady's Musings Production House wonder if could it be that this post is very fittingly written on a Tumultuous Thursdays slot? Because could it be that these characters in the heads of these others are really people and beings in parallel worlds trying to make a connection here with our world through the hands and minds of our authors? Could it be?...

So our authors here on earth in this world are merely like mediums they are just the vessel...the conduit through which the message comes...well that's not so farfetched a thought as many authors officially write as mediums...they tell you up front they are 'channelling'...and then of course there is the concept of the muse...so maybe it's a combination or a bit of this and a bit of that...

So maybe it's not one thing but perhaps at least three! Either one or the other or a combination of the three as below that makes writers write!:

1. Mediums: authors who really are just challenging some being's thoughts through their pens...or typing fingers!

2. Semi-Mediums: authors who get these thoughts or flashes or ideas or characters popping into their heads but still are very much in control of their own thoughts when they have them...and then combine their thoughts or are just inspired by the one off flashing idea or thought to put forward their thoughts as stories.

3. Muses: Celestial or spiritual beings or animals or things that just come before authors and enable them to write. Their very presence or passing through the author’s however momentarily enables the author to write. And we here at Meady’s Musings Production House have our share of those we will tell you so! Apart from the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse that lives with us...there is the little manicou that started it all...and he doesn’t live with us...as one can really never entrap a muse...it is a free flowing being that comes and goes as it pleases...so he sometimes comes to the production house but doesn’t not live with us like the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse as they aren’t exactly muses but our animal characters that more represent the spirit of the house...our mascots or logo so to speak...different from our manicou muse!

Now as to whether these beings come from parallel worlds well it could be quite true you know...well look at how many authors even write of parallel worlds in a way...Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland....C.S. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles...and even in Harry Potter they go off into this parallel world no? So it must be true...it must be true we think!

So what are the characters in your head? Come on...you can tell us...can’t you?

Maniac Mondays: Let's Clean the World!

Photo courtesy the Clean the World website

The Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse have stepped away from their writing desks and come out of the library as today on Meady’s Musings we take a break from our writing themes as we join tails, whiskers, trunks and hands with a worthy cause! However before we go on about the cause let’s first apologize for missing last week’s Tumultuous Thursdays post but we had slipped down a rabbit hole and couldn’t return in time to write. So this coming Thursday for sure you will hear about those ‘characters in our heads’ as we continue our series on writing! But for now on with the cause…

Since the head of our Production House was off on vacation in Shanghai earlier this year she had emailed the production house to let the entire house know that when she was back we would be sure to do a post about this marvelous charity she had found out about but we’ve not put paw to keypad or trunk to pen since! She had stumbled across this charity while searching online travelling sites to find fun and interesting things and places in Shanghai…and here is what our lovely leader found…

SOAP!

Yes readers…SOAP…lots and lots of it! For years our leader and others at the production house had often ourselves wondered what to do with the little bits of soap that remain before the bar is all done…many of us tried to use it right down to the end…but so many of use don’t and what about all that extra soap and shampoo at hotels? It’s why these people could be found advertising on travel sites because hotels must be the biggest source….after all many guests don’t stay to use the bars to the end and well most guests won’t continue to use old bars…no siry they want new ones…so what can a hotel do with all the extra left over used soap and shampoo?

Well send it to these people if they don’t already!

The lovely people at CLEAN THE WORLD!

Six Million bars and counting! :)

And already all these hotels as listed on this linked page are Participating Partners with Clean the World.

Clean the World and their Participating Partners make us here at the Meady’s Musings Production House so happy!

And we here at the Production House are going to be stepping away from our writing desks this Friday as well to join other bloggers to celebrate Blog Action Day 2010! And guess what we are talking about...water…getting water to all the world over…aah and you know what they say about soap and water …so it’s quite fitting that those guys at Clean The World are also celebrating Global Handwashing Day on Fri 15 Oct 2010 as well! Aah…anyone for a bath?! The purple elephant is washing...he already has his scrubby thingy in his trunk!

But the reality is that many in the world don’t have clean and safe supplies of water nor enough soap! And if they did it could help reduce the risk of many a disease!

So get those pens out or fingers to keyboard and sign those petitions, send those emails, blog on! As we gear up to celebrate Blog Action Day and Global Handwashing Day to get water and soap to all the people of the world! The Purple Elephant already has his spongy thingy in his trunk as I told you and the little mouse is gathering all his old rags and buckets to collect water...as we hear the news that the UK Foreign Office and the White House also plan to join in on Fri...HURRAY...WATER FOR THE WORLD! :)

Maniac Mondays: On Writing and Location

As promised in our Funtastic Fridays post today we plan to explore the impact that the location at which you're at has on your ability to write.

Members of the production house themselves have been considering the pros and cons of it and here are some of their thoughts...

First of all location can affect our writing ability in two ways and so we shall analyze it as such:

1. A location's ability to inspire us to write. (Sometimes the location also ends up in the story as a result.)
2. A location's ability to enable us to write or not write i.e. based on it's comfort, noise level etc. (this can be summarised as a writer's workspace)

Of course often a location can serve both purposes as well...but for now let's look at point one first...

LOCATIONS THAT INSPIRE WRITERS

A. A. Milne himself had his enchanted place that the head of our production house herself visited earlier this year...see picture below....



And the place not only inspired him to write but it also appeared as the Enchanted Place in his literary works about that silly ole bear called Winnie the Pooh!

It must be true that awesome sights and sounds of nature can inspire writers...especially the ones who are writing about nature or animals in children books say...surely it was the significant time that Kenneth Grahame spent in the English countryside that enabled and inspired him to write about a toad, a river mouse, a mole and a badger! :) And it would have been that same countryside that inspired the stories that Richard Adams told to his children which became Watership Down! (and at the mention of that book several members of the production house screw up their faces after having to labour through its study in high school...can't say it's a fav here at the production house but certainly The Wind in the Willows and Winnie the Pooh are!)


LOCATION AS IN A WRITER'S WORKSPACE


Now everyone is not the same (just recall this blogpost that we keep having to draw reference to time and time again)...we are all unique and here for a unique purpose! So in the same way each writer is different and writers aren't all writing in the same genre. So one writer might be able to write comfortably on a train while one might need a comfy desk...one might be fine writing on a beach while one may prefer to be in a log cabin in the Canadian Rockies...some can write at home while others need to be away in a separate space...away from everyday distractions...

So here's a look at the writing spaces of some popular artists as it appears in a Guardian series called Writer's rooms.


But just remember in the end the most important space or location is the one in your head or that virtual space that you visualize where your novel pans out...where your characters meet in your head! Just remember that J.K. Rowling made do with writing her novel where ever she could afford to...because in the end what's important is...them...the characters...in your head like zombies! LOL! It's why they will form part of our Tumultuous Thursdays blogpost later this week...look for it...as we plan to combine two blogs into one in a way...we will still keep metaphysics in mind yet talk about writing...you can't miss it! :) But in the meantime those characters are getting into you head...ZOMBIE! "Oh no...I'm not the same as I was when I woke up this morning" (and that just reminds us so much of something Alice said while in Wonderland! LOL!)So we leave you to it until Thursday...ZOMBIE!

Funtastic Fridays: I'm Writing a Book and Getting Into Character!

We're sorry for this late edition of Funtastic Fridays (back dated and really done on a Sunday) and that we've not posted anything else on Meady's Musings for the week. We've been thinking, researching, travelling about a bit (perhaps looking for ideal writing locations) and as a whole wondering about two main things:

1. the location from where writers write

2. the ability of writers to become the characters which they write about while they are going through the writing process!

Our Maniac Mondays and Tumultuous Thursdays blog posts this coming week will cover our thoughts and experiences on these two topics but until then we thought we'd lead up to it with these two hopefully at least slightly funny cartoons you see above! Which we did using the Hasta Milan website:)

Maniac Mondays: On Reading and Writing

Copyright Meady's Musings Production 2009

The animals are all excited at the Meady’s Musings Production House. The Purple Elephant is using his giant trunk to pull books down from the highest shelves while the little mouse is scurrying around picking up the ones that his sometimes clumsy trunk may drop...but luckily so far...no injuries!

You see we’ve decided to write an experimental novel here at Meady’s Musings and allow our readers to join in the process. Perhaps you can even drop by the Deliciously Divine cafe! We know it's been open in the past but it was closed for renovations and has re-opened once more! :)

Now most great writers will tell you they are also avid readers though...and so we’ve been following suit and pulling down the books to peruse...but we’re just passionate readers anyway and to be honest sometimes when we write not a word we instead read many! But seriously, we doubt you’ll find many writers who aren’t also readers and so today on Meady’s Musings as we start the experimental writing process we share with you our top ten fav reads ever! We may have shared them somewhere or the other before...perhaps when we had our Books and Films Corner blog active (which by the way may become active again for our 2010 Advent calendar so it's not altogether dead) but here are those books again!

-Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
-Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vickram Chandra
-Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
-The Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis
-The Road Less Travelled by M.Scott Peck
-Joy: The Happiness that Comes from Within by OSHO
-From Sex to Superconsciousness by OSHO (aka Sex Matters...the truth is you can just check out the whole OSHO library in a virutal way here and save some of those trees!)
-By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho
-The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
-The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho

Also you might want to check out this book on Amazon where famous writers talk about their favourite reads!


We've also asked several of our monkey friends to come over who hadn't visited since Christmas as their prehensile tails (you know we've always wanted one btw) can come in handy to move those books around! :)

And guess what most and foremost we've taken out the Meady's Musings reading and writing bears if you look above! :)

Dreams and Dreaming Series: Creative Visualizations and What 's Next at the Meady's Musings Production House

A man sits during a break from his work admist the bustle that is Shanghai's main Financial Centre...in a small park...meditating...it was whatto us here at Meady's Musings something we took away as a hallmark of the city!:) Meady's Musings Production 2010.

Today on Tumultuous Thursdays we bring the Dreams and Dreaming Series to a close at least for now...we hope it was fun and this post will send it off with a bang! We know we never did do any cartoons or Funtastic Fridays postings during the series and so from time to time we may put a cartoon up on a Friday that has the same theme as the series if we feel so inspired to create one...but for now let’s say goodbye to the Dreams and Dreaming series folks!

As promised when we daydreamed on Maniac Mondays we said we’d continue on about Creative Visualizations today on Tumultuous Thursdays. Now what we were saying on Monday is that Creative Visualizations can come about as a result of a form of day dreaming or we can be in a dream like state when have creative visualizations. In fact not only that though some of us can have creative visualizations in our fully asleep dreams as well...just look at how Kekule had dreamt up the benzene ring and remember one of the our dreams over on the UCP desk...here about Shiv?

So for sure in the dream like state we can create...you see here we are free from the restrictions of the ‘real world’ and so our mind feels freer to challenge the status quo, innovate, bend the rules and push the envelopes. So for sure it is a place where the newest and grandest things can be born...

Many of the great achievements of the world must be born in this state...some of us call it meditation but as we were saying on the day dreaming blog post...sometimes day dreaming in its highest state can be meditation...because you see to meditate we don’t have to officially sit in yoga position and close or eyes and all of that...although it is a sure fire and grand way to do it and Shiv is always our friend and the supreme yogi to learn that from if we so desire...but there are many pathways that can bring us to ‘the state’ and it is ‘the state’ that is important not the path that we take to get there. ‘The state’ we refer to is when we think of nothing and our minds are totally blank and then...creation just rushes in and flows through us and what we see then is the ultimate in creative visualizations....

So here at the Meady’s Musings Production House we are going to be very busy and so the blog is going to take a different turn...for the next few weeks we are going to finally use the inspirations we had in the dreams and dreaming series and in particular our day dreaming fest over last weekend (that we blogged about on Monday) and all the things we have pondered on and learnt about over the years and our creative visualizations are going to be bursting forth as we finally start work on our book!

As we are working on it we will give you snippets of it and the process on Mondays and Thursdays and from time to time we will still shoot you a cartoon or some Purple Elephant and Little Mouse fun on a Friday. We will on a Thursday from time to time still get metaphysical so don’t worry you metaphysics fans...the Reincarnation Series is still there to carry forth and we will visit many a Parallel World yet...so in fact we might mostly confine our writing blogs to Mondays and on Thursdays we’ll try as much as possible to keep up with the metaphysics! As aah...it can be so much fun! And will try for some fun on the Friday too OK so do continue to tune in!

Maniac Mondays:Dreams and Dreaming Series-Day Dreaming!:)

So far on the Dreams and Dreaming Series we've only focussed on the kinda dreaming we do when we close or eyes...but what about the kind that we do with our eyes open...day dreaming?!:) In fact that to me is the most beautiful kind of all!:)And if you couple it with the kinda sleeping we like to do on a Slumbering Saturday i.e. like you day dream then you doze off a bit for 'cat nap' or a 'doggy doze'...well it's just oh so sweet!:)It must be so much fun for cats and dogs...but I feel it's even funner for us people folks if it is true that our brains are bigger...although who knows if we are really smarter but if we are with all that extra activity going on in there...boy the fun!:)

So today on Maniac Mondays when let's face it we more feel like the song says... 'It's just another Manic Monday' and who wants to get out of bed at 6 o' clock... and in reality many of us at the Meady's Musings Production House need to get up well before that o' clock...so it's a fitting post isn't it?

So here we go dancing and spinning into it...

When we doze off into the dreaming state it can be oh so lovely...

DAY DREAMING OF NOTHING-THE HIGHEST FORM OF MEDITATION?
First of all day dreaming in it's highest sense is to us here at Meady's Musings when you think well...of nothing really...and this kind of day dreaming can happen well whenever...it has happened to one of us at the Production House here already...we were just standing in a line and waiting and not knowingly we just started to stare at a spot on the floor and twirling the hair we sort of drifted away well into the spot...we don't know how long we were 'there' and had not a clue what we were thinking about so it must have been 'nothing' when we were aroused by it seems someone staring away at us staring away at a spot in the floor...hmmm...perhaps could it be that...that person was day dreaming of us as we day dreamed? Hmmm...it is something we will never know...but what we have since read and heard of is that this kind of thing can be the highest form of meditation...you just slip into a place of thinking of nothing really...now the funniest thing is people who are all into meditation, strive and aspire for this highest form of meditation...when really look at some of us at the Production House...we just twirl our hair away and slip there without even adopting a yoga position even! :) You see we've since experienced and read as well that some do consider the twirling of hair to be a deeply relaxing, meditative kinda thing...yep I know people might also consider it an 'air headed girly bad habit' or something girls do or even grown women do to let men know they are interested i.e. flirt...or some see it as a sign of distraction...but really it could also just be the nicest, sweetest, twirliest thing to do while we slip away into nothingness and come out of it all brand new!:) Also tough, twirling the hair can be done when we are at the deepest points of contemplation so nothing 'air headed' there! :) Also no twirling of hair is necessary of course...the point is sometimes we can dream of nothing at all and when we do this we are perhaps experiencing what is the highest form of meditation!

DAY DREAMING OF THE DIVINE OR SOMEONE OR SOMETHING SIMPLY SUBLIME!:)
Now secondly there is the kinda day dreaming where we focus solely on this one thing or person or some of us like the guys who work the UCP desks over on our sister blog perhaps the Divine Infinite One it/him/herself!:)On one end of the spectrum this kinda day dreaming might take the form of infatuation,lust or obssession but on the other end of the spectrum it can be seen as the ultimate form of love! So perhaps this kinda day dreaming...hmmm...is a kinda yoga in itself too...well at least when done on the love end of the spectrum especially when it's for love of the Divine Infinite One then for sure it is Bhakti (Love) Yoga...but what of it on the other end of the spectrum? Dunno...I guess then it can be bad if it gets out of hand...I mean it can't be good to obssess so much on one thing or person...funny thing though...it's not good to do it unless it's the Divine Infinite One...but this makes sense you see...because when you day dream about the Divine Infinite One you are then seeing 'all as one and one as all' so you are really not at all obssessing on one thing anymore because you are seeing this one thing in everything so you end up just into it all and that can't be a bad thing! But let's face it most of us are obssessing on one thing and one person...but we'll not beat up on ourselves here...and if done with control and we can come out of it with a clear head without harming anyone or ourselves...it's great to do it sometimes...once not for very long! LOL! And yes indeed sometimes as we do that we exhalt these things or people so much that we make them something of the sublime! Even when sometimes they're not...in fact sometimes they're total weirdos that we make out to be all of this and that...LOL!...but hey that's the fun of existence isn't it? Aaah...to be in love even if in the end it is all in vain...aah!:)

DAY DREAMING AND CREATIVE VISUALIZATION!
Finally the third kinda day dreaming is the kind where we don't just sit in awe and wonder about a thing or a person or the Divine Infinite....no we dream up things...activities...actions...whether it be with the things or persons we discussed in the second kinda day dreaming above or just all and all out 'movies made up in our head' of just totally arbitrary or imaginary things and people! Now in a sense this can be seen as the lowlest level of day dreaming...if we are looking at it from the point of view that in this realm of day dreaming you are really furthest away from the realm of 'spirit' when compared to the other two types discussed above...because in this type of day dreaming you interact the most with the material world...it is the most 'real' kinda day dreaming you can do...so in one sense it's 'low' in that it is the most materialistic. But in another sense it can be seen as the most productive kinda day dreaming in that it is with actions and plans and this and that...it is the most 'real' kinda day dreaming...it is the realm of day dreaming where you can get the most 'realisitic things' coming out of it. We believe that it is on this realm of day dreaming where we can do our most and best creative visualizations as well! :) So really in a sense it has to be the funnest kinda day dreaming! Here we can think up things we want to see happen...we can build castles in the air even!:) And on that note we leave you to your day dreams of whatever kind you like as on our Tumultous Thursdays blog post this week we shall explore more of creative visualizations...

So until then keep building Castles in the Air and being a Day Dream Believer! ENJOY! :)

Tumutuous Thursdays:Dreams and Dream Series-Do the Blind See in Their Dreams?

Approximately a year and a half ago when Meady's Musings Production in the persona of Babita Dubay used to hang out tons on the Intent online community. An interesting discussion emerged on the topic: Do the Blind See in Their Dreams? So today as part of our Dreams and Dreaming Series we thought we'd re-blog this post for you as it for sure was a very insightful discussion and most fitting metaphysically for a dreams and dreaming series on this a Tumultuous Thursday! :)

Enjoy!

"You need to go here to view it as all the discussion takes place on the Intent community itself. However below is the introductory post we wrote that got it all started! :)

Here is something I want to ask of the Intent community. I'm not posting this from any of my blogs just asking here...Do the Blind See in Their Dreams?

I got to wondering about it today...I mean I know people who are currently blind but at one point could see I've been told that they see in their dreams. What they see are memories of when they were sighted. I've not met anyone who is blind in person and asked them so I get this information only from what I've read about it etc. So it would be interesting to hear about this.

Because was now reading about something where a person who was blind all his life describes his dreams as being in sound only like listening to the radio...although in his dreams he didnt need to be helped he just got to one place from the other automatically when he wished it.

Then it got me to thinking if dreaming is like that for someone who was blind all their life on earth doesn't it bring into question how metaphyhsical a dream can be? I mean if there is a level of dreaming where we can connect with the divine and or the spirit world wouldn't we then be able to see?

Would love to hear what you all think about this or experiences or information you may have about this..."

Maniac Mondays:Dreams and Dreaming Series-Healing in Our Dreams!

'Guardian Angel'-copyright free reprint of a work of art.

Recently a friend dropped by the ‘Production House’ with sad news and a wish that all at the house-the little mouse, Purple Elephant and all other animals included would say a prayer to heal the grief of someone close to them. You see that person had just lost a pet. One of us at the Production House recalled this prayer on losing a pet from Doreen Virtue's book-‘Healing with the Angels’:

‘Dearest God,

I know that no one and nothing can truly ever be lost, since You are omnipresent and can see everything and everyone.
I affirm that nothing is lost in the eyes of God.
I ask that You, Archangel Michael, Archangel Raphael, the nature angels, and my guardian angels help me reunite with my pet right now.
I call upon the guardian angels of my pet to send a signal so I may find my pet.
I now relax, knowing that God, the angels and my higher self are already communing with my pet.

Thank you.’

And then recalled when they had lost their pet German Shepherd and a few days after his passing dreamt him playing at the foot of a green, grassy hill. He was at the peak of health in the dream and he was tossing this brick and playing with as he did in real life pretending to growl, attack and tug at it! There was a little house atop the hill and it made the dreamer feel that their pet was all safe, healthy, happy and sound at home where he belonged! It was the ultimate healing dream for the dreamer!

Upon hearing this dream another person at the Production House popped up their hand into the air and exclaimed that they too also had something to share. Not about a pet this time but something that to them was the ultimate healing dream ever! The Maximus of Maximuses! The real McCoy! :)

It was a dream that totally washed them and they have not been the same ever since! Born afresh…finally shedding years and years of baggage and resentment, pain, suffering and loss all in one dream! They asked that we not shared the details of the dream here and so we must respect this wish. However, here were some of the symbols the person had in that dream:

-An old priest (who was also very dear to them) sat with a glow to him
-A new born baby also glowing sat on the old priest’s lap
-A stream with a clear distinction that things were on one bank and over the water on the on the other bank were all these new things.

And this dream was dreamt on the morning of Diwali which Hindus consider to be the start of the financial New Year. Again a new beginning...and notice the water presence in this dream too…

So until our Tumultuous Thursdays posting in the Dreams and Dreaming Series…Dream On! And keep healing in your dreams too just like everyone at our Production House…human and animals! :)

And while you pass by our house look atop to see our new welcome mat! It has the Purple Elephant’s name all done up together with that inseparable little mouse! :)