This blog updates at least weekly on any of the days below with the topics as follows:
On a Monday-Maniac Mondays = All Things that are All Things! Generally thoughts, ideas or tools we think can be useful to the personal or professional life.
On a Thursday-Tumultuous Thursdays = All Things Metaphysical
On a Friday-Funtastic Fridays = All Things Fun! (cartoons, stories about the Purple Elephant and the Little mouse...)
Studious Saturdays = All Things about the craft of fiction writing. Also we will give you little snippets about how our fantasy fiction novel in progress is going. Sometimes this can be told as a cartoon. We will be doing nanowrimo this year as well.

Also our Advent calendar will be happening this year as usual! Look for an interesting and new format!

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Thursday 30 August 2012

Tumultuous Thursdays: Wondering if that Elusive Happy Place Exists in a Parallel World?



"Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder...-Henry David Thoreau"

Photo copyright of Meady's Musings Production 2009.

Since we've started back actively blogging and on our last Maniac Mondays posting we recalled that elusive happy place when we were talking about work/life balance and so we thought that on this Tumultuous Thursday we'd retrieve and complete this blog posting we started to write exactly one year ago but never completed. So let's pick it back up where we left off one year ago...


Today on Tumultuous Thursdays we are wondering about Parallel Worlds again! And we think it's all coming together too...you see we can now see the merging between two blogs we wrote in the past one in 2009 and one in 2010. One of the blogs is about parallel worlds/lives and the other is about 'finding that elusive happy place'.


-Parallel Lives...Parallel Worlds?

-Finding that Elusive Happy Place!



And we have been thinking all day long of the trains of thought colliding i.e. does our elusive happy place exist in a parallel world? Is our longing for that elusive happy place rooted in our need to return to that world? It makes sense really...no wonder the happy place is elusive...it's always escaping from us into a parallel world! And it's why the longing is so real and deep to find it back...go back to it...

Now the guys over on the UCP desk will no doubt call this parallel world...heaven or the spirit plane and we're not disputing this...indeed one parallel world might indeed be heaven or for that matter hell. But here on Meady's Musings Tumultuous Thursdays we are proporting something else!

Suppose just like in the TV series 'Sliders' there exists infinite worlds where basically every possible outcome is played out...

So...if the plate broke in this world you are in now...there is some parallel world where it didn't...and these worlds are infinite so a new world would exist for every little tangentially different thing that happens! But it's not the little differences we pine over...it's the big ones although granted as how the web of the universal space time continuum is everything is connected...and it is little effects that lead a chain of events that create the big ones...well...


Hmmm...so in one parallel universe you're married to someone else or attended a different school or you are a world class athlete because you didn't fall and damage your knee like you did in this universe etc. But of course those big events were triggered by little things...like someone knocked down a bottle of water on the floor and you skidded thus damaging your knee...and the reason the person knocked down the water is because a mosquito was buzzing in his ear and he was trying to swat it away when he accidentally knocked the bottle of water over.

Hmmm...what is funnier is how we are even by all coincidence recalling and thus retrieving this blog post exactly one year to the date and now trying to go into it and complete it and now realizing that to some extent we perhaps even conflict with it one year later...

I mean because as much as the elusive happy place could exist in another parallel world...so too there must be worlds that are sadder than we would like? And rally wouldn't all the worlds be like this one...dynamic?

So what we are saying is that one year into the unfolding of the Universe called life is it possible that we here at Meady's Musings Production have also changed in our beliefs? Hopefully we've become more enlightened? But we think now...we really do more believe in the Buddhist or Zen-like 'Power of Now' and so now we think that no matter which parallel world you are in 'that elusive happy place' can be in it and it can be right here and right now! :) And like the it is said by Henry David Thoreau in one of our favourite quotes of all time:

"Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder..."

But now that kinda of talk is more what you'd expect of us on our Maniac Mondays postings...after all this is Tumultuous Thursdays and you want to hear us talk about parallel worlds not just quote beautiful things...so let's consider the idea again...

Can that elusive happy place exist in a parallel world?

And our answer to that would be yes! But if we lived daily in that parallel world...it would not be our elusive happy place anymore...in that if we always wanted to be a movie star and it always eluded us but we have that fame and fortune there in a parallel world...the movie star we are in that parallel might then crave our world...as she might for instance want not to be famous and have a more private life like the one you might have now...

So you see no matter which part of the Universe you sit in your elusive happy place will always be just that...'elusive'! :)

Unless you take the wise advice of Henry David Thoreau and not let your happiness be elusive by simply letting things be and not chasing it...

So immerse yourself into your work like us for instance...like how we put our noses to the grind on a Studious Saturdays and write as we must...the little mouse sharpens all the pencils and the Purple Elephant hoses down the house with his trunk to keep it clean so that we can spend hours writing...and in doing the very thing we love by the end of a few hours of writing we are happy again because while we were doing the thing we love the elusive butterfly of happiness came and sat on our shoulder! And that just makes us smile! :)

But yes there must be parallel worlds where things we wish for here exist there...and perhaps who knows some of the fluid from there leaks into our world here and vice versa...


Monday 20 August 2012

Maniac Mondays: Work Life Balance in Today's World...Really?!

The Purple Elephant recently got a job at a corporate firm of sorts and the little mouse agreed that he would stay at home and tend to the house...but the owner of the production house was then all confused....should she now give up her job and let the Purple Elephant be the sole bread winner of the Meady's Musings Production House?

While pondering about it on this Maniac Monday she found this blog: Boy Girl Modern World which seemed to be a very informative blog on the topic by others doing research on the specific topic out of Australia!

Now apart from her muse-'the manicou at her gate at midnight' having a few marsupial cousins out down under the owner of the production house has very few friends out in Australia well in fact none apart from the guys she met here when she volunteered at the Red Earth Festival! So anyway it was quite a hemispherical shift but really worth the time difference to have a read! And of course in all good sense the blogosphere is one flat place where all is one! So seriously you should have a read of that blog!

However back to the owner of the production house's dilemma. A dilemma that is perhaps shared by many a reader....if you don't need money...would you work? And if so why? In fact this question overlaps with many other questions...it money did not matter and you could do anything you wanted what would you do and why? And of course it's about work life balance too because if it wasn't about money would you work less? Or would you choose to work for less money so you could have more free time I don't know for hobbies, family or simply to sleep more?

Or would you just want to use your free time and the money you had with the free time to help you find that elusive happy place?


I guess since the 1940s people would have been saying too that it all boils down to this...Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (please not image is re-published from this site-http://intuitiontellsmeso.wordpress.com/ which seems to be a very indepth blog on the human way of thinking and interacting and is perhaps worth a read:


So I guess in the case of the owner of the production house if the Purple Elephant was now the breadwinner and so helped with most of the lower levels of the pyramid. As none of the members of the production house can help the other with the sexual love bits unless they well used part of their wages to sign each other up on dating services for each of their species or matching making sites or put flyers out. Well or set each other up with friendly blind dates or meet ups. But they could at least show platonic love for each other and in that sense they do all belong to the Meady's Musings Production House. So then really the driver to work would be what comes at the top of the pyramid:

-Self Actualization:
Vitality, Creativity, Self-Sufficiency, Authenticity, Playfulness and Meaningfulness

Now we have to agree however with some of Maslow's critics that it's probably not really a hierarchy of needs at all or for sure not a pyramid. But more a dynamic soup of things...interacting hot and bubbling with the other. Really a loss of one of the needs can have profound effects on the other causing a collapse or an expansion.

For instance history is ripe with cases where unrequited love has led to big works of art and also ripe with cases of persons jumping off a cliff when rejected! (Yikes!)

So who knows some might argue that the human needs really revolves around love or some might say freedom? And also some might say that it we are self actualized that all the other needs can somehow magically be filled by the laws of attraction, the Universe or even miracles! Many say if you follow your true calling the success and money will follow to provide for all the other material needs...

But then let's again ask what would be the drive (as Daniel Pink's new book is titled)for the owner of the production house to work if the Purple Elephant now had a corporate job that could take care of the running of the production house?

Well apart from maybe her going to work would mean she might find a mate?

Hmmm....what would be her drive as Daniel Pink's book asks? And as we discussed on last week's Maniac Mondays' post. What would be her true purpose? What job would she do not for the money but for the love of it...what job or purpose would she have such that it would be such a joy that it would be like not working a minute at all?

To be honest even after one week of thinking (since last week's post) like Winnie the Pooh the owner of the Meady's Musings Production House is going to have to think some more!

But speaking of things being centered around love and freedom we thought we'd queue up this favourite old tune on the blog and this one we were reminded of during the recently concluded Olympic games!


Monday 13 August 2012

Maniac Mondays: Choosing a Few Things!

All year long we have not blogged anything fresh on Meady's Musings although back in April we did review some past discussions by sharing with readers on Facebook. But now in the midst of the middle of August we have come to a realization on this Maniac Monday that we should put first things first and so choose a few things and re-align the blog to some extent in the hope of keeping it active.

The whole re-think became an even more clear and present decision to be made when last night the Purple Elephant came back from South Africa where he had gone to visit his African Elephant cousins and they had made quite some fun of him! They had declared that now he could not claim any fame to make up for his smaller size (he being an Asian Elephant) as there was no longer anything purple and magical about him at all. So now he was just a smaller version of the bigger them for you see the lady from the Meady's Musings Production House had not for the year a single blog post up here! And to that the little mouse just said "Oh dear!"

But seriously before we continue our first Meady's Musings blog post for the year we would like to note the yesterday was 12 August 2012 was marked as the World Wild Life Fund's Elephant Day! And poaching for ivory has caused a 50% decline in the African elephants found in Central Africa during the period 1995 to 2007. To learn more about this and what you can do to help visit the world wildlife fund's page at this link: World Wildlife Fund

Now back to Choosing a Few Things! Well apart from being spurred on by the Purple Elephant's shame we at the little mouse was cleaning out some things at the Meady's Musings Production House when he found this old posting about 'Our faces...momentary pearls of the Universe' in which we also wrote about 'that scribblings guy-Aaron Ross' that is best summarized by these
two diagrams:



And the lady of the production house also saw the clip for Daniel Pink's book-Drive on a blog post at Intent:

Two Simple Questions That Can Change Your Life


And it all got everyone at the production house to thinking again as to what our purpose was and if the Meady's Musings Production House could release a one sentence press release what would it be? To be honest we are still mulling on this...

But we can tell you this much as to what we have been up to...

-We haven't be trying the vegan or raw thing these days as we've been trying to instead keep up with the gym but we do eat lots of apples still! So no need to post about that currently on a Mon although we can still be maniacal!

-We have been writing on Saturday so Studious Saturdays are in!

-We can never not be musing metaphysically so we can always shoot up a Tumultuous Thursday thought even if it does not always make it to the blog!

-We haven't been having as much fun as we should be having but for now we shall let it slide...

So what you can expect is as such...we will leave all the different days i.e. Maniac Mondays, Tumultuous Thursdays, Funtastic Fridays and Studious (not slumbering) Saturdays.

But instead of trying to post on all those days and surely rarely do any! We shall instead post weekly on one of the areas! If we feel energetic or really have something to say we shall post on more than one day too!

It is not that the Meady's Musings Production House was ever closed though...we are always open in heart and mind!

Anyway you will see the changes reflected in our blog header and be patient with us and keep us in your hearts and minds as we continue to write on Studious Saturdays about metaphysical meanderings for a fantasy novel we are working on every Saturday! We will keep you up to date on how that is going whenever we check in with you on our Studious Saturdays blogs.

Also we will (as we have as we have had every year since this blog was born in 2008) our Advent calendar this year so please look for it! :)

And seeing as it is a Manic Monday and everyone is still getting over the London Olympics 2012 we thought it wouldn't be a Meady's Musings blog if we didn't share some music or the other...and although everyone might be singing..."Always look on the bright side of life" since last night's closing ceremony! We thought it would be fitting to remind ourselves of these two favs that we've shared in the past as our theme songs that fit well with sharing our uniqueness and need to find life purpose!