Advent Calendar 2012: Day 6 (Boxing Day) of The Christmas Adventures of The Purple Elephant and the little mouse!

On Day 6 of the Christmas adventures it was the birthday of the owner of the production house and as a result she invited a few of her guests over from the 'real' world to the production house. Of the persons invited was her nephew who always shared her birthday cake and was a fan of Wallace and Gromit so this is the cake they ate!

Image copyright of Meady's Musings Production House 2012

Every mice got a piece of cake and were thrilled that the theme of the cake was cheese as it depicted a scene from this episode of Wallace and Gromit:


The theme of the cake did re-ignite the argument between the little mouse's parents about the age of cheese but it quickly boiled over and all was well again!

But the cake ceremony was not all that happened that day...earlier in the morning the owner and her nephew sat down with the guys from the UCP desk and others interested to pray and it so happened the prayer they performed was the same prayer that was done on the opening of the UCP desk way back in 2008!

And so it was Day 6 of the Christmas adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse! :)

Advent Calendar 2012: Day 5 (Christmas Day) of The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse

And when all awoke on Christmas morning after falling asleep to the beautiful prayer said by the little mouse...they sang together in prayer and thanks and most of all Joy!

Advent Calendar 2012: Day 4 of The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and little mouse (Christmas Eve)

So by Day 4 of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and little mouse it was already Christmas Eve and all the mouse's siblings had by then arrived and his parents had settled into the production house as well. The parents of the little mouse had gotten over their petty squabbling about cheese and was helping the little mouse to keep all his siblings at peace. However the little mouse was still counting on the owner of the production house to weave her magic or for some Christmas miracle to get all the mice now temporarily residing in the production house to agree and be at peace.

So the owner of the production house tried playing this from her favourite Christmas album: John Denver and the Mumpets- A Christmas Together:


And although it seemed to stir some place inside most of the mice...soon after the carol was done the bickering continued!

And it was only until several cheese plates were served and the mice sat down to watch this mouse in a starring role did peace seem to begin to kick in fully and the Christmas spirit seemed to be there as not a mouse stirred as they all were glued to the TV screen to look at this show!



Then when it ended one of the London mice (working to stop use of mice in laboratories) just spontaneously got up and sang Jingle Bells like so:



And when he was done the little mouse reminded everyone that it was almost midnight at the production house on Christmas Eve and so it was time for all to join in prayer...and this was the prayer that the little mouse said:

THE LITTLE MOUSE'S CHRISTMAS EVE PRAYER

"Dear Lord,
It's been a long year
One in which I almost faded away
Imagine I was almost not here
But thank goodness I was saved

It all made me realize
How much I still have to do
And to remember all those
To whom I must say a big thank you

The owner of the production house
For coming back to me
And for saying sorry for not being around

To the best friend ever to this mouse
We all know who he is and what's in a name
But today I must officially say
I thank you dear God
For that Purple Elephant
With whom I share this house

And thank you dear Lord
For all my mice family
Who this year for Christmas
Are all with me

And finally dear Father
But certainly not least
I thank you for giving to us
This night a star
A star which we all followed
That led us to thee!"


Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good night! :)

Advent Calendar 2012: Day 3 of The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and little mouse.

On the Third Day of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse the little mouse's family started arriving...

First to get there were his parents...both arrived arguing about who was right or wrong about the age of the cheese they were eating and the little mouse's mother kept going on about since when the little mouse's father was an expert on cheese seeing as cheese wasn't Indian and this was not paneer!

Next through the door were the church mice from the US followed by the Canadian church mice and as they met in the foyer another big argument ensued about which version of the bible they should read from for the Christmas prayer!

The little mouse started to feel embarrassed as he overheard those monkeys still residing (unfortunately) in the game room squealing about how the little mouse's family was always arguing!

Now it really was unlike our little mouse...as you all must know by now...he is such a quiet, shy and peaceful mouse...and he started to get even more flustered than normal when soon after the North American mice siblings arrived the Indian temple mice came into the yard of the production house and went to the trees to pray and the North American church mice stood in the foyer claws in uproar as to what those Indian mice were doing?!

The little mouse went to the owner of the production house and The Purple Elephant and begged for help as he hang his little head in shame...he explained it was kinda why he had never asked his family to visit before as for this same reason and more...

However he had thought it only right to have them come as they were so worried about him after he almost disappeared! But some way to show their worry and care!

But then the Purple Elephant trumpeted and the owner of the production house went over to the little mouse and assured him that she would make things right...she for sure had a plan!


So the little mouse went over to the foyer and continued to welcome his many siblings...

And so ended the third day of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and little mouse!

Advent Calendar 2012: the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse- Day 2

The little mouse's father came from a long line of Indian Temple mice!

Image burrowed from this site

After the world of the owner of the production house did not end and the little mouse had grown almost back to full size again the Christmas adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse continued...

The owner of the production house had now moved fully into the house again and would be with the animals all Christmas long until the Epiphany.

The production house was all abuzz as for the first time ever the family of the little mouse would be visiting! Of course over the years monkeys had taken over the production house, bears from all over the world had visited and the Purple Elephant's herd had visited but never the little mouse's family. So everyone was excited to meet them and learn more!

Everyone kept asking the little mouse when and from where his family would be arriving and whether they would be mice, gerbil or hamster?!

The little mouse tediously explained that while by marriage and otherwise he was related to some gerbils and hamsters that he was of mice and mice alone! A little mouse he was and mice were mice...hamsters were hamsters and gerbils were gerbils!


So upon further prodding the little mouse related the list of his relatives and so it went:

The little mouse's father had descended from a long line of temple mice in India. But one day he grew curious and left his abode of adoration and jumped on a ship! He was then rudely awakened when he arrived in London to find a set of caged mice in a pet shop meant to be fed to snakes....alive! So he hatched a plan and saved them and fell in love with one of the mice he saved...the little mouse's mother.

Together they helped save many a lab rat and mice and also gave birth to the mice that accounts for the little mouse and his siblings. Of the sixteen mice that they gave birth to here is where they each went:

1. Two became church mice in churches under the Church of England.
2. Three went back to India to be temple mice following in their father's lineage
3. Three went to Hollywood to audition for the role of the three blind mice in the
Shrek movies
4. Four became activist mice and are instrumental in laws passed to stop the use of
live mice for feeding other animals in the UK and Germany.
5. Four went to become church mice in various parts of North America but one of them
changed his mind and ended up in Trinidad as the little mouse himself!:) Living in the
production house with the Purple Elephant and practicing UCP-Universal Collective
Prayer!


And so the entire production house waited for the arrival of all these mice! As the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse continued!

Advent Calendar 2012- Very Late Opening!

The little mouse has been going to the Purple Elephant every day for the past few weeks and climbing up to his big, purple ears to whisper into either of them to let him know...

"Where did all the blog posts at the Meady's Musings Production House go?!"


You see if the owner of the production house does not blog...well then eventually the production house and all its inhabitants will fade away...they will be no more...and the Purple Elephant being so large in size was not realising it as much...he thought his skin was just too dry and bits were flaking off...but when he finally looked through the corners of his left eye at the little mouse sitting upon his left ear what did the Purple Elephant behold?

Well my friends the little mouse was just but skin and bone!

The Purple Elephant upon this shocking revelation took to all fours and jumped over into the real world and landed outside the owner of the production house's office door! When she did not come out he stomped and when she still did not come out he stomped some more and then when she still did not emerge he stomped again but trumpeted with that!

Eventually the owner of the production house emerged with crude oil coming out of one ear, produced water out another and bits of paper stuck all over her body!

Regardless of her appearance the Purple Elephant scooped her up with his trunk and put her onto his back and jumped right into the imaginary world before the owner of the production house could even blink!

He dropped her right onto the middle of the floor and pointed with his trunk to the little mouse and then trumpeted!

OMG! When the owner of the production house saw her poor little mouse she immediately realized what she had done...she had rarely blogged all year long and...and...to top it off from the first time since she had built the production house in her imagination and created the blogs-Meady's Musings and UCP-Universal Collective Prayer...oh dear she had not opened...

THE ADVENT CALENDAR!

And Dec 20th was already here!

She immediately went to the imaginary fridge and got some cheese for the mouse...but when she brought it back for the poor little mouse in a weak, gasping breath the noble being explained that no cheese in this here imaginary world could save him! The owner had to go right away back with the Purple Elephant to the real world and grab keyboard, smart phone or tablet and type away...then to the internet connect and post!

For every word she posted online...the little mouse would heal and re-gain a fat cell for every byte put online!

So here you have it...the owner has typed and now all of us here at the Meady's Musings Production House declare the Advent calender 2012 open!

Given its late start we will stay with you until the epiphany this year...6 Jan 2013 is when we shall close!

It is important to also note that the owner of the production house made a trip to Chichen Itza this year which seems to be at the center of this whole world will end tomorrow business.

Photo copyright of Meady's Musings Production House 2012

And she was discussing it with the Purple Elephant and little mouse and since their world almost ended...they know how it feels and so the little mouse still frail but getting better went to his little prayer corner and decided to share this lovely little Christmas prayer with all beings in the Universe real and imaginary on the eve of the 21st December 2012 i.e. the start of the Winter Solstice and quite possibly (anything is possible you know) the end of the world!

"I'm just a little mouse
Some consider me imaginary
Others say it is contrary
And it is my world that is real
While the world of the Production House owner is unreal

To be honest this little mouse does not know
What is real or unreal
What is the truth or untruth
And it is with this knowledge I pray
This little mouse kneels in his corner
And surrenders onto the Divine
Let your will be done!

Some say there may not even be a Divine one.
But I say what is in a word.
You see whether it be or not...
It would not change my lot!

But I've learnt from the owner of the production house
To pray...as I feel at peace when I do...
So I recall how she in the past has surrendered onto the Divine in this blog:

I Surrender onto the Divine Mother!


And sing this song with her...


And I've also learnt from her that there is not only one way to pray...

So in the spirit of Universal Collective Prayer and in keeping with the time of Advent I also offer this form of prayer in this our first Christmas carol on our Advent calendar 2012!
May there be many more to come! :)



Let the Christmas fun begin! :)

Maniac Mondays: Work Life Balance...Caught in the Time Trap!

Image copyright of Meady's Musings Production 2008.

Today on Maniac Mondays we've been wondering about time...how little of it there often is and how to make the most of it...and if we don't will it all run out? Or more so are we caught in the time trap of life daily repeating routine cyclic tasks to a bitter end?! We started to get really maniacal about it and was about to let out the laugh when we decided to restrain ourselves less we become like the March Hare and Mad Hatter and become true maniacs! So we then began to contemplate the March Hare and his obsession with time. And was he obsessed with it alone or was it the Mad Hatter or was it both of them? So we went to the web of things to research it and came up with another blog to befriend this week...so along with our new and blossoming friendship with the Aussies over on Boy Girl Modern World as they contemplate work/life balance...we met this Texan based (we think) chick over on Write Right! She seems to have the full scoop on this whole 'Murdering the Time' business.

According to Write Right's blog post which we think hits the nail on the head and so we quote her:

"If the Hatter and the March Hare seem mad, perhaps it’s because we forget how relatable they are. How often do we get stuck in a routine, doing the same thing and writing the same words day after day after day? We become tired of that routine. We complain about it. Sometimes, we do something about it. We find a way to make our routine fun again. We make changes, sometimes drastic ones, to it. We add a new activity to our lives to balance the tedium. We ask for input regarding our writing. Other times, we don’t do anything. We decide to drink the same tea, to eat the same desserts, to use the same serving ware, and to have the same, pointless conversations. Isn’t that mad? Isn’t that “murdering the time”?"

Well and yes Write Right it's exactly what we think even though we ourselves must hardly 'write right'...what with our over use of the '...' and our generally unpunctuated rambling roving rants we have to say 'write not right' as we may we have struck a common point of view with you here! And now because we are just as mad as the Hatter and arguably then madder than the March Hare we will pause for a moment for this jig with them as we have done in the past on this blog:



Now continuing...

You see if we get stuck in this time trap of sorts just repeating and doing the same things over and over well even if we follow the Zen like practice of living in the moment and being fully present in every second of it...well wouldn't we still be stuck? Well unless we had some sort of overall plan or map of some sorts?

So even if you don't want to see it as being stuck in tea time all the time...if you see it as you go to work every day and do this and that can't you still of course be stuck?

You see...and we came to thinking about it in work itself just last Friday really...now yes if we are all Zen like and focus on the moment and be present fully in it we are bound to do our best...our very utmost best at whatever task at hand! So we're not knocking the very Zeness of it yet! But if we keep doing things the same way and doing the same things aren't we perhaps possibly not moving forward in a way too? I mean if we don't climb up and look at the top of trees to see the whole forest from time to time...how are we to know where we are going? Or how the overall plan looks? Or how our best trys shape things overall? Indeed what our best looks like? And who decides where we are to be going in the first place?

Our boss? The manager? The CEO?

And in our personal life...ourselves? our parents? our children? our spouse? our friends? our pets even?

And how do we know? And do we know where we must go?

Should we join the guys over on the UCP desk who've not blogged since Easter and say God!?

But the thing is...we need to know...we need to have a bigger plan...and as much we've always hated the famous question:

"Where do you see yourself in the next five years?"


We have to admit it...you have to have a general plan!

You see you can't control the outcomes in life...indeed as the Desiderata states:

"And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."

However we still have to have some kind of general plan...then work in the Zen like way...focussing on every little daily task and caught up in the very moment of it...but at the end of every day or at least every week or every quarter or every year even we have to review...climb up at the top of the trees and see how our forest has grown...based on us doing the best we can in every moment...this is how the forest looks. It may not be how we want it to look like and so then we have to decide how we want to go from there...do we want to try to re-shape it again to how we wanted it to look originally or now based on our experiences do we have a different idea of how our forest should look?

Or do we want to step out of the forest altogether and start over in a new forest?

And can we even do that? Maybe yes or maybe no but that time is when you have to access this.

And the thing is we have to do it in our careers or work life as well as our personal life and in the work/life balance scheme of things as a whole. For in the end of it really...career or work is just one part of our overall life!

It's kinda tough...isn't it? This whole work/life balance thing and more so this whole life thing!

There are several work plan maps out there and ways to structure it and no doubt things like meditation, creative visualization and yep even joining the guys over on the UCP desk to engage in prayer that can help us come up with the overall master plan of this thing call life!

But in the end of it all it always comes back to what we were saying in agreement with Daniel Pink on our mid August Maniac Mondays posting- Choosing a Few Things:

It's all about what is our Drive?!

And according to Daniel Pink the two questions that can change your life:

"If your life at its end had to be summarised in one sentence what would you want it to be?"

"Was I better today than yesterday?"

(so I guess in the case of Daniel Pink he is suggesting a daily climb up to the top of the trees to look at the condition of your forest)


But hey it's Maniac Mondays and we're no experts just a bunch of maniacs ourselves so let's go dance a jig with the Mad Hatter and March Hare now because you know what Mr. Daniel Pink? It's oh so much fun!

And join us later this week as we do two blog posts this week...as we continue to investigate time...in this case in the metaphysical sense and wonder if if it exists at all? Or can we like the Mad Hatter murder time and in this case he never comes back to rule over us? Is Father time really a lie after all? Can we transcend his boundaries? We think we are so into time now that it may even become an upcoming series to give to the UCP desk to work on! So join us then...but for now let's dance! :)

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...

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!

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!

Advent Calendar 2011: Christmas and Boxing Day of The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse

copyright of The Meady's Musings Production House 2010.

Day 25-Christmas Day

It was already the wee hours of the morning by the time all the guests had settled in at the Meady's Musings Production House but really it was very hard to sleep with all the excitement and awe! But humans need to rest as do animals and all other living earthly beings.

The herd of elephants were the first ones up! And the Purple Elephant went outdoors to be with them. And they were the first ones to notice that by 6 AM there was a long line of people outside the production house who had come to see the babe in the manger. So when they showed this to the Purple Elephant he went inside to wake up the little mouse to the news and to begin preparations to first of all deal with the line of people and then to prepare for the Christmas day meal!

As might be expected the little mouse did not take the news well and start to get very nervous again...went to the corner to pray for guidance and then told the Purple Elephant to convene a meeting of all the animals that were currently living inside the production house itself. That means that the meeting was to exclude the herd of elephants grazing outdoors and the animals in the manager and other living quarters outside the main production house. When the meeting was then convened it included the Purple Elephant, the little mouse, the bears, the monkeys and yes not to be forgotten the owner of the production house.

At the meeting a plan was hatched as to how to deal with the queue outdoors and how to prepare breakfast for all and the other Christmas meals! The duties were divided and plans devised as follows:

1. The Purple Elephant would go outside and rustle up the herd of elephants to inquire from the long queue of folks outside the house what exactly were their needs and wants.

(While doing this they would also collect and distribute water to all in the queue and one or two elephants would
go down to the orchard and also pick some fruit with their trunks to distribute to those in the long line
waiting to see the babe.)

2. A few monkeys were also assigned to work outside with the herd of elephants. One of the monkeys assigned was a very smart chimp called Chompy who would question each of the persons in the queue on their needs and wants and take notes. Some of them would be asked to step aside if decided by the monkeys. These persons would be taken into the production house for further questioning and evaluation if it was felt that they needed counseling as their need to see the babe was driven by some deep seethed unfulfilled desires instead of pure joy!

3. The rest of the animals would help with the Christmas meals. Which with the number of mouths to feed was no easy task indeed especially with mostly monkeys and bears involved! And with a much maligned mouse stirring the pot! Luckily the only human who would be eating was the owner of the production house who by now had known that the little mouse could do no harm! And after all he (the little mouse) was born out of her very own head!

By 10 AM everyone including the persons in the queue had been fed. But the production house was all abuzz as the number of persons who needed to be taken aside for counseling was proving to be the vast majority of persons in the line. Then the little mouse took the decision that was seconded and agreed to unanimously that the babe in the manger should be the one to decide who should be fit to see him or not and no one else. So all were allowed to visit him and lo and behold as more persons came time seemed to stand still! And by lunch everyone had seen the babe and were all content!

Then everyone sat down on tables indoors and outdoors and had the Christmas lunch! Before the meal was eaten the following prayer was said by the little mouse:

Oh Universal spirit from whom all things come
Animals, humans and all of us who are one
Bless our humble meal
Make it that we eat in peace
Let us know the unreal from the real
And let all the Universe's beings feel
The nourishment of body, mind and soul
That you infuse into this our Christmas meal!

With peace, love and light from all of us at the Meadys' Musings Production House!

And really that was the main events on the Christmas day as dinner also went by with not a thing to complain about!


Day 26-Boxing Day

Copyright of The Meady's Musings Production House 2011

On this day the owner of the production house entered the earthly plane and all the animals in the production house had planned and plotted to honour her on this day. The mouse was in charge and the Purple Elephant was running with her at her heels after every stride. By the end of the day the owner was very pleased with the animals who lived under her roof and all hers and their guests! Even the monkeys put in a sterling performance and there was really not much left to say but that indeed it was a very lovely Boxing Day and Happy Birthday for the owner of the production house and all her animal creations

Advent Calendar 2011: The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse:Christmas Eve

By this time all the house guests had arrived safe and sound at the Meady's Musings Production House. In fact the season's plans had gone far more on schedule this year than last's. All the animals had basically arrived without major transportation problems and there was no honey bee strike like last year and so no resulting uprising of bears too. And the monkeys were better behaved since the whole cat wringing incident!

But there was a strange thing that not only the Purple Elephant and little mouse had realized this year but all the animals did too! The men who had appeared in the square last year in sports utility vehicles aka SUVs were no where to be seen this year although they had explained that they often come to town around Christmas time yearly. At first the Purple Elephant had come home from the square a day to tell the little mouse his fears...that he had not seen the men as yet and it was several days later than when they had appeared last year! But the little mouse had said to him that it was probably just that they were running later. Maybe they needed to repair their SUVs or get new ones all together and the Purple Elephant knew all too well how hard it was to buy a new SUV at times on the island! But now it was Christmas Eve and not only had they not seen the men with the SUVs but they had not seen the lovely couple return this year who gave birth to a baby boy in a manager that the animals had to quickly put together last year as by then the house was overflowing with animals and have fallen to the ground with all the mayhem! So in fact just in case this year the Purple Elephant had built an entirely separate duplex for the couple if they visited perhaps bringing the baby boy and the donkey that was oddly carrying them around...odd as the animals though why not an SUV? But the donkey had explained to them about his special bond with the couple.

Now it was almost two hours to the midnight hour and not a donkey or SUV was in sight!

Then Purple Elephant's sensitive ears and feet picked up a far away sound almost as far away as the square...and but surely he realised it was a drum! The sound got closer and closer and for all the good behaviour the animals showed till then...well that just vanished and they all got uneasy till basically all the animals were out in the maidan (field) with the herd of elephants! Then lo and behold coming around the curb they saw as the intensity of the sound was very strong now...well there you have it! A little drummer boy and with him he had a herd of sheep! So the animals let the sheep stay in the old manager that was built last year for the couple. Then were about to invite the little drummer boy to stay indoors but he said he never left the side of his sheep. So then all the animals stayed in the maidan as the little mouse went indoors and returned with a cup of cocoa for the little drummer boy who seemed to be cold. The little drummer boy blinked a while and eyed the little mouse from tail to whiskers but then took the cup of cocoa as he thought if he could so love his sheep why could he not take cocoa made by a mouse!

And then the little drummer boy played for them! Saying that he was just warming up his drums for now...

And lo and behold...as the song ended rounding the curb was an SUV and then another and then another and out of the third SUV alighted the donkey and from second one the couple with a just born baby boy! And then the three drivers of the SUVs and the couple, the donkey and the baby all joined the little drummer boy in the manger with his sheep. When asked what happened to that baby from last year...the couple looked up and blinked at animals without saying a word and with a nod of the donkey's snout...all the animals knew what it was...

And then the little drummer boy played his song!



Merry Christmas from the Meady's Musings Production House!

Advent Calendar 2011:Day 2 & 3 of The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse

This picture is not owned by us but was burrowed from this site. Please notify us if we have infringed any rights and we will immediately remove. We thought it fair to say too that in the real life story to this pic the cat and orangutan are best of buddies! No Purple Elephant intervention necessary! :)

DAY 2

On Day 2 of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse the day opened with the little mouse quietly in a corner deep in prayer. The guys from the UCP desk couldn't help but notice him and just stood afar quietly themselves observing him and taking notes for their own blog posts! This was the prayer that the little mouse did say:

"Dear Lord although I may but a little mouse be
You well know that I let little scare me
Apart from those cats of course
And even then I just surrender to your as the divine source
And although the start of this Advent calendar maybe late
It won't affect what will be on any of my guest's Christmas Eve dinner plate

You know better than I great spirit that in the Universal sense of things we are all one
And so please don't let my Christmas plans be undone
You see the owner of the house was late to open the Advent calendar
But she must not be blamed for such a blunder
As her world I'm told was a bit asunder

So let's now work together
To make this Christmas the best one ever
Keep the cats at bay
And let all our house guests enjoy their stay
This dear Lord is my Advent calender opening prayer!"

The little mouse thus ended his prayer. And the UCP guys scuttled off to their desks to share it on that blog!

The little mouse got up from his kneeling position and went off to look for the Purple Elephant. He found the Purple Elephant outdoors clearing soil and planting grass in preparation for his elephant herd that had sent trumpeting signals from place to place until it got to the Purple Elephant this morning via the airwaves outside the house that indeed they would be trekking towards the Meady's Musings Production House this year and in fact given the time it would take for them to get there as a herd they were already on their way!

And there you had it by the 2nd day of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse two house guests had now confirmed! Well two if you count the herd as one and Fynn the bear as another. But in reality that herd ranged between 40 to 50 odd elephants or so and of every colour you could imagine (if you recall from previous years). They were yellow, brown, blue, grey, white, rainbow mixed and of course many other purple ones too! But you shall hear more about them as the days go because for now that brings Day 2 of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse to a close.


DAY 3

On Day 3 of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and little mouse the Purple Elephant was still busy at it in the yard planting grass for his relatives to eat when they arrived. It was then he heard a strange sound only to turn around to see one of the monkey's wringing a cat in his hands! The Purple Elephant got so startled at the sight and sound that he jumped all fours up about a half of a metre or so into the air and trumpeted as he fell to the ground. The fall then caused a loud sound no doubt that made the little mouse and the other monkeys in the house run to the doors. When they saw what was going on outside they ducked backed indoors and peeped instead out of windows to see what was about to unfold. Not the little mouse tough...poor thing was so scared he ran to his bedroom and closed all the windows and again went to a corner to in this case nervously pray. With the knowledge that if his end really came he would then just surrender on to the divine this he had learnt well from the UCP guy's blog posts!

However the monkeys inside the house piled all on top of each other to see what the one monkey outside was about to do as the Purple Elephant glared at him. And this is what happened...

After the Purple Elephant hit the ground he again trumpeted and then addressed the monkey in a high yet loud shrill!

"What are you doing monkey>? Is that a cat in your hand I see? If so you should certainly un-wring him! Don't you know that although the cats may not be my friends as they hunt my best friend and co-inhabitant of the house the little mouse. Both of us do not agree that we should subject the cats to such cruelty. No animal should be that cruel to another...even if you cannot live like brothers you should still respect the life in others! Now don't release him as he may try to get at the little mouse but un-wring him and give him to me so I can wrap him in my trunk and take him back to the cats!"

Strangely the monkey just looked at the Purple Elephant in a puzzled manner twisted his head from side to side a bit and then made a monkey noise un-wrang the cat and put it into the trunk of the Purple Elephant. When he was done with this he scratched one armpit and then the other...made a monkey noise and jumped into a nearby tree for after all he was an orangutan you see!

At the end of this stint all the monkeys in the window started to make monkey noises and jump up and down and all over each other's heads! But they immediately froze in silence when the Purple Elephant turned their way and with one glare he was on his way to drop the un-wrung cat back to the other cats!

And folks for day 3 of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse that was that!

Advent Calendar 2011:Day 1 of The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse

Fynn the Steiff bear who was the first guest to confirm this year!

The Purple Elephant and the little mouse had really hoped to start things early this year they really had! But you see it was the owner of the production house that caused everything to go all awry. As you would recall yesterday at the opening of the Advent calendar exactly six days late this year they had to go and bring her into the virtual reality of the blogosphere back into the imaginary house in which they live! To do so they had to cross the lines between virtual and real...cartoon and flesh...driving many a human to the psychiatric chair when they had beheld the glowing cartoony forms of the Purple Elephant and little mouse. But they really had no choice...and now although the Purple Elephant and the little mouse had in their virtual world started planning for the Holidays well in advance in fact as early as November during nanowrimo! There was no owner present in the production house to write about their adventures and so really all their work just went up in cyberspace without enough HTML to keep it grounded for you readers to see on your computer screen!

So forgive the Purple Elephant and little mouse this year if they are a bit more scattered and stressed as the Purple Elephant runs about making lots of noise while the little mouse scampers even faster to get things in place for the many house guests that no doubt will again be arriving this year! It really wasn't their fault that things didn't get started earlier it was just that there was simply no writer there! And if anything goes wrong just blame those monkeys!

So speaking of house guests the Purple Elephant and little mouse have heard the news that has been confirmed early on that the bears will be visiting again this year. In fact a new bear from London will also be arriving this year. They got that news since October really when the owner of the production house was over that way. Now what they understand is that the bear is not really an English bear exactly although he lives in London. In fact he is really German in origin with 'knopf im ohr' translated into English as 'button in ear'. He is indeed a Steiff bear...not the fancy limited edition type nope Fynn lives in his box with a yellow tag pinned down by the button in his ear so he is an unlimited edition bear. Which basically means Fynn has many other Fynn brothers and they sure do get around in their boxes traveling to all parts of the globe! However those Fynn bears seem to be very early birds as yes folks Fynn the Steiff bear was the first confirmed guest to be visiting the Meady's Musings production house this year! He had RSVP-ed to the Purple Elephant since October and had asked that the little mouse try as much as possible to be the one to pick him up at the airport as he had a very special surprise that couldn't wait!

So this has just been adding to the anxiety of the little mouse as he has been scampering about the house and occasionally going into corners to take perhaps a break and from what his body posture at least looks like...to pray?

But as we end the story for today on The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant with the little mouse we all have to pray and hope that even though the start is indeed late all will be well that ends well and it will still be a grand holiday!

Advent Calendar 2011: The Opening and Happy St. Nicholas Day!

We at the Meady's Musings Production House have left many a story untold this year and many a blog post unfinished and unposted! You our readers must realize it really was never our intent! However we were just too taken up with travelling to different lands and putting on real live blog displays on UCP this year but mostly too involved in our day job! Yes as you know we must pay the bills and we have just been putting our shoulder to the wheel all year long this year!

But we really have just gone and done it now! As we've started our Advent calendar late now too! The Purple Elephant and Little Mouse were just very cross indeed and so they had to make it out of their imaginary house over into our real world to let us know just how they felt! And it wasn't a good sight I will tell you for many a passerby to see a cartoony looking elephant purple at that with a cartoony looking mouse on this back scolding a real life lady on the street! In fact many of the passersby ended up on the psychiatric chair! And for that we at the production house all yell out an 'Oh dear!' But it must have been worth it for here we are to declare the Advent Calendar 2011 open!

The rules again this year will be that on Meady's Musings we will be telling the story of 'The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant with the little mouse' of course at times we may pause for a little this and that.

And on UCP-Universal Collective Prayer we will be keeping to the reverence and prayer of the season.

However there will be days that the two blogs will collide like today as we join to launch the calendar and celebrate St. Nicholas Day! Yes Happy St. Nicholas Day 2011 folks! So although the Advent calendar is declared open late this year it is not that bad as it is on this very special day that celebrates that old saint of giving whom has forever been Americanised as a fat man in a red and white suit!

As we celebrate the day this year we look back at these times when we asked:

Do you believe in Santa Claus?

and when we said:

Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus!

And remind you again this year that if you need to learn more about St. Nicholas the St. Nicholas Center is a pretty good place to start!

And remind you that we do believe in Santa Claus as we also recall the gift giving that was done for the baby Jesus!

Maniac Mondays: Introducing 'The Turtle' and his Yoga Moves!

All pictures are copyright of The Meady's Musings Production House 2011.


We have a new inhabitant at the Meady's Musings Production House and we've been so enthused by him/her (we can't tell but the niece of nepotistic fame over on the UCP desk is the one who brought him to the house and she says he is a she i.e. it's a female of the species but that it may be for us a male he will be and so not a she!) over the last few months that we've begun to observe him so closely that we think it's now madness and so hence the new inhabitant is solely responsible for bringing back the Maniac Mondays blog postings! LOL!

The new inhabitant is a red slider turtle seen here.



He was living outside the production house for a while now but only a few months ago was he fully adopted into the house as one of the animal inhabitants of the Meady's Musings Production House...along with the Purple Elephant and little mouse themselves and the monkeys, bears and other elephants. Now we have to say we never thought we'd accept a non-mammal into the house this warmly...but indeed we have to admit it is now the case...one of the Meady's Musings Production House's animals is a reptile! OMG! Cold blooded...strange eyes and all! I can tell you it has the little mouse a bit jumpy because he doesn't want the other kind of reptiles around and they will not even be named!

But back to the turtle...like the other animals at the house he doesn't have any particular name as humans do and in his case he doesn't even have a colour and size connotation to him like how The Purple Elephant and the little mouse do. Nope he just goes by 'The Turtle'. And sometimes we become so fascinated by his moves in his aquarium we call him 'Our Turtle Love'. Yep for now he lives in an aquarium but we are considering to have The Purple Elephant dig him a pond and fill it with some water soon as he seems to be growing and growing this turtle!

However while he continues to in his aquarium live he continues to amuse us with his yoga moves...the ancient yogis already have a pose named after him:

'Kurmasana (Yoga Turtle Pose) – This pose is marvelous for reducing fat from the hips and belly.'

(And we hope he doesn't learn moves from some ninja master mimicking his moves from his aquarium as we don't quite think we'd want a child aged ninja red slider turtle on our hands! Cheesy we know...but then that's pizza...dudes!:P)

So here are some of our other pics of him as we admire how he sleeps on a bed of rocks as he basks under his sunlamp and we learn from his yoga moves!






And we now all live 'Happy Together' in the Meady's Musings Production House...as we welcome 'The Turtles'! :)

Tumultuous Thursdays: Just Where Does All That Energy Go: Are Inanimate Objects Storehouses for the Energy of Animate Beings?

Full Moon, Trinidad Feb 2010. Copyright of the Meady's Musings Production House

We've not blogged in such a long time that we're quite wondering if we've forgotten just how! But we're eager to ask a question here on Tumultuous Thursdays as we jump right back into it hoping that blogging is like riding a bike and you just never forget how! :) So let's get to it and over the weeks we will explain to you where we've been or what we've been up to since we've been away...but now my dear readers of this here blog...on to the question!

JUST WHERE OR WHERE DOES ALL THAT ENERGY GO-Are Inanimate Objects Storehouses for the Energy of Animate Beings?

Now we know what you're immediately thinking...well...no where! As according to the law of conservation of energy matter is neither created nor destroyed and so the energy goes no where it's just circulating all around! But that's not what we mean exactly when we asked the question. What we're wondering about is first of all according to Physics all matter has energy whether it is present in an animate or inanimate being. However according to Metaphysics one might see the types of energy as distinct in an animate object as opposed to an inanimate object...no? I mean what's the difference?

Well this questioning today on Tumultuous Thursdays began when a friend of the Production House a one Mr. Sharma dropped by and was going on about:

"can our old house or a car or a school or a tree send out thoughts in the global consciousness field to reach us in altered state of our local consciousness like dream or meditation?"

Now we had to first of all give Mr. Sharma a cup of tea and a cozy place to sit on our living room sofa, call over some other friends...notify the owner of the Production House and allow the Purple Elephant to trumpet while the little mouse put up another pot of tea before we all got to sitting around the room thinking and talking...and it was a question indeed!

We postulated that indeed inanimate objects may be storehouses for our energy...and then over time they slowly let it out again...sort of potential energy slowly becoming kinetic energy over time...I dare say at that thought the little mouse got a bit scared and kept staring at the baseball in one corner of the room and the cricket ball on the other....thinking one might just jump out at him! But not a ball in the house moved!

But surely this must be some of the things that psychokinesis is made up of no?

Perhaps when us animate objects interact with inanimate objects a bit of our conscious energy stays with them...either stored up to be released again later or reflected right away back at us or into the Universal space time continuum! :)

But the little mouse got even more scared at the thought of energy being stored up and released later on...he was about to have the Purple Elephant throw out all used items from the house...when we all allayed his fears...with the grandmotherly quote:

"No harm can come to those who pray!" And the guys from the UCP desk took him away to do just that!

But then with the little mouse gone we did admit that such stuff was what the creepy horror movies that will remain unnamed are made up of no? But not all energy is bad my readers and there must be good energy too...it just might have been too much of a buzz kill for Hollywood to ever highlight it in film! Although there was Casper the friendly ghost!:)

But it really is something to think about no? And it's also probably the kind of thing that Feng Shui and Vaastu Shastra considers...the energy present in inanimate objects and it's impact on us animate beings!

But hey it was just our rambling thoughts today...after all it is a Tumultuous Thursday and things can get a little bumpy!

So that's it for today folks and we hope to be blogging more again out of the Production House soon...but we dare say we missed sharing those tunes with you guys out there in the blogosphere...so after all the talks were done the Purple Elephant got out his old 45s and we all danced to 'Dream a little dream of me'...after all it was a Tumultous Thursday! :)

The Purple Elephant with the Little Mouse Presents Our Guest Blog: 6 Simple Ways to Live a Sustainable Lifestyle!

Here is the thing…the Purple Elephant with the little mouse hiding behind his ears as usual went to the market to buy some potatoes, corn and ochro (okra) for this soup the owner of the production house was making as all the monkeys had fallen ill with flu. While walking in the market the little mouse squealed and hid perfectly out of sight behind the Purple Elephant’s ear and then he whispered look down there. At that point the Purple Elephant felt a paw crawling up his knee and looked down to see a brown shiny coat dog. It’s just a dog he said to the little mouse…and then the little mouse peeped out from behind his ear again…

“Ooh...that’s nice…for a second I thought it was a giant rat and you know how rats like to bully us mice and I really wasn’t in the mood for such an altercation!” said the little mouse.

“Oh India and Thailand…these mouse and rat games…sometimes I think they are more bothersome than cat and mouse ones!" said the Purple Elephant as he scooped up the tiny brown dog with his long purple trunk! It was then he noticed the dog have a pendant around his chain and wait...lo and behold it wasn't a pendant really but a USB drive and the dog kept licking it...sometimes lapping it entirely into his mouth!

The Purple Elephant whisked the USB drive from the dog and threw it up to the little mouse who immediatley pushed the drive into his notebook to see on it was a blog...this blog from the good people at no other site but...THE DOG ATE MY BLOG (blog no longer exists)! The little mouse read it and felt it would have a home here at the Meady's Musings Production House and so he called up the owner when she gave it a yes well the Purple Elephant waved his giant purple trunk and here it is for you to read! Enjoy it!:)


6 Simple Ways to Live a Sustainable Lifestyle

Joy Paley is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog (blog no longer exists) and a writer on the Guide to Online Schools (blog no longer exists).

These days, everywhere you look someone is giving tips to live a “greener” lifestyle. While it makes sense to keep the earth in mind, a lot of these tips aren’t that easily implemented by people who are on a budget or lack certain skills. Sure, I’d love to install solar panels on my roof or a low-flow plumbing system, but right now what I really need are sustainable tips that help the earth and my pocketbook. So I did some research to bring you these six tips that you can put into practice at home—without expert skills or a lot of money.

Start a Home Compost
Home composts aren’t just for tree huggers and eccentrics anymore. They’re a simple way to considerably green up your home, by reducing the amount of waste you send to the landfill. Instead of putting those food scraps in the garbage, just throw them into a small outdoor bin. Composting takes little effort: Sprinkle some water on your bin of old food, stir it up, and nature will take its course, turning your waste into free yard fertilizer. And, you’ll be saving money by reducing your garbage bill. Here’s a quick guide to getting started.

Collect Rainwater
Why waste money paying for water when you can get it for free? Just set a barrel or old garbage bin under your gutters when you’re expecting a rain shower, and you’ll be doing mother nature a favor. Instead of leaving your sprinklers on all throughout the year, you’ll be able to water your yard with the barrels you collect. This water is a lot easier on the earth because unlike tap water, it’s not being diverted away from streams and natural reservoirs to get your house.

Join a CSA
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, a type of organization that lets the local community support nearby growers who practice sustainable farming. When you join a CSA you’re essentially buying into a farmer’s harvest—helping fund the costs of getting the crop into the ground and tending it. In return, you get a share of their harvest in the form of a weekly produce delivery to your home or a distribution point near you. Use this page to find a list of CSAs in your region.

Use DIY Home Cleaners
Many home cleaners contain noxious chemicals that are harmful to manufacture and pollute our water supplies when they run down the drain. For most daily cleaning jobs you don’t even need those harsh chemicals; you can actually make cheap, nontoxic solutions from ingredients you already have at home. Vinegar, baking soda, and lemons are some examples. National Geographic has a roundup of the essential DIY household cleaners.

Eat Less Meat
Did you know that if you cut out one meal of chicken every week for a year and replaced it with vegetarian food, it would be equivalent to taking half a million cars off the road? Even if you can’t imagine yourself going vegetarian, removing just one meal of meat a week can drastically cut down the greenhouse gases that result from raising livestock. These simple veggie recipes can get you started.

Buy a Power Strip
Some electronics are real energy suckers—they keep drawing energy from the wall, even whey are turned completely off! Plugging all your electronics into a handy power strip is a simple way to ensure that they’re cut off from the power source and won’t be wasting energy when you’re not using them. It’s a handy way to be frugal and save energy.

Tumultuous Thursdays: Kundalini Yoga, the Shiv and Shakti and Shiv as Potential Energy

UCP/Meady's Musings Production does not own the rights for this image.

A friend came over to the Meady's Musings Production House and the Purple Elephant quickly threw his long purple trunk forward to open the door. The friend entered and said hello and then quickly went over to the guys at the UCP desk and asked them if they were interested in a course in kundalini yoga. It was quite an interesting course but seeing as the owner of the Production House hardly ever pays the guys at the UCP desk a single penny even...no one unfortunately could afford the fees! :( But it got the guys at the UCP desk who are currently writing about this Festival of Shiv 2011 to thinking and they went over to the guys who write the Tumultuous Thursdays blog posts on Meady's Musings and well...this joint blog that is both about religion and metaphysics was born and today appears on both UCP's Festival of Shiv and Meady's Musings' Tumultuous Thursdays! :)

Now kundalini yoga and yoga as a whole is often associated with Baba Shiv as he is seen as the mahayogi and in the image at the start of the post you can see where Shiv's iconography itself can be used to describe the elements of Kundalini yoga and as a whole the key body/energy points in yoga. And this website titled Kundalini Awakening appears to be a very good research source for anyone wanting to know more about the theories behind kundalini yoga.

However the rest of the blog post will delve more into the shiv/shakti relationship that comes out of the study of kundalini yoga and more so the concept that shiv is potential energy and shakti kinetic energy.

Let's define the two terms in Physics as defined by the Free Dictionary:

POTENTIAL ENERGY: (noun)The energy of a particle or system of particles derived from position, or condition, rather than motion. A raised weight, coiled spring, or charged battery has potential energy.

KINETIC ENERGY:(noun)The energy possessed by a body because of its motion, equal to one half the mass of the body times the square of its speed.

Now in Hinduism it is not only seen that Shiv is like potential energy and Shakti like kinetic energy...it is also seen that both Shiv and Shakti are one...so really it is one being that is at one point potential energy and then at another point kinetic energy.

So let's see it as if Shiv is sitting there in meditative post and then while in meditation he thinks up Shakti as this moving dancing female being...then after she manifests from his thoughts as dancing kinetic energy before him he eventually is also aroused and starts to dance with her...his potential energy is converted to kinetic energy!

Seen in the dance of Shiv and Shakti it would look something like this:


Seen in the metaphysical sense as it's impact on the creation and/or destruction it would be something like this:


Think about it is all the potential energy is eventually converted to kinetic energy ...it you have a coil of string and it has this potential energy in it as it is all coiled up but then begins to unravel as its potential energy converts to kinetic energy...what happens when all the string is unraveled? Well you no longer have a ball of string?

Hey but this is no doom's day blogpost or anything...after all this is a joint blogpost on Tumultuous Thrusdays and UCP i.e. Universal Collective Prayer...but we are just analysing some of the aspects of Shiv here and realising more so now how he might be seen as the God of destruction and how his cosmic dance of destruction...or the Nataraj dance has become so world famous...as he gets up from his coiled potential energy position and dances uncoiling as kinetic energy flows! But remember that energy is neither created nor destroyed so the kinetic energy again can become potential as another ball of string or the cosmos is reformed....Jai Bholenath! :)

Slumbering Saturdays....ahmm...Studious Saturdays: Here We Write!

OK so today is the day that Slumbering Saturdays was suppose to have become Studious Saturdays...but it didn't go as well as planned and after a hard week of full time work and a late Friday night...well most of Saturday was spent Slumbering and then Erranding...but as we get to the end of what was suppose to be a Studious Saturday...we are filled with little reproach!

You see we still plan to fill the last hours of the night with some writing and continue to have a strong visualization for next Saturday...us getting up in the wee hours of the morning...sitting at our writing desk...writing away...a few thousand words even before the sun comes up! :)

But for tonight we still did a little bit write...so we will call it a truce and say it is still the launch of Studious Saturdays if you like!

Look forward to blogs on other days of the week as normally themed i.e. Maniac Mondays, Tumultuous Thursdays and even Funtastic Fridays if we might!

And on our sister blog UCP we shall be launching this year's festival of Shiv! So look for that this Monday!

So until then...to all a good night!

And hope you all enjoyed the cartoon above and the associated movie clip below! :)