Life before TV's to chatting live with a friend In Sweden.

Today is day 6 of Artfully Wild Blog Along.  Effy blogged about how the internet is her hometown.  I have been trying all day to figure out what to blog about until I read hers.

I was born before TV.  Yep, we used to listen to our stories on the radio. "The shadow knows..",  Sky King,  The Green Hornet.. We used our imaginations picturing what they were saying.  It was fun, like reading a book and picturing the characters.

When we wanted to make a phone call we'd pick up our phone and wait until the operator said, "Number please."  Sometimes we could hear a conversation because we shared party lines and had to wait until the other conversation was done to make our call.   We were trapped in our homes if we had to wait for a call.  Not anymore. We have our cell phones and can go anyplace and still get our important and unimportant calls.

In the late 1940s we got our first TV but there weren't many channels and they always signed off at midnight.  I remember watching the Milton Berle show on Tuesday nights.  Of course they were black and white. We didn't get a color TV until the 70s.

I've kept a diary since before I was married and during my high school years. But when I got married my stepfather and I burned them. Burned them? What was I thinking?  I guess I didn't want my husband to find out.  Ha ha, I sure was brainwashed.  I started keeping a journal in 1963 before JFK was shot.  I have 15 filled books and many are numbered, all are dated.  I would love to do something with them but so many of my entries were fights between my mother and myself.  Not sure the world needs to read these.

I was pretty agoraphobic during this time but in the 1970s Citizens Band Radio came along (CB) and I took to that like a duck out of water. My mother was an amatuer radio operator (Ham) and she wanted me to become one too.  I wasn't interested and didn't have the money for all the equipment anyhow.  But CB radio got me to be more social.  I remember telling my husband that I didn't want to meet any of them and wasn't going to any of the get togethers, which they called "breaks."  But I did and they were fun.  I remember he and I dancing to Country music and wondering what happened because before we didn't like that kind of music.   Hubby got involved in raising money for the Leukemia society and I was furious at him until I got involved too. I ended up staying up all night talking to the truckers kidding around and asking for donations.  We raised a lot of money. I called myself The Confessor because I wrote and sold Confession stories to True Confessions and True Romance magazines.

Next came computers.  I got the first color computer where we had to type in code to get a silly little program to run.  I loved to type so it was fun for me but I wanted more.  I had been writing stories on typewriters.  Hubby was a typewriter repairman so I got to try out different models. But boy when I made a mistake on a story I wanted to submit it was either use white out or type the whole darned page again.  Computers changed all that.   I graduated to a more sophisticated computer called the Commodore 64.  I had fun with it but it wasn't a writing machine.

I remember my brother had a program online called My Cozy Kitchen. These were bulletin boards where people could sign in and chat or play games. It was just before the internet became popular.  I was logged into my brother's computer and saw a link leading to something called the internet and got curious.  It took me to something that made no sense at all.  Brother came home, saw me messing around and asked me what I was doing. I said "I don't know, I'm lost."  LOL I am glad for my curiosity though, it keeps me from getting bored.

So my brother taught me how to create my own web page and I got my domain and started offering readings after taking a lot of courses.  Then I got hired to work on a chat line that was a lot of fun. I made a lot of money too.

A few years later I discovered blogtalk radio and had my own radio program for 3 years.  That was such fun.  Now I go live on Facebook sometimes. I want to do more, learn more and have more fun.

So, like Effy, my hometown is also the internet.  I have a dear online friend in Sweden and once a month she and I co create together an EFT/tapping call as Team Leaders on the Thriving Now site we belong to.  We help others release some of their stuck energy.  She was traveling in a car from where she lives in the southern part of Sweden to the northern part and I was chatting with her LIVE on Facebook! I was blown away by just thinking of what we were doing.  Who would have thought when I was a child listening to my stories on the radio that 70+ years later I would be chatting live with an online friend in Sweden?

What's next?  I don't know but I'm experimenting with creating an angel webinar or ...  That's another blog.

Free Wednesday Tarot Class The Hermit

Hi and welcome to our Wednesday Tarot lesson. This week we are meeting the Hermit. Take a look at him in your Rider-Waite deck. He is number IX. He is standing on the top of a cold, snowy mountain holding a lantern and a staff. He has reached the first plateau of awareness and has gone through the initiation of the cards from the fool to strength that we’ve talked about in our other articles. Because he has reached this higher level of consciousness, he can teach us. He is holding the light to illumine the path for the rest of us. He made the trek up the mountain on his own, just like we have to climb our own mountains – you know the ones we make out of mole hills? The word Hermit comes from the Greek word eremites, which means of the desert. Sometimes we have to be like the Hermit and periodically pull away from our every day life to seek solitude. We don’t have to climb mountains to get away but we need to take a few minutes for ourselves, to shut the door, take some deep breaths and connect with our Higher Self or our Angels and Guides. This is really not hard to do. Some say “I can’t meditate because I can’t still my mind.” I always say, you don’t have to quiet your mind, but if you buy some guided imagery tapes, get quiet and listen to them, it will be like taking a vacation. You will have temporarily let go of your worries and problems and come back refreshed. This is also called charging your inner batteries. All of our spiritual teachers including Moses and Jesus learned to go away for awhile and go into the silence and the solitude

Sometimes when we are on our spiritual path we feel like we’re alone in the desert and it can feel scary. We feel adrift, separate, and lonely. This can make us feel so uncomfortable that we flip on the TV, call a friend on the phone, go to a bar – anything so we don’t have to feel that restless, empty scary feeling. Our new friend the Hermit felt like this many times, just as all of us do. This is part of growth and we can learn to welcome it and practice attuning ourselves to new ways of solving our personal problems. The Hermit symbolizes that we can always turn to him and his light for guidance. He symbolizes our Higher Power. He knows that he cannot carry us just like we don’t need to carry others. We can be like the Hermit in our own life and, once we get our inner light glowing, we can teach others how to be strong. Many times this is the only way we can help. If we run around giving all our money away to people they will just spend the money and be out of it again. Is that helpful? Maybe temporarily we can give them a hand, but wouldn’t it be much better if we showed them how to help themselves? Jesus not only fed the people but he showed them how to fish. There are many kinds of teachers in the world. There are credit counselors, twelve step programs, gamblers anonymous and other types of recovery programs. We can learn from Yogi Classes, Tai Chi, and Karate. Exercise and walking is another way to get away and go within. Many times people recharge when they walk – their endorphins are released. Diet changes, journaling, going to someone in the helping professions – all of these are forms of teachings that can help us on our path. We don’t need to limit ourselves. Neither do we have to solve everyone else’s problems. Yes it is good to be of service, but when we get so engrossed in solving other’s problems that we drain ourselves, we can end up making others dependent on us, and that is definitely not what the Hermit is about. You can be like the Hermit and help others find their own light. We all come into this earth plane with our own lessons and we really have no knowledge of what the other person has come here to learn. We need to remember this when we get too involved in trying to help another. It’s great to help them help themselves, but we must not try to carry them.
The astrological sign of the Hermit is Virgo, which is an earth sign. It is mutable, meaning adaptable; it can either stand still or change, depending on the needs. Virgo’s like to analyze and serve, they are industrious and one of their lessons is to free themselves from excessive worry. What teachers, books, classes will you take to become more like your Hermit within? The planet Mercury, which represents our mind, our way of communicating, rules Virgo. Try to be aware this week how you will learn from others as well as be their teacher.

The Hermit’s Advice:

Rest, relax, regenerate, and pay attention to your needs
Focus on your work and don’t let yourself get distracted
Eat nutritiously, exercise, dance, and become balanced
Look to your higher self, start journaling with your angels
Hold the light for others but don’t carry them

Next week we’ll look at our Wheel of Fortune. What a fun card this can be!

^i^ Angel Hugs,

Jean Maurie