Bad Kitty Art Studio Portland, Oregon - oil paintings, sculp

BAD! Kitty Art StudioÂ’s
Quote for the day!

***
G'day - Australian Slang for
How the heck ya doing today?

***
“The well adjusted make poor prophets. A pleasant existence blinds us to the possibilities of drastic change. We cling to what we call our common sense, our practical point of view. Actually, these are names for an all-absorbing familiarity with things as they are. . . . Thus it happens that when the times become unhinged, it is the practical people who are caught unaware . . . still clinging to things that no longer exist.”
~Eric Hoffer
***
This is shoe day in our home.
Everyone will go shopping today and buy new shoes, everyone will get one new pair its so much fun....family shoe day that we limit ourselves to doing it only once a year... I know...we are, like such crazy rebels gone mad, in an insane world...new shoes once every year?!
GASP!
Well, it's only once a year for the big people the kids need new shoes every three months but Mom and Dad don't get new shoes except on Shoe Day.
I'm excited, I love shoes, not girl shoes...uuuggggh!

I love mens shoes...I can't walk around in girl shoes!

I would feel like I was in drag or something.
I will wear grrrl Shoes if they are Sic enough...

but they have to be some smokin' hot shoes for me to want to wear them...

usually boots...

I will literally fall to my knees in front of the boot rack, well made, OH they are...steele toed? (even better) Thick soled boots....

I secretly worship boots and bacon
( I don't eat bacon (not much)...ick, but I love the smell of it...so, thats not so wrong, is it?)
ssshhhh don't tell...Top Secret...
poop nobody ever listens to me...anyway
today is shoe day!
I am hoping for a new pair of everyday ass kicking boots!
But I'll just have to see what we find.
I'll settle for some new slip-on Merrll's too..Oh my favorite brand of regular shoes are Men's Merrell's...OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like walking on clouds all day.
I have three pairs, worn thru...and they cost a freaking fortune...but send me to hell right now if it's wrong, but I love those shoes.


I am working hard to stay centered today.
I am sick, and it's not the flu.
I am going to go see some doctors today...and will have to do the whole...

"Well, we will have to send you to a specialist for this test, and that test...."
I hate being sick.
I hate it even more when I know it's going to be not a simple sick either.
Something is wrong with my lungs
Got to figure it out
I'm a little scared
OK a LOT scared
And I will get thru it, no matter what the problem ends up being
But I am worried... about it being bad news
Seeing shadows, and bright spots on x-rays is never good...
But maybe it'll just be something easy to fix with medication or something and won't be a huge ugly thing to deal with.
So I'll go for the tests...and I'll wait for the results..and I'll be brave.
Hell I have already been told I was going to die...twice now...in six months or less...it's been 15 years of hearing that...and proving them wrong.
So I'm not afraid of hearing it's the big C...I have already beat that once...but at the time I was younger, and only had one child...now there are three..and it's not like they won't know whats going on with Mom.
I worry for them too.
I am sure that it's not going to emerge into a huge thing...it usually doesn't...so why waste energy on it? I am only Human...
So instead we will have
SHOE DAY! And we are having Ice Cream for Lunch!!!...well not real Ice Cream...but we are having Sundays for lunch dammit!
And the trip to the doctor will be just another thing we have to do today...not a big deal.
Because there is always shoes...and
Buddha...who got me thru all the other stuff in my life with that one little quote...up there...
Believe nothing...
Unless it makes sense to my inner me.
My inner me is one hard-headed, stubborn, southern fried grrrl.
So most of what Western Medicine has to offer me...
Has been me practicing...just that.
Not believing it unless it makes sense to me.
I just don't listen sometimes.

Yours today, in the struggle to remain present in the moment
* I'm given her all I've got Captain!!!....More!... Power Scotty....fuck it, just beam my ass up!

Captain Kirk Out---->*
and to finding the coolest kick ass shoes/boots the Universe has to offer!
Yea! Three cheers for Shoe DAY!
Heather

Bad Kitty Art Studio Portland, Oregon - oil paintings, sculpture, painted furniture, recycled art, motivational words

BAD! Kitty Art Studio's

Quote for the day!

***

Adaab - Urdu for Hello

***

"Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives. One of the best ways we can get the most from the energy we have is to focus it. That is what goals can do for us; concentrate our energy."

Denis Waitley

When the light entered my brain this morning,
My first thought was of the
Concentration of effort,
determinations about my truths and my reality,
and the promises I have
made to myself in the past year.
Looking back on 2005
I see that I have been burning all year…
Burning up like a forest fire.
I see where I stumbled…
So did all of you that read the daily quotes…for the last 270+ posts…
Well it boils down to this,
This last year was chock
full of fire, passion, and zeal.
I did live beyond the clichés...
I managed to live another year in the moment…
Almost all the time.
It’s all bitch work some days…for sure.
I had a situation last night where living in the moment
Was brought to my attention
By my own child….this is fun you’ll like it…

*Short background history for the living in the moment lesson*
My Step-Mom used to give me
Medicine at the drop of a hat…Nyquil and Benadryl at night
Were common before you go to bed things in my house.
I hat the smell/memory of any of these OTC liquid based medicines and will not use them to this day….
until now.

*Now for the Living in the moment Lesson*

I have the flu.
It sucks…I can’t sleep because I can’t breath.
I needed to take something to sleep
And get some rest.
My Mate Man has been sick too, and asked me to
Pick up some Nyquil
For him.
Last night, he was telling me…
“come on, get over it…you need some sleep, I’m going to pour this dose out in the little cup…and leave it on the counter….you decide what you want to do with it.”
Then he did just that and walked out of the room.
I paced about, in the kitchen
I muttered to myself that I just couldn’t take it….the smell…I was going to throw-up
You know… your basic six-year old tantrum shit…
And my 16 year old walks in and says,
“Mom…whatcha doing?
You’re not gonna take that stuff are you?”
I started spewing about how I couldn’t… it just brought up to many memories, and I was scared.
He just looked at me…
“Mom…you are not six anymore…”
Thank the Universe for my children!
He was right…I am not a little kid…I am the adult that
has the flu…
so…I drank the fucking Nyquil…
And slept like a baby.

Because in this moment I don’t have any baggage about something as stupid and wasteful of energy as being afraid of OTC medications…gimme a break!
So, I am whole…not all the time…but even when I’m not being
My most impeccable
I still am.
Because I won’t have to do that again…
I’m never gonna forget that stuff
But it does not rule the choices I make for myself today…
As much or for as long a time, as it once did.
I am in better control of really living in the moment
Because I have spent three years practicing…and the people around me have been supporting, learning, loving…and they are a network of
“snap my ass back on track” people.
They have learned…and use my own teaching, ranting,
Spewing and turn it around and use it to help, heal and love me back into the moment.
I finally have what I have always wanted.
A strong network
Of real, live
Humans
That will love me when I need it,
Leave me alone when I need it,
Tell me to shut up, sit down and listen when it need it.
Accept me as-is…and as I change.
I have my fantasy family.
I created the change, and now it’s used freely in my home
All the time, by all of us…and
It’s changing the world
By this one home being full of imperfect
But willing Live Beings…
Watch out world…
Watch us Universe…
We are going to use it all up here, this time.
Living without regrets,
Living like it’s the last ten seconds,
Creating traditions, and new patterns…
Becoming authentic…
Being
Human
And
Then
Daring to
Become…
More.
Yours today,
Really, really in the moment and feeling fine…
Heather
http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Bad Kitty Art Studio Portland, Oregon - oil paintings, sculpture, painted furniture, recycled art, motivational words

BAD! Kitty Art Studio's

Quote for the day

As-salaam-aleykum - Arabic-based languages

(For Peace be with you)

***

"Always remember, no one can debase you but yourself. Slander, satire, falsehood, injustice-these can never rob you of your manhood. Men may lie about you, they may denounce you, they may cherish suspicions manifold, they may make your failings the target of their wit or cruelty. Never be alarmed; never swerve an inch from the line your judgment and conscience have marked out for you. They cannot, by all their efforts, take away your knowledge of yourself, the purity of your character, and the generosity of your nature. While these are left, you are unharmed"

~unknown

***

When I was a younger, I was introduced to the sport of archery, by my Father.

My Father loves bladed weapons, guns and archery and has large a collection of each.

When he got into archery, I was 12 or so; I was forced to go to the local indoor archery range, sit on a bench in the back "safety" zone and watch him and all the other men practice.

There was never any women there, unless they had come with their husbands, sons, or boyfriends.

I was lucky in a sense...Because my Father asked me one day if I wanted to "try" shooting his big manly bow.

I of course could not even pull it back, at the time he was pulling at about 75# on the string.

The guy that ran the place was a sweet, good old boy,

who was watching the skinny little girl in the most current fashion trends,

(Madonna had just hit it big...Big Hair, rubber bracelets, baby doll socks...I know...Don't remind you, yuck! What were we thinking...I hope the 80's never come back into style)

trying to hold up and pull back that huge ass bow,

I didn't stop the first time because it was hard,

I just figured I had done it wrong...

so I stopped and started watching

the other people in their form and how they loaded and such.

I did manage to get the string to pull back about a quarter of the way...Using the proper pull back form.

The old guy came around the corner, with a kids bow...

same as the big ones just smaller is size, and said

"here...Let her try this one."

I was embarrassed that everyone knew

I was using a "baby" bow.

So I took the bow...And notched my first arrow, and looked around at the guy who was the best shot in the room, and stood like he did. I watched his body as he loaded, pulled back and fired... Almost all one fluid motion...Each of his arrows went into the target...Six shots so tight....They were all in a space the size of a quarter.

What I remember most is watching his eyes...He never took them off the target...Even when he loaded.

I made a couple of feeble attempts....My arrow first falling off the bow, then the second one went flying across the room into another persons target, the third one...The string of the bow, hit my inner forearm and rolled the top couple of layers of skin off in a long patch from my elbow to my wrist, as well as catching the egde of my inner breast.

Man that hurt.

My Father of course thought it was funny,

The old guy brought me an arm shield...And I cried a little bit.

He took me up to the line, and said,

"when you're ready just try it again."

My Father came up and made a big show

of helping me re-position myself

and told me suck it up.

I was shaking, and pissed, and hurt...

and focused.

* Inner self said...You want to dance Mutha?

Well OK...let's dance.*

My next six shots all hit the target I was aiming for.

The next six shots all hit the target in one smaller area.

The next six shots were tight and all up in the right corner.

My shoulders were killing me.

The guys in the room...All rednecks...

were starting to cheer me on.

That don't happen often for grrrl's in the South...

playing with Man toys.

They Told my Father..."Man, I think she's a natural!...She's got talent!...Wow, you should get her her own equipment"...Stuff like that...

Then the guy that was the best in the room,

I mentioned him Earlier...Quietly came and loaded his next round in the space next to mine.

He never said anything to me.

He looked me in the eye though...

and he loaded and shot...

but he did it real slow this time and his form was perfect.

The first shot went into the bullseye.

He looked at me in the eye again.

And waited for me to shoot.

After I figured out that he was waiting to see me shoot...I loaded...Aimed and shot.

I tried to do it like I had seen him do it.

I missed the target completely.

He loaded, real slow and shot again.

The arrow, went into the previous arrow for what's called a "Robin Hood" where you split one arrow with another one, perfectly placed.

Now a Robin Hood is a big freaking deal...

and they had all kinds of them hanging all over the inside of that place with the archers names hanging off of them, on little white tags... Proudly.

The place erupted in cheers, grins and back slapping.

While that was going on, I slowly loaded, I thought about holding my body as the bow holds the arrow...I thought about being the arrow...Going into the bullseye.

It flew straight and true...

I hit it dead center.

The next three were in the bullseye as well.

I had begun.

What I didn't know at the time was I was shooting next to the best archer in world at the time...He lives in Gainesville FL. and had been passing thru our little town, and had decided to stop and shoot for awhile to relax.

I can't remember his full name now, but his first name was Frank.

I started to ask if I could go with my

Father to the range when he went,

and the old guy let me keep borrowing different bows when I came...And I got better and better.

After I had "proved" to my Father that I was going to stick with it...

He bought me a beautiful Bear Tamberlane white and black bow...Just my size...And I got to pick out the arrows...I chose hot pink with black and white fletchings.

I wore outrageous outfits...To shoot in...Skirts, heels...Tight mini skirts...You name it...And when I became really good...After about 8 weeks of practice...I started entering local contests.

No women were shooting in my area...So I shot with the men.

I won.

A lot.

I am a natural.

I am different.

My Father was proud.

I am still a hell of a shot, and I still have my bow...

carried from place to place...All these years.

I have not shot in years.

All though I am sure,

my aim is still dead on.

I like my arrows straight...

and the sound of the arrow hitting the target,

going with speed and accuracy where I wanted it to go.

I am the arrow.

I did get to see Frank again...Later at a competition...He smiled at me and gave me the thumbs up when I went to the line with my division.

That's when I found out who he was...

He was hosting the event.

He only ever said one thing out loud to me...

"First time I saw you I knew you had it in you."

as I collected my first place trophy, in front of a stunned crowd of men that were not getting a trophy that day.

And I was a GIRL.

Not even 14 yet and competing with men old enough to be my Father...Because there wasn't any competition for me in the younger groups, I just smoked em'.

My Father and I competed against each other at the range, but not in real life. He was a great shot too, but was more into the gadgetry of it all than the art, the form, the religion.

I just love to shoot, I don't need anything fancy.

Just give me a bow and some good clean arrows,

I'm good to go.

Knowing that I can shoot well,

that I have a talent with aim...

I can shoot guns, and slingshots, and well... Anything really with good accuracy...From the start...If I had gone into the military I would have been a sniper, Mate Man says...

but it's the knowing that fact...that has gotten me here.

It's knowing I am capable of amazing things...If I want to be.

Knowing...

I could take someone out at 60 yards

soundlessly

also makes me feel good...not that I would...

But I could, that's what matters to the inner me.

I am a quiet warrior.

I am my Fathers Daughter.

Targets are something I use in my artwork all the time.

My aim is still true.

Form is still everything.

Now I hone my spirit, using the target

as a symbol for my

deadly aim, now when my arrows find their mark

and my work is true, and simple

and pure of form and intention...

I can still hear the

satisfying thunk sound

of my

intention

hitting

the mark.

Dead on center.

Bullseye...

and

my arrows

are

still straight.

Yours today with full

intention,

soul and heart,

Heather

Bad Kitty Art Studio Portland, Oregon - oil paintings, sculpture, painted furniture, recycled art, motivational words

BAD! Kitty Art Studio's

Quote for the day

Labdien, sveiki, chau (informal sound like in Italian),

- Latvian for hello

***

"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."

Niccolo Machiavelli

***

I dreamed about hands last night.

Hands of love, hands that caused pain,

hands that protected, hands that have guided,

baby hands, old gnarled hands, hands creating,

hands destroying.

I see the symbolism in the dream...

I understand what the "hands" mean.

It means I am Human.

Human.

I was speaking with a friend yesterday, who was facing a

"potential confrontation" with someone in her life.

I was talking with her about the situation from

different perspectives...I was coaching her on how to react,

with self control and self advocacy, and in the moment.

I kept using the word

impeccable, while explaining that her fear and anxiety

were hers to control or to be controlled by.

It was in her hands.

I felt the key turn inside her, I felt the door open.

When we had finished talking about why it was important that she

remind herself of who she is today,

in this moment...She asked me a question, that I had a quick answer for at the time...

and I still do, but I also thought about the answer all day long.

She asked why I kept using the word

impeccable....

it's a simple and complex answer.

I am practicing being impeccable in the moment myself...Daily.

The trials that occur in my life are but practice sessions for the big show. So I use it in my daily self talk and also out loud...I say it over and over again...To stay in the moment...Like training my body...I train my mind thru repetition and seeing everything in my daily life as a chance to grow...And learn something...Eat it up...Eat it up with my fingers.

Hold some answers in my hands, like candy on the tongue, a sweetness to be savored.

When the shit hits the fan...And it does and always will...

I know that I am a new me.

I know today that I have been practicing moment to moment living for three years here soon

(less than a week to go till my third anniversary of making this promise of discovery/recovery to myself)...

And what I have learned is this...

I am what I believe I am.

Not what I want to be.

I am what my inner belief is about myself.

Even if that inner belief isn't clear to my conscious mind...My subconscious training is my internal belief system.

I am re-training my subconscious with a daily download of new beliefs about myself. The NEW why of me.

I am Not what I want to be in this reality, I am what I believe I can be...That is our struggle...Reprogramming the quiet inner self...The one that makes the (our) awake minds a habitable and profitable place to live with/in/from.

The struggle to stay present, even in the suck-fest moments,

and try to make good choices...Has made me realize that the old me....

like the hand in the picture above,

is a key to the present me,

and a door I have already unlocked and gone thru.

The hands that shape my future me are now

my own.

I am opening a new door.

Look here in my hand...

a new key.

I teach people daily how to ask good questions,

ones that will bring back good answers.

In teaching I get to learn twice.

I learned something yesterday, about myself.

I am not afraid all the time anymore.

I look at the road ahead...

the unknown

as an adventure...

and in my hands

are new keys

to open

new

doors.

Dear Universe, it's me Heather...I am ready,

just in case you were wondering...

yes I am ready...To learn more.

Thank you Universe for the opportunity to do so.

Hey you...

want to come along?

Here

Just take my

Hand,

Heather

Bad Kitty Art Studio Portland/Beaverton, Oregon - oil paintings, sculpture, painted furniture, recycled art, motivational words

BAD! Kitty Art Studio

Quote of the day

Selamat Pagi - Indonesian for Hello

***

"To me it seems basic to the getting rid of fear to know that our trials, of whatever nature, are not motiveless. In our present stage of development we could hardly do without them. So often looking . . . Ugly . . . They are in reality the branches by we which we catch on and climb. They are not obstacles to happiness. . . . Every call of duty has its place in this ideal; every irksome job, every wearisome responsibility. The fact that we are not always aware of it in no way annuls the other fact that it is so. . . . "

Basil King

***

I hope everyone had a great holiday...This house had a wonderful day...With all the little ones ending up very happy, and even Mom and Dad got presents this year too!

***

This morning I woke up thinking about value...Not the costs in life but the real value of things.

How do you put a price tag on living in the moment?

I have a friend who has a wonderful little girl, and I have a friend that has a terrific little boy.

Both of these women are brave, and fierce beings.

Both of these women and their kids are victims/survivors of the Fathers of their children...

And the two great little kids...They are in the middle.

I woke up thinking about the value of the lessons each of these strong women are going thru,

and the children that will learn how to

BE A REAL LIVE, FEELING, INVOLVED and ENGAGED Human Beings in this life thru first hand experience of these lessons/trials by watching their Mothers show them how to be hurt...How to be strong...How to advocate for themselves...How to have a sense of

internal value and self worth.

Because both of these women have a abundance of character...Integrity...And Fear.

Using the scary stuff to fuel a fire that motivates them to become the very best people they themselves can become...

Each of them learning to live in the moment...Each of them failing...Getting up and doing not trying...But doing it ...again... Some call it pain...I call it growing with a direction...I call it determination...I call it courage.

I find a whole bunch of grace in the actions of these Human beings, these females, these goddesses of creation...These Mothers.

Because even when they stumble, when they are living in the moment...They find how strong they are...Not even thinking about what they can't possibly do...

If given the chance to think most Humans will taken the path that leads to least amount of pain.

When living in the moment...You don't have time to think about reacting...You just do it.

That's why life gives us these daily trials to make us practice daily being in the moment...Like the athlete trains their body to make their body react out of practice we do the same thing with our minds...

if we live in the moment every single moment,yes even the ones that suck...

we train ourselves to react in more healthy and beneficial ways...

Therefore changing our lives and the lives of those around us. Being the change does and will work...

For you, for your family and friends...Train yourself to use each disappointment, trial, and bend in the road as an "educational moment" to practice living in the moment with impeccablability and at the same time...

Letting yourself really give yourself to the moment...So what if you screw up...So what if you make the wrong choice....

You can always choose again...

good judgment comes from bad judgment.

Learn about yourself, and become the person you most need/want to be...

Not on the outside but on the inside.

Let your kids see you hurt, learn, grow.

They will learn that you have value, so they will have worth too.

They will learn you have courage to do the best you can with what you have at the moment, so they will have courage too. Have integrity of character and they will too.

World wide change starts in your home...

in your soul.

Find your value...Find yourself...Give yourself permission to dream, fail, and change.

I promise it's worth it.

You are the treasure uncovered...

The adventure yet had... The diamond in the rough.

Choice...The world and some of the people in it can/will try to grind away at you...Until there is nothing left....Or you can use the force of this reality to create something wonderful...

Turing into the wind...Letting it Shape your stone making the inclusions and flaws your valuable inner light, blowing away the sand covering your treasure...

making your travel easier in the adventure as you go.

Find yourself, and you won't be lonely.

find yourself, and you won't make the same

choices you made in the past.

Advocate for yourself and you discover

POWER.

Say ouch when you get hurt, and those

that really love you will stop hurting you.

We need you out here...Being truly alive and well and imperfect but willing.

We need you.

Yours today in the pursuit of my own quiet inner grace...

and finding a new courage to keep on growing,

Heather

Bad Kitty Art Studio Portland/Beaverton, Oregon - oil paintings, sculpture, painted furniture, recycled art, motivational words

BAD! Kitty Art Studio Quote of the day.

Happy Holiday's from BAD! Kitty Art Studio.

I have a crazy day ahead...and I leave you with these thoughts...about giving, trusting, and loving.

That's what were were born to do...love, grow, learn...some of us will...other will rot in their Human shells.

(not this Grrrl, I plan to use everything I was given for this life...and only be able to say at the end of my life that I used it all up.)

Don't be stinky...grow, learn and share...Love without abandonment or timelines, or limits.

May each of you be blessed in the coming year,

and for the love of ART

go buy some art buy clicking here...

so I may be blessed this year too.

Love, Heather

***

"When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate now knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."

Henri Nouwen

***
" And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

Martin Luther King Jr

***

I am free at last, thank God, and the Universe...or who ever is on duty up there today...the God on Call...

Thank you for my life.

Thank you for my hardships.

Thank you for my joy.

Thank you for love.

Thank you for my friends and family.

Thank you for what I have, and thank you for what I don't have.

Just Thank You.

Be wonderful today,

Heather

Inspiration now has a new name!

http://www.zaadz.net/
My most Favorite site in the whole world just opened up new stuff and blogging and well....this is a copy of one of the inspriational spots from ZaadZ that keep me going no matter what...I thought I would share with y0u....
******************************************************************
The Common Denominator of SuccessBy Albert E.N. Gray


“The common denominator of success --- the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful --- lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do.”
THE COMMON DENOMINATOR OF SUCCESS is as timely and inspirational, as it was when it was first delivered in 1940. Though it was written for life insurance professionals, it's message is equally well suited to anyone in the sales profession, or anyone in any field of endeavor who seeks success in their professional, personal or spiritual lives.
---
This inspiring message by Mr. Gray is one of the most timeless pieces of life insurance literature. It first appeared as a major address at the 1940 NALU (National Association of Life Underwriters) annual convention in Philadelphia and has been available to association members in pamphlet form ever since. Although our author has passed away, his words of wisdom and moving philosophy --- so manifest in "The Common Denominator of Success" --- are part of the current life insurance scene and have real meaning for today's professional life underwriter. Mr. Gray was an official of the Prudential Insurance Company of America and had 30 years of continuous experience both as an agent in the field and as a promoter and instructor in sales development. He was known throughout the country as a writer and speaker on life insurance subjects.
---
Several years ago I was brought face to face with the very disturbing realization that I was trying to supervise and direct the efforts of a large number of men who were trying to achieve success, without knowing myself what the secret of success really was. And that, naturally, brought me face to face with the further realization that regardless of what other knowledge I might have brought to my job, I was definitely lacking in the most important knowledge of all.
Of course, like most of us, I had been brought up on the popular belief that the secret of success is hard work, but I had seen so many men work hard without succeeding and so many men succeed without working hard that I had become convinced that hard work was not the real secret even though in most cases it might be one of the requirements.
And so I set out on a voyage of discovery which carried me through biographies and autobiographies and all sorts of dissertations on success and the lives of successful men until I finally reached a point at which I realized that the secret I was trying to discover lay not only in what men did, but also in what made them do it.
I realized further that the secret for which I was searching must not only apply to every definition of success, but since it must apply to everyone to whom it was offered, it must also apply to everyone who had ever been successful. In short, I was looking for the common denominator of success.
And because that is exactly what I was looking for, that is exactly what I found.
But this common denominator of success is so big, so powerful, and so vitally important to your future and mine that I'm not going to make a speech about it. I'm just going to "lay it on the line" in words of one syllable, so simple that everyone can understand them.
The common denominator of success --- the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful --- lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do.
It's just as true as it sounds and it's just as simple as it seems. You can hold it up to the light, you can put it to the acid test, and you can kick it around until it's worn out, but when you are all through with it, it will still be the common denominator of success, whether you like it or not.
It will still explain why men have come into this business of ours with every apparent qualification for success and given us our most disappointing failures, while others have come in and achieved outstanding success in spite of many obvious and discouraging handicaps. And since it will also explain your future, it would seem to be a mighty good idea for you to use it in determining just what sort of a future you are going to have. In other words, let's take this big, all-embracing secret and boil it down to fit the individual you.
If the secret of success lies in forming the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do, let's start the boiling-down process by determining what are the things that failures don't like to do. The things that failures don't like to do are the very things that you and I and other human beings, including successful men, naturally don't like to do. In other words, we've got to realize right from the start that success is something which is achieved by the minority of men, and is therefore unnatural and not to be achieved by following our natural likes and dislikes nor by being guided by our natural preferences and prejudices.
The things that failures don't like to do, in general, are too obvious for us to discuss them here, and so, since our success is to be achieved in the sale of life insurance, let us move on to a discussion of the things that we as life insurance men don't like to do. Here, too, the things we don't like to do are too many to permit specific discussion, but I think they can all be disposed of by saying that they all emanate from one basic dislike peculiar to our type of selling. We don't like to call on people who don't want to see us and talk to them about something they don't want to talk about. Any reluctance to follow a definite prospecting program, to use prepared sales talks, to organize time and to organize effort are all caused by this one basic dislike.
Perhaps you have wondered what is behind this peculiar lack of welcome on the part of our prospective buyers. Isn't it due to the fact that our prospects are human too? And isn't it true that the average human being is not big enough to buy life insurance of his own accord and is therefore prone to escape our efforts to make him bigger or persuade him to do something he doesn't want to do by striking at the most important weakness we possess: namely, our desire to be appreciated? Perhaps you have been discouraged by a feeling that you were born subject to certain dislikes peculiar to you, with which the successful men in our business are not afflicted.
Perhaps you have wondered why it is that our biggest producers seem to like to do the things that you don't like to do.
They don't! And I think this is the most encouraging statement I have ever offered to a group of life insurance salesmen.
But if they don't like to do these things, then why do they do them? Because by doing the things they don't like to do, they can accomplish the things they want to accomplish. Successful men are influenced by the desire for pleasing results. Failures are influenced by the desire for pleasing methods and are inclined to be satisfied with such results as can be obtained by doing things they like to do.
Why are successful men able to do things they don't like to do while failures are not? Because successful men have a purpose strong enough to make them form the habit of doing things they don't like to do in order to accomplish the purpose they want to accomplish.
Sometimes even our best producers get into a slump. When a man goes into a slump, it simply means that he has reached a point at which, for the time being, the things he doesn't like to do have become more important than his reasons for doing them. And may I pause to suggest to you managers and general agents that when one of your good producers goes into a slump, the less you talk about his production and the more you talk about his purpose, the sooner you will pull him out of his slump?
Many men with whom I have discussed this common denominator of success have said at this point, "But I have a family to support and I have to have a living for my family and myself. Isn't that enough of a purpose?"
No, it isn't. It isn't a sufficiently strong purpose to make you form the habit of doing the things you don't like to do for the very simple reasons that it is easier to adjust ourselves to the hardships of a poor living than it is to adjust ourselves to the hardships of making a better one. If you doubt me, just think of all the things you are willing to go without in order to avoid doing the things you don't like to do. All of which seems to prove that the strength which holds you to your purpose is not your own strength but the strength of the purpose itself.
Now let's see why habit belongs so importantly in this common denominator of success.
Men are creatures of habit just as machines are creatures of momentum, for habit is nothing more or less than momentum translated from the concrete into the abstract. Can you picture the problem that would face our mechanical engineers if there were no such thing as momentum? Speed would be impossible because the highest speed at which any vehicle could be moved would be the first speed at which it could be broken away from a standstill. Elevators could not be made to rise, airplanes could not be made to fly, and the entire world of mechanics would find itself in a total state of helplessness. Then who are you and I to think that we can do with our own human nature what the finest engineers in the world could not do with the finest machinery that was ever built?
Every single qualification for success is acquired through habit. Men form habits and habits form futures. If you do not deliberately form good habits, then unconsciously you will form bad ones. You are the kind of man you are because you have formed the habit of being that kind of man, and the only way you can change is through habit.
The success habits in life insurance selling are divided into four main groups:
Prospecting habits
Calling habits
Selling habits
Working habits
Let's discuss these habit groups in their order.
Any successful life insurance salesman will tell you that it is easier to sell life insurance to people who don't want it than it is to find people who do want it, but if you have not deliberately formed the habit of prospecting for needs, regardless of wants, then unconsciously you have formed the habit of limiting your prospecting to people who want life insurance and therein lies the one and only real reason for lack of prospects.
As to calling habits, unless you have deliberately formed the habit of calling on people who are able to buy but unwilling to listen, then unconsciously you have formed the habit of calling on people who are willing to listen but unable to buy.
As to selling habits, unless you have deliberately formed the habit of calling on prospects determined to make them see their reasons for buying life insurance, then unconsciously you have formed the habit of calling on prospects in a state of mind in which you are willing to let them make you see their reasons for not buying it.
As to working habits, if you will take care of the other three groups, the working habits will generally take care of themselves because under working habits are included study and preparation, organization of time and efforts, records, analyses, etc. Certainly you're not going to take the trouble to learn interest-arousing approaches and sales talks unless you're going to use them. You're not going to plan your day's work when you know in your heart that you're not going to carry out your plans. And you're certainly not going to keep an honest record of things you haven't done or of results you haven't achieved. So let's not worry so much about the fourth group of success habits, for if you are taking care of the first three groups, most of the working habits will take care of themselves and you'll be able to afford a secretary to take care of the rest of them for you.
But before you decide to adopt these success habits, let me warn you of the importance of habit to your decision. I have attended many sales meetings and sales congresses during the past ten years and have often wondered why, in spite of the fact that there is so much good in them, so many men seem to get so little lasting good out of them. Perhaps you have attended sales meetings in the past and have left determined to do the things that would make you successful or more successful only to find your decision or determination waning at just the time when it should be put into effect or practice.
Here's the answer. Any resolution or decision you make is simply a promise to yourself, which isn't worth a tinker's dam unless you have formed the habit of making it and keeping it. And you won't form the habit of making it and keeping it unless right at the start you link it with a definite purpose that can be accomplished by keeping it. In other words, any resolution or decision you make today has to be made again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and the next, and so on. And it not only has to be made each day, but it has to be kept each day, for if you miss one day in the making or keeping of it, you've got to go back and begin all over again. But if you continue the process of making it each morning and keeping it each day, you will finally wake up some morning a different man in a different world, and you will wonder what has happened to you and the world you used to live in.
Here's what has happened. Your resolution or decision has become a habit and you don't have to make it on this particular morning. And the reason for your seeming like a different man living in a different world lies in the fact that for the first time in your life, you have become master of yourself and master of your likes and dislikes by surrendering to your purpose in life. That is why behind every success there must be a purpose and that is what makes purpose so important to your future. For in the last analysis, your future is not going to depend on economic conditions or outside influences of circumstances over which you have no control. Your future is going to depend on your purpose in life. So let's talk about purpose.
First of all, your purpose must be practical and not visionary. Some time ago, I talked with a man who thought he had a purpose which was more important to him than income. He was interested in the sufferings of his fellow man, and he wanted to be placed in a position to alleviate that suffering. But when he analyzed his real feeling, we discovered, and he admitted it, that what he really wanted was a real nice job dispensing charity with other people's money and being well paid for it, along with the appreciation and feeling of importance that would naturally go with such a job.
But in making your purpose practical, be careful not to make it logical. Make it a purpose of the sentimental or emotional type. Remember needs are logical while wants and desires are sentimental and emotional. Your needs will push you just so far, but when your needs are satisfied, they will stop pushing you. If, however, your purpose is in terms of wants and desires, then your wants and desires will keep pushing you long after your needs are satisfied and until your wants and desires are fulfilled.
Recently I was talking with a young man who long ago discovered the common denominator of success without identifying his discovery. He had a definite purpose in life and it was definitely a sentimental or emotional purpose. He wanted his boy to go through college without having to work his way through as he had done. He wanted to avoid for his little girl the hardships which his own sister had had to face in her childhood. And he wanted his wife and the mother of his children to enjoy the luxuries and comforts, and even necessities, which had been denied his own mother. And he was willing to form the habit of doing things he didn't like to do in order to accomplish this purpose.
Not to discourage him, but rather to have him encourage me, I said to him, "Aren't you going a little too far with this thing? There's no logical reason why your son shouldn't be willing and able to work his way through college just as his father did. Of course he'll miss many of the things that you missed in your college life and he'll probably have heartaches and disappointments. But if he's any good, he'll come through in the end just as you did. And there's no logical reason why you should slave in order that your daughter may have things which your own sister wasn't able to have, or in order that your wife can enjoy comforts and luxuries that she wasn't used to before she married you."
He looked at me with rather a pitying look and said, "But Mr. Gray, there's no inspiration in logic. There's no courage in logic. There's not even happiness in logic. There's only satisfaction. The only place logic has in my life is in the realization that the more I am willing to do for my wife and children, the more I shall be able to do for myself."
Imagine, after hearing that story, you won't have to be told how to find your purpose or how to identify it or how to surrender to it. If it's a big purpose, you will be big in its accomplishment. If it's an unselfish purpose, you will be unselfish in accomplishing it.
And if it's an honest purpose, you will be honest and honorable in the accomplishment of it. But as long as you live, don't ever forget that while you may succeed beyond your fondest hopes and your greatest expectations, you will never succeed beyond the purpose to which you are willing to surrender. Furthermore, your surrender will not be complete until you have formed the habit of doing the things that failures don't like to do.

More BAD! Kitty Quotes about Being your best

These quotes were sent to me by a friend recently and they have been added to my ever growing quote collection...and they are really helping me with my present today as well...so I thought why not share with everyone? The picture above is of on of the Tags I made recently...I think the meaning is clear...don't you Miss Sara? :)

*******
"A tiny change today brings us to a dramatically different tomorrow. There are grand rewards for those who pick the high hard roads, but those rewards are hidden by years."

" Every choice is made in the uncaring blind, no guarantees from the world around us. "


"Character comes from following our highest sense of right, from trusting ideals without being sure they will work
No matter how qualified or deserving we are, we will never reach a better life until we can imagine it for ourselves and allow ourselves to have it."

"Any powerful idea is absolutely fascinating and absolutely useless unless we choose to use it."

~R Bach, ISBN 044020562

I hope you enjoy too,
All the best today!
Heather

Bad Kitty Art Studio Portland/Beaverton, Oregon - oil paintings, sculpture, painted furniture, recycled art, motivational words

BAD! Kitty Art Studio Quote for the day

Moni Bambo! (to man) / Moni Mayi! (to woman)

- Chichewa for Hello

******

"The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was, nor forward to what it might be, but living in the present and accepting it as it is now."

Anne Lindbergh

*******

"Another piece of advice:

when you read proof cross out as many adjectives and adverbs as you can.

You have so many modifiers that the reader has trouble understanding and gets worn out.

It is comprehensible when I write: "The man sat on the grass," because it is clear and does not detain one's attention.

On the other hand, it is difficult to figure out and hard on the brain if I write: "The tall, narrow-chested man of medium height and with a red beard sat down on the green grass that had already been trampled down by the pedestrians, sat down silently, looking around timidly and fearfully."

The brain can't grasp all that at once, and art must be grasped at once, instantaneously.

And then one other thing.

You are lyrical by nature, the timber of your soul is soft.

If you were a composer you would avoid writing marches.

It is unnatural for your talent to curse, shout, taunt, denounce with rage. Therefore, you'll understand if I advise you, in proofreading, to eliminate the "sons of bitches," "curs," and "flea-bitten mutts" that appear here and there on the pages of Life. "

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

*******

Well today is contemplative with the value

of my words...I want to pour myself out.

I am going to do that by being

with my kids today...Finishing shopping...

Working my job...

And

working on my real work,

for the next three days.

Enjoying this holiday

because my kids are

so freaking happy.

It don't matter one damn bit to them

if we are at war, or if there is not enough money,

or poverty,

or emotional scars...

They just can't freaking wait for the DAY!

In that dedication of thought they never waver.

There is a lesson there.

They know they are not going to

get tons of stuff...But they never

get anything, really cool...Like only on Holidays, and birthdays, and it's always been that way, even when we did have money.

Money is something that every person in this house, even the smallest one...trys to understand and work together as a team to keep the family afloat. When they ask for something

*which feels like every other moment sometimes*

I simply state if it's not on your "need" list,

it's not in the family budget.

(we have at least monthly family meetings about the state of the "union" in this Household.)

They are included in the matter...They also know the value of a dollar at 7,8, and 16.

Each of them frugal, but not cheap.

They shrug and say ok...Then they try to figure out ways to find/earn/save money for what they want...If they really want it.

Most of the time...They don't really want it.

Each of them...Understands value isn't always about costs of money...Of course their involvement isn't in-depth with the family income...But enough for them to be grounded in reality...And feel grateful, because we have had it worse...So they are happy and grateful and excited.....

and I am going to just let myself get

swallowed up

in them and

enjoy my own inner divine child.

We were all born innocent.

I am going

back there.

My youngest said something that brought it all home for me

yesterday, while we were out in the world, shopping, and sitting traffic.

From the back of the van...after we had all just gotten done scream singing "Brass Monkey" by the Beasti Boys...

he said, " I love Christmas! We have always have the BEST Christmas times....I can't wait to see what happens this year!".

From the mouths of babes...

He is right, even when Christmas was just the dinner we made that night...and some toys from goodwill...That was just a couple of years ago...He remembers it as being a "great" day. Therefore my reality changed instantly.

It's all good.

As long as we are together.

Everything else is Gravy.

Joy of the season...

to you.

Look for your inner child and let

him/her out to play

with your heart today.

Yours in the moment,

Heather

OK just one more...

This picture I got from Stuff on my cat dot com...I am using him as a study for a new work too...This ones for all you tough Kitty's out there. And go see this site for some really funny cat pictures.
***

Cat Goes to Heaven
One day a cat dies of natural causes and goes to heaven. There he meets the Lord Himself. The Lord says to the cat, "You lived a good life and if there is any way I can make your stay in Heaven more comfortable, please let Me know." The cat thinks for a moment and says, "Lord, all my life I have lived with a poor family and had to sleep on a hard wooden floor." The Lord stops the cat and says, "Say no more," and a wonderful fluffy pillow appears.
A few days later, six mice are killed in a tragic farming accident and go to heaven. Again, there is the Lord there to great them with the same offer. The mice answer, "All of our lives we have been chased. We have had to run from cats, dogs and even women with brooms. Running, running, running; we're tired of running. Do you think we could have roller skates so we don't have to run anymore?" The Lord says, "Say no more," and fits each mouse with beautiful new roller skates.
About a week later the Lord stops by to see the cat and finds him snoozing on the pillow. The Lord gently wakes the cat and asks him, "How are things since you got here?"
The cat stretches and yawns and replies, "It is wonderful here. Better than I could have ever expected. And those 'Meals On Wheels' you've been sending by are the best!"

Bad Kitty Will Now tell another of his favorite UN-PC jokes.

The Political system as this BAD! Kitty sees it by definition...Even...You wouldn't expect that from a kitty this funny looking...This not my photo, but it was sent to me too....I just thought it was funny as hell, and went well with the joke.

BAD! Kitty ---->Out

*****

SOCIALISM
You have two cows. The government takes one to give to someone else.
COMMUNISM
You have two cows. The government takes both and gives you the milk.
FASCISM
You have two cows. The government takes both and sells you the milk.
NAZISM
You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.
BUREAUCRACY
You have two cows. The government takes both, shoots one and pours the milk down the drain.
CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
ANARCHY
steal neighbor's bull, shoot the government.

BAD! Kitty Art Tag and New Magic Art Doll Work in progress pictures

The top picture is a tag I made while I was working on a handmade card to accompany the painting I was sending out earlier in the week. I can't make just one thing at a time...When I do a project...I do three at a time...So anyway this is one of the other projects I worked on while making the card...The third was my new Art doll...Which is the bottom picture....This one is a lot of hand sewing, and is much more complicated as far as putting it together...So I'm still working on it, a little every day, but it is coming along now and I wanted to share it with you...I plan for it to have text and more beads of course...And just more detail...But it will be a magnet too...I just love making magnets....And tags too...Ten minute art...Love it.
See Ya'll later...Just wanted to remind you ...I am an artist up in here ya know?
Heather

Check this too.

Hit the header...check it...political commentary that's pretty good.
Heather

Dear Future BAD! Kitty Art Studio...You ROCK! Check this out.

Check this out! I just found it, and I sent myself an email about how I am feeling today and what I want to see manifested in the year that I will receive the email...It's cool. And you can read other peoples random public emails to themselves...Weird and funny and sad...It is a cool social experiment, and you know I can't help myself when it comes to science...And self improvement possibilities...And the connection between making reality what we want it to be...either it will be each of us thinking about ourselves and our needs and needed improvements...Or all of us deciding on one thing that is and can be true for everyone. I think it'll be a big mix of each of those...Start with you then be the change you want to see in the world...Inspire yourself, then empower others to see their own change/evolution...And poof! New reality. If we supported life...Really supported life...What would that look like...Globally?

Hmmmm, Makes you wonder doesn't it?

Me too.

Check it out...Hit the header or the link and leave yourself a message in for the future you...From the you today.

Magic happens...Even if you don't believe in it...That's why it's called magic afterall...Just like faith...Can't see it...Just gotta have some of it.

Later, Heather
http://futureme.org/index.php

Bad Kitty Art Studio Portland/Beaverton, Oregon - oil paintings, sculpture, painted furniture, recycled art, motivational words

BAD! Kitty Art Studio Quote for the day

Dobry deň [dobrii dyeny] - Slovak for Hello

***

Two amateur artists were asked to paint something depicting "peace."

On the appointed day, both artists brought their paintings to be shown.

One picture was of a quiet, rippleless lake.

Here indeed was peace as seen by an artist.

The other painting showed a gnarled tree standing on the precipice in a rugged canyon.

Nearby was a thundering waterfall, and the river dashed on, angrily below.

In the tree, near her nest, a bird was perched, singing above the clamor of the torrent of the water below.

A sudden change in the wind could bring disaster to the frail limb upon which the bird and her nest were located.

But instinctively she knew that if that happened, she and her young ones could use their wings and mount to the sky.

Yes, the two artists had fulfilled what they had been asked to do.

One painted a scene depicting the quiet beauty of peace.

The other had seen the majestic splendor that accompanies inner peace.

~Unknown

***

I took this picture of a little waterfall back in 2000, it was one of the falls up the hill on the way to our old Nursery and Organic Farm.

When I came across it this morning, while going thru my collection of images...I remember that day...and the fact that I was in love with taking photo's of moving water and sunlight.

It was a narrow curving very uphill road that we lived and worked at the top of...and this little fall was really full that day, because of the rain.

A sudden sunbreak opened up as I drove down the hill, and I pulled onto the soft shoulder, and ran out of the car and started taking pictures. My kids were late for school that morning, (so what?) but I have this little fall in all it's glory forever.

So ...therefore I'll never loose the memory of living, working and being lucky at the top of the hill, overlooking the Columbia River.

It was great to wake up and watch the hawks take flight, having to wake the Elk up and chase them out of the gardens,

and watching mist rising from the river below, first thing in the morning.

I miss it, sometimes painfully. Life was easier then, in some ways. Harder in others.

It was easier, because I had been a "landscaper" of some sort my entire young life; When I started designing garden rooms, and we decided to go full-time with our little dream...and started selling plants too...I can't remember Mate Man and I having a better time.

Harder because we lived in a small town, that no matter how involved we were with the community, and no matter how much people liked us...we were from outside the area...and from the South to make things worse...and we both looked really freaky living in that town...Mate Man with his Bald head, ear rings and I'm gonna eat your lunch look...and me with my friendly ways, weird sense of fashion and quick wit.

Now I get the usual Portlander dismissal..Just another freaky arty type..No biggie...there's thousands of us round here.

So making friends here has proved to be even harder...even though it should be easier...with so many more people around, being a big city and all...ya know?

I have made some friends though...they just happen to live all over the country, and not one of them close-by.

But I am grateful for each of them, and feel lucky to have them.

I am grateful I got the chance to live at the top of that pretty hill once too.

I do miss being an "expert" ask me anything about Horticulture and I am good to go...but now that I am an artist...I will probably be dead before I am considered an "expert" at what I do.

If you think about it like the waterfall up there...or the story after it...that's the better path for me anyway.

I get bored easy...so not being able to "get" done is a good thing for me in today.

So I will flow with the day today,

I will follow my path

back

to the

source.

Yours in this Moment,

Heather

PS: Go Buy Some Art Here...Please!

LIZ...I'm thinking of you! This is for you BABE!

Liz...I just thought you might like to know, that I am thinking of you...and Mark says this picture made him pee himself, so send to my sister...so I hope you think it's as funny as we do! Love to you and Jake....This cracks me up....can you imagine the brass? OMG!
Heather

Check this out~ Rants and Raves

The photo above is not mine...and the article below I didn't write, but it's from this great blog I just read called Planet Moron...witty and smart. I liked it. So if you hit the header to this post you'll be taken to Planet Moron too...as if we weren't all ready there.

And I LOVE this digital collage, by an unknown sorce, it was sent to me...So I wanted to share because I thought it was great too...I hope homeland security isn't looking....If you are a goverment spy...I offer you my furry middle finger...free.

Here's the article:

December 21, 2005
warrants so secret not even judges can be told about them
Defending his authorization of warrantless monitoring of overseas phone calls and emails of American citizens, President Bush noted that “This is a different era, a different war.”
Indeed, back in World War II the only threat we faced was from militarist fascism sweeping across the globe while the Cold War merely threatened the annihilation of every living thing on the face of the earth. Today, the stakes are much higher. Consider this: One well-placed explosive device on a crowded train platform or at a popular sporting event could easily take out not only the Republican majority in Congress but could quite possibly cause the White House to fall into Democratic hands.
Under the wholly inadequate current law, intelligence agencies may listen in on international calls for three days without any warrant at all and then seek retroactive approval from a secret court. This level of openness is a luxury we just can’t afford anymore. As former NSA director, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, pointed out, the requirement to get retroactive court approval is troublesome because it "involves marshaling arguments.” As anyone in law enforcement will tell you, thinking through an issue carefully to ensure its validity just gums up the works.
There is also the problem of secret activist judges sitting on the secret court. Since 1978 these judges have denied numerous requests for retroactive warrants and by numerous we mean five. Out of 18,748. This is clearly a secret court “out of control” and “making law.”
Fortunately, we have a two-party system that offers additional checks on power. When Democratic leaders were informed of the activities a couple of years ago their responses ranged from “voicing concern” all the way to Senator John D. Rockefeller taking the bold step of writing a very sternly worded letter to the Vice President. (It’s exactly that kind of consequences-be-damned courage that made the family fortune.)
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended the program noting that they believed they had the authorization but didn’t seek specific legislation covering the activity since it would “be difficult, if not impossible" to get done. This is the cookie jar approach to governance. You know mom would never give you permission so you just take them anyway.
It’s all good until someone catches you with chocolate-chip breath.
J.

http://planetmoron.typepad.com/

***

Later taters.

BAD! Kitty Art Studio Joke of the day!

You Know You're Living in the Year 2005 When...
1. Your reason for not staying in touch with family is because they do not have e-mail addresses.

2. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

3. You call your son's beeper to let him know it's time to eat. He emails you back from his bedroom, "What's for dinner?"

4. Your daughter sells Girl Scout Cookies via her web site.

5. You chat several times a day with a stranger from South Africa, but you haven't spoken with your next door neighbor yet this year.

6. You check the ingredients on a can of chicken noodle soup to see if it contains Echinacea.

7. Your grandmother asks you to send her a JPEG file of your newborn so she can create a screen saver.

8. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.

9. Every commercial on television has a web site address at the bottom of the screen.

10. You buy a computer and 6 months later it is out of date and now sells for half the price you paid.

11. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go get it.

12. Using real money, instead of credit or debit, to make a purchase would be a hassle and take planning.

13. Cleaning up the dining room means getting the fast food bags out of the back seat of your car.

14. You just tried to enter your password on the microwave.

15. You consider second day air delivery painfully slow.

16. Your dining room table is now your flat filing cabinet.

17. Your idea of being organized is multiple colored Post-it notes.

18. You hear most of your jokes via e-mail instead of in person. 19. You get an extra phone line so you can get phone calls.

20. You disconnect from the Internet and get this awful feeling, as if you just pulled the plug on a loved one.

21. You get up in morning and go on-line before getting your coffee.

22. You wake up at 2 AM to go to the bathroom and check you E-mail on your way back to bed.

23. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :-)

**************

Bad Kitty Art Studio Portland/Beaverton, Oregon - oil paintings, sculpture, painted furniture, recycled art, motivational words #255 the post!

BAD! Kitty Art Studio Quote of the day!

Aloha - Hawaiian

Good morning...

I don't have a damn thing to say today.

Well maybe one thing...

Go Buy some Art.

Click here

to see some great art, that you can afford.

One more thing...Read more of my blog...Please...It does get better than this. Honest...Just keep scrolling down...

I'm just not feeling like writing today...I just want to go to work, and forget about myself for awhile...I need to create...And because the kids are out of school, and I am working evenings...I am so freaking tired this week.

It's only Wednesday?

Crap.

So, Have a great day...I'm going to post new journal pages later...And some other stuff...So stay tuned.

Locals...Fairy world is on display now at the Studio...Come see!

Artfully yours,

Heather

BAD! Kitty Will now tell another tasteless joke...

BAD! Kitty sums it all up for you:

You know how he gets when he's been at the catnip...and tis the season to be jolly...

so

Meow! Laugh it up chuckles....but the numbers never lie.

:) Heather *Who says, "ain't that the truth!*

***********************************************
Giving 100%
Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?
We have all been to those meetings where someone wants over 100%.
How about achieving 103%? Here's a little math that might prove helpful.
What makes life 100%?
If
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z is represented
as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.
Then,
H A R D W O R K/8 1 18 4 23 15 18 11 = 98%
K N O W L E D G E/11 14 15 23 12 5 4 7 5 = 96%
But,
A T T I T U D E/1 20 20 9 20 21 4 5 = 100%
And,
B U L L S H I T/2 21 12 12 19 8 9 20 = 103%
So, it stands to reason that hardwork and knowledge will get you close, attitude will get you there, but bullshit will put you over the top.
And look how far .........
A S S K I S S I N G1 19 19 11 9 19 19 9 14 7 = 118%
will take you.

****

Bad Kitty Art Studio Portland/Beaverton, Oregon - oil paintings, sculpture, painted furniture, recycled art, motivational words

Bad! Kitty Art Studio Quote for the Day!

Saluton - Esperanto for Hello

I awoke thinking about life.

Not just my life, but life in general.

I am thinking about the essential spirit,

the very essence of life, the life finding a way.

What was I before I was born from my mother?

I was in the "void"...Waiting to become?

Like this butterfly, my very essence waiting for my wings

to dry, so I could fly away to

become my current form.

While I was in the void, did I know I was there?

Was there any consciousness "there"?

Before I emergerged from the underwater world of my mother's womb, before I grew into my human body, I had a tail, I swam like a tadpole, inside my soft eggshell of human being.

When the butterfly emerges from the cocoon, it's not thinking about flying first.

First it must extend it's wings, letting the

fluid become solid matter,

it's safe, small, wet world traded

for one of light, air and freedom.

As the butterfly takes wing...As it

does the very thing that it was created to do,

only then does the butterfly realize of the dangers

of being alive, in plain sight and in flight.

Being Human...Recently I feel like I must have sprung forth from my cocoon in the same fashion.

I came fully formed this time...Like the baby crocodile,

with a full set of teeth.

I feel as though I spent my past life...In a past life.

My field of Birth, the pastures of my youth, the hills and valley's of my years spent here, in this reality...

were merely the unfolding of my wings,

to prepare me for my first flight...

in the open...

in plain sight...

aware of the world seeing my

beautiful wings

my wobbly, zig-zag flight patterns,

and bold colors.

inviting

Predators.

being seen.

See me.

I fly...

because life is magic

it finds a way

no matter the complication

obstacle

lifetime allotment

of time itself

to be alive,

it finds a way...

I will not think of the open air

as my enemy

or my time in this world

as limited or wasted.

I will count the moments of this life

like the butterfly

and concentrate

be aware of only

my time in the air.

I am free today to fly here

or there...And unlike the butterfly

I now fly

packing

a

concealed

weapon and tool.

Teeth.

Determination,

concentration,

dedication,

ethics

and

conviction.

I have teeth to hang on...

now I can bite back...

if I need too

and hang on...

if I want to

or

open my mouth

let go...

unfurl my wings

become more

vulnerable

as I plummet

towards my future

trusting the air

trusting my wings

trusting the laws of

science

magic

spirit

to send

the breeze along

to carry me

home

again.

Because life finds a way.

Life is magic.

Life is faith.

Life is.

I am life.

I am what happens

after the air

dries

and the pain of was fluid

becoming solid.

I am out of my cocoon,

and the Universe

created

magic in the void

to create the science of me.

The Nature, the essence of me

and a reason for being

alive...

given the gift of wings

in the first place.

I'll not squander another

eternal

moment

counting my wounds

or

wanting more

than what's

already mine.

I'm just going to fly,

coming down is the hardest thing.

Yours on the wing today,

Heather

PS: Buy More Art,

and could you pick up the dry cleaning

on your way home too?

Thanks.