Between two evils, I always like to take the one I've never tried before. -- Mae West

Prescott, AZ

When the 4th of July approaches, my thoughts turn to celebrating it anywhere but Phoenix. It's too hot, too crowded, and too expensive. So, this year, when Michael and I were invited by our friends Eddie and Carl to visit them in Prescott, we took them up on it.

We left for Prescott on Friday, which I had off from work. We did not take the shortest route there. Years ago, I drove north on State Road 89 to Prescott, on a very curvy, mountain road. I didn't get to see the view because it happened to be about 2 am at the time. I've always wanted to take that road in the daytime, and this trip we did. So our route went through Wickenberg and some impressive storm clouds that never actually rained on us. From door to door, the drive took us about 3½ hours.

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2012 Lightworkers

My friend, Chris, recently drew my attention to a new networking web site. I know, I know; MySpace and Facebook and Twitter, oh, my! Do we really need another one? But this new site, Scribd, specializes on "people who like to read". So, right there, instead of having another site that tries to be all things to all people, Scribd has eliminated all but the 12% of Americans who actually like to read. So, that's a plus. It also allows members to post documents like ebooks, and actually sell them. That's another plus. And it allows the creation of groups who can then share documents. That supports an idea I've had for some time: A way for Lightworkers to share thoughts, which tend to run for more words than the 120-character limit on Twitter allows.

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New Paradigms for the New Age

In these times of increased quantum vibration and resulting odd mental, physical and emotional ups and downs, many are turning to metaphysical sources for guidance. That's because, throughout Earth's history, we have always been taught to look outside ourselves for guidance. It doesn't even occur to most people to do otherwise.

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License To Fly

I didn't want to spoil what had been a terrific trip for Michael and Frank by openly freaking out, but I was freaking out, quietly, nevertheless. I had no wallet and therefore no identification and therefore would surely not be allowed through security at the airport and so wouldn't be able to go home at all. I might have to stay in Anchorage, but only as a homeless person as I wouldn't have the money for shelter and without an ID I wouldn't even be able to get a job.

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Northern Exposure

Some years ago, I visited Cicely, Alaska, the fictional town featured in the 1990s TV series Northern Exposure. I was able to do this without actually going to Alaska, because "Cicely" was actually a side street in the town of Roslyn, Washington. The TV series, however, had renewed my interest in visiting Alaska, which had become a state in 1959 when I was in 3rd grade. My visit to "Cicely" only strengthened my desire to visit the 49th state someday. Now I was here, not only in Alaska but over 300 miles from Anchorage in the little town of McCarthy, which could have served as the template for fictional Cicely. Remote, quaint, set amid pristine wilderness and populated by quirky yet friendly characters, I couldn't help but draw comparisons even as my husband, Michael, and our friend, Frank, and I prepared to go rafting down the Nizina River.

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North To Alaska

It wasn't that complicated an idea: Travel to Alaska on an (almost) free ticket, stay at the lodge of a friend of a friend's, go whitewater rafting. My friend, Frank, had been urging me to join him in visiting his friend Brad's lodge for over a year; and we had been whitewater rafting together twice so it made sense to do an Alaskan raft trip while there. My husband, Michael, was adamant about going with us...he was not going to miss out on a trip to Alaska! I made detailed plans, made reservations and pre-bought various tickets. Frank, a flight attendant, used frequent flier miles to obtain his transportation and arrange our first night's stay in Anchorage and car rental. Michael bought his own ticket through Priceline for some 30% off (by bidding on it). It was my own ticket that nearly turned the trip into a disaster.

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Effective Prayer

I've written before about the "annoying power of prayer". Annoying, because the studies that proved prayer works offended both atheists and Christians. Atheists, because the studies showed that something they couldn't put in a jar seemed to exist; and Christians because the studies showed it didn't matter to whom one prayed: Prayers to Jesus were neither more or less effective than prayers to Buddha or Ed McMahan.

However, once one accepts that prayers do work--something that billions of people take as a given without a need for studies--one them comes right up against this brick wall: They don't always seem to work. Science likes repeatable phenomena, like the way a magnet always attracts iron filings, or the way a slice of bread always falls butter-side down. While it's nice to know that praying for the health of a cardiac patient improves his or her chances of recovery by 11%, wouldn't it be even nicer if we could goose the odds a bit? I mean, if we are going to spend time praying for something, we'd like to achieve at least a 90% success ratio.

In today's post, I offer some suggestions for praying more effectively. While I can't promise 90% success, I do propose that considering these ideas may prove helpful to you.

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A Body Of Work

How I came to be invited to ASU to hear President Obama's speech, how I heard it, and how I left the Sun Devil Stadium afterwards: A blog post in three acts.

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Does This Photon Belt Make Me Look Fat?

I'm the kind of person strangers feel they can tell anything to. I base this on my experience: almost every time I enter a Wal-Mart, Target, or grocery store, some other customer will approach so they can keep me apprised of their drug problem, affair, kidney disease or crisis of faith. Other people get asked to buy Girl Scout cookies. I get told that by a middle-aged man that there's an injunction against his approaching within 100 feet of Girl Scouts.

But of course my friends also confide in me. I normally keep these confidences to myself. But recently I have heard the same thing from so many different people in the last couple of weeks that I can safely talk about it here without revealing any secrets. Seriously, if you, one of my personal friends, think I am blogging about just you, you are wrong. I've heard the same complaints about depression, loss of faith, and weird or bad dreams, from over a dozen people in the past few weeks. And so I am using this forum to discuss the issue with all of you, plus anyone else that somehow managed not to tell me, at once.

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Zach's First Raft Trip

My Grandson, Zachary, has been hearing me tell river tales all his life. That's because what happens on the river, seldom stays on the river--it's too interesting not to share! Consequently, Zach has asked to go rafting since he could talk. But you can't take babies on a raft unless you are trying to escape the sinking of a luxury liner. So we had to put it off. Until...today!

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