Denise Griffitts

I have received so many phone calls and emails from family, friends, and even people that I have never met but have networked with on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter wanting to make sure that we survived Hurricane Gustav.  I am genuinely touched by all of the good wishes and prayers.  It meant a lot to us.

As storms go Gustav wasn’t that bad, at least for us.  We were in the direct path of the storm which was worrisome, but there was quite literally nowhere to go.  The highways were clogged and getting room reservations was not an option.  We did make early reservations at our favorite Bed and Breakfast in Natchitoches, but gave up the reservations for a number of reasons and decided to ride out the storm.

We were without power and phone until sometime until early Wednesday morning which is normal after an event like this, but it was the only real problem that we experienced.  We didn’t board windows, but did make sand bags and then helped neighbors who were either unable to move things out of their yards, or who weren’t home to take care of it.  During the storm I allowed my husband to beat me at Scrabble by candlelight and we went outside and did our traditional slow dance in the rain at one point.  Once we were able to slow down and just sit and observe it all, we found it rather magnificent.  As the rear of our house is mostly floor to ceiling windows, we had a tremendous view of this incredible force of nature. 

We were very lucky in that we had no structural damage or downed trees.  There is damage in the neighborhood but we were spared.  We experienced heavy rains and tornado watches for a couple of days which means that power was a little spotty, but with the humidity I was just grateful to have the air conditioning back on.

So…… back to work for me.

Thank you again for your concern and prayers!

read user's comments (0)

I am not by any stretch of the imagination a movie buff.  In fact, my husband will rarely watch a movie with me since I either get impatient and ask questions during the movie so I can figure out if it is worth my time to sit there until the end or not, or worse yet, fall sound asleep.  Going to a movie theatre is a painful experience as so many people are incredibly rude.  Is it really necessary to carry on a telephone conversation in the middle of a movie that you and everybody else in the room paid to see?  And then there are the people who eat popcorn without ever closing their lips together.  Maddening.

Beyond that, I find that most movies are simply garbage.  During a recent bout of the flu I was forced to turn to the television for some slight entertainment when I couldn’t sleep.  The Wizard of Oz which is one of my all time favorite movies happened to be on which lead me to wonder why in the world movie theatres don’t replay the old classics.  I would actually pay to see some of my favorite movies on the big screen again.  What movies would you pay to see again?

read user's comments (0)

Do you ever feel the need for peace and serenity?  Do you begin your busy day by taking the time to refelect on your life and the way you live it?  Do you set your intentions each morning so your day works the way you want it to?  Do you set the clear picture in your mind of how your day will look so at the end of the day you can reflect back and realize that your day was exactly how you crafted it by setting intentions?

I was one of those people who slammed through life each day with varying degrees of success.  I finally reached a point in my life where it just wasn’t working all that well for me.  No major catastrophes, but no major milestones either.  I was one of those people who strenuously resisted the whole “meditation thing” thinking that my mind is just way too busy to quiet down sufficiently for me to meditate for more than about a nano second.  True, it can sometimes be difficult to meditate if you don’t really concentrate on training your mind to relax.  It does take patience and a desire to silence the mind.  Once I made the committment to actively work at meditating, the difference in my days became apparent almost immediately.  I was more focused, more energized, and just generally more joyful and grateful for the smallest thing.

In my own life, I have learned to make meditation my first priority each morning in order to work it in to my very busy schedule.  More importantly, meditation sets the tone for my day and it shows if I don’t take the time to quiet my mind and set forth intentions for the day.

There are many different methods of meditation, so explore all of the possibilities until you find the method that works best for you.  I have a few different meditations that work best for me.  One is a yoga meditation with Rodney Yee, which was sent to me by a friend and client.  Thank you Judy Peebles!  Another is the “AH” meditation with Dr. Wayne Dyer, and yet another is a guided meditation with Jeanie Callen Barat, “The Fitness Jeanie”.  Jeanie has a wonderful free meditation CD that you can pick up here.  I choose my meditation depending on my plans for the day, and my sense of what will work best for me that particular morning.

A meditation can be anything which takes you into silence, both inner and outer, and clears your mind of all thoughts.  Try as many methods as you need until you find one—or more—that work for you, and proceed on your journey to the life of your dreams.

read user's comments (0)

Do you ever do something so stupendously silly that you smile for days afterwards?  Late last night, I wrapped up a very intense day of web development interspersed with rounds of meetings and was heading for the shower and bed when I accidentally made a side trip to the refrigerator.  For some reason my eye lit on a Blue Bell chocolate crunch bar and in my extremely tired state it was apparently decided that this was something that I very much needed.  As I am not a sweet eater, don’t normally eat anything late at night, and really don’t like chocolate at all, this decision was interesting.  While I wanted that stupid ice cream bar, I also badly wanted to take my shower and crawl into bed.  Being the quintessential multi-tasker, somewhere in my decision making process it was apparently decided without my conscious knowledge that I could do both.  (See a pattern developing here? None of this was my fault!)

It sounds difficult, if not impossible to eat ice cream in the shower, but with a little ingenuity it can be done.  I cranked up the hot water to a level that would steam wallpaper off the wall had there been any, settled down on the bench, closed my eyes and savored that ice cream.  Since there was never any question that I would eat the entire thing anyway, losing a good deal of it to melting was not something that broke my heart.  The sensations of doing something that remarkably goofy was uplifting.  I felt silly, full of laughter, and ultimately joyful that my very busy life still allows me to be child-like every now and then. 

Rekindle your joy - eat ice cream in the shower!

read user's comments (4)

Today is a bad day for Buddy-the-Cat, who suffers from feline leukemia and whose trials and tribulations have been chronicled in other blogs of mine.  To give you a quick introduction, Buddy is a Maine Coon who came to us at a healthy 22 pounds and is now struggling to maintain a just-above-skeleton-only weight of 15 pounds.  Never have I witnessed a stronger will to live.  Never.

I have taken him to the vet to be put to sleep on three separate occasions.  All three times he talked me out of it.  Each time I think he is done for, he does his “phoenix” trick and all my angst and tears were for naught.  We even had all of his teeth pulled which alleviated some of the trench mouth symptoms that are often a huge problem for cats with this disease.  He is now officially a $1,000 cat! He is also the most patient and loving creature I have ever had the great good fortune to meet.

Buddy has his good days and his bad days.  His bad days are fairly bad and very painful to witness.  He LOVES to ride in the car, so after observing him for a while through my office window, I decided to stop all work that was in progress and take him for a drive.  All I have to do is go outside and say “Buddy, go for a ride?”" and much like a dog, he will amble along behind me to the car where I open the door and wait for him to settle into his seat.  There are two kinds of drives with Buddy.  The evening drive means that he sits on my lap with his upper body hanging out the driver’s side window doing the kitty prom wave to anybody who passes.  He has his admirers in the neighborhood and we stop and have little chats with them.  The “let’s go to the store” drive means that he sits on the passenger seat like a little gentleman.  He knows the difference, and behaves accordingly.

Today we decided to go to the grocery store and bakery so he got his treat of mackerel and I picked up my own lunch of crusty French bread, hard salami and a hand full of olives.  Yes, I know that is not a healthy human lunch,  but sometimes you just have to give in!

read user's comments (0)