Its, It's, Its'

Dec 14th, 2003

you know how you just notice things? i happen to notice when people use its it’s its’ according to their own "rules."

having taught business writing for 7 years at western michigan university at kalamazoo (mi) and washburn university in topeka (ks)….i can’t help but notice grammatical and mechanical variances i hesitate to call them errors…because grammar is just a convention. there really is no right or wrong…unless you’re grading papers….which heaven knows i did. thousands of them. so if you care about using "its" "correctly," read on. (notice the quotes outside the comma, he he he he he). quotes go outside the period too like this."

it’s is a contraction meaning "it is." it ALWAYS means "it is" and never means anything else. its’ looks like a possessive, but there is no possessive of "its." so it’s just "its." weird huh.

"its" is the possessive form (e.g., the dog chased its tail). if you wrote that the dog chased it’s tail, it would be read: the dog chased it is tail. see why it catches my eye? i think the usage of "its" is probably one of the most common errors in mechanics. to be safe, if you don’t understand apostrophes…..avoid them. just spell things out like "it is."

and if you’re not sure about the possessive form, rewrite the sentence so you don’t have to use it. that’s what i do when i can’t remember a rule. my particular favorite to "not get" is "who" and "whom." "whom" is just not a word that i like. so unless the sentence calls for the name of the book, for whom the bell tolls, i use "who" or rewrite the sentence so i don’t need a "who." he he.

you might wonder why I used quotes around "its" and "who" and "whom." the quotes indicate that i’m using a word as a word. i’ll bet that’s a lot more clear I also used quotes around "correctly" and "not get" as an aside to indicate that I’m poking a little fun. funny when ya start talking about grammar and mechanics, it gets even more muddy. for example, i could contest the use of "it" in the previous sentence because "it" has no antecedent (word that it refers to). oh isn’t this crazy making fun. sorry.

soon, i’ll write about "you’re" and "your." that’s a good one too. your welcome

just remembered something. i have a bachelor and master of arts in english…..but that’s not how i learned grammar. i learned from teaching it. i was "blessed" to teach a standardized curriculum that required that i write the number of the rule that was being broken by each error. i had to learn hundreds of numbers….hundreds of rules. it was awful. but now i know. doesn’t mean i won’t make errors. there’s an awful lot of rules…and some of them i just don’t care about. like ending a sentence with a preposition. or fragments.

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Yummy Leftovers

Dec 13th, 2003

i usually love leftovers….quick tasty meals. my thinking is that if you like or love it the first time, there’s a good chance you will like or love it as a leftover. but if you didn’t like it very much the first time….consider giving it to the dog (or the birds) because chances are you will never want to eat it as a leftover and it will grow mold in your refrigerator (giving leftovers a bad name). Might as well not pack it into small containers….because you’re never going to eat it.

not sure why is this concept so hard to get. how many times have you put leftovers in the fridge and then turned up your nose at dinner time at the thought of eating them? yeah, me too. if we were were pioneers (or lived in a third world country), we’d eat them whether we were in the mood or not because of scarce resources. but we’re spoiled now and resources appear to be abundant (and they deliver)….so we we can "afford" to turn our noses up at leftovers. been there, done that. you too? but tonight i had great leftovers.

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I Love to Walk

Dec 13th, 2003

had another snow storm–about 5 inches deep. it was heavy wet snow. . . the kind that that sticks to the shovel. got a good workout shoveling. then ate some wonderful shitake, barley, lentil, veggie soup, talked to my sister, then took a 3 mile walk along the levee with jasmine. we were the only ones out. should be seeing the eagles soon because the river is freezing. if we had walked closer to sunset i would surely have seen a few.

on my walks i love to ponder life, my plans, conversations, and worries….well i don’t love to ponder worries, but sometimes i do. my mother (83) fell the other day on her new carpet because her shoes stuck like velcro and she went down. she hit her head on something (too confusing to hear it on the phone), they went through a roll of paper towels to sop up the blood (thank goodness my dad was there). turns out it was a 10 inch gash. my mother says the stitches look like a railroad track around her head. makes me kinda sick just to think about it. when i first heard the news i took it ok. but as the evening progressed and i went to bed, my fears grew and grew and grew. finally at about 1:00am i had to get up. you know how it feels when you’re darned sure you’re never going to sleep again so you must get up….no matter the time. i meditated to try to calm down. a close friend of mine had died the same week (unexpectedly) so my mind started confusing him lying in state with my mom lying in state. i kept wondering if i was having premonitions or if i was confusing my friend’s death with my mother’s condition. all in all, it sucked really bad. lots of stumbling here.

the day after her fall they were supposed to leave to drive 16 hours to our family christmas gathering in chelsea, michigan (near ann arbor). i was so relieved that they decided not to do that. my parents can be stubborn. so we delayed the event until this coming weekend. what a relief, huh. anybody with aging parents knows what i’m talking about here. when you almost lose a parent suddenly like that, it puts a big fear into you. the reason i say that is that my aunt carol (my dad’s sister) fell 3 years ago, hit her head, and has been unable to move or speak above a whisper since then. the same thing could have happened to my mother. makes me realize how lucky our family has been all these years.

i stop to be grateful. since she is ok and my dad is ok (he really rallied), i’ve elevated them to king and queen status. for the rest of their lives, their wishes are my command. kinda got a wake up call about how grateful i am for their presence. i always knew i loved them deeply, but now i know i won’t even get irritated by them again. who’s got time for that! so now there’s just room for love and tenderness and compassion. hum. might be a good idea if i use that approach with everyone, huh. interesting challenge…i mean, thought.

when i talked with mom this morning i told her to THROW THOSE VELCRO-CARPET-STICKING-KILLER SHOES AWAY RIGHT NOW AND TEST ALL HER OTHER SHOES. i don’t know if they heard me, but i told my dad to test all of her shoes by rubbing them into the carpet and tossing any that even slightly stick.

wow did i get sidetracked from my original direction. my point was going to be about exercise. i love to exercise….and was glad to get plenty today. on my walk i pondered a new program i’m going to offer in the new year. it will be called winterfit …..support when you need it most. while i walked i got clear on what i wanted to do with that program. walking is great. now i get to figure out what i’m going to eat for dinner. life just keeps renewing opportunities doesn’t it .

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One Man's Trash, Another Woman's Treasure

Nov 30th, 2003

haven’t posted in several days. thanksgiving holiday, working on my web site launch, and generally enjoying the weather–70 today. took a long walk. funny thing. i often lament that the alcoholics who hang out on the kaw river levee leave their beer cans and cardboard from the old style or old milwaukee cases of beer. so much trash along this beautiful (though polluted river). now to the funny thing. wearing shoes i don’t normally wear for long hikes, i noticed the back of my heel was getting torn up and it was just the start of a 4 miler.

thinking…surely there’s enough trash along this path that i can find something to stick in my shoe to protect my heel. see where this is going. hee hee. yep i found a hunk of one of those cardboard beer cases (not sure what they’re called) and it slipped right into my shoe to protect my heel. it was even torn in the perfect shape! had to be thankful for that and laugh at myself and send a prayer of appreciation to the troubled souls who left it for me to use. one man’s junk . . . another woman’s treasure. hee hee. i love this turnaround thingie.

now i’m listening to blue grass music on npr (love it) while waiting for my shitake mushroom veggie barley lentil soup to finish cooking. life is good good good. just stopped to stir my soup. oh my it smells good.

oh yes, on my walk i saw two bald eagles flying home at the end of the day to their nests. normally i see them when the river freezes because they fish at the dam where the water isn’t frozen. but there are always a couple that come early to check out the scene. as i saw them flying home i thought about how i knew they were eagles because i couldn’t see their white heads and tails. i’ve watched them these 10 years i’ve lived on the kaw river. what i notice is that they are big . . . even in the distance. they don’t mess around when they’re flying home at dusk. they fly a pretty straight path headed north. their wings flap much MUCH slower than any other birds flying.

sometimes i mistake blue herons at a distance for eagles. but when i see their crooked neck and long legs trailing behind, i know i’ve been fooled by their enormous wing span. herons wings flap slowly too….because of the length of their wings. the other thing i look for is wings that are straight across when soaring. most other birds including hawks have a curve to their wing span. eagle wings are straight across when they soar. bingo, yes they were eagles and i’m guessing i was one of the only people who knew that. i thought of mentioning it to a runner crossing my path…but then just let him run off. maybe others don’t care like i do. such a treat to me.

time for soup! what a day: a hunk of cardboard for my heel, soup, sun, eagles. it doesn’t get any better than this (today)

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In Search of Energy

Nov 23rd, 2003

there are many reasons for not having energy. lately i’ve been a bit low on energy so have taken the time to think about it. energy can be depleted by many things:

• a poor diet low in nutrients
• unabated stress
• a bad attitude (e.g., anger, upset, irritability, unforgiveness, fear)
• sleep deprivation
• dehydration
• illness
• change in seasons, weather, barometer
• excessive amounts of change
• physical labor
• exercise
• unresolved problems

there are probably other elements, but these are a good starting point for self-diagnosis.

what got me thinking about energy was a conversation with a friend this morning. she said "are you tired?" "no." "oh you look tired." at first i was miffed because i wasn’t sleepy . . . in fact i’d gotten lots of sleep this weekend. Thinking about it, though, i realized that i hadn’t had any creative inspiration this weekend. i just couldn’t get my mind working on my projects. i had enough energy to rent a movie and write a post and that was it. my post was pretty lame too…and that was a sign of low energy.

that just reminded me….in my blog i was writing about problems. unresolved problems drain energy too so i just added that to the above list.

maybe i looked tired to my friend because i AM tired. hum. as i thought about it, yea, guess i am tired. sometimes awareness is a gradual thing. because the temperature dropped dramatically overnight and the wind was cold, i decided to take a shorter walk than usual. maybe my high walking mileage was wearing me down. hum. while walking i asked my body to speak to me and tell me what would be the best care i could give it. i did some energy healing work and then quietly listened to my body as i walked.

dressed warmly, i could have walked quite a distance, but i remembered that wind for my ayruveda body type (vata) was a stressor. listening to my body i realized, yes, i am tired. i asked about the reason, but none came. i decided that the reason really wasn’t important. i would just tune in and listen for the remedy.

after a short 30 minute walk i made myself two wonderful cups of ginger tea. the day before i had been strongly drawn to a box of this tea at an oriental shop and bought it. maybe my intuition was guiding me even then. the tea was perfect. everything about it was soothing, enjoyable and just right for what i needed. the second cup didnt’ taste quite as wonderful as the first, so i figured that i had reached the appropriate dose for my condition. if good food tastes good, then you’ve stumbled upon the right food for the moment. by "good food" i mean healthful foods. for many of us junk food often tastes good….but it’s often not the right food for the moment.

next i flipped through my new books about health and healing. bingo. i got inspired. to me that translates to energy. whew. (sometimes i worry that my current condition will be my eternal condition.) yes i have energy, but my body is saying "don’t over do it." this energy is the short-term kind. my mind says i’ll want to take a hot herbal bath after a while. we’ll see if that fits when the time comes.

if someone would have talked about listening to my body 20 years ago, i would have laughed in their face. back then my body just said "give me coke, cigarettes, and a rocking chair." that’s about all i needed to be extremely content. at that time my body was so numb and dosed with stimulants that it would have been just about impossible to tune into my body without some serious training and support.

makes me smile now to think about how much easier this body awareness has become. btw i mean coca cola thankfully i never abused any drugs other than cigarettes.

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Problems Arise in Clumps

Nov 22nd, 2003

problems arise it seems in clumps. when several occur in a short time period it sets me on edge. i don’t like problems. i get a little nervous that they won’t go away or that i won’t handle them well. i guess what i’m talking about really isn’t problems per se. it’s just icky stuff, things i need to do something about like a complicated project, misunderstandings, a need to set boundaries, a project that’s gone amuck or is stuck.

but when i sit and wait for something to come to me, it ALWAYS does. i get excited. often something really cool occurs to me–a good idea for a project or a useful new perspective about myself, another person, or the planet. often solutions come to me fully formed. sometimes like tonight i have to get out of bed and write them down.

i’m wearing sunglasses looking at my monitor because my sleepy eyes can’t take the glare, and i don’t remember which button to press on my monitor to turn down the brightness.

problems give me an opportunity to be creative and to learn to trust myself. i learn (over and over again, unfortunately), that answers, guidance, solutions come to me (like the sun glasses). they bubble up after i’ve mulled over the issue and held debates and conversations in my head. then when i take a long walk, go to bed, or just sit quietly, the guidance comes. amazing really. and then there’s smooth sailing for a time.

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Redefining Perfect

Nov 21st, 2003

i love the design of the early toyota camry’s (early 90′s). so i searched and searched and found a 1991 that was in good shape – silver grey with a sunroof, power windows, and power locks. i’ve never had those features before….and LOVE them.

a while back one of the hub caps came off and i drove it that way for several months feeling like a sloth. it made the beautiful car appear ugly….but being busy and a rather low maintenance kind of person, i let it go.

then i decided i wanted to get my "clean sweep" score up to 80+ so i decided it was time to get new hub caps and get it fully cleaned in and out. since i don’t like cleaning a car (especially vacuuming the inside, yuck), i took it to a fancy car wash and for $13 got it vacuumed, cleaned, and waxed and it looked great. i didn’t know places like that existed. now i know ….and when i want to spiff something up in my life, i’ll go there. i’m frugal, so the price is right.

i knew i’d get another point on the clean sweep if i got new hub caps….but they were SO expensive (and not that fun) and i didn’t want to spring for that. so i shopped around a little and found some really classy ones at a discount store. they’re plastic, shiny, have fake bolts…..so they look like more expensive ones but i got all 4 for just $14. they made the car look perfect. i beamed with happiness. and to think they are really plastic and cheap, but they are still perfect. perfect doesn’t have to be expensive. it doesn’t have to be high class. it just has to be perfect for me. and they are. smoke and mirrors work for me…sometimes.

think how many values underpin that last description. makes me who i am. my unique finger print. your unique values are pretty cool too….even the quirky ones like the ones i just described about myself. free to be frugal. free to be quirky. free to be pleased by plastic.  You don’t have to be perfect to have a perfect life.

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A Few of My Favorite Things

Nov 20th, 2003

one of my favorite things is to have several things getting done at the same time . . . and i’m only doing one of them. it’s like a miracle. so today is an awesome day for me. a favorite day. a friend of mine is cleaning; two guys are repairing, scraping, and painting my house; and another friend is working on my web page design for cherylmillerville.com. and i’m working on the content for the web site. now if i just put in a load of laundry and started the dishwasher, i’d be over the top, hog heaven.

sometimes it’s the little things like this that bring a broad grin to my face. yea, it’s mundane maybe, but it’s the things that life’s made of. and since i’m all about getting things done, it’s just so perfect. the sun is out and we’re heading toward a high of 75 (in November!)

for me the sun is a favorite thing. i thank the sun often, literally. think about how life would suck if we didn’t have the sun. we, in fact, would all perish. when it’s cold and windy and the sun is shining, walk to the sunny side of the street, building, hill (whatever) out of the wind and be so grateful for the sun. i love to stop, take some time, and do that. we use solar energy for a reason . in fact, we would do well to use MORE solar energy in our homes and businesses.

walking is another one of my favorite things. i love LONG walks. i walk in the rain, snow, wind, and heat. but today, with the perfect temperature, it’s even better! i walk along the kansas river (kaw) and see lots of wildlife: eagles (in season), blue heron, migrating birds like great white pelicans and egrits, beaver, snakes, dragonflies and other flying insects, all kinds of birds including barn swallows and night hawks, red tail hawks, ducks and geese, and fox. and bats at night. 

i don’t know the status of the river now, but a few years back it was ranked as one of the most polluted in the country. since kansas is an agricultural state we have lots of farm chemicals….and people do love to poison and fertilize their lawns. that’s not one of my favorite things. i’m looking forward to my walk – usually 4 miles. lots of time to become aware, think, and connect with an occasional walker, biker, or runner.

haiku verse often comes to me when i walk. i tap the syllables of the verse on my thigh as i search for just the right number (5-7-5) for a haiku poem. for me this is a game and it also helps refine my thinking and language skills and my ability to become aware and appreciative of all there is around me. you might try it. type "writing haiku" into the google.com search engine and you’ll have many resources that describe the process.

one other thing i like about walking is that it’s a steeping time for me. my subconscious goes to work and dreams up all kinds of cool things to think about and become aware of. i usually come home with wonderful insights and ideas that i need to capture right away….before they are lost. long baths do that for me too. . . another favorite thing.

so many daily things to be oh so grateful for.

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The Floodgates of Creativity

Nov 17th, 2003

ha! i knew it. i figured that once i got the paper thing (block) figured out, the flood gates of my creativity would open. it finally happened tonight. is there anything that feels better than FINALLY getting energy moving?

oh, so many things i created tonight for my new web portal cherylmillerville.com. it is so much fun. now for some sleepy time tea to quell the swift flowing waters .

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Wrestling the Paper Dragon

Nov 16th, 2003

today i wrestled my paper dragon to the ground…..and won, at least for now. i come from a long line of packrats and paper hounds, and have pretty well mastered everything but paper.

one of my strengths on the http://www.strengthsfinder.com test is input. that means i love to gather and store ideas. well, i love to gather them…..but they usually end up in piles and are then virtually unusable. for 2 years i’ve been wrestling with this problem. got great muscles now. i’ve set up numerous systems. clever systems. too clever. so today i coached myself on this topic better than i have yet and the results were good.

my goals are to cut down on input, and to make it easy to file and retrieve what i gather. here’s what i’m doing to keep this system working well (hopefully).

one. maintain one simple system (alphabetical – no "clever" groups).

two. unsubscribe from all but 3 online newsletters.

three. file what i DO collect in short bursts (set timer). it’s not sexy but i’m hopeful. i’ll give a progress report in a month (or so) when i see how it’s working. pray for me, hehe.

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