You Attract More With Honey Than You Do With Vinegar

You can guess the love fortune on this one...I Love How Friendly You Are.  This makes me laugh because this is something that didn't come natural but happened over time and wasn't even intentional.  In fact, for the longest time, I would tell people that I'm shy...and they'd laugh at me...I'd argue, no really I'm shy at first and then all bets are off once I know you.  The story that I remember most was when I went on one of my first business trip.  So I was in my young 20's.  I was so much more update in my 20's then I am now...hell I was way more uptight in my teens and below...but I digress.

I was in Wichita, Kansas.  I get into an empty elevator to meet the rest of the people I was traveling with in the lobby.   The elevator stops in between floors to let someone in.  It's a stranger and as they get in they say hello.  I was shocked.  It wasn't hotel staff....I wanted to look over my shoulder, was there someone that I didn't see...who were they saying hello to me.  I realized it was odd but I still had my NY pride and to myself I rationalized it afterwards that if I said hello to everyone I pass in NYC, I'd be horse...so discretion is needed.  Plus you have to be careful...you don't really look people in the eye on the subways.  Although over time that has shifted and I actually wouldn't even describe myself as friendly but as some of the feedback I get, I'm beginning to believe that I'm not shy.  Friendly doesn't mean that you have to engage in full out conversations...friendly is in the tone of your voice, it's in your eyes when you interact...and I find that nine times out of ten the people you interact are even nicer and more helpful.  Sure there are the curmudgeons out there that just want to miserable no matter what and they are even more fun to be friendly with because they don't quite know how to deal with you.  And although I consider myself more of a lover than a fighter, I kind of consider myself more of a lover than a fighter...I like to try to kill people with kindness...not literally kill them but kill their inner curmudgeon for sure.  Why be bitter, it's exhausting and bad for the health.  And although I'm not sure my mother practiced what she preached, she used to say "You get more with honey than you do with vinegar."  Actually this may be the number one rule in the Lulu's Guide to Prosperity Consciousness?  And its really true, that is from my experience...  And it doesn't cost you anything to be friendly. Actually this may be the number one rule in the Lulu's Guide to Prosperity Consciousness?  

I would argue not being friendly actually costs you...the Soul needs friendly to keep the gates of your heart happy so that it can go out and play.

I think some people think it's a pride thing...I thought there was a pride be damned quote that I couldn't remember so I decided to look up some pride quotes and here is a few good ones:

"I would always rather be happy than dignified" - Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

"A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long, as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you." and I would add in front of your face  - C.S. Lewis

"Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need." - Kahlisl Gibran

"It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than lose someone you love with useless pride." - John Ruskin

"Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves." - Emily Bronte

Now I got the quote it's pride comes before the fall...it's a biblical quote...meaning if you get stuck in pride it will surely lead to doom.  OK I'm going to step back for a second here...maybe I made a leap could there be other things that keep you from being friendly.  You can be genuinely shy...but do you want to stay shy...start practicing.  Are you highly depressed?  Practicing friendliness may help...you can fake it but when you do you always feel it...so when your being friendly to others your actually being friendly to yourself.  And I'm also realizing that being friendly is an aspect of love and the first step to inviting a life filled with love.  And this reminds me of a Pooh quote I saw on on facebook today,

I mean meditation is fine and good...but enlightenment, shmightenment...true bliss comes from practicing what you preach start with a few extra hellos, smiles at strangers or adding it to the tone of your voice...  It's that simple...

Finding Your Pot of Gold

Yesterdays love fortune...I love your Aura.  Well I knew who to send that to, a friend who reads aura's and if I was able to see them must have a magnificent one.  But the first thing I think of is rainbows which are amazing and maybe if we connect with our aura which is basically our souls emanating our personal radiant rainbows.  And when I think of rainbows, I think muppets...so enjoy this

And as the leprauchans tell us follow the rainbow to your pot of gold and that's true...when you follow your Soul, you find your pot of gold.  I also know that owning my inner child (hence the muppets) helps me get there so much quicker.  Children are unjaded and find joy in the box that the gift comes in...try it, you may find that pot of gold!

Own Your Inner Artist

I have to say my inner judge came out big time on I Love How Talented You Are...first off I thought it's not like although I'm a pretty enthusiatic spinner I'm far from an olympian or I may be playfully creative but an artist or actress...they were really trying hard on this one.  Then well, maybe I do have some ceremonial talents.  It was hard to own talented because who is setting the bar.  I of course defaulted to ye old dictionary.

No surprise, Webster went to town,

1  a:  any of several ancient units of weight
    b:  a unit of value equal to the value of a talent of gold or silver
2  archaic : a characteristic feature, aptitude, or disposition of a person or animal
3  : the natural endowments of a person
3  a:  a special often athletic, creative or artistic aptitude
    b:  general intelligence or mental power:  ability
5  : a person of talent of a group of persons in a field or activity


Who knew about measurement of weight, but even they get into the athlete, artistic...who does the white turn to gray which turns to black..right????

And since I like simple, in it's simplest form it's a natural aptitude so I'm a natural at finding humor and laughing at life.  I also would go out and say I do have a talent on the generous and loving too but that's a work in progress and life devotion.  Ahhh, the beauty of semantics... I guess my attachment to talent was to the fact that there should be financial return for my talent or some sort of gold star or blue ribbon but I get blue ribbons in feedback all the time.  And actually the platinum stars are the friends and family I have in my life.

I also remembered reading once that there was a man who asked a group of kindergarden children to raise their hand if they were an artist.  Everyone raised their hand.  When he asked a room of adults he was lucky if 5% raised their hands.  What happened?  That made me said.  And the place that we are most artistic is our lives...we are creating our realities every day...so yes I'm an artist with many talents.

What Constitutes Touch

Yesterdays fortune was "I Love Your Healing Touch".  And it was timely because recently a few people I barely knew said how I inspired and influenced them and I certainly didn't try to...I just modeled a way of being and transformation for them.  So apparently I touched them without ever laying a hand or barely speaking to.  They just noticed things about me.

So the apparent touch is in a kiss or a hug (I'm big on the quality of hugs no burping allowed) or grasp of a hand.  But we truly we touch people when we say thank you or hello, when we smile at a stranger, just in the way we carry ourselves.  Sometimes this paralyzes me, because I think of the movie Butterfly Effect.  If you haven't seen it, I recommend but I do with caution.  The theme for the movie is that when a butterfly flaps a wing in one place it can cause a hurricane in another.  Yikes right.  I remember going through major fear of cause and effect.  I was a bone marrow donor and I hadn't even thought twice about donating.  It was for an 11 year old girl.  So there I definitely touched a life but I knew at the least I was just giving hope.  The recovery was painful and all of a sudden I had an oh shit feeling.  What did I do.  I just bought into the medical model that I don't believe in.  How machiavellian can healing get.  The reason she needed my bone marrow is because they radiated and chemoed her to such an extreme and then to get my bone marrow they needed to stab into my sacrum (granted I was put out during that part, but felt it afterwards) over and over to remove it.  Who thought of it.  And then, there is no guarantee that I helped her.  What if I did save her life and then she became a drunk driver and killed someone elses child.  Or she marries someone her beats her.  What did I do.  I literally started sobbing.  I got over it and then went back to all I can promise is hope and you can't guarantee how a person receives what you give them.  With organ donations there is a chance of rejection or as the quote says cause a hurricane...same thing with loving intention.  So it's important that our intentions are clear but that we have a greater awareness of the impact of the way we touch peoples live.

To Live from the heart or Jump Off A Cliff, That Is The Question

I'm double blogging because this one is easy, breezy and it's a Sunday so I have more time...love fortune is I love how you live from the heart.  And that is true whether my heart is happy or not...I kind of wear it on my sleeve.  Some people may call it sloppy but I call it honest and the only way I know.  Without much thinking, the following immediately came to mind:

This one, I really love...I can't remember who to credit for sharing it with me, but I know it's from Matt Groenig's Life in Hell.  This is sadly true, that some people would rather jump off the cliff than share intimacy and vulnerability (which is the ultimate courage).  Also ironic because I believe that life is bliss if you let it, so I guess it can feel like your in hell too if you let it.  But I also like Winston Churchill's quote, "If you find yourself in hell, keep going."  So perhaps that is a jump off the cliff, but then again that's what the wisdom of the fool and his leap of faith in the Tarot represents...so perhaps intimacy is like jumping off the cliff but if we're luck we land on a pile of feathers and don't go squish.

My Fruit Loops Put The Extraordinary (aka Woo Hoo) in My Life

Funny I didn't think yesterdays fortune was going to lead to such an extensive blog.

So the love fortune for yesterday was, I love you your love of Danny.  And I laughed since the gift came from Danny and Austin.  And either Danny is a narcissist and to do what he does as spin instructor extraordinaire he certainly needs a healthy ego but I'm guessing Austin wrote that one - who in truth is a good person to model being loving after.  He's love of Danny is what I want a man to have for me and he's right, I do love that man...sometimes I wonder if I need some therapy...but I've rationalized it that I was his mother, aunt or sister in a previous life.  It's also been a theme in the past week because I'm always amazed at the people who pop into our lives and how there is like a tribal chemistry that makes some people more like family than others and it's way more than just character traits.  There are people, that I haven't known very long or very well, that I would jump through hoops for, and others not so much.  So here is the man I am loved for loving

Danny and his hairy balls

Danny in a beauty pageant pose with his bouquet of hairy balls (I'm not making that up, they are called that and there is a short story there but lets take the giggle).  Now I'm wondering if there is an I love your love of Austin love fortune in there but it may take another 361 days to find out as I read them one by one.  So let's honor them....

Danny and Austin - My Fruit Loops

There's a story with the fruit loop mugs.  We'll keep it brief but let's just say Marilyn Gonzalez had this amazing experience where a stranger offered her a hug at a time when she needed it and then he gifted her with some wisdom.  Be a fruit loop in a world of cheerio's...it's a lot more interesting.  So let's share Marilyn too.  I love this story and have hijacked it to share with as many people as possible.

Chief Fruit Loop and Hi Jacker of Story

So now after all this sharing of amazing people in my life, we get to the thing that inspired todays blog.  My mind really is like russian roulette, round and round she goes and where she stops you never know.  Actually feels like this mind doesn't stop at all but when I step back, it can be entertaining.  Let's get this train back on track....

As I was browsing through Facebook this morning, I found this.

I laughed for many reasons.  One was that earlier, I had a daily assignment from a gratitude experiment I've been playing around with.  And was asked to talk about the groups I belong to that I'm grateful for.  And as much as my friends as Soul are not an official group, they have become my tribe (see I can go full circle) so isn't this synchronistic.

I also recalled when a psychic friend told me that I make the ordinary extraordinary (I humbly share this with you) ...which lead me to my testament that I like to put the woo hoo in woo woo.  And in spin class, although not woo woo, I certainly woo hoo (literally scream out woo hoo) a hell of a lot.  And although the endorphin high of spinning puts the woo hoo in my life, in truth,  it's really the members of my tribe as the are the right people for me.  Above is only three of an extensive tribe all of whom are obviously not included.  So I guess my tribe is called tribe fruit loop.  OK, if you haven't figured it out, in the Lulu thesaurus, extraordinary is a synonym for Woo Hoo. And like I said, Fruit Loops put the Woo Hoo in my life for sure.  Think the cereal wants to change your motto...tee hee...

Am I A.D.D or Focus Agile????

Todays love fortune is "I love how you don't take anything too seriously."  Well that was a piece of humble pie because if you read yesterdays post I had labeled it a shitty day.  I do say good thing is that I don't stay serious for too long.  My theory is that we can turn our circumstances into a bad story or a good story, it's a matter of perspective so why focus on the depressing bad right...it just exhausts me and wants me to nap my way through life   But before I go off on that point, I also want to say, you shouldn't ignore the heavy feelings...it's important to acknowledge and in knowing how your really feel act consciously and with awarenes...it's like the definition of courage.  Courage isn't the absence of fear it's having fear and acting anyway...acting with consciousness.  After all Cour comes from the french word heart so it's acting with heart.  That may not be what Webster's says but remember I focus agile...

So it was tough few days.  I found out that a friend of mine had a terrible and shocking loss in her family.  Something to take seriously.  Then although not a surprise that my corporate day job announces relocation to Raleigh N.C. but they can't tell us when and exactly how we're impacted.  Did I tell you I've been there 25 years and I may even have to re-apply for my job. Although I'm not surprised (because this was the best not kept secret in America), there was the reality of the announcement and what is coming sometime in the next 2 1/2 years.  Yes they couldn't be more specific.  I realize I have choices which is more empowering than not coming up with choices but I went to the woe is me for a bit or more like what the fuck have you created.  The negative thoughts were on rapid fire, have I been complacent in my life...oh shit, I have to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.  I should say when I grow older because, I don't think the growing up is happening.

In addition, I'm also surrounded by tons of other people who are more shocked than I and perhaps not as responsible with how they splay their emotions.  And when they share there negativity, part of me goes shit I never thought of that vs. poor pessimistic souls.  Hard to be around when your an empath and a natural care taker, so needless to say I was exhausted and filled with a plenty of negative stories in my head.  Also during all this ordeal, someone I was working at trying to get someone hired permanently.  Let's just say it didn't work out and wound up losing her job immediately while having other challenging life circumstances that made it a bit more devastating for them.  Could my heart break for others any more while breaking for myself? (OK that was dramatic, more on myself than on the others)

Yesterday I shared the pretty tree picture which helped but not the panacea.  So yesterday morning, I'm on the platform for the F train.  I decide to walk down to the other end so I will be near the staircase I want to get off at when I get to 42nd Street.  So I walk and as I look up the stairs I see this large homeless main and I notice a shadow waving (floppily may I say) by his belly and his shirt is lifted slightly.  Pants are low but not completely down.  But as a typical New Yorker, I keep on walking.  Well I realize that was the mans junk waving in the wind.  I just giggle and keep on going.  I guess I could have been offended so maybe I don't take things that seriously.  But keep going...

So I'm at my day job and happen to mention the morning experience to someone, who to be truthful, I normally wouldn't share this experience with.  The thought of a homeless guy lead him to tell me of a story that his 8 year old daughter was doing as a current events piece in school that day.  I'm going to give you highlights with link to stories and more.  Apparently there was a woman who dumped her purse and all it's contents (assuming just change) into the man's cup.  24 hours later she realizes her platinum diamond ring was in that purse.  She and her husband run to the same location, yes he was there and as soon as he saw her he returned the ring.  He even went to pawn shop but when the guy said was real and offered $4,000 (for a ring worth more like $174,000, not that homeless man Billy Ray Harris knew this), he just couldn't take the money.  So husband & wife share story with press and husband took action to create give forward site to raise money for Billy Ray.  His goal was $1,000 in 90 days and he has raised more than the ring was worth and there are still 69 days left.  Here is the link to give forward  Yes he has already raised more than anticipated and some people may say he has enough, I donated, fairly generously, because I believe in supporting generosity.  I also know that when you give selflessly you can receive in the most unexpected ways.  Well stories like this gave me perspective.  So here is an internet story with exact details but this gets better because the man's sister who hadn't seen him in 16 years and presumed him dead, sees the story and is reunite.  So you never know what comes out of any situation or how long it stays.  So like I said, am I just agile and darting from perspective (or delusion your choice or words) or do I just have attention deficit disorder.  I'm choosing the former because it keeps me lighter and able to move forward and create change in my life.

And this may be a bit of patting myself on the back, but I do know that this is something that is appreciated about me...a few weeks ago I asked some friends to help me describe myself for an online dating site.  I just don't like putting myself in box, but I asked that if they met someone that they wanted to introduce me to, how would they describe me.  "Lulu is fun-loving in a way few people I know are.  She is spontaneous and soulful, present and enthusiastic.  She´s able to take the meaningful things in life very seriously-- health, love, help of others-- while never taking herself too seriously.  This is as rare as it is charming and valuable"  So maybe this is an opportunity to pat myself on the back but it's also reminding me that I don't always see myself like this and can go to the harsh.  And part of me wanted to say, what he doesn't see me as hot and sexy...ha, but see where that trickster mind can take us.  Let's all be more Focus Agile...

I am going to think God said, "Uh oh, we're going to lose Lulu to the pessimists, we better give her something to be optimistic about."  And when stories like this don't fall into your lap, I'm going to give you my secret panacea.  It's a funny (hysterical) alien movie called Paul.  This movie will get me out of my biggest despair.  It was share to with me when my soul sister passed away and I felt like all the air was kicked out of me. It was another way to be focus agile and besides laughter helps you breath, hell you can't laugh without breathing and breathing means your alive and ....  Uh oh, about to turn this into a novella...  If you need a laugh, check it out...

 Try it and if you don't like, I'm sure there's another one out there