Tag Archives: Maggie Shayne

The Art of Feeling Good (Maggie)

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Dozer at 1, Running with an Apple

“If you had one goal, and that was to feel good, you would never again need to hear another word from anyone. You would live successfully and happily and in a way of fulfilling your life’s purpose ever after.”
~Abraham

This is one of my favorite quotes. I have many favorite quotes, and I enjoy sharing them far and wide, but more than that, I enjoy picking them apart and trying to figure out how to turn a pithy bit of what sounds like ingenious advice, into a life-enhancing habit.  And this seems like an easy one. Feel good.  Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But many of us might not think so. How does one go about just feeling good when the things around them are bad?

Well, here’s the thing. It’s not what’s happening around you that makes you feel bad in most cases. It’s not what other people are doing or not doing, or where you live or how much money you have. It’s what you think and feel about those things. Short of a health crisis or the loss of a loved one, nothing else really has the power to make you feel bad. And we’ll come back to those great big things too.  So let’s look at this.

Here are the key things. First, we have to get a very firm handle on the simple truth that it’s

Niblet’s favorite thing: A Mud Facial

not anyone else’s job to make us happy. If we really truly believe that, then the notion of, “I’d be happy if only my husband would change,” or “if only my kids would help out more,” or “if only (anyone) would do or stop doing (anything)” would never occur to you again. You see?

Second, we have to get just as firm a grasp on the concept that it’s not our job to make anyone else happy. First, because it’s impossible to do. No matter how hard we try, we can never do enough to please everyone in our lives because they all want different things and without being in their heads, we can’t even be sure what all those things are. And because no one can make anyone happy. Your one and only job is to choose to be happy yourself.

The third thing is to live in the current moment. It’s cliche, but think about it, pick it apart. What does it mean? When you’re walking or sitting or resting or trying to sleep, what’s going through your mind? A million things, I know. But most of them fall into one of two categories: Past, that is the reliving of what happened yesterday (or last week or last month) and thinking I should have done this or I should have said that. Or future, which is worrying about tomorrow, or next week or next month and thinking I’ll never make that deadline, we’re going to run out of money, that huge bill is due, I’ve got some unpleasant thing I have to do.

Daisy and Niblet’s other Favorite Thing: SNOW!

How often do we really stop to just BE in the present moment? To feel the soft pillow beneath our head, the warm body beside us, the snuggly covers keeping us warm. How often do we look around the room and smile at the colors we picked or the curtains we chose, or take comfort in the pictures on our walls? How many times do we stop what we’re doing to pause and just bask in where we are in that very moment? Almost never.

When you are worrying, you are actively creating your future. The thoughts you think become the beliefs you believe, and what you believe is what comes true for you. If that doesn’t make you want to stop worrying, I don’t know what will.

So when the worries come, ask yourself why you’re thinking about this thing that makes you feel so badly. Can you fix it right now? If so, do it and get it off your mind. If not, then why dwell on it? Why not think about something that makes you feel good instead? You’re in charge of what you dwell on, after all. No one else, just you.

“Selfishly seek joy, for unless you are in your joy, you have nothing to offer anyone else.”
~Abraham

Do you know anyone who is always complaining? About life, their marriage, their bills, their job, their kids, etc? It’s exhausting and draining to be around them, isn’t it?

Do you know anyone who is always upbeat, positive, happy? Do you notice how you always feel better when you’re around them?

So here’s your question. Which person do you want to be? Why not be the person that others feel better around? Why not beam with so much peace, serenity, and calm that everyone around you feels calmer? Why not beam so much joy and giddiness and love of life that everyone around you feels happier?

Now back to those big bad things that life can bring us. Health crises, losses of those we love (we don’t really lose them you know, but that’s another blog post.) Studies of happiness have shown that those people who have a normal state of happiness that’s in the high range, tend to bounce back from tragedies more quickly and deal with them more healthily. Those who are always down, tend to be crippled by the same types of losses. People return to what is their “norm.”  What’s yours?

Dozer (upright) Daisy & Niblet playing in sprinkler.

Dogs don’t worry. Dogs are always, always in the moment. And they find more joy in their short lifespans than humans do in our much longer ones. Be in the moment, and find joy in what is there. Like a dog with an apple or a mud-puddle or new snow or a sprinkler, find something to be utterly giddy about in every moment of your existence. Make happiness be your normal state. And every single thing in your life will improve…not just a little bit–it’ll snowball. And it will begin immediately.

Choose Joy. It takes nothing more than accepting that it is a choice, and realizing that you are the one in control of making it.  And then consistent practice, every day, with every thought, choosing to focus on what feels good and refusing to dwell on what doesn’t.

 

 

Slowly coming back…. (Maggie)

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As many of you probably know, we lost my beloved Mother-in-Love, Lee. Since then we’ve been up north on Black Lake with family for her services and many family gatherings. We’re back now, but gearing up for another memorial service locally this weekend, so we’re still scrambling. Still missing her, still struggling with the hole she left in so many lives, and still feeling her everywhere in all we do. She’s been making sure we know she’s okay and still with us in many ways.

So my blog will be brief today, but I found something today that really made me smile, and I wanted to share it with you, because in the midst of any hard time, anything that makes you smile is a happy big of relief.

These are 28 photos of grooms’ reactions upon first glimpsing their brides on their wedding day.  They’re just wonderful and really smile worthy.  (click the link) I hope you enjoy it, and I’ll be back with a more thorough post next week.

Lots of love,

Maggie

The Bliss of Surrender (Maggie)

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Our family has been struggling for the past seven weeks. It doesn’t seem possible it’s been that long since my partner’s beautiful mom went into Crouse Hospital in Syracuse for a cardiac cath, thinking she’d have a stent put in and be home in a few days.  That revealed bigger issues than a stent could fix, so she was sent to St. Joseph’s Hospital to undergo triple bypass surgery.  Something went terribly wrong, though no one still knows what, and she end up being moved to Strong Memorial in Rochester where she remains on a ventilator, on dialysis, in multi-organ failure.

This isn’t the only such struggling happening at the moment.  My beautiful Aunt recently lost her adult son to a motorcycle accident. My beautiful sister and her family are struggling with my brother in law’s cancer. A dear friend and colleague has an adult niece with two small children, just diagnosed with a dire illness.

So we’ve been struggling. We’ve been praying, vision questing, magicking, shamaning, Reiki-ing, positive thinking, bedside vigiling, and straining in every possible way.  We are fighting to stay hopeful, to stay positive, to share energy with, to stay upbeat, to believe our loved ones will be well again. We’re fighting for miracles here.

But fighting and struggle are never good.  All of this comes from our intuitive human tendency to stave off death at all costs. To see it as the worst possible thing that can happen.  We all kind of believe that deep down.  No matter how philosophical we might be about death the rest of the time, when it comes to us or to someone we love, death becomes the enemy. No longer a natural part of an endless cycle. No longer a blissful passage into ultimate understanding and peace and oneness. We go from viewing the end of a lifetime from the perspective of Touched by an Angel, to viewing it from the perspective of Final Destination. And we do it in the space of time it takes a doctor to utter the words, “We’ve done all we can.”

So now, in the midst of this struggle, I’ve been growing more and more tense. Yesterday I was very near a breaking point as I drove to town to get my oil changed, resenting that life would dare interrupt me in the middle of a family crisis. I was going down the road, with a thousand things racing through my head, and I suddenly heard my inner self shouting “STOP!”

So I stopped. I pulled the car over. I stepped on my mental brakes at the same time. I made the noise in my head go silent. I thought of Eckhart Tolle saying that there is no past and there is no future, there is only NOW.  And when we spend our Now reliving the past or worrying about the future, our Now is being wasted.

 ”Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.”
― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
I took a few deep, cleansing breaths, and looked at the blue blue sky, the puffs of white clouds floating lazily by, the way the trees have already begun putting on their Fall display. I put my windows down and breathed the crisp, chilly autumn air. I stopped my mind from racing ahead, stopped my mental reciting of the infinite to-do list, stopped the what if, what if, what if, worry-chant that’s been hammering away inside my head.  I focused on Now. The very moment I was in.  And I realized that it was a good moment.  I opened myself up to the appreciation of this good moment, to really relishing it, smelling it, tasting it, feeling it, experiencing it.  Living it.  Another message came to me. And it was the message of surrender. “Just let it go,” it whispered. “This isn’t your journey, this isn’t your job, stop struggling and straining. Surrender.”
The answer to every impossible problem is simply to surrender to it. Know that it will be as it will be. Every one of us is on this planet until it’s time for us to move on. We can be okay with that, or we can miserable about that. But it is as it is.  We ebb and we flow, we wax and we wane with the cycles of nature. Our human perceptions and emotions, our magnificent brains, like to think they can figure a way out of or around or through those cycles, and we strain and struggle because what we’re fighting against isn’t something that we can change. Trying to change these cycles would be as logical as me going outside and spending my time willing the leaves not to fall from the trees as Autumn unfolds, trying to enforce my will on those leaves to stay put, and fearing that if I look away, even for a second, they’re going to fall because I wasn’t vigilant enough.  But no.  Leaves fall. That’s simply what Autumn is. And it’s not a bad thing, and spring always comes again, and this is the way of nature.
If a person is meant to spend more time on the physical plane, there is nothing anyone can do that will make them leave early. No one dies before their time. No matter how young, no matter how tragic. And if a person has reached the end of their earthly journey, there is nothing anyone can do to keep them around longer. The length of each lifetime was chosen before each of us came into it. Surrendering to that gentle truth allows us to stop struggling, and straining and trying to force our will onto the eternal cycles of nature. It allows us to stop our angry, furious, raging against, and questioning why. Once we know we can’t change it, that it’s not our job to change it, that everything happens exactly the way it’s supposed to for reasons we will understand perfectly once we cross the Veil ourselves, once we accept that, we can relax a little more. We can be a little bit easier inside ourselves.
I don’t believe all the prayers and healing and magic we send to our ailing loved ones is ever for nothing. I am convinced the energy reaches those we love and helps them enormously.  But whether they channel that energy into making a more peaceful, easier transition to the other side, or whether they channel it into making their recovery faster and more complete, we cannot know ahead of time. And this is where surrender can bring the nearest thing to comfort in times like these.
Surrender means letting go. Breathing deeply, and letting go, and knowing that the outcome is already decided. It will be as it will be, and it will be as it’s supposed to be. It’s not up to us. It will be as the Divine Source from whence we come, that part of us that IS that Source, knows it must be, because that’s the only way it can be, and it will all make perfect sense to us when our turn comes.
So we continue to pray, to meditate, to send energy in whatever means feels right to us. And we trust that it will be put to the best possible use, and that all will be as it will be. And it eases the struggle a little bit. It takes the pressure off of us to know we’re not in charge of ensuring that the moon continues through her endless cycles. We’re not in charge of ensuring that the sun will rise each morning. We’re not in charge of telling the wild things when it’s time to begin mating season, or when it’s time to give birth. We’re not in charge of how long our fellow creatures choose to romp around in the physical world.
We’re not in charge of how many moments we have in this lifetime.
But we are in charge how we use each and every one of those moments. And that is the most empowering bit of knowing I think we can have.
Maggie

Small World (Maggie)

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Maggie’s Mother-in-Love, Lee & hubby Brian

Happy Autumn 2012!

Before I get to today’s topic, I want to ask a favor.  If you’re reading this, please wing a prayer, a spell, some Reiki, a chant, a wish to this beautiful woman.  She’s my Lance’s mom.  I call her my “mother-in-love” cause she’s not exactly a mother-in-law (Lance and cohabit but have no contract.)  Anyway, Lee just had to have a triple bypass due to damage done by the radiation that saved her from cancer twenty some years ago.  Things went bad after the operation and she’s been in the ICU for a full month now. We’ve nearly lost her three times that we know of. This past Monday she was given a 2% chance of surviving by her doctors. And in my head, I saw her put her little hands on her little hips and say, “I’ll show you 2%!”  Just in the last few days she’s begun to improve in teeny tiny bits, but measurable ones. So I’d be eternally grateful if you would take a moment to wish her well, and try to imagine her as you see her here in this very recent photo, happy, healthy, pink, and sassy.  Thank you. You know I’m always happy to reciprocate.

Now, on to today’s post which is ever shrinking size of our world. And the reason for it is this thing you’re surfing right now as you read this. The Internet. I release a book in the US and I get immediate complaints from readers in France, in England, in Australia, in Germany, asking why the heck they can’t find it! That never happened before. I think it’s very cool, too, that when I self-publish my own backlist books, I can release them worldwide all on the same day.  The big publishers take longer to change, because, as my editor recently told me, it’s like turning an ocean liner around. It takes time to move something that big. But everything is shifting from a this nation, that nation point of view, to a global one. Everything.

I believe that we are in the midst of major worldwide change, due largely to the Internet.  The wider its reach, the smaller the world. And one of the biggest changes I’m seeing is the elimination of the middle man.  Many, many people have launched successful businesses with the help of the ‘net. Publishing is a perfect reflection of this shift.  A writer can now create a book, and sell it directly to the reader without anyone else standing in between the two taking a cut. Now that’s always been the case-vanity presses have been around forever.  Writer pays the press to print the book, then tries to sell it by hand.  (And that was still a middle-man.)  But today, the writer can sell thousands, even hundreds of thousands of copies, without ever leaving her home.  And yes, there’s a still a middle man of sorts–Amazon or Nook or iTunes or Sony or Kobo. (Just until someone figures out how to duplicate what they’re doing from their own living room, that is.) It’s only a matter of time before there’s a single agreed upon universal format and from there things get even more personal.  And the cut being taken by these current giant middlemen is a lot smaller than that taken by traditional publishing up to now. And the cut being taken by the genius in his living room is going to be even smaller.

It’s happened in the music industry. We see artists posting their work to Youtube (for free!) and selling CDs independently, and via sites like Amazon, CD Baby, iTunes, and so on. And they get a much bigger share of the cover price than they ever would get from the old giant record labels. I’ve seen it in film. Indy actors & filmmakers are releasing their series on the net, very much like Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion & company did with Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I just watched one of these net series: Exorcists Local 667. It has a full 6 or 7 episode season ready for viewing and it’s an absolute RIOT. Here’s the teaser.

http://youtu.be/X8zq1FaR9Bk

So where is this trend going?  I think the balance of power is gradually shifting from the mega-corporations and governments, to the people, and that is a very positive thing. When the women who make baskets and jewelry in a small village in Rwanda can sell them to a dairy farmer in Iowa and a supermodel in Paris within the same five minutes, there will no longer be any reason for poverty. The Internet gives everyone far easier access to the same pool of abundance. All we have to do is give everyone access to the Internet.

There are a lot of philosophers, scientists, spiritual leaders, and mystics, who believe this shift is a big part of what the next “World Age” will bring.  The current “World Age” is ending–not the world itself, just this particular age of it. This is what ends on 12/21/2012, though the change is a very gradual one. It won’t happen in one big boom on the 21st of December. We’re seeing its beginnings, and the death throes of the old way of being as it struggles to hold onto its power. People feel this change, they sense that it is time, and that’s why they’re rebelling against the old way.

I remember when I first started using the Internet. I was amazed at how easy it was to put together groups of people, brainstorm a solution to a problem with them, plot a course of action and then implement it, all while sipping coffee in my jammies.

The world is small and getting smaller.  I can chat in real time with a reviewer in Romania while filing my nails and petting my cat, all from the comfort of my own home. Revolutionaries overthrow governments with help from Twitter.  It’s truly amazing.

The Internet is changing the world.  I’m amazed to watch it all unfold and eager to see where it leads next. It’s certainly excellent fodder for my fiction.

What do you all think is coming next? What are some of the changes you’ve noticed, and what others do you think we can expect?

PS: LEGACY OF THE WITCH is Free right now on Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iTunes. Grab yours today!

 

10 Ways to Make Time Your Bitch (Maggie)

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We’re all busy. (And by we, I mean, women.) We spend our days trying to complete a bottomless to-do list and our nights worrying about the stuff we didn’t get to, mentally adding it to tomorrow’s list, and wondering how we’ll ever manage to catch up. So today I’m going to give you ten tips for making your to-do lists shorter, your days last longer, and your nights be restful. Ready? Okay!

1. Accept that you, and I, and everyone, will leave this lifetime with an unfinished to-do list.  Therefore, spending time and stressing over getting it done is completely and utterly ridiculous.  You’ll never get it done.  Let it go.

2. Think about the end of your life, when you’re on your way to the other side, maybe your very last day on the planet.  Imagine yourself sitting there, knowing it’s the end (of this round) and looking back on the life you’ve lived.  What will you regret not doing more of?  Working? Chores? Items on the endless silly list?  Or having fun with your soul mate, you kids, your grandkids, your best friends, playing with your pets?  That’s a quick way to put the to-do list into perspective.

3.  Take a good look at your to-do list, and pick off the things you really want to do, the things you’re eager to do, the things you’re dying to do.  Move those to the top of the list.

4.  Take another good look at your to-do list, and pick off the things you are absolutely dreading.  The things you just don’t feel any eagerness or excitement about, the things you wish would just go away.  Now take those things and put them on another list.  This list is for the Universe, God, Source, Goddess, The Whole, your higher self, your higher power.  Put their name at the top of that list.  Set that list aside, and let it go.  Don’t think about it again.  In a few days, when you go back to check, you’ll be amazed to see a few of the things on that list have somehow vanished.  Either someone else did them, or the situation changed and they no longer need doing.  (Do this with confidence, and don’t do it with anything you’re going to worry about until it’s done, because it only works if you can take your focus OFF the task entirely, basking in confidence that it’s out of your hands.)

5. When lying awake at night worrying, apply this technique.  IF the thing you’re worrying about is something you can fix right this minute, then get out of bed, and fix it.  Poof, it will no longer keep you awake.  IF the thing you’re worrying about is something you cannot possibly fix right now, then understand that worrying about it is kind of useless.  You will fix it when you can fix it, and until then, worrying about it does no good whatsoever.  On the other hand, if you can let it go, it might just resolve itself by the time you get around to taking action.  Also, make a note of the thing that keeps you awake most, and fix it at the first opportunity, so you’ll sleep better.

6.  The above advice, “fix the thing that worries you most first” seems to be in conflict with “do the things you really want to do first.”  But the key is to do what feels best.  You’ve got to be able to weigh your options according to what is going to feel good while you’re doing it, (the stuff you can’t wait to do) as well as what is going to feel good once it’s done (the stuff that worries you and keeps you up nights.)  If doing the dreaded task and having it off your list feels better than dreading the task and still having it looming over you, then do the task.  Always do what feels best.

7. Whatever task you decide to do, focus every particle of your energy on that task.  Be completely present and attentive to the moment.  Let yourself get immersed in the job at hand (or the fun at hand for that matter.)  Whatever you’re doing, do it completely.  Most of us do one thing while thinking about the next five things on the list.  But our lives are NOW.  There’s no such thing as the past, because it’s gone.  And the future only exists in the future.  Right now, there’s no such thing.  Only this current moment.  So whatever the moment offers you, relish it, and try to see, hear, smell, taste, feel, experience every single part of that moment.  Give it your full attention.  It will add so much more to your experience that way.

8.  Even the unpleasant tasks can be fun if you make up your mind that it can. When I’m doing housework, I put on loud music.  I dance around, sing at the top of my lungs, really rock out while I’m doing mundane things like scrubbing the bathroom or washing Dozer-slime off the walls.  (He’s a mastiff, you see.  Did you see Turner & Hootch?)

9. Multi-task, but only with the really mindless stuff.  Okay, yes, I did say to focus entirely on whatever thing you’re doing to experience it fully.  But let’s face it, there are some tasks that are just really not full of all that much to relish.  Like folding laundry, for example, or emptying the dishwasher. I always jump up and do those tasks while having daily phone chats with my girls.  Because with five of them, that adds up to a whole lot of phone time.  I can’t do a lot of things while talking, because I want to focus on the conversation, and complex tasks distract me.  But simple, mindless tasks like these are great to do while chatting.  Gets them off the list, and you’re enjoying yourself while doing them.  Your mind is on your phone call, while your hands are working on auto-pilot to put the clothes away or stack the plate.

10. Make the good things as important as the “jobs.”  Important enough to go on that list of yours.  And break up the tasks by putting the fun stuff in between.  Also try to put physically demanding tasks in between the more mentally demanding ones that are done while sitting still. Intersperse these as much as possible.  Fun, then boring, physical then mental. “Pay the bills.  Meditate for 20 minutes.  Read the Galley Edits.  Go for a jog.  30 minutes in the hot tub. Mop the kitchen. Make the bed.  Watch Oprah’s Master Class.  Write ten pages. Play on Facebook.  Weed the garden.  Write the blog post.

But above all, remember that the list is inherently endless.  The things you check off it today will reappear tomorrow or next week or next month, and new things will come to replace them or join them. Life is about having fun, not getting it done.  The world will not end of your lawn isn’t mowed on time.  And it would be healthier for you to go swimming instead.

Let it go and relax a little.  It’s really more important to enjoy your day than to check items off that list.

Try it out and let me know how you do!  What are your tips for making time work for you instead of against you?

PS: We’re in Week Two of the ENTER THE PORTAL Contest!  Every week there’s a new question to answer (Yes you can still answer Question 1, no worries.)

Each answer gets you another chance at our grand prize, a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet.  Every single entry gets a free copy of my newly reissued e-book, MUSKETEER BY MOONLIGHT.  And next week, we’ll offer another FREEBIE for every entrant too.  Contest runs all month, at The Portal Books, Contest Page

 

Busy but FUN Week! (Maggie)

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I’m having a month of giveaways, prizes and fun like nothing I’ve ever done before, all leading up to the release of my HUGE new series, The Portal.  So let me fill you in so you don’t miss a chance at some fabulous prizes.

First, there’s a BIG, ENTER THE PORTAL Contest happening at The Portal Books website.  Grand prize is a Kindle Fire or Nook Touch, with many other prizes including tarot readings and signed copies.  You can enter once a week (we post a new question each week) and every time you do, you get another chance to win.  Final drawing Sept 1st.

Second, there’s a promo going on all month long at FRESH FICTION where you can win $50, $25, or $15 Amazon or BN.com gift cards along with signed copies of MARK OF THE WITCH.

And today only (I think) there are more prizes at both LITERAL ADDICTION and BOOK MONSTER REVIEWS.  At both of those you can win some cool Maggie Shayne swag, signed copies of MARK OF THE WITCH before you can buy them, and collectible trading cards.

This is all, as you probably know, because of the new series beginning in September.  I’m more excited than you can possibly imagine about the launch of The Portal Series.  It starts with a completely FREE prequel ebook, LEGACY OF THE WITCH on September 1st, and then MARK OF THE WITCH, the first novel, goes on sale in print on September 18th and in E-formats on October 1st.  You can pre-order now at most outlets.

My favorite astrology, Susan Miller at Astrology Zone, says my career is supposed to hit a never before seen high around month’s end and into September, culminating late November.  (Book 2 comes out in November!) so I’m even more excited.

So excited I forgot today was my day to blog, and now I’m running late for my boy Tanner’s baseball game, so I’ve got to dash.  But do check out all the contests and join me in my giddiness.  I can’t wait to see what happens when these books hit.  Times list, (single digits) here I come!

Until next time, Hakuna Matata!

Maggie

Gratitude Rampage (Maggie)

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First, if you’re looking for my extremely unpopular thoughts on the Harlequin lawsuit, you can find them at my solo blog, Shayne’s Shenanigans.  We Storybroads agreed to keep hot political issues off this blog, and that definitely qualifies.

So for today I’m going to share what I do when I get a little off my beam about something.  Like, I don’t know, someone forgets an important date to me, or I get overwhelmed with too much to do in too little time or the tax bill gets me down.  I do a rampage of appreciation.

This method is borrowed from Jerry and Esther Hicks and Abraham as so many of my life-saving habits are.  I give full credit to them.  For me, the written word is very powerful. When I write, I release the magic of the words.  When I compose a spell, it works before I get a chance to perform it.  When I read Tarot for people, I do it in writing, and the channels open for me.  So this exercise, because it involves writing, always works for me.

You just simply sit down and start writing all the good things going on, and go on and on until you feel better.

Here’s an example.

I got paid. I got paid this time before the checking account zeroed out.  In fact, we haven’t run out of funds before the paycheck has arrived once this year, so we’re really doing better on that, and the old backlist ebooks are earning enough to pay two of my monthly bills now!  And growing all the time.  Why, Jessica and I are about to put up a few more, and you know that’s going to help!  And things are going very very well.  The Portal Series is about to launch, we’re getting so close to September.  Oh, and I can already smell Autumn creeping into the air, and oh, how I LOVE FALL.  That decaying leaf smell is starting to permeate the woods where we walk the dogs.  It’s good, very good.  Thank goodness we have those woods and those dogs and those walks together. It’s really such a blissful thing to do.  It’s time to get the hot tub scrubbed out.  Ooh! That’s what I’ll do today, so we can sit there and bask some more.  Haven’t done that all summer.  Yes, that’s a good plan.  Everything is so good.  The house is clean, and we’re digging a pond out back, and yeah, it’s slow going, but it’s going to be gorgeous and more and more all the time, because we love landscaping projects and we’re going to do a lot more of that.  And it’s something that’s great exercise. Speaking of exercise, I’m going to do something FUN and calorie burning today.  Scrubbing hot tub will burn some.  But more! Maybe I can convince Lance to take me kayaking.  That would be awesome.  Or maybe we’ll work on the pond some more.  Everyone’s healthy. I’m healthier than I’ve ever been.  Feeling great, energized, looking good in my not so humble opinion.  Oh, and the ideas have been flowing like a waterfall.  Loving that.  I got a brainstorm over the weekend that could be the next Wings in the Night for me.  With witches!  And time travel.  And maybe even DPI. I Can’t wait till my editors all get back from conference, because it’s time to negotiate a new contract, and that’s always a fun and exciting time.  Just finished a grueling contract writing nonstop and this is my in-between week off, so I need to stop focusing on what my brain keeps saying I “should be” doing and just have some fun this week. This week is going FAST. I will relish this day.  Yes, I’m giving myself permission to do whatever I want today.  That’s what.  Ahh, that feels better.

There.  Rampage accomplished, and here I am feeling much more upbeat than I was before. Works every time.

Enjoy your day!

Maggie

Time Travel 101 (Maggie)

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Time travel is entirely possible. Stay with me here, this is good.  First thing this morning, I was planning to come in here and type the words, “Jogging, THEN blogging. Check back later.”  I was feeling as if I was already running behind, rushing around, trying to get everything done.  I have a book to finish today, and a workout to fit in, because I skipped yesterday. I ought to do two!  And it’s nearly ten, and then I realized I had a blog post to write for today.  And I started to feel panicky.  I started to think, “There’s not enough time left in this day to do all the things on my to-do list!” And I believe it.

When I start to feel that way, I feel it in my body.  My heart starts to skip a little.  My blood pressure creeps up. My mood turns cranky and urgent.  It’s not a good feeling at all.  But there are other symptoms that turn up as a direct result of this thought in my head.  I start finding more and more things to do, and less and less time to get them done.  Each time I look at the clock, more time than is humanly possible, has somehow sped by.  Time is literally moving faster for me.  And each time I see that fact represented by the clock’s hands, I believe more firmly that there is not enough time for me today.  And then time moves still faster, and more things come up to take it up.  Phone calls, urgent tasks that were forgotten, and suddenly need doing now.

It snowballs.  Why?  You know why.  Because what you think about, what you believe, what you expect, is what you create.  And also because (and you might not know this quite as well) time is mutable.  It’s flexible. You can stretch and bend it.  There are reasons for sayings like “Time flies when you’re having fun” and “A watched pot never boils.”  You can bend time.

On days when I find something I want to do, that I would really enjoy, I do them first.  Take this past Sunday for example, when I should have gone up to my office to work on the book, but I wanted to take an extra hour to watch Meet the Press first.  I said to myself, “I have plenty of time. I have all day to write. I can take the time to do this, and still get all my work done.” And I sat down and watched the show.  I got all my pages done that day, got a 5 mile run in, and a shower, and had some quality goof off time before dinner and a relaxing evening.  (*Note, I don’t usually work weekends.  I’m finishing a book this week so it’s an exception.)

I had, on that day, the same amount of work, the same number of hours in the day, the same pressing desire to fit in a workout and some fun time, and I got it all done.  What’s the difference between that day, and this one?  Only my thoughts.  Only my beliefs.

So when I found myself rushing the dogs through their walk this morning, my heart beating too fast as I clapped my hands at them and said, “Let’s go, let’s go, I’ve got stuff to do!” I just suddenly stopped.  I stood still, closed my eyes.  “I’ve got all day,” I told myself.  “It’ll get done when it gets done, and I’ve got all day.  All weekend too.  I’ve got plenty of time.  It’s all good.”  And I took my time for the rest of the walk, enjoyed the sunshine, debated whether I’d do a jog (it was getting a little warm) or a big DVD workout in my office with the AC running (probably the option I’ll take.)  And then I came back inside and instead of putting up a “too busy right now, be back later” note in this space, decided to write about my methods for stretching time.

1.  Stop looking at the clock.  Move it away from the area where you are if you can. Take off your watch.

2.  Be in the moment.  Be completely focused on the task you are doing right now. Do not allow thoughts about what comes next to enter your mind. (They will anyway. Just gently release them and focus on the present moment.)

3. For big tasks, close your eyes and imagine them already completed. See the result in your mind, see the finished product, the cleaned room, the stack of manuscript pages going into the envelope or the file attaching itself to an email addressed to the editor. See it, and say it. “It’s already done. It’s already done. It’s already done.”

4. Take the time to do things you want to do, in the order you want to do them, and while you’re taking that time, take extreme pleasure in it, don’t rush through it. Taking time to do what you want most, is LIVING the belief that you have plenty of time.  LIVING the belief that there’s no need to rush, is how you create that reality in your life.  Don’t rush and there will honest to goodness BE no need to rush.   (Rushing, on the other hand, is living the opposite belief, and making it true.) Relish every moment.  You’ll be surprised at how much better your next task will go.  (And do the same with it!)

Now this ability is going to grow and grow in you if you practice it all the time.  I amazed myself recently with an even bigger example of this.  On a flight home from a conference we hit some terrible weather.  The plane was small and being hurled around in a very alarming way, and I found myself getting very afraid.  I closed my eyes, and imagined myself getting off the plane at the destination airport, still three hours away.  I saw the sun, shining down on the tarmac.  I saw myself walking up the gangway into the airport.  I swear to you I did not fall asleep.  I said, in my mind, “I’m already there.  It’s already done.  I’m already there.”  And when I opened my eyes, I was calmer.  I might have opened my e-reader or sipped my beverage to distract myself from the storm.  I don’t know, but what I do know is that within a few short minutes of that brief mental exercise, I felt the plane angling downward and realized we had begun our descent into the destination airport. Outside, the skies were clear and sunny.  My watch told me nearly three hours had passed, but I experienced only a few minutes.

This is a true story. It’s got to do with quantum physics and the theory that there are as many different versions of reality as their are choices you can make, that time isn’t really linear, but that all time exists now, and that we create everything in our experience like projecting thoughts onto a movie screen. I simply chose the reality I wanted, and by my focus, stepped into it.

So why don’t you try your hand at using my methods (and experiment with your own) for stretching and bending time to fit around you, instead of bending yourself all out of shape to fit into it. See what happens!

Make it a great day and relish every minute of it.

“And now a word from our sponsor…er, me!”

Now just a commercial moment here.  We are down to something like 43 days before The Portal Series launches with a free ebook prequel on September 1st, followed by book 1, Mark of the Witch, on the 18th in print, and October 1st in E.  We’re giving away an ARC a week at my Facebook Page, and on August 1st we’ll be announcing a huge new contest on The Portal Books page.  I hope you’ll follow along and participate in both!

 

Sam, Vanessa, and the Law of Attraction (Maggie)

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Late last year, as my beloved Murano kept breaking down over and over, I went and looked at new ones. Sam had over 120,000 miles on her had become a real problem. So I went and looked and got prices and a trade in offer. The offer on Sam was for less than I owed, and the payments on a new car were, I thought, far too high. So I kept Sam and went home, flustered and unhappy, and muttering every time I got behind the wheel.

Soon, I realized that according to my own beliefs, hating my car was going to keep me in it, or get me another car I would hate just as much. You can only attract what matches your vibe. I wanted to LOVE my car again, to improve my vibration about her, and thereby attract more to love. So my brilliant partner, Lance, started fixing Sam up. Mechanical stuff, yes, but more. Bit by bit, she got better and better.  He re-did the entire interior with black and red leather seats, and carbon fiber dashboard, all the trim, all in this high gloss red & dark gray pattern almost like a houndstooth check. We replace many parts, so she ran almost like new again, and she had a remote starter and satellite radio. And it worked. I fell in love with my car again. I was positively giddy with her. I decided I’d probably never trade her in, I loved her so much.

Then she broke down again. It was only the starter this time, but she left us stranded, we had to call Triple A for a tow to the nearest Nissan garage (also a dealer) and I wondered why. I was vibing “Love my car” all over the place and still, she let me down. I started adding up all the repairs and fix-ups since just before Christmas, and realized they were MORE than the payments on the new vehicle would have been, and that without even counting in the payments on good old Sam. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong.

At the garage, while they graciously got us a loaner with no notice and took Sam in for an immediate exam, I looked again at the one, top of the line brand new Murano Luxury Edition still on the lot. The dealer came out, told me she was a 2012 and since the 13′s were coming soon, he’d discount her heavily. He gave me the key, told me to take her for a spin.

I did, and I wept, because I knew I was going to trade Sam in, and I would miss her.  This car was a dream.

Back at the lot, the dealer, Derek, told me about two rebates and a low interest rate offer. And then, he ran some numbers and made me a new offer on my trade in. More than I owed on Sam. And significantly more than he had offered me just less under a year ago.  Enough more so that I could use the extra and the rebates for a hefty down payment, bringing the monthly payments down to an affordable number.

And then I realized what had happened. I’d raised my vibration about my car, began loving her again, and that opened me up to attract more things that matched that vibe, including a brand new car I would love even more. Sam had to break down one last time to push me forward, to help me evolve.

I bought the new car. She has everything Sam had and more: Back up camera, navigation system, heated seats front and rear, moon roof in back, sun roof in front, voice recognition, integration with my iPhone, and the back hatch opens in slow-mo at the touch of a button. (This isn’t her, but is exactly like her.)

I named her Vanessa.  She told me that was her name the first time I drove her, Vanessa.  To me it sounds like a tall classy blonde.  We’re just getting acquainted.

This is a very good demonstration of how the Law of Attraction works.  While I was hating my car, resenting that I couldn’t afford a new one, angry every time I got behind the wheel, that was my reality and the only reality I could experience.  When I was loving my car, happy to get behind the wheel, content to keep her, that released every block I had created and allowed the newer, better car to come right to me. The Universe lined everything up to give me a match to my improved vibration.

You have to be happy with what you have, not lip-service happy, but truly, genuinely deeply happy, before you can get something better.  This goes for your relationships, your jobs, your income, your home, everything.  And the way to get happy with what you have, is to start looking every day for things about it that are good, and start finding ways, every day, to make something about it better.  That’s how you move up.

And here endeth today’s life lesson.  :)

One Little Pebble (Maggie, in Memory of Jane O’Connor)

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I’ve been mesmerized by the first season of the new TV series Touch since it began. In the show, a little boy who cannot or will not speak, played brilliantly by young actor David Mazouz, is somehow able to see the connections between everything in our world.  He can see where things go wrong if any of the connections aren’t made, and he manages to get his father (Kiefer Sutherland) to help him make sure those connections do happen.  It’s an amazing series, made more amazing to me because it’s not fictional at all.  The quantum world is becoming more and more a part of our cultural awareness, and we are beginning, just barely, to understand that everything really is connected to everything else.

I was reminded sharply of this when I learned yesterday of the passing of a small, quiet woman by the name of Jane O’Connor.  Jane was afflicted with cerebral palsy, and her condition was such that it would have imposed severe limits on most people.  Not so Jane.  Jane loved romance novels, adored them. Reading them, even trying to write them, and because of that, she learned about the Romance Writers of America, joined it, found out how to go about creating a local chapter, and created it.  She did this without any help from anyone as far as I know.  All the legalities, all the paperwork.  She put a little ad in the Syracuse NY Pennysaver, and a handful of aspiring writers saw it, and the Central NY Romance Writers Chapter of RWA was born. (The photo below was taken at the chapter’s 20 year Anniversary Celebration in 2008.  L to R: Maggie Shayne, Jane O’Connor, Gayle Callen, Molly Herwood.)

There are now more than 30 published authors with more than 200 published novels to their credit, who say they might never have found their way to their current career had they not found and joined CNYRW.  Had Jane not taken that step that most with her condition would never have dreamed of taking.

I found the chapter in 1988, shortly after it was founded, joined in ’89 even though I knew I’d never attend a meeting because I could not, would not drive in downtown Syracuse. (I was young.) Around the same time, I located my birth father after a long search. He later vanished from my life again, but in the meantime, I’d taught myself to drive to his house on Tulip Street in the Syracuse suburb of Liverpool. A few months later, the Central NY Romance Writers relocated their meeting place to the Liverpool Library on Tulip Street.

I can think of dozens of these interconnected puzzle pieces of my life, how if this hadn’t happened, then this wouldn’t have happened and maybe this wouldn’t have happened.  It’s amazing and magical to think about and recognize how many tiny details had to fall into place to get any of us to where we are right now.

Jane O’Connor was a very important piece in my jigsaw puzzle, and in the puzzles of many other authors who might be waiting tables otherwise.  She helped lead me to doing what I love, and to meeting the best friends I’ve ever had.  This tiny, unimposing, supposedly challenged lady may never have published a novel.  But there are 33 authors, 207 novels and 45 novellas (at least, there are more who didn’t respond to my email asking for numbers in time for this post) that would never have been published without her.

Isn’t that something?  Such a tiny pebble created such a huge ripple in the lives of so many.  And all of us blessing her memory, thanking her, sending her love to carry her on her way.

I bet she’s going to become a muse.  Don’t you?