Empowering Your Mind

On Saturday night, under the full moon, Jeff and I attended the monthly Jerome Art Walk. It happens in the early evening of the first Saturday of the month, and we try to get up to the ghost town’s event whenever we can. We visited the galleries that were open for the evening, checking out the new pieces and enjoying the works we’ve seen before.

Eventually, we made our way down to the Jerome Artist’s Cooperative. As we wandered through the store, we simultaneously turned around, and said, in unison, “Wow!” The artist, Mary Jardine, walked up and replied, “That’s what I like to hear.”

We discovered that she’s the featured artist of the month at the Coop, and  creates landscapes from fabric. I’ve seen this done before, using fabric sewed together to make lovely tapestry type pictures. But what Mary does is unique and innovative. She uses paper mache, fabric and recycled materials to form 3-dimensional landscape hangings that stand out and look amazing. Her work, and the other artists from the Coop, can be viewed at JeromeArtistsCoop.com.

While we were at the Coop, I also bumped into my writing teacher and former neighbor, Bennie Blake. I hadn’t seen her for several years. In 1983, a couple of months after I moved to Sedona, I joined her writing class through the local community college and studied with her for several semesters.

Her class was wonderful, enlightening and educational, and I met many people there who became my friends. It’s where I learned to edit my work and to freewrite (or what’s also called “journaling) to break through blocks. Every time I write an article for my newsletter, magazine, or write a chapter of a book, I send mental thanks to that class and to Bennie for what she taught me. It was such a gift to reconnect with her again.

On Saturday, I attended a full-day workshop, a two-hour drive away, sponsored by the Arizona Chapter of the National Speaker’s Association, “Excelling in the Business of Successful Speaking.”

The morning session was presented by Andrea H. Gold and Gary K. Yamamoto and based on their book “The Business of Successful Speaking: Proven Secrets to Becoming a Million Dollar Speaker.” Andrea and Gary own and operate Gold Stars Speakers Bureau in Tucson, Arizona.

It was a highly informative and fun morning. In the afternoon, we broke into groups to begin putting together our plans and bouncing them off the other participants.

The photo is at the end of a long day –Vickie Boffard (on the right), co-chair of the Candidate’s Program for NSA-AZ, and Linda-Ann Stewart (me, on the left).

On the way home, Jeff (who had driven down with me, going far beyond the call of partnership duty) got a wish that he’d mentioned many times. He got to see a dust storm approaching. Not only did he get to see it, he got to drive in it. They can be very dangerous when you can’t see ten feet in front of you. Fortunately, visibility wasn’t impaired much and we passed through it quickly and safely. I told him to watch what he wishes for, because he may get it in a way he might not like.

Recently, I had a close friend in the hospital in CCU. For a while, it was one step forward and two back. Finally, she’s been released from the hospital and improving. It was a scary time for all of us who care for her. I know that, selfishly, I’m not ready for her to leave. I value her insight and humor, and don’t want to lose that.

When we mourn, we grieve for ourselves, and for what is no longer present for us. It’s like when a friend moves across the country for great new opportunity, a new job, or to get married. We can be happy for them, but sad that they’re not going to be as present in our lives. Sure, we can email, visit, or have phone conversations, but still, the relationship has completely changed.

It was brought home to me, again, to spend time with loved ones, enjoy them, and make sure you let them know what they mean to you. For once they’re gone, either across the country or on the final grand adventure, your opportunity is gone, too.

Earlier this month, Jeff and I attended a luncheon in Phoenix for the Arizona Chapter of the National Speaker’s Association. It was great fun to catch up with some of my friends there, so soon after the national convention. We discussed some of what we’d learned, how we were using that knowledge and projects we were working on. In the photo with me are Gilat Ben-Dor of RenaissanceWineAcademy.com and Richard Victor of 401kSeminar.com.

Jeff and I had an exciting experience as we started that day. After we left home, and before we reached the freeway, the car driving in front of us was weaving all over the two-lane road. It would swerve halfway into the opposite lane, with traffic approaching, and would barely have time to return to our lane before there was an accident. Then it would veer onto the shoulder for awhile. After several miles of this, we called 911 to report the danger. We don’t know the ending, because when we merged onto the freeway, we left the drama behind and took a deep breath of relief.

Last week, I returned from attending the National Speaker’s Association 2009 Convention, held in my neighboring city of Phoenix, AZ. What an amazing experience! I kept saying to people, “Can’t I just live here for awhile?” Not only did I learn an incredible amount, but also I met lots of wonderful new people. I heard Nando Parrado describe his experience of surviving the 1972 plane crash in the Andes. After that, everyone kept saying, “We don’t have anything to complain about.” I also listened to Steve Spangler, who originated the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment. He showed us some of his other experiments, some of which have been featured on the television show “Ellen.”  And there was so much more! I came home on an emotional high that is still with me.

Last weekend was our Independence Day. Jeff and I had a quiet day away from the crowds.

In the evening, my oldest friend Linda (Yes, we have the same first name. It was very confusing when we were growing up) came to view the fireworks with us.

We walked about five minutes to a side street, plopped our chairs down, and watched the fireworks going off about .75 of a mile away. We could even see the tops of some of the ground displays. There were some new shapes of fireworks. Our small town really put on a very nice show.

These are some of the photos that Jeff took that evening. To me, they look like Dandelions, flowers blowing in the wind, or exotic plants.

 

I’ve been hard at work making some plans of changes to the newsletter and new things I can offer. I’ll be sending out extra emails in the near future announcing some of these.

Jeff and I spent a lovely afternoon visiting with my youngest cousin, his wife and three girls. It’s been several years since I’ve seen him (and much more than that for any of my other relatives). We got caught up on family news, and just plain reconnected. I didn’t want the afternoon to end, but time does march on.

Jeff and I also spent a nice, spring day in Prescott, AZ, wandering around their annual Highland Games. In the herding dogs exhibition, we laughed as the sheep escaped the ring and it took three dogs to round them up. It’s fascinating to watch the herding dogs at work.

I’ve finally dipped my toe into the social networking phenomena. Although I’m still exploring and working on them, I’ve signed up with LinkedIn and FaceBook. If you’d like to join me on them, you can find me at LinkedIn.com/in/lindaannstewart and Facebook.com/p/Linda-AnnStewart/1635612434.

I’ve been a Star Trek fan since the original series (and no, don’t try to figure out the Star Date of my birth), and this afternoon, Jeff and I went to see “Star Trek XI” I practically had to drag him, a Star Trek aficionado, because he didn’t believe it could be very good without the original cast. Well, he’s converted. It was very entertaining, humorous with lots of action. The characters were well developed, and you could see them as the younger versions of the original cast. The actors did a great job exhibiting the quirks of their older selves. It was also an enjoyable excursion through how they all met. Well, sort of – I don’t want to spoil the storyline. There were also cameos of actors from various other popular television shows. I rarely say this about a film, but I’d like to see this one again.