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My "Snow White" Experience I am a big nature fan. I love the outdoors, scenic views, rolling ocean waves, and I especially love communing with the little creatures of the land and water. As you now know from my previous blog, I am also an avid gardener too. So, when these two worlds collided for me, some would think that I would be in Snow White Heaven. But they would be so so wrong. My husband and I grow blueberries. We have eight bushes at the back of our fenced-in garden. The fence is to keep the deer out and it works very well. But it does not work at all on any of God's pint-size creatures. To combat this, my husband constructed an old pop-up awning frame with some bird netting over the top and laced to side panels that formed a nice walk-in room around the blueberry bushes, to keep our precious berries to ourselves. I felt it was an ingenious way to recycle the broken awning and we would be rewarded with bowls and bowls of berries all summer long. Unfortunately for us, Mother Nature took this opportunity to provide us with a mighty lesson on hoarding. It started when two catbirds arrived in June and cleaned the five early harvest blueberry bushes down to twigs while we were away on a five-day trip. My daughter and I tried to pick them before we left, but they weren't quite ready and we looked forward to coming home to fresh blueberry pancakes and muffins. What we came home to was two screeching catbirds thrashing about trying to find their way out of the netting. Evidently, eating all those blueberries disoriented their little bird brains and they couldn't remember how they got in. Score one for Mother Nature. No problem though, we still had our three most mature bushes left and packed with berries that would be ready in a few weeks. My husband and I went around and tied up places where the top piece of netting met the sides and weighted down the bottom to be sure those nasty birds could not get in. But for the next week, every morning, noon, and evening, I was greeted by one or two catbirds thrashing about the netting, along with two more bushes stripped and broken branches from the heavy birds. Score two for Mother Nature. No problem though, we still had the largest and fullest bush left that would not be ready until late July. We doubled our efforts of finding loose seams and reinforced the bottom netting to the ground with heavy bricks. We were sure we would get these berries and celebrate with a big fat juicy pie this time! The next morning, I slipped outside with a cup of tea to wander through my garden and check on things. I soon discovered a baby bunny running past the carrots heading for the fence. I surveyed for damage but couldn't find any. My lettuce was safely tucked under a special hoop and netting system and I snickered at the cute little bunny who could never outfox us. It was then that I heard the dreaded thrashing sound. Turning myself around, I looked upon the big netted blueberry room and almost dropped my cup. The Snow White experience I once daydreamed about as a little girl, had turned into a nightmare, as I watched one catbird, two robins, two chipmunks and a squirrel running all over each other trying to get away from the big gawking human that shadowed the makeshift cage. As I hurried to open the makeshift door, one robin crashed through the netting creating a four-inch hole that the other robin chose to ignore and instead made its own four-inch hole. The catbird was nice enough to use one of their holes to exit the place. Meanwhile the squirrel ran along the bottom edge lifting the netting up ever few inches until he found a gap between bricks to scurry out of and I didn't even see how the chipmunks left. Score three and game for Mother Nature. A little anger began to rise in my throat and I tried to remember that I love all of God's creatures. I wondered what Snow White would say, and yet, a few expletives managed to slip out of my mouth anyway. I looked at the blueberry bush, still relatively full, but gave in to the inevitable. I pulled back the mesh door and tied it open. I grabbed a bowl from the house and picked about a cup of berries that were ready and said goodbye to the rest of them. My husband and I resigned that day that you can't fight Mother Nature. And really, it wasn't like we depended on this for food. We are blessed with enough and I reminded myself that gardening was my hobby and a joy to see things grow and maybe now I should add feeling joy to give back to Mother Nature. And so we drew contentment from another life-lesson well learned. But the lesson wasn't over. It might surprise you too to find out that since we left the door open, we have not seen another bird or squirrel enter the blueberry room and those blueberries are popping up everywhere in our pancakes and muffins! The Simple Truth is that the energy of hoarding is fear-based and what we fear we attract as an experience. The fear of lack is what has driven many of us to overextend ourselves financially and energetically. When we are open and trust that we will always have enough then we attract that experience into our lives and those things we wish to have will come to us on the right terms and at the right time. No matter what challenges we face today, whether it is the loss of a job, or a loved one, or a dream, if we accept the lesson and truly trust that we will get through it, then that is what we will experience. Maybe that is what Snow White was trying to tell us all along! Darshan would like to know your Snow White story!
posted by Jodi at 2:04 PM
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Everyone Can Garden Every spring here in the North East, I begin to get edgy waiting for the warmer weather to come. My eldest daughter cannot for the life of her understand my insatiable yearning to dig my fingers into cold wet soil filled with plump earthworms and begin the laborious task of cultivating my next garden. But it is what my soul lives for every year. I tell my friends that gardening is my church in many ways. It is one of the ways that my soul chooses to express my connection with the Earth that I am privileged to share with all humans. A gardener is like an artist creating a masterpiece using Mother Nature as her canvas. I have noticed over the years that it is the planting time that brings me the most thrills. The crafting and arranging of the different flowers and vegetables gives me the most satisfaction. You would think it would be the other way around, and probably is for many gardeners, but I love the act of planting rows of seeds and watching which seeds open up and spring forth towards the sun. Sometimes all of the seeds come up, but other times a few come out much later, after I have assumed that they would not. These little seedlings are like finding a missed Christmas present tucked under the Christmas tree later on Christmas Day, after all of the wrapping paper and ribbons were cleaned away. The SIMPLE TRUTH is that everyone can plant a garden. Everyone can plant seeds, but they do not have to be seeds of flowers or vegetables. They can be seeds of hope or seeds of love. They can be seeds of inspiration or seeds of ingenuity. Some seeds may grow immediately, right before our eyes, giving us instant satisfaction. But some seeds will lie dormant waiting to burst forth as a truth, or an action, or an idea long after we walk away. Planting seeds of compassion or inspiration is planting trust in that which is greater than all of us but cannot be seen, be it called the Universe, faith, God, Gaia, or the Cosmos. It does not matter what results we see right away. Our mission as gardeners on Earth is to plant the potential for divine knowing to grow. How and when it happens is up to celestial timing and our success is only contingent on the desire to be a part of the evolution. What seeds can you plant today?
posted by Jodi at 12:21 PM
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Author, Helen Heinmiller, joins Darshan Beauty LLC as an Ambassador and host blogger for SIMPLE TRUTHS about everyday life.  Life is fast-paced, exciting, and, at times, overwhelming. SIMPLE TRUTHS is a conversation about maintaining balance, restoring harmony, and creating a life of beauty ... beyond appearance.Visit http://www.helenheinmiller.com/
posted by Jodi at 12:08 PM
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Today's economic woes have me continually thinking, along with everyone else I presume, about how much effort and money we expend to look younger. Add up what we spend on salon treatments, new clothes, and the latest gadgets or creams and we could all book a cruise to paradise instead. But we don't. From the reports of dollars spent on the beauty industry, we seem to constantly be drawn back into the thinking that we cannot reach paradise unless we are perfect. Aren't we missing something here? Do we have to look like Eve (whom we assume looked exactly like a Victoria Secret Underwear Model) to get there? Since turning fifty this past year, I have been noticing the cost of life that I would describe in one of my sensitive moments as having trudged like an angry mob up my neck, over my chin, and on to the corners of my eyes. The battle fought to claim my cheekbones has started a mudslide of skin draping down my face to hang ever-so-teetering over my jaw line, warning me that unless I do something drastic now, I will start to resemble my pet pug soon! I'll confess, although you may have already guessed, that this comparison came to me during a hot flash. But hot flash aside, do I really believe that aging is an ongoing battle in life? No, I believe what we really have to battle is not our aging but our attitude. And it is our attitude that costs us not only more than we can afford to spend sometimes, but also our opportunity to find the paradise that we humans innately seek. Paradise is a state of bliss and we keep reaching for it as a place outside ourselves, and on some level we can subconsciously equate it to our external appearance. The paradise that we are hoping to find that will bring us total satisfaction actually comes from within. Our attitude that looking 30 or 40 or 50 is somehow a crime if that is actually our age is the problem. Our attitude that men will not stay with us if we look our age is the problem, or the idea that we'd want them to stay with us if that were the case is our problem. Our attitude that we are defined by physical appearance or that life is not successful unless we are starving ourselves to look good for the camera is our problem. Our attitude that a healthy body must look the same for everyone is our problem. Healthy living is actually the paradise we are internally seeking to achieve and it starts with a healthy attitude. The SIMPLE TRUTH is that living a healthy compassionate life to the fullest is the only attitude we need to be young at every moment; and it only takes about 10 seconds to think that thought every day. Creating standards of respect for ourselves and for how others treat us and how we treat others will bring the vitality of youth back into our lives. Living in the fullness of who we are and loving every bump, line, and imperfection, as the unique imprint that defines each of us in the universe, will shine a beauty into this world that will be seen and felt by all, including ourselves! So, go ahead and enjoy your salon treatments, new clothes, and the latest gadgets and creams that you can reasonably afford right now, but with a new attitude that they are part of the paradise that is already you!
posted by Jodi at 11:30 AM
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The Susan Boyle Phenominon I love Susan Boyle! If you haven't heard of her, then you must be hiding under a rock. Susan Boyle is Britain's Got Talent singing phenomenon who is sweeping the world by surprise. They say that there have been over 100 million hits on YouTube so far and even though there is stiff competition, she is a big favor to win this talent reality show. If you have not watched this video yet, I encourage you to treat yourself to an inspirational experience. What has made Susan a sensation is not just her powerful voice that brings many of us to tears when we listen to her, but the fact that she is the most unassuming average person, much more like you or me or our neighbor or our cousin rather than fitting with the iconic figures like Madonna or Beyonce. Who would ever expect that a single 47-year-old woman professing to never being kissed and living with her cat Pebbles, or more importantly someone that most of us would pass on the street without ever noticing could be a star and the cream of the crop. Shame on us, for Susan embodies the epitome of the human spirit. If I had the opportunity to meet one famous person in the world today, I would love to meet Susan Boyle. There are two distinct gifts to this phenomenon that we are being given. First, as is well-displayed in the long 7-minute version from the show on YouTube, we see a blatant example of cynicism and cruelty, as the judges and audience react to Susan's appearance and the answers that she gives before she sings. Simon Cowell, notorious for his less-than-compassionate treatment of contestants, rolls his eyes to the other judges, who also appear skeptical at what they are about to hear. Simon and the other judges were only reflecting the typical reaction that many of us are guilty of when we frequently assume talent and beauty only come packaged in a narrowly-formed standard. Susan's courage to walk out on that stage knowing in her heart that she had an incredible gift to offer us and standing unwaveringly as she took the laughter and the sneers when she dared to profess a desire to obtain the level of success of someone famous, teaches us a huge lesson in class and humility that we ALL should reflect upon. In the end, the judges and the audience redeem themselves after Susan sings and we are all left feeling we have witnessed something incredibly special that does not come along that often. How easy it is to fall into the habit of prejudging someone else. How many Susan Boyle's have we overlooked in our education system, in job interviews, and in everyday life based on appearances? I believe that most of us are drawn to Susan because, at one time or another, we have been treated like that. We have suffered the humiliation of being overlooked or underappreciated. And I also believe that we are taken in by this event because everyone is guilty of judging someone else like that on occasion and have been awakened to how terribly cruel this response can be for the person on the receiving end. I hope that moments like this bring awareness to how many opportunities we have missed in the past in discovering another gift that could inspire the world. The second side of this phenomenon is the realization that dreams are worth following. It is obvious that Susan knew that her singing ability was very special, but at the age of 47, she could have easily given up her dreams of becoming a professional singer. She had many things against her. Her plainness, her unemployment, and her being alone in midlife are enough reasons that many of us would use to throw our hands up and settle for less. But Susan held on to her dream, believing in her greatest potential. She had the courage to step up and leave herself vulnerable to an occasionally cynical world and in so doing showed us what is possible in our own life. She is an inspiration for all of us to hold on to our dreams too. We have every right to follow our dreams. I want to be the next Susan Boyle in the writing world. Writing is my personal gift that I want to share with you. I also want to enjoy discovering the next Susan Boyle in the medical world, the next Susan Boyle in the education world, the next Susan Boyle in the corporate world, and the next Susan Boyle in the political world. The SIMPLE TRUTH is that every person born into this world has a gift to give that is meant to move us forward in evolution and these gifts come in a myriad of styles. Most of us will not make headlines like Susan Boyle and maybe our talents are of a different quality, but we can make a difference in our own little worlds. I hope that this experience that we are sharing across the continents right now will stay with us and remind us on occasion to look compassionately at each other and remain open-minded enough to see the gifts that others have to bring us. What dreams have you been holding back on?
posted by Jodi at 8:53 PM
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Acceptance ...the way forward As life gets rockier and rockier, acceptance seems like a strange cure. For those of us facing major challenges of finance, health, or relationships these days, accepting where we are can be difficult. Over the summer I came down with a terrible intestinal disorder that could have ruined my long-awaited family vacation in the Bahamas. It was the first big vacation in five years at an all-inclusive resort and I spent most of the five days there barely eating and managing my distress, but still had a wonderful time. A few weeks ago, the same symptoms came back just as bad as the first time, and tests finally showed that I had a bacterial infection that did not appear in the tests the first time. This news came just before I was to celebrate my 50th birthday at my favorite restaurant with my closest friends that I had been looking forward to all year long. There was no way my infection would be cleared by then. So you can imagine my disappointment realizing I would not be able to eat much or drink champagne to toast the emergence of "Vintage Helen". Ten years ago, this sort of setback would have devastated me and I most likely would have sunk into what I like to call a "spiritual hissy fit", as I would spend numerous days or weeks lamenting over my cursed life. Five years ago, I would have reduced my hissy fit to one or two days and then picked myself up and carried on. While most of my struggles in life have been physical challenges, this would have been my reaction to anything that went wrong in my life, whether it was the loss of a job or a family dispute. I don't know exactly when it happened, but one day I realized that fighting the challenge I was facing was not only counter-productive, but actually made things a lot worse than they had to be. I believe that on the energetic level it is because we sink to that lower level of energy and actually strengthen its hold on us. The SIMPLE TRUTH is that life is about adversity, at least to some degree, and acceptance of our situation actually keeps us at a higher level of being that more easily overcomes our challenges. It is not what happens to us, but how we react to that situation that determines the outcome of how long it lasts or how much it robs us of the quality of life. It is quite obvious that all of us will be facing challenges in these next few years, as life readjusts our priorities. By accepting our situation, we can avoid wasting precious energy on the parts that we cannot change, and apply this energy to creating the answer.
posted by Jodi at 3:01 PM
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How to be Pretty on a Budget Facials, haircuts, hair dye, highlights, waxing, polishing, filing, tucking-nipping, buffing, dieting, training, and Oh God liposucking-that's what pretty girls are made of. Of course, we know that nothing builds our confidence better than a fresh-faced makeover. I personally love the rejuvenation felt after I take the necessary and deserved time to pamper myself with a great massage; but with the economy tanking and our budgets tightening, we have an opportunity to slow down and think about our efforts to be pretty, while we wait for the brighter days of appropriate self-indulgence to return. I have a new suggestion to accomplish our goals to be pretty on a fixed budget. If part of our desire in life is to be considered attractive, then we have the means to knock the world off its feet without spending a dime. It's easy, everyday be pretty wonderful, pretty funny, pretty helpful, pretty smart, pretty sensible, pretty caring, pretty patient, or pretty unstoppable. Be all of those characteristics that not only show the terrific you on the inside, but that brings forth a gleaming energy that makes others smile to be around you and, better yet, want to be more like you. The SIMPLE TRUTH is that there are no limits to the choices of how you can wow the world-the possibilities are endless, and I think that's pretty fantastic!
posted by Jodi at 3:08 PM
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Sacred Space-elbow room for the soul You may be wondering what sacred space is and why it is so important. Sacred space is a place that you can create where no one demands anything from you and no one can invade your privacy. It is a space you carve out of your schedule daily to be with yourself-to be still and get to know the real you. It is a place where you can listen to the silence of the all-knowing, pray, receive insights, and heal. Making time for sacred space can be done. Like everything else we want to change in life, it is a matter of creating the habit. More importantly, it's a matter of prioritizing your life. Remember, we only get one shot with this body and this life, so it is important to slow down and enjoy it! Sacred space is a cosmic timeout you give yourself, where you renew your body, mind, and spirit on all levels, just by remaining still. It can be five minutes, a half hour, or longer, and change each day to suit your needs, but it is very necessary to do it daily. You can take a bath, light a candle, curl up with a warm blanket, sit in your favorite comfy chair, go for a meditative walk, or assume a meditative yoga pose. It is as important for men as women to create this time for reflection. Sacred space is the elbow room we need to give ourselves, if we want to expand our concept of who we are and what our life purpose is all about. The SIMPLE TRUTH is that many of us put ourselves last in line throughout our life and wonder why we are not happy, or healthy, or fulfilled. We spend a lot of time finding out about everything outside of us and never take time to find out what's on the inside of us. I encourage all of us to make that appointment with ourselves every day to get to know the incredible souls that we are. Once we understand our beauty and power, it will be hard for the world not to notice. How will you create a sacred space in your day?
posted by Jodi at 11:41 AM
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My "Snow White" Experience Everyone Can Garden Author, Helen Heinmiller, joins Darshan Beauty LLC... THE 10-SECOND SECRET TO FINDING PARADISE The Susan Boyle Phenominon Acceptance ...the way forward How to be Pretty on a Budget Sacred Space-elbow room for the soul A Return to Civility FACING ADVERSITY....remember to CARE for yourself ARCHIVES September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 August 2009 SUBSCRIBE  Subscribe in a reader
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