Sunday, April 18, 2021

 Sunday, April 18, 2021

 

            I made a trial video of my Phonics Discovery System presentation for YouTube. I thought I could stop and start the recording between each slide to review what I wanted to say before recording. Once I had the PowerPoint on screen share, I no longer had access to the button controlling the recording feature. It went reasonably smoothly. I got an email saying that the recording was available. However, when I tried to download it, I got a message that the video didn’t exist. It was a he-went-that-a-way moment. I texted Tommy, my twenty-two-year-old teched who lives around the corner. I said he didn’t have to rush over immediately. He could rush over tomorrow. He said he would be over after 6 pm on Monday.

            I participated in a Zoom classroom run by a yoga studio in Ithaca, New York, called Yoga Farm Ithaca. Yvette and a friend are taking the 300-hour yoga teacher training course. They get The Awareness Keys for Exceptional Living class as part of their yoga training. Yvette turned me on to it. I thought, sure, why not? There’s nothing I don’t know already, but like all learning, no matter how much you already know, there is always something new to learn. Maybe the more you know, the more profound a little bit of new learning is. I have been participating in the online sessions on the day of the Zoom meeting. However, I listened the first time while lying down, allowing myself to fall asleep. I find I learn differently when I sleep than when I am conscious. The next day, the audio version of the class is available.

      I think the class has had an impact on me. After the key of Clarity, I decided I wasn’t going to try to work things out with people who don’t delight in who I am. I will find a way to relate to them, find a comfortable space for me, and hopefully them. I will no longer subject myself to their discomfort around me. I presented this new boundary to one person during the Language key. There were three factors to the language key: timing, appropriate words, and appropriate tone. I did well on the first two. I am never good with the third. It’s a disaster. However, I saw a difference in the other person the next day. It was like I had given her a get-out-of-jail-free card; I also felt calmer. I must have done something right. Today’s key was on being RESPONSE ABLE, spelled just that way. I fell asleep; I would listen to the audio version of the session the next day. Again, nothing new but something changed.

            I did a Zoom meeting with the mom of the seven-year-old with ADD. When I spoke to her the other day, she told me that she hadn’t heard her son’s name called once on the Google Class Meeting. Usually, she heard his name called repeatedly. When I told Judy of the results of that trick I developed, she said, “Maybe the teacher just got tired of calling his name.”  Ha! Ha! His mom told me that she hadn’t heard his name called since. He would start going back to school the next day. She said she would ask the teacher if she was seeing a difference.  

            I showed the mom what I did with him. It is simply having the student watch as I draw a line in a random pattern. The movement has to be very, very slow. Because the student is doing it with me, entrainment happens. Entrainment is when two minds fall into sync with each other. It’s a mental state all humans, probably all social animals, crave. I want mom to do it with her son and her twin daughters, who have a similar problem paying attention. I think getting the family in sync with more valuable than getting them in sync with me. 

            I have theorized for years that we make ‘Xerox’ copies of the brains of those around us. Seeing the fMRIs of people’s brains when listening to the same speaker gave me more evidence to support this theory. We learn to use our brains the way those around us use their brains. Of course. There are differences. The children don’t just have experiences with the parents. There are other people in their lives, other adults and other children. Those others can have a dramatic effect. Besides that, other experiences enter the mix.

            I post updates from one year ago daily onto the blog. I find that I am doing the same thing a year later. A year ago, I had conflicts with others, and Damon helped me through them. I didn’t write down who I was in conflict with then, but Damon listened and advised wisely. I took a shot of the passage in which I praised Damon’s role in my life and sent it to him. This year it was Cylin who helped me. Fortunately, they are not people who only take my side. They work to help me see the other person’s side too. I wouldn’t go for advice from anyone who didn’t take that position.

            I did my before-dinner walk on the late side. These days the sun goes down later, so I don’t get to hear the coqui frogs coming out. Tonight, I noticed that the coqui who had taken roost in my front yard was silent. I had gone out one night and covered a shrub near where I heard that annoying chirping with baking soda. He must have landed in the bush and been killed. People wanted to advertise that baking soda is good for killing these annoying critters. Arm and Hammer wouldn’t hear of their product being advertised as something good for killing an animal.  

            Coqui frogs came to Hawaii via Puerto Rican plants- hitchhikers. In Puerto Rico, they are loved. In Puerto Rico, they have natural enemies and are kept in check. In Hawaii, there are no natural enemies. On the east side of the island, you can’t hear your tv set in the evening. They drown out all other sounds.