TheCowsSayHello : 02 : July 2006

Welcome back to the COWS. Thank you to everyone who emailed me and let me know that COWS #1 spoke to you...

They are back this month with even more to say (who'd have thunk it?!). Enjoy...

It was all a bit of a fad a few years ago to google oneself and see if you really were as important as you liked to think. I did it. I didn't exist. Not under any permutation of my name. Others I know googled themselves and were regretting those student activism days...

So now that google is a fact of life, a way that people find information (and a verb!)... I've been keen to try and exist in the google-verse - at the very least for business purposes. And there are thousands of people out there telling you how to not only get listed but to also increase your google rankings so you come out number one for your search criteria. So, for me, I wanted to somehow come up on the first page when people looked for a coach on the coast.

Well, one of the happy consequences of getting published (above) is that I've got a profile on a highly linked website (www.flyingsolo.com.au)... so I've shot to number one for "coach noosa". Yay. Oh, and I, Trish Weston, inhabitant of Sunshine Coast, now exist. Google-tastic.

The Cows Say Hello READ LIKE YOU'VE NEVER READ BEFORE

You may have detected a book theme with the COWS this month... well done Sherlock... So many of the responses I got to last month's COWS were in relation to the bookshelves... Hmmm.... I thought, there be closet booklovers out there... So let me share this month's forays into the world of fiction and beyond..

Have you ever had one of those moments when you "got it"?

It's sort of like a supercharged "lightbulb" or "aha" moment. I always seemed to get them in my dreams and then awake the next morning thinking something happened but I had no idea what. Well, I finally got to "get It" in a conscious way recently. It was courtesy of a book I was reading at the time called The Translucent Revolution: How People just like you are waking up and changing the world by Arjuna Ardagh. Briefly, the book centres around interviews with hundreds of people who have "woken up" or somehow embody enlightenment (whatever that means to you). Somewhere a couple of chapters into this book, my life just opened up. Not sure why. Maybe there was something in the water. But everything became clear. Everything I had experienced in my life made sense. All those disparate things I've done or learned or people I've known all just seemed to come together. And best of all, I knew (really knew) what my place in the world is. No more searching. It's here. And from others who I've spoken to who've read this one, it's reaching them too. Easily the most significant book I've read in the last two years.

Another interesting one that kept me captivated with its enticing premise is Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind. Now initially I thought this was going to be all neurones and synapses, but that's not the case. Dan's book is looking at how we're moving from an Information Age to a Conceptual Age (where things that are high concept and high touch will be valued). He puts forth an interesting rationale for this but what I most liked was his "six attributes" of the conceptual age person, and it's all about giving our right brains a bit of a go. So things like Story, Meaning, Symphony, Play, Empathy and Design become important. I think the phrase "pig in sh*t" appropriately describes how I have responded to these concepts. Bring it on.

This month I've also read:

Bruce Lipton's The Biology of Belief (excellent, especially if you like the movie "What the bleep do we know");
Carl Honore's In Praise of Slow (excellent, one of those books you don't want to end. I will write more next month);
Gangaji's The Diamond in Your Pocket (good, had great moments, then got a bit therapeutic, you'll like it if you liked The Power of Now);
Catherine Goldhammer's memoir of life after divorce Still Life with Chickens (okay. It made me want to get chickens for the COWS).
And, very quietly, I also read, shhhh, The Da Vinci Code (and, let me tell you... I can't believe all the fuss about Opus Dei etc when it's really about the suppression of the goddess in the church ... Okay, I pinched that outraged statement from Carolyn. But I do agree.).
Also, I finally got a copy of the Tao Te Ching (have read a little bit but realised this one's going to take a couple of years).

I went to a Noosa Longweekend event on How to Set Up a Reading Group... which was a very interesting experience... I don't do "Noosa" so I was in culture shock for a few days... but it did get me wanting to set up a group... especially around the real "thinkers" like Translucent Revolution and the Tao Te Ching... I reckon if you met weekly you would still spend two years on the Tao...

And in awe of the gods... I found a copy of Sharon Salzberg's Lovingkindness and Carl Rogers' On Becoming A Person at the secondhand bookshop in Noosa last week. Two books from my "wish list" in one day. Ahh.

The Cows Say Hello DIY (LIFE)PROJECT OF THE MONTH

Another happy consequence of getting my article published is that I finally finished one of the pages on my website that had been "coming soon" for 12 months. Guided by the "just do something" objective, I decided to create a DIY (Life) Project of the Month (it has that Happy Homemaker feel to it, and I reckon it's only a matter of time before everyone finishes their renovations and realise that while you may change your environment, real change happens within... stepping down from my soapbox now...anyway...).

The first Project is an oldie but a goodie... I've selected my interpretation of the Classic Coaching Tool, The Wheel of Life...

Wanna give it a spin?

The Cows Say Hello ARRRR SS

Is it a pirate ship? No that would be the SS ARRR (and make sure you say that with one eye closed and your right index finger hooked!). RSS. It stands for Really Simple Syndication. And I really simply have been ignoring it for a long time. But today I downloaded an RSS Reader, and set it up to feed some psych journals. And I have to say... I am beside myself. This is so cool. It's like you get all the articles or reviews from your favourite websites, blogs, journals, podcast all delivered to the one place for you to peruse at your leisure. Here's a simple Starter Guide for you from local Brizzie boy Yaro Starak.

Arrrh!

The Cows Say Hello KING OF THE MOUNTAIN!

Lift that barge, tote that bale...

For those of you who are more couch potato than mouse potato (Yeah, Trish is hip with the lingo of the online-street now), then running up a mountain (incline 70 degrees) and back in less than half an hour is probably not your cuppa. But for some it is... and this month ... we have the King of the Mountain Challenge in my locale.

Okay, let me come clean here... I have a fondness for Pomona's King of the Mountain challenge because it was the tipping point for me finally doing something about my physical (non) fitness. You see, in my naivete of what was really involved, I set a goal early last year of competing in said race. Then I found out what was involved, and that goal was swiftly changed. But there was something about the outlandishness of the original goal ("King of the Mountain, Here I come!") that had me believing that I could rise above the couch and go forth into the land of abs, quads, cardio and BMI. And I did.

I ventured forth into the land of the gym and got myself fit enough to huff and puff with best of them in the King of the Mountain Family Fun Run. Actually I was one of the few huffing and puffing. Most of the children passing me did so with ease. Ahh, to have healthy organs... Anyway, it taught me to think big, to put myself outside my self-imposed limitations and just for a moment (or two or three...) imagine what it would be like to cross that finish line having risen to the challenge, pushed myself to the limit and done what I previously thought impossible.

It's a beautiful place to be, and I now find it essential to visit there often.

How 'bout you?

What are the things you've written off as "never can do"? It's scary to realise you could actually do it if you really really wanted it.

Come to my neighbourhood, Pomona, on Sunday 23 July 2006 at 3pm and witness the amazing feats of human endurance in the King of the Mountain challenge. You will be inspired.

* COW NOTE: And thank you Judy Williams who was instrumental in my stretching beyond what I thought possible.

The Cows Say Hello MOOVIES

Stories of Love

I had the great fortune of seeing a screening of the Australian film, Candy, during the Noosa Longweekend that had the producer, Margaret Fink, and writer, Luke Davies, doing a Q&A afterwards.

What a fantastic film. It's been promoted as a "love story", and it is, but what it beautifully portrays is the human susceptability to, and embrace of, those things that initially appear as enhancing our lives (in this case, heroin and love) that then become something that control our lives. Who doesn't know that feeling? It's hard not to identify and be touched by characters who would be ostracised in our more immediate worlds.

King Kong is on DVD. I know it was probably much more spectacular on the big screen than on our wobbly 51cm NEC non-flat, non-widescreen tv, but geez it was good. It was one of those movies that I wasn't particularly interested in watching (as I reckoned that nothing could surpass the original) but I was impressed. I loved it. Another brilliant love story, that brings into focus Man's willful attempts to control and dominate nature. Yes, I even got a bit teary.

And finally, something quirky and uplifting... This had been on our "must see" list for a while... I'd seen the previews for My Date with Drew and thought "That's so daggy. I have to see it". And it is. And yet it is totally endearing. It's a documentary about an out-of-work film production dude in LA who decides to set himself the challenge of procuring a date with Drew Barrymore in 30 days... and he films his trials and tribulations... It's such a feel good tale of someone having a dream and just going for it, doing whatever it takes, enduring the setbacks. What I love is how he pulls out all stops to make the most of all his contacts (no matter how flimsy). This is not some creepy stalker movie, it's about having some fun and making the most of what you've got.

The Cows Say Hello: SENSEI

Sensei Sez: More Words from the Wise Kitty [in haiku]

Sensei Goes Shopping

The bag is empty.

Great Green Void calls me forth.

Now the bag is full.

[haiku makes more sense when pic is downloaded]

The Cows Say SEE YA LATER

Enjoy July. Seeya in August.

Oh, and the COWS say hello...

trish & the cows.

The Cows Say Hello is published monthly by Trish Weston.

The Cows Say Hello’s objective is to share a little bit of the hoopla of amazing stuff that comes into my world while I'm out here talkin to the cows.

The Cows Say Hello is written and collated by Trish Weston. Everything in it is her opinion, with a smattering of facts to make it hold together. If you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to email trish@worklifedesign.com.au

If you would like to subscribe or unsubscribe, please go http://www.worklifedesign.com.au/ezines.htm

moo