What Now?

I consider myself to be an “idea” person.  I hope this isn’t too gross to post here but I swear, years before the flushable wipe was in supermarkets, I thought of this idea.  Years of using baby wipes to change “disgusting” little diapers for two children caused me to ponder why on God’s green earth adults used dry toilet paper!  It would be like digging in the garden and then wiping your dirty hands off with a tissue; are you kidding me??  Okay, it’s not so much like that, it’s worse because you’re not digging in the garden . . . . . TMI, sorry.
     I evidently acquired this gene from my father who was also an idea man.  I grew up in Ohio with my two older sisters. Our dad invented the coolest riding mower that I’ve ever seen.  Before these mowers could be bought commercially, one winter he decided to enclose the cab of his riding lawn mower, put a plow on the front and voila, it was a snow plow for the driveway.  The enclosed cab allowed him to have either heat or A/C, depending upon the season.  If it rained unexpectedly, he turned on the windshield wipers.  Oh yes, and music too.  It was very cool.  I swear, we were the first to have this machine and I’m sure that it was his discovery.  I also remember that on numerous occasions he would build some helpful device to assist my mother with a bothersome task in the kitchen.  There were many other things as well, but you get the idea.  I don’t believe that he ever did anything with his ideas or patented anything, but he was a very smart man.  Unfortunately, his alcohol addiction got the best of him in the end.
     At any rate, the point I’m trying to make here is that the idea of flushable wipes, the idea of  The Grand Master/Little Master Series just popped into my head, but to do anything with it; to implement it; was an overwhelming thought.  My excitement slowly turned into a burden because I had the attention of someone who worked for a NY Times bestselling author (Neale Donald Walsch), but not a clue what to do past that.  It consumed my thoughts.  I would lay in bed at night thinking about how to put this game idea in to manuscript form.  Nothing came to mind, nothing.  In my gut, I knew it was a good idea and I knew that it had benefits to both children and parents; I knew it.  As a matter of fact, I can honestly say that I’ve never had a gut feeling so strong.  One morning over 12 years ago, feeling frustrated and a bit resigned, I made a cup of coffee and decided to put “fingers to keyboard” of our new computer and try out this thing called Microsoft Word.  Hopefully I’ll feel inspired . . . .
More to come,
Patricia
http://www.TheGrandfMasterLittleMasterSeries.com 

An Idea

'Continued from last post . . . '

“I’m not your mother speaking to you right now” I said to Haley.  She looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
 “Who are you then?” she asked.
“I’m one of the great Grand Masters of the Universe, speaking through your mother, and I’m here to tell you that you’ve been chosen to be a little master-in-training.  We have much work to do.”
And so began an idea . . . . a game of sorts.  Was it a game, a story for children, or both?  Maybe it was a parenting tool.  For our family, it was all of the above, and more.
     As I conversed with my daughter as Grand Master, I can honestly say that I had no idea where I was going with it or what the next words out of my mouth would be.  It seemed to have a magical quality to it in that I knew I was speaking from a higher place.  Without actually giving away the story and the introduction to the series, let me just say that something about both Haley and I changed that morning.  It wasn’t huge but clearly it was something.  She jumped out of bed and went about the task of preparing for this previously dreaded event with a new found vigor. 
     I felt that I had made a discovery but it wasn’t until I shared what took place that morning with several family members and friends that I even considered making the call to ReCreation, Neale Donald Walsch’s non-profit organization, to see if they could give me some advice.  My friends and family told me that it was good; in fact, it was very good and should be shared.  There was a little voice inside my head that said, “yeah, but friends and family will always say that something you do is good; they have to because they love you.”. . . . but a more dominant voice then said, “No, this is bigger than you; you must move forward.”  
     My sister and I had just completed a weekend long seminar with Neale at The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, very close to where my family was living at the time (OMG, what a beautiful part of the country!).  A year or so prior, she had given me a copy of Neale’s book, Conversations with God, which I loved and immediately ran out to buy the remaining two books.  Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t my first introduction to New Thought spirituality. 
     In my late twenties I discovered The EST Training and it changed my perspective on just about everything.  It was a welcome change as it blew all my old thought patterns right out of the water.  Although this two weekend long course wasn’t spiritual in nature, I found much spirit in it.  I mean, if you’re truly spiritual, one sees almost everything from that perspective, right? 
     I did numerous other self-help seminars over the years, read lots of books and jumped at the opportunity to do this weekend long seminar with Neale. It was indeed as inspiring as I’d hoped it would be.  Still, I’m not certain why Neale came to mind as a source for advice.  I mean, WHY on earth would his organization have time for ME??  Clearly, the odds were not in my favor that they would respond, much less have advice for me, and it’s not something that I would normally  take a shot at, but one day over a decade ago, I was feeling inspired and I sent them an email.  I just thought, “What the heck?!”  There really are no coincidences . . . .

More to come . . .
Patricia
http://www.thegrandmasterlittlemasterseries.com/

In The Beginning . . .

 Once upon a time, there was a single, carefree young princess in her late twenties, who saw no practical reason to marry or have children.  She was living the good life and quite certain that she was way too selfish to surrender her freedom to any man or any child.  This didn't feel like a bad thing; quite the contrary.  She felt appreciative that she had this insight, unlike so many others who thoughtlessly stumbled into this "fairy tale union" and vowed that they would live "happily ever after".

Then one day something very strange happened.  The princess was approaching her 30th birthday and she realized that her life didn't feel as full as she wanted it to be. 

She was still doing the same things; dating a lot of young

potential princes (and a few frogs too!), but something was missing. 

She started to be concerned about loosing her youth and good looks, and then who would love her?  Her future suddenly looked somewhat bleak, and with this thought, she set out to find her prince.

Once the princess had set her mind to finding the right man, it was to be conducted similarly to a business; "Let's not date for more that a year . . . we'll know by then and I really don't want to waste time."  She didn't want to move in with him as she was fearful that this would just prolong breaking up if it was not going anywhere. 

She was fortunate to meet her future husband within a very short time.  They did indeed marry . . . and lived happily ever after . . . . sort of.  Okay, if you haven't guessed by now, I'm the princess in this story and although it hasn't always been easy, the prince and I have been married for 23 years and have two perfect children.  Okay, not perfect children, but they seem like reasonably normal teenagers (ugh). 

I came to the realization that if most of us truly knew what marriage and parenting entailed, many of us would not take that leap of faith; we all stumble into it.   And truly, it's not a bad thing, it's a good thing.  It gives us a chance to grow and move outside the boundaries of the individual self and in to the realm of family and community. 

I'm grateful to have waited so many years, as I believe that I had the maturity to handle the tough times differently than I would have in my early twenties.  As a more mature mother, I didn't feel that I was missing out on living my own life and when I had an infant attached to me that required 24/7 care, it was doable (barely).  With our second child Jordan, I enjoyed the process more because I knew those middle-of-the night feedings in the quiet dark would be over way too soon.  I grew in ways I never thought possible.

 The years flew by and on one particular Saturday morning back in 1998, (my then) eight year old daughter, Haley, was experiencing some serious, unnatural,  abdominal pain and (what I would now call) panic attacks over a karate tournament (!) that she was about to compete in.  My husband and I felt very adamant about our children learning some self defense at a young age, feeling that it had the dual benefit of instilling  self confidence as well as having a practical use.   While in the shower, in preparation to leave the house for this tournament, I couldn’t help but wonder “why on earth” our plan seemed to be backfiring with the self confidence issue.  I've read all the books, done all the seminars and I never fail to tell them how wonderful they are.  “If only I could hire a personal Guru for my children . . . ” I thought.   "Are they in the yellow pages?"  An idea came to me in a flash that was to be the basis for my children’s series that will be out this Sept/Oct titled, The Grand Master/Little Master Series.  I sat down on the edge of her bed and began a life-changing game . . . .

More to come . . .

In Love and Light,

Patricia Merker

http://www.thegrandmasterlittlemasterseries.com/