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By Kathleen DesMaisons, September 7, 2012 3:26 am

First a joy dot or two.

Coming home from a meeting at 8:00 AM, I noticed a whole bank of blue morning glories with their faces to the sun.

My housekeeper came and two hours later there was no dust, no dog hair and every shined. I love giving her money.

My muscles were sore from the workout before, but it felt nice rather than devastating.

Well, as in all regular life, I have more on the tiny goldens. I got an email from the family that adopted Miss Marti. They adore her, but their little dog decided that she wanted to be queen of the household. Miss Marti is hard wired to contest such things, so they were fighting. I will be driving down to pick the wayward tiny up this morning. We will just sort it. I have placed more than 650 dogs from tiny to gigunda…and will keep working with this. I know not to take it personally..and that can be a spiritual lesson.

I must admit that looking at life as a series of spiritual lessons can be soothing. Maybe it is just a way that I learned to *cope* early on. But it works, LOL.

Yesterday was hard. I was grumpy and angry. My kitchen sink overflowed again. The plumber was here 10 days ago and told me *no guarantees because we never know what ‘people’ do.* The implication was that I was throwing things down it. LOL. I, who am careful, careful about what goes down the drain! I who religiously put enzyme digestives down the drain! I called a different company.

My journal suggested that eating more would be a good idea. Such a funny thought – journey offering helpful commentary. So I made a great dinner, simple and hearty…hamburger, spinach and potato. Then put the spinach stems in the blender and made veggie soup for the dogaroos tomorrow. Funny how much better I felt.

I remembered that we try to post joy dots first, so I am going up to insert some there above tiny golden coming home <smile>.

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By Kathleen DesMaisons, September 5, 2012 9:06 pm

I got two tiny Golden Retrievers from down South in Carlsbad, NM. My scout called and said, *Kathleen, I am not sure you want these two. They are really out of control and want to kill each other.* So I suggested bringing them up in separate cages and then started the worked of rehabilitating them. They were skinny, matted and had weird yellow hair that I think was from starvation. They had no idea how to be dogs or how to relate to people.

We started with a week in separate pens with them looking at each other. They had been chained because they could climb any fence and run away. After a week, I let them out and explained that no, they could not eat each other. They learned to play and be goofy. Another dog came in who was balanced and funny. He taught them doggie games and chase.

However, it was true that they could climb 7 foot fences, and squeeze out of the tiniest break in the pen. My worker spent 3 weekends fixing holes and every small escape point. Maximum security was tightened and rehab services were amped up. I hugged em and checked for ticks, brushed them, washed and scrubbed them and let them run around and have fun.

This is a picture from last week.  Happy dogs. The one on the left is Marti. She got a home this weekend with a family of 3 little boys and a happy dog named emma who can play chase with the best of them. Angie stayed here with me. Without her sister to egg her on, she stopped vaulting the fence and stayed in the back yard with the old guy. So I gave her *yard* privileges.

This morning I went out to a meeting and came back about 8 in the morning. I pulled into the driveway and opened the car door to get out. Angie jumped up and over the 6 foot fence and leapt into my arms crying *She’s back!!!! She’s back!*  I think this is the best of doing rescue. After all the work and stress and heartache, we get one moment like that.

I would call it a Joy Dot!

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By Kathleen DesMaisons, September 2, 2012 1:21 pm

I woke up at 4 Am and thought, good grief, now what! But then I looked out the window and there was big, huge Jupiter over in the eastern sky above the mountains. So I put on my slippers and went out of the porch. Pepper and Ronan came thinking, *whatever is she doing!*. I sat there just looking. Then I had a thought, I wonder if my binoculars would make a difference. They are meant for birds, not Jupiter, LOL so then it was just a bigger blob of light.  Here is a picture of Jupiter’s magnetic fields from WIKI. I think I was feeling that. It certainly is compelling at 4 in the morning, LOL.  I think I will call the observatory and see if they are doing any talks on Jupiter or if they have the telescope open in the hours before dawn.

Then I got up and went out for a meeting. On the way home, there were many hot air balloons in the sky. This tells us it is getting closer to fall…more balloons.  And that Balloon fiesta will be coming soon enough!

And I went to see The Odd LIfe of Timothy Green. I simply loved it. It touched something very deep in me – the idea of growing our dreams or truth coming for just a season to teach us, to transform us. After I read the reviews, and I thought, oh dudes, you so did not get the gift of this movie.  The scene of his drawing the matron of the pencil factory was simply astounding…the *seeing*…maybe it is because I remember things like that from my childhood. I am not sure, I just know that I remembered all of the little scenes in the movie, and that is a a big clue for me. If I remember, then it has a lot of meaning.  I don’t know if it is on DVD yet….but I KNOW I will get it and watch it many times.

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By Kathleen DesMaisons, August 31, 2012 4:42 pm

We have been talking about *joy dots* over at Radiant Recovery® for a while. Many people are posting their joy dots on the list they see as their *home group*. Since I am on many, many lists, I thought it would be fun to share my joy dots here.

1) This morning I was on my way to a meeting and caught the moon out of the corner of my eye. It was HUGE. I have never in my life seen a setting moon so I took a little detour on I40 west and pulled off the road and took a picture of it and texted it to my daughterWe shared a perfect moment.

Then I turned around and headed back to Albuquerque and saw the mountains just before the sun came up.

2) I went to my gym for the early morning routine. At the end of the hour, the last circuit included doing squats on a Bosu ball. This requires high balance agility, LOL. The trainer did not require the two older people (one was me of course!) to use the ball. However, on the third circuit, I decided I wanted to try it. I did and I could. Man, was that exciting!

3) Got delivery of a dog named bronco. He was picked up in a raid on a hoarder’s place that had 53 cats and 4 dogs. He and one cats were the only survivors. The shelter washed him, clipped out all the mats, rubbed him, kissed him and sent him to Golden Retriever Rescue (that would be me) and he is one happy camper. Dogs like this make all the heartbreak worthwhile.  Come see more at www.grrnm.com.

4) Another one came up in the evening. That moon came back again.  Rose right up. Breathtaking. And my little rescues bark at it because it is so bright.

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By Kathleen DesMaisons, July 19, 2012 8:27 pm

I am finally getting my life recentered. I was floored to see when my last entry was. I kinda got sidetracked for a while there!

New book is written and with my agent looking for a publisher. It is about life *after*…stopping whatever has caught you. Mostly it is about what step seven is in the Radiant Recovery world – how healing can infuse every part of who we are. Writing the book awakened that part of me again – I love writing and creating the healing story that gives hope.

I will be going back up to Maine next month so am using this time to clean up, clear out get things set. Summer is always like that for me. I put a reminder in my calendar that says *blog* so plan on hearing more.

And I am going to start adding photos to make it more interesting. Today’s picture is Sunday morning at the Indian Cultural Center Restaurant. Blue corn pancakes, cheese omlete and pinon butter. Yum!

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By Kathleen DesMaisons, September 29, 2011 6:14 am

I am starting the first leg of my trip overseas today. Today I fly to New Your City. I will be there visiting my 83 year old Auntie who is the remaining matriarch of our family. She wants to correct the information I have on ancestry.com, so I figured it would be wonderful to go and hear the first person stories. :h5)
Irish history is very oral, so I need to capture what I do not know. Friday I will take the train into the city to do some work things. I was reflecting on the first time I went into NYC for *business* and I thought I would pass out because I didn’t know the *rules*. Fifteen years later :h3) I do. I went and replaced my BLACK shoes that David’s dog had chewed. I know how to walk from Penn Station to 43rd without blinking an eye and the shoes are comfortable enough for that :h2) :h2)

Then back to Long Island. My Auntie’s house is the place that has been *home* and unchanging for 50 years. It smells the same, its energy is the same. She has Persian carpets on the floor that look like they did when she bought them. No dogs helps that one, LOL. Her kitchen counter is stainless steel, a novel thing when the house was built, but it is not like what we would be getting now. It has a 50 year patina and whenever I am there and cooking, I think about all the history of so many Thanksgivings in that house. My grandmother’s Irish crystal is there, and her china. Still in the cabinet and still taken out for special occasions. The last time I visited, my Auntie was getting ready for a colonoscopy. She drank her horrible stuff from a Waterford crystal wine glass. It was so her. I always wanted to be like her when I was little, and in fact she has shaped me deeply.

We will go from Newark on Tuesday on the overnight red eye to London. We have learned to pay the money for business class and feel tolerably well when we arrive. A program dinner will be packed for carryon, and I have my turquoise blue blanket and pillow. And thankfully, I remembered to take my passport and money to switch at the airport.

We will be great by the man who has been driving us for several years. He is Australian and we have gotten to know his life in those rides..we thought that he might not be able to drive this year because he was going to have surgery on his back. But he bounced back and will be there at the gate on the other side of customs with a sign and a smile and an *executive car* that usually takes dignitaries and rock stars, :h11). The visit will make the cheery morning tolerable because our brains will be saying 3 AM and not 8 AM.

Then to the hotel, built in the 1200s to house the stone masons working on the cathedral in Salisbury. Google that cathedral if you want to see something mind boggling. No cranes, no lasers, no concrete. It is all cut and carved stone. The hotel has a vine that is 800 years old. It sings with joy when we return the way the dogs do when I come home.

I think they have replaced the pillows from the 50s that lay on the bed like sodden lamb fur. I have my adaptors for the computer and ipad. There is WIFI in the lobby which is really a cozy lounge with a fireplace and a medieval crimping machine used to crimp the collars of the choirboys at the cathedral. Tea is served on round trays with a teapot of dark, hot English tea and china cups. The sandwiches are served without the crust or in a crusty French roll. If the weather is nice, we will sit outside in the courtyard with the vine climbing the walls around us. Actually even if the weather isn’t nice, we will sit there, :h12). It is part of the ritual, that sitting with the smokers in the courtyard.

The radiant energy fills the place. It is not a big hotel and we pretty much take a lot of the rooms. So you can imagine a bright lot. Brits, folks from Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, and even someone from Australia this year. I am excited about what I will present, although most of the preparation talk has been about the food and the stationery store, :h6) no surprise on that.

I will keep you posted.

kathleen

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By Kathleen DesMaisons, October 23, 2010 8:59 pm

Cool today so I felt like cooking. I made a quiche and spaghetti sauce. The house smelled wonderful tonight. The farmer’s market is now mostly roots and squashes. BeBE the clown was there painting the children’s faces. I watched for a long time. I think I will have a party and have BeBe come and paint.
All day I have felt so connected to what is going on in the community. There seems to be this incredible energy happening. People are feeling focused and energized. I like it.
I spent a couple of hours works on my geneological things. I am piecing together information about my Irish great grand parents. Until today, I just had bits and pieces, a few old photos, some census data, a few other treasures. I started to weave it into a story…what happened during the Great Hunger, why my grandfather came to the US when he did, how their early history shaped them. I digitized the pictures and started to build a story and their lives started to come alive. It took my breath away.

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By Kathleen DesMaisons, October 20, 2010 11:04 am

I got back from Euroranch on 10/6 and it has taken me 2 weeks to recuperate. Some of that was jet lag, some from the incredible experience of it, and some from hanging out with the stones at Avebury. I am thinking I will do different posts for each. First, Euroranch. We went back to the Red Lion Inn which was built in the 1200s and actually housed the stone masons who were working on Salisbury Cathedral. That is a lot of history! The food was excellent, and we no longer had pillows from the 50s. There is a vine that is 500 years old there. I am always happy to see it.

How to describe a group of radiant people who love learning things, enjoy being together and just have a blast? Hard to explain I think.  I presented the content we did here in NM in May, but during the presentation of the Addiction Amoeba, something happened….we started talking about a *solution* to all those little things that crop up…whew, that was powerful! I just love ranch.

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By Kathleen DesMaisons, September 15, 2010 6:51 pm

The desk over on the side of my office has been piled with *stuff* for a while. Every time I looked at it, I felt slightly ill. This evening, I just started. I spent about an hour and made huge progress. Nano steps. I think that is what we say all the time on all the lists… I am excited.

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By Kathleen DesMaisons, September 13, 2010 7:32 pm

I found this picture somewhere on the internet and I saved it. I really touched me. This is what dogs give us. Innocence, a smile, a pink nose and devotion.