It’s a Wonderful Life – Colorized Version
By Linda M. Potter
For over 40 years, I’ve kept in contact with an old high school friend who was the designated standup comedian in my gaggle of girlfriends. We email occasionally throughout the year, but what I most look forward to is her annual year-end newsletter. She was sending out these newsy journals long before newsletter templates were everywhere on the internet and sharing your “year-in-review publication” with 200 of your closest friends became the accepted way of reaching out and touching people each holiday season. She isn’t computer savvy at all, and her letters are still typed double-sided and single-spaced on two pieces of legal-size paper. The letter is made up entirely of funny anecdotes about her life, gleaned from the adventures and misadventures of her ever-expanding family. Although every story has been delightful in its own way, some have stuck with me longer than others. The one I will remember for years was in the 2009 edition, and involved one of her grandsons.
Seven-year old Jack had a rare opportunity to spend some time with his great grandmother. They lunched at the local Wendy’s restaurant and lingered for a while, swapping stories and enjoying each other’s company. Great grandmother told Jack about her life when she was his age, which, she noted, didn’t include fast food restaurants. It was a very different childhood than the one Jack was experiencing and her stories seemed hard-to-believe. But he listened quietly, taking it all in one anecdote at a time. Finally, when she was finished, Jack spoke up: “Great Grandma, can I ask you a question?” “Why of course,” she responded. He looked at her intently and with a puzzled look on his face, queried, “Did you have color when you were a child?” “Color television? Oh, no! We didn’t have television of any kind when I was growing up,” she laughed. “No,” Jack said as he shook his head from side to side. “That’s not what I meant.” He then stood up, extended his arms, gesturing first towards the tables filled with people around them, then towards the counter, and then towards the restaurant entrance. With a deep sigh, he reframed his question, “What I want to know is, was there color when you were growing up?”
Reading that anecdote, my first thought was that Jack, who undoubtedly didn’t have any idea of what it meant to be really old, was wondering if his great grandmother had been born before the invention of color! Then it occurred to me that the question wasn’t as crazy as it first seemed. I’m sure every picture he had ever seen of Great Grandma was in black and white. I’m also sure he’d seen movies from the “olden days” — movies shot in black and white. Clearly, in his mind, there had been a time when the world was black and white, and Great Grandma had experienced it.
Jack accepted as absolute truth, what the camera told him. He didn’t know that the cameras of the early 1900s had limited capabilities, that the black and white photos they produced didn’t accurately represent the “full picture.” He believed what they showed him, never questioning its accuracy.
It’s easy to make judgments about how life works, what we’re here for, or what lies ahead based on a very limited view of reality. Who or what defines reality for you? How reliable is your source? Are you limiting your ability to experience the world in full, vibrant color?
May 2010 open your eyes to greater possibility.
By Karen Stuth with Sue Hopple
Have you ever wondered what your animal companions are thinking? What messages are they trying to send you when they just sit and stare at you? Can they actually read your own thoughts and send telepathic communication to you as well? These are just a few of the questions that gifted animal communicator and intuitive Sue Hopple can answer for you.
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by Judith Albright
There is probably no one living on the planet who has not heard the phrase “Time heals all wounds,” and while this may be true for physical wounds, it may not always be so for emotional ones. You may be surprised to learn that you can be carrying the past around with you in ways you could never have imagined.
Throughout our lives we continuously experience all kinds of emotional ups and downs, and while we don’t always remember negative situations or events, their after effects can stay with us indefinitely. Even though you think you have let go of the emotional pain from something that has happened and you think it's all behind you now, your body can still be harboring the invisible energies of past emotions associated with this event. These are the wounds that time cannot heal without a little help.
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By Linda M Potter
If you met him in the grocery store, you’d probably nod and smile; he has that gentle, friendly energy. If you talked to him, you’d enjoy his outgoing, genuinely caring personality. If you asked him what he did for a living the answer might catch you a bit by surprise. Geoffrey Hoppe is a wonderfully ordinary person with an extraordinary gift — one that he discovered relatively late in his life, one that has impacted people all around the globe.
Geoffrey Hoppe is a Channeler, a calling that pulled him away from several successful business ventures (including a marketing company and an aviation telecommunications company) over a decade ago.
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When we are wronged (and we all have been at some point), our first response is generally to feel hurt. The offender “should” apologize. There “should” be some retribution. Quite often, however, the offender feels no remorse and is merrily living life without a backward glance. If we hold on to our resentment and refuse to exercise forgiveness, we are ripe for residency in Victimland. We wallow in how we’ve been betrayed, taken advantage of, left to wither in sorrow. Woe is me!
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On a clear summer day in 2004, members of the Oglala Lakota Nation gathered on the open range of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. As a trailer of buffalo approached the steady beating of drums began. Descendents of Chief Red Cloud, the last Lakota chief captured and “relocated” to the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1876, embraced joyfully.
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By Linda M. Potter
"Mediumship is more than just delivering messages. It’s about the confirmation and validation that once our physical body dies, our spirit lives on, but more importantly how the spirits of our relatives, friends and loved ones are still connected to us." John Holland
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An Interview with don Miguel Ruiz and don Jose Ruiz, authors of The Fifth Agreement by Linda M. Potter
In 1997, the international bestseller, The Four Agreements, taught us all to be impeccable with our word, not to take anything personally, not to make assumptions and always do our best. The book’s success introduced millions of people to the ways of the Toltec and catapulted its author, a gentle, soft-spoken nagual (shaman/teacher) in this ancient wisdom tradition into the media spotlight.
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Although he may be most recognizable as one of the scientists in the groundbreaking quantum physics film, What the Bleep Do We Know!?, Dr. Joe Dispenza is also one of the leading authorities on the interconnectedness of the brain, the mind, the body and consciousness.
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Linda M. Potter - Is there a Time Code Calculator that can predict the future? - Is 2010 the year in which the fate of humanity might hang in the balance? - Can we work together to address the critical…
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THE FIFTH AGREEMENT A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery By don Miguel Ruiz & don Jose Ruiz A New York Times bestseller for over seven years, The Four Agreements transformed the lives of millions of people around the world with a…
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