Here's a thought... What Do Afghans Want?

Muppet Movie Revisited: Childhood Lessons In Manifestation

"Life's like a movie, write your own ending
Keep believing, keep pretending.
We've done just what we set out to do.
Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers, and you."

-The Muppets, final scene of The Muppet Movie

I just watched The Muppet Movie for the first time since I was in my early teens, and it was so wonderful to see it from a new perspective. For one, I realized that the story was absolutely Homeric, steeped in the great journey of the hero and packaged with ancient mystic wisdom. I didn't see it that way at all as a child, but I wonder if it had an effect on me as I blossomed into a young adult, traveling the world on a shoestring and creating my reality through manifesting dreams.

Some say you don't even need to know the meaning of sanskrit mantras, all you need to do is repeat them over and over in your mind, and eventually they'll kick into your reality. Is this what I did with the Muppet Movie? I watched it to the point where I can still recite the whole thing. When I watched the scene with my favorite song last weekend, I found my epiphany. See here and listen closely:

Now read the words of the song, with some of my notes in parenthesis. These are all the guidelines of manifestation, as I've learned from some of the greatest miracle workers and shamans on the planet:

I focus on the pleasure, somethin' I can treasure, can you picture that?
Can you picture that?

Floyd Pepper:
Let me take your picture, add it to the mixture, there it is I got you now!
Really nothin' to it, anyone can do it, it's easy and we all know how.
Now begins the changin', mental rearrangin', nothing's really where it's at (My translation-Reality is not what it seems)

Dr. Teeth:
Now the Eiffel Tower's holdin up a flower. Can you picture that?

Floyd:
Fact is there's nothin out there you can't do
Yeah, even Santa Claus believes in you. (My translation-We're all unlimited beings)

Dr. Teeth:
Beat down the walls, begin, believe, behold, begat.

Floyd:
Be a better drummer, be an up and comer. Can you picture that? (My translation: Hold the vision!)

Floyd:
All of us are winnin, pickin and a-grinnin, Lordy but I love to jam

Janice:
Jelly-belly gigglin, dancin and a-wigglin, honey that's the way I am!

Dr. Teeth:
Lost my heart in Texas, Northern lights affect us, I keep it underneath my
hat,Aurora Borealis, shinin down on Dallas! Can you picture that?
Can you picture that?
(Chorus)

Can you picture? You gotta see it in your mind! (My thought: This is the most important part! If you can't see it, it won't happen!)
Can you picture? You know it's quick and easy to find!
Can you picture? You don't have to buy a frame!
Can you picture? Can you picture that?
Can you picture that?

Dr. Teeth:
Use it if you need it

Floyd:
Don't forget to feed it! (My thought: you have to keep feeding your imagination and your mind with the images of the dreams you want to create. If you stop doing that, the dreams can't be fed and you can lose them)

All: Can you picture that?

Southwest Trip-Spring, 2009

This is the first video that I edited with my new computer and the first time I used Creative Commons music from ccmixter.org, which has a lot of amazing music that you can use for free, as long as you follow the artist rules for attribution. I'm loving this open source culture more and more and hope to do future professional projects in this fashion.

Music by Lasswell / CC BY-NC 3.0

Himalayas

These are pictures that I took during my first trek in the Himalayas over 6 years ago:

The Buddhist Car Sale

photo by Liz Grover

I had absolutely no use for my 2002 Hyundai Accent. My husband and I can only park one car at our residence here in downtown Portland. I walk everywhere anyway, because I like the exercise and absorbing all the images, sounds and smells of Portland's funky, offbeat and aesthetically pleasing street culture. Additionally, buying fuel is flat out unsustainable for our planet. It was always time consuming to get to my car too. I left it parked at my friend's house, which took an hour to reach by light rail and bus.

Finally, I thought hard, assessed what was really important and decided to give up the car. There were some "what ifs" that flashed in my head, but I took the leap of faith, that it would all work out--even without a car--as it always does in my life. I posted the Hyundai on Craig's List on a Friday.

I checked my email, browsed on Twitter, and chipped away at the final writing of my book. Thirty minutes went by. I went back to my email where there was a response of interest from Craig's List. Then another, and another until I had fifteen people interested in my car.

This was encouraging, especially with all the economic worry on people's minds. I didn't get too excited though. I've sold cars on Craig's List before and it was always a pain. In all my previous experiences, people would always try to talk me down on a car that I also sold for too little, or say they were interested, tell me that they were coming to look at the car at a certain time and date, and then turn out to be a no-show. Without exaggerating, this no-show crap happened to me about five times in the past.

Out of all the interested buyers for the Hyundai, one guy (we'll call him Rick) said please hold on to the car. I'll buy it today. "Yeah, whatever" I thought. I've heard that song and dance before, yet at the same time, I didn't let my mind go too much into that, just in case he was for real. I didn't want my expectations to get in the way, and after all, I am the creator of my reality. I can manifest what I want. Rick did sound more serious than other interested shoppers and the idea of showing my car ten to fifteen times did give me a shiver, so I decided to make a deal. I told him that if he was really serious, I would hold off showing the car to others until after he viewed it. Rick thanked me and we arranged to meet the following day.

On Saturday, I made the trek out to my car with all intentions to sell it then and there. I told myself over and over again that this would be a great sale, I would get the price that I wanted to sell it for, and that the buyer would be a cool and honest guy. I thanked the universe for helping to make this happen.

I got to my friend's house where the car was parked a little early. I knocked on the door where my friend Sherry greeted me and we chatted about the weather, life, and the usual until I realized that Rick was ten minutes late. My mind wanted to say, "Oh no! Not again! That darned Craig's List!", but I didn't. Enough of my mind and heart believed that Rick was just caught in traffic and that he really would show up. Much to my delight, he pulled up five minutes later.

Rick warmly greeted me. He apologized for being late and I told him not to worry. He said he was an artist and that's why he wanted the car. It was a hatchback so he could easily throw his stretched canvass inside. He actually had a Hyundai that he worked on before, so he knew what to look for. He circled the car inside and out and was happy with everything he saw. He was even shocked with how great the tires were and told me he thought he would probably have to buy new tires for the car. He was relieved that it wasn't the case.

He popped the hood and began to survey the engine. He said the inside was perfect from a first glance, but he wanted to check the timing belt. That, as he said would "seal the deal". He had a wrench with him and removed three bolts off the case that held the timing belt, but he couldn't remove the fourth bolt. Realizing what he needed, he went to his car to find a different sized wrench. He delved and burrowed through his tool box for ten minutes until he found the perfect wrench. He thought it was kind of trippy because it didn't match the rest of his tools. He said that he had never seen it before and wondered where it came from.

Finally, he removed the case to see that the timing belt was in mint condition. The only thing remaining was the road test. We got out on the highway and the car was zippy as usual. The alignment was perfect and Rick said he was ready to buy for the price that I had said on Craig's List. He never tried to talk me down. It was the used car sale from a dream, but I pinched myself hard just to make sure that I wasn't really in bed.

We chatted on as he drove. He told me that he was raised off the grid in a hippie family in San Francisco. I told him about my book about my travels that I'm working on. I even told him the title. I can't publicly say what it is at this point, but the word "Butterfly" is definitely in there. I'll give you that much :) He pulled over to an auto parts store to buy some oil for the car, which I sheepishly told him that I forgot to fill. Just as we got out of the car, a butterfly flew right in front of us. We both thought is was weird, but didn't have to say it. The looks on our faces said it all.

We bought the oil. He drove me back to my friend's house and told me that he was so happy how I was honest and didn't try to cheat him like so many car sellers on Craig's List had tried to do to him. I told him how happy I was that he actually showed up, and that he didn't try to talk me down on the price. It was serendipitous. He told me how "It's a miracle that this sale went so smooth, but this perfection seems to happen to me more and more, especially now that I'm going to this Buddhist center in town. It's weird."

I said "That's funny, because I originally came to Portland after a Buddhist monk in the Himalayas told me to come here. I didn't know anyone here, but it was the third time that Portland came up in random conversations I had in France, Thailand and Nepal over the course of six months, so I decided to listen to him." He quirked his head, and said that he was happy it worked out this way and that he would love to read my book.

What a reality I live in. A Buddhist car sale! Who would have thought? What will I create next. Can't wait to see :)

My Talk From Interesting Portland

Here's a talk I did last week. It went so well that it landed me my first TV interview:


Why I Went to Afghanistan, by Liz Grover from Substance on Vimeo.

Kali Baba

This is Kali Baba, my spiritual teacher who showed me that the world is full of illusions and that it's also a blessed place full of synchronicity and miracles. Imagine reggae star Burning Spear meets Bilbo Baggins. After meeting him, I felt a psychic energy awaken within for the first time in my life. He lives in a mud hut on a hilltop in the Himalayas, west of Kathmandu, Nepal. You can learn more about him in my book when it's published.

Synchronicity Led Me to My First Television Appearance

So last week I gave a talk at Interesting Portland. I got to explain why I went to Afghanistan.

Before my talk, I was catching up with a friend and explaining to her how I was getting prepared to attract more media for my story (getting my website ready for media, doing more interviews etc.) Just as the words fell from my lips, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and it was Emily, one of the event coordinators. She told me how KGW, an NBC affiliate, wanted to interview me minutes later. My friend, my husband, and time stood still with me as we all witnessed the synchronicity come storming in. It was funny, because I made my wish to the universe that day, asking for more wonderful and positive media regarding my story to come my way. As with my talk at Ignite Portland last year, I had the feeling that something miraculous was going to happen that night--some piece of the puzzle of getting my book out there in the world would be given to me. Click here to watch how it went.




I'll end this with what happened on Twitter this morning :) I made a tweet about Afghanistan, and then someone else on Twitter responded:

@lilbutterfly I just saw a young lady on the news in Portland this week. She went to Afghanistan w/$100 & found work!

I (@lilbutterfly) responded on Twitter saying, "@cfpdx That was me on the news :)"

A Great Carpal Tunnel Exercise

So I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome several months back and it was this exercise that made a huge difference. Make sure to repeat the hand positions 10 times, 2 sets a day. If you're working all day do a set before you start, in the middle of your work, and at the end of the day:


The other thing that really helped, when I was in the thick of a writing storm on my laptop, was wearing wrist braces that I purchased at a local pharmacy. If you're not typing a lot, I would just stick to the exercise above, two times a day for a while. It's very nourishing and lubricating for the tendons in your wrists.

The other thing that helped was to take a small rubber band, put all my fingertips of one hand inside it, and stretch them out 10 times in a row. Do this on both hands and make sure to do it two times a day. This is a good resistance exercise to build up the right muscles in your wrists to fight carpal tunnel.

Spiritual Moments In India

One Of My Average Days In India

Eat Pray Love Encounter With Ketut Liyer

On Saturday, I was at a coffee shop with my husband, working on some web design for my own site, www.lizgrover.com After a while and a few sips of spicy tea, a woman sat down in front of me and proceeded to read a copy of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love. Since I had my computer with me, I thought I would interrupt her to show her the picture I took of Ketut Liyer, the mentioned shaman/palm reader in Eat Pray Love. I posted it on my Flickr account, so it was easy just to turn the screen around to show her. I know that she was "in" her book, but I find it fascinating to meet and/or see the faces behind book characters, like I did with Ketut in Bali. I thought she would appreciate it.

She didn't mind the interruption and thought it was so cool to see a picture of him. She said that it was almost exactly what she thought Ketut would look like, so I think that means that Gilbert did a great job describing him in her book. It's a fun and amazing world.

Interesting Portland-My Next Talk

I will soon speak about my experience in Afghanistan at Interesting Portland on April 9, 2009 at Norse Hall. I will talk about what drove me to go to Afghanistan with $100 US dollars in my pocket, a one-way plane ticket and no promise of a job. I will have a time maximum of three minutes to talk, just like the other speakers. You can check the lineup here, learn more and buy tickets at their website.

Strange Love Live Interview On Video

I was interviewed on Strange Love Live on March 13th, and it was a blast! I suggest you tune into this show to hear some of the most creative and intelligent voices of the Portland tech community and beyond. Here's the video if you missed it:

The more techy talk:

Strange Love Live-After Hours On Video

After Hours Baby! Anything goes:

Strange Love Live on Friday the 13th!

So the lovely beings at Strange Love Live have invited me to come hang out this coming Friday, the 13th. Please show some love and tune in if you can. I'm still not officially blogging, but I have made my blog a little flashier with bells & whistles. I'm now writing the LAST chapter of my book. Yay! Unfathomable to write a whole book, but here it is.

xox,
Liz

Dare to Go Where You Fear, or How I got to Afghanistan With $100-My Presentation for Ignite Portland

Photo credits for presentation:

Lina Abirafeh
Marie Frechon
Liz Grover
Aykut Tavsel

Love is the Answer

I recently stumbled upon an episode from This American Life called "Unconditional Love". I found it to be so interesting and it really helped to open my mind to the broader history of childhood bonding and its significance in America and Hands to Hearts International's work.

The episode's intro discussed the research of Harry Harlow. Between 1963 and 1968 he ran a series of tests that took baby rhesus monkeys away from their mothers and put them in a cages, each equipped with one mother made of terry cloth and one made of wire which provided food. Please watch the experiment in the video below:



As you can see from this video, even baby monkeys need to be nurtured. I was especially intrigued when Harlow said that the baby monkey would spend 17-18 hours with the cloth mother as opposed to the wire mother.

This might not seem surprising, but as Ira Glass said, before the 1950's, American doctor's, psychologists, and the government believed that too much childhood bonding was a bad thing. Public messaging would discourage mothers from kissing and holding their babies too much. Influential Psychologist of the time John Watson even said that "Mother Love is a dangerous instrument".

Ira's monologue was shocking to me and made me think on a grand scale. One thing was obvious; I knew that not all mothers listened to this messaging, but I shivered when I realized how many mothers did listen to the society's ignorant warnings about bonding. Who out of my 20 something generation would think that the American society was against mother and child bonding until the 1950s.

This made me wonder how this affected the childhood of my grandparents and their generation. I found myself thinking if I could connect this story to some of the more dysfunctional traits of my family.

It also reminded me of my travels in Asia when I felt my own frustration for a lack of bonding. I remember when I lived in Nepal and I had several children who I spent time with. I used to bring them crayons and teach them games like leap frog and how to build a kite. We had fun and it was a precious time. Then, when I had to leave for America, I wanted to hug them goodbye but it wasn't acceptable by the Nepali cultural standards. It made me a little sad to leave without a proper hug, but there wasn't much I could do.

The radio program went on to discuss an example of attachment disorder. Heidi and Rick adopted a child from a Romanian orphanage named Daniel. Daniel lived there for 7.5 years and didn't remember much from the experience. He didn't go to school and just stayed in his crib during most of his days. Daniel did remember never having a desire for family.

Heidi and Rick recalled how they enjoyed the first 6 months with Daniel but that period unexpectedly came to a screeching halt. Out of thin air, Daniel became a violent child. He would throw things in the house and intentionally aimed physical attacks at his mother. The attacks brought police to the house twice a month on average. One day it got so bad that he held a knife to her throat.

Heidi had tried so many therapies with Daniel along the way, but this tragic and frightening incident pushed her to search harder. Thankfully, she found what she was looking for, and for the first time, Daniel was officially diagnosed. He had attachment disorder and the remedy for this was for him was to be treated with love and nurturing as if he had gone back to being a one year old again.

That's right. The attachment therapist prescribed that Heidi and Daniel would have to spend 3 months together, side bye side, with no more than the distance of three feet apart. Also, even though Daniel was 10, both of the parents were ordered to cradle him like a baby every night for 20 minutes, while looking deep into his eyes and holding him tight.

This sounds crazy to most, but it changed Daniel dramatically and his violence toward Heidi ceased to exist. At the time of this interview, Daniel was a teenager and he had just been awarded as a model citizen in his local synagogue. Quite a change from the day when he held a knife to his mother's throat. The love and physical bonding cured him.

So, I'll bring it back to my work and my own environment. I now work with Hands to Hearts International. Laura Peterson is its executive Director, founder, creator etc. and she has just reached over 10,200 children with her message of the importance of childhood bonding. From what I have seen of her work, of the video footage, the photos, the stories, and people such as parents who adopted a child from an orphanage where HHI's program is strong, I am convinced that HHI is the answer to all of the problems that I have just mentioned. I have seen a lot of disasters in this world. I have worked as a humanitarian aid worker in war-torn countries. I have worked in non-profits big and small, and I have to say that HHI is the most effective thing I've seen. Why? Because it starts at the core of children's lives, with love. It's so simple that I'm afraid that not everyone can grasp it. It's true though. Just imagine how things would have been different for Daniel if he had HHI trained caregivers at his orphanage in Romania, singing him songs and cradling him to sleep as a baby. Is it resonating yet?

I don't think healing people, a country or the world is about a new democracy, newly elected presidents, the greatest new technology, or fancy billion dollar aid packages. It's just about love and I'm waiting for the day when more people understand this. HHI gets this and it gives me hope.

Viva Timor-Leste

Presidential Candidate Lu Olo aka Sammy Davis Junior




Presidential Candidate Avelino Cohelo aka Che Guevara

(Yes, Sammy Davis Junior and Che Guevara live, and they currently reside in East Timor. I saw them the other day! Well, kind of. At least they have some pretty good look alikes who both ran as candidates during the country’s Presidential Election this year.)

East Timor

I'm now in East Timor and, believe you me, I never saw this one coming until 2 weeks ago. It all started when a job I found in Portland, Oregon didn't work out--I worked at a web design company for one week, and my manager could not give me the hours he originally promised.

I immediately went to Craig's list to search for a job. That lasted about 5 minutes because a strong feeling in my gut told me to stop searching and wait for a job that was about to come to me. I paid attention to the feeling, and the next morning I received an email from my former manager in Kabul asking me to design a website for East Timor's parliamentary elections.

It's really bizarre yet comforting when these things happen. I know I can always rely on the universal flow to guide and take care of me.

It's now my second day ever in East Timor. I'm staying in Dilli, the capitol and there's a monsoon down poor out my window right now, making it's presence loudly known on the many tin roofs that saturate my neighborhood. Because of colonization that lasted for 450 years, locals speak Portuguese and 18th century European architecture is spread throughout the city. Coffee plants and sandal wood cover the island and the fishing couldn't be better--my friend Toby said the prawns here can sometimes be the size of telephone receivers. The bulk of the population is Roman Catholic with a few animists living inland and, other than beaches and a desolate tropical mountain scape, that's about all I know for right now.

I'm a little jet lagged and it's hard for me to absorb too much at this point, but, as the election moves closer and I start to explore, I will definitely keep you all posted.

Ciao,
Liz