Can you believe there are New Yorkers who have never visited the Statue of Liberty? I’m one of them. The closest I’ve come to Lady Liberty is a ride on the Staten Island Ferry. Hopefully, I can rectify that this year. Many of us believe that the sights are all outside of our range……there’s nothing in our own world, and we have to travel to someone else’s. Nothing could be further from the truth.

We walk around our towns, walk past places of great beauty, sometimes without even batting an eyelash, taking it all for granted, and thinking that it’s nothing special, until a relative or a friend comes to visit, stops us in our tracks, and points out the wonder under our own noses.

Movies are full of famous cities of the world, leaving many with a feeling that their town doesn’t quite measure up. Each place has its own character…we just have to recognize it. It could be a small museum, regional theater, a local store, or, a place of Worship. Priceless memories are available if we only open our eyes.

Each week I try to write down something special about my town in upstate New York. Near me is Hyde Park, the home of President Roosevelt, and the Culinary Institute, a school where some of the best chefs in the world are trained. Also near me is West Point Military Academy, with halls of history. I have tried to not forget what is available for me to see and discover in my own neck of the woods. It’s not been easy….I too take things for granted. So try this week to sit down and write what is special about your town or area. Why does it always have to be that strangers sometimes see things before us? No town is too small…..they may not appear in the latest hit movie, but they are not diminished in any way of their importance.

I recently had a conversation with a man who runs the concessions for minor league baseball teams of the Chicago White Sox through the South. He said to me, “You would not believe how important minor league ball is to some communities. The whole town comes out on Saturday night and cheers and hollers as if it’s a World Series game. There’s never an empty seat in the house.” Broadway producers encourage the development of regional theaters, so that they can look for the next hit play. Towns matter…..they contribute on a grass roots level, that one day rises to center stage. I’m sure you have your own stories of how someone came out of your town or area and went on to touch the world. Each person and each town contributes…we all just have to notice.

Enjoy your town,
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

From the day we are born we take in information. We develop, we mature, and hopefully, find out over time what works and what doesn’t work for us. The Trance is a state of mind we fall into when we are doing something that we consider mundane. It could be licking five hundred stamps on letters, hammering nail after nail, or spacing out during a boring book. Sadly, The Trance eats up valuable time.

Recently I had a conversation with a friend who told me a story about The Trance. Joe used to leave his house at the same time each morning, stop in at the coffee shop and head off to work and do the same process in reverse at the end of the day. Joe said, “Jennifer, it’s really strange. When I open the door and head off to work the time in-between is a blur. Each day that blur becomes wider. Strangely, one day the train went out of service. I snapped to, and boarded another train and resumed the blur. This is all fine and dandy Jennifer, but I’ve done this for 18 years.” The Trance can get a hold of us…..not only take away time, but devalue our moments.

Perhaps Life gets so overwhelming sometimes, that there is only so much that we can take, so we “zone out.” But that zoning out can be costly. Oddly, during periods of crisis or turmoil, The Trance disappears, and all of a sudden we feel more alive. Why is that? Do we take Life so much for granted that only when it is threatened, do we feel more alive?

I look at The Trance as a virus. Something that anybody can catch. Is there a cure? Sure…..it’s called Awareness. Whenever one sees or feels the Trance coming on, think about what you want to accomplish that day. Flood your mind with as much positive thought as possible. For me, one of the best ways I keep away The Trance is to change my schedule and try to get away once in a while. When we are busy, it’s one thing……but The Trance is something entirely different. To find out if you have had The Trance, or currently have it, ask yourself this: How quick has the past ten years gone by? and, do many moments stand out? For some yes, for some no. Think forward of the next five years, and try to accumulate memories that will last a lifetime. The Trance can never invade the shield of awareness.

Keep awake,
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

Sometimes we totally underestimate the influence we have on someone’s life. We forget that our words and actions are being watched and absorbed by others. Members of our family, friends, and yes, pets, see us at different times during the day, and react to what they think we are saying or doing.
The more we are aware of the position we have in certain people’s lives, hopefully the more responsible we become. A child at the dinner table watches what we eat, how we eat, how we behave, and what we do once we finish the meal. After a few weeks it’s not uncommon to look across the dining room table at a child mimicking every move we make.

The same can be said for friends. We influence them, they influence us. During the week we receive a phone call from a friend in need…..asking us, “What do you think I should do?” It’s at these points we see the scope of how our contributions can have an impact on someone else’s life.

Our pets….my my…..do they watch us! They know when we eat, what we eat, what we like to watch on television, what time we get up, what time we go to bed. For me, I sometimes catch my little dogs having a powwow, wondering what concoction I may cook up for dinner that night. Dogs sometimes can be the worst food critics….if the chow is not “up to par,” you will be notified!! But seriously, the circle of love that can evolve in a relationship with a pet can be priceless.

We constantly underestimate what we give to others. It’s easy to forget in our busy lives the impact our words and action have, but, they do. The more we are aware of this, the better we are for ourselves, and for others. There is not a part of the day where we can’t contribute something worthwhile, be it at the office, at home, or during recreation. We underestimate our power. We all make a difference…..even when we don’t think we do.

Life is a shared experience,

love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

How many of us out there use certain phrases to explain a bad day? For example: “I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” “Somebody rubbed me the wrong way,” or, “Nothing ever goes right for me on a Monday.” Perhaps if we dig a little deeper there could be an explanation why things don’t always turn out the way we want them to. Can we control everything? Of course not, but maybe we can tilt the odds a little bit more in our favor.

Every day certain things happen to us that cause a reaction, or a trigger mechanism. The trigger is activated, and we in turn respond accordingly. For example: I could head into work around nine in the morning and be reminded that there was a report that I had to get done by eleven. As eleven drew closer, my hands could start to sweat, my blood pressure could rise, and before too long I could start getting flashbacks of other times that I was in stressful positions. After a while, if I didn’t step back and calm myself down, for sure my imagination would kick in and lo and behold, I may even believe that it was impossible for me to get the project done in time. The trigger of fear and insecurity could make me blow the whole thing out of proportion. Isn’t it strange how little tasks in life can easily be blown into a life and death feeling situation?

So how do we deal with these so-called triggers? Maybe by creating a few new ones. How about this…….in the morning we write down several phrases that we can look at during the course of the day that can evoke pleasant memories or feelings. A friend of mine recently mentioned to me how he keeps up good feelings in his life by focusing in on the release of his favorite CD’s. If Paul McCartney is planning to put out a new release in the summer, my friend accumulates various articles about the forthcoming album, and whenever he is having a bad day, he turns to those articles. Since he is a huge Beatle fan, a flood of wonderful memories fills his mind and he is instantaneously lifted up. I personally find browsing through artistic books, like one that I have on my coffeetable at the moment on artists’s homes in Ireland, inspiring. For me, it’s a great way to chase away the blues in a rainy moment. We can create triggers that can spring forth antidotes against negativity.

So why not give it a try…….think to yourself, what can be your personal positive mood enhancers for the day? I find for me it can make stressful situations easier to handle. Many days are based on perspective…..two people can look at the same event and come away with different viewpoints. Triggers may not overcome all our problems for the day, but they can tilt the ones on the fences in our favor.

Tilt the moment,

love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

This past week folks around the world have had a lot to contend with. Bad weather, shaky financial markets, mad cow and hoof and mouth disease, to name a few. These are strange times…..but I am a positive person…I believe all this will pass and we will come out of it a stronger people. It used to be problems like these were some else’s…..now, they are ours. Should we pretend that “everything is wonderful, and nothing is wrong?” of course not….by doing that, no solutions would be found. I love life, and I highly respect people, no matter where they live. As a result of this newsletter that reaches 65 countries, I feel their joy and pain.

So what do we do to help solve some of these problems? One way would be to develop solutions that, over the long term, will strengthen us, and help us to better prepare if these things happen again. In terms of mad cow, little is known, but stay informed to better prepare your family. The stock market? That’s a beast unto itself. Manipulation, upgrades, downgrades, selling one sector into another. One thing I’m fairly confident of is that good companies with good management emerge stronger and bolder from downturns in the economy. I’m a true believer that long term investing in good companies is the only way to go. I learned this from my beloved Grandmother….bless her soul.

I would like to share with you a little story that shows humanity at its best. In 1977 New York City had a major blackout. At around 8pm, all of the lights in the city went dark. At first, panic was everywhere…..people were stranded in elevators, walking along the streets trying to find their way…..many could not get home. Then after about half an hour, something extraordinary happened……people started reaching out their hands to neighbors, in a time of need. I was driving along in my car through Manhattan….there were no streetlights, but there were people at every corner with flashlights directing traffic, so that the traffic could continue to flow safely. Strangers to this day….I have no idea who they were, but they cared enough to come out of their apartments to direct the traffic for FREE. Nobody mentioned, “What do I get out of this? How much will I get paid? Why should I care?” They just did it, because somewhere inside each and every one of us, no matter how deep you go, somewhere lurking down there, is Compassion and Love. This blackout lasted until early the next morning. The news reported that many stayed up all night to help others. Sure there was some looting, but overall we knew we were “all in this together.” Kind of like now.

There will always be obstacles in life. One thing I always try to remember, to try to be as kind, compassionate, caring and loving as possible. These are the things I believe can get one through tough times. In the air there is a sense of despair……but each day can bring a new breeze to blow fresh ideas that spring forth seeds of hope. The right breeze can blow the clouds away and deliver tomorrow’s rainbow.

May the good winds blow,

love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

Each day seems to bring its own set of problems. Now, all of them cannot be the same, but isn’t it strange how many times we look at them with the same level of importance? I too find myself sometimes reacting to each problem as a monumental task, when if only I took a few steps back and saw how temporary and simple that problem really is.

Every few weeks, a relative of mine meets with me for lunch. We talk over the stories of the day and what’s going on in our lives. Halfway through our conversation we suddenly look at each other and just start laughing……she says to me, “Can you believe how we overblow things?” and I respond, “I know what you mean! Everything is not life and death, but if anybody overheard us, they would think we were real worrywarts!” Some things are important….. but, are there dustballs under the beds, really a matter of seriousness? Or, is the fact that you let your toenails get a little too long this month, a personal catastrophe? Perhaps that day it may be an event, but a week or two later, maybe not.

If all we do is judge each problem or chore on an equal level, it’s very easy to understand how exhausting it can become. We plow through the week and by Friday we are suffering from burnout. Why? Was everything that important? Did a worry about the mundane expand us? How much energy could we have applied to the things that were important?

These days I try to keep things in perspective as much as I can. Every Sunday night I look over the coming week and write down what I must do and what I plan to accomplish. Come Wednesday I always notice that additions are made, but overall it helps me be prepared for surprises that always seem to arise at unexpected moments. Doing this helps me keep my head on my shoulders. Like everyone else, I too have a lot on my plate. Still, a mountain is a mountain, and a molehill is a molehill, and never shall the two meet…….one is tall, one is small, and so too is each problem.

Observe the landscape,

Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

We go about our daily lives with, in most cases, blinders on, to get through. We only let in a certain amount of information that comes towards us, because we have jobs and chores to do. Think of all the sounds we would actually hear if we were walking down a city street and focused just on hearing sounds…..or if we did the same thing in the countryside. It is in these moments that we become aware just how much we “tune out,” in order to function daily.

We underestimate how much we can handle, and often see ourselves as limited in our capabilities…..when in reality we were “designed” by God to be able to see, hear, breathe, pump blood, move muscles, talk, think and imagine, all at once. Pretty amazing, right? We are living miracles, and most of the time we don’t even give it a passing thought.

While we are functioning at many levels, we are existing on a globe that is spinning through space…..gravity keeping us “earthbound.” How many times do we look up at the sky and notice the stars or the moon, and realize that we are not only family members of a planet, but Citizens of a Universe? Our earth is not disconnected from any of the other planets….it functions similarly to Venus, Jupiter, Mars, etc., throughout the solar system. Yet we often feel that we are alone here on our globe, limited in our capacities, just “wheels in a cog.” Yes, we are wheels in a cog, in a sense, but look at the scope of the wheel!!!! It encompasses an entire Universe.

To accept that we are Citizens of the Universe, is to accept that we are all part of a huge system…..a system which is bound together by a certain Love and Logic. I call it God……others may have different terms for it. Science tries to break it all into mathematics…..yes, math is definitely involved, which is where some of the logic comes into play, but to explain the beauty of the interlocking parts, I believe we have to go beyond math and science, and rejoice in the Miracle.

The next time you feel hassled by the routines of life, pause and try to get near a window where you can scan the sky with your eyes…..or sit in a chair and listen to your breathing, or look at a photo of someone you love deeply. These things will remind you of the fact that you are part of a much Bigger Picture…..a Member and Citizen of the Universe, with a passport given to you at birth. You are awarded a visa everytime you remember this………

Enjoy the journey,
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

How we arrange our lives always comes down, in most cases, to what we consider most important. We assign, mentally, a number to each task in our lives. These are our priorities.

There are always reasons why we do one thing before another, and when we forget we look for excuses. It’s a funny thing about life…..the things we don’t really need seem to creep up to a level of importance….strange, isn’t it?? “I don’t have time for this…..that’s too hard for me…..I couldn’t afford it.” Holiday cards are a good example. Who do we place top of the list for cards for us to send? Who do we forget? perhaps because we don’t want to ask the question why? Priorities matter.

Work, Love, and Leisure all are involved with priorities. The amount of time that we spend on each eventually affect the outcome of our lives. All this can leave one with a sense of not having control over one’s life, while in reality how we arrange our priorities directly help us get a grip on what’s important.
I recently had a conversation with a friend that involved priorities. My friend is a sculptor. She makes incredible art pieces. All her family always remark to friends how wonderful and talented she is, but strangely, they never seem to buy one of her pieces. This had a sobering affect on my friend. First she thought perhaps they were not really as good as people said……but that couldn’t be true, she reasoned, because others had no problem purchasing them. Then one day she decided to call her sister and ask her flat out, “You always praise my work……yet you don’t support it.” Her sister responded, “I have to be honest…..I’m jealous of you. I have been most of my life.” My friend was speechless. It’s easy to say that she should have given away her art to members of her family, for free. That’s not the point…..her family has no problem going to the local mall and buying whatever they want. But, when it comes to supporting someone who is a family member, or perhaps a friend, then it has to be free, free, free. How did she resolve the situation? Simple…..each Christmas she hands a member of her family a piece of sculpture she made. Of course, at first she gets a blank stare that says, “Where’s the real gift?” But they’ve gotten used to it, and to her, they got the message. As always, priorities work best when they are reciprocated.

This kind of stuff happens all the time, but we stay silent, afraid to say how we really feel. Priorities are all around us…..are own, and of others. All it takes is for us to be honest with ourselves and not pretend, then lo and behold, life takes on a whole new meaning, and sometimes direction.

Prioritize,
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

No matter where we roam out there, to others it’s easy to understand why we can be seen as a face in the crowd. One of a sea of faces that passes through life in the blink of an eye. Each face, having its own story to tell, unique unto itself.

Society casually assigns us a number to be placed on our heads and written down on many documents, like social security, drivers license, bank accounts, etc. It comes as no surprise that after awhile we feel expendable. Just another number….in a crowd called humanity. At this point we could all sit back, accept this classification, and trot on down the road of life. I don’t know about you, but I see my life as far more meaningful than this.

Each life is sacred…..a miracle with each breath. It can never be taken for granted, and the efforts put forth can affect many. We are more than numbers crunched in a computer that is spit out at random. We live, we breathe, we help, we hurt, we struggle, we overcome. Acts that are far more profound than a series of numbers. A person is more than a face in the crowd. We can never forget the importance of each individual life.

Fame and fortune are fleeting…….the little guy/girl too shapes the world. Society has no problem putting each one of us on a certain level, or in a specific group, based on economics, country, or religion. I say throw away the levels….they are meaningless and destructive. The child starving in Afghanistan is your child…..the shepherd in Istanbul is your brother, the old woman making millions in her money market in England is your aunt, the addict crossing the border into Canada is your sister……all of us are interconnected……just by virtue of being human beings on one planet. All faces in the crowd….rubbing shoulders anonymously.

We can never forget the good that one life can do. Hey, it’s easy to be reminded each night on the evening news the destructiveness of mankind…..but far too little airtime is given to the miracles that are created daily. So-called simple people making a difference. Each life has a purpose beyond the crowd.

Seize the day,

love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon

Almost every week I receive a letter from somebody who feels that they’ve been done an injustice. Some of the letters are just heart-wrenching……a house that has been robbed…..money that is missing……and even murder committed. Injustices happen everyday. Some people don’t get it, that in one way or another, nothing goes unpunished.

Let’s take a scenario: Why should I be good, if I believe I can get away with anything if I’m smart enough, then why not go for it? Because, call me crazy, one way or another, what I put out will come back to me. Stupidity and anger are not excuses for doing wrong deeds. Do I believe some can be rehabilitated? Sure…..once they’ve made amends to those that they’ve hurt and asked for forgiveness. As the planet grows in population, the resources to solve crimes will be stretched to the limits. That is why it is so important to stress at an early age that right is right and wrong is wrong.

We elect officials that we hold to a higher standard. When they fail, they are accountable. No person is perfect……but, when someone’s words or face is splashed nightly on the evening news with the words “Good” under their faces, when they fail, an explanation should be given. We can all forgive, but we must never forget, or we are doomed to repeat.

To my friends out there who feel that justice has turned a blind eye to their pain, fear not my friend, because out there beyond our control is a far Higher Court. I am not a religious fanatic, but I’ve seen enough in my days to believe what goes around comes around. Justice never comes the way we expect it.

Embrace Life……tell those that you love that you love them……enjoy every minute and squeeze every ounce of joy out of Life. Remember, Evil only wins, when you stop Loving.

Follow the Law,
Jennifer Avalon
© 2001 Jennifer Avalon