From Creating Your Own Reality to Creating Your Own House

Worse. Not this house.

It was in shambles. A wreak. Holes were punched in the drywall, exposing the studs, bare cement floor in the living room.  The kitchen was a disaster. All flooring needed to be replaced.

A dumpster, yep that’s what that house needs.

And a complete renovation.

I would be embarrassed to let anyone see that house right now.

But, if you are thinking about a fixer-upper, the before pictures ought to look bad, real bad. For then the renovations will look good, real good.

Someone had broken the lock to a door leading to a crawl space under the house. That “crawl space” was ceiling high and we could see that all pillars, beams, and flooring looked great. Overhead access to plumbing and wiring would help in any changes. needed or wanted. The house is situated on slanted ground. The portion sitting on level ground was built on a cement pad, the portion over the hill was built over wood floor joists.

 A few months ago my daughter found that house in foreclosure, and it was coming up for auction. She saw it as a flip house. I saw it as a money pit. Any possibility for profit seemed unlikely.

But, as our house...

The house did not sell at auction, so now it is back in the Bank’s hands.

I spent the last two weeks processing the idea of that house. I didn’t like it. It was dark, dreary and depressing. My husband liked it which didn’t help matters.

But, motivated by the Reality show Texas Fixer-Upper with Chip and Joanna Gains I began to see that sows ears can be made into silk purses.  

However, since the house was foreclosed, it gives the owner or heirs, a right of redemption. That means they can buy it back. And that first 6 months was reset at the auction. It goes until March.

It is unlikely that they would pay the fees associated, and satisfy the loan to boot. Since they let it foreclose and go through an auction,  it would appear they want out. Also, we believe the owner died, and if he has any heirs I can't find them.  However, to begin renovations, one wants a clear title.

There was a key under the house that opened the front door. We went in happy to see what it was all about, measured rooms, and drew a floor plan. We didn’t touch anything and locked it again. Was that illegal?

Whoops.  I didn’t think about that.

But hey, we have a Real Estate agent daughter, although she was not present at the break-in , so she’s home free.

To be continued…

P.S. Is this déjà vu for some readers?

About 16 years ago I was writing about building a log house.  

I am so jealous of homes in Waco Texas where you can buy a house situated on green lawns the size of a football field, complete with gorgeous mature trees for $50,000, put $150,00 into renovations and have a dream home that in Oregon would cost $500,000.

So, what do you want to talk about?

Making Palatable the Unpalatable

I think about my siblings losing their mother at a young age, and how hard that was for them.  I think of Abraham’s teachings that say we create our own reality.

How do we reconcile the two?

You might completely discount the idea of creating our own reality. That’s one choice.

We could say, “Shit happens. Our choice is how we respond to it." That’s another option.

It could be that on the river of life we occasionally run into boulders. Hitting that boulder tells us we need to change direction, or it tells us we have something to learn from the experience. “Don’t let it break you,” it says. “ Love yourself to life.”

It could be that we chose that experience before we were born.

But then, we didn’t know how much it would hurt. We didn’t know how vulnerable we would be. We didn’t know the ramifications of a mother’s death and how the family would change as a result of it. We didn’t have a crystal ball, we only knew some things, but then being born we forgot even the little we did know.  And so we suffer. And now we want to kick anyone in the teeth who says, “You know, you create your own reality.”

This may be far-out for some readers.

 It is a take on how some people think.

It is one of our many options.

For much of our life creating one’s own reality is a foreign concept. And if we do create our own reality, most of the time, it is unconscious creating, for we are often dashed against the rocks.

However, the belief that we create our own reality carries with it the understanding that we are not victims. If we do create our own reality, then, it follows that we can change it.

That rather makes the concept of creating one’s own reality more palatable, don’t you think?

”Everything is Energy

And that’s all there is to it.

Match the frequency of the reality you want,

and you cannot help but get that reality.

It can be no other way.

This is not philosophy.”

This is physics. “

--Albert Einstein 

You've Jumped in Whether You Realize it or Not

The river of life I mean.

 The question is, are we paddling upstream, or going downstream?

It’s hard to tell sometimes, isn’t it?

Oh, I suppose there are those who want the river to be more like a pond, and float their boat, and drift.  That sounds appealing at times. 

So we’re sitting there idling when suddenly the river overflows its banks. It fills our pond and washes us over the edge.

Well, shucks, I wasn’t prepared for that.

Has that ever happened to you?

My most favorite analogy in the whole world is Richard’s Bach’s little river creature from his book #Illusions. The little fellow is clinging fast to the rocks when one day he looks up and has a revelation. “The river knows where it is going,” he says. “If I turn loose of the rocks the river will carry me along.”

But the others, also clinging to the rocks, say to him, ”Don’t be a fool. That river you so cherish will dash you against the rocks, and you’ll be killed.”

Still, the little creature decides to trust the current.

He turns loose, and is at first dashed and slammed against the rocks, but then the current carries him wild and free.

And the ones downstream, seeing him, say,  ”See he flies. It’s a miracle.”

Good place to stop.

If, however, you care to see what our little river is doing read on:

As many of you may know both my daughter and I took Real Estate Licensing classes, passed our exams, were background checked, all our little digits were fingerprinted, fourteen images, we paid MLS dues, Oregon dues, took an “Ethics” class.” then decided we didn’t want to be Real Estate Agents. All beginning agents must sign with a company and as we didn’t find one that suited us, we opted out.

Mainly me.

I likened it to the fellow who wanted a Rolls Royce, got one, drove it around the block and said, “I don’t want a Rolls Royce,” and took it back.

My license is effective until February. Nina’s expired on her last birthday. She took the necessary 30 hours of extra training to reinstate it, then found an agency she liked.

Ta Da!

Their in-house “training” is not the workbook variety but good helpful, pertinent information, one on one.

She is  jazzed. I’m jazzed for her. I believe she threw herself into the right river.

Nina Birchwood, #Hybrid Real Estate Agency, licensed Real Estate Agent, able to sell in the State of Oregon

P.S. My new dot com address for "The Best Damn Writer's blog on the Block" is http://www.bestdamnwritersblog.com

From the ole Crap Buster.

A friends’ husband categorized me as that, and it warmed me for two years.

I’m semi Woo Woo.

I find I am often in the middle. I go to far-out groups, and say, “Okay guys, dampen it a little.”

If I’m in the mainstream group, I say, “I’m out of here.”

Motivated by Caz Makepeace's #Y Travel blog, I am adding my two dimes and a nickel's worth.

I am astounded at how many travel bloggers are out there, and how many travel full time. #Caz Makepeace is one. She travels with her husband, two young daughters, and has a highly successful blog and website.

 I am in awe.

Uh oh, serious mouse encroachment--erased material. I had to begin again.

Double mouse encroachment

Back to the blog: I have traveled a bit and loved it. I stood beside the Parthenon in Athens Greece as a golden sunrise enlivened it.

I climbed the stepped pyramid at Chichen Itza in the Yucatan and stood at what was once called the “Holy of Holies,” that room at the tip top. 

From my lofty perspective, I looked out over what was once a city, the temple of the warriors, the ball court and the Yucatan Peninsula where the horizon was flat as a pencil line drawn across the page of my vision.  

I’ve been to some places, but as you can imagine there is a whole world that I have not touched. I believe as Caz puts it “Travel is not to run away, but toward.’

Perhaps our move to Hawaii was to run away, and that’s the reason we didn’t like it, but I have no regrets. To travel is to rise above and beyond who we are, to experience a new day every day, and to step out of our present conditions.

Imagine sitting in a dandelion-dotted field in Germany, the green so green it brings tears to your eyes,  and you are eating cold pizza from the night before, and it is the best you have ever tasted.

“When you travel, life around you is constantly changing. This means you never get lost in the blur of mundaneness. You’re highly aware of what is happening, how things move from one day to the next, and how to flow with change.

“It’s a mindfulness so easy to tap into, which is why I feel travel is so addictive.´--Caz

Can you remember what happened last Tuesday? I can’t.

Regarding her travel blog Caz writes: “It feels like it’s not very powerful because you’re just helping someone find a good burger, but in reality, we’re helping people create moments and memories. It’s those moments and memories that shape and impact their lives and lead them to new horizons and help them experience JOY.”

Caz went on to talk about Chakras and cleansing, and going to a spiritual medium, and said, ““Believe me when I say that writing this post brings me tears.”

She wanted to write about who she was but in doing so felt vulnerable and felt that people would judge her as being woo woo, or cuckoo and she realized that she was afraid of being criticized.

I realized, too, that here on this blog I have dampened who I was because I feared people would think  I was cuckoo, but in the process I come across lukewarm.

I do not want to be lukewarm, but then I wonder who am I. What do I believe, and what do I want to share?

And blogs can be so self-centered, but then what choice do we have, you aren’t here talking to me. It is a one-way conversation.

As I mentioned before I intend to go to a Tony Robbins 3-day event in November, and I know some people love him, while others have a strong negative reaction.  He is threatening. He doesn’t pull punches. He has been doing his work for so long he can read people and that is scary.

People are going to think whatever thoughts they want so we might as well do our thing and let the chips fall where they may.

"The possibility of having dreams come true is what makes life interesting,"--Paulo Coelho