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Daily Creativity Prompts deliver a perspective-shifting zap to your creative process.
See Grace Kerina’s Creativity Prompts Compendium for more tools to spark your genius.
Related reading: Creativity Prompt | 160 ~ Book | The Creative Entrepreneur
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
Jorge Luis Borges
For a vast selection of cheap thrills, head to … your local public library. But dig deep. Books are only the tip of the iceberg.
These days, with the Internet acting as connector and entire regions pooling their resources, even rural and off-the-beaten-path communities often have access to vast resources through their public libraries.
I’ve been grilling librarians all over North America for decades, and I find that if I stay sharp, even while asking what I think are tedious questions, I can catch the gems they toss out – references to astonishing marvels of library services I’d never have thought to ask about.
Here’s a sampling of the offerings of the Vancouver Public Library system (and still only the tip of the iceberg). The most basic services – likely to be in all libraries – are listed first. If any of the following services attract you, ask about them at your local public library. And stay alert for hints of further treasures.
Internet Access – Search the library’s catalogue of holdings, check due dates, renew items, discover programs and presentations coming up, and access a virtually endless variety of other options, including placing holds.
Placing Holds – If the item you want isn’t listed in the branch closest to you, you can usually request that it be sent to your branch. This is particularly useful if the item is popular and you’re not likely to find it on a shelf anytime soon. Placing a hold puts you in a line-up for the item. The library notifies you when it comes in.
Interlibrary Loans – What if your entire regional library system doesn’t have the item you need? Never fear, you can request it through the interlibrary loan department, often via Internet. The interlibrarians (pardon me) will search nearby library systems first, including universities, and then search further afield until they find it. I currently have an interlibrary loan book that came from the Chicago Public Library, so items even travel across international borders.
Music, Videos, and DVDs – From the crush I regularly see at my local branch’s DVD shelves, getting free movies from the library makes good sense to a lot of people. Placing holds on movies makes this service even more useful since the generally depleted DVD shelves mean getting hold of that hot new film could take a while – and even longer if it’s not owned by your branch.
Electronic Resources – So much information is available through the Vancouver Public Library’s electronic resources that it’s easy to become overwhelmed. The prize for accessing these resources via the public library is that the library provides free access to otherwise costly resources, like newspaper and magazine article collections, encyclopedias, databases, and entire books online (through Books 24/7, for example).
Genealogical Data – The amount of genealogical information made available at local libraries makes me weep with joy. For example, the Vancouver Public Library offers access to Ancestry.com (the library version, which is more extensive than the free version), which has allowed me to discover great stories and data about my ancestors, for free.
Historical Archives – Many of the libraries I’ve hung out in have a cool, sequestered area tucked away somewhere that houses archives, information, and even photos and artefacts about the region’s history.
Pictorial Reference Files – Rows of file cabinets line an alcove in the art department of Vancouver’s central library. Inside are browsable files containing a mind-boggling array of images from magazines and other sources, organized alphabetically by topic. If you need to see a variety of bear pictures or examples of Bauhaus architecture but don’t need a whole book’s worth of info, dig in.
And smile at the librarians. They’re the stewards of Paradise.
Flickr photo: Vancouver Public Library, by singsing sky
Related reading: British TV Crime Dramas, Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title
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Daily Creativity Prompts deliver a perspective-shifting zap to your creative process.
See Grace Kerina’s Creativity Prompts Compendium for more tools to spark your genius.
Related reading: Creativity Prompt | 112 ~ Ode to the Curiously Mundane Office
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Daily Creativity Prompts deliver a perspective-shifting zap to your creative process.
See Grace Kerina’s Creativity Prompts Compendium for more tools to spark your genius.
Related reading: Creativity Prompt | 115 ~ 20 Ways to Make a Decision
Claiming space and time for yourself can be a challenge, particularly if you require more space and time than other people in your life do. If others apply direct pressure in the form of interruptions and complaints, your challenge grows. If they don’t understand why you need space and time, your challenge grows. So get tough.
Giving up the space and time you need for yourself is not an option.
You may be so habituated to giving it up that it’s difficult to feel you deserve it, but you do. And you always have. Even if you’ve never in your life had enough space and time for yourself, you must claim it now.
You control your space and time. Period.
People who love you but don’t really understand your need for chunks of uninterrupted space and time don’t control your ability to get it. They don’t need to understand. If you wait until they understand before you get enough of what you need, you lose.
Tell them, “I’m going to rest for an hour,” then close the door, dim the lights, and quietly do whatever you want. Say you’re going out to run an errand and spend the whole time hunkered down in a quiet corner of the library. Tell them you’re going over to so-and-so’s house and, once there, take over the guest room for the afternoon, closing the door behind you.
Consider the idea that telling others only part of the truth actually makes everyone’s life easier. You must please yourself first or all is lost. Figure it out.
Explore easier living through subterfuge.
{ PEP TALKS deliver a bracing blast of Grace }
Flickr photo: Bed, by modomatic
Related reading: Pep Talk | Keel Over, Secret Spaces
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Daily Creativity Prompts deliver a perspective-shifting zap to your creative process.
See Grace Kerina’s Creativity Prompts Compendium for more tools to spark your genius.
Related reading: Creativity Prompt | 99 ~ Successfully Sensitive | Richard Sharpe
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Daily Creativity Prompts deliver a perspective-shifting zap to your creative process.
See Grace Kerina’s Creativity Prompts Compendium for more tools to spark your genius.
Related reading: Creativity Prompt | 175 ~ The Power of Equal and Opposite Forces
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Daily Creativity Prompts deliver a perspective-shifting zap to your creative process.
See Grace Kerina’s Creativity Prompts Compendium for more tools to spark your genius.
Related reading: Creativity Prompt | 171 ~ Living with Questions
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Daily Creativity Prompts deliver a perspective-shifting zap to your creative process.
See Grace Kerina’s Creativity Prompts Compendium for more tools to spark your genius.
Related reading: Creativity Prompt | 108 ~ Fonts of Joy
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Daily Creativity Prompts deliver a perspective-shifting zap to your creative process.
See Grace Kerina’s Creativity Prompts Compendium for more tools to spark your genius.
Related reading: Creativity Prompt | 130 ~ Out-of-Context Quote Book
Energy Healer
Have you ever met someone and instantly felt like you’ve know them a long, long time? That’s how it was with me and Stella, my husband’s sister. She practically glows with connectivity.
In spite of the geographical distance between us (she lives in Berlin and I live in Vancouver) and the language barrier (I finally know enough German to have conversations with her, but barely), for years we’ve had long, long conversations that soothe and connect us both. She understands me perfectly, even when we struggle with our words.
The energy work she does, which I’ve experienced firsthand, doesn’t take place in person (unless you live in Berlin) or over the phone. An appointment is made, and at the appointed time the client gets comfortable and Stella gets to work, focusing healing energy on the client, no matter where in the world they are and even if they have no language in common. After the session, she has lots of information about the client’s energy blocks and suggestions for continuing to clear and heal.
Many in our society poo-poo this kind of work, but there’s more and more information coming to light via the scientific community that actually backs it up. Uniquely talented, sensitive people like Stella are finding more and more acceptance.
In what way are you most successfully sensitive?
My sensitivity enriches me most in my energy work. I am so sensitive that I can perceive different cosmic energies, deliberately summon them, and take them in. I can perceive and feel the different energies of precious stones and the way they work in different areas of the body. And I’ve been able to turn my calling into my profession. I now support others, heal them, and bring them into their power through my distance treatments. And that fills me with deep gratitude and great joy.
What or who has inspired you to embrace your sensitivity?
Inspiration has come through my first experiences with the ethereal world and through my dear sister-in-law, Grace, and her Highly Sensitive Power website, which is so interesting that ever since I started reading it I’ve devoted myself to this topic and can now definitely say, “Thank you for my high sensitivity!”
What are your eternal fascinations?
Finding out who we really are behind our masks, walls, and façades, and discovering that, behind it all, we are amazingly beautiful, great, and luminous beings. And everything else having to do with the topic of ethereal energies: their effects, their gifts to us, their healing powers, and their unbelievable, unlimited possibilities.
What quest currently captivates you?
I am more and more intrigued to find out how working with ethereal energies can radically and quickly change our daily routines, our health, our whole life and personality in a positive way; how these energies can give us incredibly much joy and power, and increase our quality of life; how working with these energies can, step by step, lead us to greater knowledge of the incredibly beautiful, great, and luminous beings we actually, intrinsically are.
What is your favourite kind of help to give?
My energy work and talking with people, whom I can often help because – as a result of my sensitivity – I have great empathy and compassion. I can tell them much about what has helped me in my own life and encourage them in theirs.
Translated from the original German version
Photo from Stella’s website
Related reading: Successfully Sensitive | Saskia Röell,
Quantum Physics and the Art of Manifestation,
The Sensitivity of Water
Wie kannst du deine Feinfühligkeit und Hochsensibilität am besten einsetzen?
Am meisten bereichert mich meine Sensibilität in meiner Energiearbeit. Ich bin so feinfühlig, dass ich unterschiedliche kosmische energien wahrnemen,willentlich herbeirufen, aufnehmen und fühlen kann; ich kann die verschiedenen Energien von Edelsteinen wahrnemen und fühlen, wie und in welchem Körperbereich sie wirken. Und so konnte ich meine Berufung zu meinem Beruf machen und kann andere Menschen mit meinen fernenergetischen Behandlungen unterstützen, heilen und in ihre Kraft bringen. Und das erfüllt mich mit tiefster Dankbarkeit und größter Freude.
Wer oder was hat dich dazu inspiriert, deine Hochsensibilität anzunehmen und sie als Gabe zu verstehen?
Meine ersten Erfahrungen mit der feinstofflichen Welt und meine liebe Schwägerin Grace mit ihrer Website, die so interessant ist, dass ich mich seitdem viel mit diesem Thema beschäftige und sagen kann: “Danke für meine hohe Sensibilität!”
Was übt eine konstante Faszination in deinem Leben aus?
Herauszufinden wer wir wirklich sind hinter unseren Masken, Mauern und Fassaden, und festzustellen, dass wir dahinter unglaublich schöne, große, lichtvolle Wesen sind. Und alles, was mit dem Thema – feinstoffliche energien – zu tun hat: ihre Wirkungsweise, ihre Geschenke an uns, ihre heilenden, unglaublichen und unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten.
Welche Themen fesseln dich momentan?
Es fasziniert mich immer mehr herauszufinden wie die Arbeit mit feinstofflichen Energien unseren Alltag, die Gesundheit, unser ganzes Leben und unsere Persönlichkeit radikal und schnell positiv verändern kann, uns unglaublich viel Freude, Kraft und eine viel größere Lebensqualität schenken kann und uns Stück für Stück zu diesem unglaublich schönen,großen, lichtvollen Wesen führt, das wir eigentlich sind.
Welche Art von Hilfe bietest du am liebsten?
Meine Energiearbeit und Gespräche zu führen mit Menschen, denen ich oft helfen kann, weil ich durch meine Sensibilität auch ein großes Einfühlungsvermögen und Mitgefühl habe und viel von dem erzählen kann, was mir in meinem Leben weitergeholfen hat.
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Daily Creativity Prompts deliver a perspective-shifting zap to your creative process.
See Grace Kerina’s Creativity Prompts Compendium for more tools to spark your genius.
Related reading: Creativity Prompt | 136 ~ Dare to Be Vulnerable
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Daily Creativity Prompts deliver a perspective-shifting zap to your creative process.
See Grace Kerina’s Creativity Prompts Compendium for more tools to spark your genius.
Related reading: Creativity Prompt | 110 ~ Personal Space
Who do you turn to when the you-know-what hits the fan, when the bad news lands and you can’t make the shift to thinking of it as an opportunity, when your world goes horribly wonky and you need someone to pick up the pieces before you can even begin to face the new reality?
Be pro-active. Line up advisors in advance.
An advisor doesn’t need to be someone who knows it all, a halo-topped, superpower-wielding, bigger-than-life, mythic hero. They only need to know more than you do. And, further, they only need to be wiser in the one area you need advice about.
Take inventory. Who’s on your team?
Go so far as to identify specific people who are more experienced and knowledgeable than you on certain topics. No need to be formal about it unless you want to. Just mentally reviewing your options can save you if a crisis arises. You’ll be more likely to think to reach out to the person who can help.
Lining up advisors doesn’t mean you’re bringing on the worst by focusing on a what-if. Think of it, instead, as pre-emptive. Knowing you’ve got a plan can go a long way toward repelling the crisis. Practice calms our fears and automates our responses.
All hands on deck! Oh. That was just a drill.
{ PEP TALKS deliver a bracing blast of Grace }
Flickr photo: Friends for Ever, by Hamed Saber
Related reading: Pep Talk | Ask Anyway, The Perpetual Support List
