Have you ever had the experience of waiting to have a question answered?  But you didn't realize you had the question until suddenly, one day...the answer is there.  Then you realized you'd had that question all along.  This has been my experience while reading Secondhand Time:  The Last of the Soviets, by Svetlana Alexievich.  My question is this, "What were the opinions and stories of the people of Russia during the time frame of my own life?"  I have heard so much about them from news and politicians (theirs and ours).  And I studied Western Civilization last summer where I learned about the high points...(and low points) of their history.  But how did the people feel about all of this?        I had long suspected that there was more to the story than I was hearing.  And I have a personal twist to this story that gave me a perspective that perhaps has not been considered by most outside of Ru...

My first European trip is coming up fast!  I've been crazy busy scouring my to-do lists, rules and regulations, and what to pack and not pack documents.  My guest bedroom has been sacrificed to this cause; it's full of piles of sundry items, and lists, and little travel bottles of various liquids including laundry soap.  I plan to wash and hang my dirty-to-clean underwear across six countries.  And yes, my little rope and clothes pins are in the pile too. As I sit here in my burgeoning excitement, the thing I am most excited about this morning is drinking British tea.  "Susan could get that in the states," you may be thinking to yourself.  But drinking it here and drinking it there will be two entirely different experiences, I am quite sure.  And when I am there, I intend to savor every sip.

What does healed look like to you? No answers here, just a very important question.

I am taking a new class this summer called, Diversity in the City.  It focuses on the depiction of American and global urbanism through one of the most popular forms of media - film and television which portray a variety of urban conditions including diversity, inclusion, equity, and social justice. It's pretty ironic that I am taking this class because I rarely go to the movies and I haven't watched TV in years.  But so far I really love it. I wrote this post after watching the movies, Citizen Jane (about Jane Jacobs), Pleasantville, and Radiant City.      I grew up in the suburbs.  And yet, these movies explained so much of the suburb life that I did not know, or at least had never really thought of before.  There were certain things that rang true that I had always noticed, but never consciously acknowledged about that life.  For example, in the movie, Radian City, the children talked about how they didn't know their neighbo...

This is from a recent weekend class. Wow, one of my all time favorites. I think everyone on the planet should take a class like this. Then where would we be? DISPUT 594 - Self-Awareness in Conflict Susan Fullmer 5 May, 2019 My Contribution to World Peace        When I first learned the Three-Part Assertion Skill, I was a mental health nurse working for the Portland VA in their Mental Health Intensive Case Management Program (MHICM).  At the time, I was a nurse case manager with a full caseload of Veterans with chronic, persistent, and severe mental illness. I had never had great boundaries when it came to standing up for myself and asking (let alone insisting) that others respect me.  I chalk this up to sexual abuse in my childhood from my father, grandfather, and others. I had come a long way in healing and starting to develop better boundaries with good therapy and time. But then, in this job, I found that I was v...

Given my recent visit to the Akashic Records where I learned about a past life in Russia, I now understand why I was so enthralled by the Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden.

For years I’ve known about the Akashic Records.  But I’ve not been drawn to them until now. I was just listening to the book, “I’m Over all That: And Other Confessions” by Shirley MacLaine where she reminded me that they are there.  And now they are calling to me. I’ve spend time over the last few days exploring them. Such different energy! Truth is universal no matter the source, but it has been my experience that those different sources can feel quite different from each other: Guides, Helpers, ancestors that have done their work, animals, plants, earth, planetary bodies, etc.  And let’s not forget, Mother/Father God. And now the Akashic Records. The interesting thing about the Records is that they don’t feel like a personality. It feels like a library with a voice. I hear the answers when I ask the questions. But it doesn’t feel like a sentient being. I feel there are sentient beings around, perhaps to maintain and/or protect. So where do I go ...