In case you haven't heard, I am running for Lewisville City Council Place 2, and I plan to do something few - if any - ever have - run my campaign exclusively using electronic media such as the Blog you are now enjoying.

Why?  I've always been a proponant of a paperless society.  With the exception of newspapers and books which I dearly love, I get tired of all the junk mail bombarding my mailbox and filling up our landfills.  Personally, I am never persuaded by those advertisements.  I want to meet the people, read what they're saying on issues important to me, so I choose to opt out of any kind of printed matter in this election.

Aside from avoiding waste, I plan to run a frugal campaign.  I don't want money or donations, I simply want votes.

On a sidebar - I am distressed as a writer about the difficulties newspapers and the publishing industry are having presently.  I hope we are able to keep our papers because they are so important!  My stance on electonics is environmentally focused...I still want printed books and papers and I hope everyone goes  out, spends a few dollars and buys a subscription to the paper to keep it alive and kicking!

WHY I'M RUNNING

I've thought about doing this for years, only the first time it popped into my mind, I wasn't actually living in city limits.  Now that I am, I want to do something in the way of volunteerism, and as I have done many projects in the past, I felt the City Council would provide the best way for me to have the greatest impact on Lewisville.

In order to float the boat during my writing career, I've worn a lot of hats during my self-employed years, including my work as a career counselor, corporate trainer, hypnotherapist, etc.  Basically this is all counseling, and I think that role more than any of my others will enable me to listen to the citizens, take what they're saying to heart and offer creative and constructive solutions to the issues of the day.

I am like many people in Lewisville.  I love our town.  I see a lot of wonderful things going on here.  I am more concerned with what's happening on the national stage and how that is going to impact us over the next few years.  I don't like hearing my neighbor just lost his job, my friends are struggling to make ends meet.  It is distressing!  I'm sure you know what I mean - everyone is hearing similar stories from friends and neighbors.

What are we going to do about all the things happening in our world and how are those issues impacting us now and in the future?  I'm concerned!

I do not have answers to these big questions so I can't make any pie-in-the-sky promises about what I'm going to do about this once elected.  It's like a hole we've dug ourselves into that is so huge, it will take awhile to climb out.  We have to hold the vision in our hearts and minds it will happen, take daily action, step by step toward where we want to be and remember these things in life are cyclical.

I was talking to a friend at the gym yesterday about life and how we as Americans are the most fortunate people on the planet.  He was telling me about his service in the Army and how world travel opened his eyes to all we have in the good ol' US of A.  I agree that once you see the rest of the world, you come to a whole new understanding of why we better thank our Higher Power for all we have and how good we live compared to everyone else.

We talked about what we would do if we were millionaires, and both agreed - nothing different!  I am happy with my life personally, and the only thing missing is my need to assist, volunteer and give back something to my community.  I want to be challenged and I want to be a part of the creative process as we all work together to ride out this storm.

It's easy to get discouraged, panicked, down on the country.  I hope you and I can remain optimistic as we move into brighter days.

Check out my new website for more details about the election on May 9, 2009, and regardless of whether or not you vote for me, please vote!  Everyone counts!

www.shelleykaehrforcouncil.com

I'll be blogging more frequently these next few weeks and hope to see you around town sometime!

I laughed out loud the other day when I read the recent Dallas Morning News article entitled Romantic Comedies May Be Dangerous for Your Love Life by Gregory Rodriguez.  While I enjoyed and appreciated Mr. Rodriguez’ humorous look at the latest social science study, I too disagree with the findings of the team at the University of Edinburgh.

     As a new romance writer (Kiss at BlarneyCastle by Leah Leonard – now available on Amazon.com) and member of Romance Writers of America and two local chapters of RWA, I believe romance is one of the saving graces of modern society.

     In a world filled with much doom and gloom, the romance genre provides us the possibility that two people can actually live happily ever after and that even difficult moments will always work out in the end.  What a wonderful message of hope in a time that desperately needs some.

     So if I appear a little star struck or find myself waiting on my lawn for the White Knight to ride up on his horse, at least I’ll be doing so with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.

Hi All!

The following is a reprint from my blog drshelley.blogspot.com about a trip I took a few years back to India and some strange happenings there.  I will post a longer look at India later.  I think this was written in March of 2006, if I remember correctly.....

*** 

It has come to my attention since coming here that there is a very ancient form of divination here called Naadi Leaves and I want to tell you about them here.

Apparantly, several thousand years ago scribes wrote predictions for the future for certain souls and recorded them on bamboo leaves. These writings have been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years and are to be discovered by certain people at preordained moments in time. The writings record the soul history and tell everyting the soul has and will do including itme of death, exact names of parents, etc - too much to say here.

I had never heard of this before I arrived and my roommate told me about it and said she planned to travel t south India to get this reading when the conference was over. I immediately said, "Can I get this in Delhi?" She did not know and researched it for me and yesterday went to a place where it is done.

When she returned she told me about it and I went immediately to this place. When yo arrive they do not ask your name or anything else about you. They simply take your thumbprint.

Then they go to a room where the documents are kept and search for yours. Amazingly, they found mine within a few minutes and through process of elimination my exact record was located along with another friend who I took with me.

I was stunned by what they told me. They said my name "shelley" my fathers name "mickey" and exact date of my birth, day of week, and too many other very personal details about me to tell you here.

I went back to the conference after they found my records and the records of my companion and told this to a few people who I took there today and they too had records that were found.

One person who went today was told no, there were no records, and my friend who originally told me where to go to have this done did not have her records there. I still think hers are down south where she is going on Saturday.

What you need to know is that this is the only record like it in the world. It is literally like finding a needle in a haystack and what is the likelihood of all of us coming here and finding it together like this?

It makes me rethink many of my philosophical contemplations about the nature of destiny and the soul.

Are all things actually preordained and destined to happen or is there free will? I asked this to my new friends there and they told me this reading will offer the highest path, warn of future troubles.

As author of a book on parallel universes I had to wonder what to think of this. I said "What if you tell me this is my destiny but I also see another path to take? Can I still take that?"

"Yes, of course," he said, "but we can warn you of troubles and the other path may actually have more troubles than the highest destiny."

So as I struggle to come to terms with this shift in paradigm between total control of destiny verses the preordination of our souls paths and contracts, I am totally blown away.

To think that these 4 women I met here and I may have met thousands of years ago to leave ourselves a message we would happen to find in March 2006 is absolutely amazing to me. These 4 friends will be with me the rest of my life - I know it!

What comes next is the actual reading. Once my record was found, the astrologer pulls it and sets an appointment with you to come back and read it for you. As synchronicity would have it, the five of us will travel together to do this tomorrow afternoon.

So what do you think about destiny? Do we have freewill or are all things preordained? Would love to see what you think.

Over the weekend I went to a memorial service for my granny who lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

While standing at the gravesite, I realized that very rarely in these several years I've been here on planet earth have I attended such services so I began to consider the many reasons why.

First, I don't believe in funerals.  I do believe they exist, sure, but I don't believe in them.  We say they are for the loved one who passed, but is that really true?  I say no way.  They are already long gone to that big block party in the sky while we're all here trying to pick up the pieces without them. 

Funerals are most definitely for the living, and the Irish have it down the way it should be - have a party, get wasted and think of all the cool things you and your loved one used to do together.  Don't sit around weeping and commiserating.  The dearly departed would want you to be happy about it all....

These recent events brought up quite a stir in the family over issues such as living wills, when you are still mentally alive and kicking and when you'd be better off to simply be allowed to kick it.  Fun, fun, fun!

***

I remembered this weekend that I did not attend funeral services for my other grandfather, my aunt or cousins.  I feel certain none of them cared because I do my best to see people while they are still co-habitating our planet, but I wouldn't be surprised if I ruffled some feathers amongst our relatives.  Oh well....life goes on, for some of us, that is.

***

My other thought on this is that the funeral directors take advantage of grieving familes and this really ruffles my feathers!  Why our family was asked to pay thousands for cremation is beyond me and I believe these people ought to be thrown in a fiery abyss someplace!  That is uncalled for! 

Years ago when I worked for a sales trainer I toured one of the largest mausoleum facilities in the US in one of the north central states.  Unfortunately I was one of the people teaching these people how to do what they do to people.  Hmmmm...maybe a fiery abyss is waiting for me someplace for that, who knows!LOL

When you think about it, our burial practices are quite barbaric and have been around since the earliest times, particularly the practice of body viewing.  I plan to be creamated personally because I do not want to be seen in such a morbid state by those who knew and loved me.

Regardless of what you believe about burial and funerals, I think its best to love our friends and families while they are still here to love, appreciate them when we can and do our best to enjoy our lives until it's our time to join the party in the hereafter.

www.shelleykaehr.com

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