Tag Archives: technophobe

Instagram installed!

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imageSome days the work I do is a challenge to me as much as to the person I’m treating, reading for or counselling. A lot of years ago when I started out as a counsellor someone told me you get the clients you need not want. Today has made me think of that again.

You see, I’ve installed the Instagram app. My lovely friend Jan said it was a great way to share my artwork and even videos. Never one to back down from a challenge I decided that I would give it a go. Me, the technophobic social media and website operator, taking on another app to master. What on earth was I thinking!

I made a plan. I would have my iPad in the Centre so in between callers I could get up to speed with Instagram. Then I would set up an account and consider the job done. Of course I already have four websites, a web page, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Ning and umpteen other social media ‘things’. I’m including What’s App which I installed and have struggled to make sense of. I really need a teenager to explain it to me. Anyway, on with the plan.

Like a lot of my plans it was derailed at once. I had people to see, a group to run and Reiki to do. I also had a reading, counselling and a Skype session of mediumship development.

As I put aside my iPad I found myself dealing with emotions that were as much mine as they were of the people I saw. Each person today has made me remember my own feelings as I faced similar situations in my life. Each person needed to get an opportunity to voice their feelings in a safe space. Each person needed to know that I heard their voice. And each person needed me to be brave enough to acknowledge what they were feeling even if they couldn’t.

I am honoured to share my day with people who have been brave enough to look inward.  I know that isn’t an easy thing to do. It’s something I have been doing for several years now so I do understand how hard it is. Sharing their journey with each person I have been able to see progress I have made too. The opportunity to look at and notice my own journey is a gift they have given me which I willingly received.

How does this tie in with Instagram? I have a load of apps and software on my various devices. Some have been easy to learn, some have been a bit more of a ‘won’t be beaten by this’ effort and some have been ‘what was I thinking? Never again!’

It’s like dealing with feelings. I can let some go with ease or there are those that take a bit more effort and sometimes those that get stuck. Then I have to work harder to remove the ‘software’ that has cluttered up my devices. Because installing or feeling things is easy. Deleting or releasing can be a loop that ends up going round and round.

I tend to get stuck when the uninstall ends up leaving bits of connections still live. I once had a Kodak printer connected to my PC. I’ve removed all the software I can find as the printer is long gone. But a window pops up every now and again to ask me if I want to get the latest Kodak update. It’s the same with my feelings. I think I’ve uninstalled the grief. After all I’ve moved on in my life haven’t I? Today it was clear to me I still have random pop ups ready to take me by surprise.

But I won’t be beaten – by software or life. I am good at persevering. I will find a way to delete the old, stuck energy. Thank you once again to all the lovely people who showed me today that it’s a journey we are all on. Now I’m off to try that Instagram thingy once again. Wish me luck!

Day 241 of my blogging challenge.

Error 404 – Page Not Found

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imageThe requested resource could not be found but may be available in the future. Subsequent requests by the client are permissible! Have you ever had one of those days when you felt like you had skipped a page or chapter in your life? That something you expected to be there wasn’t any longer? When you went to connect with someone or thing it was missing? On one of those days it seems like no matter how hard you try you can’t get back the missing piece of your life. You ask yourself where your error was. How did what you were expecting to be there disappear?

My friends know I’m a bit of a technophobe. Once I know how to drive a computer, iPad or other gizmo I’m ok. But when anything is changed or upgraded I go into panic mode trying to get up to speed with the changes. My phone has features I’ve never even used because I worry that by the press of a button I will loose all my carefully stored data. One little error with these buttons and everything might zoom into a black hole. I will eventually master my phone’s resources, probably right before the next upgrade, lol. So it is always interesting to find life mirroring technology. When a connection to someone isn’t there any more I always wonder why. Even more so if it’s that my connection to the Spirit World that has suffered a glitch.

I confess to being forgetful. I can spend ages looking for the bit of paper with the note I need on it that matters right now. I put down books some place and find them three months later having looked high and low. The email I know I have somewhere on my computer refuses to turn up when I search for it. Or I put something away in a safe place and forget where that place is. I tend to find stuff when I’m really looking for other stuff I need right then. Sometimes the item is gone for good. In a similar way connections to other people can be like Error 404 too. We expect people to stay the same, to relate to us in the same pattern they always have and to be there when we look for them. Sometimes this isn’t a realistic expectation. People change. Or we change within ourselves and they don’t. Or the tide of life drifts us away from one another. Life long friendships are rather rare. They represent  a connection that has stood the fallings in and fallings out, absences and all of the internal changes in each person. More typically we have connections to people who we can identify with until the point when we can’t share any common ground any longer. Sometimes we know that this is happening. Sometimes the connection is severed abruptly.

I’ve also experienced Error 404 occasionally with Spirit connections. I’ve been ready to contact someone, or my Guides, and nothing has happened. It’s like the energy to enable me to do so has disappeared. In the beginning my first reaction was to worry that the link had been switched off permanently. Later I came to understand that there are many reasons why the connection might not happen. These include a change of Guide, giving me a rest, the circumstance not being the best to connect in or too much going on for me personally. So I can always try again (and again and again) if necessary until the connection is back in place.  That leads me back to the missing page or chapter. If a connection is lost there is always a way of identifying why, trying to reconnect and if that isn’t possible understanding why the thing, person or Spirit has moved out of your life. We can always think about the energy transaction that was being made, that is, why was that thing, person in your life? What gift did they bring you and what gift did you bring them? How did you evolve by the connection you had? Rather than stressing about my website getting updated regularly I focus on the fact that blogging is giving me a voice I want to hear. When someone moves out of connection with me I focus on what I have learned about myself as a result of our interactions. And when the Spirit World goes quiet for a bit I take time off for myself.

The next time you feel like you have skipped some pages and have missed some information look at what has changed. It’s not an error or glitch. Be glad that life is fluid and interesting and fill in the blanks (if you feel you need to) in positive ways until new pages are written.

Day 200 of my blogging challenge.

Oops! No connections!

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images-39Oh dear! My daily blog challenge hit a bump yesterday. I’m posting last night’s thoughts a day late because my internet connection disappeared. Despite my best (technophobe) efforts to restore the connection my laptop said NO. My iPad said perhaps … it was taking so long to download & upload whilst the battery was gently fading away. So I was left with no way of writing the blog to my site. Interesting really. I’ve had one other blip in getting my blog on site on the day it’s due – I was in A&E that night with my auntie, again with no way of getting onto the internet.

I wondered why I was ‘off-line’ again last night. What was it about my day that needed me to be out of electronic communication? Or was a point being made very pointedly by my Guides. I suspect it was. At the same time as I was out of the loop my daughter was trying to find her DSi game playing thingy (technophobe for I don’t know what this piece of equipment does but it keeps her very quiet). It wasn’t where she (or I) had last seen it. We did a full search and couldn’t find it anywhere. So she got out her notebook and started reading jottings she had done a while ago. Then she started to write some more things in her notebook. We spent a pleasant hour chatting & writing before we were both ready for bed.

One of the reasons I generally write my blog later in the day is that I get a chance to consider all that has happened in the day that has stuck in my head. I can think about how things have happened and what outcomes have arisen. I can also ask my Guides what they want to say about my day too. My connection is energy not electricity. However, to have to return to writing on paper then typing up what I have written is giving me a second look at my day. Sometimes we forget to pause and reflect. Sometimes we have to think it through more than once, or even tell it how it is more than once, to let the full impact of the day release itself from our energy system.

I wrote a piece about grief & loss yesterday for a magazine. As I thought about losing the connection with loved ones I was acknowledging all of the feelings & thoughts that surface during a bereavement. The experience is a physical loss too. Often the hardest loss in the beginning is that the physical connection with someone has gone. No more hugs, kisses or touching the person we have lost. We feel the same when we loose our family pets and best loved possessions. We face the fact that life is uncertain. That endings happen. I’m fortunate to have an open channel of communication with those who have crossed into the Spirit World. I can still have conversations with them whenever I want. I can also have conversations with Spirit Beings on behalf of others too. Messages can be passed across from both sides. The loving connection can continue. It’s a different form of connection but a vital link all the same.

So being taken away from my ‘normal’ connection to the internet gave both me & my daughter time to share a different way of connecting – through our shared love of writing, reflecting and talking. I am thankful for those precious moments. Life is uncertain and who knows what tomorrow will bring. Our connection to each other was strong in those moments. I have a lovely gift of a memory to keep me steady in the times when we are out of connection with one another. What are your memories of connecting with your loved ones? When the world turns up-side-down because they are no  longer with you what do you want to remember about your connection with each other? Are you ready to take some time away from your usual distractions and talk to the people who matter in your life? Store up the chats, discussions, laughter and disagreement – they are the loving connection we all make in case of future loss.

Day 58 of my blogging challenge.