Book Review: Psychic by Sylvia Browne

Last month I was contacted by Trish at TLC Book Tours to see if I would be interested in reviewing a new book. I haven't done a book review since high school, so please bear with me. :)

The book is Psychic: My Life in Two Worlds by Sylvia Browne. Before I read this book, I didn't know much about Mrs. Browne. I had come across her on talk shows or radio, but had never really felt the need to learn more. I'm somewhat skeptical about people who call themselves psychics (I'll explain that another time). Anyway, being naturally curious about the supernatural I determined to try to read this book with an open mind. Now that I've read it, I know more than I really wanted to about Mrs. Browne.

There are lots of stories about her experiences with spirits and there were a few terms that I had never heard of that I plan to research. I disagree with her basic premise of why spirits don't move to the other side, but I respect her opinion. It is a biography and therefore contains stories of her childhood, her marriages and her businesses. My biggest qualm is how she skips from time period to time period. One minute she's writing about her childhood and the next she's writing about her second marriage and then she goes back to childhood. For me, it was a bit confusing.

If you're interested in learning more about Sylvia Browne, I'd recommend this book. If you're looking for something to help you understand the concepts of psychics and or ghosts/spirits, I recommend you look elsewhere.

I'm not sorry I read it, but it isn't a book that I would have picked up on my own.

blessings
~*~

Solstice

(photo from a 2008 beach trip)

Wishing you a wonderful Summer Solstice...

blessings
~*~

Chaos

I'm still here. Still fighting the migraines on a daily basis. I want to say how much I appreciate the kind words that you write in the comments, the healing wishes. I just do not have the words to express how much those words mean to me. How they are the light in my darkness right now.

I saw my neurologist earlier this week. We are both extremely frustrated by my lack of improvement. He has changed my medications again and I am now taking dilaudid as well as several other medications. Now, the constant pain in my head has been joined by tremors, nausea and a complete inability to focus on anything for longer than a few minutes. He has begun pushing for me to have a spinal tap (which scares me more than the thought of having to live with this pain for the rest of my life). He also suggested that I look into being treated at a nationally renowned clinic in Michigan. I don't see how that is possible at this time.

I've taken to getting up in the mornings, making my way slowly to work and immediately taking my pills, including almost every day a pain pill or muscle relaxant. I'm so medicated that even though I'm sitting at my desk, I am accomplishing nothing. I feel like a hollow shell most days. Having to tolerate the noise and bright lights of the room is almost as mind numbing as the drugs.

I feel as if my life is chaos. Everywhere I look it seems to be quite the mess. The household chores have been forgotten as I arrive home and crawl into bed almost as soon as I've finished feeding the kids. The gardens and yard are an utter disaster and I'm very sad that I can't find the energy and inclination to spend any time working in them. Everything about my life and myself just feels so... wrong. I shouldn't be like this. I shouldn't be in pain every moment and I shouldn't be so sad all the time. I keep thinking that this can't be the life I am meant to live.

I am determined, however, to find some small happiness every day. Some measure of peace and joy that can dispel the gloom around me. Reading my favorite blogs, discovering new ones is one of those lights. During one of those bouts of blog reading I found a lovely opportunity to get this:


These beautiful charms came from the amazingly lovely and talented Nina Bagley. They arrived in the mail today, bringing such joy and happiness into a miserably painful day. I had the opportunity to pick the words that I wanted in the charms..."magic" was a given and the "true" seemed important to me...a chance to remember to be true to myself. I can't wait to wear them.

The summer solstice is almost upon us. Sunday we will have a local solstice festival at the park near my home. I am hoping to attend with my friend and her family. It is sad really, but my favorite part of the summer solstice is that it means fall and winter are on their way. I like summer, I love the growing season, the flowers and fresh fruits and vegetables. But I just can't take the heat...it's been in the mid to high 90's for several weeks and looks to continue on this coming week. It has brought us some lovely thunderstorms, which I love.

Well, enough of my rambles. It's taken me over three hours to get this written and I apologize for the disjointedness of it. Next week I'm going to have a book review for you. If I don't get back here before then, I hope that you have a lovely weekend and a warm, sunny and magical summer solstice.



blessings
~*~

saturday fun

Today has been a good day. There wasn't much headache pain and I was able to get a lot of things done that I had wanted to do. I try every Saturday morning to go to the local farmer's market. Today I was able to find the last of the local strawberries, some nice peaches and another beautiful nosegay. Three of my favorite things...



I spent some time afterward working in the garden, it is in need of weeding. I got some of it done and got the yard mowed before it became too hot for me. I plan to go back out tomorrow morning early and continue weeding the garden. While I was mowing I found this...


my foxglove are blooming!

below are some of the things i found in the garden today...

really tall poke

the cucumbers are blooming


hydrangea

hopefully tomorrow will be another good day...

blessings
~*~

in pictures

Chocolate Madness...the best chocolate cake I've ever had...


first peaches of the season...i can't wait to put these over vanilla ice cream later...


so many blooms on this hydrangea...


the troublemaker in my garden...

Happy Memorial Day or as they used to call it, Decoration Day. I wish to give a heartfelt thank you to all the servicemen and women who have risked or given their lives to keep us safe.

blessings
~*~

to try again

i keep trying to come here...to type words that i think would be interesting but my mind is full of drugs (oh so many prescriptions that i hate taking) and my thoughts and words flit away before i can capture them here on the screen.

it has been a rough couple of weeks...i am now out of sick or annual leave days and so any time that i am not at work, i now do not get paid for...if the absences keep up my checks will get smaller and i don't know what i'll do.

i'm listening to it storm outside..a good thunder kicker and a few flashes of lightening so far...i'm hoping for more and for lots of rain.

i've lost the cord to download my pictures from my camera... as soon as i find it i have some pictures to share...

here's to a wonderful long weekend...
blessings
~*~

round and round we go

Saturday was a decent day. I went to the curb market early and got these beautiful flowers and strawberries.




I don't recall if I mentioned that my Dad is going to work the garden with me this year. He came over and we went and got plants and then got to work in the garden. It took about 3 and 1/2 hours but we got everything planted and the garden all cleaned up. (He's really OCD about stuff and wasn't happy until it was all nice and neat.)

I thought I'd taken a picture of the whole garden, but apparently not. You can see a few of the tomatoes and some other plants here.

We planted two rows of green beans, two German Johnson tomatoes, four Better Boy tomatoes, one grape tomato and one Mortgage Lifter tomato. Four slicing cucumber plants, four straight neck yellow squash plants, three okra plants, two Dusky eggplant plants, one red bell pepper, one green bell pepper and one jalapeno pepper plant. The garden is very full, but I'm hoping everything does well. Dad doesn't have much faith in my organic gardening skills and keeps wanting to spray with weedkiller and fertilizers. I've made him promise he will stick to my system.

After he left, I worked another couple hours in the yard, mowing and general futzing around. For dinner I made Alfredo with sauteed mushrooms and some of that roasted chicken from the other night. It was very good. Sunday was a lay around the house day and spent it reading a book. After two decent days it was quite a shock to wake up around 1am after a horrendous nightmare in which some strange creature was using a sledgehammer to pound railroad spikes into my head. The dream either triggered another migraine or the migraine triggered the dream. I'm not really sure which it is, but I've spent all day either in bed in pain or on the sofa in pain. Not sure what to do about this anymore.

The worst part is that I called my mum, she always insists that I call her if I don't make it into work. So, I called and she said she thinks I'll lose my job. After months of encouraging me that everything will be fine, she finally changed her tune. I knew it was coming, she never has these types of issues and doesn't understand me at all. She doesn't understand how I can't just get up and push through and I don't know how to make her understand. After listening to her rant for about five minutes I finally said I had to go, that my head hurt too much to listen to one of her lectures.

It's times like this when I just want to let everything go and slide off into a sleep that I can't wake up from. Either that or pick up and leave town and never see or speak to her again. She keeps asking me how long it took me to get over this before, referring to a time almost ten years ago when I couldn't leave my house for about two months. She doesn't seem to understand the difference between migraines and panic attacks. I've told her each time that this isn't the same thing I was experiencing back then, but as with everything else I say to her, she just doesn't listen.

I'm hopeful that I'll be able to make it to work tomorrow. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get through the night tonight, the day tomorrow and the days to come without the excruciating pain in my head.

Thank you for all the kind comments and emails I've been getting. It helps to know that someone in the world cares and is wishing me well.

blessings
~*~