Conversation With Katherine

Welcome to Conversation With Katherine Conceptual Time vs Real Time

I am a lion on the plains of an African grassland.  I am happily lounging with my pride and I take a look at my paw and I say OMG it is 8:00 and it is time to eat.  I gather my pride and I roar it is time to hunt.  Now my pride is not hungry but after all it is time to eat.  I check my stomach and I am not hungry but my paw says it is TIME.  So off we go a hunting because TIME told us to eat.

Now this is a tongue in cheek statement.  Lions don't have time on their paws and hunting is done when they start feeling hungry.  Time is not something that is important to the lion. I have identified two types of Time. Conceptual Time and Real Time.  Conceptual time is how we humans think about time and our relationship to time.  Real Time is fixed, 60 seconds for a minute, 60 minutes to an hour, 24 hours in a day.

Welcome to Conversation With Katherine and my podcast Swamp Land

There are so many different types of fear.  There is fear of commitment, fear of the unknown, fear of the known, fear of the other, fear of success, fear of failure.  The one quality that fear can bring into your life is a form of paralysis that limits your ability to move forward in your life.   Fear can keep you in your familiar swamp land whispering how dangerous your life is and you are safe in your swamp land, even if you are miserable. Maybe, before I continue, I should explain what I mean by swamp land.  Your swamp land is your dark space.  It can be where your critical voice is the dominant voice in your mental space.  It can be where whatever fear you have you can't figure out a different way of being.  Sometimes we have been in our swamp land so long we call it Life. Your swamp land does not allow you to access joy or happiness.  It can tell you the no one is happy or joyful.  

Welcome to Conversation With Katherine and my podcast Failed Events
In looking back at my own life I see moments in time where my path forward could have stopped because of a failed event.  I describe a failed event as something that goes wrong as I have pursued my path.  The something that has gone wrong was sometimes a failing of my own judgement and perspective.  Sometimes it was an external event that forced me to pause in my journey.  They were both failed events and both became a version of a life lesson.

I am fascinated by the biographies of individuals that have achieved external success.  Oftentimes, when looking at someone's success you are a witness to their success but not their journey.  It is not always apparent what trials and tribulations any individual has been forced to come to terms with in their lives.  It is not always apparent how one failed event could change and shape a new direction.

Welcome to Conversation With Katherine and my podcast-Ripples

When I am going through a difficult time in life.  I often go to the beach.  I imagine I am a drop of water in the vast ocean.  I muse about my own significance within the ocean space  and wonder about my insignificance in the ocean space.  Now, you might wonder how can wondering about your insignificance be a helpful space when things are not going well.  Answer perspective.  I gain perspective when I recognize how my view of the importance of my life is compared to a drop in the ocean it gives me perspective about what I am feeling at the time of my pondering.

I just don't see a drop in the ocean as insignificant I also view it as magnificent. When I look at the ocean I look at the waves, tides and ripples that run through the ocean with trillions or even zillions of one drops.  

Welcome to Conversation with Katherine and my Podcast Foundational Understanding-Life's Training Wheels

In my previous podcast I used the phrase, Foundational Understanding.  I would like to explain what I mean.  I enjoy watching toddlers.  I am always amused and delighted in watching how they begin to discover the physical world.  The act of standing and seating is a magical experience for them.  When they discover their legs move them, I see the look of how excited they are with the simple act of movement and the wondrous expression on their faces.  When a toddler is given a pot with a spoon and can make noise for the first time, the noise may be an irritation to the adults in their life but it is magic to them.

The toddler does not know the "why" of their behavior.  Their ability to understand the subtle nuances of profound conceptual frameworks is missing.  their vocabulary is with simple words, me, mom, daddy.  the movements that I observed make me smile because of the human ability to have wonder in the simple.

Welcome to Conversation With Katherine and my Podcast Life is Fluid-Managing Change

I often have conversations about life and one topic continues to pop up.  Change.  There is something that I understand about change and that  is if you have the perspective and understanding about the fluid nature of life, change is a more manageable process.  I also understand that to understand some concepts you need some foundational understanding before you can get any particular concept

Think about the simple math concept two plus 2.  Simple concept if you understand 1 plus 1.  Foundational understandings are needed for psychological understandings, biological understanding, spiritual understandings, intellectual understandings.  I think that covers mind body and spirit.  Without the foundational understandings it is like I am speaking gibberish.

Welcome to Conversation With Katherine and my podcast Impact of Intensity

When I was thinking about intensity the first thing that happens is to acknowledge how a relationship with intensity impacts your life.  Depending on your season of life the need to manage intensity would be very low in your spring season.  This is the season of invincibility, where you thinking nothing bad could happen to you.  Intensity is just excitement, and a lot of fun.  It brings energy to the table and the seduction starts with how the energy works for you at that time of life.  It makes things and people less boring and boredom is to be avoided at all costs.  The surge of energy helps you accomplish tasks that you may have avoided believing that waiting to the last minute allows you to have focus, urgency and the tasks are better accomplished by you with this focused energy versus planned energy.

Welcome to Conversation with Katherine and my podcast Seduction of Intensity

I recently had a discussion with someone about how intensity can be as addictive as any drug.  Intensity can become the familiar emotional barometer of the quality of life.  Just think about what happens if you have a relationship with intensity.  When there is a calm period in your life and things are going smoothly your relationship with intensity whispers in your ear.  There is something wrong.  Where is the excitement, drama, problems of living that are familiar.  Your relationship with intensity can tell you that when it is present you are ALIVE.  The value and desirability of your life is dependent upon how you manage the familiar siren voice of intensity.

Welcome to Conversation with Katherine and my podcast Value vs Desirability

There are so many different narratives that affect our individual and collective journey.  One of the main factors, in determining our direction, is the understanding of the difference between value and desirability.  Let me first define what I mean when I use the word value. It is self-worth and self direction.  I have found different people look at value differently depending on whether they have an internal locus of control or external locus of control they will arrive at different definitions and take a different journey.

Now I have used some fancy words, internal and external locus of control simply describe "who is in charge of your life".  Do you take individual responsibility for determinining your self worth and thereby determining your value.  Or do others determine your self worth and value.  This might seem like this is a simple process.  It is not.

This is Thanksgiving 2019 and the beginning of the holiday season.  In reflecting on holidays, I am struck by how a media narrative has been created.  It starts with the commercials and a picture perfect holiday meal with picture perfect people around the table, looking happy and all of them are attractive.  I have hosted decades of Thanksgiving parties.  I have shopped, chopped and cooked a lot of food.  My food is tasty and no one has  ever complained about the quality or quantity.  I can honestly say my turkey has never looked as good as the turkey in the commercials.

I have had a series of mishaps over the years of forgetting ingredients and having to run to the store on the day of to get whatever basic ingredient was missing.  For some reason, no matter how much stock I buy I always run out of stock.  I think of the memory that my cooking has created for many.  There will be someone who remembers their moment at my Thanksgiving celebrations.