What's New?

Photo by Esther Verdú on Unsplash

 I hope 2026 has been good to everyone so far. Instead of making resolutions in January, I set intentions. This year I want to be more internally and externally aware, listening to my inner voice and exploring new topics.

To start this awareness, I first had my chakras balanced. Yes, this may be a little woo-woo for many, but I’d never had this experience and it was very affordable. To my great surprise, I learned that my root (first) chakra needed the most work. This surprised me as I garden a lot, nurturing plants from the root up. That my creative (third) chakra was weak didn't surprise me as my creativity has been dull since late November.

Just before New Year’s Eve, I then had a chakra massage which was divine. The massage therapist used a different oil for each chakra and gave me a mantra to focus on while she worked. The mantras, in order from the first chakra (sacral area) to the crown (top of head) chakra are:

I am.  I am creative. I am powerful. I am loved. I am heard. I am connected. I am divine.

The massage was extremely relaxing and I hope to be able to do this

Photo by Uday Mittal on Unsplash

on each solstice and equinox. How about exploring new topics? Well—and I won’t go far on this one—early this year I read about an experiment scientists did where they measured 37 dimensions! What? How? Curiosity led me to watch a few videos on quantum mechanics. There is so much at least theoretically possible, but our human brains aren’t able to contemplate these dimensions. Thank goodness. 

There’s so much out there we don’t understand, don’t even know how to comprehend or measure. I have plenty to explore and learn this year. Here’s a dimensional brain-twister that I’ll close with: the tesseract. Wild!!

 

 

Another tesseract resource for those wanting to know more:  

https://www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/what-exactly-is-a-tesseract-real-life-geometry-4-dimensional.html

 

 

Soldering On

 

My Mushroom Lamp

The title for this post is not a typo. Last month my husband and I took a class that was designed to teach people how to solder. We aren’t beginners but I wanted a fun activity we could do together, and the class project to make a mushroom lamp really caught my eye.

Unsplash

My soldering experience goes back, way back, to my earliest computing job where I assembled specialized computers from very basic components. I’ve soldered tiny little resistors and thin wires, and also have soldering experience from stained glass work. The mushroom light project was a good soldering refresher.

 

The instructor had 3D printed mushroom stems and caps for us to choose from. Our soldered circuits went inside the mushroom caps. We then strung the wiring through the mushroom's stem.

 

After soldering and securing the circuit board in the mushroom's cap, we had to unwrap and glue in a couple dozen mushroom gills that the instructor had made with a laser cutter. That took quite a while as the blue protective film didn't come off easily. An additional benefit of the class was learning about a super glue accelerant. That will come in handy on our future projects!

 

 

The soldering portion of the class didn’t take long. However, the WLED software we used to program the lights on our completed mushroom lights fascinated me. It seemed there were endless possibilities and I’ll continue to change the lights occasionally.

Ta da! My finished lamp lit up

Diversity in Your Sphere of Influence ~ Marj Ivancic

     

In the United States, and probably many other countries, grade school and high school experiences are quite often defined by social cliques. There are the jocks, nerds, cheerleaders, burnouts, and so forth. I’m sure the names have changed in the 20-odd years since I had to remember a locker combination, but you get the point. Regardless of the moniker, the number one rule governing how these groups co-exist has stayed fairly concrete—do not intermingle.
     As we get older, we change; they change; Life forces us to work

together. The social stigmas fall away and that rule bends. But too often, it does not break. We still gravitate toward people who are “like” us. We crave people whose company makes us free safe, smart, and accepted.
     But what are we leaving on the table by staying this course?
     There are a number of studies out there now that show that diversity in one’s sphere of influence is linked to greater creativity, success, and overall happiness.
     Why?
     

It’s the domino effect, really. And it’s beautiful.
     Being around people from other cultures, economic backgrounds, occupations, schooling, and familial situations (etc.) allows you to see experiences through a host of different lenses, not just your own. You are exposed to their thought processes and logic, their viewpoints and rationales, and ultimately their reactions. You begin to learn new ways of thinking. You expand your logic patterns, opening doors that were not only closed before but did not even exist! It gives you so many more ways to remove barriers from you path and to solve problems. (In the world of innovation, many people call that the “beauty of strange connections,” but that’s a topic for another month!)
     This wider exposure has also been shown to lead to an increase in curiosity, flexibility, and willingness to try new things. Consequently, the more new experiences you have, the more comfortable you become with being confronted by the unknown. In fact, the number of “unknowns” in your life decreases, which means the frequency and chances of having such an encounter also goes down. (Hallelujah!)
     AND by broadening your experiences, you learn what you like, what you don’t like, and what you’re willing to tolerate. Essentially, you learn who you really are. Imagine how improved your relationships with others could be if you really knew YOU?
     In all of this, it’s also important to build relationships with people who challenge you. They’re the masters at what they do and can be mentors to you. They give you the hard truth (in a kind fashion) so that you continue to grow and improve. “Yes Men” may make you feel good in the moment, but they won’t advance you as a person.
     I use the term “sphere of influence” because I don’t think you have to be best friends with all of these people. In fact, I don’t think this is limited to one-on-one relationships with people at all. 

     Take “Originality by Design,” for example. It seeks to inspire

the creativity in us all. It’s structured to bring together a group of people to share their assorted experiences and knowledge. Through its mission, it supports this diversity of thought. It’s open and obligation free—all you have to do is read.
     So with that, I’ve decided to put two challenges before me during the next year:
   

 1) to regularly read/watch/listen to something on a topic that doesn’t interest me or directly impact anything I’m working on or that is happening in my life
     2) to keep the proverbial seat at the table beside me open. Who knows who might sit there and what they might teach me!
     I’m sure I’ll fail here and there—I am an introvert, after all—but it’s the effort that counts! Perhaps in a later installment, I’ll report back on what I’ve learned!