This is Matt’s short film documentary – “LISA”

I think it is one of his best so far.

Click on the word “LISA” to watch it.

LISA

This weekend was my very first camping trip with my new-to-me 2005 Arctic Fox trailer and Berti (my Range Rover).

I hooked up the trailer using my trailer hitch receiver lock – similar to this:

I drove the trailer home and loaded up.  Then we left.  I had to stop by and have someone show me how to hook up the anti-sway bar and then we took off.

North on I5 – just south of Seattle – the hitch came off and I was dragging it and the trailer by the safety chains at 50 mph.

Luckily we were in the right hand lane and I could get over quickly.

Fortunately I carry a car floor jack and I had a spare non-locking trailer hitch receiver connector.

Whew……

Thank God for safety chains and a wonderful Guardian Angel!

Thought everything was OK so we hooked it all back up and went ahead with the camping adventure – had a wonderful time.  Here’s a pic of our campsite.

I was able to reconnect the car to leave yesterday morning…..  barely.

It appears I had actually damaged the tongue cranking jack as it won’t go up or down now.  I was able to get the foot off and it was high enough so we could drive home.  It’s still connected in my driveway.

I was going to have an electronic tongue jack installed next weekend anyway so I’m just going to drive it to the place tomorrow morning before work and ask them to check it out thoroughly and put the new electronic jack on for me.

I sure feel lucky – all things considered.

During my childhood, it was my father whose approval I sought.

As an adolescent, it became important to have the approval of my circle of friends.

When I married, I desperately wanted my husband’s approval.

And now that my son’s are grown, I find myself seeking their approval.

Of course, so many situations and individuals throughout my life have been the subject of my own approval seeking.

*sigh*

There are ALWAYS so many opportunities for Life Lessons.

Are you an approval junkie? Rav Ashlag, founder of The Kabbalah Centre, said that dependence on others’ approval to feel good is the seed of uncertainty, depression, and sadness. Make no mistake, approval-seeking is the greatest drug ever invented. Looking for other people’s energy to fill our emptiness gives us a temporary high and a lasting crash. For anyone thinking, “There really isn’t one person in my life who I’m hooked on getting approval from,” chances are you’re seeking approval from anyone and everyone.

We don’t need the human mind to recognize our greatness; it’s registered upstairs. If we are following our internal compass and doing good things, then we’re going to get good in return. The bottom line is this—the Light sees everything we do.

Kabbalists explain that the universal computer registers the good actions we do—but only after we have forgotten them. That is, the things we don’t have ego about and want recognition for. Remembering our positive actions and the fact that we did them means we’re still waiting for the praises to come back to us.

According to the Zohar, by drawing attention to our positive actions, we’re actually sucking the Light out of them and reducing the positive effects of our sharing. The highest form of sharing is done anonymously.

This week, practice stepping away from yourself and notice how many actions and words you use to get a fix of approval from other people. Every time we become conscious of relying on others for our sense of self-worth, we have a chance to increase our own feelings of self-worth.

From this week’s Kabbalah Tune Up by Yehuda Berg

Today’s Kabbalah Tune Up is another amazing reminder. I’m so deeply blessed to have beautiful and faithful friends who constantly remind me when my Shadow is dominating. You know who you are!

If we’re not moving forward, we’re actually moving backward.

If we can’t look back on who we were six months ago, or three years ago, and feel we are a different person, something is wrong. We’re not transforming. We can either evolve or be imprisoned.

Some of feel like we are living out a jail sentence with our jobs, families, relationships, even our bodies. Maybe we could have prevented the imprisonment a long time ago. Maybe change was too uncomfortable for us, or we felt it was too much work to break out, and we just gave up.

But I want to remind you that we all have powerful resources at our disposal: friend, family, and other people.

Together we can set ourselves free. It is not a job that cannot be done alone.

I know it’s not easy to open up and be vulnerable to others, but if we don’t, we’ll remain imprisoned. If we are honest with ourselves (and that’s another requirement to breaking free), we’ll realize that removing the negativity, ego, and selfishness that block our soul from shining is too heavy to pursue alone. We need someone else to help us identify our shadows, and to help us make an escape route from our personal prison.

Nobody likes exposing their naked face. We only want people to see our attractive masks. But if we’re intent on gaining freedom, keeping up appearances is like volunteering for solitary confinement.

The only way to get out of jail is for us to ask someone else to unlock the cell door.

This week, I challenge you to break free. Find someone to open up to – and better yet, maybe you know someone who needs to do the same. It’s necessary to identify our patterns, and usually they are so ingrained, we can’t do it alone. It’s only by reaching through the bars of our cell, and grasping a hand on the outside that we can be free.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. – Martin Luther King, Jr.