The Christianville Spirit: Your Soul Place

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience

June 27th, 2018-TCS # 599

Happy Early National Holidays of Canada Day and USA’s Fourth of July, My Readers! A Longer Greeting This Time. It is funny that Two Neighbour’s National Holidays are within Days of Each Other. Yes, It is seems kind of Early, but This is to cover My Bases because I will be taking off The Week of Fourth of July, I actually would have written on The Fourth of July and being that I am a Newsletter away from My 600th Newsletter, It might be a Good Idea to Take off before The Big 600th Newsletter. So, Just to let you know.

 So, 600 Newsletters! Can You Believe It?! It is Milestone that each time I hit The 100 Series Mark, I can not believe that I have made it that Far.

That must take a lot of Writing along with All The Times that I have taken off, Subjects Written about, and Life Events happening. 

So, Let’s Celebrate! So, What shall I write about for My Pre-Lead into My 600th Newsletter? hmm...Lots of Choices! I have done some good lead ins. Among them, Here they are, along with References...

• Pre-100th Newsletter: “Playlist of Your Life Series” (April 2008)
• Pre-200th Newsletter: “All Thanks to You Series”: PTLS Families (May 2010)
• Pre-300th Newsletter: “About The Girl of My Dreams” (May 2012)
• Pre-400th Newsletter: “Happiness...Simplified Series” (April 2014)
• Pre-500th Newsletter: “My Dreamscape-Before” (June 2016)

Which brings us to Now. So, How do I top This? Well, I am going to Talk about Something that has been Whirling in My Head. So, What or Actually Where is “My Soul Place”? Heaven, Christians might say. Well, Yeah. But, I mean, a Soul Place on Earth, while You are Living until You go to Heaven at The End of Your Life. Okay, so There is No such Thing or So I thought, until A Friend of Mine visited Hers and Discovered It! Who Knew?! So, A Soul Place as a Word I made up that actually means Something, Defines as a Place You feel like You have been to Before. In Other Words, Not a Place that You have Literally been more than One Time but, A Place where Your Soul feels both like an Odd Sense of Deja Vu, a Supernatural Feeling beyond Rationality, and Most of All, A Place that You feel You just Belong. It is a like The feeling of Being in Love with Your Long-Lost Soulmate, but instead of a Person, It is a Place. Weird, Huh? That is what I thought. You could think of it as The Thing that The HGTV Show House Hunters International is made out of. You know, those times, Where they explain that These Parents move off to Let’s just say, Europe and The Perfectly Independent Adult Children stay back here in The United States. You talk to The TV as if They can hear you saying “Why Would You Do That?!” to which if You knew them, They would say either “Because I fell in Love” or “Because It Make me Happy”, using One or Both of Those Answers. Now, The Friend I speaking of, Part of Me seeing what She is doing and wonders The Same Question I would as if watching House Hunters International and Part of Me knows what kind of a Person I am seeing doing this, thinking “The Heart wants what The Heart wants” or in this case, “The Soul wants what The Soul wants”. Now, barring in Mind that My Friend is one that is a “Gypsy Soul”, in Other Words, a Soul that always wants to Wander and Never stay in The Same Place. However, My Friend, We will call her, “Gypsy January” for Writing Purposes, She has lived everywhere from Hawaii, The East Coast, and Her Present Home in The Midwest. But, I feel that Her Gypsy Soul has just been wandering Her Whole Life thirsting for Where The Heck It’s Soul Place Is and Finally, I believe It has found it. Now, I have only been Her Friend for a Couple Years, so I did not see her Level of Happiness in either East Coast or Hawaii, but It does not seem like Her Gypsy Soul was Happy in either of Those Places, which leaves her wanting to go to Her Soul Place as soon as Possible. She believes that Her Soul Place is Oregon. It is sort of like The Soulmate Theory, after Meeting Your Soulmate, You wished you would have found them sooner, like Several Days, Months, or Years Sooner. But, Ya Know, Destiny has funny ways of Working Out. That is both Relieving and Frustrating at The Same Time. “It’s in God’s Time” I am told and led to believe. Now, The Problem with that, is that, You hope to God that Your Family lives near Said Soul Place, in which Gypsy January’s does not. Now, In Wondering about Mine, it makes me worry because I am a Family Man, I want to live pretty close to My Family like My Mom, Michael, and Smith Family. I mean, What if, Mine is out in Europe like Sweden, Switzerland, or Czechia. That is Very Far from Family! I have noticed in My Woman of My Dreams Projections as to Where They are from, both “Dream Girl”, Carol Holiday (Refer to That Story) and My Woman of My Dreams that I believe is named, Bridgett, both used to live in The Same Area, The Northeast, like New England. Now, I have to consider a lot of Things when thinking about both My Soul Place and Living somewhere in The Future. This includes Things like Like-Mindedness (like Politics, Condition and so on), Natural Beauty, Closeness to either of My Three Families, Mom and Michael; Smith Family; and, of Course, PTLS Family Members, and then The Last Thing, Natural Disasters. Morbid, I Know. But, I Think of which one I would not mind living with. Choices (at Least in The US) are Hurricanes (South and Southeast US), Tornadoes (Texas, South, and Lower Midwest), Earthquakes (Pacific Northwest/California and near Memphis), and of Course Blizzards (Northeast and Upper Midwest). So, There is a lot to Consider. The Nearest I can think of is Maine where My Mom grew up or North Carolina with Mountains one way and Beach the other way. Now, The Last Thing that makes me think and It applies to “Gypsy January” as well is that, Sometimes You are told where You should live or even where Your Soul Place is. Funny Thing is that, You never know where Your Soul Place is until You land there or drive there and You fall Head over Heals for that place.  I mean, My Friend did not know that Oregon was Her Soul Place until She stepped outside to seeing The Coastline of Oregon. All in all, Your Soul Place is out there, There is  Such a Place as That. In My Friend, “Gypsy January’s” Advice is to Follow Your Heart and Of Course, Follow Your Dreams because, really You never know... That and Follow Your Dreams even if They are a bit Scary and Who Know’s You might Laugh about It in a Few Years if It is True, If It is not, then You’ll still Laugh because You tried.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Follow Your Dreams and Heart! You will find that Soul Place.

The Christianville Spirit: The History of The Christianville Spirit- A Christianville Classic

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience

June 20th, 2018-TCS # 598

Howdy, My Readers! That is how We Texans say Hello. I have been confused with Counting My Newsletters, both on My Website and on My Calendar, mostly My Calendar. It only turned out that My Newsletter Numbers on My Website were Right but, The Ones on My Calendar were not. You See, as I count Every One of My Newsletters, I schedule The Newsletter Numbers ahead of Time on My Calendar in My Room so that I know what Newsletter Number comes what Week. Unfortunately, I don’t think about Those Times when Life has other Plans and I take a Week (or More) off.  In This Year’s Case, I had planned My Newsletter Numbers and accidentally skipped a Number on The Same Day. It is confusing when I put a Number at The End of The Month and on The Next Month Page I put a Number higher. Include The Two Weeks Off due to The Family Emergency We had in Atlanta and It is Very Confusing. So, I guess that shows How Loyal I am to My Readers that I make sure My Numbers are Correct. I am Big about that! I realized though that At My Current Rate, My 600th Newsletter is coming sooner than I had thought. So, with that In Mind, I figured that I would give you an Excellent Newsletter that I feel should make The Christianville Classic List! It explains about How I keep My Newsletters straight as well as It explains about The Great History of My Newsletter. It is Important to Me that I write about Topics that Important to PTLS Family Members and Others trying to understand The Way I see Life. I appreciate All of My Readers! You mean a lot to Me! You will see in This Newsletter, that I wrote Differently than I do now as well as that I only mention The Taglines that I used up until This Newsletter. Each Year, I ask My Readers for Input for New Taglines, so in Other Words, You, My Readers, Help me with Making This Newsletter a success. So, Without further a due, This is The Christianville Classic, The History of The Christianville Spirit

This Newsletter was written on April 1st of 2009 (Refer to Newsletter 142)

For those of you who have been reading The Christianville Spirit for a while have seen all the changes of this newsletter. But, however there are people who have been reading this since the beginning. So, I thought I would give you a view of the history of a newsletter called The Christianville Spirit. The Christianville Spirit or TCS for short started in Christianville, TN in November of 2005 as an email to My Mom and my friend Karleen about the 1st Christian’s Best Friends’ Festival. My Mom told me I should start writing a newsletter about my view on life because my view on life and the world is a unique view. One time I was writing stuff about The City of Christianville and I wanted a newspaper name for The Metro Area so, the word “Spirit” seamed like a good name to symbolize the Christianville Area. On Wednesday, October 4, 2006 was the first official “Christianville Spirit” and it was about my best friend Steven’s “10 Weeks of Awesome Behavior” back when he was in The Group Home. The Christianville Spirit has been known for its slogans. The slogans have changed over the years so, Here are a list of slogans and how long they lasted.

· The first slogan was “Serving The Christianville Metro Area” that lasted from the first Christianville Spirit to December 29, 2006.

· The 2nd slogan was “Christianville Metro Area’s Delight” which lasted one newsletter in January 2007

· The 3rd slogan was “Christianville’s #1 Newspaper” which lasted one newsletter on January 4, 2007

· The 4th slogan was “The Spirit of Christianville” which lasted January 9, 2007-December 27, 2007

· The 5th slogan was “The Spirit that touches Lives” which lasted January 3, 2008-December 29, 2008

· The 6th and current slogan is “The Spirit that touches Your Life” which lasts January 2009-the end of the year

Also, The Christianville Spirit has it’s share of websites it was posted on. The first website was 360.yahoo.com/mapkid2 which was my own personal Yahoo 360 site and after that it moved to it’s current site, thechristianvillespirit.blogspot.com. another The Christianville Spirit has been known for is it’s inspirational lines at the end of the newsletter, the first inspirational line was “ Have a Spiritful Day” in the 14th newsletter. The next thing my newsletter has been known for is its series. The first TCS Series was “Christianville Metro Highlight” which about my friends and family. In the series, I got the biggest reaction to my newsletter is the “Julie Smith-Centeno Edition” of that series. Before I started writing full articles I wrote about what was going on in my life and what was going on in Christianville, those sections of the newsletter were known the “Personal News” and Christianville News” section and Another section change was the addition of the “C. Metro Commentary”. Finally, In case your wondering what the “TCS # 143” heading means, that shows how many newsletters I’ve written since the 1st in October of 2006. all in all, it’s a lot of fun to write these newsletters each week.

Thanks for reading The Christianville Spirit. People’s good attitude depends on a good thought and good input. So, feed them good stuff!

The Christianville Spirit: A PTLS Dog's Routine

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience

June 13th, 2018-TCS # 597

Wah’ Gwaan, My Readers! This is a New Greeting. It meaning What’s going on or What’s Up in Jamaican Patois. It is pronounced “Wa-Goo-Ahn”. Jamaican Patois or Jamaican Creole basically sounds like Slang Words and English Words, mashed together. You learn something new Everyday! Anyway, so onto This Week’s Newsletter. So, I have explained about My Routine and How it works (Refer to “My Schedule and Welcome to It” Newsletter). But, It has been brought to My Attention that My Routine has Changed a little bit but Is Showing More now that I have My Little Boy Dog, Paco around. By The Way, We found out what Kind of Dog He is! He is a Part Spanish Greyhound, Part Boxer, and Part Feist. I like to think that My 2 Year Old Boy Dog, Paco is like a Little PTLS Dog in his Behavior. I mean, He has a VERY High Energy Output where There are Times when He runs really fast. On Top of That, When He has a Purpose or thinks He does, He runs and Hops across The Yard “Like a Gazelle” as My Mom says. But, at The Same Time, He likes to have a Calm Environment which is part of His Breed as well as Liking to have a Routine, again Just like Me! PTLS Young Adult meets a PTLS Dog! I don’t think Dogs have it but, They sure can Act like It. I have been told that Dogs often adapt to Their Owners (or Pack Leaders) Behavior. So, After My Mom leaves for Work, I get up for a Second to Check to Make Sure that The Back Door in The House in Locked. My Brother, when He was living here always left it Unlocked. It would Drive Me Crazy! Now, It has become a Habit of just Touching The Lock even though I already know It is locked. I then grab Paco’s Favourite Toy and The Hardest Toy for Him to chew on if He needs it while I sleep. I usually drop it on The Rug outside My Room. I have done that Since He was Younger to keep him busy. He has calmed a lot since then. After That, I sleep until My Normal Time, 2:45PM. If It is not that Time, I wake up on Times ending in 5. The Other Dogs, Sadie and Zoe lay around while I sleep and sometimes, Sadie likes to sleep on The Curve of My Leg. I taught Her that to prevent her from going off too far when She was a Puppy. After I get up, if My Mom is not Home yet, I feed All The Dogs and Paco has his Bowl that He knows to Eat from. After that, I let Paco out first and I keep an Eye on Him until He Pees. Sometimes, He gets so Excited about The Sights and Sounds outside that He forgets to Pee (He is a little PTLS-ADD) So, I make sure I don’t do anything until He is done Peeing. After that, Then I can let Zoe and Sadie out. I have to watch Paco again because He will try to Nip at Sadie to get her to Run. Both My Mom and I are trying hard for Him not to do that. I am thinking that It is part of His Breed, probably The Boxer in Him. Then, Once I have gotten all The Dogs in, Given them a Treat, One Dog at a Time, then, I can start My own Routine of Eating My Lunch and Watching The News. I have changed a lot in that regard. I used to like CNN International for World News but, because We don’t get CNN International anymore, so I watch a Variety of Other News Channels. Anyway, after My Mom comes Home and I ask her How Her Day was and We hang out and Talk, then It is Time to watch The Local News, which We watch until 6:30. In The Middle of that, I let The Dogs out and let them hang out in The Yard. Anytime between 5:30 and 6:30 is Dinner Time, now with Mine and Paco’s Routine, Dinner Time really matters now. The Reason is because I have to get Paco’s Energy out. Because otherwise He drives Zoe and Sadie crazy by either running around The Coffee Table and to The Couch or Barking at Them. Believe Me, Paco is a Very Vocal Dog! He is Literally The Most Vocal Dog that We have had. He makes a Noise when He yawns; When He is like “All Right, I’ll lay down”; Then He stretches; and, of course, His Barking that He learned from Sadie and Believe Me, He has a Loud Bark. Anyway, I have to sit outside with Him No Later than 6:45 to get Him to Run and Get His Energy Out. And, Yes, He does Nip and Bark at Sadie and I try to get him to Stop but, Keep Running. Some Days all it takes a little Clap of My Hand and “Go Paco!” to get him excited for Him to Run around The Yard. He often has such a Fierce Run that He pushes too hard and ends up getting a Bit Overwhelmed. If He starts, Hacking then, I stop Him and be like “Okay, Paco, Control” I bring My IPad outside with Me to watch The Time because at 6:55 I have to be inside and Ready to Watch My Favourite Reporter on CNN, Jeanne Moos. Jeanne Moos does The Goofy or Odd Story of The News. She is Really The Only Reason I watch CNN anymore. Besides, Anderson Cooper’s The RidcuList, which is sort of like Jeanne Moos about The Goofy Story of The News. After I have done that, then My Mom and I watch several different Shows, Whatever is on that Evening. If It is Regular Season, Then We watch things like The Big Bang Theory/Young Sheldon, Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family and So On. Of Course, I let The Dogs out several more Times throughout The Evening when Paco starts to Whine about Wanting to Go Outside and Play, or One of The Dogs has taken his Spot to lay down on. His Favourite Spot which is Everyone Else’s The Recliner. So, then, nearing 9:00 I start watching Paco, The Clock, and My Mom. Now, My Mom is little more Unpredictable when It comes to When She goes to Bed. Of Course, When She is doing Work for The PTLS Foundation She can stay up pretty late. Again It depends. Now, Because Paco has a Sensitive Stomach, He would not be Feeling Good anytime after Midnight so I would give him a little bit of Food to help and usually It Did. I guess It stuck and He wanted to have a Little Food at Night. According to Our Research of His Breeds, The Greyhound is recommended to have Three Small Meals a Day where as We give Our Dogs Two Meals a Day. But, Anyway, Paco and I have started what I call “His Night-Night Routine”. Again, nearing 9:00, 9:30 if My Mom is Lucky, Paco will start staring at My Mom, giving her a Look like “When are You going to Bed tonight? Now, Perhaps?”. So, My Mom gets up and I tell Paco, “Are You Ready to start Your Night-Night Routine?”, His Ears perk up if He is laying down and If He is Staring at My Mom, He will look at Me. So, I have a lot to do in Starting His “Night-Night” Routine and I only have a Few Minutes. So, I let Paco and Sadie out a Final Time. Unless It is an “Emergency” then, I will let him out later. While, I have Paco and Sadie outside, I have to Change My Glasses, Flip My Day Markers, and Get My Computer set and Ready all before I let Paco back In. My Theory is That I have to Settle Myself down before I can Settle Him down. If I don’t, He will follow me around until I sit down. The Reason of such Short Time is that I would rather Him not be Outside for too Long whether It is Daytime or Nighttime because The Dogs can get into Trouble along with Other Risks like Wild Life Critters. So, then I get Paco and Sadie back in, then Sometime after All This, 

I go say My 1st Good Night to My Mom and I tell her a Few Finals thought of The Day and always end with a Positive Story of The Day. Paco whines at Me until I am done talking to My Mom. After That, I give Him a Little Food and Feed Him. I believe that is His Favourite Part of The Day because He can eat slower than He would normally Eat with The Other Two, Sadie and Zoe. He gets to Eat at His Pace. After that, I settle Myself and Him, I have Him lay in His Favourite Spot, The Recliner and We are both Happy. If I have to leave for a Second, I know He will be Fine. Of Course, I kiss Him on The Head most of The Times I see him. And, Finally, My Day ends at 2 AM where I say Good Night to My Mom (Tell Her the Things I did, Learned, and Positive Story), Make Sure My Nose is clean (A Stuffy Nose at Night is Bad for Me), Take Allergy Medicine, Tums for Acid Reflux, Door Check again, and Finally Kiss Paco Good Night (Tell Him I Love Him and Anything Else). Then, I head to Bed, Pray, and Off to Sleep I Go! So, that is a Very Detailed Routine of My Day. But, This Routine is Very Strict and Important to Me. When I have to wander away from My Routine like for Family Visits, Out-Of-Town Trips, It takes me a Couple Days to a Week to get back into My Routine and Comfort, Sometimes It includes a “Coming Down” Time which in Little Kids, You may call it a “Meltdown”,”Crying Spell”, or A Need for Hugs, Cuddles, and Reassurance, and It makes me feel Calm. So, Routine is Very Important!

 If Anything changes in Mine or Paco’s Routine, I let Him know. Yes, I do tell Paco of Any Changes that are Coming Up because It is Important to Him as well. All in All, that is How I live My Life.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Always Remember Your Child’s Routine, as Silly as It may seem!

The Christianville Spirit: Fun in Learning Geography

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Keeps Learning with Hope and Resilience 

June 6th, 2018-TCS # 596

Happy Summer, My Readers! Yes, Folks! It is that Time of The Year, No, not Christmas or Halloween but, Summer Vacation Time! Time to Go on a Summer Vacation. Well, like Teachers often recommend, There could be a Lesson or Two during The Summer to Keep Our Minds Snappy and Ready for School again Next Year! Ha! I never thought that I would say that in My Life! Okay, so Lessons should be a bit less Labor or Homework-Intensive and More about Fun. In Other Words, Learning while having Fun. Just pick a Subject You want to Learn and do something Fun while Learning It! So, for Example, I have a Lesson for You! You See, I have Trouble with How Schools teach things like Geography. Now, I am of course of a Geography/History/Politics-mixed together Mind set kind of guy, so I understand. At The Time, In School, I understood Geography (or Social Studies as They called it) but, History was more difficult, only because History, The Way I was taught in School was Boring. Only because History, if It is not taught well is about The “When of It all”. As In, The Battle of 1812 was...Well, in 1812 and A brief explanation of What Happened at That Time. By The Way, The Battle of 1812 was what inspired Francis Scott Key to The Mention that “The Flag was still there” in Our National Anthem. Because amongst all of The Fighting at Night, Our National Flag, The Star-Spangled Banner at still flying at Ft. McHenry in Baltimore. See! Now, That is what I will call “Action History”. In Other Words, History that taught like an Action Movie. Now, We may have Our Own Favourite Genres of Movies but, You can’t resist a little Action in There. So, Same Thing, with Geography. To Often, Geography is where a Place is. For Example, a Country that I have recently interested in The Czech Republic or Known in English as “Czechia”, It is in what We Americans think is East Europe. So, We end up going to “Czechia” and commenting about How Beautiful Prague is for a City in Eastern Europe. You would have One Upset (or Triggered) Czech Person! First of The Czech Republic or “Czechia” (I like to refer to it as both) is actually in Central Europe NOT Eastern Europe. But, Beyond that, It makes you question more than Answers like What is Their Currency? Their Language? Anything Unique about This Country, in other words, What makes This Country special? I can answer that. Currency is The Czech Crown and Their Language is Czech. Now, It is that Last One that has recently interested me. It was Interested Me about How Many “Funky Letters” can be in a Czech Person’s Name and How do You pronounce those Letters? I had My Mom sit watching a Woman pronounce those while Eating Dinner the Other Night. She found it interesting!

Here is The Link to That Video because I know that You are Curious! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dot3LVAeABc) It also includes How to Pronounce and Say The Most “Funky” and Unique Letter in The Czech Alphabet, The Letter R with a Mark over It. It looks like This (Ř) It is said that It is Impossible to Pronounce but, It is Pronounced “Aerch” and That is in The Single Form and The Ř is Pronounced Very Differently from The Single Letter. Crazy, right? Also, “Czechia”, Which was formerly Czechoslovakia divorced with Slovakia and The Czech Republic’s Local Name was Hard to resound with English as did The Name, The Czech Republic. So, Last Year, The Leaders of The Country changed The English Name to Czechia. and, One Final Note before I move on, Czechia is also referred as Bohemia, but NOT all of Czechia is called Bohemia. There are like 4 Regions of Czechia but, The Most Important Ones are Bohemia in Northern Czechia (like Prague) and Southern Czechia (like Brno) is called Moravia. So, to Another Country, We go! Iceland! It is Locally pronounced Is (like “Niece”) Land, ìsland. Currency is The Icelandic Krona (or Crown), Capitol is Reykjavik (Try and Pronounce that City!). Iceland is known very well for It’s Natural Beauty and Of Course, Beautiful People. Now, the Iceland Letters are even more “Funky” like a “O” that looks like it has a Cross on Top. Icelandic is Very Hard Language to Learn or Pronounce! From My Research, I learned that Iceland is Very Expensive. As In 6,000 Icelandic Króna (or Close to 60 US Dollars) to go to The Blue Lagoon! Yes, Really! 60 Dollars and that is only for The Entrance and a Mud Mask, Not including a Towel, Changing Rooms, or a Drink (which they offer). That was a Blow to My Heart because I wanted to see it! But, I am told that There are Smaller and Less Tourists Hot Springs to go to in Iceland. The Weather in Iceland, which You have to be watchful of can be Very Unpredictable. and, Finally, The Last Country I will talk about, Jamaica. Jamaica is Very Interesting Country once You get past all The Tourist Points of View on This. Some Tourists say You should not Visit Jamaica because of Poverty and Crime, Just be a Little more Careful, that is All. Jamaica, I feel is a Country that Less about The Beach (I mean, It can be!) and More about The Food. Namely, The Jamaican Jerk Chicken, I am told is Spicy but, Worth It. and, Of Course, Jamaican Meat Patties. Think of It like a Jamaican Hamburger, only Better. I feel that This is One of Those Foods that You have to try at a Local Place or with a Local Person. In My Research I found that Jamaican Patties are not Very Expensive in both Jamaican Dollars or US Dollars. By The Way, Speaking of Locals, Do Ask them what kind of Music that They listen to. Sure, They listen to Bob Marley and The Like, but Believe Me, It is Much More than that. Now, Wasn’t that Fun to Learn that Stuff?! See, You can have fun learning about Something! All in All, There is a lot of Fun in Learning and A lot of Learning in Fun.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Have Fun in Learning Geography!