To answer Lyle first - normal nose and long stretchy tongue. It's an impressive party trick, although some people are a bit grossed out by it. Thanks for the positive energy.

And to daylia, thank you for what you wrote. It really lets me experience, first hand, feeling connected. I believe we can change things with our thoughts. I had not heard of "The lost mode of prayer" before, or Gregg Braden, but I do use visualization to create the realities of things that I want. I can do small stuff, like finding parking spots, so much that my friends joke about my legendary ability. With more important things, one thing I have noticed is that even when things don't seem to be going the way I want, there is usually a bigger picture, a reason which becomes evident further down the track, sometimes it is a lesson I need to learn. Have you read any books by Gary Zukav? I can recommend "Seat of the Soul" I'll look up Gregg Braden's website - should be interesting. You might be interested to know that there was a cool change last night and the Blue Mountains even had some rain. Sydney missed out on the rain, however, and there are still strong gusty winds which we need to drop. The fire danger is still very high and there are still about 40 fires burning. Although I live in an inner suburban area of Sydney(East Ryde), the unthinkable happened last night - a large fire sprang up in a reserve two streets away, and I spent a sleepless night lying in bed listening to the wind and smelling the smoke, having made a list of things to take if I was evacuated, and having filled the gutters with water and hosed down the house. Today this fire has died right down but others are still raging. Just the process of making the list makes you think about what really matters and what you really need. First on the list was my cat Onyx, followed by photo albums, important papers, my mandolin, fiddle and drums, my CD's, my camera, followed by stuff like my computer, stereo, etc etc. Anything further down the list than the musical instruments would have been a bonus. In fact, so would anything more than me and my cat. This would make an interesting thread, wouldn't it! Top 5 things you would take if your house was about to burn down. I've never started a thread and I'm not sure I'd know how. In fact I've only had a computer for 3 weeks and I'm still feeling my way around. My lovely brother in Paris gave it to me as an early Christmas present and my equally lovely son put it together and set it up,and already I am spending heaps of time on it, lots of it on Mudcat. Keep sending your lovely positive energy and I am sure it will make a difference.

                               JennyO