Inception, the original.

I was part of a very interesting discussion today, at work.

It turns out that women invented inception.
Forget Leonardo DiCaprio's take on the concept - clever women have been using this technique for generations.

The concept of inception is planting an idea into someone else's mind, making them think it was their idea.


Allow me to illustrate:

The girl I sit next to at work is currently engaged to be married. She is busy considering and making plans for a rather large engagement bash this year and the actual wedding next year.
She also happens to be someone obsessed with birds. She even has a pet bird who she considers her child, and hopes to somehow involve him in the wedding ceremony. Ring bearer?

Anyway, here is the illustration: She saw a picture of a beautiful wedding cake with small birds on top, which she loved. It was the cake she wanted. But of course no guy is going to choose such a cake when presented with the options.
So what is a girl to do?

Easy. She decided to start showing him pictures of really extravagant bird cakes, ones that were really over the top, ones that even she wouldn't choose. Ugly ones. After a few pictures, she would lessen the impact and finally show him the original choice .. which by this point, doesn't seem so bad.
He thinks it's a much better choice, she gets the cake she actually wanted. Winner.

It turns out that all us women do this. Our conversation at work brought out the best stories from other girls.
One had creatively convinced her partner to agree to staying at a beautiful resort on an exclusive island by discussing it with him while watching television. Men have selective hearing while watching television, you see.
(Some even have this typically-male amount of hearing at all times.)
Later, when he spotted the island in the itinerary, she could honestly say "but we talked about it, and you agreed!"

Then we started talking about how we convince our partners that something is his idea .. we do know best, after all .. but that's for another day.

How to get a guy to like you.

As we approach Valentines day, allow me to address all the single ladies out there.

Hello, single ladies.

Now allow me to turn you over to someone else to address you, who will tell you how to get a guy to like you.



Anything else to add?

Time Out for Women - Choose to Become [review part 9]

A recap of the messages I heard and felt.



We all attend meetings and firesides to leave better than when we came.  That’s what Sheri Dew first said to us women, the last speaker for the day.

So, when I need to clear my head, think about new direction, and so forth, I should go to a conference, a fireside, or (if none) open the words of previous conferences and firesides.

Sometimes we forget that this life is but a short act, and we forget to look any further.  LeGrand Richards once declared, said Sheri: ‘I Am More Interested in the Long Hereafter Than in the Brief Present’ (the title of his 1975 BYU speech).  We can sometimes find ourselves acting as thought we are going to stay here.  But we can’t!  And we won’t.  So our choices should not reflect that perspective.

Sheri then turned our attention to the book of Revelation.  We didn’t discuss fire, brimstone, and dragons, but rather how Satan knows he hasn’t much time left.  What?  Let’s have a look at chapter 12.  “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. …for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”

Let’s look at that point for a moment.  Satan knows and understands the plan of Heavenly Father.  He knows very well who we really are, what we are capable of, and that our loving Heavenly Father wants us (and is helping us) all to return to His presence.  He also knows he has a short time to do as much destruction as possible.  And considering what dispensation we are currently living in, he has had much practice.  And success.  “He knows how to go for the proverbial spiritual jugular”, said Sheri.

And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought for the man child.

Although it is generally accepted that the reference to the woman is a reference to the Church, Sheri emphasised that it could be read literally – it is hard not to.  The devil persecutes women.  And how true this is.  The woman is the centre of the home.  If he corrupts her, he corrupts the entire family.



Sheri then spent the remained of her time with us illustrating the need to develop spiritual roots.

She shared the story of her garden, having just finished planting 40-odd plants in her garden over a period of about 3 weeks.  The winter was a particularly long one, so the time to plant was short.  When she finally finished the gardening project one evening, she cleaned up and went to bed early around 9pm.  I have to admit here – how did she find the time to devote such time to gardening?  This woman, albeit single, is most definitely living a full life.  Anyway, the story continued: she awoke the next morning and opened her front door to judge the weather for the day and what to wear.  That was when she noticed dirt on her front porch.  Knowing that she had swept and clean up the night before, Sheri stepped out further to investigate.  She discovered that all her 40-odd plants were missing.  All of them.  And since they were all newly planted, they had no roots to hold them firmly in the ground.  So on the discovery of the 40-odd holes in her garden, and with a history of vandalism around her home, Sheri rang the police with the unusual tale of stolen plants.  An officer came around to help, and discovered all 40-odd plants lined up neatly in a row next door.  And so, Sheri and the police officer went next door to meet the neighbours.  Literally – they were new neighbours.  Hello!  Welcome to the neighbourhood, did you steal my plants?

It turns out that their 6 year old daughter loves flowers, and she had uprooted all 40-odd plants because she thought they looked pretty.  My first thought: what was this 6 year old doing out of bed past 9pm, and how did her parents not notice?  Negligence.

Anyway, the point was this: newly planted plants have no roots.  They would have easily slipped out of the soil with a small tug.  Our spiritual roots need to be planted deep, and then watered with living water.  So vital are these elements to our roots that we will wither and die (spiritually speaking) without them.

A long time ago, being wearied with travel, Jesus sat on a well and met a woman from Samaria.  She had come to the well to draw water for her household. Jesus, being a Jew, asked this Samarian woman for a drink.  Perhaps puzzled and curious as to why a Jew would speak to her, she asked “How is it that thou, being a Jew, asked drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”  Christ said this: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that said to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”

“Whosover drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

We are all in desperate need of living water.


…more to come

Time Out for Women - Choose to Become [review part 4]

A recap of the messages I heard and felt.



Virginia Pearce spoke about the mothering influences in her life. She listed four of them, detailing who each woman was and the motherly impact they had had on her life. She spoke about having “mother moments”. When you feel fed up, frustrated, angst or whatever - stop what you are doing and quote a woman in your life. Virginia said we need time to remember and quote a mothering influence in your life. A ‘mother moment’.I’ll admit here that I couldn’t think of four. How terrible does that sound.

I can of course think of dozens of women who have been a part of my life, a great influence on me, and people I will always love, but I wanted to think of four outstanding women I would be quoting for the rest of my life, women than my children would recognise because of what I had told them.

An aside note: what an awesome thought.  Imagine being the recipient of such recognition. Someone knows who I am because they were taught of my example, and from that they could recognise me.

Of course, my mother is number one.  She has to be; not just because of her profound influence and strength in my life, but because she would fly over on her broomstick and kill me if I said otherwise (cue to laugh…you really have to know my mother).

My mum is a tough woman.  A pillar of strength.  A helpful, reasonable, and sensible woman.  Coming from a non-ideal upbringing, we were taught the importance of hard work, education, and being independent and self-reliant from an early age.  I regularly quote her and hear her voice when I speak (gosh that is always a shock - I even catch myself laughing like her.  Horror!).  Over the years, she has become such a close friend and confidant.

After Mum, I struggle to think of who else has had such a profound mothering influence on me, someone I would quote and remember forever.  Does Agatha Christie count?  No seriously, she’s been a part of my life since junior (primary) school.

My Dad is really number two on the list, and he only comes behind Mum on ‘the list of mothering influences’ because you naturally think of women first.

Dad’s from the aussie bush, from a humble loving family that worked the land.  He’s life story is so diverse; I’ve always wanted to write it up.  Attending boarding school to training as a priest in a monastery; being baptised in a river after a dance (!!) to travelling the world with business; being a continually elected councillor and mayor, and an avid family genealogist.  We have so much in common, and with our opinions and sarcasm so aligned, it’s not hard to quote my Dad.

The next few on my list would be a number of superwomen I met on my mission.  I’ll post about my mission soon, so you understand what that was and what I learnt from that.  It was more or less a period of time when I was surrounded by the best.  The cream of the crop.  And I know that I will be telling my kiddies story after story of my time spent with these superwomen in the field.

The four mothering influences in Virginia’s life were her mother, the very well-known Marjorie Pay Hinckley who is still quoted; Julie, a neighbour and friend; Eliza R. Snow, pioneer and poet; and Julie B. Beck, current leader of the women of the world.  She spoke words about each woman, the challenges in their lives and how they were pillars of strength to Virginia.

One point from that that I found curious was about Sister Beck.  Julie Beck is currently the president of the Relief Society.  I’ll post more about this organisation soon, but suffice it to say, it is the world’s largest organisation for women; and the oldest.  I have met Sister Beck on a number of occasions – she is a powerful speaker, and her messages for us women today are direct and much needed.  But I hardly think of her as a regular mum and wife.  Virginia shed some light, just a small amount, on Beck’s life, but it was enough to show us listening women that the messages we hear from Beck each year are more than heartfelt, sincere messages containing direction and hope.  They usually reflected her own on-going challenges and sorrows, particular with family and health.  I didn’t know she had had health struggles for years.  In fact, we can never really know what other people are going through.  To understand that we are all leading lives and facing challenges makes their actions and words of wisdom even more sincere and heartfelt.  Read back over some of her words; you’ll see that her messages were learnt from life experiences.

So have a ‘mother moment’.  Think of the quotable powerhouse women in your life.  Be thankful for their example to you.

And don’t forget them.

congratulations to the girls in my family. they survived another year.

Two weeks ago my dear Mother had a birthday. Happy birthday Mum!

I thought she was turning twenty-one again, but she informed me that she is actually turning thirty nine. Good for her! [I've been older than my own mother for some time now.]

My mother is a saint. Even with her evil laugh. And I miss her.

She is a clever woman, who always seems to know what is going on.
An opening scene from the book-turned-movie Looking for Alibrandi always reminds me of her - the main character is walking home from school, all the time feeling that she is being watched and followed. Although it's all in her head, she sees all the old italian grandmothers hiding behind newspapers with eye cut-outs, spying on her every move behind parked cars, and calling her mother to report on her tardiness. My mother just seems to know everything without being told :)

What do you love about your mother?
(you should go and tell her!)

Also, last weekend was my sister's birthday. Happy birthday Yolanda!!

She turned a legitmate twenty-one, and went out with all her friends and family (minus me) to celebrate. I was sad to miss all the fun.

My sister is a funny girl, without even trying. She makes me crack up, and I love her for it.
She somehow sees the funny things in life.
She also works hard, and is really quite brave and strong. I have alot of respect for her.

What do you love about your siblings?
(you should tell them!)


I love my family.