High Mesa Happenings & Heartstrings

Not Picking Up the Rope

I have been receiving some forwarded political emails that are filled with fear, hate and are just downright nasty. As I was pondering on how to deal with this issue this quote came from Abraham this morning.

“There is a big mix out there, and there's lots of different things going on, and there is not one way that was intended to be the right way. Just like there's not one color or one flower or one vegetable or one fingerprint. There is not one that is to be the right one over all others. The variety is what fosters the creativity. And so you say, "Okay, I accept that there's lots of variety, but I don't like to eat cucumbers." Don't eat cucumbers. But don't ask them to be eliminated and don't condemn those who eat them. Don't stand on corners waving signs trying to outlaw the things that you don't like. Don't ruin your life by pushing against. Instead, say, "I choose this instead. This does please me. --- Abraham”

(Excerpted from the workshop in  Rye, NY on Sunday, October 12th, 1997, #204)

It makes perfect sense to me for I do not want to resist the fear and hate, for that would only give it more energy. I know that what I resist persists.  My first thought is to argue with them, to show them how wrong they are, which gets me enmeshed with them and with the issue.This is a no win solution and I am stuck, sucked into that downward spiral of fear, hate and resentment. It is so easy for me to get into righteous indignation! And what would that get me? Stress, separation, anxiety, loss of sleep and all that good stuff. 

It takes discipline for me to just unplug from that energy without judgment or anger. Sometimes I am successful and sometimes I fall short. With practice and patience I am getting better at letting go, or of "not picking up the rope" and playing tug of war.

So how is it with you, my friends, are you affected by all this mud slinging and madness? What gets you out of it? I am grateful when my friends remind me to stay out of the craziness. Is this something that we as a spiritual community might work on together? Suggestions, please!

Peace, Love and Blessings,
Barbara

 

To respond to Barbara’s invitation to comment on her thoughts, please click comment here, or under the posting. Scroll down a little, write your comment in the box and post as directed.

Your information remains private and HMHC does not use nor forward your email address to other parties.

Tune Up Email Practices: Tip of the Week From Barbara

Many of us use emails these days. Who doesn't? Many of us by now handle well unwanted or annoying emails. Who doesn't? Some of us who only choose a moderate use of cyberspace or some of us who prefer phones or penmanship. Well, most of us end up starring at a mail that came without invitation. How to proceed? Barbara this week proposes to review the following tips:

Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT. This lesson could save you and I hundreds of dollars.
Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it? Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses and names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every E-mail address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel! How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps.

Try the following if you haven't done it before:

* When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the "Forward" button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't click on "Forward" first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.

* Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses. Always use the BCC:(blind carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients in the "TO:" field of the people who receive it.

*

Remove any "FW :" in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.

* ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading. Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent.

* Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. DO NOT put your email address on any petition. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition. (And don't believe the ones that say that the email is being traced, it just ain't so!)

Some of the other emails to delete and not forward are:

1. The one that says something like, "Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen." Or sometimes they'll just tease you by saying 'something really cute will happen.' IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (We are still seeing some of the same emails that we waited on 10 years ago!)

2. I don't let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed.

3. Before you forward an 'Amber Alert' , or a 'Virus Alert', or some of the other emails floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for YEARS! Just about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at Snopes. Just go to http://www.snopes.com/ . It's really easy to find out if it's real or not. If it's not, please don't pass it on.

So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.

Posted by NWH

 

Email Security - more from SNOPES

From Snopes.com

If you are going to pass something along, Let it be THIS!

To whom it all concerns:

Just a word to the wise. E-mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other municipality. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address. Same with "prayer chains" -- be wary.

Almost all e-mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards All it was, and all this type of e-mail is, is to get names and "cookie" tracking info for telemarketers and spammers to validate active e-mail accounts for their own purposes.

Any time you see a  e-mail that says forward this on to "10" of your friends, sign this petition, or you'll get good luck, or what ever, it has either an e-mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and e-mails of those folks you forward to, or the host sender is getting a copy Each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of "active" e-mails to use in spam e-mails, or sell to others that do.


(If you have been sending out the above kinds of email, now you know why you get so much spam!)

Check it out: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.htm

Revisiting Emails

Here are two great web sites EVERYONE who uses email will/could find useful:
http://snopes.com/ and http://www.truthorfiction.com/. There are probably more, but these have served me well.

And here is a VERY funny (to me, at least) commentary on a particular kind of email...
Soapbox...

Here is a link to our first article on email security with some valuable tips...

and here is some commentary...
Now, I believe with 100% certainty that everyone who sends email to me or to HMHC has only our best interests at heart. (this is Kate, btw, not Barbara...) In the last two days I've had 5 emails from subscribers warning me of one virus or another. One of them even suggested that they had checked the warning with one of the services linked at the top of this article, and still - the messages were hoaxes. They had the link wrong, is all...

At its most simplistic, computer hackers fall into two categories: those who want your identity, your money, and anything else they can get their hands on... 
and those who get their kicks making us crazy - panic-y - etc...

I've had a couple of the BAD ones lately: one started out with text like this -

It's my pleasure to contact you for a business venture....
....Seven million five hundred U.S dollars with some KGs of Gold  my  late  Father  kept for me in a Bank here in Abidjan  Cote D' Ivoire

another came this way (supposedly from a bank):

Congratulations!
Dear Customer,
  You've been selected to take part in our quick and easy 9 questions survey.
  In return we will credit $120.00 to your account - Just for your time!

Or there is the 'Nigerian' Lottery scam...and it can come from anywhere, not just Nigeria...

Bad, nasty, awful emails will always have links in them they want you to click...just PAY ATTENTION.

Of course, you already know NEVER to click on a link in an email from anyone you don't personally know.
No legitimate bank, PayPal, Credit card co - NO ONE - sends secure information that way or asks you to take a survey or confirm a password.

These other guys - the techno weenies - are practical jokers. They win when we send these 'warnings' all over the internet. And if we are not savvy enough to use the BCC field for our lists, then we compound the issue by making every single one of our contacts public.

If you're not sure how to use/find BCC, just slow down a little when you're addressing an email. When you click on "To", some kind of window opens to let you choose names. It's here that you will find BCC - below the other options of "To" and "CC".

If any of you have questions about your own programs, I will be happy to help you. Email me or call.
BCC is important to your email security and is a kindness to your friends.

25 TIPS for Email Security

An interesting article...some of this is overkill for the email user who only emails the grandkids, BUT points 7, 8, & 9 are worthy of special note, as is the section on Fraudulent Email and how to recognize it.
There is a secion on 'malware' - the bad stuff that rides into your computer from your friends' email, and one on hacker's tricks.

Here's their disclaimer from the bottom of the article:

"This article is intended to provide you with the basic information you need to avoid many of the email security pitfalls that frequently trip up new email users. While no single article can cover even the basics of email security, avoiding the 25 common mistakes listed in this article will make a dramatic difference in improving the safety and security of your computer, your personal information, and your emails.
It's a good article: check it out."

Check it out - it's a good article:
http://www.itsecurity.com/features/25-common-email-security-mistakes-022807/