Waiting to Score

I read Janet MacLeod’s book Waiting to Score  over the weekend and loved it!  This YA novel has a 15-year-old hockey player as the protagonist, a new kid in town struggling to fit in despite a bullying team captain  threatened by his ability.  Zack Chase is a likeable hero, and the descriptions of high school living, teen parties, and small town power trips are dead on.  I’m so glad I won this book at the SCBWI panel last week.    If you have hockey players in your family, buy the book!  The on-line link has everything you need to know about ordering it.

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

Human Beings as Electro-Magnets

A few weeks ago I attended a workshop with Vicki Slater, who is on the faculty of Healing Touch Program.  Her workshop was Physics and Spiritual Healing for Healers.  Vicki taught us through video, diagram, example, experience, and physical exercise.  Her explanation of principles in physics was clear enough for us to get it — from the range of waves in our environment and to how magnets work.  Vicki encouraged us to trust our bodies to send us messages from the Holy.  We practiced for two days, and I now feel much healthier and am thinking with clarity.  I have also thought a lot about how magnets work, researched, and added a new activity to my upcoming workshops.   It’s based on How Magnets Work.  Here’s the scoop:

ABOUT MAGNETS
Magnet Exercise:  In groups of two, give each pair two magnets. Play with these to see how magnets act.  What do you notice? Record their statements on a chart. 

Some observations that may come from the students:
* The two magnets attract each other, but if you turn one over then they push away from each other.
* They have two sides, one that pulls and one that pushes.
* The attraction is strongest when the distance between the two is shortest. 
* A shock to a magnet (for example a fall) can sometimes cause it to lose its pull. Its magnetism can be restored if it is moved close to another magnet.
* A magnet will stop pushing if its opposite moves in close enough. Then it attaches and its charge complements the other one.

(From a psychological and quantum physics point of view, resistance always has meaning.) 

A helpful reference is: www.howmagnetswork.com

Explain: Magnets act that way because they have electrical currents or waves circling an iron core.  When the currents are close enough, they affect other currents and objects by pushing or pulling.

 A single magnet will line up on a north-south line, because it responds to the liquid iron center of the earth.  An electric current moves through the core, causing it to become a magnet. Our planet earth is one huge magnet, which is why we have gravity

Human beings have iron in their blood.  Electricity moves in waves within and outside us, so we too become magnets (Slater). We affect what is around us, depending on how close we are.  The closer we stand, the nearer and stronger our effect.

Devices like cellphones, computers, radios, and GPS systems all use electrical waves to communicate.

 The magnetic effect of current is called electromagnetism which means that electricity produces magnetism.
Within all living creatures, organisms or objects that contain iron, there is a natural tendency to line up in a balanced north-south direction.  When people are thrown off balance, after a time they will naturally straighten out to become balanced. (Jung) If they don’t return to balance, they need help from a balanced electro-magnetic conductor (like another person) who gets close enough to charge their fields. Pets, objects, and music can recharge them also.

The electrical waves move around us horizontally and vertically and create energy fields.  We can’t see these fields, but we can sense them in other ways.  (Slater)

Read Full Post »