Zakka: literally "Many Things"

Facing strength and weakness

2012-02-02T12:02:00.000-08:00

All that things that happen in people lives to pull them together and split them apart.

Million little events, coincidences, outside forces.

I realize that my mom's breakdown when I was 19 was my opening to be strong. My husband's strength and accomplishments scared me and were my opening to breakdown.

I have to keep on this thread of self-awareness, it's leading to a breakthrough, I can feel it coming.

Hero of our own narrative

2012-02-02T10:50:00.000-08:00

Is it true that we're always a hero in our own narrative? Not exactly. Sometimes, we fail the hero test and we're the bastard in our own narrative. Being the bastard in our own narrative is not a good place to be but it may be a true place. Shame [ and repentance become ] is the gateway to grace, as Blayne said in The Unit. Recovering from the shame so that we can rise from our cowardice and wounds to fight another day is the important measure of living out the narrative.

I've been the hero of my family, and my family didn't have enough sense to recognize my heroism, and so I didn't recognize my own qualities. I've been the turd of my family, too, and boy, my family didn't fail to recogize that, so I was made supremely aware of my turdishness. Boo hoo.

So which do I dwell on? I guess I get to choose. Both are in the past now. I can learn from both and I can be a better person. I can never take back those failings. I can face them and embrace my humanity and try for forgiveness.

I can become the human in my own narrative.

Part of the problem is we all live and believe our own hero narrative, from the cruelest dictator to the most generous philanthropist. We cling to the hero in ourselves, even while living immoral and debauched lives, probably. Probably. Definitely. Without the hero, we can't stand being the bastard. I think. Everything is too complicated. Without the feeling of being adored and loved, how can we live with being kicked around.

Being the hero allows us to accept the adoration. Otherwise, it's hard to accept the love. So all hail the hero.

I've been ~~getting high on~~ taking bee pollen and royal jelly for the last few days. It makes me feel wonderful, energetic, not hungry and at peace.

Attaching to a community and crafting a community vision

2012-02-02T09:53:00.000-08:00

Communities attach people through it's sense of openness and welcome to residents and outsiders. Beauty in the parks and meeting places make a community something the residents can take pride in and enjoy bringing visitors to. Yet, what happens when young people don't feel attached that way? What happens when outsiders become insiders and don't really care about keeping the community "nice"?

Crafting a community vision must include plans for those issues that attach people to their community. The aesthetics of both the Imperial Marketplace and the Market Creek Plaza offer great attachment value, which was a big element of allowing the big box Home Depot and the 24 Hour Fitness into the community. Those nice looking retail outlets didn't solve all the ills, but it works well the character of the community as it has grown over the last 40 years.

http://www.bigboxevaluator.org/e-design.php

Fighting for the soul of our community and maybe country

2012-02-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I wrote about organizing principles, esp. with regard to community. I realize I'm realizing how now is a time of struggle, not for civil rights per se, but the bigger struggle is for the soul of our community and maybe our country. A community needs a soul, Pope John Paul said, if it is to become a true home for human beings. "You, the people must give it this soul." How do we do that?

Today, I ran across a saying (Thuto Ke Thebe, motto of University of Botswana in the Setswana language "Education is a shield.") and learned the word botho. I looked it up on Google and found a lot of worthwhile info, esp. the following. I already knew a bit about Botswana, but I came away with a very great admiration of this country and the progress it has made to turn it's economy and society.

The word 'Botho' is derived from Tswana, the national language of Botswana. Botho is Botswana's fifth National Principle and it defines a process of earning respect by first giving it, and to gain empowerment by empowering others. The Botswana people use the term botho to describe a person who has a well-rounded character, who is well-mannered, courteous and disciplined, and realises his or her full potential both as an individual and as a part of the community to which he or she belongs. Botho is an example of a social contract of mutual respect, responsibility and accountability that members of society have toward each other and defines a process for earning respect by first giving it, and to gain empowerment by empowering others.
http://www.ubotho.net/Botho-Vision2016

Below are a few examples of Botho that will be highly appreciated by the locals ...

Taking your hat or cap off when speaking to an elder - sign of respect
When an elder is in need of seat and none are vacant, it is botho to offer the elder your seat...
When entering a house or any building (especially government buildings) taking your hat or cap off (men) is a sign of Botho..
Greeting before beginning a conversation or asking for something/help...is a sign of politeness

http://www.safaris-in-botswana.com/botswana-culture.html

Morero (Consultation and Consensus Building) : The Batswana believe in consulting each other, within families,between people, and at government levels. This is called morero,and is an important way of reaching agreements. Even the Presidentregularly travels all through the country to meet people and consultwith them about government programs or issues that concern thepeople. Even though this takes up a lot of time, it creates muchgood feeling.
http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/botswanpeop2.htm

Botho (Humanity)

Setswana society expects and requires its members to have "botho", which is derived from "motho" (a human being). Botho refers to the possession of the good attributes associated with a good human being, in other words, qualifying one to be called a human being.

Any person, regardless of his/her social standing, who is found wanting in any of those positive attributes that constitute a motho, is regarded as having 'no botho'.

The yardstick for botho is a package of positive human attributes, including good-manners (maitseo), kindness, compassion, humility, respect, and living up to the expectations of society and one's particular role.

In short, botho can be referred to as a yardstick for good behaviour which is consistent with the expectations and cultural norms of Setswana society. That code of behaviour includes good manners, helpfulness, politeness, humility and consideration for others, respect for older people and many more positive attributes expected of a human being.

Morero (Consultation and Consensus Building)

Batswana strongly believe in the value of consultations within society. The process of morero (consultation) at inter-personal, family, and community levels is considered an invaluable asset in the ability to reach and sustain agreements.

At the national level, public service officials and politicians, including the President, regularly travel throughout the country to consult ordinary citizens on various government programmes and other issues of national or local concern. In this way, most citizens do not feel left out of the decision-making process of their country.

Failure to consult tends to generate negative responses since people interpret it as an indirect statement that either they do not matter, are inferior, or in the case of the family unit, not significant enough to be worth consulting. Although consultations tend to be time consuming, the consensus they bring about creates a lot of harmony both within familie
s and in society as a whole. The modern system of government in Botswana has benefited greatly from this culture of morero.

http://www.botswanaembassy.or.jp/culture/body3.html

A framework for a long term vision for Botswana

Botswana Presidential Task Group
Botswana's Vision 2016 began in August 1996 with a nine person Presidential Task Group. These capable individuals produced a booklet entitled "A Framework for a Long Term Vision for Botswana". The Vision 2016 is available on Botswana's national website, and it is briefly presented below with its underlying principles.

Botswana National Vision 2016
Botswana will be an educated and informed nation. All people will be able to have good quality education that is adapted to the needs of the country. Schooling will be universal and compulsory to the secondary level. Good quality vocational and technical training will be available at secondary level and beyond as an alternative to academic study. Entrepreneurship and business skills will be an integral part of all schooling. No student will be disadvantaged by ethnic origin, gender, language or remoteness of settlement. Botswana will be in the forefront of information technology with state of the art computer and communications equipment, and will play a full part in the coming information age. All people will have access to telephones, national newspapers, radio and television services, and to computer equipment. Information about the operations of Government or other organisations will be freely available to all citizens.
By the year 2016, Botswana will be a prosperous, productive and innovative nation. Batswana will be a hard working and disciplined people with a diversified economy. Agriculture, industry, mining and services will be productive and vital components of economic activity.
Batswana's development will be sustainable, and will take account of the preservation of the environment and renewable resources. Incomes in Botswana will have been raised closer to those in developed nations. All Batswana. male and female will have the opportunity of paid employment, access to good quality housing, as well as increased resource ownership.
By the year 2016, Botswana will be a compassionate and caring nation. Income will be distributed equitably. Poverty will have been eradicated, and there will be an efficient social safety net for those who suffer misfortune. All Batswana will have access to good quality health services, sanitation and nutrition. The negative impact of the AIDS epidemic in Botswana will have been halted and reversed.
By the year 2016, Botswana will be a safe and secure nation. Violent crime will have been eliminated, and there will be full protection of individual rights. Batswana will have confidence in law enforcement agencies, and standards of road safety will be high. The people and borders of Botswana will be protected by a small, disciplined and accountable national defense force.
By the year 2016, Botswana will be an open, democratic and accountable nation. There will be a system of decentralized democracy and political tolerance. Civil society will play a full part in the development of the country, alongside government. The nation's leaders will be open and accountable to the people. The role of traditional leaders will have been enhanced. Freedom of expression as well as press freedom will be fully protected.
By the year 2016, Botswana will be a moral and tolerant nation. There will be high standards of personal morality, and tolerant social attitudes towards people of different cultures, ethnic traditions, religions or disabilities.
By the year 2016, Botswana will be a united and proud nation, sharing common ideals, goals and symbols. Society will be under-pinned by resilient family values with a strong sense of tradition and pride in its history.

* The word Batswana refers to the people of Botswana

http://issacandimani.com/gpage1.html

http://www.sarpn.org/documents/d0002170/index.php

Organizing principles

2012-01-30T13:16:00.000-08:00

Trying to understand how to think about community renewal and redevelopment, especially as related to a formerly blighted community. My perspective is as a resident since 1966 yet I want to be able to expand into a broader perspective. Since many community ills have been identified, I am choosing a healing perspective as my organizing principle. This is problemmatic inasmuch as no one else seems to share this perspective, making it more difficult for me to share ideas with other community members. Therefore, in discussions around community development, I am choosing to raise awareness of the healing perspective first, and then make my points about the community with healing as the central principle.

As long as the organizing principle of the greater society is not about healing, there seems like there will be an inherent conflict. If modern society's organizing principle is consumption, everything that does not advocate consumption will seem to be a failure. Since I consciously reject the principle of consumption as supreme, I have to become aware of others' organizing principle.

In order to have constructive communication about most topics, but especially about community, it's important that I make others aware that I choose the path of health and healing and cooperation versus competition.

2011-12-20T21:25:00.001-08:00

2012 is right around the corner.

Zoo Metaphor

2010-08-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

I'm wondering if I define my life as a zoo and me as the zookeeper, does that help me understand the care and feeding that comes with my various pet projects and interests. And each purchase / interest adds to the care and feeding requirement / burden. Each relationship / friendship / club = zoo animal. House = zoo exhibit / several animals. Each interest, each collection, each project, each pet = zoo animal. It can come down to each storage item = zoo animal. For example, gardening is an interest. A garden and related activities can be very time consuming, to a similar degree as a pet animal / zoo animal. Every day, so form of care and feeding may be required. If I am into both gardening and, say, beading, I have to find a way to fit in activities each week / month / day, depending on how often that interest requires "care-feeding".

This may be an obvious conclusion for many people, but it's starting to become a reality in my life, hence the blog entry.

Having this mindset gives me the ability to edit my "zoo" and budget my time. I can prioritize the essential care and feeding needed to stay up to date and organized with my "zoo". And it puts the requirement to simplify into perspective. As difficult as simplifying a life may be, it may be an essential thing to do, or risk becoming hopelessly disorganized and scattered.

To come: zoo inventory.

To Dos 9-22-10

2010-08-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

Warranty box re-org
Corner re-do
Closet re-do
Scrapbook

Summarize to dos

2010-08-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

Want to do (8-10-10)

Jewelry:
Beading : paper beads, beaded chain, laquered pendants -- wire mounted crystals

Gardening:
Plant table

DIY Greenhouse done 8/17/10

Cuttings done 8/17/10
Rosemary
Galvezia
Zauschneria California Fuschia
Allen Chickering Sage
Buddleia
Loquat

Seeds done 8/17/10
Common Thyme
Rio Grand Chili Pepper
Zinnia
White sage
Chard
Zulu Daisy

Master Bedroom
PROM - Purge, Remove, Organize, Maintain

Important papers

School start:
Scan photos for St. Rita's
Pay tuition
Supplies

Summarizing the last two weeks

2010-08-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

Son's bedroom re-do (repaint, new furniture, new closet, new curtains; wall mount the TV); flower bed re-do (divide daylilies and society garlic, take out kalanchoe, container succulents). Shuffling back and forth to Surf Camp. Strawberry short cake. Considering opening an Etsy shop with Paula's designs. EOF

Does this blog make my consciousness look fat?

2010-08-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

Hunks of consciousness ... becomes chunks of consciousness, morphing into chunky consciousness, which could mean obese consciousness? Playing wit the words is all.

Magic on a Budget Blogs

2010-08-04T12:33:00.000-07:00

Magic on a Budget Blogs

Capturing moments ... who needs it?

2010-08-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

I started blogging to capture moments and random thoughts that would otherwise just vanish into ephemera. And it's working for me, for the most part. I capture random thoughts and there they sit for a virtual eternity, for me to be able to go back and remember. I lack discipline, I don't flinch from saying it. I can imagine journalling or blogging every day, but really, I wouldn't do that. It's not in my scattered nature. But some thoughts that go by like a CNN ticker are just too juicy to leave to an undisciplined blog. What do I do with those hunks of consciousness?

As pointless as those chunks of me might be to others, I still feel compelled to record them publicly. That's a head-scratcher right there ... why in public? But otherwise, I still wonder what to do to try to shape them. I feel perfectly content with struggling in my undisciplined and random blog-mumblings for now. I guess I just need to keep capturing the moments.

Aside: this week's Memphis Beat is a trip: "Family is an albatross around the neck of great men .... the only people who say otherwise are parasite women who are looking for good men to make their hosts." Priceless line, really. Jason Lee must tap into some buried crazy streak in his suspects, they have seemed to cough up their confessions with minimum prompting. Must be the Memphis Heat ... .

My son, the 11 year old philosopher

2010-07-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

Last month, my soon to be 11 year old announced he wants to be a philosopher, and proceeded to read books pertinent to the pursuit. He also wants to play the guitar, keyboard and drums and be a "one man band like Prince" and is strumming and keyboarding and drumming on things. I think it's cute, and I'm also giving him a taste of Mortimer Adler, Will Durant and several instruments to use to go for these lofty goals.

I'm so very grateful to have a son who is interested and capable of reading and thinking about thinking. He crossed a threshold a few years back, after mastering a more than adequate degree of literacy. His literacy has allowed him to become aware of the bigger issues in life, how to bring order to the chaos of life. He is ready to explore how people in the world have asked and answered the big questions of life. I feel very honored and relieved and nervous all at once. Also somewhat in awe of this child.

Once you start making a list of books to read that pertain to philosophy, you have to decide if you want to pursue a classical or more eclectic approach. I am sticking with classical at this point, so my list looks like this right now:

Possible Philosophy Books for 11 year old philosophers (and do not for one minute think this was an easy list to put together):

Fiction that inspired children to think about thinking:
Harry Stottlemeir's Discovery, Matthew Lipman, 1974, Upper Montclair, NJ: Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children.
Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy, Jostein Gaarder, 1994

Nonfiction:
Young Person's Guide to Philosophy by Jeremy Weate
Philosophy for Kids : 40 Fun Questions That Help You Wonder About Everything!, David A. White
The Examined Life: Advanced Philosophy for Kids, David A. White

If he wants to go beyond these books and reference material, there is a next level I've considered.

Books and online info about world history and the traditions of philosophy:

Reference material:
ORACLE ThinkQuest Interactive Philosophy Resource http://library.thinkquest.org/C0110297/
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, online at http://plato.stanford.edu/

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/

Google Search in Timeline View: Timeline Anything you search in Google can be viewed in Timeline view, try it, you can search on ideas!!

The History Guide's Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/ancient.html#table

Overview of the history and traditions of philosophy:
The 103 Great Ideas from the Syntopicon by Mortimer Adler

Index of 103 Ideas

Angel; Animal; Aristocracy; Art; Astronomy; Beauty; Being; Cause; Chance; Change; Citizen; Constitution; Courage; Custom and Convention; Definition; Democracy; Desire; Dialectic; Duty; Education; Element; Emotion; Equality (added later); Eternity; Evolution; Experience; Family; Fate; Form; God; Good and Evil; Government; Habit; Happiness; History; Honor; Hypothesis; Idea; Immortality; Induction; Infinity; Judgment; Justice; Knowledge; Labor; Language; Law; Liberty; Life and Death; Logic; Love; Man; Mathematics; Matter; Mechanics; Medicine; Memory and Imagination; Metaphysics; Mind; Monarchy; Nature; Necessity and Contingency; Oligarchy; One and Many; Opinion; Opposition; Philosophy; Physics; Pleasure and Pain; Poetry; Principle; Progress; Prophecy; Prudence; Punishment; Quality; Quantity; Reasoning; Relation; Religion; Revolution; Rhetoric; Same and Other; Science; Sense; Sign and Symbol; Sin; Slavery; Soul; Space; State; Temperance; Theology; Time; Truth; Tyranny; Universal and Particular; Virtue and Vice; War and Peace; Wealth; Will; Wisdom; World

Books:
Heroes of History: A Brief History of Civilization from Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age - Will Durant
Six Great Ideas - Mortimer Adler
The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time - Will Durant
How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization by Mortimer Jerome Adler
The Portable Greek Historians: The Essence of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius (Viking Portable Library) - M. I. Finley

Digging into Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics - Aristotle
The Basic Works of Aristotle - Richard Peter Mckeon
The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle - Jonathan Barnes
Understand how Aristotle's effect lived on as an influence on the middle ages:
Aquinas: An Introduction to the Life and Work of the Great Medieval Thinker - Frederick Charles Copleston

Albertus Magnus

The Time Of Our Lives - Mortimer Adler
The Difference of Man and the Difference It Makes - Mortimer Adler
The Lessons of History - Will Durant
Aristotle For Everybody - Mortimer Adler
How to Think About God - Mortimer Adler
How to Speak, How To Listen - Mortimer Adler
Ten Philosophical Mistakes - Mortimer Adler
Intellect: Mind Over Matter - Mortimer Adler
The Four Dimensions of Philosophy - Mortimer Adler

References:
An Introduction to Philosophy - Jacques Maritain
The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy - Simon Blackburn
Adler's Philosophical Dictionary -- Mortimer Adler
The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers - Will Durant
Natural Law: Reflections on Theory and Practice - Jacques Maritain
The Degrees of Knowledge (The Collected Works of Jacques Maritain) - Jacques Maritain and Ralph M. McInerny

Finally: understand culture and why we pursue philosophy within modern life:
The Making of Middlebrow Culture - Joan Shelley
Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America - Lawrence Levine

These books seem like a good overview of the subject, at least for now.

Levels of Living Redux

2010-07-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

Filth, Frugality, Flourishing or Fancy

On which level are your living? I thought more about this and added the best level of all: flourishing, like an awesome garden. Blooming and growing vigorously.

You don't need to or want to live in filth, and you can't afford to live fancy, so better to learn to live in frugality or best of all, live a flourishing life.

Frugal is thrifty, prudent, economical, careful. Not particularly popular way to be a part of the consumer society. When we buy something big, we try to go with something better than the middle, but usually not the top of the line. Flourishing is consciously choosing how to feel, think and be in your world, and being content with your choices.

A flourishing consumer knows that too much stuff becomes clutter and tends to weed out anything gets in the way of the beauty and harmony of the space, similar to a well tended garden.

I've seen people living in filth, it's sad and pathetic. Usually it's because of lack of resources, lack of hope, lack of vision, lack of help. God is good and we are blessed not to have that trial to deal with. We are blessed to have what we need and some of our wants. We don't live in the lap of luxury but we live in more than necessity. Solidly middle. That's a flourishing mind set: what's needed to let the essentials bloom.

I think I read and believed this quote from Benjamin Franklin: "Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least you will, by such conduct, stand the best chance for such consequences."

Industrious middle level we are, and that allows us to live in a degree of dignity. Being content in our frugality, that can be hard in a consumer culture, but I strive to be content with what we have and teach my child some form of contentment with the level, and the ability to strive for whatever level they so desire in their lives.

I would presume to embellish on Franklin's thought: Be deliberate and methodical in acquiring knowledge and you will be well-informed about what is important. Be industrious and content with your needs and you will prosper. Be moderate in your appetites and you will be healthy. Be aware of virtues and practice them and you will feel balanced. By such conduct, your life will thrive and make steady progress.

Emotion security, safety, acceptance

2010-07-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

Those elements equal love for most of us. Definitely judgment and criticism must move far away, into another space and time. They are the poisons that kill the spirit and plant self-loathing. That doesn't mean there can be no judgment or criticism, but not in the safe place. The blanket of security and acceptance must be available. The heartache and pain sown into the world by untimely and awkward judgment and criticism is probably untold. Wars and all kinds of strife are created from that seed.

As a mom, I am learning each and every day to kindle the spark of a young spirit and not quench it with words of criticism and non-verbal gestures of judgment. God please help me to grow and learn this lesson better every day. Thank you for your many blessings.

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS Lyrics

2010-07-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

I Want To Know What Love Is - Foreigner
album Agent Provocateur (1984).

Gotta take a little time

A little time to think things over

I better read between the lines

In case I need it when I'm older

This mountain I must climb

Feels like a world upon my shoulders

Through the clouds I see love shine

It keeps me warm as life grows colder

In my life there's been heartache and pain

I don't know if I can face it again

Can't stop now, I've traveled too far

To change this lonely life

Chorus

I want to know what love is

I want you to show me

I want to feel what love is

I know you can show me

I'm gonna take a little time

A little time to look around me

I've got nowhere left to hide

It looks like love has finally found me

In my life there's been heartache and pain

I don't know if I can face it again

I can't stop now, I've traveled too far

To change this lonely life

Chorus

Reboot: Losing your job in this economy can be a refreshing change

2010-07-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

Rebooting your dreams / career ... You think you know who you are based on what you do. Then the economy kicks you out of the field and wow, do you even know who you are anymore? That's when you take a minute to ask yourself some hard but good questions: What is worth doing? What is within my reach? You have to check out your choices and your opportunities. Your dreams. Every single day allows you to start things over. Reboot. Refresh. Restart. Go for it.

Reboot.

It ain't easy or simple. But it's a chance for a fresh start.

Zakka: It's the term for everything and anything that spruces up your home, life and outlook

2010-07-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

I'm not anywhere near the stratosphere of zakka fashion trends, but I am very enamored of the concept. Design Zakka Tokyo is a trade show in Japan that provides a cutting-edge platform for designers and those retailers who want to place orders for innovative and stylish design from all over the world. Buyers from top interior and lifestyle shops shall visit to stock the latest design.

2007 was a good year but I need to get busy in 2010

2010-06-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

June 30: the year is officially halfway gone. And I see some 30 posts back in 2007 and 3 in 2010. That's pathetic. In fact, I'm making headway on Building a Good Life in the Digital Era, and yet, I'd like to do more to document this journey whilst it unfolds.

Just today, put in succulents in the pot that has stood fallow for months. It's a clay pot and dries out easily, so succulents seem easiest. Haworthia resendeana, Echeveria 'Frosty' pulvinata, Senecia kleiniiformis. Attractive gray-green items

Earlier in the week, home run on the Team Project. We did a demonstration of (a form of) High Availability on Windows Server 2008R2. Our team did awesome, so that's a nice high, and tomorrow, the class celebrates with a potluck. There were lots of interesting presentations and stuff to check into. The Digital Age is moving rapidly into The Cloud, that much was quite evident.

Earlier this week, spent time meditating on Classical education, Geoffrey Canada and
Harlem Children's Zone, and Developmental Assets, reading inspirational quotes, adjusting my attitude, esp. mitigating my chronic hostility and surrendering to the inner mother's wisdom (very zen of me).

I'm doing a data dump to get all my recent interests out of my head and into some framework of productivity. Maybe I can get prose going about it all at a later date.

2010-06-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

Use what talents you possess. The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang the best.
- Henry Van Dyke

Every great work, every big accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement, comes apparent failure and discouragement.

- Florence Scovel Shinn

I am finished when I'm finished.

- Michelangelo

The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment, it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself .

- Orson Swett Marden

The Tao Te Ching says: When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need. Have you ever struggled to find work or love, only to find them after you have given up? This is the paradox of letting go. Let go, in order to achieve.

- Mary Manin Morrissey

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

There's an important difference between giving up and letting go.

- Jessica Hatchigan

If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this.

- Spencer Silver, inventor of Post-It notes

Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.

- Philip Adams

As I started to picture the trees in the storm, the answer began to dawn on me. The trees in the storm don't try to stand up straight and tall and erect. They allow themselves to bend and be blown with the wind. They understand the power of letting go. Those trees and those branches that try too hard to stand up strong and straight are the ones that break. Now is not the time for you to be strong, Julia, or you, too, will break.

- Julia Butterfly Hill

Why should we all use our creative power...? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money.
- Brenda Ueland

What am I in the eyes of most people--a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person--somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then, even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.
- Van Gogh

You can't really have style unless you've been someplace. I mean, you have to have been down. You have to have overcome something to have something. If you've had everything all your life, then you've never been tested and I don't think you're really the genuine article. You have to have come through something--because that's how a sword is made. It's made from a piece of iron from the ground, and it's forged and beaten--that's the great metaphor for the human being. If you're born a sword, you aren't a real sword. But if you're forged from this iron ore, then comes this beautiful sword.
- Hector Elizondo

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
- Translation of African proverb

I believe that it may happen that one will succeed, and one must not begin to despair, even though defeated here and there; and even though one sometimes feels a kind of decay, though things go differently from the expected, it is necessary to take heart again with new courage. For the great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. And great things are not something accidental, but must certainly be willed. What is drawing? How does one learn it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do.
- Van Gogh

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.

- John A. Shedd

Criticism polishes my mirror.

- Rumi

Opportunities are often disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them.
- Ann Landers

If you examine a butterfly according to the laws of aerodynamics, it shouldn't be able to fly. But the butterfly doesn't know that so it flies.
- Vincent Eades

I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's.
- William Blake

I feel there is something unexplored about women that only a woman can explore.
- Georgia O'Keefe

Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.
- Nick Diamos

Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men, as a whole, experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
- Helen Keller

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Be strong, believe in who you are; be strong, believe in what you feel.
- Melissa Etheridge

By working hard, I hope to make something good one day. I haven't yet, but I am pursuing it and fighting for it.
- Van Gogh

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision.
- Helen Keller

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children.
- Kahlil Gibran

Never again will I do anything for anyone that I do not feel directly from my heart. I will not attend a meeting, make a phone call, write a letter, sponsor or participate in any activity in which every fiber of my being does not resound yes. I will act with intent and be true to myself.
- Oprah

It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it.
- Soren Kierkegaard

One of the biggest factors in success is the courage to undertake something.
- James A. Worsham

The difference between getting somewhere and nowhere is the courage to make an early start.
- Charles M. Schwab

We ought to face our destiny with courage.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

You can surmount the obstacles in your path if you are determined, courageous and hardworking… Do not fear pioneer, to venture down new paths of endeavor.
- Ralph J. Bunche

What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
- Johann von Goethe

Sometimes we look so intently toward the pinnacle that we stumble over the steps leading to it. Development begins just where you are.
- Mrs. Herman Stanley

I expect to pass through this world but once, any good thing, therefore, that I can do,
let me do it now…for I shall not pass this way again.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

When shall we live, if not now?
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we are not really living.
Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, relationships that have lost their meaning. As Dostoevsky put it: 'Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.'
The real fear should be the opposite course.
- Gail Sheehy

Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.
- Rumi

When I was on Star Search, one of the producers told the other contestants, 'She'll never be famous; she's too tough, she's too NY, and she's too heavy.'
I remember thinking, Gosh, he's gonna feel like a jerk when I'm famous. Through the negativity I learned to hear myself quite loudly.
- Rosie O'Donnell

Believe those who seek the truth, but doubt those who find it.
- Andre Gide

You can pick your nose, and you can pick your friends, but you can't wipe your friends on the couch.
- Unknown

Knowledge is Power.
- Francis Bacon

Here are two ways to put ourselves in control of our lives immediately: we can make a promise and keep it; or we can set a goal and work to achieve it. As we make and keep commitments, even small commitments, we begin to establish an inner integrity that gives us the awareness of self-control and the courage and strength to accept more of the responsibility for our own lives. By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little-by-little, our honor becomes greater than our moods.
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity.
- Protester at anti-war march

Stop for a moment, cease your work, and look around you.
- Thomas Carlyle

Creativity is contagious. You can catch it by being around other creative people.
- Thomas Kinkade

To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; that is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

No one gets out of this world alive, so the time to live, learn, care, share, celebrate and love is now.
- Leo Buscaglia

Don't make the same mistake twice.
- Life's Little Instruction Book

Never retreat to a defensive position. If attacked for your ideas, counter good-humoredly but with faith in them. Make no excuses for your sincere beliefs.
- Life's Little Instruction Book

It is only by following your deepest instinct that you can lead a rich life, and if you let your fear of consequence prevent you from following that instinct, then your life will be safe, expedient and thin.
- Katherine Butler Hathaway

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
- Dolly Parton

Do more than is expected.
- Life's Little Instruction Book

Watch out for the squeaky wheel.
- Byrd Baggett

If you want to move people, it has to be toward a vision that's positive for them that taps important values, that gets them something they desire, and it has to be presented in a compelling way. That way, they feel inspired to follow.
- Martin Luther King

Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.
- Oprah

If you really want something, you can figure out how to make it happen.
- Cher

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it or walk around.
- Michael Jordan

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
- Walt Disney

Then give the world the best you have and the best will come back to you.
- Madeline Bridges

Choose a job you love and you'll never have to work another day in your life.
- Confucius

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
- Carl Jung

Life's under no obligation to gives us what we expect.
- Margaret Mitchell

Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backward and in high heels.
- Faith Whittlesey

Never be ashamed of honest tears.
- Life's Little Instruction Book

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's own courage.
- Anais Nin

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

There are only two ways to meet life. You may refuse to care until indifference becomes a habit, a defensive armor, and you are safe, but bored. Or, you can live greatly, and live greatly until life breaks you on its wheel.
- Dorothy Canfield Fisher

You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
- Colette

It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more manhood to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind.
- Alex Karras

At the end of our lives, we'll regret the things we didn't do much more than the ones we did.
- Life's Little Instruction Book

We must reject not only the stereotypes that others hold of us, but also the stereotypes we hold of ourselves.
- Shirley Chisholm

To find a honey tree, first catch a bee.
- Annie Dillard

The purposes that writers serve must be their own. What you write is yours and nobody else's. Take your talent as far as you can and guard it with your life. Only you know how far that is; no editor knows. Writing well means believing in your writing and believing in yourself, taking risks, daring to be different, pushing yourself to excel. You will write only as well as you make yourself write.
- William Zinsser

If you feel that sitting blankly and staring out the window is sinful, then you will never write.
- Joyce Carol Oates

It's time to discover that we can be strong without sacrificing feminine traits; softness and strength can coexist.
- Kathy Smith

Since there is no place large enough to contain so much happiness, you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you into everything you touch. You are not responsible. You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it, and that way, be known.

- Naomi Shihab Nye

We probably wouldn't worry about what people think of us if we could know how seldom they do.

- Olin Miller

Always have a plan, and believe in it. Nothing happens by accident.

- Chuck Knox

Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.

- Richard K. Cushing

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.

- Moliere

Healthy positive outlook on life

2010-06-12T01:43:00.000-07:00

I have often struggled with emotions that aren't healthy and aren't self-loving, giving me periods of depression, anxiety and ill health. This is probably common among Americans, and considered normal. But, I'm detoxing my body right now, eating clean and taking herbs to help cleanse and support my liver and other organs. As the toxins are leaving my body, seems like toxic emotions are leaving my soul.

So, as I was waking from a dream, my thoughts coalesced around a revelation: that the beginning of self-love is a mother that smiles and speaks loving worlds to you, and tells you how terrific you are. Now this is not a mental revelation so much as an emotional validation. I knew in mind, and behavior, but I dont' think I knew this as an emotional reality. Needless to say, I didn't have that. My mom was fun loving but rather anxious and stern at best and it got so much worse than that. I can see how my self-love and positive outlook in general, had a bunch of skips in it, like a Youtube video, constantly buffering.

My waking revelation this morning is that self-love comes from that smiling and approving mom. The seeds of self-hate can be sown from the lack of that smiling and approving mom, not necessarily anything more sinister. And downright self-destruction can come from a mom experience that is cold or forbidding or shutting out and shutting down. Or worse.

I like to decorate my home to make my world better, lift my family's spirits and make everything and everyone feel better. Now I realize a lot of it is because I'm still trying to make myself feel better. And I can generalize and know that we're ALL trying to make ourselves feel better. The skips in our self-love fuel industries world-wide. If everyone had perfect self-love, we wouldn't need diamonds, huge flat panel TVs , perfectly decorated tableaus in our rooms and living spaces, or big fancy cars, not to mention rich, decadent meals every time we put something in our mouths. All of that is needed to make us feel better.

I decorate on a budget and organize my little cottage within an inch of it's life, so that I can feel better, so all my nuclear family can feel better. Don't I know Mr. Clean and the Dyson ball are no substitute for mommy's smiles and kisses? Me giving smiles and kisses is far more important than me cleaning the house within an inch of it's life, and guarding my handiwork. I slip, and forget sometimes, which, I believe, stems from that inner place of me, still wanting approval. If I can have the perfect place setting, I will feel approval.

Instead, I must realize that I am the approval giver for my youngster, and to an extent, for my DH. When I forget or lose sight of my power to love and give blessing to my family, they suffer and I suffer. So my goal is to keep that role as head approver first and foremost, because that is the essence of self-love in my family. My approving smiles and loving hugs serve a big helping of spirit to my loved ones, just as crucial as physical food. Thinking of that, I have to serve spiritual meals to my family every day. And that can include bible readings and other spiritual material, but fundamentally, it's telling my family how terrific they are and what incredible blessings they are, with all my being: my loving eyes, my tender hands, my positive words and level voice and, supremely importantly, my smile, along with that breakfast, lunch and supper. In fact, 3 big helpings of approval each day will go a long way toward insuring a healthy, positive outlook on life for my kids. And since feelings are facts, and negative feelings create sickness, my spiritual-approval doses are probably the best preventive medicine or supplement I can give my kids.

I guess I have to realize that being that always-loving, always-approving mom is not such an easy way of being with my kids, since I didn't have that authentic experience. I have to force it sometimes. But I force it with love and joy! ;) I want my sons to feel, deep inside themselves, just how terrific they are everyday, one as a youngster, just bursting into life and one as a man, coping and managing with life every day. My mom eyes must see them as accomplished men, walking around, doing great things in the world. My mom eyes seeing that will help mold and shape them into men that are well-adjusted and balanced.

Being healthy makes being positive easier. When my organs are not overloaded and I'm not burdened with inflammation, you bet I can be positive about myself, I can be that shining, positive mom, that exudes approval, even while chastising and correcting. I hope. That's the goal, right? Thank you, Lord for your many blessings.

This blog is about many things, about making things that reflect a unique view of the world, about pretty and useful things. Also about human emotion, human spirituality and what's real and authentic. Maintain authenticity!

2010-06-08T16:38:00.000-07:00

I'm continuing to dabble in the blogger/blogspot sandbox. I'm using other blog platforms but it seems Japanese craft books is a very popular search. I'm interested in things Japanese and Asian. I really admire the people that can do a lot of blogging, because I'm often searching them. I made miso and seaweed soup and did a search for hot and sour soup. Asian soups are ridiculously easy to make and really very nutritious. I'll try to get more creative with my own postings.

Americans can be optimists again

2009-01-22T14:52:00.001-08:00

For generations, Americans were known as optimists. We believed that the future would always be better. Today, I don't think we can make that claim as a country. We have lost our faith. Polls showed, during the 1990s, a majority of Americans were pessimistic about their lives improving, even considering the long cycle of growth. In that vein, Americans started seeing a bleak future for their children. The American dream is no longer alive. And that is why, I believe, we have embraced change so effusively. We hunger for the optimism and hope for the future.

The trauma of 9/11 has further undermined our sense of reality and practically addled our brains. We weren't prepared and were so shocked that we have yet to recover. The stress and strain of adjusting to a reality where someone hit us hard, people want to hurt us as a nation, it's a bit much for us, apparently. It has given us great doubt, both self-doubt and doubt of others.

Doubt is a dark place, and creates anger and irrational fear. Doubt also creates anxiety and depression, which make it nearly impossible to experience hope and optimism. Mr. Obama has captured the moral high ground in such a way that we, the people, are experiencing hope once again. What we are experiencing might be considered irrational elation, in fact, considering all the inauguration hoopla. But, in fact, it's a freeing moment of relief from the doubt and trauma-aftermath we have been experiencing for more than 7 years. The shadow of 9/11 has lingered over this nation for far too long.

Naturally, many see ample grounds for skepticism. The first days have been filled with talk and executive orders and it's the beginning of the beginning. For a few moments we can embrace hope and be optimists again. Somehow, Obama has bypassed conventional organizing principles, organized labor, party machines and religion. He has reached out and into the hearts of many, many people. I hope and pray we can put our faith in this man and in his vision and in his strength. So much of our optimism depends on him.

Challenges are real, serious and many . . . they will be met

2009-01-21T07:18:00.000-08:00

"Our capacity remains undiminished" and let's "begin again the work of remaking America." Inspiring and galvanizing words. I am touched. I am inspired. Words cannot express the feelings.

We are Goliath? and lots of other thoughts

2009-01-14T05:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I repeated the proverb that pride goes before a fall, and today, in the wee waking moments over coffee and letting the dog out for a run, I contemplated the idea that we are Goliath, we being the West, the U.S. This is, apparently, not a new notion, according to several items that came up on my google search, and it's not entirely new to me, either. But it's still a very scary thought for me. I don't like seeing myself as part of the Goliath team. Yet, I know this is how we are viewed by many people, many of whom live inside the West.

So, I just want to muse on this blog while I think about this notion, thinking out loud so to speak. I don't expect it to all make sense, or even come to a coherent conclusion, but I feel it's necessary to examine this idea. Plus, it dovetails nicely with the other input I got from MSNBC Morning Joe's discussion of Barack Obama. (Can they ever get tired of that subject? They have sliced and diced him 6 ways from Sunday; I like the guy, but really?) I heard Tom Brokaw and some other guy say something catchy about Obama's humility, which I can't for the life of me repeat right now, but essentially, the point was that his background as a child of both Kansas and Kenya set him on the path of centrism, which has been his pattern over the years, including Harvard, to bring everyone around the table.

Okay, that got me thinking, once again, that the election of Obama shows how significant is our national longing for return to a humble approach to global relations. Under all our patterns, and training and traditions and consumerism, and bravado and desire to be the best, underneath all our culture and civilization, there is a strong national, perhaps world, desire to admit that we (the so-called civilized ones) don't, in fact, know it all and we want to be able to sit at the table with the world as human beings, not as super-consumers and Goliaths.

Now, pause for a minute. Anybody who might possibly be reading this, pause and think about the last time you said something humble or admitted fault to your brother, sister, co-worker, mother, father, fellow-student, wife, husband, best friend, child, patient, client, direct report, neighbor, grocer, teller, banker, or waitress. When is the last time? How hard was it? Did you feel weak, if you did? Did you find it impossible to admit fault, if you didn't? Have you ever admitted fault? If you did, did you feel it was a mistake?

Personally, admitting fault is like having a baby; it takes a long period of gestation and a prolonged agonizing period of pain to give birth to an admission of fault. I don't do it well, however, I have done it, and heaven knows, I try. Admitting that I struggle with admitting fault is hard. The bottom line, we don't see the strength in admitting fault, we see and feel the weakness and vulnerability of that position and avoid taking that position. So much of both individual and collective life boils down to avoiding feeling weak and vulnerable. Collectively, a nation does so many things in the name of security, which boils down to not wanting to feel weak and vulnerable. Many extremes of behavior and justified in the name of security, like waterboarding as a prime example, in the ultimate name of security, which is another way of saying, I can't stand feeling weak and vulnerable. Admitting fault is not an act of "security" but it IS the act of a secure being. Metaphorically speaking, it's having a cow, man.

Now, I've brought personal and national security into the picture, which ties back into my post which posits that most of human endeavor is our attempt to bring order out of chaos. Order = security, chaos = uncontrollable forces. See how those two concepts are tied together inextricably? Desiring order and security . . . a human imperative that gives meaning and structure to life and can no more be changed than growing hair all over our body. At what point, however, does this impulse slip into compulsion to bring [our] order and security to everyone, including the world? At what point does it, do we, become like the Philistines, sending their champion every day to the valley to challenge the opponent and to take a stand for our way?

Maybe this analogy is getting stretched too thin. Personal and national security, we can't live without security, right? It's always a good thing to fight those intruders/evil-doers who want to rob us of our security, right? If we're sitting on the best of everything and the world wants a piece, we get to tell everybody how to do things, right? Our way, our western, now democratic, traditions are best, right? And if everyone does it the way we have been doing it for 200 plus years, they will get the things and ways we have, right? Isn't all that unquestionable? Isn't it treason to intimate otherwise?So how can we ever be Goliath? We're the wise and prosperous people who just want to help everyone, right?

Seriously, I'm asking these questions seriously.

At the same time that I pose these questions, I know that civilizations rise and fall, and things fall apart, and Goliath gets beheaded, and the little guy triumphs, and security, well, security must be sought in other ways than the old, traditional ways. History. It happened. I pose questions that are directed at the underpinnings of our assumptions. Hubris tells us that those underpinnings are unquestionable. And humility would tell us that questioning these assumptions are good.

The point I'm coming too, in this roundabout way, is that public dialogue is swinging more toward the questioning, more toward the hope that humility can result in overall good. Posing the question of whether I am faultless and perfect is a good thing. It's a healthy thought. Because, we're not perfect, and we are not secure. This civilization, this system, is not perfect and can never attain perfect security, especially not through external means. If we have enemies on every side, well, let's take a look at ourselves while we fight the good fight.

We are Goliath? If we are, we don't need to keep being Goliath. If we're not Goliath, it doesn't make us David, either.

I don't know how comfortable I am with questioning assumptions which have given me structure and security for ages. But if I don't question, I could easily become Goliath.

Chaos and Order: pride goeth before a fall

2009-01-13T06:16:00.000-08:00

As a home educator of a 4th grader, when I'm not pulling my hair out with frustration, I am trying to find ways to help bring order out of the natural 4th grader's chaotic view of the world. That attempt often leads me to 5AM rambling thoughts about chaos and order in general, which may or may not make sense, but bear with me as I share some of my musings.
Above images from Yeatsvision.com http://www.yeatsvision.com/Geometry.html

The big picture first: most of human endeavor is an attempt to bring order of out the overwhelming and scary chaos of the universe. We enjoy our games, with rules galore, to such an extent that we can become obsessed and addicted. We pursue our educations and our careers, also pinnacles of attempts to bring order to knowledge and commerce.

As an aside, my 4th grader has asked me persistently since he was a first grader, who invented school? And what punishment did they give that guy?

Back to the big picture: we take the overarching human attempt to create order out of chaos to be noble and praiseworthy to the highest level, since it's self-evident that disorder brings a host of ills; look at those poor "savages" who live in squalor and disease. In general, we call all our human attempts to bring order, "civilization" and see the opposite as barbarous and uncivilized. In fact, there are those who believe that our attempt to overlay reality with human order, civilization, is the source of all good, and believe that unquestioningly. I have to admit personally that I probably can't exist in a world without clocks and calendars and street lights, but I can admit that those constructions are human overlays to the reality of this planet, and are not themselves the actual passage of time or the actual interaction of traffic. I can envision a time or a place without those constructions. I don't say I'm entirely comfortable with that vision, but I know that human civilizations actually do rise and fall, so "things fall apart," thank you Yeats and Achebe.

I worry that there are some of us, high-level decision makers, who take the human constructed order-making activity (I'm intentionally avoiding the word "civilization" because it's loaded with meaning for us all, and I'm trying to step outside the box for a minute) for granted, and assume that all humans embrace order as a basic good. I'm of the opinion, inspired by my 4th grader, that not all humans think order and rules and patterns and traditions and generally-agreed-upon human constructs are really so noble and praiseworthy. There is, within the human psyche of some, a deep resistance to having time patterns and date patterns and education patterns imposed on themselves, even when the full force of their own cultural traditions and history are brought to bear to train them to live and interact within these patterns. The movers and shakers, important decision makers who take civilization (okay, fine) for granted run into this resistance, and I worry that their first response is to declare war on it and feel justified that history will show them to be right and righteous in warring against what they consider evils that threaten out safety and security.

There, I've basically said it overtly so I might as well state this point, but it's hard: Warring on terror and terrorists is warring against those who are resisting having an alien pattern imposed upon them. This seems like it's stating the obvious but as our western civilization juggernaut rolls on through these centuries, resistance should be assumed. How the so-called civilized respond to the resistance becomes extremely important. If we don't ever question or admit that our civilization is merely one way that human beings have attempted to bring order to the chaos of the universe over humankind's tenure on this planet, if we portray ourselves as right and righteous and better merely because we are defending the patterns and traditions of of our western heritage, if we stand on that assumption in self-righteousness with pride and hubris, then we are most likely to continue to inspire suicidal resistance.

My subtitle is pride goeth before a fall, which brings me to the talk of apocalypse and 2012, which is something to consider for a future post, because my time is getting short for posting and I have to bring order, once again, to myself and my 4th grader.

Adding Yeats' poem here seems appropriate. I got the poem from here: http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html

THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

-end of poem-

From Wikipedia, I learned about gyre : "William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) used the term gyre in some of his poems, the most prominent being The Second Coming (poem). The gyre is two inverted vortexes that overlap quite considerably and they are a visual representation of the coming of a new era (Yates believed this happened every 2000 years). Generally the new era that comes is directly opposite of the era that has just past." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyre_(disambiguation)

Sunkisses and friends

2009-01-13T06:09:00.000-08:00

I assisted at a focus group for an activity book called Sunkisses, http://www.lovesunkisses.com/. The focus group consisted for lots of young girls between 4 and 14, I think. They colored away on various pages of the activity book. The distinctive features of the book are the affirmations and the images. Each girl is captioned with a positive statement about herself or her activity. And, most importantly, each girl is featured as being a girl of color who is very comfortable with herself and her body image.

I love the book, I love the images, and I love the messages.

Starla Lewis, the author, has a firm grasp on the identity needs of little girls of color, and I know she will take this and run with it!!

Spicy Collards and Black Eyed Peas

2009-01-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

I made this recipe from http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/05/spicy-collards-and-black-eyed-pea-soup.html with a few changes and boy! was it Yum-ME!!

I used frozen collards, no bell pepper and no tomato paste. However, I used about a 1/4 cup of Pace Picante Salsa and 1 Tablespoon of Paprika and a Tablespoon of Turmeric, with a teaspoon of my favorite chile powder, since I didn't have chipotle and a smidgen of ginger. I added a teaspoon of wine vinegar at the tend, to perk up the flavor even more. I cooked the greens for about 30 minutes before adding the cooked peas and other ingredients. It was a major hit!! Healthy and tasty, to the max!!

Makes at least 6 servings. Each provides 242 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (4% calories from fat); 16g Protein; 45g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 488mg Sodium; 11g Fiber. Weight Watchers Core/4 Flex Points.

Tips for getting a correct approach to health

2008-11-25T14:52:00.000-08:00

I've battled health complications in my lifetime, and, thank God, I have recovered my health in most circumstances. Right now, I am free of symptoms, except for excess weight, and feel the healthiest I have felt since I was 20 years old. I'm 54 and that's saying quite a bit.

Considering that health fact, I figured I'd document my approach, so that I can remember and be prepared in the case of dealing with future health challenges.

First of all, I've learned that many, many, many and many symptoms can be attributed to dehydration, and have determined to drink an appropriate amount of pure water, exclusive of other beverages. Dr. F. Batmanghelidj, of Watercure fame, recommends half your body weight in ounces every day. So if you weight 100 lbs., you should be drinking 50 ounces a day. His book, Your Body's Many Cries for Water, is an excellent beginning in understanding why many symptoms are indicative of dehydration.

In conjunction with the water, I have learned that mineral-rich sea salt is essential for the body to balance the body's water content. Therefore, I have eliminated, to the highest degree possible, all refined salt in my kitchen, and avoid it where I can in my foods. The curezone.com has a page about salt, http://www.curezone.com/foods/saltpage.asp which goes into extensive detail about the subject. Trust me, I helped myself stop retaining water and swelling by adhering to a salt and water intake regimen.

So far, the changes have been fundamental: lots of water, and unrefined sea salt instead of refined and iodized and processed salt. Pretty simple and straight-forward. With those 2 changes alone, one will be able to avoid many common complaints.

Next, avoid refined foods, boxed foods, packaged foods, canned foods and anything with preservatives and is over-processed, esp. with high heat, which denatures food. For example, corn flakes are corn mash extruded into the flake shape. The extrusion is done at high heat, which ultimately denatures the grain.

In order to explain how I came to be devoted to the no-refined-foods approach, I need to share Dr. Hyman's book, Ultrametabolism. A great discussion of reasons to avoid processed foods and explanation of nutrient-dense foods to emphasize in one's diet.

To go further into the unrefined foods approach, I submit Dr. Weston A. Price's book,
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration , which goes into detail about his investigations, in the 1930s, of indigenous people and their positive eating habits. He is called the Darwin of Nutrition and has a lot of good, common-sense connections between excellent health of non-modern diet eaters, and the poor health of modern diet eaters. Another source that supports Dr. Price's methods: Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon. Both Hyman and Fallon could be considered proponents of "functional foods" and "functional medicine" although their approaches are different.

Be picky about your food, particularly looking for local foods and organic foods. Dr. Mercola offers tips for eating healthy without breaking the bank:

The following 14 tips are the best of the best to get high-quality food on a budget:
1. Choose local foods over organic foods. Often, locally grown foods are raised according to organic standards at a more affordable price.

2. If all that’s available or affordable is fresh, conventionally grown produce, buy it, wash it well at home, and eat it.

3. Look for local farms and food coops offering raw dairy products, eggs, produce, and grass-fed meat. This will allow you to cut out the middleman and save money. Buying in large quantities, such as a side of grass-fed beef, can also save you money in the long run as long as you have room to freeze it (and you consume it before it goes bad).

4. Skip prepared or pre-cut foods, which can cost up to double the amount as the unprepared versions.

5. Plan your meals ahead of time (including cooking large batches and freezing some for later) so you don’t splurge on expensive, unhealthy fast-food at the last minute.

6. Pass on junk foods like potato chips, soda, cookies, candy, and other snacks. These are a complete waste of money, even if they’re “organic.”

7. Buy lots of fresh veggies, they’re usually less expensive than canned versions (just make sure you use them before they go bad).

8. Only buy what you need. Keep track of what’s in your pantry so you don’t double-up on foods unnecessarily.

9. Clip coupons and use them when you can (but don’t buy something unhealthy just because it’s on sale).

10. Watch the register when you check out of the grocery store. They often ring up wrong prices, at your expense.

11. Shop with a calculator so you can determine if it’s really a better deal to buy something in bulk or in a larger size.

12. Watch weekly specials, and be aware of what’s really a good price. You can often find organic produce on sale for less than conventional produce if you know what prices to watch for.

13. If you have the space, grow your own fresh veggies such as greens, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, string beans, etc.

14. Remember this rule of thumb: Fresh food is always better than frozen, but frozen is better than canned. (from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/07/24/how-to-shop-for-organic-foods-without-breaking-your-budget.aspx ).

Last, I want to mention natural hygiene and natural food. Lots of info, including fasting with water and lots of veggies.

This is a basic overview, highlights only, of the fundamental and important ingredients to achieving pain-free, symptom-free living. If you find yourself in poor health, there is much more to know and to find out about your situation. This document does not exactly address that situation.

History has happened . . . write it down

2008-11-12T11:20:00.000-08:00

Most important events since May : presidential campaign and elections; economic crisis; summer is over, school started; we're all healthy and well, thank you God!

One of these days, one of us will be sharing memories about where we were and what we thought during these events, some of which are truly historic. Blogging gives us all a chance to keep track of the stream of consciousness or at least recent reflections on things.

Yay!! Obama!! Excited and hopeful! Proud! New ammunition for my 9 year old's study habits . . . you might be President some day!!

Awman! There goes my IRA . . . grit those teeth and keep up with the health because you'll be working for another 20 years at least . .

Summer was great! School starting again, hmm, Isaac is not excited. We'll see how it goes. This is the year to starting mush into brains, 4th grade here we come!!

Health and vibrancy . . . a wonderful gift. I earned my yellow belt in Taekwondo, at the same time Isaac earned his black belt. Felt very very very blessed!!

Along the way, California Native Plant Society plant sale . . . bought some eriogonum, salvia apiana, epilobium, then went to Mission Nursery for a couple more: heteromeles arbutofolia, and baccharis pilularis. Wanted atriplex but didn't find it at the CNPS sale.

Nobody has it wired

2008-05-04T10:04:00.000-07:00

Becoming and being an adult in the modern world is very complex - We're All Trying to Figure it Out, doggone it!

Some people have it wired or think they have it wired, but really they don't. Some people feel more confident about it but it doesn't mean they have the answer. Some people feel very ignorant but actually have more answers than they think they have.

The best answer for me is to realize that we're all actually in this together, literally. We're all in this society/world together. We're all trying to master the complexities of our world and live in it comfortably.

It's like any craft or endeavor that is complex, like carving a statue, or building a wall, or painting a picture, or running a marathon or writing a poem. Each endeavor has many tiny complexities that are evident only once you get far enough advanced into it to notice or care about all the little things that need to be done. In carving or painting, the turn of a wrist or angle of a finger, or the amount of primary colors in a color palette, the texture of clay being worked or stone being chipped away, all are noticed differently when you are attempting to create something. And that attention is not wasted, it is invested in the process of creating.

Taking one small area of an endeavor and trying to give it energy so you can see and understand the complexities takes courage and commitment and a lot of other skills. Skills to master a craft can be challenging, like not paying attention to a whole bunch of other complexities while you're trying to do this one thing.

That one thing can be as lowly as changing a lightbulb, which admittedly doesn't take a great deal of skill, or it can be as grand as deciding to go to war, which takes countless little mini-conclusions on the part of the decider and his whole population. And in between there are many many many skills we learn to be better at.

And at the heart of them all is still, we're all trying to figure things out, we're all in it together.

God helps us. He can help us. If we let Him in. We can actually make it without God, but it may not feel right. With Him, it can feel right.

In the meantime, we're all trying to figure it out. All of us. Nobody has it wired. Nobody has it all down cold.

I want to bless my friends that aren't comfortable in their journey of figuring things out. I hope and pray that they will come to see that they can live here with us and join us on this strange, marvelous, curious and sometimes painful journey.

Blog reading

2008-05-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

"The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn."
-Alvin Toffler

Random blog spotting . . . from a guy on xanga.com
http://www.xanga.com/DanAmaniac/599385815/item.html

Friday, June 22, 2007
Let me introduce you to Nancy.

Recently I have begun working at Barnes and Noble. I've never had a job I enjoy so much. Not that I would want this to be a career, but its a good company to work for if I have to slave for corporate America. At least most of the people I work with are open minded progressive people. It's also nice to be away from Oklahoma. I'm not sure I could survive living in Oklahoma.

Anyways, today was only my second day and I was working cash wrap. One of the ladies working with me was the spry, young 68 year old Nancy. Nancy is one of those older women you just see and want to hug. She's always got a smile on her face. She frantically cleans the register area and takes a fervent interest in repeatedly dusting things. She's just returned from visiting her son in Germany. She does yoga "whenever she can". At 68 there's a bounce in her step, a real, vibrant energy of one who won't be defeated by the world. It's hard for me to have that kind of energy at 22, so it amazes me that this 68 year old woman does so genuinely. It's not this false "I'm going to be nice because I'm at work" happiness. It's a genuine gentle spirit.

She tries to teach me things and works a bit more slowly than me. That's not an insult to her, just a generational difference between someone who was born in the computer age and someone who was not. Nancy strikes up conversations with everyone who passes and often has comments about their reading choices - whatever they may be. She has so much energy its infectious - and not in the obnoxious, overbearing sort of way.

I write this to say, it took only 5 hours today for Nancy to become a new hero. When I'm 68, I sure as hell hope I can be that happy, that genuinely joyful and energetic about myself and the world.

When business slowed Nancy inquired about my background. I explained to her that I was born in Baton Rouge but my dad was in the military and so we've moved around a good bit. I explained that I was a student in Oklahoma studying English with hopes of someday making it in the field of writing (of any kind).

"Really? I was a journalism student and I am a writer," she excitedly replied.

Business picked up again and our conversation was temporarily halted. I figured this to be the end. Just one of those passing conversations that we have on a day to day basis with the different people we encounter. Nancy had made her friendly connection with me and work goes on, just two amiable co-workers with some common ground.

However, after several minutes when business died back down, Nancy surprisingly returned to the subject.

"Yeah, I studied journalism. Don't you ever just feel like you need to just go write?" she asked.
"Ah hum-ma-na what now?" I responded, confused at the energy of this woman.
"Like you just need to sit down and just let it all out?"
This coming from someone in my age range wouldn't have caught me off guard, but for a 68 year old woman to confess her need to just sit down and let it all go through writing was a shocker.
"Yeah, definitely. Its the only way to let it out sometimes," I responded.

"I started to figure out that I had a gift for writing things in a way which was interesting and easy to understand. I could communicate my thoughts very well. I wrote news releases, business plans, all sorts of stuff. Before long I worked my way up to the head of a non-profit organization."
"What non-profit?" I interestedly inquire.
"Oh "(insert state land preservation non-profit that i can't remember the name of here)". I got to be the head of that when I was 60. It was just too much, I got overwhelmed. But while I was doing that we lived in Northern Louisiana and I found this area and started taking pictures. After a while I realized, there's a book in this."

At this point, I'm just astounded. She's 68 years old and still full of vigor and energy and drive to do new and challenging things. She's not old and worn out from the rugged task of facing this world.

"Yeah, so I started taking more pictures and made a book out of it. They actually sell it here. It's still kind of weird to think about it."

Wow. That's just cool.

"I'm not seeing much money off of it obviously since I'm working here," she chuckles.

Not only is she trying new things, its lack of financial return seemingly rolled off her shoulder like nothing. It wasn't about making money, it was about doing something she loved.

The conversation continued and I asked about how she got into journalism and further explained that I wasn't sure if that's what I really wanted to do, but that I really just want to write.

"I don't know what to do. But I just hope it all works out."
"It will," she said confidentally. Does this woman really believe in me though she has known me less than a good night's sleep time?

"Just follow your heart and it will all work out."

Such optimism and wisdom. Her spirit is undeniable. I want to work with Nancy everyday. I want to pick her brain and learn from her grace. I want to be her in 46 years.
-end-

That was from some guy's blog that I read today. I wouldn't mind being Nancy either.

Investing

2008-04-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

Spend less than you make, show less than you have

* You can't invest what you don't save - An investment plan starts with a cogent savings plan.

* Know your objectives - It's important to get a return on your capital, and it's important to ensure the return *of* your capital. Your investment strategy should be tailored to your risk tolerance, and that should reflect where you're at with respect to child bearing, retirement, etc.

* Know your alternatives - With a vast array of mutual funds, annuities, and exchange-traded funds, there are many ways of investing nationally, internationally, in stocks, and in other asset classes.

* Diversify, diversify, diversify - Even the greatest investments (think residential real estate of the last decade, or equities in China) can lose money quickly. Placing eggs in many baskets and ensuring that those baskets are not highly correlated in returns produces superior risk-adjusted returns over time.

You work for your profits; it's important to ensure that they work for you. The average savings rate in the U.S. has recently become negative; people are spending more than they earn. They have assumed that the rising values of their homes would fund their retirements. With the recent housing decline, that assumption will be called into question for quite a few of those folks. For them, retirement is a potential train wreck on the horizon.

Establish a three-pronged investment approach

a. Establish a tactical asset allocation plan based on current goals and risk tolerance (Aggressive Growth); re-evaluate risk profile yearly

b. Establish both a workable valuation strategy for value stocks and a workable evaluation criteria for growth stocks.

c. Establish a strategic sector rotation plan based on economic cycles

——Establish a reasonable and comfortable time horizon between reallocations, like 8-12 weeks?

http://family-invest.clearwiki.com/

Making sense of life = knowing you are blessed and highly favored

2008-03-03T17:10:00.000-08:00

Lost, confused, depressed, alone, scared. Is that humanity's natural state?

What do we have to do to feel found, cherished, certain, joyful, and fearless?

I spent so many of my younger years feeling those lost feelings. Insecurity and anxiety were part of every day, pretty much. Some days more than others but a familiar battle. A good day was appreciated but it seemed that the bad days would come without warning and I felt powerless to overcome the bad feelings. Yet, my mask was pretty much intact. I coped okay. Not the best but okay.

Needless to say, my motivation consisted of repeatedly telling myself I could do it. No matter how tough it was, I continued to talk myself into moving forward. Sometimes I needed help and encouragement and those are the times when I was glad to have friends.

My anxiety level was consistently inconsistent, pretty high, but I coped with it pretty well. I suffered from several eating disorders between 17 and my mid 20s. It was one of the ways I tried to cope with my chronic anxiety. I started to get urinary tract infections chronically about that time as well. I took a job and worked hard to move forward, still feeling vulnerable and wounded. I was finally able to shake anorexia and bulemia when I married Henry, but I was still shaky inside. I still suffered with UTIs when the stress got too much.

These disorders are not unusual in our day and age. I was able to connect my disease with my anxiety and stress in my case, but maybe it's just my perception. But I have come to understand how much my internal anxiety and stress helped break down my body's defenses and create illness and disease.

When I gave my life to God, I believe a process of healing began. That began in 2000 and is still continuing, and probably will continue fo rthe rest of my life. I didn't want to make such a surrender, but it ended up happening. Slowly but surely, I lost levels of internal stress. I confessed to my sins and asked for forgiveness from God and from my family. As I faced my sins and trusted in God's love and Jesus' redemption, I was able to somehow heal. Over these 8 years, I trusted God and my confidence transferred from myself and my efforts, to God and his mercy and grace. Now I realize how blessed and highly favored I am. And that knowledge is crucial for my health and well-being. It's crucial to my being able to make sense of life.

It's hard to explain; I guess you had to be there.

For me, making sense of life is knowing that I am blessed and live by faith in the God of the Old Testament and His Son, Jesus Christ of the New Testament. And my faith is not a destination as much as it is a journey, a walk that allows me to take fresh steps every day. I learned that a "quiet time" is really a meeting with the living Christ, consisting of prayer and Bible reading. I learned to read, reflect and meditate on God's Word. I learned to try to apply what God has taught me from the Bible reading to the circumstances of my life - situations at work, home school, or church. I learned to use what I learned from His word in order to become more like Jesus. That's the fresh steps every day part. And that's the hard part. I don't have to do all that to be saved. But I think I have to do it to be healed and whole, to allow my heart to be opened and transformed. I learned to focus on expressing my love and devotion to Him, just presenting a long list of wants and needs. I realized that God knows what I need anyway, so I don't have to remind Him of that. Of course, I want to bring my needs to Him, but the main focus of the "meeting" is to offer my gratitude and praise, and then seek His guidance and revelation.

Today, it seems to me that family is a large part of the answer. Being part of a loving family makes it easier to believe in a loving God. Having someone who cherishes and cares for the family . . . that's pretty important. Even getting a hot meal can sometimes be an act of cherishing and encouragement. Providing an example of fearlessness, faith, certainty and joy, that's an act of love. It's an act of healing. It's an act of creating order in a senseless world.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it. Knowing that one is truly blessed and highly favored is what enables one to make sense of a senseless world.

From a great website:
How to Know God, from Gospelcom.net

III. What Are We Like?

We generally think of ourselves as basically good. And it's true that God's image is built into us. But there is another side.

People are rebellious. We have rejected God's authority over us in this world. People are self-centered. We are mainly concerned with our own comfort and security, putting our own selfish ambitions first.

People are often unconcerned. We usually don't worry about our broken relationship with God. But we were made to have a living relationship with him.

People are still accountable. Because he is concerned for justice, God can't let us go unpunished. The penalty is permanent separation from God (Romans 6.23). This is a death sentence that rests on all people.

People are deceived. Having rejected God's authority and friendship, we look for substitutes. Instead of putting God at the top of our priorities, we fill our lives with getting things or getting by, concern for security or power, maybe even drugs or the occult. Such substitutes don't finally satisfy. They can't replace God and knowing him.

People are proud. Some of us think so highly of our own achievements that we decide that God doesn't matter. Others think that living a good life will make them acceptable to God. But we must face the fact that rebels are rebels, no matter how decent they seem! To receive God's forgiveness we must change our whole attitude to him and recognize his right to rule us.

Lord, thank You for the peace that only You give in this troubled world. Help me to bring the Good News to those who are suffering anxiety and fear. May they find Your peace.

How do I get the best out of life?

2008-03-03T14:51:00.000-08:00

Jeremiah 29:8-14
8 Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them," declares the LORD. 10 This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity [ or will restore your fortunes ]. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

I'm probably way off base by trying to deflect the question I posed in my title. It's tricky because I'm basically saying it's the wrong question. A better question is Can God get glory from my life?

The passage in Jeremiah is a reminder and an example for us. Jeremiah was speaking to the Israelites, who were in captivity and falling back into idolatry and sin, to the point where God turned them over to their enemies. Did they feel like failures? Probably. But God wanted them to learn to turn to Him and trust in Him, and unfortunately the way they were being taught this lesson was through captivity and pain. So, why would God allow this if he had plans for their good? Let's see if I understand correctly.

Often we ask the question, How can I get out of this situation? or How do I get the best out of life? But it seems to me that God wants us to trust in Him and turn to Him. He wants us living a life that honors and gives Him glory and turn away from idolatry and sin. So, is it possible that He allowed the Israelites to go through hardship in order to chasten them and teach them a lesson? Is it that simple? Did He plan for them to come through this experience changed and more honorable people? I think that is the correct understanding. God humbles the proud and this is spoken of often throughout the Bible.

Proverbs 18:12 Before his downfall a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

Perhaps this is not something I want to hear and I just ignore God's word. Several examples exist in the Bible of sin and idolatry followed by captivity and hardship but I can ignore that because Jesus died for all my sins and I should not have to endure hardship. ?? Is this true? I don't think we can safely ignore all these examples because

1 Corinthians 10:11-13 11These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. 12So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! 13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

I'm not saying we should strive to be perfect, but I do believe we should strive to do God's will. How do we deal with failure or setbacks when we know in our heart that we are right? Search our hearts and try to get right with God. Take every opportunity to be a person of integrity and come through the difficulties as a person of character.

Prayer: God please give me a humble and obedient heart when enduring trials that seem to be breaking me down. Help me to see that all circumstances are part of your promise to prosper me and help me become the woman you want me to be.

Life Without Regrets . . . I don't think so

2008-03-02T10:51:00.000-08:00

Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the
people who treat you right. Forget about the one's who
don't. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you
get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it
changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy,
they just promised it would be worth it.

I got this in a forwarded email and I started to think of all the regrets I have and how important those regrets were for me. I learned the most from the times my conscience pricked me and I realized I needed to change. Those were my greatest learnings and they were teh hardest, because it meant looking myself squarely in the character, and doing something uncomfortable and different.

I regret, for instance, not being able to get along with my previous husband. I could only see things from my own perspective and I regret that.

It seems more helpful to tell a young person, "You will make mistakes. And you will regret those mistakes. But learn the best you can from that error and keep going."

Humanity is flawed; no one is perfect. Should any leader live a "life without regrets?" Should George Bush, for instance? That's just an example.

It's crucial to realize that we all do the best we can at the time we have to make crucial decisions. Maybe there are some who want to do wrong to others for no reason; I'm assuming that kind of behavior is kept to a minimum. It takes a lot of humility to admit a mistake and it seems living a "life wthout regrets" gives us all a free pass to not admit that we've made a mistake.

The next problem I have with this blurb is love the ones who treat you right and forget about those who don't. Now, I'm a Christian and I was taught pretty much the opposite. Love your enemies is what the good book says. That's easy, right? NOT! But we are admonished to love our enemies. Why? Well, a lot of preaching can go into that question. Suffice it to say, we are not let off the hook to just love the ones who love us. I admit, that's one of the most radical teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and maybe the most ignored.

The Old Testament says "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD." (Leviticus 19:18, NIV). Jesus took that to a new level In the Sermon on the Mount, he said:

"You have heard that it was said, `Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-48, NIV)

Okay, the next sentence "Believe everything happens for a reason" really chaps my hide. Not only do I not agree with this platitude but I believe it can be harmful. Those words offer us a way to avoid genuine discomfort and confusion. Not that I'm attacking people that use and believe in that phrase; it's used to try to comfort and offer support. I actually am a very optimistic, hopeful individual, but uttering such platitudes as "every cloud has a silver lining" or "everything happens for a reason" don't do anything for me and actually can block the needed healing during a traumatic situation. For example, if someone attacks me physically or verbally, does it help me to believe that it happened for a reason? Doesn't really help. Bad things happen. Sometimes there is a reason. Sometimes there is no reason. I'm cool with that. Either way, I'm gonna be busy trying to repair the damage and move on with my healing and with my learning. Another example: what if I attack someone else, or reject someone else? Or didn't support someone? Did that happen for a reason?

'Second chance. Grab it.' Okay. Got it. Can't really dispute this statement. But it does imply

"If it changes your life, let it." I take it this means, if the second chance changes your life, let it. That's easier said than done, because that's actually what life is all about . . . growing and changing. Some of us grow into patience, humility and wisdom. Others grow more paranoid, vengeful and self-doubting. What makes the difference between the two? What makes some folks change for the positive and others go negative? I'm not sure, really. I don't have the answer for everything and I don't believe that saying "everything happens for a reason" really helps most situations. Saying "let it change your life" is like saying "take a deep breath." It's a platitude so fundamental, most times it doesn't need to be said.

After all, "Nobody said life would be easy."

Let's prepare ourselves for understanding some of the harder truths in life. It's cute when a toddler or a child believes in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. Those myths suffice until they grow up and are ready for the complicated truths of the real world. Let's not keep ourselves or our children away from the real truths by perpetuating these platitudes.

Health tips

2008-02-28T10:07:00.000-08:00

The Cure for Heart Disease website offers a great deal of info about the Pauling Protocol, which is high doses of Vitamin C combined with other nutrients, particularly lysine. This protocol has reversed artery blockages as well as other miraculous health improvement. I believe this works and even tho I don't currently suffer from diseases that relate to this protocol, I think people should know about it and perhaps recommend their family and friends who do suffer from heart disease to be come informed.
http://www.paulingtherapy.com/
http://www.thecureforheartdisease.com/pauling/stories.html

The health challenge I did, and sometimes still do, suffer with is chronic inflammation, manifesting as severe joint and muscle aches, muscle weakness, urinary tract problems, headaches and fatigue.

By reading Ultrametabolism by Dr. Hyman, I learned about the ubiquitousness of inflammation in the American diet, and started to eliminate many common foods and add more nutritious foods, getting almost immediate relief.

Inflammation has been recognized as the main health issue behind a wide range of diseases, including arthritis, heart disease, cancer, strokes, Alzheimer's, allergies, asthma, diabetes, Parkinson's, aneurysms, colitis, prostate problems, and others. Chronic inflammation is a warning that something is seriously out of balance with your health. It's extremely unfortunate that most people, including doctors, have no idea about the warning signs of inflammation and don't know how to treat it. Inflammation is invisible and, until your body reacts to it, is silent. For example, researchers have discovered that if you're a woman with rheumatoid arthritis, your risk of having a heart attack increases 100 percent.

Inflammation is caused by a variety of factors. It is a major part of the body's defense system. Redness, heat, pain and swelling are part of the healing process for every bump, bruise or rash. When the body senses danger from trauma or invasion by microbes, it sets in motion a sequence of events designed to contain the danger and protect itself from additional harm. Inflamed tissue has enhanced ability to kill invading microorganisms and inflammation sets the stage for repair of damaged tissue. Inflamed tissues, whether on the surface or internal to the body, is red, swollen, hot and painful. The key is to realize that many of us suffer from inflamed internal parts: inflamed arteries; inflamed joints, diagnosed as arthritis; inflamed muscles; inflamed nerves, diagnosed as neuritis. Inflammation can show up in many forms.

The Inflammation Syndrome says in the Foreword, "Healing begins with inflammation, which nature meant to clean up damaged tissues and protect against infection. . . . When we dig deeper, we find that chronic inflammation is the consequence of an injury to the body combined with nutritional imbalances or deficiencies. To properly treat inflammatory diseases, it is essential to correct the underlying dietary problems."

A diet lacking in healthy fats is one such factor. Too much processed food, which is loaded with hydrogenated and/or trans fatty acids is another. Excess fat tissue causes inflammation. Most medications create inflammation because the body treats it as a foreign molecule in the body. Medications such as vaccinations, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and birth control pills are good examples.

Allergens are another cause because the body releases inflammatory substances (like white blood cells). Allergic reactions can occur in response to dietary allergens: food proteins (gluten, soy, casein, corn), additives (pesticides, preservatives, colorants, flavorings), contaminants (antibiotics), environmental substances, dust, air pollutants, pollen, animal dander, and toxic metals. Some individuals produce excessive body defense reactions, and the body sends out inflammatory substances that end up attacking healthy tissue. For example, gluten foods, like white flour, are not fully metabolized by the body and often create an allergic reaction, which creates inflammation.

Inflammation is also caused by viruses and infections. Stress releases excess cortisol, a hormone that suppresses anti-inflammatory response in the body, which certainly causes inflammation.

Once we understand chronic, or sustained, inflammation, we can understand why it's important to identify and eliminate the offenders. Usually, that means looking hard at white flour, all sugar and most sweeteners (you should be able to use natural agave nectar, which is low-glycemic, stevia, and xylitol), alcoholic beverages, which turn to sugar in the bloodstream, and processed meats. By all means totally eliminate processed table salt and replace all consumed salt with natural sea salt, which contains 80+ natural minerals.

Eliminate nicotine, tobacco, pesticides, herbicides, preservatives, processed and packaged foods, and refined foods. The body has a hard time digesting molecularly changed foods, for example crackers, cookies and chips, which contain many artificial substances and were probably fried in fats which were converted to trans-fats, which are hazardous to health.

Most people will not eliminate as much as is needed unless they have a good reason. So there is an education process involved. That's where Dr. Hyman's book came in . . it answered many questions in detail. There are several books on the subject of inflammation that I recommend.

Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss by Dr. Mark Hyman
I personally swear by his 6-week Plan

Ultrametabolism, the website/

The Inflammation Syndrome by Jack Challem

The Inflammation Cure by William Joel Meggs

While eliminating sources of inflammation, two other steps seem appropriate. Detoxification and nutrition. There is a lot written about both these phases of health improvement. The key seems to be to adopt an eating style which will nourish the body and build the immune system.

I put the Heart Disease Cure info first, but I wonder how that Pauling Protocol works with the understanding of inflammation? Does the Pauling Protocol also alleviate other symptoms of inflammation?

Hippocampus and UCCPOpenAccess

2008-01-30T07:26:00.000-08:00

Two awesome FREE college prep resources, both of which include multimedia textbook access lessons:

HippoCampus offers:
Algebra IA
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Elementary Algebra
American Government
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General Calculus I
General Calculus II
Introductory Calculus I
Introductory Calculus II
AP Environmental Science
Environmental Science
AP Physics B I
AP Physics B II
AP Physics C I
AP Physics C II
College Preparatory Physics I
College Preparatory Physics II
General Physics I
General Physics II
Introductory Physics I
Introductory Physics II
Psychology
Religions of the World
AP US History I
AP US History II
US History I
US History II

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Mathematics
Algebra One
AP Calculus AB
AP Calculus BC
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Virtual Labs
Biology Web Labs
AP Biology Web Labs
AP Environmental Science Virtual Labs
History / Social Science
AP US History
AP US Government & Politics
AP Psychology

Obama win in SC ! Yay!

2008-01-28T09:20:00.000-08:00

I've invited several of my friends to consider Obama for Pres. His rout in SC is impressive. And then this morning Ted Kennedy endorsed him, following Caroline Kennedy's endorsement on Sunday.

Definitely some action in his campaign.

The Singularity

2007-11-02T13:27:00.001-07:00

New things crop up all the time as I search. In searching on robotics, the notion of Artificial General Intelligence and The Singularity cropped up.

Lego Mindstorms interest dawning

2007-11-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

My 8 year old thinks that Lego Mindstorms robots are something special and in looking into them, I found out about First Lego League teams and tournaments. FLL teams are a kind of "little league of science" and I am getting pretty interested myself.

Found a lot of info and I'm thinking of ordering either a retail set or an education set, and getting a few neighborhood kids together t o start a team.

Digesting the research about Darfur

2007-06-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

My recent focus has fallen on Darfur, but this continues a lifelong theme of focusing on Africa in general. Being African-American and having been to Africa a couple of times, I am interested in the myriad of people there, in my possible ancestry and affinity to those people. I don't know where any ancestors I had might have lived so my connection is general. However, last week when I heard about Ira Newble (of the Cleveland Cavaliers) and his open letter to China about it's involvement in Sudan's oil industry, it suddenly seemed very important to understand something about the situation and become informed. I admire Newble's social consciousness, which stands in stark contrast to other athlete's silence and apparent deafness to social issues.

I'm tackling the effort one day at a time and trying to stay open minded but it's not easy. For one thing, I'm trying to dispel in myself a reluctance to confront a very real, very tragic situation. I don't like the bad news of folks experiencing hell on earth and there is a part of me that wants to continue to bury my head in the sand. But I can no longer, in good conscience, ignore what is getting increased media attention. The democrats commented about it the other night during the debate. http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0342349720070604 A brief session with Google with Darfur as a search topic reveals so many blogs, so many focused on commenting, many focused on helping in some way, or protesting in some way. It is becoming a hot issue and rightly so.

And late, by the way; I feel really late. A 2004 Washington Post article was very clear about China's investment in Sudan's oil industry and it's role in supplying arms to the government which are used on villagers, labeled rebels, as the government clears the land. [Reading that Post article, I am reminded of Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple and the letters from Nettie in Africa. Nettie wrote about a road that approached the village being built directly through the center of it, destroying several houses in the process. The chief went to protest to discover that the tribe now had to pay rent to live on the land, and in addition had to pay a water tax to use their wells. ]

Sudan is China's largest overseas oil project. China is Sudan's largest supplier of arms. China also invests in Iran's oil industry and pursuing oil ties to Angola.

That's a can of worms because China has been likened to a neo-colonial power in Africa, bringing in money so that they can secure their energy future through the oil fields of Africa, and in return get to call the shots similar to the way the white man owned villages in Africa and sat in goverment cabinets after official colonial times were over. Is this true?

China defends its role in Africa ahead of G8
By Ben Blanchard
June 4, 2007
BEIJING (Reuters) - China sought to defend its role in Africa on Monday ahead of this week's G8 summit, saying its long friendship with the continent was a force for good and shrugging off the threat of criticism at the meeting in Germany.
read more at http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/06/04/china_defends_its_role_in_africa_ahead_of_g8/

Darfur: Forget Genocide, There's Oil
By F William Engdahl *Asia Times Online May 25, 2007
To paraphrase the famous quip during the 1992 US presidential debates, when an unknown William Jefferson Clinton told then-president George Herbert Walker Bush, "It's the economy, stupid," the present concern of the current Washington administration over Darfur in southern Sudan is not, if we look closely, genuine concern over genocide against the peoples in that poorest of poor part of a forsaken section of Africa. No. "It's the oil, stupid." The case of Darfur, a forbidding piece of sun-parched real estate in the southern part of Sudan, illustrates the new Cold War over oil, where the dramatic rise in
China's oil demand to fuel its booming growth has led Beijing to embark on an aggressive policy of - ironically - dollar diplomacy. With its more than US$1.2 trillion in mainly US dollar reserves at the Peoples' National Bank of China, Beijing is engaging in active petroleum geopolitics. Africa is a major focus, and in Africa, the central region between Sudan and Chad is a priority. This is defining a major new front in what, since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, is a new Cold War between Washington and Beijing over control of major oil sources. So far Beijing has played its cards a bit more cleverly than Washington. Darfur is a major battleground in this high-stakes contest for oil control.
. . .
China has just done an oil deal that links it with two of the continent's largest nations, Nigeria and South Africa. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) will lift oil in Nigeria, via a consortium that also includes South African Petroleum Co, giving China access to what could be 175,000 barrels a day by 2008. It's a $2.27 billion deal that gives state-controlled CNOOC a 45% stake in a large off-shore oil field in Nigeria.

Previously, Nigeria had been considered in Washington to be an asset of the Anglo-American oil majors, ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron.
read more at http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/sudan/2007/0525forget.htm

That's quite a bit of explanation about the petroleum politics of the situation. What about the internal government politics of how Sudan's Khartoum central government of President Omar al-Bashir and his governors are going about accepting the big Chinese dollars?

I hope to get more info on that soon. I'm reviewing Reuters' coverage on Darfur.

http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/newsmakerDarfur

One thing catches my eye: Rwanda president "ringing an alarm bell" on Darfur
Wed May 2, 2007 8:43PM EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0242867420070503?&src=051807_1443_FEATURES

Reuters Darfur Page

A related but perhaps random thought : The Dust Bowl refugee camps of the 30s here in California. Grapes of Wrath showed some pretty money-grubbing farm agents making good money off the misery of the displaced refugees. That disaster had natural causes with human exacerbation to the misery. The stock market crash of 1929, the resulting Great Depression in 1930, and the severe drought and dust storms of 1931 through 1934 set up an involuntary great migration from the plains and midwest to California. A lot of suffering took place then. In 1936 the L.A. Police Chief sent 125 policemen to patrol the borders of Arizona and Oregon to keep "undesirables" out. The ACLU sued the city of Los Angeles. In March of '37, Roosevelt addressed the nation in his second inaugural address, stating, "I see one-third of the nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished . . . the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." In the fall of 1939, the rain comes, finally bringing an end to the drought.

How does that relate to Darfur? Good question.

In the meantime, a social entrepreneur is a person or entity that takes a business approach to solving a social problem.

May 29, 2007
Design That Solves Problems for the World’s Poor (exhibit at
the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York features inventions
designed to help the world's poor move out of poverty. )
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. from the NY Times \
“A billion customers in the world,” Dr. Paul Polak told a crowd of inventors recently, “are waiting for a $2 pair of eyeglasses, a $10 solar lantern and a $100 house.”
The world’s cleverest designers, said Dr. Polak, a former psychiatrist who now runs an organization helping poor farmers become entrepreneurs, cater to the globe’s richest 10 percent, creating items like wine labels, couture and Maseratis.
“We need a revolution to reverse that silly ratio,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/science/29cheap.html

Quotes on character education

2007-06-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Martin Luther King, Jr.

''Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you.'' Warren Buffett, From Omaha World Herald, February 1, 1994. Buffett became the 2nd wealthiest man in the USA by understanding and in investing in great companies.

The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back. Abigail Van Buren

Darfur films and current G8 news

2007-06-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

Image from http://www.worldstats.org/continents/africa/maps/africa_political.jpg

Image from http://www.newsreel.org/AFAdarfur.asp

Image from link below

California Newsreel :
All About Darfur documentary http://www.allaboutdarfur.com/ 2005

Halaqah Films: Our Story Our Voice http://www.ourstoryourvoice.com/ 2007
Google preview http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2078175686067290788

Darfur's Dirty War 2005
http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/index.php?page=archive&daysum=2005-07-13

Current
Friday, June 01, 2007

Darfur: G8 to Tell Sudan to Stop Foot-Dragging
From Reuters
A summit of major world leaders next week will send a message to Sudan that they expect Khartoum not to impede plans to end the conflict in the Darfur region, a senior Canadian official said on Friday.

http://coalitionfordarfur.blogspot.com/2007/06/darfur-g8-to-tell-sudan-to-stop-foot.html

The U.S. Role in Darfur, Sudan
Oil reserves rivaling those of Saudi Arabia?
by Sara Flounders
Global Research, June 6, 2006

excerpted from Afrikan Holocaust

U.S. interest in Sudan
Sudan is the largest country in Africa in area. It is strategically located on the Red Sea, immediately south of Egypt, and borders on seven other African countries. It is about the size of Western Europe but has a population of only 35 million people.
Darfur is the western region of Sudan. It is the size of France, with a population of just 6 million.
Newly discovered resources have made Sudan of great interest to U.S. corporations. It is believed to have oil reserves rivaling those of Saudi Arabia. It has large deposits of natural gas. In addition, it has one of the three largest deposits of high-purity uranium in the world, along with the fourth-largest deposits of copper.
Unlike Saudi Arabia, however, the Sudanese government has retained its independence of Washington. Unable to control Sudan’s oil policy, the U.S. imperialist government has made every effort to stop its development of this valuable resource. China, on the other hand, has worked with Sudan in providing the technology for exploration, drilling, pumping and the building of a pipeline and buys much of Sudan’s oil.
U.S. policy revolves around shutting down the export of oil through sanctions and inflaming national and regional antagonisms. For over two decades U.S. imperialism supported a separatist movement in the south of Sudan, where oil was originally found. This long civil war drained the central government’s resources. When a peace agreement was finally negotiated, U.S. attention immediately switched to Darfur in western Sudan.
Recently, a similar agreement between the Sudanese government and rebel groups in Darfur was rejected by one of the groups, so the fighting continues. The U.S. poses as a neutral mediator and keeps pressing Khartoum for more concessions but “through its closest African allies helped train the SLA and JEM Darfuri rebels that initiated Khartoum’s violent reaction.” (www.afrol.com)
http://www.africanholocaust.net/news_ah/darfur%20report.html

The Purpose of Education by Martin Luther King, Jr.

2007-06-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

January-February 1947 Atlanta, Ga.
Writing in the Morehouse College campus newspaper, the Maroon Tiger, King argues that education has both a utilitarian and a moral function. Citing the example of Georgia's former governor Eugene Talmadge, he asserts that reasoning ability is not enough. He insists that character and moral development are necessary to give the critical intellect humane purposes. King, Sr., later recalled that his son told him, "Talmadge has a Phi Beta Kappa key, can you believe that? What did he use all that precious knowledge for? To accomplish what?"
As I engage in the so-called "bull sessions" around and about the school, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Most of the "brethren" think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.
It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.
Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one's self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.
The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.
The late Eugene Talmadge, in my opinion, possessed one of the better minds of Georgia, or even America. Moreover, he wore the Phi Beta Kappa key. By all measuring rods, Mr. Talmadge could think critically and intensively; yet he contends that I am an inferior being. Are those the types of men we call educated?
We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.
If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, "brethren!" Be careful, teachers!

PD. Maroon Tiger (January-February 1947)

reprinted from The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume I Called to Serve January 1929-June 1951
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/papers/vol1/470200-The_Purpose_of_Education.htm

Darfur - an opportunity to help stop the violence against women

2007-06-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Reducing Rape/Violence against Women in Darfur

Info: http://darfurstoves.lbl.gov/index.html

Giving:
http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/1700/proj1632a.html
http://www.chfhq.org/content/general/detail/2927

A more fuel-efficient stove reduces the number of wood-collecting ventures made by IDP women and increases the number of cooked meals possible from purchased wood.

CHF International and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) at Berkley University conducted research in North and South Darfur to understand the household parameters related to family size, food, fuel, cooking habits, cooking pots, expenditure on fuel, and preferences related to alternative ways to spend time/money if fuel could be saved. The research teams found that a significant fraction of families are missing meals for lack of fuel—50% in South Darfur, and 90% in the North Darfur camps that were surveyed.

Darfur - an opportunity and a test

2007-05-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

Cold, Lonely and Tired

I'm not feeling that way, at least not now, thank God, but I read that phrase in a book and it reminded me of times in the past when I did feel that way. It wasn't fun, to say the least. It was very difficult and confusing. I mean, the words aren't really there to describe my dark phases but I also know, deep in my heart, that what seemed dark to me is really just a cloud cover to someone else. I haven't hit the bottom of human despair and hopefully never will. Maybe I don't possess that depth to my character and emotions. Maybe I'm just too superficial. Either way, I'm glad to dodge that bullet, if indeed I have dodged it.

I try to help other people in my own feeble way. My heart goes out to people in suffering. I really admire that NBA Cleveland Cavaliers player Ira Newble for his effort to get signatures on an open letter to the government of China regarding its investments and business dealings in Sudan -- where hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions have become refugees in Darfur Province. I want to help. And I'm happy that he wants to help. Sports and politics are uneasy bedfellows but there is plenty of precedent for it; example: Jackie Robinson. Olympics and South Africa. Olympics and Black Power. That kid Newble is less self-absorbed, I assume, than the average athlete.

So today I seek more information about Darfur and have turned up several nuggets for consideration. The most interesting nugget so far has been the counter to the genocide portrayal. I'm not well-informed at this moment, but I am trying to become informed and to that end, I'm reading up on both sides of the story.

One fact about the Darfur situation is Darfur, a region in western Sudan, is in a continuing armed conflict, mostly between the Janjaweed (comprised of Arab-identifying Sudanese) and the non-Arab Sudanese.

My heart is moved and I can only imagine the plight of people who are living through this civil conflict. I don't have any particular link to be able to help right now, but I hope to find some way soon.

I also don't feel that we should go in militarily and deny the sovereignty of Darfur the way we did in Iraq. I especially don't want to see African leaders just steamrollered, since I'm African-American. However, is this a reason for non-intervention?

Who cares whether the Sudan government has a written plan to genocide Africans or not? They are sponsoring the killing of between 200,000 and 500,000 and still continuing. Let's condemn these killings with maximum intensity. Let's point the finger at the perpetrators and pursue the cease and desist of it immediately.

Clearly there are several points of view to be considered: Western, Arab and African sources need to be considered.

In the meantime, here's the info I've been reading:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/30/asia/AS-GEN-China-US-Sudan.php
US briefs China on move to sanction Sudan for its role in Darfur
The Associated PressPublished: May 30, 2007

"BEIJING: The U.S. briefed China on Wednesday about the administration's plans to introduce a new U.N. Security Council resolution sanctioning Sudan's government for failing to do enough to halt the bloodshed in Darfur."

"The U.S., which has condemned the crisis in Darfur as genocide, has long pushed for a tougher stance against Sudan's government, while China has consistently opposed attempts to pressure Khartoum, saying the issue should be resolved through diplomatic negotiations.

"Hill refused to talk about the gap in their positions, and gave few additional details about his conversation with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei. He said [that] he expressed support for China's decision to send engineers to Darfur to support a small force of U.N. peacekeepers that Sudan has agreed to."

http://www.darfurinfo.org/

From http://www.darfurgenocide.org/index.php

"The ongoing Darfur Genocide is no accident, no local tribal conflict. The genocide is the brutal plan of three men in the Sudanese national Government -- President Bashir, Vice-President Taha, Security Chief Gosh. Now they are spreading their system of terror to other African countries, including Chad and the Central African Republic . Yet our governments continue to cut deals with them - deals they repeatedly break. It is time for the US and European governments to stop appeasing genocide. We call on our governments to fully support the International Criminal Court to indict the perpetrators of genocide, and to help ensure their arrest. It is time for justice, because only justice can bring peace. "

http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/sudan/about/

A counter definition and opinion. Should we consider both sides of the story?

The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency by Mahmood Mamdani
NEWS STORY Friday, March 23, 2007
Mahmood Mamdani is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and a professor of anthropology at Columbia University. His most recent book is Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the Roots of Terror.
This article originally appeared in the London Review of Books

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n05/mamd01_.html
There several letters to the editor regarding the article are published, as well as a response from Mamood Mamdani, published 26 April 2007.

Also published in full at http://www.sudanembassy.org/default.asp?page=viewstory&id=485

"At a press conference at the UN on 23 September 2004 Obasanjo was asked to pronounce on the violence in Darfur: was it genocide or not? His response was very clear:
Before you can say that this is genocide or ethnic cleansing, we will have to have a definite decision and plan and programme of a government to wipe out a particular group of people, then we will be talking about genocide, ethnic cleansing. What we know is not that. What we know is that there was an uprising, rebellion, and the government armed another group of people to stop that rebellion. That’s what we know. That does not amount to genocide from our own reckoning. It amounts to of course conflict. It amounts to violence. "

"The journalist in the US most closely identified with consciousness-raising on Darfur is the New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof, often identified as a lone crusader on the issue. To peruse Kristof’s Darfur columns over the past three years is to see the reduction of a complex political context to a morality tale unfolding in a world populated by villains and victims who never trade places and so can always and easily be told apart. It is a world where atrocities mount geometrically, the perpetrators so evil and the victims so helpless that the only possibility of relief is a rescue mission from the outside, preferably in the form of a military intervention."

"Newspaper writing on Darfur has sketched a pornography of violence. It seems fascinated by and fixated on the gory details, describing the worst of the atrocities in gruesome detail and chronicling the rise in the number of them. The implication is that the motivation of the perpetrators lies in biology (‘race’) and, if not that, certainly in ‘culture’. This voyeuristic approach accompanies a moralistic discourse whose effect is both to obscure the politics of the violence and position the reader as a virtuous, not just a concerned observer."

"The camp of peace needs to come to a second realisation: that peace cannot be built on humanitarian intervention, which is the language of big powers. The history of colonialism should teach us that every major intervention has been justified as humanitarian, a ‘civilising mission’. Nor was it mere idiosyncrasy that inspired the devotion with which many colonial officers and archivists recorded the details of barbarity among the colonised – sati, the ban on widow marriage or the practice of child marriage in India, or slavery and female genital mutilation in Africa. I am not suggesting that this was all invention. I mean only to point out that the chronicling of atrocities had a practical purpose: it provided the moral pretext for intervention. Now, as then, imperial interventions claim to have a dual purpose: on the one hand, to rescue minority victims of ongoing barbarities and, on the other, to quarantine majority perpetrators with the stated aim of civilising them. Iraq should act as a warning on this score. The worst thing in Darfur would be an Iraq-style intervention. That would almost certainly spread the civil war to other parts of Sudan, unravelling the peace process in the east and south and dragging the whole country into the global War on Terror."

From the footnotes of the London Book Review article:
‘Those tribes in Darfur who support rebels have increasingly come to be identified as “African” and those supporting the government as the “Arabs”. A good example to illustrate this is that of the Gimmer, a pro-government African tribe that is seen by the African tribes opposed to the government as having been “Arabised”.’ On the other hand, this development was being promoted from the outside: ‘The Arab-African divide has also been fanned by the growing insistence on such divide in some circles and in the media.’

Darfur Crisis
By Mahmood Mamdani
29 October, 2004
Black Commentator
http://www.countercurrents.org/darfur-mamdani291004.htm

"What Should We Do?
First of all, we the civilians - and I address Africans and Americans in particular - should work against a military solution. We should work against a US intervention, whether direct or by proxy, and however disguised - as humanitarian or whatever. We should work against punitive sanctions. The lesson of Iraq sanctions is that you target individuals, not governments. Sanctions feed into a culture of terror, of collective punishment. Its victims are seldom its target. Both military intervention and sanctions are undesirable and ineffective."

"Finally, there is need to beware of groups who want a simple and comprehensive explanation, even if it is misleading; who demand dramatic action, even if it backfires; who have so come to depend on crisis that they risk unwittingly aggravating existing crisis. Often, they use the call for urgent action to silence any debate as a luxury. And yet, responsible action needs to be informed."

"For the African Union, Darfur is both an opportunity and a test. The opportunity is to build on the global concern over a humanitarian disaster in Darfur to set a humanitarian standard that must be observed by all, including America's allies in Africa. And the test is to defend African sovereignty in the face of official America's global "war on terror." On both counts, the first priority must be to stop the war and push the peace process."

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/41564
The politics of apologetics: genocide denial, Darfur version
Kwesi Kwaa Prah (2007-05-22)
Kwesi Kwaa Prah critiques Mahmood Mamdani's writings on Darfur. He posits: 'Mamdani indulges in technicist sophistry, tip-toeing nimbly around the real issues in Darfur and effectively providing solace to the Khartoum regime.'

A lot of thoughts

2007-05-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

Dealing with a 14 year old young man and staring my 53rd birthday dead in the face . . . seems like a weird juxtaposition of events.

I don't have a teenager, I have a 7 year old who wants to be a teenager.

But enough about them, I find me more fascinating :)

Actually, there isn't probably any one thread I can use to tie all my recent thoughts together but I want to try.

Soul Hunger
Critical Thinking
Best Friend Forever Mother
Humility and Forgiveness
Making every day Count
Family Routine

It's a blessing to have a family. The bible says God puts the lonely in families. Family gives us our place, the belonging place. That is our foundation and it's much more than I ever knew when I first wanted a baby. Luckily, I learned more about how to make a family as I went along and was it a hard lesson. Still learning that lesson, too. That "loneliness" is a form of soul hunger and the instinct to make family is the human drive to fill the emptiness of life. That's not to say that all lives without families are empty but it takes a lot to fill the emptiness; family seems like a built in mechanism to make it happen a little easier.

Most of us learned how to nourish our bodies and their are enough fast food joints on most corners to give us the illusion of nutrition and to at least fill the belly. We don't necessarily learn to nourish our souls and reach satisfaction in the heart. I use the word contentment to describe that soul satisfaction.

What creates contentment, inner peace? How the hell am I supposed to know? I just posed the question! But really, religions and self-help industries have been formed to answer that question so I don't presume to even go there. But without some way of nourishing one's soul, one walks through life hungry, perhaps ravenous, on the soul level. Empty and aching and perhaps confused, a person can get horribly lost and twisted.

That brings me both to critical thinking and to best friend mother. Both are ways to unravel the twists and turns and ease the aches of soul starvation and straighten out the faulty thinking and twisted characters that can result from the lack of both. I think we need both a nurturing and accepting mother self and an analytical and methodical critical-thinking self. Those two being war in me and most of the time the critic wins.

So that's where humility and forgiveness comes in and makes it possible for me to live with myself, despite all the mistakes I am prone to make. Knowing I am a fallen and flawed human being, I can yet freely admit that and ask forgiveness of the person/people I do or might offend. I can say "I was wrong" or "I was foolish" or "Man, that was silly of me." Saying that, I don't take pride in it or get there easily but I can eventually get there. It's not easy to admit one's errors or even to see them, but seeing them and seeing oneself as fallible makes one easier to live with and to be a family with. Somehow this notion isn't a popular one and I think it's because of Darwin, and his survival of the fittest notion. We want to see ourselves as "the fittest" so that we can see ourselves as winners and at least as survivors. However, I think this evolutionary treadmill theory taints our thinking and puts us in a competitive mode all the time. Or I could be wrong and it actually is a natural law (like gravity) and we are truly going to get hunted down by the alpha dog and eliminated if we admit to a weakness. Hmmm . . . I'll stick with my humility and forgiveness story, at least for now.

Now I come to making every day count. I get there by virtue of pulling up hard on 53. Never give up, never surrender. Every day dawns and offers a new beginning. Renewal. Rejuvenation. Lots of forces rally against those truths. The cycle of life and the circle of life and the rut of living. No matter what we do, we are part of the circle of life yet we don't have to stay in the rut of living. At least not in America. At least not most of us. That's the theory of the American Dream anyway. So I say, make every day count, one new word at a time, one new thought at a time. Keep hope alive, basically. Thanks, Jesse.

And the family routine, as much of a rut as it can be, still serves us well. It gives us a foundation, a base to start each of those new dawns. We can get our faces washed, teeth brushed, clothes on, that cup of coffee, and get fueled in our bodies and in our souls to start this day off with the notion that every day counts, we can start over, we can be forgiven for being the wretch that we are, we can still count on mom and dad despite being a fickle 14 year old, we can still count on hubby / wife despite being an aging hausfrau/house husband. We can start this day knowing we can both think analytically and nurture others; and knowing that we can benefit from others nurture and clear thinking.

That's it; that's all.

2007-05-14T06:13:00.000-07:00

What's going on? Homeschooling for 3 more weeks, remodeling, shopping for new furniture, painting, reinstalling new fireplace mantel, new carpet, joined WeightWatchers for the first time, sauna and swimming and walking.

Blogging is getting further down the list, unfortunately.

I started the weight loss trail on year ago. I lost 48 and put back on 13 so I've lost 35 total. I am hoping to lost at least 20 more this summer, and more for the rest of this year. I took a break from Thanksgiving through end of April, so it actually isn't to awfully bad.

Snow on Vesuvius

2007-03-29T23:07:00.001-07:00

Vesuvius Day 20 234, originally uploaded by hallsan.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that in the morning, there were patches of snow on the trail.

Sun coming out

2007-03-29T23:05:00.001-07:00

Vesuvius Day 20 226, originally uploaded by hallsan.

Our walk was overcast on the trail but as we started down, the sun started to reach the trail a bit. It wasn't exactly a clear view from the top, but I kept snapping hoping to get a good light that would allow us to see the Bay of Naples and the city of Naples lit up. Vesuvius is known for having heavy cloulds at the top.

Vesuvius crater view

2007-03-29T22:44:00.001-07:00

Vesuvius Day 20 209, originally uploaded by hallsan.

Vesuvius Top

2007-03-29T22:43:00.001-07:00

Vesuvius Day 20 208, originally uploaded by hallsan.

Western view.

Nathan and Isaac by the smoking crater

2007-03-29T22:42:00.001-07:00

Vesuvius Day 20 204, originally uploaded by hallsan.

It was good to start heading down.

Top of the West Side

2007-03-29T22:41:00.001-07:00

Vesuvius Day 20 198, originally uploaded by hallsan.

Nathan and Isaac were pretending to be Sam and Frodo returning the ring. The baby was Smeagle, which was pretty mean.

Sweet Isaiah and Daniela

2007-03-29T22:36:00.001-07:00

Vesuvius Day 20 197, originally uploaded by hallsan.

Here we are at the farthest place we can go on this trail.

Smoking crater

2007-03-29T22:32:00.001-07:00

Vesuvius Day 20 185, originally uploaded by hallsan.

I don'thave a wide angle lens, so I snapped a lot of shots to try to record the majesty of the crater, which is huge. It was smoking in spots as well.

Hiking Mt. Vesuvius

2007-03-29T22:29:00.001-07:00

Vesuvius Day 20 245, originally uploaded by hallsan.

Isaiah, Daniela, Isaac, Nathan and I hiked up the mountain to the very top in an hour and an half. We had to walk at a 2 year old's pace but it was fine.

Stonehenge Day 10

2007-03-17T13:55:00.001-07:00

Stonehenge, originally uploaded by hallsan.

Well, it was cold and windy yet very impressive. We listened to an audio tour while we walked around the awesome, towering stonehenge. The tour was devoid of spiritual content, IMO. The mystery of how is matched with the mystery of why these humungous stones were brought here from 200 miles away by people assumed to be primitive. But nevertheless, I felt an unspoken spiritual richness about the place and was impressed with the feat and the results.

Oxfam Unwrapped - Gifts with conscience

2007-03-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

Oxfam Unwrapped How does the scheme work?
You buy a gift from Oxfam Unwrapped. You receive a card and a fridge magnet that represents the gift that you have chosen to give to your friend or family member. Someone in the developing world receives this gift. Whether it be an alpaca to earn a living from, the means to plant an allotment or safe water to drink – the result is that their lives are much improved!

I suggest that we all consider this when thinking of gifts to buy our friends. Help the poverty stricken in Ethiopia or Rwanda or dozens of other countries in Africa with gifts that they really need. You can help in Asia, South America and Mexico. It's a marvelous and very special gift to give a friend.

America also has an option: http://www.oxfamamericaunwrapped.com/

My husband has a last minute birthday party to go to and I thought of a fishing net (yes, a net http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com/ProductItem.aspx?ProductID=OU2601) for his colleague. Hope he likes it.

Adding to the Yarn Stash

2007-03-16T02:21:00.001-07:00

Reading day 8 Yarn Stash, originally uploaded by hallsan.

Even tho I'm thousands of miles from home, I knew I would find something to add to my yarn stash. I found a good deal on something different . . . Hobbycraft had R2 Paper Tape (148 yrds) 100% Nylon and R2 Rag (27 yds) 100% Cotton each for 49p (about $1.00). I got 4 ball of Blue Paper Tape and 13 balls of Rag (4 black, 4 sky blue and 5 khaki). I started a patchwork crochet throw with the paper tape, to give us something to throw around us when we sit on the sofa. I figure it's cheap to play with until I decide to buy something nice.

HobbyCraft Yarn Department

2007-03-15T06:09:00.001-07:00

Hobbycraft Reading, originally uploaded by hallsan.

Not bad selection . . . average british prices

Local Yarn Shops in Reading

2007-03-15T03:48:00.000-07:00

I've already found 3 nice yarn shops in the local area:

1. Jackson's Department Store on King Street http://www.jacksonsofreading.co.uk/lifestyle.htm , very old style but friendly.
2. John Lewis in The Oracle http://www.johnlewis.com/Shops/DSShop.aspx?Id=19 , a very well-lit, modern and clean yarn selection, with lots of notions and a nice selection of fabric.
3. Hobbycraft, Forbury Retail Park, Off Kenavon Drive, http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/ . Going to check it out in a few minutes.

I bought a knitting kit for my son . . . it's an octopus for fun. Knitting is not easy for a 7 year old, tho. 6.99 pounds was a bit steep for 4mm needles and yarn with instructions but he was excited.

I will be starting something with either the camouflage yarn I brought with me or with something new I pick up at HobbyCraft.

Reading - along Chestnut Walk near the Abbey ruin

2007-03-15T02:39:00.001-07:00

Reading, originally uploaded by hallsan.

We are having a good time walking around town. This is a footpath on the River Kennet, not too far from the apartment.

This weekend, we'll visit Stonehenge, for what that's worth. It's far out into nowhere, about 90 minutes from here.

By train From Paddington Station, London to Maidenhead then drive to Reading, Berkshire

2007-03-13T00:58:00.001-07:00

google map from paddington to reading, originally uploaded by hallsan.

Reading is not very far from London. We'll walk around Reading today. There is a mall called The Oracle which is a 20 minute walk from the apartment. Isaac and I will tackle it later today, if it's as beautiful and sunny as it was yesterday.

UK day 4- Move from London to Reading UK

2007-03-12T16:03:00.001-07:00

UK Day 4 - Move from London to Reading, originally uploaded by hallsan.

We moved to Reading, a town in Berkshire . . .Berkshire is a county in the South of England, to the West of London, in the Thames Valley. It is one of the oldest counties in England, dating back to the setting of county borders by King Alfred the Great. Berkshire saw many battles throughout history, from Alfred's fight against the Danes to two battles in Newbury in the Civil War, and the Battle of Reading in the Revolution of 1688.

The county was often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire, due to it's being the home of the monarch, and this title was formally ratified in 1958. However the Berkshire County Council was dissolved in 1998. The county now exists only geographically and in ceremonial matters.

The move took place by train from Paddington Station to Maidenhead. We took a taxi to pick up Henry's car, then he drove to Reading where we now live in a very nice 2 bedroom 2 bath flat.

London day 2 029

2007-03-11T19:07:00.001-07:00

London day 2 029, originally uploaded by hallsan.

Okay, we got our grub on at this steak house, but I wasn't that impressed with the steak I had. It was nice to sit by the window, tho, and watch the Piccadilly Circus go by.

2007-03-03T11:28:00.000-08:00

ISBN 4893968556
ISBN 4579110811

Couple of new japanese craft books: Relax Goods, and Quilted Items.

I hope to take them with me on my trip to London. I'll be taking some needles and some fabric for some handsewing. Also some crochet needles and yarn to keep my hands busy. I checked the TSA website and apparently crochet needles aren't a problem. I'm carrying a selfaddressed stamped envelope with me just in case I need to mail a confiscated item back home.

New interest - Japanese crafting books

2007-02-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

After getting acquainting with the inspiring and excellent crafters in the blogsphere, I got interested in the Japanese craft books I'd been seeing. I contacted one gracious lady about her post about a book and she gave good advice about trying to buy through several online sites, including ebay. They have a lovely selection. I tried and tried and was tempted but didn't buy anything.

Then I searched on Japanese book stores and discovered that we have a great Japanese bookstore within 20 minutes drive of my house. Sunday, I visited it along with my son and god son, who are anime and manga enthusiasts. Lo and behold I found good stuff and better yet, I discovered I could order just about any book and they would call me and not charge me shipping!! What a deal!

The Sanseido bookstore has a website http://www.books-sanseido.co.jp/ but I found it difficult to navigate, considering I don't read or speak Japanese.

The clerk used this website http://www.bk1.co.jp (all Japanese of course) which is much more intuitive and allows one to search on ISBNs and see the covers. Very helpful.

So, I bought 3 books off the shelf and ordered 4 books.
Bought:

1. 4-8347-2396-8 Sew smart with only 50cm cloth 2006/03 $11.60

2. 4072464805 Every everyday of ホビーラホビーレ it needs, bag selection 2005/06 Bought for $17.40.

flat bag, tote bag, bucket tote bag, granny bag, lagoon bag.

3. 4-309-28033-1 Watabe サト work 2005/10 $17.40

Shoes, bed cover, hat, coaster, bag, apron, cushion cover, curtain, pouch, etc.

ORDERED through Sanseido bookstore for cover price and no shipping.

1. 4-569-63553-9 As for Tokyo it is the どめ well club compilation 2004/06 $20.30

2. 4-8347-2235-X The ever popular Cozy handbag and pouchettes ふ or ふ or bag & pouch (ready boutique series sewing)

2005/1 $12.35

3. 4-579-11023-4 ZAKKA where it is and the っ does and would like to live in the ょ 2004/11 $20.30

4. 4-8347-2366-6 The cloth which is made with natural material it is dense the thing (ready boutique series sewing) Using the linen and the cotton, and the wool a little, the cloth of the miscellaneous goods feeling which it makes it is dense thing collection 2006/01 $12.35

Crafting philosophy: physical items tell a story

2007-02-24T11:56:00.001-08:00

Sometimes, my own words seem excessive to express profound thoughts. I borrowed these from proverbial Celtic wisdom. These sayings capture elements of a thoughtful life and which I strive to embrace, with emphasis on truth. Being mother to a 7 year old and a 32 year old somehow makes these reflections about good character really relevant to me. And it's an odd reality that living a truthful life, a skillful life, a hopeful life and joyful life, and a full life all can be expressed somehow through one's art and craft.

Three aims to the future: planting trees, improving handicraft, and rearing lawful children.

It is easier to determine the truth when these three prime evidences are existent: physical items which tell a story; trustworthy witnesses which tell their story; and concurrence with known truths. .

Three things by which excellence is established: Taking all things in moderation with nothing in excess; abidance to oaths; and acceptance of responsibility.

Three things from which never to be moved: one's oaths; one's Gods; and the truth.

Three things which strengthen a person to stand against the whole world: Seeing the quality and beauty of truth; seeing beneath the cloak of falsehood; and seeing to what ends truth and falsehood come.

There are three things excellent among worldly affairs: hating folly; loving excellence; and endeavoring constantly to learn.

Three manifestations of excellence : the honoring of parents, the respecting of the aged, and instructing the young; and to this a fourth, defending of infancy and innocence.

Three ways to lose excellence: to become a servant to one's passions, to not learn from the examples set by others, to indulge to excess.

Three manifestations of humanity: Affectionate bounty; loving manner; and praiseworthy knowledge.

Three things which spring from following lawful goodness: universal love from the Wise; worldly sufficiency, and better place in the life to come.

Three things without which there can be nothing good: truth; peace; and generosity.

Three beautiful beings of the world: the upright, the skillful, and the reasonable.

Three tendencies of a persons lifetime: hope, love, and joy.

Three marvelous deeds: to forgive a wrong done, to amend everything possible, and to refrain from injustice.

Three joys of the happy: avoidance of excess, peace, and loyalty.

Three antagonists of goodness: arrogance, passion, and covetousness.

Three rewards of those who learn to temper their emotions: experience, strength, and introspection.

There are three kingdoms of the happy: the world's good word, a cheerful conscience, and firm hope of the life to come.

Three things which make one glad: their mate loving them, their labor prospering, and their conscience easy.

http://www.technoharp.com/WychWood/triads.htm

WA$TED! - The Official Website - only on TV3

2007-02-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

WA$TED! - The Official Website - only on TV3 A TV show about going green!!!! Brilliant!!

:: rag-bag ::

2007-02-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

:: rag-bag :: I love these business that have figured out how to use our wasted plastic or used plastic and make something productive and useful!

Cohda Design - Innovative Product Solutions

2007-02-23T10:31:00.000-08:00

Cohda Design - Innovative Product Solutions Recycling plastic bags at the highest level!

Isabelle Teste

2007-02-23T09:47:00.000-08:00

Isabelle Teste has definitely inspired me to be even more creative and diligent about repurposing/refashioning and upcycling.