To those Born 1930-1968

Do you want a good laugh? A friend emailed this to me and I just could not stop laughing, ..but then you have to be in your 40's and 50's to really really get it! It's a bit long, but worth the read! There is so much truth in this and it just shows what a "fear based" society we have become:

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer! s, no Internet or chat rooms.......

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!

Pledge of Allegiance

Oh! this is too funny:

"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

~Jay Leno, Emmy-winning American comedian who is best known as the current host of NBC television's long-running variety and talk program The Tonight Show.

Quote by Luciano de Crescenzo

Hat tip Corey
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The Most Charitable Nation

Charitable giving by Americans rose 4.2% to almost $300 billion in 2006, setting a record for the third straight year. When I first read this headline, I thought that majority of donation must have come from foundations and corporations. I was wrong, $222 billion of that came from individuals, and 65% of individual giving came from homes with less than $100,000 in annual income!

Now, I call this an inspiring, moving and touching news and great to be part of this charitable country.

For link click here and here

Hmmm....Words of wisdom from a cartoon artist!

link

Good News Links

Can water fuel world?
Is the solution to America's energy needs as simple as a trip to the beach?
The idea is a fascinating one as a Florida man searching for a cancer cure may have stumbled onto a virtually limitless source of energy: salt water.

Women lawyers force big rights gains in Uganda
In the small, dusty waiting lounge of a law office in Uganda's capital, Kampala, a cluster of women sits patiently. Some grip stacks of paperwork – about divorce, child custody, and wills – that they don't understand while they wait for free legal advice. There are hundreds of groups in Africa advocating women's rights. But few, if any, have been as effective in alleviating the injustices suffered by women as this small group of lawyers in Uganda.
In April, the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA-U) achieved its most significant legal success to date when the nation's Constitutional Court overturned key parts of the adultery law – which allowed married men, but not women, to have an affair. It also scrapped parts of the Succession Act, which gave more rights to husbands than wives when a spouse dies. But more important for many of the lawyers here is the ability to improve the individual lives of the women they advise.

Project Iraqi Kids Makes Its Way To Iraq
"Members of American Legion Post 256 from Tennessee are supporting the war effort by raising money to purchase school supplies for Iraqi children. The effort, called 'Project Iraqi Kids,' generates funds to buy school supplies to be shipped to U.S. units in Iraq. Elements of the 1st Cavalry Division and the 3rd Infantry Division are scheduled to start distributing the supplies in late June."

Two-year-old 'Matilda' becomes youngest ever girl in Mensa
Her parents knew Georgia Brown was bright. After all, she could count to ten, recognised her colours and was even starting to dabble with French. But it was only when their bubbly little two-year-old took an IQ test that her towering intellect was confirmed. Georgia has become the youngest female member of Mensa after scoring a genius-rated IQ of 152.

Happiness or Pleasure?

Seek happiness not pleasure....

But pleasures are like poppies spread,
you seize the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white - then melts forever

Tam O'Shanter

Khaled Hosseini

The Author of Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini, was in town for book signing and I went to see him. He read a portion of his second novel and answered some questions. I was surprised to see how young he was and how funny he was!
Where Kite Runner was mostly about men's story in pre and post Taliban era in Afghanistan, his second novel is about Afghani women and motherhood. The cruelty that Afghani women, specially widowed women, have experienced during Taliban era is so inhuman, which many Western readers find it hard to believe that women can endure so much brutality and injustice under religious laws. Even though both books are sad stories but the second one does have an uplifting ending with full of hopes for future of Afghanistan. Here is how the book ends with this poem by famous Persian poet, Hafez:

Joseph shall return to Canaan, grieve not,
Hovel's shall turn to rose gardens, grieve not.
If a flood should arrive, to drown all that's alive,
Noah is your guide in the typhoon's eye, grieve not.

What a great author to represent the new Afghanistan. He also talked about his role at UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and wanted people to get involved. So here is the link.

Oh! and if you don't have the time to read, don't worry, the Kite Runner movie will be released in Fall of 2007. Link.

To believe or not to believe

Lately, there have been too many books out there on Religion and God. But the two that have gotten the most attentions are "God is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens, a journalist, and the other "The Language of God" by Francis Collins, a leading DNA scientist.

I have not read them yet but I have been a fan of both men for a different reasons. But here they are now, writing the opposite side of each-other. The economist Magazine has reviewed both books and here is an excerpt:

"Christopher Hitchens, a polemicist whose tone is that of an erudite straight-talker, does not. Like Mr Gosse, he started non-belief young. Near the beginning of “God is Not Great” he describes his rebellion when confronted with an effusive divinity teacher at school who pointed to the beauty of hedgerows in the English countryside as evidence of His creation. Mr Hitchens has been skewering the syllogistic arguments of the religious in the name of science ever since.

Mr Francis Collins is a scientist. He confronts Darwin daily in his work as head of the human genome project. He writes well about how, as the code on which DNA is written began to reveal itself, his faith and sense of wonder increased. Mr Collins has no time for intelligent design but conceives God to be of the non-interfering sort, a kind of divine CCTV camera. Yet he believes that Jesus was His son and he prays regularly."

If you are more interested, here is another review by Hitchen's brother, Peter Hitchens, reviewing his own brothers work in Daily Mail.

I am a strong believer and I would love to read both books.

Inspiring News Link

Honest Airport Worker Lands Handsome Reward
While working at his second job with an airline in Kansas City, Robert Lewis peeked into a bag to find "$266,000 worth of individually wrapped diamond rings and wedding bands." He turned the sack over to police, and for his honesty he received a $10,000 reward from the jewelry store that owned them.

Hanoi Restaurant Turns Poor Kids into Gourmet Chefs
Since 1999, "street kids have learned to cook delicious Vietnamese and Western dishes, tend bar, wait tables and speak some English" through the work of a non-profit restaurant in Hanoi. The beautiful Koto grounds are famous for an 11th-century pagoda and university, but for the 200 graduates of the training, some moving on to 5-star kitchens, "It is the discovery that they can achieve their potential, that they are valued and that they are loved."

ISAF saving children’s lives
SAF and Afghan National Security Force engineers hosted a land-mine awareness day to provide potential life-saving education for children on the dangers of land mines and other explosive devices. “We hope to save thousands of young lives ended needlessly by making the children aware how dangerous mines are,” said Capt. Anna Swan, ISAF engineer, who arranged the event.

Here is a link to Heroes' stories

Thanks!

I am writing my 200th post today! When I decided to start my own blog 6 months ago, I could not have imagined the "virtual friends" that I have come to know through this blog, let alone to receive gifts from them. Just last week, I received several wonderful gifts from Carmen. A lady that I have never met in person, but we met through our thoughts and minds. Thanks Carmen for your lovely gesture, You also have a surprise in the mail from me!

I also want to thank all my readers for their support and their regular comments. Hopefully you have, at least once, been inspired, moved and touched by a post that I have published here. If you have, then I have reached my original goal.

So Thank you Serendip, Regina, Jill, Blue the Spa Girl, The Enchanted soul, Magical droplets, ZaneIrani, Tori, Tongue in cheek, Alireza, tata, and all others for leaving Anonymous comments during the last six months.

Namaste! (I honor the Spirit in you which is also in me)

Answers will come!

"I beg you...to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually , without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ( 1875 – 1926) is considered one of the German language's greatest 20th century poets.

Origin Of Thought

I have picked up a book by Charles Haanel again. I have blogged about him before and I can not stress enough how great this book is for the "mind shift".

He believed that mind in action is a thought, and thought is creative. Men are thinking now as they never thought before. Therefor, this is a creative age, and the world is awarding its richest prizes to the thinkers. Matter is powerless, passive, inert. Mind is force, energy, power. Mind shapes and controls matter. Every form which matter takes is but the expression of some preexisting thought. But thought works no magic transformation; it obeys natural laws, it sets n motion natural forces, it re lases natural energies; it manifests in your conduct and actions, and these in turn react upon your friends and acquaintances, and eventually upon the whole of your environment. You can originate thought and since thoughts are creative you can create yourself the things you desire.

His ideas are extremely perfound, specially, when you learn that he said it in 1912. This book(which actually it's more a system than a book) called The Master Key System, is simply one of the finest studies in personal power, metaphysics, and prosperity consciousness ever written. Read it if you can!

Who creates our reality?

There are two camps developing throughout the world. One dwells upon how bad everything is: we are all in trouble; the economy is crashing; with Global Warming we won’t have enough food or water (or too much water) and a whole platter of other problems that continue to get worse. The second camp is growing rapidly, a movement of forward thinkers bringing awareness to the fact that our thoughts and feelings are creating our reality.

The greatest philosophies and religions say that we were made in the image of the great Creator.

This growing second camp of “Forward Thinkers” focuses on the positive. Solutions are foremost in their thoughts. They shift the bad news and concentrate on fixing the problems.

The big question is: Will the second camp grow fast enough to offset the first camp within the next 20 years, a critical time in which to offset the growth rate of the problems.

Well, have you thought which camp do you belong to? Its worth pondering about! I will be posting more on this subject later this week.

Excerpts from: Good News Network and Click here and here for additional interesting read.
Painting source

Visible God

I accompanied my younger son to his field trip today to see Alexi Jawlensky's exhibitions and I saw this painting (left) where he said: "I know that great art should only be painted with religious feeling and that was something I could bring only to the human face. I realized that the artist must express that within him which is divine. That is why the world of art is a visible God, and why art is a longing for God"

I just loved what he had to say and that is exactly what I feel when I see a masterpiece.


Painting: "Abstract Head: Life and Death," 1923, oil and pencil on cardboard, 16 3/4 x 12 7/8 inches.

The Dangerous Book For Boys

My boys are reading, The Dangerous Book For Boys, and enjoying every page of it. There is nothing dangerous in it. It just shows how to build/do/make things and how to have fun like a boy. It's written for boys, and men who remember what it was like to be a boy. There is a chapter about poems that every boy should know, a chapter about girls, famous battles, Dog tricks, Artillery, clouds formations, knots, etc, etc. (watch the video on Amazon.com, click the link above).

It has been a great success in Britain and Australia for the last 12 months and was just released in America, and it's already best seller! It's a great book for father/son bonding and It's absolutely adorable gift to give.

Here is one of the poems in the book by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936):

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

You can read the complete poem here.

Define Success

I was watching an interview with Warren Buffet last night (Buffet is the second richest man in the world). He was asked how he defines success and he said, "If you have loved or love someone and/or you have received love, then you are a success. There's nobody I know who commands the love of others who doesn't feel like a success."

This reminded me of my favorite verse in the Bible, "Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three: and the greatest of these is Love."
( ~ 1 Corinthians 13:13)

Did you know that the word LOVE appears in the Bible nearly 500 times?

Painitng: Kissing the face of God by Morgan Weistling

Focusing on the good News

Here are some good news that may inspire, move & touch you:

Land in Afghanistan Donated to Mine Victims
Land in Afghanistan that is now free of mines has been donated to the workers who were injured while clearing those deadly weapons from the area,the United Nations said yesterday. The 87 deminers, who were all wounded in the Herat region during mine clearance activities, have since returned to their homes,but most are unemployed and face challenging living conditions.
Sailor Honored for Boosting Morale
A Florida Naval Reservist, who left his position as an attorney to serve his seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, is being honored for his outstanding mentoring and role modeling while overseas.
U.S. CO2 Emissions Declined 1.3% in 2006
Preliminary estimates by the U.S. government show carbon dioxide emissions — the number one contributor to global warming — dropping 1.3 percent in 2006, mostly due to a drop in energy demand caused by milder seasons, less driving, and more non-carbon fuel usage.
SWAZILAND:Helping orphans help themselves
Twelve-year-old Nhlanhla Matsebula, one of Swaziland’s growing number of children orphaned by AIDS, has good reason to feel proud. He has mastered the skill of ploughing a field with a team of oxen and in doing so, saved his late parents’ farm from being taken."

You wonder why we don't' hear these news from our Main Stream Media?

Shine Through

Tis light makes color visible; at night
Red, green and russet vanish from thy sight.
So too the light by darkness is made known.
All hid things by their contraries are shown.
~Rumi

I always loved this poem by Rumi. I read this poem every time when I need an emotional boost. Indeed without the light of the sun, there is no colour. Without silence there would be no music. Without space there would be no object. If we do not experience grief we cannot know joy.

Remember this, next time you are going through a temporary grief or sad period.

Picture by Kosoof