element
New Member
All of us, children of nature, paint our own portraits!
Posts: 21
|
Post by element on Oct 5, 2005 20:10:00 GMT 4
Our house is for sale; someone came by to view it and the area today. They wee not from this state. (We live in Tennessee) They were quite upset when they addressed me; "Why haven't the colors changed on your trees!?!" I couldn't believe my ears! i giggled inside as I replied, "Maybe it has something to do with the lack of rain? Just maybe." I am sure the cynicism came out in my voice. It was hard not to let it sound off. Their response was, "I wouldn't sink my money into this crappy looking town!"...and they sped off. Now, mind you, we live in one of the MOST beautiful areas in the United States...the Smoky Mtns! "Crappy looking town"...HA, I say! I saw their tag as they sped away...it was from Jersey! I am just beside myself with this!...It makes me laugh uncontrollably! I also saw the 'Bush' bumper sticker on the back of the oil smoking car (so kindly polluting our 'crappy looking town'). I had the thought....'I wonder, they probably think I, as a puny human, can change the colors on the trees; much like some think us puny minorities can change politics! (just another 'every man for themselves mentality', though....ROFL)
|
|
michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
|
Post by michelle on Jun 25, 2006 15:33:08 GMT 4
All You Need Is Love (Video)The Beatles www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z05zPJKasDw More music for your pleasure while reading. Let it fill and expand your heart chakra [which joins your lower and higher aspects]. Love is all our planet needs; it is the source and cause of a planetary transfiguration.....Michelle
|
|
michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
|
Post by michelle on Jul 5, 2006 15:29:25 GMT 4
We Shall Overcome: (Video) An Hour With Legendary Folk Singer And Activist Pete SeegerI've spoken of Pete Seeger here once or twice before. He's one of my lifelong heroes. I've seen him at Green Peace gatherings and demonstrations. I turned my son on to his music while studying the Labor movement. For those of you who aren't familiar with Pete and to the old bohemian beatniks and hippies out there here's Pete....MichelleToday we spend the hour with the legendary folk singer, banjo player, storyteller and activist Pete Seeger. For over 60 years Pete Seeger has been an American icon. In the 1940s, he performed in the Almanac Singers with Woody Guthrie as well as the Weavers. In the 1950s, he opposed Senator Joseph McCarthy's witch hunt and was almost jailed for refusing to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He helped popularize the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome." In the 1960s, he was a vocal critic of the Vietnam War and inspired a generation of protest singers. He was later at the center of the environmental and anti-nuclear movements. At the age of 87, Pete Seeger continues to perform and be politically active.
In 2004 he recorded a song about the Iraq war called "Bring Them Home." He was joined on the song by Ani DiFranco, Steve Earle and Billy Bragg.
And his music continues to move listeners. Bruce Springsteen has paid tribute to Pete Seeger by releasing "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions." The album features a collection of songs that were once performed by Seeger.
In 2004, Pete Seeger joined us in our Firehouse studio to talk about his life and perform a few songs. I began by asking him about his childhood.www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/03/1443245
|
|
michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
|
Post by michelle on Aug 23, 2006 6:26:25 GMT 4
Swami Beyondananda's 2006 State of the Universe AddressDear Friends: I'm putting this one up late tonight for tomorrow, Wednesday. We all need a laugh, even if we laugh at the truth of this world. I'm takin' tomorrow off to do just that. I need to recapture the innocence, purity, and joy life can offer. Have FUN! xxxooo, Michelle Take it away Swami..........Swami Calls for an Up-Wising Wise Up, Everybody ... The Evolution Has Begun!By Swami Beyondananda For years now, we've been hearing "shift happens," and wondering when, where and how. Now finally, it looks as if the shift is about to hit the fan. This is good news for all those shift fans who've been wondering if the new age will arrive before old age does. Of course, if you're looking for signs in the news, you won't find them. At least, not yet. The news might as well be called the "olds," because the world still seems stuck in greedlock, ruled by fossilized fools fueled by fossil fuels. But I have been receiving encouraging intelligence reports that say indeed, humans are becoming more intelligent. Yes, people everywhere are wising up. And that's great, because we could sure use an up-wising!The evolution has begun. But before we see changes in the old needy-greedy, we humans must change our consciousness -- and the first step is becoming conscious of how unconscious we've been. As the saying goes, the truth shall upset you free, and last year saw lots of disillusionment. But what better to free us from the far more dangerous condition of illusionment? If we want to stop the abuse of power, the first step is to disabuse ourselves. So, here's some good news: Despite a massive media impropaganda machine that feeds the public "babblum" (strained bullshit made digestible for a simple child's mind), more and more Americans are reading between the lyins' and peering behind the Irony Curtain. In 2005, Americans had to face the sad realization that the Bush Administration's "pro-life" stance appears to be limited to the unborn and the brain-dead. Despite being panned by critics everywhere, the Iraqi Horror Picture Show continued its run, as thousands and thousands of born fetuses - ours and theirs -- lost their right to life. While we may or may not have saved face by staying there, we have most definitely lost ass. And we've been assured we'll be stuck in that morass until -- well, until there's no more ass to lose. Meanwhile, more and more Americans reached another sad conclusion: We're not in Iraq to keep the peace, we're there to keep the pieces. The signs of up-wising are everywhere. Even the most unpleasant stories are beginning to break through the soundless barrier and defy the President's "don't ask, don't tell" policy: "You promise not to ask us what we're doing, and we promise not to tell you." Although we've been inundated with "fear-gnomes" and ominously warned we have to protect ourselves in this dogma-eat-dogma world, a majority of Americans are no longer comfortable with the notion that the only way to defeat the "evil-doers" in the world is to out evil-do them. Although our President has assured us that "we don't torture," it is now common knowledge that we simply send detainees to countries that do torture when we want them to "testify under oaf." As for those progressives who've been whining that the President "never listens" to them, well it turns out he's been listening all along. And thanks to the so-called Patriot Act (which, I understand, is about to be renamed the Eternal Insecurity Act), it looks like he'll be able to listen in even more -- all in the name of making us safe. But now even some Republicans are beginning to see that there's a difference between protection and the "protection racket." And with the recent revelations about Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff and other gold collar criminals, some of the more devout conservatives have come to realize that the "family values" they voted for bear an uncanny resemblance to Soprano Family values. If there was any warm feeling in 2005, chalk it up to climate change. Katrina hit, and in the government's response we saw a future when at last all Americans will be equal -- where everyone regardless of race or creed will be treated like Black folks. Alarming Policies Have Awakened Millions!Fortunately this is the State of the Universe Address, and from a universal perspective, things are humming along quite nicely. It turns out that the Earth is the talk of the Universe these days. In fact, the odds-makers at the Intergalactic Enquirer say the odds are actually in our favor: "We're betting on the human race to reach critical mass before they get to critical massacre." And we could beat the odds, if we finally gave up our addiction to getting even and got odd instead. It stands to reason. If each of us used our unique oddness to improve the odds for everyone, there would be no need for getting even. Yes, the up-wising has begun, and intergalactic observers are saying that we have none other than George W. Bush to thank. How is that, you may ask? Well, I am reminded of a story my guru Harry Cohen Baba used to tell. A well-known minister died and arrived at the Pearly Gates at the same time as a cab-driver from New York. The cabbie was ushered in, but the clergyman was left waiting outside. After waiting and waiting and waiting, he finally called over the attending angel. "Excuse me, but I'm a renowned minister. How come you let that cab-driver in, and I'm left waiting out here?" "Well," the angel said, "when you preached, everyone slept. But when he drove, everyone prayed." For millennia, spiritual teachers have been calling on us to go for the highest common denominator, but we've always seemed to end up with the lowest common dominator instead. And now, George W. Bush has done what preachers, teachers and other far-sighted visionaries have failed to do up until now: His policies have been so alarming, that he has awakened a slumbering body politic that slept through all previous alarms. Where others have failed, he has people all across the world praying, "God help us!" And instead of waiting for an intervention from above -- after all, we cannot expect to be fed intervenously forever -- people are beginning to help themselves, and even more importantly, help each other. Sure, there are still plenty of Not-Sees out there who insist on not seeing that we humans are all in the same boat. The good news is, more and more Americans are getting that sinking feeling that there's only one Earthship, and ignoring a leak because it's "on the other side of the boat," is a mistake of titanic proportions. We Are the Leaders We've Been Waiting ForAmerica, the world's only super-power, doesn't need a revolution. We've already had one, thank you. What is needed now -- and what has already begun -- is the American Evolution where enough of us wake up and see that those two political parties have been partying on our dime, and we the people haven't been invited. Time to go beyond choosing the lesser of two weasels. If we want to evolve the dream of our Founding Fathers -- instead of devolve into the nightmare of Big Brother -- we must become the leaders we've been waiting for. I've said it before. The only force more powerful than a super-power is a Super-Duper Power -- the power of the people plus the power of love. And anyone who doesn't believe we are a Super-Duper Power, well they have been super-duped! It's true, many people still feel that the affairs of the world should be left to the bolder and badder among us. But look what that leaves us with: Are you satisfied choosing between Saddam Hussein and George Who's-Not-Sane? Now I know those "God, guns and guts" Old Testament Christians might have forgotten, but Jesus did say that the meek shall inherit the earth. In all undue immodesty, maybe it's time for us meek folks to boldly step forth and accept our inheritance. For just as 2000 years ago Jesus stood up to a class that placed the rule of gold above the Golden Rule, today we face the modern version of the Pharisees -- the Phallusees, I think they are called. They cynically cloak themselves in religious robes, but the only power they trust is the power of the stick. Well, there's another old saying: It doesn't matter how big your stick is, if you stick your stick where it doesn't belong, you're stuck. Another sign of the up-wising and coming evolution is that people are growing dissatisfied with the positionality of "my side vs. your side," and are seeing the whole issue of sides from a new angle: Maybe we're all on the same side. For example, this argument between creationism and evolution is just another way for dueling dualities to steal our energy. I believe in both. I believe the Creator created us to evolve, otherwise Jesus would have said, "Now don't do a thing till I return." I have it on good authority that the Creator is pulling for us: "Come on, you children of God. Time to grow up and become adults of God instead." Time to Overgrow the System From the Grassroots UpThe time for revolution and overthrowing has past. Now we need an evolution where we "overgrow" the current dysfunctional system from the grassroots up. You are probably familiar with the story of the Native American grandfather who tells his grandson that there are two wolves fighting inside all of us: The wolf of fear and anger, and the wolf of love and peace. "Which wolf will win?" asks the young boy. "Whichever one we feed," replies the grandfather.And so when people ask me to predict what will happen, I tell them the only thing I can predict with certainty is the uncertainty of any prediction. The future's just too unpredictable these days. This is a Universe of infinite possibilities, so it all depends on which futures we invest in. There is something far more empowerful than predictions, and that is Tell-A-Vision. If you're fed up with the current programming, my advice is turn off your TV and tell a vision instead. That way, we will have healing and functional visions to step into -- and that beats what we've been stepping into. So I will tell my vision for 2006: This is the year of the American Evolution, where all those who prefer the Golden Rule to the rule of gold get past left and right, and come front and center. I see Americans of all political stripes, plaids and polka dots (not to mention solids), choosing to face the music and dance together. Sure, we'll have to learn some new steps, but it's time for a new dance - A-Bun-Dance. That is where we get up off our assets, move our buns, and dance together in rhythm and flow. And what better way to turn the funk into function, and leave the junk at the junction? I see us in a new reality show -- Extreme Planetary Makeover -- where everyone can play and everyone can win. Just think. Something more compelling than reality TV ... it's called reality! I know, I know. Only a crazy person would dare to propose anything that sane. But maybe it's time to declare the current institutionalized insanity illegally insane, and set about building a sane asylum big enough for all six and a half billion of us. As my guru Harry Cohen Baba has said, "Life is like a good deli. Even if something isn't on the menu, if enough people order it they have to make it." So what kind of new world order are we ordering up? Do we feed the wolf of fear and buy into the "it's every man for himself" story? Or do we nourish the wolf of love and evolve into the "we're all in it together" story? If we're going to be a Super-Duper Power, we have to be super-duper powerful in activating the power of love, and cultivating the power of joy. So laugh more. Why not? We all know there's something funny going on. The wall of lies cannot withstand the vibration of laughter. All seriousness aside, only a farce field that combines truth and laughter can bring down the Irony Curtain once and for all. Release the old story -- been there, done that -- and speak the new story into the world. Dare to imagine what we could be doing if we weren't spending so much of our livelihood on weapons of deadlihood. Think about it ... think tanks where they think about something other than tanks. Young people living for their country instead of dying for it. Health and education fully funded, and the Air Force having to run a bake sale so they can buy a new bomber. Can we change the course of history? Can we shift our karma into surpassing gear? I cannot say for sure, but if we choose to give up that old Dodge and trade it in for an Evolvo, that's a good first step. So ... let the Evolution begin. We don't have to wait until the first Big Shot is fired. If we create a powerful enough field, the Big Shots will end up firing themselves. May the FARCE -- as always -- be with us. From: www.wakeuplaughing.com/news.html
|
|
michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
|
Post by michelle on Sept 6, 2006 17:44:17 GMT 4
New Music For You: Freedom Live In Ashland OregonI've been busy lately. Opportunities have been surfacing daily, each designed to elicit an awareness of old, out-dated patterns - so I may let Go and Go on; if you get my drift. I'll be back posting soon. In the mean time, I've found some new music for you to listen to while reading; lovely stuff.
Hear Freedom sing live and enjoy his poetic tales of Love, beauty and truth. Follow your heart to hear Freedom sing, and be sure to spend a few minutes relaxing in the shade of his rendition of 'Shine'.
Album Description: Live recording featuring the legendary "Warriors on The Way" and "Road Home". Freedom doing their sweet acoustic arrangements for one of their favorite audiences. A rare gem that uplifts the spirit and enlivens the vision.
And finally, if you can buy this album, do so; the band was generous enough to share every track with you. Besides, Freedom's got a new baby, Cheyanna, and her mother, Natalie, to support. Isn't that what it's all about, ALL OF US, helping each other?.......Michelle
Follow this link to discover the gifts of Freedom ... www.jukeboxalive.com/album.php?album=276557
|
|
michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
|
Post by michelle on Jan 17, 2007 15:11:04 GMT 4
ViewPoint: Being Happy Happiness is our basic state of being according to Robert Holden, founder of the Happiness Project. This article, taken from his talk at the The Spirit of Healing Conference at Findhorn, explains how his work is encouraging the men and women of the manic society to slow down and stop, to enquire more deeply, ‘what is happiness?’ Being British, a psychologist and trying to be happy is a big challenge. When I told my tutor that I wanted to do my doctorate on the psychology of happiness, he replied: “the biggest problem you face is finding two psychologists who know enough about happiness to mark your paper.” Psychology is a reining in of vision. I was not trained to look for happiness in people. I was not trained to see their wholeness. I was trained to see what was wrong with them. Be careful what you look for because you’ll find it. It’s just a basic principle of perception. The Oxford Companion to the Mind has 4,000 references in the index but none for happiness. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, humour and altruism are described as defence mechanisms. Should we balance things a little bit and become aware of the need for more models to do with wholeness and those to do with love? In my work I create opportunities for people to move beyond the thin conversations of our everyday life so that we can explore what happiness is together. Every normal healthy parent wants their children to be happy and yet, when I ask them how much time they spend talking about happiness with their children, it is remarkably little. In relationships it is the same. Every normal healthy person wants their partner to be happy, but having a conversation about it is still a rare thing. Carl Jung said: “Most people suffer not from physical illness but from spiritual aimlessness. They have lost their aim. They have lost sight of who they really are and what is really valuable.” It’s easy to do in this day and age. Every year in a Western culture the average adult will be exposed to over a hundred thousand advertisements telling us what we should truly value. I believe our job, as friends to the world, is to distinguish between desire and truth. When we ask ourselves what happiness is, we are really asking what is real. As a director of the Happiness Project, I’m often asked to participate in national opinion surveys on this question for which the answers are often a shopping list. Happiness is winning the lottery, a new pair of shoes, a faster car, a bigger house or dark chocolate. One of the more shocking measures of our prosperity is the fact that the US spends more on trash bags than 90 other countries spend on everything. The receptacles of our waste cost more than all the goods consumed by nearly half of the world’s nations. The insanity of consumerism is that more people are spending more money they don’t have in order to feel more temporarily satisfied. We have to dig deeper. We’ve been look-ing for happiness in the wrong places. Since 1971 the World Values surveys have charted the relationship between wealth and happiness in 60 countries, representing 75 per cent of the world’s population. The surveys concluded that the early stages of economic development seemed to have a major impact on subjective well-being. Moving from starv-ation level to a reasonably comfortable existence makes a big difference but beyond a certain threshold the subjective pay-off from economic development ceases. Amongst advanced industrialised societies there is practically no relationship between income level and subjective well-being. Making more money, the aim of so many in the western world, does not breed bliss. We are better paid, fed, housed, educated and healthier than ever before with more human rights, faster communication and more convenient transportation than we have ever known and yet ironically, since the 70s, divorce rates have doubled, teenage suicides have tripled, the recorded violent crime rate has quadrupled and prison populations have quintupled. The World Bank and World Health Organisation have both published reports that we, the children of the golden era, are more susceptible to depression than our parents. According to the Oxford Dictionary, happiness is: lucky or fortunate. Another popular thought is that happiness is a destination. Some of the greatest teachers have told us over the centuries that it’s our state of mind that determines whether we are happy or not. There’s a new movement called Positive Psychology which encourages reflection on positive subjects such as the psychology of happiness, the psychology of forgive-ness and the psychology of altruism. We know that happiness is a state of mind, but I’m going to suggest to you it’s even more than that and this is the really good news. Fundamentally, my work is about help-ing people. Remember what Christians used to call your original innocence? What St. Francis of Assisi called your eternal loveliness or what Thomas Merton called your secret beauty? (Secret be-cause we forget.) Most often the process of happiness is somehow remembering again. The Taoists referred to the uncarved block; the Buddhists, the original face; the Hindus, the bliss consciousness; the alchemists, the inner gold. My work refers to what I call the unconditioned self. Here is the bold assertion of the Happiness Project. You are happy 100 per cent of the time. Truly! Unfortunately we’re not always aware of this, yet I believe it to be the truth. The reason happiness is so important to us is not because it’s just a pleasurable emotion or a state of mind. In true happiness we rediscover something about our true self. It’s like the stories of the prodigal son or stories about characters who have forgotten the truth of who they really are. I became interested in the Happiness Project because I wanted to remember the truth of who I am and to be able to support others in that. That’s what being a true friend to the world really is; helping to heal people’s forgetfulness, to heal the amnesia which says that somehow who I am isn’t about happiness. But it is. It’s what we are. Wholeness is not some-thing you travel to. It’s something you carry within you. Krishnamurti said: “truth is a pathless land.” There’s no path, only acceptance that we are ‘it’ already. When we lose sight of our innate happiness we then begin to create what I call believable stories. We begin to tell ourselves that there is something wrong with us and that we’re not good enough. These believable stories cause havoc with our lives. The goal of therapy is to teach each other that there’s nothing wrong with us other than the stories we make up about ourselves. God knows, they’re compelling and believable but they are just stories. When we lose sight of our innate happiness and believe there is some-thing wrong with us, we begin to suffer from an illness called psychology. God created man, man created psychology and there’s been nothing but trouble ever since! My goal is to help people to stop thinking as fast as possible. Life works when we stop thinking. With happiness, it just happens. We’re experiencing it and having a good time and then psychology kicks in. I wonder what I’ve done to deserve this? Just a thought but suddenly everything changes. According to psychology we have to deserve and work for happiness. If you’ve been brought up in any culture with a strong work ethic you’ll have been taught that happiness requires work. You can’t just accept it. It takes more effort than that. Or, if you’ve grown up in a culture where there’s a strong struggle ethic, where we champion people who struggle and are mildly offended by those who have it easy, we teach each other that you can’t just enjoy happiness, you have to pay for it. There will always be an invoice somewhere waiting for you if you choose to accept some of the happiness quota now and not save it up for later. In fact, with the martyr ethic we’re often afraid that we will have to sacrifice things of value in order to be happy. What we find at the Happiness Project is that although it does require some sacrifice it’s only of the things that have no value. It’s a goal of the project to encourage an appreciation of true happiness and this is tricky. We were given so little information about happiness when I was training as a psychologist. Worse still, we were even taught that, not only is happiness somewhat irrelevant in this world, it actually has no value and could even be slightly dangerous. An article in a journal of medical ethics in 1992, written by a professor at Liverpool University, proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric disorder and be included in future editions of the major diagnostic manuals under the new name major effective disorder – pleasant type. In a review of the relevant literature it is shown that happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discreet cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system. Any objection to this proposal would be dismissed as scientifically irrelevant. I think happiness was missed because it was considered to only have entertainment value. Other states such as fear and anxiety were believed to have survival value and were therefore seen as more important. However, it is more than just a pleasurable emotion. It is a creative power that helps us to evolve. Happiness is a compass. It helps you to see that you are on track with your purpose and your values. So, if you don’t feel happy, get curious and let your happiness teach you how you can show up in the world and be who you really are. The Project believes that happiness isn’t the absence of sadness, but it is actually the capacity to heal your sadness. It is the ability to be truthful about your unhappiness, enquire, learn about it and to use the experience to evolve you. It’s really an emotional healing project. Embracing our happiness teaches us to let go of our past. Anybody who has made it to the age of 30 already has enough reasons to be miserable for the rest of their life but happiness teaches you to let go because fundamentally you can’t be happy and be a victim to your past. That’s the gift of happiness. It’s about finding the now, finding your now. Your now is in the timeless values you carry with you. It’s in the constant principles that inspire your actions and the inner wisdom that coaches your every moment. Your now is the portal to grace and inspiration. You find what’s valuable to you wherever you are. Happiness is the realisation that ultimately the whole of your life is right here, right now. So, commit to it. Get your heart wide open, just jump in and give it everything you have. Contact: The Happiness Project, Tel: 01865 244414 Website: www.happiness.co.uk Source:www.gvnr.com/118/viewpoint.htm
|
|
michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
|
Post by michelle on Feb 14, 2007 10:18:31 GMT 4
[glow=red,2,300]HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!![/glow]
I thought I'd share some quotes I've been collecting over the years, 'cause all the world loves a lover. Don't they? I've been known to be a bit cynical when it comes to love, but deep down, I'm a romantic at heart. You'll notice this contradiction in myself as you read the quotes! I've purposely left out any sappy odes from men to women of great beauty because when men center only on a woman's looks, it leads to the following:
Men seldom make passes At girls who wear glasses. Dorthy Parker ************************************************
Jonathan Swift had the skinny on love! In men desire begets love, and in women love begets desire. *************************************************
Here's a couple which endorse lover's spats.......mmmm makeup se_...SORRY!...lost in my thoughts! The anger of lovers renews the strength of love. Syrus The quarrels of lovers bring about a renewal of love. Terence *************************************************
Love is a reality which is born in the fairy region of romance. Charles Talleyrand-Perigord *************************************************
That is the true season of love, when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us and that no one will love in the same way after us. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe *************************************************
Oh please, Oscar Wilde! Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.
You egomaniac.... To love oneself is the begining of a life-long romance.
That's it; you were gay..... I am sick of women who love me. Women who hate me are much more interesting. *********************************************
I'm not so sure about this advice from Harry Braisted & Stanley Carter If you want to win her hand, let the maiden understand That she's not the only pebble on the beach! **********************************************
This one's all I ever hope for! The supreme happiness of life is the conviction of being loved for yourself, or, more correctly, being loved in spite of yourself. Victor Hugo ***********************************************
The ideal love affair is one conducted by post. George Bernard Shaw ***********************************************
Who hasn't deluded themselves in love? Kiss me, though you make believe; Kiss me though I almost know You are kissing to deceive. Alice Carry ************************************************
We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity----- romantic love and gunpowder. Andre Maurois *************************************************
I am not one of those who believe in love at fist sight, but I believe in taking a second look. H. Vincent *************************************************
True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in heart. Balzac *************************************************
Some advice for women:
A woman in love is a very poor judge of character. Josiah Gilbert Holland
There are three stages in a man's infatuation for a woman: making his way, having his way, and going his way.
All women want true love, but their passion for bargains leads them to accept cheap imitations. Sydney Tremayne ************************************************
And for men:
Love is like a bazaar. The admittance is free but it costs something before you get out. Sydney Tremayne
Perfect love cannot be without equality. Anonymous
It will do no man any good to love a woman unless he keeps telling her so. Anonymous
And guys, we like this kind of syrupy attention: He gave her a look that you could have poured on a waffle. Ring Lardner ************************************************
Well, that's all for this year. Lavish your sweeties with endearments. Have a romantic supper together because:
The loves of some people are but the result of good suppers. Sebastien Chamfort
Or, spend the evening dancing cheek to cheek because: Love even teaches asses to dance. Anonymous
And always remember: The love game is never called off on account of darkness! Tom Masson
Love, xxxooo, Michelle
|
|
michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
|
Post by michelle on Feb 23, 2007 8:11:05 GMT 4
Swami Beyondananda’s 2007 State of the Universe AddressHere it is, Swami Beyondananda’s latest on the state of the planet. He's a bit more serious this year, but then again, things aren't so funny anymore. Still, he pushes us on to higher dimensional thinking, laughing all the way to the real bank, our Golden Future....we just have to claim it..... Michelle PS: Swami's 2006 State of the Universe Address is also posted in this threadHumanifest Destiny From Survival of the Fittest to Thrival of the FittingestNote. This year, the Swami insisted on delivering the State of the Universe Address on February 2nd, Ground Hog Day because “it’s the closest anyone comes to seeing their shadow all year.” Said the Swami, “Look at us. America is the most heavily armed country in the world, and still we’re afraid of our own shadow. We seem stuck in a state of emergency, so we must declare a state of ‘emerge ‘n see’ instead. Like the ground hog, we must emerge from our separate little holes and see we are all in this together. And we must see our shadow -- otherwise, we’re in for another long season of darkness. We must laugh at the shadow as well. I call on everyone to shine the light of laughter on the endarkened corridors of power, because there’s definitely something funny going on. May we wake up laughing and leave laughter in our wake.”Another earth year has passed, and for what it is worth I am happy to report that once again the universe is doing just great, thank you, purring with perfection, ever-changing same as always. Light is still cruising along at 186,000 miles per second, and the expanding universe shows no signs of contracting. At this rate, it won’t be long before they’ll have to let the photon belt out another notch. Meanwhile back here on our own little center of the universe, the human race seems to be racing against time. Those Concerned Scientists have just moved the Doomsday clock up to five minutes till midnight, and even some of the unconcerned scientists are getting concerned. With all due respect to Wilson Pickett, if this midnight hour ever comes it won’t be love that comes tumblin’ down. Well, maybe tough love. The good news is, the alarm is getting louder, making it more difficult to hit snooze. The Chinese say crisis means opportunity, and opportunity sure seems to be knocking. If it knocks any harder, it’s going to knock down the door. The polar ice caps are melting -- north and south -- which means on top of everything else this crazy world now officially has bipolar disorder. No wonder the penguins are flocking to Hollywood. The polar bears are now on the Endangered Species List, right up there with us. We humans do seem to have the Endangering Species List pretty much to ourselves, though. An Evolutionary Upwising!Fortunately, people are waking up and wising up. An evolutionary upwising is gathering esteem all across America, and not a moment too soon. Confidence in the powers that be in power hit Iraq bottom last year, and once again -- thanks to the Daily Show and Colbert Report -- fake news was the greatest source of truth. The “we’re-going-to-heaven-and-everyone-else-can-go-to-hell” crowd continued to expose itself -- in more ways than one -- and more and more Americans awoke to the realization that the real abomination is to bomb a nation. Riding on the groundswell of this upwising, the unarmed forces won an important victory in November. As predicted, the evolution was officially launched when the first big shot was fired the day after election day. And the farce was with us as well. The last two Republican Senators to concede defeat were Burns and Allen, and more than a few corrupt Congressfolk were shown the door and told to “say goodnight, disgracie.” The President, meanwhile, stepped up his counterintelligence program to the point where just about everything he does runs counter to intelligence. But now it looks like even Republicans may be ready to put the “decider” through the decider mill, no doubt afraid that with two more years of this, the party of Lincoln and Ford might go the way of the Edsel. Something else happened this year. Thanks to Al Gore the media finally warmed up to climate change, and global warming became a hot issue. As soon as “Inconvenient Truth” hit the theaters, the Bush Administration counterattacked with it’s own version of the story, “Convenient Lies.” And the biggest cause of global warming? Global warmongering. We humans spend over a trillion dollars a year on weapons of deadlihood when we could be weaving a web of livelihood. No wonder the ‘hood is so deadly. And we’ve rationalized this dysfunctional persistent “riches to rubble” war program as a “necessary evil” without bothering to stand for peace as a “necessary good.” Are We As Smart As Our Cells?Now if you used to hate it when your parents compared you to someone else saying, “if so-and-so can do it, why not you?” you’re probably not going to like what I’m about to tell you -- but here goes. Our cells may be smarter than we are. At least they’ve figured out how to live together in peace and harmony. According to cellular biologist Bruce Lipton, we have a thriving 50 trillion cell community under our skin where every participating cell is cared for. Universal health care, full employment -- truly no cell left behind. And the cells that do the most important work for the body as a whole, they get “paid” more. Our organs seem to get along too. You hardly ever hear about the liver cruising up the bile canal, invading the pancreas, and laying claim to the Islets of Langerhans. Meanwhile back in the jungle, we pursue manifest destiny and survival of the fittest as our supposed biological imperative, except for one small detail. It doesn’t matter how fit the individual is, if the species doesn’t fit -- then out it goes into the recycling pile. If you thought “The Man Without a Country” was a sad story, wait until you see “Man Without a Planet.” I hate to say it, but global warming may be nothing more than the Earth running a fever in the hopes of shaking a virulent parasite called homo ignoranus. Now don’t get me wrong. There’ve been some really great people. Gandhi. Mother Teresa. Elvis. (That’s right, Elvis. I’ve been following his threefold path for years: “Love me tender ... please surrender ... return to sender.”) But anyway, there’ve been lots and lots of lots of really wonderful individuals. Individually, you won’t meet a nicer species. But put a bunch of us together, and we’re hell on wheels. Did you know that over the 20th century, war caused 260 million deaths? Why if someone did just one 260 millionth of that, it’d be all over the 6:00 news with details at 11. And if any one of us did what we allow “all of us” to do, we’d be put away forever. I guess they must have modified the Ten Commandments while we weren’t looking: “Thou shalt not kill, except in extremely large groups.” Spontaneous Re-MissioningI’ve said it before, but maybe it bears repeating. It could very well be that the Ten Commandments are just too much to bite off all at once. Maybe we should start with One Suggestion: “We’re all in it together.” Each and every one of us is one with the same One. The Universal Oneness. The universe has us surrounded, might as well surrender. In the Creator’s book, we are all number one -- and when we’re all number one, there is never a need to treat anyone else like number two. And perhaps instead of waiting for some Higher Power -- or for that matter, some hired power -- to save us, maybe it’s time to embrace the world as a fixer-upper instead of rejecting it as a tearer-downer. Maybe we’re all working for Habitat for Humanity, and making our habitat fit for humanity -- and all other living things -- is the ultimate do-it-yourself project. Let’s face it. Our Mother Earth is suffering from a bad case of us, and a miraculous healing is required. So, if we want a spontaneous remission, we humans must take responsibility for a spontaneous re-missioning. We must change our mission from manifest destiny and survival of the fittest to humanifest destiny and thrival of the fittingest. Here’s another suggestion. Maybe we children of God manifest our destiny as humanity by finally becoming adults of God, and realizing we are the Creator’s creation created to create. In other words, we aren’t here to earn God’s love, we are here to spend it! Creationism vs. evolution is a silly conversation, particularly when both are true. I believe we were created to evolve, otherwise Jesus would have said, “Now don’t do a thing till I return.” If we want to bring the Higher Power to earth, we must do it through our own words, thoughts and actions. Supply-side spirituality, I call it: Be more supplying and less demanding. I have often said that if you are dissatisfied with the current programming, turn off your TV and tell a vision instead. So I will tell my vision for the new year and new millennium. I see the upwising going worldwide as billions of people realize that each of us is a cell in the body of humanity, totally unique just like everyone else. Sure, the world is currently being run by a very, very small elite of individuals, but look on the bright side -- there are way, way more of us than there are of them. Where the healthy cells thrive, sociopathogens can never take hold of the body politic. And what if each nation -- like each organ of the body -- set out its own mission to give its special gift to the world? It could be baklava, it could be bagpipes ... anything that brings harmony instead of harm. No more harmaments, and a farewell to harms! Imagine a peacemaker implanted in the heart of every nation, and billions of individuals signing on to a worldwide Humanifesto ratifying the One Suggestion. Of course, the conditions might not change overnight, but the conditioning would. And if we shift the conditioning, a shift in conditions will surely follow. Imagine all the nations of the world thriving together -- in a great thrivalry -- and manifesting our destiny as a humanity ... to re-grow the Garden from the grassroots up, and have a heaven of a time doing it. Can it be done? Well, consider the alternative. Are we going to just let our entire species flunk third dimension? Where’s your species spirit anyway? I know what you’re thinking. The Swami is a hopeless optimystic, an overly-positive yea-sayer. But that is only because I understand that our future is not our past. Otherwise, why would we need a future? We could just all sit home and watch reruns. Each moment, we discard billions of universes as we choose one future over another. Beggar or billionaire, we’re all in the futures market. The question for each of is, which future are we investing in? Here’s the good news: There is a field of infinite possibility out there. And here’s the better news: It’s not a battlefield, it’s a playing field. The game is Humanifest Destiny, and we have om field advantage. C’mon, omies. Let’s take the field. © Copyright 2007 by Steve Bhaerman. All rights reserved. Visit Swami online at www.wakeuplaughing.com/news.html or call (800) SWAMI-BE for a free catalog.
|
|
michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
|
Post by michelle on Jan 21, 2008 9:07:17 GMT 4
Waterfront land in Dubai A Fool's Paradise?
I saw a show on TV where Tiger Woods was going to build a golf course in Dubai on an artifical island. Now, I don't have anything against Mr. Woods, but as the show went on all I could think was what kind of insane people are doing all this building. Sheik 'Whoever' was being interviewed and waving his hands around talking about the building of artificial islands...very excited and a bit comical to me.
Upon completion, one of these resort islands will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people. It is advertised as being visible from the moon.
The World Islands, 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world, will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million per island The only means of transportation between the islands will be by boat and helicopter. There's even an underwater hotel.
Apparently, the builders aren't concerned with the coming rising sea levels.....Good luck on that one, Dubai and let me know how that's working for ya 30-40 years from now. I wonder if the architects of the hotel and other buildings took into account increased water pressure from a 3-6 foot rise in sea levels?.....Michelle
Must See Photos! Plans in Dubai alilotfi.ca/RealEstate_UAE_Dubai.htm Check each picture and read each caption! Larger size pictures at offtopicdiscuss.blogspot.com/2007/08/wow-dubai.html
Now here's the grim reality, and this isn't funny:[/b] Should greenhouse-gas emissions follow anything close to a "business as usual" rise, the resulting warming and ice loss at both ends of the earth would cause coasts to retreat for centuries. While it was circumspect about near-term changes, the intergovernmental panel was confident about that long view.
The prospect of having no "normal" coastline for the foreseeable future has many scientists deeply concerned.
"What is at stake is the stability we have always taken for granted" both for coasts and climate itself, said Jason E. Box, an associate professor of geography at Ohio State University. Dr. Box presented fresh findings at the American Geophysical Union meeting last month showing that several Greenland glaciers accelerated sharply in direct response to warming, both in a warm spell starting in the 1920s and now.
Eric Rignot, a longtime student of ice sheets at both poles for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said he hoped the public and policymakers did not interpret uncertainty in the 21st-century forecast as reason for complacency on the need to limit risks by cutting emissions.
Dr. Rignot recently proposed that unabated warming could result in three feet of global sea rise just from water flowing off Greenland, three feet from Antarctica and 18 inches as the remaining alpine glaciers shrivel away.
This is similar to projections by the most prominent NASA climate scientist, James E. Hansen, but more than twice the three-foot rise that many glaciologists seem to agree on as an outer bound for what is possible by the end of the century.
"It is too early to reassure that all will stabilize, and similarly there is no way to predict a catastrophic collapse," Dr. Rignot said. "But things are definitely far more serious than anyone would have thought five years ago." From:www.truthout.org/issues_06/010808EB.shtml
|
|
michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
|
Post by michelle on Feb 1, 2008 20:16:10 GMT 4
I just read the following daily weather forecast:Periods of rain tapering to showers. What the heck does that mean??!!!!!!!!!! Talk about News-Speak!!! Here's an article that explains what I mean:Breaking the news-speakBy Jan Freeman | April 29, 2007 Breaking news, not surprisingly, can lead to broken language. "I heard an NPR reporter this morning say that grievance counselors had been sent to the campus in Blacksburg," e-mailed reader Peter Johnson the day after the shootings at Virginia Tech. "I wonder what good they'll do!" The reporter meant "grief counselors," of course. (There are, apparently, "grievance counselors" as well, in colleges and prisons and workplaces, but they help people file complaints, not cope with loss.) Writers looking for a dollop of gravitas have made this goof before -- fully 20 years ago, a journalist wrote of "grievance counselors" helping pet owners to mourn -- but it's still a mistake. There was a rash of mispronunciations, too, as people groped around in their horror-words hoard and pulled out heinous, not pausing to remind themselves that it's HAY-nus, not HEE-nus. Next came an e-mail from a friend enclosing the lead of an Associated Press story: "David Halberstam, a journalist who produced a steady stream of well-regarded books on topics as diverse as the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement and sports, died as he lived: On his way to an interview." "He 'lived on his way to an interview'?" she asked. OK, we understand how a reporter, reaching for a died-with-his-boots-on equivalent, might say that a prolific writer like Halberstam was always, in some sense, on his way to the next interview. But the specificity of the image makes it slightly absurd, which is probably why some editors changed it to "on his way to a story." The Halberstam tributes also reminded us, though, of the words and phrases that owe their currency to his efforts -- not just "The Best and the Brightest," but also the word he welded to the Vietnam War (and subsequent sticky conflicts) with his 1965 book, "The Making of a Quagmire." A quagmire is, of course, a swamp or marsh or bog, its etymology uncertainly related to "quiver" or "shake"; the word has been used figuratively, to mean morass, pickle, or muddle, since the 18th century. But it was Halberstam's unfortunately prescient use that made quagmire synonymous with a type of foreign-policy disaster. A few years ago, political humorist P.J. O'Rourke dared to hope that our long national obsession with quagmire had ended. After America's "win" in Afghanistan, the word "suddenly disappeared from the lexicon of pundits, savants, and mavens," he declared in The Atlantic in 2002. The following year, Donald Rumsfeld joked about Iraq, "I don't do quagmires." They spoke too soon. There's a reason Merriam-Webster recently posted an entry on quagmire on its Word.com website. It's because an unusual number of online dictionary users had looked up the word in the previous month -- which was January 2007. . . . You know you're a punctuation nut if what fascinates you about the Don Imus flap is how to write the plural of ho. Reader Beth Polen of Pittsburgh e-mailed to ask if the people who wrote it ho's were using the apostrophe "to indicate a truncation of the word," and if so, why it wouldn't be 'ho's. Kathleen Goudie of Petersham noted the Globe's waffling between hos and ho's, as did Barry Tilles of Norwell, who added, "I swear I saw hoes somewhere." It's true that, without a stylebook entry to guide them, major newspapers tried all the variants, though hos was the overall winner. But those who wrote ho's were probably not using the apostrophe to mark missing letters. The singular form of ho is well established, though the Oxford English Dictionary notes that, in its 40-plus years of existence, the slang term has also been spelled 'ho, ho', hoe, who', and whoe. The plural, however, is a puzzler. Hoes is plausible, and it helps signal the pronunciation, but then it's also a gardening tool. Hos is also fine, but not so easy to read: Should it rhyme with toss or toes? It's just this sort of puzzle that's behind the old practice of forming some plurals with apostrophe-s. Yes, despite the zero tolerance of Lynne Truss, the apostrophe-s plural has its place. The first edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, published 101 years ago, instructs: "The plural of numerals, and of rare or artificial noun coinages, is formed by the aid of an apostrophe and s." Thus the 1900's, two's and three's, the YMCA's, and the three R's. This is no longer the fashion. Today Chicago recommends the apostrophe plural only with maybe's, and the Associated Press uses it for single letters (all B's, the Oakland A's). But the impulse persists, among writers, to use that apostrophe in an odd plural: Hence you'll see Hostess Ho-Ho's (though the logo lacks hyphen and apostrophe), or salutations spelled "loud yo's." So don't think of the writers who chose ho's as mistaken; think of them as traditionalists who, hoping to ease the reader's task, fell back on an old-fashioned style. Source: www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/04/29/breaking_the_news_speak?mode=PF
|
|
michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
|
Post by michelle on Apr 20, 2008 3:11:48 GMT 4
The Beatles 'Michelle' www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xl8YtgDAKc
Hey, I feel like a little self promotion today. I was born before this song came out, so no, it's not where my name came from. Growing up, hardly anyone had the name Michelle. When I was a little girl, a teenage boy, Skip, [yes, Buffy, the name was Skip] who lived next to us, would sing the tune to me. He'll never know what a delight that was to me....Skip, a teenager, singin' to me...a little kid!
I think those were the first stirrings of foolhardy love I ever felt.
Anyway....I feel great today. The weather's been tops, the trees are tipped with green and the magnolia trees are blossoming with their delicate pink blooms. The bees is singin' and the birds is chirpin'; all sentient creatures are playful at the mating dance. Makes me have those feelings once again! Does spring bring out amour in everyone?
I was gardening today...wearing my cutoff bib overalls...WITH [catch this] my rubber muck boots, black. I was interrupted to go pickup my son and didn't change. Let me tell ya; I got plenty a looks today wearin' those boots!
So, I'm feelin' great, happy to be alive....I think it's time to fall in love once again.
How do I do that, you ask?
Well, first I strap on my Love Radar, and if there's a total butthead in a 150 mile radius, I'll find him! And when I do find him, I'll say, "You sure do look fine; like a long cool drink on a hot summer day. Come here, cowboy. I want to meet you. I want to fall in love......I been feelin' a little too good about myself lately!" ;D
Take a chance, folks....Fall in Love all over again.....it's worth the risk!!!!
'Michelle'
PS: Found the following response to the video/song:
"i had a holiday romance with a girl called michelle once, she was beautiful. never saw her again. this song always makes me smile to myself "
I wonder if this dude was at a beach party in 'Jersey back in 1979?
The Beatles 'Michelle' www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xl8YtgDAKc
|
|