A new Pew poll finds historic levels of unhappiness about the federal government and its role in the lives of average Americans, unrest that is at the foundation of what is shaping up to be a strongly anti-incumbent political year.

The past two months in the Washington area have been good for shovels, skis — and social networks.

In keeping with Washington ritual, nearly two dozen guests were invited to fill the first lady’s box during the State of the Union address Wednesday night — many of them as representatives of the president’s agenda, and several from important swing states.

UPDATE, 4:17 p.m.: Andrea Purse, a friend of Elizabeth Edwards, released a statement to the Associated Press on Edwards’ behalf: “Elizabeth is moving on with her life and wants to put this difficult chapter behind her.” Read original post, below, for the full story.

I am the glass shattered
On a clear
Winter day
Appearing as ice
On an otherwise
Unbroken surface

I am the dove
Holding her sound
Against
The weight
Of the gray sky

I am the mountain
Beneath the sun
Holding the tendrils
Of winter
To not unleash
My power
Upon the plains

I am the air
You breath
Whether or not
You call me
She

*image credit: Adobe

Senator Edward Kennedy (1932-2009)
[Photo Credit: AP]

In regards to civil rights, health, and the economic well-being of the average American, few elected officials anywhere have accomplished as much. (more…)

I read a lot about spirituality, powers untapped of the universe, etc.

Tonight, I enjoy a piece that Ronnie at Out of my Head wrote about how to take simple steps to make it happen.

Maybe some of you are like me, you need a picture drawn, not The Last Supper, but a small and well defined cartoon, few brush strokes to get to the heart of the matter.

Well, Ronnie did that for me, and yes, I guess I spurred her on a bit, but so what? I wanted the answer.

I find myself in awe of so many things. I would love to write them all down, but some of them fly by me before I can properly apply gratitude and others stop me in my tracks, ground me, that I don’t know how to add any “new” words to the events.

Yesterday, Ronnie at Workcoach and OutofmyHead got me thinking, oh, I said that didn’t I? But forgive me, I’m no cook, and I have another pot of vegetable soup simmering and a drum set in my kitchen and Princess Di’s Memorial Concert pouring out with Sir Elton John humbling us, and maybe I may be repeating myself as I do this…..

So Ronnie dared to talk about the different types of energy and how they balance and I said: girl, you are talking to me. Her post read: Energy, Fortune Cookies and Life (yes, I left out Ronnie’s comma, more on that sometime later, maybe).

I said, Amen, Amen, Amen: how true is her post, how much it resonates with life. The balancing and the acknowledgment of the balancing and the presumed freedom to do just that.

We are waiting for Ronnie to post the next piece on the steps of courage to implement the levels of energy…wait with us…I promise…it will be worth the wait.

Funny how Ronnie’s piece led me to Romancing the Crone’s newest piece. And before I tell you how to get there, I must say, the people in Barnes & Noble today thought I was wacked out of my head when I wasn’t sure of the author or the title of some books of the Hawaii method of englightment, balancing and readjustment of justice that she so kindly posted for any of us that tripped over her site.

Ok, ok: here it is: Romancing the Crone on “You need to know about Ho’oponopono”.

Well, imagine me trying to pronounce or describe that in Barnes and Noble–believe me, neither me nor the man at Barnes & Noble with a striped, polo, golf-t were impressed…so here I am, and I will order the books off of Amazon.

Romancing caused me to start surfing to find out more and I came across a blog: Today is that Day with some great resources.

In the meantime, I came across a story in People Magazine, yup, at page 46 of the printed version: entitled: Raising My Sister’s Boys.

A story about a young, young man, 20 when this began, who visited his twin sister’s children in foster care and couldn’t live with the sounds of their tears or his own as he left and he convinced the system that he would be the best parent for them, that despite being a young man.

What I wonder, and I ask anyone out there, don’t we know of any way to help this young man get ahead, who in his young 20s, took on responsibility for 3 children?

Read the story yourself please & hey, namaste, no lie, I can’t yet find an internet link, but if any of you are standing in line at the store, it begins at page 86 of the July 9, 2007 edition.

As many readers here know, we often discuss what the world would be like without judgment.

I was just over at the 13 Graces blog and was looking at some of her link resources. I clicked on “One Kind Act” and found a post on something I have been struggling to articulate. Below is part of the post, I would encourage you to go read more:

“The story below is a true testament to the power of kindness, it really shows what one simple act of kindness can do, and it also reminds us that kindness can show up in many different ways!

Remember to be kind to someone today!

One Person at a Time
By Jon Gordon

“Can I have some money so I can catch the bus home,” the woman said to me as I walked down
Michigan Ave in Chicago last week. I had just spoken at a conference and was enjoying a several hour evening walk around one of my favorite cites- experiencing the energy and buzz of the big city.

I gave the woman a few dollars as she walked in step with me. “Do you know where the book store is,” I asked. “A few blocks ahead,” she said as she continued to walk with me. “I’m not really taking the bus you know,” she said.
“I figured that,” I told her.
“I live on the streets.””Why,” I asked.
“Because I just got out of prison for selling drugs,” she told me, “and I’m on parole so I can’t leave to be with my family who lives in another city.”

At first I wasn’t sure if I believed her but something inside me told me she was telling the truth. “I told you I was taking the bus,” she continued, “because a woman just told me I wasn’t dirty enough to give money to. So I had to come up with something else.” “It doesn’t matter to me,” I told her. “I give money all the time to homeless people. I used to ignore them thinking they would just spend it on alcohol but then one day I decided that what they do with the money I give is between them and God. I give to give and that’s between me and God.”

“Well, I’ll use it for a good purpose,” she said. “I’m trying to get my life together.” “You’re in pain, aren’t you,” I asked as we continued to walk. “Yes,” she said as tears started to well up in her eyes. “I figure I’m suffering right now for all I have done wrong.”

“You don’t have to suffer. Now begins the first day of your life. You’re not meant to suffer from what you have done wrong.” You are meant to learn from the past so you can create a better life and future for yourself. You’ve suffered enough. Now it’s time to forgive yourself and ask for forgiveness.”

“Are you a preacher or something,” she asked with tears coming down her face? “No,” I responded, laughing. “Honestly,” I said, “I’ve been inspired by the life of Jesus and the way he lived. I just try to love others in the same way. Not perfect by any means but I strive.” “Well you should be a preacher,” she said, “because I’ve never listened to any other preacher before.”

We then reached the book store, stopped for a moment and I gave her twenty dollars to enjoy a nice meal. But as I was about to say goodbye I turned and asked her into the book store with me so I could buy her one of my books. She agreed and we walked around the book store and sure enough there was one copy left. Then we walked over to the spiritual section and I had the impulse to also get her another book. As we stood there looking at all the books I heard a man and woman around the corner talking about love, forgiveness and God. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I went up to them and asked for their help in picking out a good book for this woman.

As they started sharing various books she might like I stood in complete awe of this moment. Three strangers, picking out a book for a homeless woman that could change her life forever. It was a miracle moment I’ll never forget.

The choice came down to two books and then I asked her, “Which one is speaking to you?” A huge smile came over her face as she pointed continuously to a book by Pastor TD Jakes. Then something interesting happened. I didn’t know where the checkout counter was but she did. She knew where everything in the book store was.

Then it hit me. “You’ve been here before,” I asked. “Yes,” she said. “I read a lot in the park during the day.” “So you use the money you collect from people like me to buy books,” I asked?
“Yes, books and food,” she said. “But these books will always be my favorite.” We walked outside and she gave me a big spontaneous hug goodbye.

As I walked down the street back towards my beautiful, expensive hotel I felt guilty for not doing more. I felt ashamed for wanting to wash my hands after she hugged me with her dirty jacket. I thought of the look on her face and the tears in her eyes and felt both her hope and sorrow. The experience touched me in the deepest part of my soul. I stopped to sit on a park bench and broke down and cried.

Please know that I tell you this story not to shine a light on me but to hopefully inspire you to reach out to a stranger and lend a helping hand and make a difference, somehow, someway. It is so overwhelming when we think of all the pain in the world and yet if we all do something we can accomplish a lot. This experience has inspired me to do more and I will.”

Hi. I’m just one voice like yours.

Slightly different with similarities.

I’m wondering something very basic.

Why do we all stand still and allow the world to be what it is?

I don’t do anything, mind you, I don’t picket, send letters to Congress, yell at the Pope.

I sit and think.

How about you?

What do you do?

Anything the rest of us might join in on?

Helping to heal, a global humble effort to bring all of us together, some call it the sixth dimension, some collective consciousness, others, simple human kindness.

Humanity’s Team is scheduled for a U.S. event. In light of the unspeakable tragedy in Virginia, Anne Alba and other volunteers, have committed to offering students free housing and admission to this weekend’s Humanity’s Team “We are all One”, with Neale Donald Walsh in attendance.

Obviously, this leap of faith to make this gesture for the students can only come from one place, contributions from those that care and want to see this Society advance.

Any interested: go to Humanity’s Team helping the students in Virginia

Bless you all.

Our Get out of the Box page, as well as Humanitarian Efforts and poetry and writing page are periodically updated. The Open Letter to God page, is a static page, remaining that way to allow for and welcome new comments. It is anticipated that we will update as time goes on to provide more letters to God.
Last night, we received a comment on our most recent post on Get Out of the Box, which we wanted to highlight and share with you today.

We look forward to more comments!

“In the book `Conversations with God’ the author asks why God allows such things as these to occur. God replies by saying, `Why don’t you?’ ( A collective ‘you’ as well as individual). In the course of reading from Mr. Walsch’s and God’s Conversations I begin to see that, while God could do anything, what ‘She’ will do is another thing. We can’t condition The Unconditioned by saying ‘It’ will or won’t do such and such, but it is clear enough, that while we are here, God would like to see US, WE, proceed to do the kinds of things you are aspiring to. WE, with God, can do anything, but it’s like we are be asked to make up our minds about what is important to us, and to behave accordingly. Our eternal lives do not begin at death. If they did, they would not have been Eternal! We are now, even with bodies, amidst our eternal lives- all
of us!

A program called Humanities Team is very much involved in helping the planet awaken. It declares `We are One’. You + I + God = ONE. It also declares” Ours is not a better way. Ours it but another way.”

( This name and address ‘cell’ is getting in the way of writing!)

Best to you, me,
Dave”

dave
April 23rd, 2007

We normally ask for others to share thoughts and ideas existing where people are trying to join together. This week Dave has highlighted a collective consciousness program which declares “We are One”.

For further information, go to the following websites:

Neal Donald Walsch, author of Conversation with God Series or go directly to Humanity’s Team Website.

Many months ago I read an article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

The article addressed how some schools were starting a program where students could speak out. They could apologize for having made the unfortunate choice of picking on others, they could stand up and say many of you don’t know, but I am the sister of the autistic girl, the one you make fun of, who is more beautiful than you know and on and on.

It was about creating a voluntary forum for students to recognize the impact of their words on the lives of others.

I know I cried by the end of this article, reading of these children, so brave when having to face a quiet, silent peer pressure, stepping out to ask forgiveness or to ask for human identity.

Why this should be a new concept is beyond me. I don’t know.

What would happen if children learned in the home, in the media, in the school from an impressionable young age, that when you make fun of and gossip about others, the harm is to themselves, they lose their own dignity? What would happen if children were taught that “character is what happens when no one is watching”?

I watched on CNN this morning a story about a brilliant young woman, who was labelled autistic. She was able to use a computer, and/or keyboard with a voice simulator to speak in “our” language.

She said on the program what I have always believed since I was young: it’s a two way street. I believe I found the direct link to her blog, if I’m wrong, feel free to drop a note: Amanda’s Blog.

The link to this fascinating and eye and soul opening blog was found on Andy Carvin’s blog.

We the non-autistic people may believe there is something “broken” in the ones with autism. As she said, if you can’t understand us, we’re broken, and if we can’t understand you, we’re broken.

In other words, the view and focus for so long has been on what is “wrong” with the autistic mind, not what is wrong with us that we have constrained ourselves into such a limited channel of intelligence and communication that we are the ones that cannot communicate on the level of “autism”.

It’s not just in the schools when even teachers ridicule children or fail to see for many school should be a safe haven, a place of growth, and a misplaced word can do such severe damage it can only be undone by disastrous consequences.

Yes, yes, we must teach our children a foundation within themselves that cannot be shaken by mere careless or hurtful words, but in the meantime, we need to check our words, our faces, our “looks” at others, until we can build the foundation within ourselves.

Watching groups of young children, I sometimes wonder, do they already have that center, that open heart, that lack of malice in judgment and in effect do we teach them to unlearn that natural love?

We can create peace daily. It can be as if a wave that washes over every moment and interaction and we can build a stronger more loving society. Forget statistics, forget whether evil is in born and who is to blame for this vs. that. If we took responsibility each moment for the thoughts we project and the consequent actions they produce, if we stopped negativity before it began…..it is anyone’s guess what enormous gains humanity would reap.

Most people have probably heard the news, the words that Alec Baldwin allegedly left on the answering tape which was leaked from confidential documents and evidence in the custody, presumably, of the Court.

Yes, one of the first questions is why should this even be our business? Because stars put themselve out there, wanting us to pay attention to increase their movie returns? Yes, no, I don’t know.

The issue though again, is the weight of words and who we are in any given moment.

At what points should we be judged and frozen in time, never to have a chance to live differently?

I see those words and understand the damage. Not sure what causes a parent to stop acting as the parent and to verbally abuse their child in such a way.

Is the media now telling that child she is damaged? Her parents, or at least one of them, are psychotic?

I know nothing of this child. I don’t know if she is old beyond her years and has realized the deficiencies of ill timed and inappropriate and abusive anger.

I simply don’t know.

What I do know is that recording and the family’s grief wasn’t meant for us, but know it is ours.

What will we do about it? Do we take the log from our eye?

See: CNN Updates

I tried to write this post twice before, but started off with “hey”.

Not your choice of greetings?

God, I have to be honest, because whether I am or not, I have a feeling you will know.

I went into spiritual depletion.

I toured and trolled this virtual earth for the right answer to you.

I checked out raw diets and it was only days later, I noted there was little reference to you. Don’t eat sugars because they rot your teeth.

Ok. I’m old enough now to see the wisdom in that.

Yet, you intended for us to have this free food, no?

I don’t eat meat God. Just can’t get the hang of it. Don’t know how to divorce the picture of an animal that has family tendencies from what lands on the plate. Yet I will cook it, for anyone that visits, that needs meat.

I eat seafood. And yes, I stuggle, because there is a huge contradiction in what I believe and what I do. But I have to admit, there were moments in my life where I stuggled eating vegetables because I thought I heard them scream.

I read in one of Sylvia Brown’s books that we don’t have to eat when we pass on, and I resisted that. Now, I’m not so sure why I did as I was afraid that eating vegetables I could hear them while I chewed.

Mark it down to mental deficiency.

Fine by me.

God, I spiraled.

So convinced I was anti-religion that I began to actually seek comfort in what I grew with, Catholic doctrine.

I did something new this week though. I spiraled and crashed and then gave it to you.

I lost a case in Court and I was baffled that no one in the room cared that what occurred was improper and I got in my car, developed a migraine and then stopped…..I had promised to give it to you, no matter what, to guide me. Once I realized that and handed it over again, I smiled and I remembered to thank you for my smile.

So God, I don’t know what to follow. I’m not even good at being faithful to my belief in you. But I’m telling you what you already know, aren’t I?

I need you.

I know that much.

It is reported that “The Vatican and Science agree on a miracle”. The title caught our eye reading the Sunday edition of the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

A meeting of the minds?

A point of commonlity targeting simple truth?

The news reports on a miracle prganancy. In Brazil, a woman was deemed unable to carry a baby due to a wall of tissue diving her uterus. Grossi de Almeida carried her baby boy in a space half the size of an ordinary uterus, and at seven months, he was delivered by Caesarean section.

See

Free Republic online

News Saints Faith Web online

The mom claims the miracle of her son’s birth is attributable to a “paper pill”, wrich had a prayer written upon it. Now the 18th century Franciscan monk, Antonio de Sant’Anna Galvao, is proclaimed a saint by the Vatican. This was one of two proved miracles needed for the creator of the prayer pill to be canoized a saint on May 11th.

The pill is claimed to have cured thousands in Brazil. The pill has a prayer:

“After the birth, the Virgin remained intact / Mother of God, intercede on our behalf.”

The pills are made in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where local women reportedly get together every afternoon in a room above a cathedral. It is also noted that the pills are made by cloistered nuns at the Convent of Light in Sau Paulo.

In the Star-Ledger version of the story it was written that “believers” take these pill. Miracle healings cannot always be proven. There is a growing trend of thought that the healing which occurs rests in part in the faith of the one asking for divine help. It is tricky to term it that way, because no one wants to blame a person in pain, i.e. you would have received a miracle if you could have just believed a bit stronger.

Science can in fact meet faith it appears.

Other interesting sources and articles on the power of faith and healing:

Dr. Willard Fuller

Ron Wilding: absent healing

Energy Field Therapy

Dr. Zhi Gang Sha

Thought for the day:

Some artists leave us no room to create in between their spaces, the spaces between the notes are so full.

We must just sit and listen and if God or the Universe graces us, we must put up our feet and listen, yes, listen and hear.

There are other artists that leave us room to fill in the spaces, words are never divorced. Do you know what that is, to tilt your head to hear the music of words before they hit the page, a waterfall flowing? How can words ever be separated?

To edit or not to edit?

Stream of consciousness writing is an integation of emotion and energy without ego……

Once upon a time

A long, long time ago

(I think)

there was a peach tree

and a village

which grew

around it.

Many

Many

Many Grandmothers

and

Grandfathers

grew up around the peach tree.

The peach tree watched

the children’s birthdays.

Watched them grow.

Marry.

Have babies.

Who

would

have

babies.

Birthdays

around

the peach tree.

The peach tree

watched

friends grow

who did not know they

were friends.

The candles lit

in the homes.

It sighed.

The candles flickered

through the night.

One night,

a cold wind blew.

And blew,

and blew.

The peach tree

shook

in its roots.

It shivered.

He remembered,

seeding.

Little seed.

Placed in the ground.

Furrow.

drawn into

and apart

from

the earth.

dry

arid

dirt.

red

against the sky.

brown limbed fingers

dropping

uprepared

alone

yet

joined

fingers

dropping

me

into the ground.

The darkness

sitting

time

lost

no meaning

finding how to breath

within the dirt,

time passed.

I would call out,

a voice,

remembering,

my mother.

growing inside of her.

celebration.

of.

light.

the Sun.

Worship.

harshness,

the hands,

plucking to be fed,

the teeth.

Searing into

my skin.

“Momma?”

“Momma?”

not even the gift of silence.

pure.

remorseless.

drenched into me,

not yet born.

greed.

Yachts,

slapping at me.

I must stop this now.

this torture.

I was taught,

to reach,

toward light.

I call out.

Again.

Cry.

Sing.

Murmer,

last breath,

against,

the red sky.

I grew,

without breath,

taller.

I hold on,

for Mother.

I stood beneath

the ground

waiting.

I can see.

Light.

Mother?

I look around

trees

cut upon

thatched

adorning “homes”.

flattened

against the sky.

Mother?

Hi.  I’m just one voice like yours.

Slightly different with similarities.

I’m wondering something very basic.

Why do we all stand still and allow the world to be what it is?

I don’t do anything, mind you, I don’t picket, send letters to Congress, yell at the Pope.

I sit and think.

How about you?

What do you do?

Anything the rest of us might join in on?

Within the last day or so, I came across a blog about Kiva.org…click to direct link…and I have been thinking about the concept of Kiva.org off and on since I have seen this post. This is not the first time I have heard of this concept, but this time, after reading the blog posting, it stayed in my head.

“Changing Lives w/ Kiva.org

Posted by James under Charity , Websites

A friend of mine just turned me onto this organization that does some pretty amazing things so I wanted to share it with you all. The basic premise of it is that they create a system where people can lend money to entrepreneurs in third world countries so they can get a business off the ground. Then, once they do, the donors are repaid. We’re not talking about starting corporations or anything here, either.

For example, I was told of one story where a a woman had a peanut butter business in which she was pressing the peanuts by hand. Someone loaned her $50 with which she was able to buy a machine to press the peanuts. She tripled her production and was able to repay her donor almost immediately. Pretty awesome that the type of money that we piss away in a bar in one night can be used to make such a significant, direct, impact in someone’s life.

If you would like to get involved, please click here and do so.”

This morning on NPR.org I listened to a program about children working 12 hours a day without the hope of ever paying off the debt their family incurred, creating their indentured servitude.

BBC News: Bonded to the loom: March 29, 2007

Wikepedia: Debt Bondage

NPR: International Slavery: 2001

Kiva.org makes me wonder, is there a way to reach out and begin the end to this daily inhumanity?

By chance…(is there chance?)…I clicked upon a blog that spoke of Cosmic Ordering. The author translates “Cosmic Ordering” into a phrase fairly well known today, The Law of Manifestation.

The author, Kathryn Cassidy, has a series of articles within her blogspot talking about the Law of Attraction/Cosmic Ordering/Universal Laws. She higlights a new film being released on May 10, 2007, called “Pass it On”. For anyone who has seen The Secret, this sounds like the next movie must-see………..

“Sunday, April 08, 2007

PASS IT ON

If you have seen the film about the Law of Attraction called The Secret, you will definitely not want to miss Pass It On. It is an interactive motion picture that delves into the questions everyone has been asking for centuries; How do I become Wealthy? What do I do with my ideas? How can someone find their passion? What does it take to truly be Happy?

The film premieres on May 10th 2007. The idea is that if each person ‘passes it on’ we can make a worldwide, positive change to the perception of how we create our own opportunities and happiness – and ultimately our entire reality.

If you are visiting this blog for the first time, it contains information (that I know works) about manifesting. You’ll probably need to read from the bottom upwards, as some posts link into the next and they post on top of the older one.”

Wikepedia provides a comprehensive overview on the law of attraction, the pros and cons, the claims by skeptics of pseudoscience.

In essence the introdutory definition is: “you get what you think about; your thoughts determine your destiny.”^[1]

(References and footnotes: Redden, Guy, Magic Happens: A New Age Metaphysical Mystery Tour, Journal of Australian Studies: 101: Louise Hay, “the Queen of Affirmations”,(9) believes that “our thinking creates our reality”. In short, if one’s consciousness is in tune with the “whole”, creation becomes a resource from which we can manifestsynchronicity. According to Hay’s bestseller, “You Can Heal Your Life”(10), your life can be transformed by never dwelling on the negative, as the “metaphysical principle of life” is the “law of attraction”: you get what you think about; your thoughts determine your destiny.)”

Perhaps we sometimes approach topics too simply here at SurfaceEarth, regardless, it appears that the Law of Attraction requires action and positive thought.

Um, what’s so wrong with that?

Again, Wikepedia concisely states the criticism of the Laws of Attraction:

“Criticism

Some critics say that the claims made about the scientific justification of the Law of Attraction are not supported by any mainstream scientific research, and there have been no widely recognized studies demonstrating that the principle actually works (there are a number of recognized studies in which positive thinking has not had a measurable effect on objective conditions, while conversely scientific studies involving the use of placebos support the principle of positive thinking). Skeptics have claimed that the explanations of the claimed law (and even the use of the term “Law” itself) misuse and misrepresent mainstream understandings of electromagnetism and quantum mechanics in a way often characteristic of pseudoscience. In dismissing the claimed effectiveness and anecdotal testimony about the success of the Law of Attraction, skeptics argue that it is nothing more than a round-about means of self-motivation and a confirmation bias applied to acts of increased risk-taking, and has no further metaphysical effects.[1]“

See Footnote 1 reference above.

The harm in following the Law of Attraction is what exactly?

You become more positive?

You increase your energy?

You lessen the burden on others who no longer have to bear your angst?

Which movie do I need to cite?

Which news article?

How many crying children does it take?

There are more of us than “them”.

There are multitudes of us that would not harm another like the harm we see on television, in the newspaper, on the internet, in the blogs—-there are more of us………..how can we figure it out?

POST, COMMENT, DO WHAT YOU WILL, BUT SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS….one of you might yet make the difference.

Your children are his expression

I can’t even speak about this

go to cnn.com

that’s all you have to do

what’s the difference in what little ms. sunshine taught us?

Dear Lord.

It’s me.

I’m back.

Right, I know, kidding you, yes?

As if you do not know me before my moments of realization.

I laugh out loud God.

I have doubted you, I have doubted you and doubted you.

I doubt you today.

Yet, I always come back to where I think you are, my second voice, my second skin, myself outside of knowing.

I look around Lord, I don’t know what I am seeing.

I don’t know what I am doing.

I watch the news and I cry and I don’t know how to stop.

There are many that would say, buck up kiddo. Get on with it. Maybe I have walked in shoes I don’t wish upon others. Maybe I don’t know how I wound up in such shoes only ever wanting to make others happy, to be a law abiding American.

Maybe it doesn’t matter.

Here I am.

There you are.

It’s temporal.

It’s me the girl child climbing the highest tree, not sure how to get down, but unwilling to let the neighborhood boys beat me at it. Above the kitchen window of my home, establishing, hey ma, here I am.

Dear God,

I ask for you everyday, every morning upon waking. I see the news headlines of you in the sky, is there a media conglomerate? I see the Virgin Mary, not so Virgin, spread against the sky. I see the celebration of life, tribulation, I see the jokes in the sky. The Celestial Jibjab on-sky.

I see you.

I feel you.

I know.

So what?

Now what?

I’m tempted to leave it at that.

When all else fails, simply state: “baloney & cheese”.

When someone’s words don’t fit the facial expressions or energy coming out of them, simply state: “you lie like a rug”.

That’s it, you are done.

You are not compelled to convert them.

Say your peace and go bask in the glory of the day, even if you have to shut them in a closet. (Kidding, kidding!)

And yes, these are my personal expressions, consider them copywritten, t-shirts to follow….happy Saturday.

Jump on board. LookSeeSaw.wordpress.com has posted a piece, a humbling reminder of the magnificent hearts of children:

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Look See Saw

Showcasing the best the web can offer in a wide range of creative mediums, including art, crafts, handmade products, music, writing, dance, and more.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Help Shane Bernier set his world record!

“Seven year old Shane Bernier is a brave cancer patient at CHEO and he is asking people to send him a card for his birthday on May 30th. Shane wants to set a world record for the most number of cards received!”

This text was taken from the website, http://shanebernier.ca/

The address is:

Shane Bernier
Box 484
Lancaster Ontario
CANADA
K0C 1N0

I’ve made two so far and I thought artists might enjoy sending along their own one of a kind cards for this special little boy!

Posted by Jessica Torrant at 11:11 AM 1 comments

The last few days I have been preoccupied with another CNN headline, reporting the number of women abused/domestic violence victims in Mexico.

I wanted to do more research to cross-reference the media headline numbers, but knew it didn’t matter for two primary reasons:

1.  Even one domestic violence victim is one too many; and

2.  There is no way to account for the real number.

When did domestic violence begin?

Was it present from the union of man and woman or woman and woman or man and man?

Is it no more than yet another reflection in the inherent violent world we humans have adopted?

Is it necessary to get to the origin to eradicate the potential for its occurrence?

Is there anyway to start when humans are no more than a thought and change the consciousness so abuse or harm to others could never become either an abstract or concrete imagining?

Being aware, donating to groups with their primary aim to help domestic violence victims, whether they are men, women or children, is paramount.  I still wonder though if there is a way to get to the root and rip it out so it can never grow.

I was planning to put up “real” statistics when I realized I can’t possibly find the “real” numbers as victims of domestic violence suffer in silence.

Yesterday, I had a comic relief day.

Many of you may not have wanted to click on the links I provided yesterday, as to be frank, many could consider much of the language or messages objectionable; yet, there is a madness to some of the messages conveyed, we reap what we sow.

So, what is marriage?

Do people today marry for love?

Is it real?

Do people marry for love today?

TODAY IS COMIC RELIEF DAY

AGAIN, TO ANYONE WHO MAY BE OFFENDED BY PROFANITY

DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

TO ANYONE THAT CAN’T LAUGH AT THEMSELVES, THE WORLD AND YOUR OWN EGO

DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

ANYONE READY FOR A MOMENT OF LAUGHTER CLICK—I WILL SAY, THERE ARE MOMENTS IN THE SPIEL THAT MAKE ME NOT WANT TO POST THE LINK…….BUT HERE’S TO A FREE FORUM………………
CLICK BELOW

George Carlin on God

THIS IS NOT FOR THE LIGHT HEARTED.

IF YOU OBJECT TO PROFANITY OR LAUGHING AT YOURSELF

DO NOT

DO NOT

CLICK THE LINK BELOW WHICH LEADS YOU TO GEORGE CARLIN AND HIS THEORY ON WHY WE ARE HERE

George Carlin on existence

This is a must see:

JibJab: What They Call the News

ok, America didn’t vote for him:  wait, that’s not quite right, is it? He must have gotten some votes.

CNN reports:

‘American Idol’ eliminates one more

POSTED: 8:05 a.m. EDT, March 29, 2007

var clickExpire = “04/28/2007″;

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s over for Chris Sligh.

Sligh, the curly-haired jokester who once claimed he was “bringing chubby back,” said goodbye to “American Idol” on Wednesday, becoming the latest singer bounced in viewer voting.

The sacking of Sligh, 28, who hails from Greenville, South Carolina, winnowed the number of “Idol” wannabes to nine. The winner will be chosen in May.

“I think it’s bye-bye, curly,” predicted Simon Cowell, before the results were announced.

Cowell said on Tuesday’s program that Sligh’s rendition of the Police classic “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” was a “mess.”

Haley Scarnato and Phil Stacey had the next-lowest vote tallies in the phone balloting, which drew more than 30 million calls and text messages.

Stacey, 29, of Jacksonville, Florida, managed to get on Cowell’s good side after his solid cover of “Every Breath You Take.”

“This may surprise you, Phil, but I actually thought that was very good,” Cowell said Tuesday.

The acerbic judge was not as nice to Scarnato, deriding the 24-year-old Texas girl’s take on “True Colors” as safe and forgettable.

(Question: Will Sanjaya Malakar, who is undoubtedly a national sensation, stick around until the finale? Could happen, as long as the “Idol” oddball keeps stoking watercooler discussion.)

Wednesday’s elimination show also featured a get-up-and-dance performance by Gwen Stefani and rapper Akon, who performed Stefani’s hit single “The Sweet Escape.”

Update: someone posted below, Chris, who? And I took it seriously and then realized it was witty………

Anyway, without further ado,

“American Idol: uticaod.com readers agree with America – goodbye Chris Sligh

March 29, 2007

“American Idol” hopeful Chris Slight was at the bottom of America’s list Wednesday night — and at the bottom of uticaOD.com’s poll.

Sligh, the curly-haired jokester who once claimed he was “bringing chubby back,” said goodbye to “American Idol” Wednesday, becoming the latest singer bounced in viewer voting.

In the uticaOD.com poll, Sligh tied for last with Gina Glocksen, Chris Richardson and Phil Stacey with 1.8 percent of the votes; 167 were cast.

The favorite “Idol” singer this week is Melinda Doolittle with 28.7 percent of the vote followed by Jordin Sparks with 22.8 percent.

Here’s how this week’s uticaOD.com poll turned out:

1. Melinda Doolittle: 28.7 percent.

2. Jordin Sparks: 22.8 percent.

3. Blake Lewis: 21 percent.

4. Sanjaya Malakar: 12.6 percent.

5. Lakisha Jones: 5.4 percent

6. Haley Scarnato: 2. 4 percent.

7. Gina Glocksen: 1.8 percent.

8. Chris Richardson: 1.8 percent.

9. Phi Stacey: 1.8 percent.

10. Chris Sligh; 1.8 percent.”

How many of you out there would easily take in babies while their biological moms worked out or sought help with what they need?

What is the answer?

Where can these aggrieved moms go to now, it’s ok, we’ll watch the babies, remember when a village was considered the parents?

See: CNN: Who Dumped Three Newborns Eleven Months Apart?

Coffeegrounds.wordpress.com has had many posts dealing with the state of war and our reaction as to the troops of the war.

NPR had a linguist on board yesterday describing that the word troops is dehumanizing and one of his least favorites.

CNN shows us today a wife and a mother wearing a headscarf.

I am a mother, I am a wife, I am a litigation attorney, I am not a captured woman, wife, mother in Iran.

CNN presents:

“– Expressionless, smoking a cigarette and wearing a black head scarf that masks her blond hair, video of captured British sailor Faye Turney shows a soft-spoken mother — one of only 12 women in the British navy trained to drive inflatable patrol boats.

The 26-year-old mother was driving the Royal Navy’s boat Friday when armed Iranian troops seized her and 14 others, accusing them of crossing into their territorial waters and unleashing a diplomatic crisis. (Full story)

A week before her capture, she told the British Broadcasting Corp. she understood the risks of her work.

“You’ve got to have it in the back of your head that sometimes you may be called upon and, when you are, you have got to get on with it,” she said aboard the Navy Frigate HMS Cornwall in the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iran and Iraq.”

I hate war.

I have no desire for conflict.

Sitting at a deposition the other day, legal fees mounting into the hundreds of thousands, a party said something about the state of war.

I said, “This, here, is where war begins.”

Conflict begins in the smallest moments, the ones we feel are vindicated, “I believe you hurt me; therefore, ….”

Therefore, what?

I now hurt you?

I spoke to a dear friend the other day, upset with events in her life, seeking legal advice and retribution…I wanted to say, I needed to say……..stop……….meditate……..breath……..because negative energy and retribution leads to things beyond our control. And she is the dearest and best of ladies, believe me you. But sometimes when people are hurt and attacked, they have only one habit, retribution.

I’m not suggesting you all sit still and shut up, matter of fact, there is only one thing I am suggesting, take a look at this CNN article, take a look at this one person, divorced and shut off from the world she knows, beyond ability to help herself, at least as far as we know.

Ask yourself, how did we contribute to her getting there?

Yes, yes, I know, most of us are not the politicians or the moneymakers, the freemason power wheelers of the world, but to sit back and let them take all the blame, is for us to admit we have no voice, no say, in how this world evolves.

Namaste.

May God bless you all.

Or, if you are of the Einstein version of God, may you find your answer in the yet unknown expansion of the universe.

I applaud and welcome the many spiritual teachers, motivators that walk around us. What happens though when theory is simply not enough?

Many of us understand the power of language, that if we say “I can”, rather, than “I might”, we carry greater power into the universe, we ask for positive strength to be returned.

Suppose, though, that there are moments or days when changing our language does not change our lives?

When despite what we might say, there are still people starving, there are people abused and attacked, there is such a well of despair, that merely changing language will not change lives?

Is it reasonable that in moments like that, lives like that, people clammor and demand a formula? A tried and true, no returns necessary formula, a simple number: 1-800-fix-us-now………….a solution that works immediately?

We for the most part are spiritual seekers. We seek our own truth, we seek the universal truth, we escape in moments, take a back seat in meetings, and look around, wondering what became of the collective consciousness or the wisdom of the Universe.

Reading Eat, Love & Pray by Elisabeth Gilbert we came across a word at page 203: “Antevasin”.

Ms. Gilbert describes it as follows:

“So I saw it during my last week at the Ashram, I was reading through an old text about Yoga, when I found a description of ancient spiritual seekers. A Sanskrit word appeared in the paragrpah: ANTEVASIN. It means, ‘one who lives at the border.’ In ancient times this was a literal description. It indicated a person who had left the bustling center of worldly life to go live at the edge of the forest where the spiritual masters dwelled. The antevasin was not of the villagers anymore-not a householder with a conventional life. But neither was he yet a transcendent-not one of those sages who live deep in the unexplored woods, fully realized. The antevasin was an in-betweener. he was a border-dweller. He lived in sight of both worlds, but he looked toward the unknown. And he was a scholar.”

I never knew this word before I read it in Ms. Gilbert’s book.

Dictionary.com has no results for antevasin, but superflat.typepad.com does; yet, about.com doesn’t and most of the other top search engines keep coming back to Ms. Gilbert’s book.

So, suppose instead of focusing on the word itself, Antevasin, we instead go back to what it is? Spiritual Seeking.

In seeking spiritualy, there are those things that fit, those that don’t, some which may fit later and those that grow too small, but the commonality, is the persistant truth.

Today I came across some new search results on the Mayan Prophecies, the end of the world as we know it as of 12-21-12; the reversal of 1 and 2, the combination, 3, 3 and 3. The Law of Time website sheds yet more viewpoints on collective consciousness. I am perplexed again and again, as to how heralded universal truths, the Law of Attraction, doctrines of religion and indisputable points of Science seem to fold in over one another, and repeat like mantras.

So for today, I am satisfied with this word: antevasin. Simply, spiritual seeking needs no explanation does it? Yet, it’s nice to have company on the journey.

Namaste.

We’ve been surfing the net for updates on the state of the people in Gambia who have decided to proceed with the “dream cure”.

Funny enough, the news has dropped off since March 17 and 18 of this year.

We will keep looking, but if anyone has some updates, please feel free to post in response.

We are a non-judgmental site, but beware, by that, we don’t mean we welcome posts of those out to be in a bad mood, or those who haven’t walked an inch in another’s shoes.

Gambia:

ImediNews

Freedom Newspaper

United News

Diamonds Move From Blood to Sweat and Tears

Candace Feit for The New York Times

“Long after the civil war, Sierra Leone diamond miners remain impoverished.”

Today’s New York Times shows us a picture of Diamond Miners. The photograph above gives a good enough depiction at what is presumed to be backbreaking work.

The irony is what does that backbreaking work cost those fellow human beings, and what profit does it give to others of us?

Where is the scale of morality?

Is it completely divorced from the realm of economics?

Within the article written by Lydia Polgreen is a photograph of two hands, a small piece of paper between the hands, and a dot within the hands upon the paper. The sheer smallness of the gem within the hardworking hands, made us stop and wonder how something so small could gain more on the market, than the larger hands portraying its alleged worth. 

“An industrial grade gem, above, can bring $1 or so for days of work.”

“I don’t have choice,” Mr. Kamanda said, standing calf-deep in brown muddy water here at the Bondobush mine, where he works every day. “This is my only hope, really.”

How many of you earn more than a dollar a day?

The riddle of arrival.

Who are we now, at anytime, and why?

There are those that would argue the why is unnecessary. We are here and from here we go on to the next moment, the next “here”.

Where did I read recently that it is acceptable to use the term “woman” in the news, in scholarly articles, in politics, but often, it is not accepatable to use “female”?  Now I have no statistics to know the average of occurrence, haven’t thought about that a lot in detail, but found the observation thought provoking.

Who are today’s “girls”? Who were yesterday’s girls?

There is no division, today’s girls will become yesterday’s girls and tomorrow’s women. We can talk of being in the moment, but moments shift, and our role in those moments shifts also. It can be seismic movement, but happens to the unattendant observer, including the observer of self, in such a seemingly slow manner, that it is suprising to find yourself or a loved one or a neighbor as this different “person”.

There is much discussion on what girls must deal with and learn, the vulnerability to “strangers”. Yet, we place them approvingly in environments day after day that don’t always teach them to be strong, but teaches them to adapt, to deal, to quiet their passions. I’m not saying this doesn’t happen with boys, but for a variety of reasons, that would be a separate topic. (And for a variety of reasons, it can be easily argued that it should be within the same topic).

I posted earlier that I recently picked up a book, Reviving Ophelia, Saving the Selves of Adolsecent Girls, by Mary Pipher, Ph. D.

Earlier this evening I wrote:

I am on page 28, and the book has resonated at this point.

In reading this book, I hope to understand the next generations of decision-makers. The book suprises me though, it may yet teach me how I got to where I am, in the exploration of adolescence.

There is no them and us, parents v. children, save v. the unsaved, Christian v. Muslim, Israeli v. Pakistinian…….there are “us”, the collective of human beings, the “earthlings”, whatever divisions we have made from there, we have made, the tribulations it has led us through are of our own making.

With life and committments intervening, there has now been a few quiet moments and I am at page 49. How much I have learned and thought of in that space of 21 pages. I am a fast reader, there is nothing I love more than ripping through books. I must read this book slowly as it not only highlights what is going on with the girls of the 1990s, the girls of today, but the woman of today who were girls yesterday.

I want to write a disclaimer, hey wait, I’m only on page 49! I can’t guarantee this book is worth the read. But you know what? That’s ludicrous. The book was worth the read at the word go.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say on this subject as the pages go on; however, for the moment, there is one singular thought:

What are we doing?

Go to, run to, race to, click to:

Official website of Mary Pipher, Ph.D.: check out excerpt on “Reviving Ophelia, Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls”.

What is God?

Who is God?

Is there God?

I grew up in the dogma of religion: yes, a Roman Catholic.

So what that I was the child of divorce?

Oh, my parents could no longer indulge in Communion? But they could put money in the basket?

Ok, I get it (not).

It doesn’t matter.

The evolution of the search for the meaning of God, sprituality, the Light, reminds me of again, yes, thank you NPR, of brain plasiticity.

Many of us come across the stories of the monks that have achieved a different level of brain mechanism than us mere humans, they elevate, in my mind, (my mind only), on a stratosphere that transcends even what I can digest in the written word.

I watched the sky as I drove from work this evening, and I’ll be darned if the sky and his (her) angels were not laughing at or with me, as they read my mind contemplating the levels of meditation and spirtual ascension.

They seemed to laugh at me.

What, you thought we would give you a ladder to climb?

Perhaps a trampoline?

Go back inside of yourself, they seemed to say, you must have a better idea of how to reach us.

So there I am reflecting on neurology and science and God, not understanding half of what I hear, but understanding that there is a commonality, an overlapping, there is a connection, think and it will be done, believe and it is yours.

Good night folks.

What does it mean to say:  “I matter?”

Does it convey ego?

Selfishness?

Misconception?

Saying “I matter” can be ever so simple.  It can convey only this:

I matter.

If I matter to me

There is a chance

That when you matter to me

We can do great things together.

Conversely, saying:  “I don’t matter”

means

i don’t matter to me

and if

i don’t matter to me

then nothing can matter to me

and if i give you anything

it is less

than me

less than you

so

what is it

exactly

you would ask

of me

when

even

i

don’t

matter to me?

On the flip side, I think the answer at this stage of life is quite easy:

I matter.  And in so recognizing that, there is more I can do for you.

Yesterday, we found a blog here on our beloved wordpress.com.

It was an appeal from a parent trying to raise funds for a walk she is participating in for the The Autism Society of Delaware.

The mother’s blog is called Bryelee’s Garden

I have pasted and copied in her post regarding the walk she will be participating in. Apparently, she is striving to raise $500 for the Autism Society of Delaware.

We don’t have any personal knowledge as to the family or as to the Autism Society of Delaware. A dear fellow blogger provided another resource for those needing resources on Autism or those looking to somehow contribute: Cure Autism Now

About Cure Autism Now

Cure Autism Now (CAN) is an organization of parents, clinicians and leading scientists committed to accelerating the pace of biomedical research in autism through raising money for research projects, education and outreach. Founded by parents of children with autism in 1995, the organization has grown from a kitchen-table effort to the largest provider of support for autism research and resources in the country. The organization’s primary focus is to fund essential research through a variety of programs designed to encourage innovative approaches toward identifying the causes, prevention, treatment and a cure for autism and related disorders.

Since its founding, Cure Autism Now has committed nearly $39 million in research, the establishment and ongoing support of the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE), and numerous outreach and awareness activities aimed at families, physicians, governmental officials and the general public.

Mission and Goals
Cure Autism Now believes that, with enough determination, money and manpower, science can be hurried so that answers are found sooner rather than later.
Cure Autism Now Accomplishments
CAN has helped triple the number of scientists working in the field of autism, established the world’s first collaborative gene bank for autism, motivated passage of the Children’s Health Act of 2000, … [more]

Bryelee’s Garden
The walk is scheduled for April 28th and so far I am no where near my goal. If you would like to help to support me you can donate right through the site. The money goes directly to the Autism Society of Delaware. Did you know in 1995 the prevalence of autism was was 1 in every 2,500 births? Today it is 1 in 150. I got that info from the autism society of Delawares website. Every time I hear that I find it shocking. Chances are you know someone who is in the autism spectrum. You may not realize it but you do. Its that quirky guy from school. That weird little girl who keeps flapping her hands.

I never thought I would have a child with a disability, who does? But shortly after child # 2 birth we knew something was wrong. I think every family with an autistic child has a need, wither it be financially from paying for school, therapies, or it may be like me needing a stroller for a special needs child. But we all have our specific needs for our loved one.

The thing I want for people who know nothing to very little about autism is autism is not retardation. Many people are very surprised to hear autistic people are VERY intelligent. Autism is a neurological disorder that messes with ones social and communication skills.

Please consider sponsoring me at the Walk the High Road for Autism. I will be walking for Cate.

Cate’s Mom will be supplying a bit more information on her blog later today. Who knows, if enough people are steered to her blog, perhaps she can even surpass her goal.

First Giving

More on the Autism Society of Delaware’s fundraising efforts for April

Namaste.

We wrote a small piece within the last week regarding the fate of women in Pakistan with links to various articles. The piece has since been moved to our page: Humanitarian News.

Today, while reading other blogs, we came across this one: Cheeky Max – the tagline on the blog post is the Word from Inside Iraq, posted March 3, 2007, which speaks of the woman’s blog: Baghdad Burning.

For anyone looking for another perspective on what is happening to females in Iraq, I would suggest reading the post on the blog above and following her links to further sources.

“Eat, Pray, Love”……………………a lovely let it all hang out spiritual journey of one woman.

Within 2.5 pages, I was hooked. Ironic that I found the book while food shopping after working, more ironic that on my way to the store, I heard on NPR that Anne Lamott has a new book out and I almost made myself purposely take the wrong turn straight to Barnes & Noble to buy the book right away.

Alas, I knew something that good was worth waiting for and my family would probably prefer food over a book. (Hard to believe isn’t it? I try to tell them again and again, words are food, you must only just imagine…….by that point, they have walked out of the room and I’m not even left with a goldfish listening as alas, our last goldfish also grew tired of my soapbox and left for better waters………….).

So I did the right thing, the expected thing and headed to the foodstore…………of course I went to the foodstore that has quite a good book section, and there I found, high up on a shelf, almost daring me to see it, the book: “Eat, Pray. Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert……………….and an endorsement on the front by “Anne Lamott”. See, the Universe was working with me, it too knows that words are food.

This book is not for the faint of heart…

It is not for those that have their feet dug in to a particular religious stomping ground.

It’s a search for only one person’s truth, but I dare you to not find a bit of your own along the way.

Three Cheers for this find! Look below, I’ve pasted in some of the highlights…..

Do you remember the story of the doctor prohibited from practicing medicine because he dared to suggest doctors should “scrub” up prior to surgery?

Well, I’m not sure how all of this comes around.

Surely, I don’t want an individual man in Gambia telling HIV patients they must stop proven medicines that prolong life, to take a herbal/spice concontion his ancestors gave him in a dream……but suppose……….he was right?

We already know what would happen if he is wrong, our media and society specialize in the bad news, I wonder though, what would happen if he were right?

Do any of us really know?

Artifical nails & health care

Are you willing to say no? It doesn’t work?

More on Miracles

BY NO MEANS DO WE ADVOCATE ABANDONING TRADITIONAL MEDICINE, WE SIMPLY DO NOT BELIEVE, ANY ONE PERSON YET HAS THE ONLY ANSWER.

Surface Earth, copyright 2007

It is a time before now

A time well past

in this half-finished life

purgatory these last few decades

holding me silently raging

against what could have been

standing the measure of time

against the choices not made

cast as decision

Putting on the familar face

losing my breath to fit the mask

at which point am I more real?

Am I too old now

to even ask?

or too young

so long as there is even one breath

left

to ignore the pain

of pasting upon my face

knowingly curving without thought

the contours of my cheeks

to admit the smile

against the cast of my eyes

The Park Bench

Copyright 2007

Surface Earth, all rights reserved

They are cluttered on the benches beneath the trees. Again, they have left open the benches in the sun. I wonder, who gave them this right? I asked my brother the other day, “is it legal?”

He sighed, a great stirring as he lifted the air from his chest and back inward again. “Is t legal?” He closed his eyes, ruefully shaking his head. His little sister, always the same.

“Gwen, does it matter whether it is legal? Have you not heard of Darwin’s Law?”

Darwin? I have heard that word. I can’t remember. My mother, perhaps? My father? Before they were taken? My brother knew I could not recall.

“In the time before, before the laws were made, there was a test.” He stretched himself, “the birds of flight sailed above and through the skies where no one else could touch. Upon reaching ground, the birds of flight were honored for their extraordinary power, revered.” He scratched at his back, looking toward the sky.

I know this story, I can remember from the time I was young, my mother sang me a song of times before. I knew my brother would take his time, in speaking, and now as I waited he gathered his thoughts. I glanced to the benches below, all the ones beneath the trees still full. The sun was at high noon, the wood would bake beneath one’s feet.

I watched three women, in black, hobble past the sun covered benches. One craned her head, lifting her eyes from beneath her brow bone. I am sure that once she had eyebrows. I could see slight tufts where perhaps something else used to grow. The other linked her arm, “never mind,” I heard carried into the wind. I watched their backs, stooped under the weight of black, worn almost shiny by age.

“Oh no!” I cried. My bother startled.

“What is it Gwen?” His eyes opened, and he stopped mid-flight on the verge of continuing his lesson.

“Nothing brother. I saw a young boy, on a skateboard. I feared he would overtake and knock down the women.”

My brother peered closer at me. “Gwen, but that is what I am telling you. If that young boy had not chosen to steer around, he would have overtaken the women, ran them down and perhaps continued. His bones are strong, not tried by age, not worn.”

I sat mystified. Is that all? All he would say? I asked whether there was a law regarding the benches. I looked at them again but it was the same. People atop the benches in the shade, birds on the ground, hopping from the burning asphalt, playing tricks for crumbs. I shook my head, taking in the park.

On CNN today, a story features that the President of Gambia had a dream in which his ancestors gave him the cure for Aids.

This is not funny business, it appears real that people are believing that the herbal conconction works.

Apparently at this stage, there is not any medical documentation to confirm whether this dream induced “cure” may work, just imagine for a moment if it did………

Faith has many faces, I prefer not to discount the yet unproven. With that said, there is a fear that belief in this new “cure” may cause people to have false hope.

What would occur if faith alone, and not just the concoction worked to help cure all of the people inflicted with this dreadful disease? I can understand that there will be much in the media with a negative view, and quite frankly, it is understandable, because if the “cure” doesn’t work, people will become more and more ill.

The CNN article of March 17, 2007 is posted below.  Following the article are several different resources, with Technorati Search listing the most returns on blogs currently discussing this subject from a variety of viewpoints.

CNN presents the following:

By Jeff Koinange
CNN

BANJUL, Gambia (CNN) — At the only hospital in the capital of this tiny West African nation, a 3-year-old AIDS patient named Suleiman receives his daily dose of medication — a murky brown concoction of seven herbs and spices served out of a bottle that once contained pancake syrup.

The boy is told a spoonful a day will make him better. His mother, Fatuma, takes the same concoction, as do several dozen other AIDS and HIV patients here. Adults take two spoonfuls.

“It’s amazing,” Fatuma says. “Two weeks ago, I was very ill, weak and couldn’t eat without vomiting.”

This has become the treatment for HIV/AIDS patients here since early January, when Gambian President Yahya Jammeh announced he had discovered a cure for the disease that has wreaked havoc across Africa. He made that announcement in front of a group of foreign diplomats, telling them the treatment was revealed to him by his ancestors in a dream.

His concoction has stirred controversy and anger among health officials who say the president’s claims will bring false hope to the nation’s more than 20,000 HIV/AIDS patients. They are also afraid that it could cause patients to stop taking the anti-retroviral drugs that have been proven to prolong life and improve quality of living.

One critic was Fadzai Gwaradzimba, the U.N. envoy to Gambia. She was abruptly kicked out of the country after saying on February 9 that patients should continue their normal treatment and that Jammeh’s concoction be “assessed by an international team of experts.”

“The U.N. system encourages all patients currently receiving anti-retroviral treatment to continue to comply with their recommended treatment regimens while the efficacy of the new treatment is being assessed,” she said. (Read full statement)

The U.N. Development Program stands by the envoy’s remarks. The World Health Organization has also been critical of Jammeh’s treatment.

No formal medical training

Jammeh, 41, is a former army colonel who has no formal medical training. He wears white robes and carries a copy of the Quran with him in this mostly Muslim nation.

His degree is a high school diploma. But he claims his family has a history of healing people through traditional African medicine.

At the hospital in the capital, patients claim the president’s concoction is making a difference to them.

Ousman Sow, 54, said he’s been HIV-positive since 1996 and had been taking anti-retrovirals for the past fours years until he volunteered for this program.

Four weeks later, he said he’s gained 30 pounds and feels like a new person.

“I am cured at this moment,” he said.

Asked if he had any HIV symptoms, he responded, “No, I don’t. As I stand before you I can honestly tell you I have ceased to have any HIV symptoms.”

Patient after patient gave similar statements to CNN. But it was difficult to verify the authenticity of their testimony. The government claims to have scientific evidence, but it did not provide any to CNN.

Jammeh refused to speak to CNN for this report.

CNN also sought medical reports of the HIV/AIDS patients to see whether they are indeed on the mend. The material was not provided. The government would also not release the concoction to CNN for testing.

Gambian Health Minister Tamsim Mbowe, a trained physician with multiple medical degrees, defended the so-called herbal cure.

“I can swear, 100 percent, that this herbal medication His Excellency is using is working. It has the potency to treat and cure patients infected with the HIV-virus,” he told CNN.

What does he have to say to skeptics?

“I will tell them, as a Western medical trained doctor with 13 years experience meeting different professors, meeting different colleagues of mine, I’ve seen His Excellency, my leader, coming up with herbal medications that are able to treat and cure patients with HIV-virus, which have been proven within all medical and laboratory parameters.”

Health officials worldwide remain doubtful of these claims. Experts also say it’s in places like Gambia that the poor and desperate will latch onto anything resembling hope.

“For a country’s leader to come up with such an outlandish conclusion is not only irresponsible, but also very dangerous, and he should be reprimanded and stopped from proclaiming such nonsense,” said Professor Jerry Coovadia of the University of Kwa Zulu Natal in South Africa.

See CNN article

Anderson Cooper Blog

UNAIDS, WHO on Gambia’s “cure”: demanding “evidence-based” proof

Scoop Indepent News

EarthTimes.Org

Technorati Search: Gambia & the alleged cure for Aids: listing of blogs with differing viewpoints

Do you know what truth is?

Sure, it is a compilation of facts.

Do you know what facts are?

Sure it’s what’s black and white.

What’s black?

Um, that which is darkest.

What’s white?

That which is most white, without being translucent.

So,

facts are that which are darkest and not most translucent, right?

At which point do we divorce perception and its effects from what we regard as facts?

Let me give you a very basic, perhaps insulting example:

How do we live in a world, where anyone, government included, has an excuse to kill others, and we argue over whether it is defined as genocide or a humantiarian crisis?

The creator of this new blog has generously posted two of our pieces….

we like her photo of the potted plant and decided to give you a brief glimpse of her site….to learn more, you will have to go to the source…

I’m NOT a Potted Plant!

March 12th, 2007 by 100 Blogging Babes From SurfaceEarth:

“I’m not a potted plant.”

I can absorb, listen, do my “charitable” deed and remain impassive during the onslaught. But whoever said, I had to be a potted plant?

To find out more about blogging babes and if you too are a blogging babe, check out Ronnie’s newest blog!

100BloggingBabes

I find articles pitting Science against God amusing.

Perhaps because I am simple minded.

Perhaps because I figure, Science doesn’t know what is out there so why should the mere word “Science” obliterate God?

Suppose in the end there is no difference?

For more fascinating thoughts, albeit a bit more complex,

See the New York Times Sunday Magazine

There is much that has been written about the Law of Attraction. I don’t consider myself to be a scholarly authority on this matter, but I do hold certain truths to be self evident.

The Law of Attraction counsels that if you use your emotional guidance system, you will bring yourself to positive forces and thoughts. Whether it be the attraction of perfect health, financial prosperity and joy, the choice is ultimately yours.

For many years I became bogged down in the notion of judgment. What right do we have to judge? What would occur, moral anarchy, if we did not judge? I could not see beyond this dilemma.

Having spent time reading various sources on the Law of Attraction, and yes, that includes The Secret, Conversations with God, A Course in Miracles, The Law of Attraction, The Basic Teachings of Abraham, The Way of the Warrior, The Alchemist, The Pilgrimage, Toltec Traditions, various writings of the Dalai Lama, The Celestine Prophecy, The Teachings of Don Juan, A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, to most of the books from the Kabbalah Centre to The Interior Castle of St. Teresa of Avila, and on and on….I have come to a tentative conclusion…

The open question as to the place of judgment can and should be removed from the realm of moral analysis and moved into the the thought of the Law of Attraction.

The Law of Attraction teaches us, from a simple level, that what we think pulls energy from the Universe and comes back to us. The question becomes, do we then have to monitor our thoughts?

Not really. The basic idea is that we pay attention to an “emotional guidance system”, a gut instinct, a physical feeling that tells us, hey this feels good or this doesn’t feel good. If we can learn to recognize and not supress these physical manifestations, we can learn to manipulate our thoughts to what is positive.

Taking a basic example, I am watching CNN, health news comes up, there are new findings on what back pain may be caused by. As I watch it, I begin to tighten my body, feeling the ache and wondering, is it a heart problem? Could it be something worse than a heart problem? In that moment, I am forgetting, I raked the leaves, carried a toddler for hours, scrubbed the floors, carried an oversized briefcase up and down stairs, all I am thinking of is – gasp – I have back pain!

My mind begins to wonder, could it be something horrible? I flip stations and my brain picks up on each station that has more dismal news. I talk to friends, go to work, go to the store and I hear more and more similar stories. It must be true, I must have something to be very, very afraid of.

Now, here’s my favorite: “Rewind”.

None of the above with slight exceptions happens. I stand in my kitchen, I flick on CNN, see the talking head begin and change the channel.

The Law of Attraction tells us this simply, although I haven’t read it quite that way yet, but it tells us to: “Change the Channel”.

So where does judgment fit into this?

If you are like me and are striving not to judge others you are pushing against a natural tendency and focus to do precisely that: to judge.

Judge the ones who judge, judge not judging, in other words, you are swimming in a great morass of judgment.

Now suppose you took yourself out of that quandary.

Suppose, you sit down at a birthday party, a lurking adult on the fringe of childhood play, serving as a waiting ride home and a woman sits down next to you. You already had your moment planned, the moment in which you were waiting to escort your charges back home and not get in the way or embarrass them as you wait. You have a bag with a water bottle, gum and at least three different books. You sit down quietly and savor the moment you are about to call yours and crack open to page 209 of your 263 page book, knowing you are nearing the end and wishing there wasn’t one. You look up at a sound and find another mother nearby. You smile. Too late you realize that she has no intention of reading the book in her hand. You should have seen it by the way she sat next to you and placed her bag on top of the book, not out of the way of the book, but on top of the book.

You suck it up but your gut is rolling, you really just want to read.

The woman begins to talk, she is lovely, a nice soul, but the conversation never ends despite numerous attempts to casually open your book and hold it in front of your face.

She begins to speak about non-smokers, parents who don’t agree with her reward system for good grades, and it goes on and on.

You smile. A lightbulb goes off, huh, I don’t have to agree with everything she says just to make her feel better. I don’t have to offer up my own tales of woe just to be a good comrade. I can simply smile and redirect her to the children climbing rock walls.

In the past, I would have fluctuated, ah, what a nice lady, I should agree with her or at least murmer and nod my head. What a bad, bad person I would be to do otherwise. Then I think, but I have no interest in this type of conversation, I don’t want to bash the rest of the community, I don’t necessarily agree with them, but I simply have no interest in such topics.

I have no interest in such topics.

Simple.

I don’t need to go through the scales of morality but can fixate instead on what is feeling right inside of me and move away from what feels wrong. And in the process, I don’t have to sit in the seat of judgment and don’t have to go through a dissertation as to whether I am being charitable or uncharitable, I can just move toward what feels good or away from what feels wrong.

And that is how easy it can be at times to move toward what feels right and attract an abundance of what feels right all of the time. What feels right to me is not to judge. I don’t need to know why, I just know it is true. In judging, I bring negative energy to myself and the recipient of my judgment and it becomes a never ending relentless cycle.

I would rather simply enjoy breathing.

Many of us may have spent a lifetime

putting out the embers of a fire

grounding a foot

against a lick of red

on a dusty brick

taking a stick

pushing it

fanning its pulp

extinguishing the air

surrounding the flame

A lifetime

or what it seems

at the moment

while time still stands ahead

A lifetime to obliterate the flames

Why then

is it such a suprise

that it may take

more than a nanosecond

to rekindle the fire?

Crouching on bended knee

an elbow resting in the dirt

hands scarred

having circled dug up rocks

pieces of long standing trees

piled

waiting for breath

slowly to exhale

and fan the flame

Curious and more curious.

Gingrich was not a hypocrite. Yes, he now states he had an extramarital affair but really, he drew the line when pursuing Clinton…he went after him due to an alleged felony, perjury and obstruction of justice, not because of the sensationalist news regarding Ms. Lewinsky.

Check out some interesting articles on this fascinating non-hypocritical line drawing:

Today’s news

Focus on the Family

“Do as I Say, Not as I Do”

Huffington Post

Really?

Are we here again?

First scrotum, and now vagina?

Ok, let me go check on-line, popular, dictionary or encyclopedias, to see if they are horrible, or in fact, medical, scientific words….because I am pretty angry that an author and now three young teens pay the price for the rest of us exercising civil liberties….

Yup, wikipedia has got it

and wikipedia has it again

Ooops, even Webster’s has it?

“I’m not a potted plant.”

I can absorb, listen, do my “charitable” deed and remain impassive during the onslaught. But whoever said, I had to be a potted plant?

I raise questions, queries, perhaps bordering onto commentary at times, as to spiritual or save me, religious beliefs. The idea is to provoke discussion, to get thinking about the big picture that is so far beyond us most times that we can only see our feet. And yes, yes, life deals us blows that knock us over and we then become grateful for being able to see our feet, let alone the big picture.

Forgive me, I digress.

Why must certain religious persuasions be forced upon others?

Truly, I could care less what you believe, although I do draw the line at using your beliefs to manipulate or harm in any way others.

So why should anyone care if beliefs are in conflict as long as that very basic humanitarian goal is met?

I AM NOT A POTTED PLANT.

I will not just sit and take garbage that you have to believe only one way or the other. If I wake up tomorrow and decide I am one of the starpeople, so be it.

____

Editor’s Note: These links from the author will take you to some other people who have made it clear that they too are not potted plants:

Q&A WITH CHRISTOPHER LYDON

Reference to Brendan Sullivan Iran-Contra trial comment

Let’s suppose, the tears are real. What time period must pass, before the rest of the world accepts it, whether they believe in the Virgin Mary or not? Let me be frank, disclaimer, (do you hear the exclamation points?), we believe in the Virgin Mary, I’m not sure what her name is or if she was/is a Virgin, but I believe it does not matter, I believe, that her messages of kindness and humanity matter.

So, what now, if fast forward, months later, it cannot be disproved that there were actual tears, there in the store in Texas? The owners were not frauds, had no interst in being shot at or sued or disenfranchised, but simply stated what they saw to be their truth?

What then?

Does it matter?

Does it effect us?

Does “science” have a different explanation? Is science divorced from divinity?

Is there anything to believe? Does it matter if you do? I truly don’t care what you believe, I applaud simply your right to believe. But take a look, take a look at what I think are probably very good people believing in the goodness of humanity.

See below, not my article, resources are as credited below the title.

Virgin Mary Statue Appears to be Crying

link directly to article

Last Update: Mar 2, 2007 9:48 AM

Posted By: Walker Robinson

Some were calling it a miracle, a statue of the Virgin Mary here in San Antonio appeared to be crying Wednesday, and dozens of believers were stopping by to see it.The statue is at the store A&J Toys and Novelties on Colorado St. on the west side. People were crowding the store Wednesday night to get a peek.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like that,” one man said.

Water was seen coming from the statue’s eyes.

“I pass by here every day, and it’s just a miracle that it’s happening so close to where we live,” neighbor Delia Ramirez said.

Believers were emotional calling the statue a true blessing from above.

The store’s owner, Amelia Gutierrez, got the statue from Mexico on Sunday, and planned to put it in a raffle. But Wednesday morning, she said tears started pouring out.

“I don’t know if she’s trying to tell us something,” Gutierrez said. “We just have to pray, I guess.”

News 4 WOAI’s Aubrey Mika has been following this story. Click here to watch her report.

If you have questions or comments about this story, or you want to send us a story tip, please email News 4 WOAI’s Aubrey Mika at AubreyMika@woai.com.

Related Story:

Statue Stops Weeping; Faithful Keep Coming

See also:

Today Show

Come on.

Let’s get real.

We don’t get it.

Is there really a monopoly on one man’s thoughts so long ago?

What’s so wrong with the rest of us that we need to live, beholden, to others’ thoughts, of one person’s life?

I am sure at this point you have all seen the news, and at this point, we are all home comfortably, far from the scene of the latest natural disaster.

Yet, look around you, search your heart, even one loss of those close to you, is a universal loss to you.

See this thoughtful blog:

Helping because you can

What is the universal thread to language?

Is it the emotion within the words, the emotive energy?

I sat in a meeting today, many people, and noticed one person incline his head funny. He had answered his cell phone, tucked it under his ear and garbled into the phone: “iminameeting”.

I couldn’t hear him speak, but in the moment I paused to wonder what language he was speaking, I understood his words: I’m in a meeting.

What is the universal key to language? Is it visual? Emotive?
Icelandic langauge

Discovery Channel

One Man’s Blog

Many, many people I know and know of, speak of new stories, day after day, week after week, of those they love or admire or know of, that have gotten the diagnosis.

Time and time again, most of them are “fit”, non-smokers, etc.

It comes time to pause, what are we missing?

WHAT ARE WE MISSING?

Can we not do a survey and connect the dots? Are there no dots to connect? Why every time someone we know has to deal with this are they unsure where to turn? Traditional medicine? Traditional with alternative rememedies? Strictly mindpower/alternative?

There must be a way to create a web to decipher this issue. There has to be, there has to be, there has to be; because we all need to figure this out TODAY.

so? what should we do? judge not judge?

I mean, seriously, if the proponent does not embrace the system advocated, does it make the system worthless?

Or do we need a sliding scale?

Reports tell us following the Oscars – ?tell us? – or suggest, that perhaps Mr. Gore does not practice what he preaches. The difference between Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk.

So, let’s suppose, he doesn’t practice what he preaches, but the net effect is that, as a result of what he preaches, the planet has become 30% more green..now what?

See Points of Thought for Fun & Reflection

Call it what you will 

It doesn’t matter who is right.

What matters is what we can live with, what we believe, what we can do to lessen the burden on ourselves and others.

The fear of the unknown is vast, which is why we remained married to the past, no matter how scary, and why we skip over today to tomorrow in hopes of what might be.

What truly happens when we stand where we are?  When we breath and do not venture anywhere but where we are?  How difficult is it to quiet the active mind and in quieting the active mind, is there a mind left at all?  What is there then?

I always wondered at this statement. Some people don’t, to them it is simple and bravo for that ability, because they operate on a more clear level.

I have only now found what makes sense:

“Well, I’m no scientist, and certainly I don’t have Carl Sagan’s techinical understanding of the universe and our position within it. I simply believe that there’s a very organic, imeasurable consciousness of which we’re a part. I believe that this consciousness is a force so powerful that I’m incapable of comprehending its power through the puny instrument of my human mind. And yet I believe that this consciousness is so unimaginably calibrated in its sensitivity that not one leaf falls in the deepest of forests on the darkest of nights unnoticed.”

The Measure of a Man, by Sidney Poitier

Why would it matter if it were true?

Why would it be any less of a miracle and reason for faith?

Well: we’ve been told our reading of a blog is wrong and that no one claimed that Jesus wasn’t resurrected………if we misread, so be it, we’re looking for other opinions, to be “right” is to sometimes be blind anyway.

Here’s the original post. We’ll go approve the comment pointing out alleged errors. Anyone else with viewpoints?

Trolling through the tag surfers, we found an interesting article that somehow or other we might have missed if not for this blog…

http://thepulp.wordpress.com

A story tag reading: “James Cameron Takes on Jesus”.
The story goes, or might go, well, it does go, that Jesus was not resurrected and for over two decades, there has been knowledge that his tomb was elsewhere…we’re going to keep our eye on this blog and see what the press conference reveals today.

Perhaps we could have worded it better, when we said the story goes, we meant the recent news versions……….so apologies for any miscommunication born of poor word choice, ah, yet another argument for having a “word basket”.

See:

James Cameron takes on Jesus

For other views:

Academic Paper

Words to me have always carried weight. Energy. Tactile.

You can see a book or a post online and without fully reading the words, arrive at a sensation as to whether you want to go on.

The use of words can carry such great responsibility.

Suppose we had to earn the words we use? Suppose there were words that could never be earned?

Imagine a basket in front of you before you speak. You have to walk at least ten steps to reach it, then crouch down and take your hands and sift through the words you think you want or need to use. Then you measure the weight of the words on a scale of consequence. Only upon retracing the ten steps and placing the words on the ground in front of you, will you then begin to speak.

Who can shed more light on this?

Can someone?

I clicked on this post, do not know the full details or veracity, but after seeing a picture of a cell where a 9 yr old boy is allegedly held, I’m asking anyone out there, do you know what this is about?

http://www.latimes.com/search/la-na-immig10feb10_jd7pwonc,0,996949.photo

How do we know who we would be if we weren’t who we are?

Silence is space.

It is a respite from acting who you are.

When first practicing silence, it can be awkward. People expect more chatter, more noise, more feedback. Your internal monitors may churn expecting the expectation of noise.

When practiced in small quantities, it clears the brain. There are so many different ways to achieve this. Swallow a comment that’s not necessary or provoked to fly out of your mouth before your heart has caught up. Breath before speaking. Not shallow breaths, but a pure intake and exhale, a clearing. Smile first and as your smile slowly unwinds, allow yourself to form the words.

You may not just be benefitting yourself, but countless others too.

Outside the borders of America, it is not expression and penalty ensues.

Inside the borders, we fight valiantly as to what means expression and whose right of expression is most prevalent.

Is it really just anyone’s guess?

http://www.indonesiamatters.com/260/lia-eden-trial/

Shocked.

CNN headlines proclaim: Pastor says he is “God”.

Do the numbers, 666, and God, belong in the same sentence? Empircally, yes, both are 3(s), so is the Holy Trinity. Huh, maybe that’s why it’s reported he has three Rolex watches?

The Church of the non-judgmental. Catchy, no?

Yes, until the stories/rumors of suppression of other faiths.

What is true and what isn’t?

Does the Pastor claim to have the same spark of Divine Light arguably within all of us, the essence of God? Is that what he means?

Does anyone know what he truly means vs. what the media is telling us what he means?

Read it, read it, read it, and tell us your thoughts:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/16/miami.preacher/index.html

Veggie Tales teaches us that God would give us the power to love our enemies, love, all encompassing light, yes or no? Are there fine lines? Is there room for judgment? You be the judge.

copyright 2007, surface earth

I was asked to explain the meaning of love and found myself stalled.

If one needed to ask that question, was it even then possible to explain love in words?

There must be a place where things begin, beyond the surface of the earth, the pure origin. Unfiltered. Uninhibited. Filters affect the purity. To go back to the beginning and see yourself true. Untarnished.

Sitting in Court, waiting to be called, watching a little boy in a long hallway, his Grandma keeping an eye on him and two others. He’s fidgety having no place in his mind for a Court of law, rather than one of reason.

Grandma reaches in her bag, searching, I know that reach, she’s looking for distraction.

I hold out a few pens, his Grandma nods yes, he comes over, takes one and is back again to the paper in his Grandma’s lap.

He returns. “Do you have another? This one doesn’t write sideways.”

What is the measure and effect of thought?

Listen, we are old enough to not suscribe judgment.

We ask you a simple thing, you have orchestrated the formula of addiction, can you now provide us with the tool to non-addiction?

Those commercials you have been forced to make are no more than inducement for those of us inclined to go out and smoke more, because now we feel worse than ever.

But you know this right? You knew the points of our brain to addict us? Is it too much to hope you know how to truly un-addict us also?

We don’t care how much money you make, if you own a private jet or not, you can’t take it with you anyway, we just ask you to truly help us, stop making us feel bad for what you fed us to begin with- “share the secret”-you must know how to undo us, don’t you? We weren’t born wanting to be outcasts and prematurely dead.

We have begun to list a few charities and other ideas on our Resource page. This is just the beginning as we amass our thoughts and post them on the Resource page.

We are also looking to highlight Charities in need of assistance. Yes, we know there are countless charities, but if you come across this page, and want to drop us a note as to why and how people can help a particular organization, we applaud you in advance for your time and looking forward to helping you along the way.

Here is one recent example of how reading a book began to open our eyes. Three Cups of Tea, One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, published by Penguin.

While in the bookstore lately, took a quick dash around, trying to find a memory of a book – a narrative that had been written by a woman about the culture in one part of Africa, it was meant to talk about the people and their life, not as sensationalized news bites, but to truly use their words, their way. Unfortunately, could not remember either the title or the author and sought help, the woman was very nice, searching for a book for me with no title or author information. As I stood and waited I saw a cardboard stand with a few books in it, Three Cups of Tea. I told the woman thank you and that I thought she had led me to something important to read and I would continue my other search on another day.

I read this book slowly, which if you knew me, is a non-event as I devour books. There was simply too much for me to learn within these pages, too much courage and vision to read it like a beach novel.

Go check these worthwhile organizations and stop back and share with us your thoughts:

www.threecupsoftea.com

www.penniesforpeace.org

www.ikat.org

Read whatever you wish on the site for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, www.unhcr.org.  We were particularly drawn to the journals written by Angelina Jolie. They are direct and frank, not embellishing, with simple words describing a world millions of miles away from the one we know in the United States.

You will meet families, mothers, fathers, brothers, uncles, friends, daughters….no different than your own, except they were born into a different place in this world.  It will start you thinking, suppose, I, me, little me, could do something, anything to help?

Is it enough to hope for a moment, when life will individually change for all of us, and we will be given the chance, or have figured out the chance, to do something, anything, one small thing, that could set off a systematic reaction of good?

Give it a chance: read:

http://www.unhcr.org/help/HELP/439d4ee52.html

What do we do? As we wait? We start up blogs, we look for people of similar interests to join together and get ideas going, get momentum tha will have any chance of actually accelerating into anything close to a change.

The format isn’t perfect, we would need money to do that, but it’s a start, why not help each other within zipcodes? Why not strengthen from within and move out?