Friday 17 August 2012

Love wins my friends!!

Four Reasons for Optimism in the Wake of Tragedy—Insights from a Sikh and a Unitarian Minister | (A)theologies | Religion Dispatches

4. Love wins.

Bandana

Bandana Kaur is a graduate of Yale University, a Sikh ecologist, and writer. She is currently program manager for EcoSikh, a Sikh initiative for the earth, working in the Punjab region of South Asia and beyond. 

: In times like this, I remember that the quintessence of Sikhism is to love: to be love-inspired and love-driven. A dear friend of mine recently shared an experience that moved her during bhog (the service) honoring the deceased in Oak Creek. The musician, or raagi, leading the sangat (congregation) during the remembrance event, had also been present at the temple during the shootings. As the raagi began to sing, my friend could tell that there was a sadness in his voice. Despite the sorrow, he paused to share words of blessing, asking the Divine to take good care of Wade Michael Page in hope that Page has found peace within himself. My friend simply bowed her head in awe of the love shared.

 

One amazing article published in Religion Dispatches called:

Four Reasons for Optimism in the Wake of Tragedy—Insights from a Sikh and a Unitarian Minister

Why did I reblog this article my friends?Because I wanted to share one beautiful and amazing sentence written by Miss.Bandana Kaur:

" .... quintessence of Sikhism is to love: to be love-inspired and love-driven."

         We should all remember this one:to be Love inspired and to be love driven!!

May God,Creator of the Universe and all living souls,

be merciful to all these victoms in that horible tragedy but also to Wade Micheal Page. 

That I pray in the name of Jesus Chist.Amen.Child's prayer

 

Thursday 16 August 2012

Quotes I like

 

To be rich in admiration and free from envy, to rejoice greatly in the good of others, to love with such generosity of heart that your love is still a dear possession in absence or unkindness - these are the gifts which money cannot buy.                                                 Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) essayist, poet, novelist

 

Those who make compassion an essential part of their lives find the joy of life. Kindness deepens the spirit and produces rewards that cannot be completely explained in words. It is an experience more powerful than words. To become acquainted with kindness one must be prepared to learn new things and feel new feelings. Kindness is more than a philosophy of the mind. It is a philosophy of the spirit.                                                                                           Robert J. Furey

 

The true essence of humankind is kindness. There are other qualities which come from education or knowledge, but it is essential, if one wishes to be a genuine human being and impart satisfying meaning to one's existence, to have a good heart.                                  Tenzin Gyatso (1935) The 14th Dalai Lama (B. 1935)

 

That best portion of a good man's life; His little, nameless, unremembered acts Of kindness and of love.                              William Wordsworth (1770-1850) poet

 

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.                                                                                                                                               Aesop fabulist

 

Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things even if we do not get anything in return. It is the joy of our life to do them. When we do good things from this inner desire, there is kindness in everything we think, say, want and do.                        Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) philosopher, theologian

 

I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.                                                                                                                                        Etienne de Grellet (1773-1855) Quaker missionary

How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment. We can start now, start slowly, changing the world. How lovely that everyone, great and small, can make a contribution toward introducing justice straightaway. And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!             Anne Frank (1929-1945) diarist

 

A little kindness from person to person is better than a vast love for all humankind.                                                                         Richard Dehmel (1863-1920)poet 

 

 

Dear God

 

Dear God,

I am grateful that You are the Rock that I can stand on and an ever present help in times of need. 

Lord, in those times I feel lost at sea, remind me of Your faithfulness and love. 

May Your Spirit lead me to draw close to You and trust in Your Word over my feelings. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Meditations

 

Religions are different roads converging upon the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads so long as we reach the same goal.

mahatma gandhi

 

 

My God and My All! meditation prayer

 st. francis of assisi

 

 

 

 

Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

luke 6:37 - Jesus

 

 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

our presence automatically liberates others

 

A return to love - marianne williamson

 

 

Now I say to you in conclusion, life is hard,

at times as hard as crucible steel. (Mmm)

It has its bleak and difficult moments.

Like the ever-flowing waters of the river,

life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. (Yeah)

Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons,

life has the soothing warmth of its

summers and the piercing chill of its winters. (Yeah)

But if one will hold on,

he will discover that God walks with him, (Yeah. Well)

and that God is able (Yeah)

to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope

and transform dark and desolate valleys

into sunlit paths of inner peace. (Mmm)

 

Eulogy for the martyred children - Dr. Martin Luther King jr. - 1963

 

 

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender

be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,

even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,

they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,

you may become vain and bitter;

for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;

it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs;

for the world is full of trickery.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;

many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.

Especially, do not feign affection.

Neither be cynical about love;

for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment

it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,

gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,

no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,

whatever you conceive Him to be,

and whatever your labors and aspirations,

in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,

it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

 

Desiderata - Max Ehrmann - 1927

 

 

Today, like every other day,

we wake up empty and frightened.

Don't open the door to the study and begin reading.

Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

 

sufi mystic - Jelaluddin Rumi 

Blessings

 

On the day when the weight deadens on your shoulders and you stumble,
may the clay dance to balance you.
And when your eyes freeze behind the grey window
and the ghost of loss gets in to you,
may a flock of colours, indigo, red, green, and azure blue come to awaken in you a meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays in the currach of thought and a stain of ocean blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters a path of yellow moonlight to bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow wind work these words of love around you,
an invisible cloak to mind your life.

beannacht - john o'donohue


On marriage

You were born together, and together you shall be ...

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

on marriage - Kahlil Gibran


Tuesday 14 August 2012

Lipa Rič

Tomislav Bralic - Lipa ric - YouTube

Karta Ljubavi

Tomislav Bralić - Karta Ljubavi - YouTube

Tomislav Bralić - Karta Ljubavi - YouTube

Učinija bi život
Da zamislin se digod
Za svoje monade
Al' jubavi se pridat
Nikad nisan ima snage
Jer boja se da boli
Nastaju u dvoje
Kad se usne spoje
Nisan srce sluša
Mada tila ih je duša.

A kad si došla ti
Sa karton jubavi
Mome jidru bonaca
Zadnju milju uzela
A kad si došla ti
Sa karton jubavi
Jidra mi potpila
Plima mojih godina

Mislija san prije
Da od potribe mi nije
Budit se u dvoje
I sva lita kad se zbroje
Da bez jubavi je bolje
Nudija mi život
Sriću na portadi
Ma san tija svoju gradit
Nisan ništa obadava
Po svom guštu navigava

A kad si došla Ti
sa karton ljubavi
Mome judru bonaca
Zadnju milju uzela
A kad si došla ti
Sa karton jubavi
Jidra mi potpila
Plima mojih godina.

Prošlo je mnogo od kako sam prvi puta čula ovu pjesmu.Interesantno,uvijek tako dođu neke pjesme koje kao da izgovaraju najdublju težnju naših srca.Ova je ostala u meni.Mislim da će ostati i onda kada Ti više nećeš biti u mome danu.

Wednesday 8 August 2012

A chocking letter to gay son from his father

 

letter-to-gay-son-from-hateful-dad.jpg (500×647)

The New Civil Rights Movement - milenanik3@gmail.com - Gmail

The father’s letter reads:
“James:
This is a difficult but necessary letter to write.
I hope your telephone call was not to receive my blessing for the degrading of your lifestyle.
I have fond memories of our times together, but that is all in the past.
Don’t expect any further conversations With me.
No communications at all. I will not come to visit, nor do I want you in my house.
You’ve made your choice though Wrong it may be. God did not intend for this unnatural lifestyle.
If you choose not to attend my funeral, my friends and family will understand.
Have a good birthday and good life. No present exchanges will be accepted. Goodbye, Dad.”


The son’s thoughts, via Reddit:
“It’s important to know just what this zealotry from Bryan Fisher, Maggie Gallagher, Dan Cathy, et al., does to everyday people.
I’ve never done drugs, was an excellent student, an obedient child (far less trouble than many of my classmates), didn’t drink until I was 22 because it terrified me, and have had just 1 speeding ticket in my life.
Yet I am still seemingly deserving of this terrible act of hate and cowardice that one person can place on another.
5 years on and I am still doing fine, though this letter saunters into my mind every once in a while. When it does, I say without hesitation: F**k you, Dad.”

Andy Towle at Towleroad, who first published the letter via Reddit, writes:
It’s an all too familiar situation for many LGBT kids out there. He’s right. The Dan Cathys of the world are giving tacit permission to parents to act this way. Shame on them.
On Reddit, the post has over 4000 comments and 2270 “up votes.” “Pretty nasty stuff” is what John Aravosis at AmericaBlog calls it, noting: This is how the religious right, and the Republican party that enables them, quite literally kill people. John M. Becker at Truth Wins Out shares a personal story, and adds: The shockingly cruel letter below, from a father to his newly-out gay son, has been spreading like wildfire through social media. When I first saw it posted on the Facebook profile of Hudson Taylor, an all-star wrestler and outspoken gay rights supporter, I knew I had to share it with you because it serves as a stark reminder of why the fight for LGBT equality and against religious extremism is so critical.
(it was found on the web page of The New Civil Right Movement)

I realy do hope that James know in himself that his father opinion has nothing to do with Love from Jesus Christ.I am Christian and I do not think that God said any one do punish in my name or anything like that.For Jesus Christ,Love is the only way!!
James,
I am offering to be Your web mother until I live on this earth.I will cherish and love You like my own son who has moved into the Heaven.
Please,what ever You do do not hate Your father.That way,one day You will become like He.
Be better.Be wiser.Be proud for being beloved child of God and do believe me,no one on this earth can take God's love towards You.
James,You will remain in my praysers forever as much as Your friend.

Friday 3 August 2012

Dream of Dr.Martin Luther King

 

This is a very rare footage of Martin Luther King Jr. "I Have A Dream" speech, delivered on 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.,in front of 200,000 civil rights supporters. This video does not belong to me, and it's used for inspirational purpose only.

Martin Luther King Jr I Have A Dream speech with text - YouTube

Wednesday 1 August 2012

Wedding Vows

Sample Lesbian Wedding Vows - Vows from a Lesbian Wedding

C's Vows to M
" My dear M, I begin my vows with a quote by Rumi, one of our favorite poets. . .
       You drive me away gently as a flute-song does a dove from the eaves.
       With the same song, you call me back.
       You push me out on many journeys;
       Then you anchor me with no motion at all.
M, I have often said you are my anchor, my rock- supporting me on many journeys and steadying me with your love.
On this day, in front of all of our community, I pledge my steadiness to you.
M, I have learned so much from you- your honesty and integrity have taught me to be true to myself and others.
Your thoughtfulness and generosity have taught me to give with intention.
Your playfulness in the light of my humor has taught me to expand my definition of ‘silly’ and your willingness to try new things has taught me to expand my definition of adventure.
You have helped me fight my demons and ‘Igor’ has shrunk.
I feel stronger in your presence and able to take on life, knowing you are always in my corner.
I am so very lucky to have you as my lifetime companion.
As you often say, “Who knew??”
It seems like a lifetime ago that I met you and thought to myself,"She’s a keeper."
We have certainly gone through many ups and downs since then: from our own rocky start to travels in Mexico & Greece; from loss of a job to finding new purpose to loss yet again; from the birth of your nephew to my mom’s death. Through all of this you have been my companion, my friend, my playmate, my lover.
M, I need you to know, I do not say these things lightly. After much consideration and soul searching, I am certain that I am ready to make this kind of commitment!
M, my love, I promise to hold you lightly, but firmly as we venture through life together.
I promise to always defend your right to be you- courageous, honest, full of light. I promise to care for you when you are sick and celebrate with you in health.
I promise to be your playmate who finds life a juicy treat and to be your lover who makes passion delicious.
I promise to remember that our highest values of community, spirituality, justice, environment and levity always come before & above material possessions.
I promise to hold my dreams and to encourage you in holding yours as we build new ones together.
I promise to laugh often and pull together during hard times.
I promise to work to be my best, most authentic self, everyday.
And so, M, today I pledge my love to you.
I promise to "push you out on many journeys; then anchor you with no motion at all."
I will be your ardent lover, your faithful companion, your steadfast friend, your greatest cheerleader, and above all, hold you gently, but firmly, as the love of my life as long as we both shall live."

M's Vows to C
" C, my love, you have changed my life.
You have taught me to love with abandon and to take the risk of vulnerability.
I love you - not only for what you are, but also for what I am when I ‘m with you.
Not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are helping me make of myself.
You have been my companion on adventures and a confidant for my soul.
You have challenged me to see greatness in myself and have celebrated my successes---great and small.
You have inspired me to be a better, more generous and loving me, and have believed in me when I have not believed in myself.
I love you for the part of me that you bring out, I love you for putting your hand into my heaped up heart And passing over all the defensive, hurt things that you couldn’t help dimly seeing there, And for drawing out into the light all the beautiful belongings That no one else had looked quite far enough to find.
I want to laugh, cry, plan, adventure and live a zestful life with you.
This commitment is very serious to me
. I am so very happy to be standing here today.
I promise to share my life openly with you; To cherish your uniqueness; To honor your spirit and to listen intently; To hold you gently when you are afraid; And to softly kiss you when you are hurting.
With patience and compassion, I promise to support you through the changes and challenges of our lives together.
I promise to be faithful and honest, and to stand by your side, as we grow old together.
I promise to be an active member of our community and to build a home that is open to all (as long as it is clean!)
I vow to do my part to protect the earth and challenge my own beliefs about the path I walk on this planet.
I promise to dance in the moonlight, skinny dip in the lake and soar high above the clouds with you.
I delight in who you are becoming and promise to encourage the fulfillment of your dreams.
Together, we will broaden our horizons and expand our own boundaries.
Together, we will explore the limitless wonders of the world and revel in it’s beauty.
Companion, lover, friend, playmate --- I promise to be the very best me that I can…. For you, for us and for all time."

 

Marriage Vows
We are gathered here in the presence of witnesses
for the purpose of uniting in matrimony __________ and ____________.
The contract of marriage is most solemn and is not to be entered into lightly, but thoughtfully and seriously with a deep realization of its obligations and responsibilities.
Please remember that love, loyalty and understanding are the foundations of a happy and enduring home.
No other human ties are more tender and no other vows more important than those you are about to pledge.
Do you _________, take ____________, to be your spouse for life?
Do you promise to love and comfort each other, honor and keep each other in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, for better or for worse and be faithful to each other as long as you both shall live?
RING CEREMONY--
Place the ring on his/her finger and repeat after me to him/her.
I give you this ring in token and pledge of my constant faith and abiding love.
With this ring, I thee wed.
Now that you have joined yourselves in matrimony, may you strive all your lives to meet this commitment with the same love and devotion that you now possess.

Tuesday 31 July 2012

The memory of threes.....

The Memory of Trees - YouTube

 

Buy this album: http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Trees-Enya/dp/B000002N3N

Enya/The Celts - YouTube

 

Buy The Celts album: http://www.amazon.com/The-Celts-Enya/dp/B000002MSM

Shepherd Moons - YouTube

Buy this album: http://www.amazon.com/Shepherd-Moons-Enya/dp/B000002LRT

Buy this album: http://www.amazon.com/Shepherd-Moons-Enya/dp/B000002LRT

The very best of Enya

The Very Best Of Enya - YouTube

 

Enya, The Very Best of Enya 2009 CD 00:00
- 1. Orinoco Flow (Remastered 2009) 04:28
- 2. Aniron (Album) 07:11
- 3. Storms in Africa (Remastered 2009) 11:16
- 4. Caribbean Blue (Remastered 2009) 15:16
- 5. Book of Days (Remastered 2009) 18:12
- 6. The Celts (Remastered 2009) 21:09
- 7. Only Time (Original Version) 24:47
- 8. Wild Child 28:35
- 9. Water Shows the Hidden Heart 33:15
- 10. Anywhere Is (Remastered 2009) 37:15
- 11. Cursum Perficio (Remastered 2009) 41:24
- 12. Amarantine 44:36
- 13. Aldebaran (Remastered 2009) 47:42
- 14. Trains and Winter Rains 51:26
- 15. Watermark (Remastered 2009) 53:52
- 16. Boadicea (Remastered 2009) 57:24
- 17. A Day without Rain 01:00:01
- 18. May It Be 01hr03min
Warner Bros.
Buy this album: http://www.amazon.com/The-Very-Best-Of-Enya/dp/B002RV01QI/

Hallelujah

Heather Williams - Hallelujah - Lyrics - YouTube

 

Lyrics:
Jesus,
please come
please come today
hear me heal me
be near me
I pray
I have fallen so far flat on my face
I'm in need of your grace today
I stumble and fall
but in spite of it all your love always stays the same
Hallelujah
Hallelujah Jesus,
please come
please come today
break me
mold me
use me I
pray but don't give up on me now
I'm so close to you now
I'm in need of your grace today
wipe the dirt off my face
hold me in your embrace
your love always saves the day
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
I have fallen so far flat on my face
I'm in need of your grace today
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Sing Hallelujah
Sing Hallelujah
Sing Hallelujah
Amen.
 On my knees here
I fall in spite of it all
Hallelujah
And though it seems hard
I'm still trusting you Lord
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

To my beloved son Christian

Sarah McLachlan - In the arms of an angel - YouTube

Spend all your time waiting for that second chance
For the break that will make it ok
There's always some reason to feel not good enough
And it's hard at the end of the day I need some distraction oh beautiful release
Memories seep from my veins
They may be empty and weightless and maybe I'll find some peace
tonight In the arms of an Angel
fly away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of an Angel;
may you find some comfort here
So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn
There's vultures and thieves at your back
The storm keeps on twisting, you keep on building the lies
That you make up for all that you lack
It don't make no difference, escaping one last time
It's easier to believe In this sweet madness, oh this glorious sadness
That brings me to my knees In the arms of an Angel
far away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie In the arms of an Angel;
may you find some comfort here
You're in the arms of an Angel;
may you find some comfort here

Sarah Mclachlan - Angel - YouTube

 

A Humans Home is not found on any map, only in the hearts of the people who love him.
 You are always in my heart my beloved son!
your mom

Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran sobre los Hijos - YouTube

Kahlil Gibran: Lebanese Artist, Poet and Mystic Pt. 1 of 3 - YouTube

Kahlil Gibran: Lebanese Artist, Poet and Mystic Pt. 2 of 3 - YouTube

Kahlil Gibran: Lebanese Artist, Poet and Mystic Pt. 3 of 3 - YouTube

Gibran Kahlil

Gibran Kahlil Gibran - 1883-2007 - YouTube

The Story

Brandi Carlile - The Story (Lyrics) - YouTube

Monday 30 July 2012

Abba Padre-Ivan Pavao II

Ivan Pavao II - Abba pater - YouTube

For life- Za Život

Statutes for Life - Paulo Coelho Quotes - YouTube

 

I learned ... That ignore the facts does not change the facts.
I learned ... That when you want revenge on someone just let that someone continues to hurt you.
I learned ... That love, not time, heals all wounds.
I learned ... What's the easiest way to grow as a person is to surround people smarter than me.
I learned ... Serbian resentment and bitterness that when happiness is somewhere else.
I learned ... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your appearance.
I learned ... That when your newly born child holds your finger in his little fist I was hooked for life.
I learned ... What everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while the airports.
I learned ... What is best to give advice in only two circumstances: when they are needed and when life depends.
I learned ... That the best classroom in the world is at the foot of an elderly person.
I learned ... That when you're in love, you see.
I learned ... That just one person saying to me, "You made ​​me happy!", Makes you happy.
I learned ... That being kind is more important ragione.
Ho of having learned ... That you should never say no to a gift made ​​by a child.
I learned ... I can always pray for someone when I do not have the strength to help him in some other way.
I learned ... That no matter what life requires you to be serious ... Everyone needs a friend to play with.
I learned ... Sometimes everything one needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.
I learned ... That life is like a roll of toilet paper ... The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes away.
I learned ... What we should be happy for the fact that God does not give us everything we ask for.
I learned ... That money can not buy class. I learned ... What are the little daily events to make life so spectacular.
I learned ... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.
I learned ... That the Lord has done all in one day. What makes me think I can?
I learned ... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.
I learned ... That there is nothing sweeter than sleeping with your babies and feeling their breath on your cheeks.
I learned ... That nobody is perfect, until you fall in love.
I learned ... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.
I learned ... That opportunities are never lost, someone will take the ones you've lost you. Having said that I would like once more to my father that I loved him before he left.
I learned ... What everyone should make their words soft and tender, because tomorrow might having to eat. I learned ... I can not choose how to feel, but I can choose what to do with those feelings. Work like you do not need the money love like no one had ever hurt dance like nobody's watching sing like no one's the same feeling.

                                                                                          ***************************************************

Ho imparato... Che ignorare i fatti non cambia i fatti.
Ho imparato... Che quando vuoi vendicarti di qualcuno lasci solo che quel qualcuno continui a farti del male.
Ho imparato... Che l'amore, non il tempo guarisce le ferite.
Ho imparato... Che il modo più facile per crescere come persona è circondarmi di persone più intelligenti di me.
Ho imparato... Che quando serbi rancore e amarezza la felicità va da un'altra parte.
Ho imparato... Che un sorriso è un modo economico per migliorare il tuo aspetto.
Ho imparato... Che quando tuo figlio appena nato tiene il tuo dito nel suo piccolo pugno ti ha agganciato per la vita.
Ho imparato... Che tutti vogliono vivere in cima alla montagna ma tutta la felicità e la crescita avvengono mentre la scali.
Ho imparato... Che è meglio dare consigli solo in due circostanze: quando sono richiesti e quando ne dipende la vita.
Ho imparato... Che la miglior aula del mondo è ai piedi di una persona anziana.
Ho imparato... Che quando sei innamorato, si vede.
Ho imparato... Che appena una persona mi dice, "mi hai reso felice! ", ti rende felice.
Ho imparato... Che essere gentili è più importante dell'aver ragione.
Ho imparato... Che non bisognerebbe mai dire no ad un dono fatto da un bambino.
Ho imparato... Che posso sempre pregare per qualcuno, quando non ho la forza di aiutarlo in qualche altro modo.
Ho imparato... Che non importa quanto la vita richieda che tu sia serio... Ognuno ha bisogno di un amico con cui divertirsi.
Ho imparato... Che talvolta tutto ciò di cui uno ha bisogno è una mano da tenere ed un cuore da capire.
Ho imparato... Che la vita è come un rotolo di carta igienica... Più ti avvicini alla fine, più velocemente va via.
Ho imparato... Che dovremmo essere contenti per il fatto che Dio non ci dà tutto quel che gli chiediamo.
Ho imparato... Che i soldi non possono acquistare la classe.
Ho imparato... Che sono i piccoli avvenimenti giornalieri a fare la vita così spettacolare.
Ho imparato... Che sotto il duro guscio di ognuno c'è qualcuno che vuole essere apprezzato e amato.
Ho imparato... Che il Signore non ha fatto tutto in un giorno solo. Cosa mi fa pensare che io potrei?
Ho imparato... Che ogni persona che incontri merita d'essere salutata con un sorriso.
Ho imparato... Che non c'è niente di più dolce che dormire coi tuoi bambini e sentire il loro respiro sulle tue guance.
Ho imparato... Che nessuno è perfetto, fino a quando non te ne innamori.
Ho imparato... Che la vita è dura, ma io sono più duro.
Ho imparato... Che le opportunità non si perdono mai, qualcuno sfrutterà quelle che hai perso tu. Che desidererei aver detto una volta in più a mio padre che lo amavo, prima che se ne andasse. Ho imparato... Che ognuno dovrebbe rendere le proprie parole soffici e tenere, perché domani potrebbe doverle mangiare.
Ho imparato... Che non posso scegliere come sentirmi, ma posso scegliere cosa fare con queste sensazioni. Lavora come se non avessi bisogno dei soldi ama come se nessuno ti avesse mai fatto soffrire balla come se nessuno ti stesse guardando canta come se nessuno ti stesse sentendo.

 


Ho imparato - Paulo Coelho - YouTube

Paulo Coelho - L'Amore - YouTube

La storia della matita - Paulo Coelho - YouTube

The history of the pencil - Paulo Coelho - YouTube

The boy watched his grandmother write a letter. At one point, he asked: "Are you writing a story about us? Is this   a story about me?".
His grandmother stopped writing, smiled and said to his nephew: " In fact, I'm writing about you.
However, more important than the words is the pencil I'm using. I'd like you to be like her when you grow up.
" The child looked at the pencil, intrigued and saw nothing special. "But it is identical to all the pencils I've seen in my life." "Everything depends on how you look at things.
There are 5 quality in it that if you can maintain, they will always make you a man at peace with the world.
First quality: you can do great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps: We call that hand God, and He will always direct you to His will.
Second quality: when in when I have to stop what I write and use a sharpener. This makes the pencil suffer a little, but eventually it will be sharper. Therefore, endure a little 'pain, because that will make you a better person.
Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser of mistakes. Understand that correcting something we did not necessarily bad, but something fundamental to keeping us on track.
Fourth quality: what is really important in pencil is not the wood or the outward form, but the graphite that is inside. So you always pay attention to what happens inside you. Finally, the pencil's fifth quality: it always leaves a mark.
Likewise, know that everything you do in life will leave traces and try to be conscious of every action.

Bolje hereza doktrine nego hereza srca

 

By Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge
Better heresy of doctrine than Better Heresy of Doctrine Than Heresy of Heartheresy of heart. -- John Greenleaf
Whittier Thomas Carlyle said, "A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge."
On this point I believe Jesus and Carlyle are in agreement.
Jesus told his disciples that "what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart." If our hearts are not loving, if we are not following the path of love that our hearts desire, then the utterances of our mouth will be nothing but pure evil, pure hate, pure deceit.
When we cultivate a loving heart we find knowledge -- not just knowledge of the world but, more importantly, knowledge of ourselves.
I had a revelation of this fact about a year ago as I was lying, quite naked and vulnerable, on a massage therapist's table. The therapist was massaging an area of my upper chest when she remarked about how tight I was in that region. She then explained to me the concept in Chinese medicine that the body is divided into seven chakras or power points. The point she was massaging is called the Heart Chakra. Since it was tight she said, "That means you're not following your heart." I immediately burst into tears. Those simple words, said in passing by my massage therapist, hit home with me. It made me realize that more than anything else I need to honor what's in my heart.
I cannot live in any way that is contrary to what I know in my heart to be God's will for my life. John Greenleaf Whittier gives us the title of this sermon. "Better heresy of doctrine than heresy of heart."
Each of us here tonight knows this saying to be true.
Each of us, because we are sitting in a church as openly GLBT people, alongside our straight allies, knows that we are doctrinal heretics.
But we also know that being doctrinal heretics is better than hiding, denying our true selves, and living a lie that doctrine would have us to live. We've heard all the doctrines before. There are doctrines that tell us we are "intrinsically disordered." There are doctrines that tell us we are "abominations."
There are doctrines telling us we are unloved by God unless we change our sexuality. All these doctrines are a heresy of our hearts, because, in our hearts we know better. We know the doctrines are wrong. In our hearts, we know there is no disorder in our sexuality. In our hearts, we know we are blessings to God.
In our hearts, we know God loves us no matter what. To choose heresy of doctrine over heresy of heart is what we do when we realize that we are God's children, beloved and blessed, just as we are as GLBT people ä no matter what the doctrines might say to the contrary.
Just as we have so honestly rejected doctrine in the face of our God-given and God-blessed sexuality, so should we also be honest about other doctrines that do not speak to our heart. Don't be afraid to examine your faith or your beliefs.
If doctrines do not speak to your heart, do not hesitate to discard them. Doctrines were developed centuries ago to assist people in learning more about God and how to worship God. Just because doctrines are old does not make them true for all eternity
. If doctrines of yesterday cause your heart to stumble today take Whittier's advice and commit a heresy of doctrine before you commit a heresy of heart. But, maybe that begs the question how do we know what is in our hearts?
How do we cultivate that heart of love that will express itself in the words that we speak? How do we discover what path our hearts should tread?
Buddhist monk, Jack Kornfield, in his book "A Path with Heart" gives us a starting place in answering that question. Above all, he advises, any path we choose should "have heart." Think deeply about the path your life is on right now. Is it a path that fills your heart with joy and anticipation of each new day?
Or is it a path that fills your heart with dread as each new day begins? If your heart feels heavy as you go through each day ä then the path you've chosen isn't one with heart.
My massage therapist would probably find your heart chakra very tight.
Jesus tells us that where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also. That sounds wonderful, but there's a warning there, too.
Think carefully.
What do you treasure? Do you treasure your partner, your job, your house, your car ä money? Wherever our treasure is our hearts will be there.
But are we treasuring the right things?
If we treasure relationships over God, or money over God, or any material thing over God, our hearts are treasuring the wrong things.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:37 that we must "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment." Listen to that verse carefully. We're told that we must love God not only with our minds and our souls but also with our hearts!
If our treasure is God there will our hearts be also. This is the key to finding that path with heart.
First we must discover what it is our heart treasures.
If our heart treasures anything above God then we are in danger of being on a path without heart. The path worth pursuing is a path with heart. A path with heart has God as its center as its ultimate treasure where our hearts "sanctify Christ as Lord." Don't worry that your path may seem very different from someone else's path. We are not all called to walk the same path.
Even if we all keep God as the center of that path, our paths may look very different, even contradictory to someone else's path.
That doesn't matter let no one tell you you're on the wrong path if you know in your heart that you are where God has led you to be!
No one can map out your path but you and God. If your heart treasures God above all else then your path will be made clear.
So we must then begin a process of letting go.
This is our first step on our spiritual path. We must let go of false treasures. Let go of our heart's desire for relationships, money, cars, houses and jobs.
I say this is a process ä and often it is a long process a daily process of reorienting ourselves to God.
But we must dedicate ourselves to walking this path with heart.
It's difficult in our busy lives to even think about beginning a process of letting go. With so many activities filling our daily calendars, how can we even think of letting go of the material stuff that consumes us? How do we find the time in our busyness to stop and consider whether we're even on the right path to begin with? And do we really want to let go at all?
Isn't it, after all, the things around us that make us important, that fill us with a sense of self?
Yes, often it is the things around us that make us important, but that's the point it shouldn't be like that. What makes us important is our heart and what it treasures.
If it treasures things, our spiritual path is empty, heartless. If it treasures God above everything, then and only then, can our paths full of heart.
I have very recently begun the practice of meditation.
I am still a novice at this practice easily distracted by the daily chores of living but so far it's been interesting to spend 10 or 20 minutes each morning simply sitting and breathing ä realizing the fullness of life and contemplating my heart and its path. Finding time to be still in our busy lives is important if we are to truly locate that path that our heart longs to be on.
Many may feel that even taking the time to do so is a waste of time time that could be spent doing something more outwardly productive.
Maybe but I've found that those outwardly productive things still get done even if I spend time in meditation.
As the old saying goes, rarely do people come to the end of their lives and wish they had spent more time at work. Instead, we tend to ask -- Did we live well?
Did we spend enough time with our friends and family?
Did we love well?
Our spiritual practice our goal of finding that path with a heart begins when we stop to take inventory of how precious our lives are, and whether we're spending our time wisely.
Kornfield recommends a simple meditation for this that I'd like us all to take a minute to do.
If we want to discover how to live well, we must reflect on our lives.
I'd like everyone to close their eyes and just reflect on this moment in their lives and then think back. Cast your memory back across your whole life and bring to mind two good deeds that you have done, two things that you did that were good. They need not be grandiose; let whatever wants to arise show itself. In picturing and remembering these good deeds, also become aware of how these memories affect your consciousness, how they transfo rm the feelings and state of the heart and mind, as you see them.
"In Buddhist practice, one is urged to consider how to live well by reflecting on one's death.
The traditional meditation for this purpose is to sit quietly and sense the tentativeness of life.
After reading this paragraph, close your eyes and feel the mortality of this human body that you have been given.
Death is certain for all of us -- only the time of death is yet to be discovered.
Imagine yourself to be at the end of your life -- next week or next year or next decade, some time in the future.
Now cast your memory back across your whole life and bring to mind two good deeds that you have done, two things that you did that were good.
They need not be grandiose; let whatever wants to arise show itself. In picturing and remembering these good deeds, also become aware of how these memories affect your consciousness, how they transform the feelings and state of the heart and mind, as you see them.
" Let's take some time now to do this meditation. I'll admit this exercise was rather hard for me when I first read it.
Of course, Whosoever immediately comes to mind.
The magazine, by all accounts, has been a good deed and has helped hundreds of people that I know about and probably thousands that I don't know about. But, my other good deed that came to mind was very small ä it was the times I have lent money to friends in need without the expectation of ever having it paid back.
In truth, I've been paid back many times over by God's blessings on my life.
The money isn't important.
What were some of your deeds that arose?
Would anyone like to quickly share just some of their thoughts?
Just tell us a phrase that came to mind like mine would be "loaning money.
" What this meditation shows us, Kornfield says is that, "the things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand.
They are the moments when we touch one another, when we are there in the most attentive or caring way.
These moments of touching and being touched can become a foundation for a path with heart "
When we do these good deeds when we reach out to those around us without thought for our own good, our own comfort these are the moments when we have made God our treasure.
These are the moments in which we have loved God with our hearts, not just our minds and our souls.
These are the moments we should meditate on the moments we should seek to multiply as we continue on our spiritual journey.
You will find this spiritual path difficult because along the way there will be so many people who will try to dissuade you from following this path.
More often than not I've found such people to be those of a more right-wing thinking who believe there is only one path that the heart must tread theirs of course.
A path that strictly adheres to doctrines, no matter what the heart may say.
Those on the religious right tell us that by following our hearts we will end up in hell sentenced to eternal damnation.
They've made up doctrines saying it's so! They've convinced a good many [too many!] of our GLBT brothers and sisters that it's true!
They've held many of our brothers and sisters hostage with outdated doctrines and dogma.
They've made these people so afraid of God's wrath that they willingly commit heresy of heart to avoid any appearance of heresy of doctrine.
We in the GLBT community are not innocent of these charges either. Even within many GLBT congregations, doctrines can become so strong that people will commit heresy of heart easily before they'll go against any doctrine the church or congregation teaches.
But, it is our hearts that God desires not our adherence to doctrines!The Psalmist invites God to "search me and know my heart." God knows our hearts God knows our paths [And, remember, not all of our paths are the same. We must respect each other's path for if it is a path with heart, they all lead to God.]
Since God knows our hearts and our paths then we cannot find a place where God is not.
We can run from the path with heart we can choose a life of trying to hide from God or we can stop now, and listen to what our hearts are telling us.
Our hearts long for God ä for that path where God walks with us.
Let no one tell you that you have no right to walk that path as the person you are.
God knows your heart! God knows your path!
If a doctrine of the church or a doctrine of society stands between you and your heart's path, remember "better heresy of doctrine than heresy of heart."

Friday 27 July 2012

The Dyke Diagnostic Manual

The Dyke Diagnostic Manual: A U-Haul Experience! This tongue-in-cheek book is absolutely hilarious! Read the first chapter for free at: http://lnkd.in/Gc8_zH - then buy it on Amazon or Kindle. Enjoy! | LinkedIn

The Dyke Diagnostic Manual: A U-Haul Experience! This tongue-in-cheek book is absolutely hilarious! Read the first chapter for free at: http://lnkd.in/Gc8_zH - then buy it on Amazon or Kindle. Enjoy! Deborah Cooper wrote: This is a fantastic book! It manages to be hysterically funny as well as being all too true. I am Co-President of Gaylesta, the LGBTQ Psychotherapy Association, and after reading it, I contacted Mickey about doing an event together to promote her book. We are working towards this happening in the fall. So happy to see it posted here! I can't recommend this book highly enough. It should be required reading for every aspiring therapist who works with lesbians. Or is one. www.purplebookspublishing.com lnkd.in

 Amazing first chapter.I do agree with Mrs.Deborah Cooper totally.I would highly recommend to all my friends to read this book

Thursday 26 July 2012

My beloved Lady,until my last breath...

It's Not Goodbye - Sweet November MV - YouTube

It's Not Goodbye - Sweet November MV - YouTube

And what if I never kiss your lips again
Or feel the touch of your sweet embrace
How would I ever go on
Without you there's no place to belong
Well someday love is gonna lead you back to me
But 'til it does I'll have an empty heart
So I'll just have to believe
Somewhere out there you thinking of me
Until the day I'll let you go
Until we say our next hello
It's not goodbye
'Til I see you again
I'll be right here rememberin'
when And if time is on our side
There will be no tears to cry
On down the road
There is one thing I can't deny
It's not goodbye
You'd think I'd be strong enough to make it through
And rise above when the rain falls down
But it's so hard to be strong
When you've been missin'
somebody so long
It's just a matter of time I'm sure
But time takes time and I can't hold on
So won't you try as hard as you can
To put my broken heart together again
Until the day I'll let you go
Until we say our next hello
It's not goodbye
'Til I see you again
I'll be right here rememberin' when
And if time is on our side
There will be no tears to cry
On down the road
There is one thing I can't deny
It's not goodbye

Richard Marx - Right Here Waiting For You - YouTube

Toni Braxton - Un-Break My Heart - YouTube

Toni Braxton - How Could An Angel Break My Heart - YouTube

Adele - Someone like you (OFFICIAL VIDEO LYRICS) HD Live from Brit Awards 2011 - YouTube

My dream of You

Just Died in your arms Lyrics - YouTube

Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight (Full Version 8min) - YouTube

It's late in the evening;
she's wondering what clothes to wear.
She puts on her make-up and brushes her long blonde hair.
And then she asks me, "Do I look all right?"
And I say, "Yes, you look wonderful tonight."
We go to a party and everyone turns to see
This beautiful lady that's walking around with me.
And then she asks me, "Do you feel all right?"
And I say, "Yes, I feel wonderful tonight."
I feel wonderful because I see The love light in your eyes.
And the wonder of it all Is that you just don't realize how much I love you.
It's time to go home now and I've got an aching head,
So I give her the car keys and she helps me to bed.
And then I tell her, as I turn out the light,
I say, "My darling, you were wonderful tonight. Oh my darling, you were wonderful tonight."

Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight (Full Version 8min) - YouTube

Eric Clapton - Tears In Heaven (Official Video) - YouTube

 

"Tears in Heaven" is a ballad written by Eric Clapton and Will Jennings about the pain Clapton felt following the death of his four-year-old son, Conor, who fell from a window of the 53rd-floor New York apartment of his mother's friend, on March 20, 1991. Clapton, who arrived at the apartment shortly after the accident, was visibly distraught for months afterwards. This song is one of Clapton's most successful, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the U.S. The song also spent three weeks at #1 on the American adult contemporary chart in 1992.

Have you ever really loved a a woman - YouTube

Desert Rose sting (with lyrics) - YouTube

Desert Rose sting (with lyrics) - YouTube

I dream of rain
I dream of gardens in the desert sand
I wake in pain
I dream of love as time runs through my hand
I dream of fire
Those dreams are tied to a horse that will never tire
And in the flames
Her shadows play in the shape of a man's desire
This desert rose
Each of her veils, a secret promise
This desert flower
No sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this
And as she turns
This way she moves in the logic of all my dreams
This fire burns I realize that nothing's as it seems
I dream of rain I dream of gardens in the desert sand
I wake in pain I dream of love as time runs through my hand
I dream of rain I lift my gaze to empty skies above I close my eyes
This rare perfume is the sweet intoxication of her love
I dream of rain I dream of gardens in the desert sand
I wake in pain I dream of love as time runs through my hand
Sweet desert rose
Each of her veils, a secret promise
This desert flower No sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this
Sweet desert rose
This memory of Eden haunts us all
This desert flower
This rare perfume, is the sweet intoxication of the fall

Waiting for a Girl Like You

 

I gotta take a little time
A little time to think things over
I better read between the lines In case I need it when I'm older
Now this mountain I must climb Feels like a world upon my shoulders
And through the clouds I see love shine
It keeps me warm as life grows colder
In my life there's been heartache and pain
I don't know if I can face it again
Can't stop now, I've traveled so far
To change this lonely life
. I wanna know what love is
I want you to show me
I wanna feel what love is
I know you can show me
Aaaah woah-oh-ooh
I'm gonna take a little time
A little time to look around me, oooh ooh-ooh ooh-ooh oooh
I've got nowhere left to hide
It looks like love has finally found me In my life there's been heartache and pain
I don't know if I can face it again I can't stop now,
I've traveled so far
To change this lonely life I wanna know what love is I want you to show me I wanna feel what love is I know you can show me I wanna know what love is I want you to show me And I wanna feel, I want to feel what love is And I know, I know you can show me Let's talk about love (I wanna know what love is) the love that you feel inside (I want you to show me) I'm feeling so much love (I wanna feel what love is) no, you just cannot hide (I know you can show me) yeah, woah-oh-ooh I wanna know what love is, let's talk about love (I want you to show me) I wanna feel it too (I wanna feel what love is) I wanna feel it too And I know, and I know, I know you can show me Show me what is real, woah (woah), yeah I know (I wanna know what love is) hey I wanna know what love (I want you to show me), I wanna know, I wanna know, want know (I wanna feel what love is), hey I wanna feel, love I know you can show me, yeah

Foreigner - Waiting for a Girl Like You [Lyrics] - YouTube

Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is - YouTube

A Muslim Eagle Scout

A Muslim Eagle Scout on Boy Scouts’ Exclusion of Gays | Sexuality/Gender | Religion Dispatches

I am an Eagle Scout. (I used to say I “was” an Eagle Scout until one of my clients admonished my use of the past tense, reminding me that you’re an Eagle Scout for life.) Eagle is the highest rank in scouting, and it’s proof that you know how to put the spirit of scouting into practice. So it was with disappointment that I learned of the Boy Scouts of America’s decision to deny membership to openly gay boys. Scouting taught me that even if we are each a little different, there is a place for us on the team, and we can work together to meet our goals. Unfortunately, the Boy Scouts of America believes that these truly American principles do not extend to everyone.   As a young kid growing up in a mostly white, Judeo-Christian Staten Island, I knew I was different. I had different-color skin, had a different religion, and ate different food at home. And like so many other kids who are different, I had a choice to make—to confidently embrace my difference or to be fearful of it. Of course, I was too young to understand that choice. I was more interested in making friends, playing in the woods, and having adventures. Naturally, I signed up for the Boy Scouts. In an instant Ms. Garcia, my Cub Scout den mother, helped me understand that all of the boys in her group were equal—equally naughty and equally guilty of wreaking havoc, but still equal. At the same time, the Cub Scouts taught me to be proud of how I was different. I had a different religion, and my scout leaders encouraged me to tell my peers about it. Before long, my parents and pack leader were helping me complete my application for the newly minted “Bismillah” award for Cub Scouts. (An Islamic religious medal already existed for Boy Scouts.) I put a lot of work into it, and today I enjoy the honor of being the first Cub Scout in America to receive it. I was part of a team, but proud of being different. In my awkward teen years, scouting continued to give me the confidence I needed to celebrate my differences while building bonds of fellowship with other boys. We learned together, served the public together, grew up together, and, of course, camped together. Ultimately, my fellow scouts elected me—this skinny, brown Muslim kid—to be their Senior Patrol Leader. It was a reminder that you can be different and still belong.  Which is why I’m saddened by the Boy Scouts’ decision to keep their doors closed to boys who openly identify as gay. We know all to well the bullying, subjectification, and alienation often felt by young LGBT Americans. We know about the depression and the suicides. And we know how important it is to give kids who feel different a sense of place and self-confidence. The Boy Scouts gave me that sense of confidence, and I wish it could do the same for all boys. How awesome it would be to hear a scout leader say, “Hey, I don’t care how you pray, or who you want to spend time with, I just want you to help me paint this fence.” Some have found it curious that I’m using my Muslim experience to defend gay rights. But this isn’t about religion, sexuality, or morality. It’s about recognizing the powerful role that scouting can play in acknowledging difference and building self-confidence in boys who might otherwise not understand that it’s okay to be different. While families, communities, and this entire nation continue to discuss sexual orientation, let’s not do it at the expense of building leaders out of boys. As someone who benefited deeply from scouting, I hope that the Boy Scouts of America will reconsider its decision. After all, the tenth point of Boy Scout Law is to be brave.
Written by Mr.Asim Rehman is a lawyer, father, and New York native 

Tuesday 24 July 2012

My beloved,to You

Unchained Melody - Pan Flute Version - YouTube

Beloved friends,only for Your amazing hearts

The Rose - YouTube

Nothing Else Matters

Apocalyptica - Nothing Else Matters - YouTube

Prayer for the community of Aurora, Colorado

Prayer for the community of Aurora, Colorado following Movie Massacre. | InspirationalArchive.com

Lord we reach out to you today to ask you to be with our brothers and sisters in Aurora, Colorado.  

That community has been shaken by an event that is as inexplicable as it is catastrophic.  The hearts of the injured and the bereaved cry out for a reason why they have been so cruelly victimized. Lord, only you know the reason for the evil in the hearts of men and only you can make good come for every individual from every situation no matter how terrible it may be.  We ask you, Lord, to untangle the strings of human pain and error and use them to weave your tapestry of untold blessings for the many people affected by the movie massacre.   While they are now in pain and disbelief, lead them Lord to your peace that passes understanding. Bless all those who left us in this tragedy and bless all those who were injured. Bless their families and all others around them who have suffered and will suffer from this event. Be with the people who were working at the movie theater at the time this crime took place and with the policemen who responded to the horrific crime scene. Lord we also pray for the perpetrator of this crime. Whether he was intentionally evil, given over to insanity or the host of evil spirits, he was and remains your child. If it be part of your plan, lead him to an acceptance of you so that the ruin he has made of his life in the here and now will not continue into everlasting damnation.
We ask all this in the name of your Son and our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

About me

Prayer of Thanks - YouTube

Strong Woman vs. Woman of Strength - YouTube

Remind Me, God - YouTube

♫♪♥A Woman's Heart ❤ - YouTube

 

The Beauty of a Woman
The beauty of a woman, isn't in the clothes she wears,
The figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman, must be seen from in her eyes,
Because that's the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.
The beauty of a woman, isn't in a facial mole,
but true beauty in a woman, is reflected by her soul.
It's the caring that she cares to give, the passion that she shows.
And the beauty of a woman, with passing years, only grows.
Music By: Yanni Rainmaker

It is hard for me to talk about myself.Please,let me be the one who do not talk.The one who wants to show what she is.If I could I would dreased myself only into a love,nothing more and never less.
One day we will all see into each others heart and we will know who we were.
May Your days be for filled with love,peace and everlasting joy of living soul.
I do love You each and every one,You are my beloved friends do not ever forget that.
With love,milena

Thursday 19 July 2012

A mad time in an inexplicable country

 

At the end of 1990 when I was approaching 40, I was the editor of a daily newspaper and I was earning 2,000 deutschmarks a month. The publishers also paid me a decent rate for my poems and translations – an average amount per standard page of 40,000 characters. I also got paid for taking part in literary evenings. Moonlighting in this way, I managed to build and furnish a house with a garden 15 kilometres out of town. A few years later, when suburban transport became a rarity and petrol had to be bought by the teaspoon, this daily commute became a real adventure. With a passport from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, you could travel to over 100 countries without a visa. My daughter flew to see her aunt in Australia at 13. I couldn’t even imagine how precious the several hundred metres of fishing line she brought me would become, since very soon afterwards not even that could be bought here. In December 1990, the first multiparty elections took place in Serbia. The former communists headed by Slobodan Miloševi´c achieved an easy victory. Six months later, the whole of Yugoslavia had descended into war. It was dangerous to go out in the evening because groups of armed drunks roamed the streets. They called themselves volunteers. By the end of 1991 Yugoslavia had ceased to exist. During those months a police car or a military jeep frequently drove up to my house, bringing my conscription papers. That meant that I would have to go and fight in Croatia. My wife would open the door and tell them that I was at work or away. They never went in to check. Once they came to the newspaper but my colleagues said I wasn’t there. I frequently slept at friends’ houses. One of them, a cardiologist, solved my problem. I spent several days on his ward in hospital, and after that he gave me a certificate saying I needed treatment. I took the certificate to the military authorities and asked for permission to go abroad. As soon as it was granted, I boarded a train for Kiev. Kind people arranged for me to stay in some sort of a hostel. For the first time in several months I slept
peacefully, without worrying that someone would arrest me and send me to fight a senseless war. In May 1992, when I returned, the Serbian army no longer needed my military capabilities. It was just retreating from Bosnia and Herzegovina, having earlier left Croatia. My foreign friends frequently asked what was happening in my country. Why had the Serbians given their wholesale support to Miloševi´c, a dyed-inthe-wool communist, at a time when other eastern European nations were toppling communist governments? Why had the Serbians started four wars against peoples with whom they had shared a country for 70 years? Why were the Serbians en masse expecting support and assistance from Russia, but wanting to live like western Europeans? Why have most Serbians left Kosovo, although everyone says that Kosovo is the cradle of the Serbian nation? Why and how was that possible? I always answered that it made more sense to drink beer and watch the clouds than to try to explain the inexplicable. There were more inexplicable things than there were things that could be explained reasonably. I spent four years on gardening leave. What is gardening leave? It is when you are not allowed to the office where you are registered to work but are still paid 60 per cent of your salary, which was sometimes 20 deutschmarks (approximately E10) and sometimes as much as 50 (€25). If I could do it today, I would immediately agree to stay on gardening leave until retirement. The average wage in Serbia today is approximately €300. The empty shops were also inexplicable. History did not take note of the date when this started. Coffee was the first thing to disappear, followed by soap, washing powders, toothpaste, cigarettes, matches, sugar and salt. All these things could be bought only in the street or in the market. Humanitarian aid packages could also be bought there. The European Union sent aid to refugees and to other socially underprivileged groups. Instead of distributing the aid to the needy, the leaders of refugee organisations and
heads of social institutions sold most of it, and kept the rest for themselves. In this way, we were able to buy European tinned food, flour and personal hygiene items, as well as fake whisky. The markets also sold war booty – things looted during the wars in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Everything was stolen and sold: tractors, cars, television sets, crockery, various tools, clothes, icons, even books. The government turned a blind eye. Tens of thousands of people survived by selling goods of unknown origin in the street. The suppliers of those goods made fortunes and with the government’s blessing became respectable citizens. Life during hyperinflation was inexplicable too. In 1993, all prices at first increased every day, and then several times a day. If you had bought five deutschmarks in the morning, by the evening you were a rich man. If in the morning you had enough money for a crate of beer, by midday the same money would buy you five bottles, and in the evening none. This is how within a few months we ended up with banknotes with 30 noughts on them. Whoever had 5,000 deutschmarks, and invested them at the right time, soon made 50,000, and soon after 500,000. After the first million, nobody asked you where your money came from. When everything is allowed, people lose their sense of time. The value system breaks down. You can buy a university degree with a lorry load of cigarettes or a tanker of oil. A man called Arkan, the son of a Yugoslav colonel, who was a criminal before the war and during the war became the all-powerful boss of a gang of so-called “volunteers”, before whom the police and the generals trembled, became a member of parliament and the owner of a premiership-winning football club. Arkan was murdered by his army and business friends. President Miloševi´c himself attended the funeral. Arkan’s widow, a popular singer (and the lover of many prominent men) still lives in an illegally built villa in an exclusive area of Belgrade. The self-styled “commander of the volunteers”, Vojislav šešelj, won more votes 
in the election than the greatest Serbian writer then alive, Borislav Pekich. The writer died soon after, while the commander was appointed university professor, and later even became deputy prime minister. Today he is on trial in The Hague as a war criminal. Major state enterprises disappeared overnight. They were acquired for next to nothing by directors, members of the political police, restaurant musicians, sportsmen or drug dealers… The process is simple: an enterprise becomes illiquid, it has no raw materials and so produces nothing, the machinery is removed, the workers are not paid for months and the enterprise is put up for auction. The government turns a blind eye and pretends that the entire process has been completely lawful. Serbia survived in spite of international sanctions. There was a ban on the import and export of virtually all goods but there weren’t actually any goods that weren’t imported or exported. This too was a simple process: a company registered in Cyprus transports some goods from Hungary to Greece. The invoice is paid through the Bahamas. Border control checks all the documentation and discovers that everything is in order. The goods arrive as transit goods in Serbia, and that is where they stay. The end price takes care of all participants of this chain, including those unfortunates who, come rain or shine, stand by the roadside selling petrol. The head of the customs office gives every customs officer the right to confiscate a bottle of whisky and a carton of cigarettes from the smugglers once a week. The wife of the head of state and the leader of the governing party sets up her own party. The professor who supervised her PhD becomes the ambassador to Moscow. Ministers tremble before her, writers and academics try to curry favour. There will always be more than enough people willing to write whatever is required for a few glasses of wine and a dinner. In 1998, I was editor-in-chief of the daily Naša Borba in Belgrade. One evening in October, our office was visited by the Deputy Minister of 
Information, accompanied by a dozen policemen. He handed me a notice banning our newspaper on the grounds that it was spreading fear, panic and defeatism. All our journalists lost their jobs. Several days later, a group of strangers appeared in the office. They loaded the computers and all other equipment onto their truck and left. We reported the theft to the police. The police told us to give them the names of the thieves and witnesses. At that time, nobody wanted to be a witness. Some weeks later, a car import company owned by the son of the head of state moved into our offices. The President’s daughter became the owner of a television station. After all this, the bombing started. NATO aircraft, flying at 10,000 metres, precision-bombed bridges, barracks, police stations and the government television station. Serbian anti-aircraft rockets have a range of 3 kilometres. The Ministry of Defence announced every day that several enemy aircraft had been shot down. A certain story was repeated in every village and town: a black American pilot was captured nearby last night. In his pockets he had US$ 5,000 and the address he was supposed to go to. It was always the address of someone living near where the plane came down, a Croatian or a Hungarian, never a Serb. The propaganda-mongers who started these stories never explained why the pilot had to be black, why he had to have US$ 5,000 and how his commanders knew where he would be shot down, so that they could give him the right American spy’s address. After 78 days of bombs, it was announced that around 80 enemy aircraft had been shot down. In fact, one had been shot down. The officer responsible later opened a baker’s shop. Life goes on. How can one live through all this? On the afternoon of 5 May 1999 the air raid alert in Novi Sad, the main city of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in the north of Serbia, lasted several hours. The barracks on the edge of the town and its oil refinery were attacked. The earth trembled under the bombs and anti-aircraft guns. My colleagues and I were sitting in the office of the 
Independent Journalists Union and in the street across the road from us over 100 people stood calmly in a queue – the kiosk had just had a delivery of cigarettes. One of my colleagues rushed in to say that beer had been delivered to a shop nearby, and even the non-drinkers rushed out. Later on, a taxi driver took us to see the bomb site free of charge. The bombs had missed the barracks and hit a residential house. There were no dead. Beer and cigarettes could always be got hold of somehow. In my village my neighbours and I sat in the courtyard virtually every night and cooked something special. No distinction was made between teachers, doctors, farmers and the workers from the closed-down factory. Someone brought some meat, someone else potatoes, tomatoes, beans or raki. We lived as if every day were the last. Army cars would rush down the darkened streets. At night, after the all-clear, firing would continue for at least another hour. The fire came from rifles, automatic weapons and anti-tank guns fired by hundreds of soldiers stationed in the surrounding fields, giving vent to their joy. During the bombardments, the parliament voted for the unification of Serbia with Russia and Belarus. No response was received from Moscow or Minsk. Eighteen months later, on 5 October 2000, the Miloševi´c regime was overthrown. Strangers kissed and hugged in the streets, shouting “He’s gone!” This was the start of democracy. Members of the opposition who for 10 years had promised freedom and the righting of all wrongs rushed to receive the reward for their patience. Some rushed to get jobs in ministries, others in local authorities, yet others in business. No one remembered their main battle cry: “Thieves to prison, madmen to madhouses”. Those who had grown rich under Miloševi´c expressed their loyalty to the new power, partly in words but mainly in cash. When the first democratically elected prime minister put serious pressure on the political and financial underground, he was assassinated by Miloševi´c’s special police. Most of the former members of the security services are still doing well. They live in fashionable villas in 
exclusive areas of Belgrade. They live in luxury, though it is unclear what they do. When the papers write about the mafia, no names are ever given. Only euphemisms are allowed – “shady businessmen” or “the rough guys from the street”. No one knows how they made their first million. They travel in armoured cars, accompanied by bodyguards. They have no problem travelling abroad. The tabloids write their colourful biographies in countless instalments – how they grew up in poverty, what sincere patriots they are, what sincere orthodox believers, how remote they are from politics. They are angels with human faces and bullet-proof vests under their shirts. Their dirty work is done by 20-year-olds, the ones with no moral scruples, average incomes and high school diplomas. Neither the general public nor the police know the names of the perpetrators of nearly 500 unsolved murders committed in the last 10 years. Life goes on. Seven years after the arrival of democracy, a minister suddenly remembered that we ought to have a law that required buyers of state enterprises to verify the sources of their assets. Most enterprises had long since been sold. Private entrepreneurs had bought national, regional and local television stations and newspapers. Everything had been done strictly in accordance with the law. Anyone may publish and write whatever they like, provided they obey those who pay them. If you can buy a public prosecutor, a judge or a professor, imagine how much cheaper a journalist would be. Miloševi´c is buried in the courtyard of a house outside Moscow, owned by his wife, a person not responsible for her actions. Their son lives nearby. Their daughter lives in Montenegro. Two ministers of police from the Miloševi´c era have committed suicide. Some of his close associates sit in prison and await sentencing. Others sit in parliament, in government institutions or private companies. Life goes on. In socialist Yugoslavia, a party card opened all doors. Today we have many parties, but even now party cards can work wonders. The party can help you 
open a kiosk, a bookshop or a supermarket, buy a plot of land and build a house with 50 apartments where a square metre costs €2,000. Parties use their people to award literary prizes to their own, provide them with space in art galleries and scholarships. Those without a party sponsor need not bother to write books, produce wonderful film scripts or paint. Throughout the collapse of the state, the wars and the transition period, artists paid a terrible price – some by going to live abroad, others by writing odes to Miloševi´c, and others by fawning on anyone with a little power or money. There is a wonderful Serbian joke about this very thing. A man is standing in the street and reading a paper. A friend comes up and says, “What does it say in the paper?” “X has died,” says the reader. “Who was he?” asks the friend. “He was our writer,” answers the reader. The friend asks, “So who is going to be our writer now?” At the start of November 2007 the papers reported that the writer Dobrica C´osi´c, called “the father of the nation” by the “patriotic forces”, was present at the opening of the largest Belgrade megastore. At one time he had been a commissar with the partisans and later a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Even later he was made a figurehead president by Miloševi´c… This year, the Belgrade Book Fair was visited by 200,000 people in seven days – exactly the same number that goes to the largest Belgrade beach on the Sava river every summer day. Historians who in socialist Yugoslavia wrote about the brotherhood and unity of the Yugoslav peoples can’t publish a book today without discovering new differences between the Serbs and the Croats, and new conflicts in the recent and more remote past. Recently, historians discovered that Macedonians and Montenegrins are fictitious nationalities, that there is no such language as Croatian, and that the Croats are the descendants of Serbs who had converted to Catholicism.
Twenty years ago I lived in a country where after you had graduated from university you could get a decent job. Farmers could take their families to the seaside for a fortnight after they had brought the harvest in. Factory workers could get a loan to build a house, and pay it back punctually out of their monthly wages. Today, people who haven’t spent a single day at a university can wave their diplomas at you. Serbia has nearly 200 villages where not a single person remains. Farmers can still just about feed their families, but no more than that. Some businessmen own 20,000 hectares of land or more but factory workers and teachers, if all they have is their wages, cannot earn enough in their lifetime to buy an apartment or build a house. All they can do is feed themselves and their families. Where previously we had stores and craftsmen’s workshops, we now have the glass edifices of foreign banks. Twenty years ago I lived in a predictable country, where everyone did their job: university professors, lorry drivers and political functionaries. Life was transparent and comprehensible, it could be planned. My friend Janko, an electrician, worked on the railways and was well paid. Then he decided to leave his job, explaining to me that all the management positions had been given to non-professionals who ordered people to allow faulty carriages and locomotives onto the track. He explained that there were no spare parts in the workshops, that no one was responsible for anything, that all the tools had long since been stolen from the workshops and that none of the managers were bothered by it. Today, Serbian trains travel at an average of 30 kilometres per hour. Janko has gone private. He repairs electrical appliances, farms several hectares of land and uses his tractor and combine harvester to provide services to farmers. His daughter has graduated in pharmacology and has emigrated. The transition period has helped Janko to live on the proceeds of his own work and to live better than if he were working for a state enterprise. He works 12 hours a day and gets no annual holidays.
He doesn’t trust a single politician. He doesn’t go to church. He can’t end the day without several bottles of beer. Most of his contemporaries, now in their fifties, haven’t done nearly as well. They have no permanent work, or else they are working in the grey economy with no social protection. They manage to earn enough for beer. They don’t see themselves as obliged to earn enough to bring up and educate their children. They don’t trust the politicians, they don’t believe in God and they swear all the time. The trains in Serbia have not been on time for the past 20 years. We no longer have a system of socialist self-management and we don’t yet have capitalism. And we’re still, all of us, on a train which is not hours but years behind its schedule. Cheers!

 

Mikhal Ramach is a journalist, translator and writer – and the chief editor of the independent daily Danas.