Food for Thought series

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
and things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art; to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Food for Thought series

Honor the tradition but expand the understanding. That's what religions must do right now if they hope to be helpful to humans in the years ahead.

Neale Donald Walsch
Tomorrow's God

Food for Thought series

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can decide how you're going to live now.

Joan Baez

Choose well!
Namaste

Happy Father's Day

He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
~Clarence Budington Kelland


HAPPY FATHER"S DAY
to all the Dads out there!

ashes to ashes...

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. ~Anatole France

They say that nothing endures but change; that change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix…

But just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed, does it?

Vote thoughtfully.
Act responsibly.

Who knows what will rise from the ashes

...and there it is

I have a right to my anger, and I don't want anybody telling me I shouldn't be, that it's not nice to be, and that something's wrong with me because I get angry.

Maxine Waters, in Brian Lanker, I Dream a World, 1989

Food for thought...

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

~Anaïs Nin

green streaks in my hair...

For you, even if you haven't got a drop of Irish blood in you...

Bless your little Irish heart-
and every other Irish part.
Wherever you go and whatever you do,
May the luck of the Irish be there with you.

May your heart be warm and happy
With the lilt of Irish laughter
Every day in every way
And forever and ever after.

Here's to good friends
Never above you
Never below you
Always beside you…

Always beside you.

We Can Make a Difference...

Dear friends,

I am one of over 50,000 people from 131 countries around the world demanding G8 leaders to take action to stop the climate crisis. This is urgent, and I thought you might be interested - please see the email below.
-----------------------------------------

Dear friend,

This Thursday, the environment ministers from the G8, the world's biggest contributors to climate change, will be meeting in Germany. The outcome of this meeting is crucial to world's response to global warming.

Avaaz.org has been invited to attend this meeting to present our climate change petition. A strong voice for action could help set the agenda for the G8. To help seize this opportunity, click below:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/climate_action_germany/tf.php

The G8 is a summit of world leaders from the "Group of 8" largest economies. Together, these countries account for 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions--the gasses that cause climate change. The full G8 summit is coming in June, but the agenda and outcome of this type of high-profile event is usually set far in advance--at meetings like the one this Thursday.

This year, the president of the G8 is German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, is in charge of the ministers meeting Thursday. And at 4 pm on March 15th, we have a personal meeting with Mr. Gabriel to present our petition for binding emissions targets to stop catastrophic climate change.

Merkel has indicated an interest in making climate change a top priority. With a significant global petition, we can make the case that the world is ready for aggressive leadership on climate change--and pave the way for truly historic commitments at the G8 summit this June.

It's a rare opportunity to have a global impact. Add your voice to the petition now:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/climate_action_germany/tf.php

50,000 people from 131 countries have already demanded action. Our goal is to reach 100,000. Please sign the petition, forward this email to friends and family, and post the link on your blog--we only have a few days to make this statement count.

If we add our voices together, now, 2007 can become the year we took the first step to save the world.

With hope,

Ricken, David, Iain, Lee-Sean, Galit, Graziela, and the rest of the Avaaz.org team

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May it be.

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.
Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart.
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.
Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.
One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.

~Mary Jean Iron

The speed of thought...

Now is the winter of our discontent.
William Shakespeare

We are, perhaps, uniquely among the earth's creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still.
Lewis Thomas

Where does discontent start? You are warm enough, but you shiver. You are fed, yet hunger gnaws you. You have been loved, but your yearning wanders in new fields. And to prod all these there's time, the Bastard Time.
John Steinbeck

Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.
Kenneth Grahame

...and the theme for today?

Happy Day of Love

The grimoire has been opened to a fresh page.
What story do we tell today?

Daily Affirmation...

Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision;
But today, well lived, makes every yesterday
a dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Namaste

- Attributed to Kalidasa

May it be.

Grant me the strength from day to day
To bear what burdens come my way.
Grant me throughout this bright New Year
More to endure and less to fear.
Help me live that I may be
From spite and petty malice free.

Let me not bitterly complain
When cherished hopes of mine prove vain,
Or spoil with deeds of hate and rage
Some fair tomorrow's spotless page.
Creator, as the days shall come and go
In courage let me stronger grow.

Creator, as the New Year dawns today
Help me to put my faults away.
Let me be big in little things;
Grant me the joy which friendship brings.
Keep me from selfishness and spite;
Let me be wise in what is right.

A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye.
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I've played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.

Namaste

2007

He who breaks a resolution is a weakling;
He who makes one is a fool.
~F.M. Knowles

New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence amidst all of creation that acknowledges the passage of another year, and yet we humans look on this nights’ coming darkness as a marker, a new start, another chance…

We will open a new book, and find that its pages are blank. We will put our words onto those pages. That book is called Our Life and its first chapter is New Year's Day.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

To the family who have become friends,
and to the friends who have become family:

Beannachd Dia dhuit et Bonne Année

Translation: blessings of God be with you (Scots Gaelic) and Happy New Year (Quebecoise)
With inspirational nods to Hamilton Wright Mabi & Edith Lovejoy Pierce

T'was The Diet After Christmas...

T'was the day after Christmas, and all through the house
Not a damn thing would fit me, not even a blouse.
The cookies I'd nibbled, the eggnog I'd taste
At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales there arose such a number!
When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber),
I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared;
The gravies, and sauces, and beef nicely rared,

The wine and the rum-balls, the bread and the cheese,
And the way that I'd never said, "No thank you, please."
As I dressed myself up, in my husband's old shirt,
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt -

I said to myself, (as only I can),
"You can't spend the winter disguised as a man!"
So, away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, each cracker, and chip,

Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
'til all the unwanted ounces have vanished!
I won't have a cookie, not even a lick...
I'll just have to chew on a celery stick.

I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie;
I'll munch on a carrot, and quietly cry.
I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore -
But isn't that what January is for?

Unable to giggle, no longer a riot...
Happy New Year to all, and to all a good diet!

T'was the Night Before Christmas

Live, Love, Laugh,

Smell the Sweet Spirits,

Dance with the Skies,

Hearken unto me my friend and

Hear my Prayer for your Happiness,

Your Safety, and Your Love this Holiday Season..

Blessed Be.

Happy Solstice!

Rejoice! The Light Returns!

Namaste

(photo credit: tenetsi, deviantart)