Healing

(27 Mar 2007 16:20)

Self Love

Choose carefully who to dance your web with and know that strength comes from within your circle. Rest when you need to and treat your body like your most treasured possession. Embrace your fears with courage and create a new vision from your heart.
Greet the dawn with a dream and welcome hope as your companion. Plant your feet firmly on the ground and let your roots find the source of true joy.
Discover power where pain has scorched your core. Then know in your heart that you can be loved as your true self. Be bold with the world but gentle with your heart and sing yourself a love song that rocks your soul with tender rhythms. Be patient with your mind and find the quiet place inside. Make it a place filled with violet and sleep gently there. Let its safety touch the places within that long to heal. Stay there longer than you think you need to, heal in its silence and weave new dreams from its whispers. Send your inner critic on vacation then do at least one fun thing with your inner child. Always, always smile at yourself in the mirror and let your heart be filled with love for who you were, who you are today and who you are becoming.
*****************************************************************

I came across these beautiful healing words today and wish I knew who wrote them. We are so reflexively trained to see a title like this and think of selfishness, but self love and acceptance is the very root of wholeness and necessary to our ability to heal and have any ability to love others and be loved. We cannot give what we do not ourselves have inside of us.
We are, as Jung and depth psychology show us, spiritual beings. This is not the religious concept of spirit; this is an acknowledgement of the truth that there is more to the human psyche than neurons and electrical impulses, more to our desires and actions than pavlovian conditioning and reflexes. Deep beneath the external words and thoughts lies the unconscious and it is a world we must come to know and understand, and progress in the ongoing journey to wholeness or be forever weakened and crippled by what we refuse to examine or accept in ourselves. Know thyself. It is not just a saying, but like so many deep numinous archetypical concepts, it resonates so deeply within us because deep inside, we recognize truths. My closest, most treasured relationships come from listening carefully not just to the outer messages but what my friends’ and my souls tell us when they are most open and vulnerable. It is a beautiful privilege to connect on the level of deepest truth of who we are with friends who can trust each other with their real selves.

From Wikipedia:
The following is a summary of the primary elements of Depth psychology:
• Depth psychology states that psyche is a process that is partly conscious and partly unconscious. The unconscious in turn contains repressed experiences and other personal-level issues in its "upper" layers and "transpersonal" (eg. collective, non-I, archetypal) forces in its depths.
• The psyche spontaneously generates mythico-religious symbolism and is therefore spiritual as well as instinctive in nature. An implication of this is that the choice of whether to be a spiritual person or not does not exist - the only question is exactly where we put our spirituality: Do we live it consciously or unknowingly invest it in nonspiritual aspirations (perfectionism, addictions, greed, fame) that eventually possess us by virtue of their ignored but frightfully potent numinous power?
• All minds, all lives, are ultimately embedded in some sort of myth-making. Mythology is not a series of old explanations for natural events; it is rather the richness and wisdom of humanity played out in a wondrous symbolical storytelling. No story, no myth, and no humanness either.
• Because we have a psychical share in all that surrounds us, we are sane and whole only to the degree that we care for our environment and tend responsibly to the world in which we live.

We can invest all of our energies into creating external fantasy images that we want the world to believe but the heart that sees beyond the veil will recognize the beautiful fairy behind the image of the hag and the monster lurking behind the guise of a beauty. In the end, it is all our choice. There is no God or Goddess. But we must separate human attempts to write down the wisdoms we feel from our innermost being from the corruptions added by greed and the desire for power. If we become too cynical to love and trust love, if we think we can force, pretend or threaten it into being, we have lost touch with everything that makes our lives worth living.

Peace. May our every choice be made from love.

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More fun in math class

(26 Mar 2007 16:10)

Math humor

The pennant race:

Your basketball team has made it to the semi-finals and now needs to win only two more games to go to the finals. Your plan is to leave Philadelphia, travel 138 miles to the town of Euclid, and then play the team there. Then you will leave Euclid, travel to Pythagoras, and play that team. Finally, you will travel 97 miles to return home.

Your team bus can travel only 300 miles on one tank of gas. Assuming that all of the roads connecting the three towns are straight and that the two roads that connect in Philadelphia form a 28 degree angle, will one tank of gas be enough for the trip? Justify your solution.





Solution:

The team left Philadelphia on its way to Euclid. After going 67 miles, they stopped along the way at a convenience store to pick up drinks and found a group of girls who decided to come along. They got to Euclid 90 minutes late and had to forfeit the game. Figuring they were there anyway, and the game at Pythagoras wasn’t until the next night, they decided to make a side trip to Euler for more beer. Halfway back to their hotel, they were holding seven of the girls by their ankles and hanging them out the windows when the bus missed a turn and the driver swerved too widely. It careened end over end down the embankment, landing in the shallow waters of a riverbank where it slowly sank in the mud. Three of the team members were left trying to push the bus back out of the mud while the rest of the team and the remaining girls fled the scene after replacing their team name on the bus with that of the Pythagoras team, hoping they would take the blame for the disaster. Unfortunately, one of the guys left his fake ID on the bus. Besides, how dumb do they think we are? But then, they had consumed a lot of beer.

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I love it

(25 Mar 2007 6:14)

Even our junkyards are a little different here.

"Mounds of titanium and steel glinted in the afternoon sun, valves and pipes protruding in all directions like half-formed metal organisms.

In one corner of the warehouse was a twin of the Apollo command module engine that brought Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong back from the surface of the moon nearly 40 years ago. Nearby was the second-stage motor for a Saturn V, the most powerful rocket ever used in the U.S. space program.

Jonathan Goff, a 26-year-old rocket engineer, climbed atop a mound of titanium spheres once used to store highly explosive liquid oxygen rocket fuel and scanned the area for used rocket parts. "This is definitely a cool place," he said.

For almost five decades, Norton Sales Inc. in North Hollywood has been collecting the nuts, bolts and heat exchangers from the rockets that helped American astronauts shrug off the steely embrace of gravity.

This is where the bits and pieces of America's space program came to die."

Here's a story in the LA Times about a place where collectors, people looking to REALLY hop up their cars, movie set decorators and private rocket builders come to find just the right spare part for their projects.

[ link ]

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Fun in math class

(23 Mar 2007 18:12)

Math humor

When a friend of the family asked Ray how old he and his sister were, he answered in this fashion: “If I were 3/5 as old as I am and Joyce were only ¾ as old as she is, together we would be three years older than I am alone. But if I were only 2/5 as old as I am and Joyce were half as old as she is, then together we would be three years younger than I am alone.” How old is each now?
I don’t know how old Ray is, but I sure am worried about Ray and his family.


The love triangle:

You are a right triangle in love with an isosceles triangle who wants to break up with you. Write a love letter about why the two of you are meant to be together.

I cannot bear to walk past a mirror anymore; for fear that I might see you

I know I can seem rigid and inflexible. “He always has to be right.” I’ve heard the talk.

I didn’t mean it when I said you were twice my size.

If you can’t stay for me, stay for the sake of Geometry.

They don’t call me the “Right triangle” for no reason.

Who will share a vertex with you?

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you can lead a horse to water...

(20 Mar 2007 17:53)

If you let the bullies of the world rule your life, you will never ever have the courage to live the life you deserve. Fear is a powerful tool. You can do only so much for someone. They can tell you that what you have shown them is better than anything they have ever experienced. They can long for it and dream of it and cling to every little scrap they can hold onto but the nature of abusive control is that the fear lingers on long after anyone else would have stood up for themselves enough to not just timidly take little bits but to take fully what is rightfully theirs. Ultimately the only person that can change one's life is that person. Everyone else can only point the way.

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Four years of stupidity and waste with the potential of many more to come

(18 Mar 2007 6:54)

Four years have now gone by in Bush's war. How many deaths will it take? How bad does it have to get before some of you get involved? Are you even registered to vote and if you are, do you? Has a friend been killed or maimed yet? Will you wait til it happens?

Don't Buy Bush's War! Congress will soon be debating and voting on Bush's war budget requests, starting with an emergency supplemental on March 14. In response, we have launched our broad and exciting Don't Buy Bush's War Campaign. We need to flood the offices, halls, sidewalks and streets of Congress with people opposed to the war from now through this Fall. We're asking for your help to get people to Washington DC and to do similar actions locally. CALL CONGRESS: we're also asking you to call and email [ link ] your member of Congress telling him or her to stop buying Bush's war by voting NO on these supplemental appropriations. Click here [ link ] to learn more, see latest DC action/arrest photos, and watch us protesting inside the Valerie Plame Wilson Hearings.

We're at a historic crossroads right now. Either Congress will allow this war to drag on for years, wreaking havoc that will spread throughout the Middle East, or we end the war in 2007 by pressuring Congress to defund the war and fully fund the safe and orderly withdrawal of our troops. Let's work together to choose the second path, the path of peace.


It's deja vu all over again. The Bush administration, having mired us in a war in Iraq, is now preparing an attack on Iran. Have we learned nothing from the last run-up to war? We need to tell the press that now is the time to ask serious questions instead of blindly supporting the administration's headlong rush into another unnecessary war.
Ask Your Press to be Critical and Vigilant!

The mainstream media is already jumping on the bandwagon about the Iranian threat. We hoped they would have learned their lesson after spreading falsehoods about WMDs in Iraq. But once again journalists such as New York Times' Michael R. Gordon, Judith Miller's sidekick in the WMD and phony aluminum tubes reporting, are quoting anonymous sources as proof that Iran is providing Iraqi militias with powerful explosives to attack US troops. For more analysis of the press and Iran, click here. [ link ]

In fact, the evidence against Iran is insubstantial and full of exaggeration. Even General Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he hasn't seen any intelligence that supports the claim. We need to tell the press that now is the time to ask serious questions instead of blindly supporting the administration's headlong rush into another tragic and unnecessary war. Please contact media outlets and tell them we demand a critical, vigilant press. Click here to send your letter now! [ link ]


Occupation Project "Now is the time for seriously strategizing about the best ways, in our hometowns, to engage in sustained civil disobedience at the offices of elected representatives, demanding that they vote against the supplemental spending bill,” writes activist Kathy Kelly. Answering her call to action, dozens of Occupation Projects have sprouted around the country. Click here join your local Occupation Project or grow your own project, and see photos of local action. [ link ]

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recent quotes

(16 Mar 2007 5:07)

I've been so busy I've collected somewhat of a backlog of good quotes, so here goes!

People who are 'ready' give off a different vibe than people who aren't. Animals can smell fear; maybe that's it.
The minute you become ready is the the minute you stop dreaming. Suddenly it's no longer about 'becoming'. Suddenly it's about 'doing'.
Hugh Macleod, How To Be Creative: 28. Power is never given. Power is taken., 08-22-04

When a thing is done, it's done. Don't look back. Look forward to your next objective.
George C. Marshall (1880 - 1959)

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.
Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790), 'Poor Richard's Almanack,' June 1746

I believe that [everyone] is the keeper of a dream - and by tuning into one another's secret hopes, we can become better friends, better partners, better parents, and better lovers.
Oprah Winfrey (1954 - ), O Magazine, June 2003

Of course the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you--if you don't play, you can't win.
Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988)

Every pilot needs a co-pilot, and let me tell you, it is awful nice to have someone sitting there beside you, especially when you hit some bumpy air.
Eric Wald, View From The Top, 2003

Love cannot survive if you just give it scraps of yourself, scraps of your time, scraps of your thoughts.
Mary O'Hara

Your equipment DOES NOT affect the quality of your image. The less time and effort you spend worrying about your equipment the more time and effort you can spend creating great images. The right equipment just makes it easier, faster or more convenient for you to get the results you need.
Ken Rockwell, Your Camera Does Not Matter, 2005

Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.
Oprah Winfrey (1954 - ), O Magazine, September 2003

There was a definite process by which one made people into friends, and it involved talking to them and listening to them for hours at a time.
Rebecca West (1892 - 1983)

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Emotional health , dysfunctional ties

(14 Mar 2007 19:01)

Being together is not supposed to be about two people lying to one another about who they are and what they need out of life so they'll even put up with each other. It's supposed to be about being with the one who loves and accepts you for the incredibly wonderful person you are, and who knows no day will be right without being together. It's not about thinking that if only that person would change a hundred different things about themselves that then they would be ok. It's about people who genuinely need each other so much and genuinely care about each other being with each other every day because they have to be together, whatever it takes, or that day just won't be right. People learn to hide important parts of themselves from others after having repeatedly experienced rejections too painful to risk experiencing again. When there are many things about yourself that you must hide from someone in order to feel emotionally safe around them, you have to realize that this person is not capable of loving you as unconditionally as you need to be loved. However much they may try play on your feelings of guilt for wanting to stand up for your own emotional health, if they are incapable of handling the truth, then they don't even love the real you. They want someone who doesn't exist, someone they want you to be for their own needs, not for the good of both. Martyrdom is vastly overrated.

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sad news

(07 Mar 2007 4:26)

Almost exactly a year ago, my dad passed away. (March 18th) Yesterday, my kids lost their other grandfather, a few days after their great aunt, his sister in law died. He was my father in law for 20 years, I'd known him since 1981. It's been a month of funerals.

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future plans and present priorities

(05 Mar 2007 1:13)

Learn Forever, Die Tomorrow

Early on I came to believe that you should learn as if you were going to live forever, and live as if you were going to die tomorrow. What does this mean? In the simplest way, I would explain it like this.

Always be learning, acquiring knowledge and seeking wisdom with a sense that you are immortal and that you will need knowledge and wisdom for that long journey ahead. Know that when you are through learning, you are through.

But I want to love that life as though I were going to die tomorrow: with relish, immediacy, and the right priorities. I also will not waste even a minute.

From John Wooden's “A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections on and off the Court."

I choose to live. I’m not just wishing my life were better, I’m studying hard to make a better life possible. There is so much beautiful life waiting to be lived, so much time has gone by already, lost moments that none of us can never recover. For those living life in the shadows, in barely present endurance of life, or in fear of embracing everything life has to offer, for those angrily grasping at broken shreds afraid to let go enough to find the true beauty within them and the new opportunities for life ahead of them, I say live. Live, and let live. There is so much out there, and so little time any of us have. We don’t have time for anger, bitterness and hate. Even as we hold others back, we hold ourselves back worse. And for what end? The time we use up is just as lost to us as it is to those we take it from. It’s just gone. Live. Love.
.

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