“It is alarming how many smart people do little more than look at the weather outside and then make a decision on whether global warming is real or not.” – Andrew Leonard
A site dedicated to quotes taken in context is realclimate.com…good place to get the facts.
Priceless and something to pass on to my daughter! Tim has inspired me to write to my daughter but I’ll quote him often as his advice to his son, Luke, was sheer poetry.
Happy Father’s Day
Q
I am so disgusted I had to blog my feelings. Everyone is talking about the beating of a 91 year old gentleman and, of course, sensationalizing the video clip by showing it over and over again. But my disgust was gut felt when I realized a whole group of people watched and didn’t even lift a finger to call for help, let alone intervene. What would it take to be a human or show a glimmer of intelligence? These individuals displayed a whole new level of low life. It’s off the charts scummy. There is no question this man is in desperate need so not wanting to get involved, or even more deplorable, not caring is evil. As Elie Wiesel said,
“Of course, indifference can be tempting — more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person’s pain and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction.”… “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.
To all of the people responding to the video with racial slurs – you have merely placed yourself next to those who are indifferent by using such a hideous crime to vent your narrow minds equipped singularly with ignorance. This situation is about people…if you hold such great hate that race defines your life’s confines, you are a lost soul and need to search your own heart to find the strength to realize your dreams and desires. No one is to blame for your situation in life but you.
…there is a morning after…we go from freezing temperatures, no power, breath condensing from our mouths in the living room (I’m getting a generator next year)straight into summer! I’m not complaining. The cat is languishing by the open front door bathed in warm sunlight. She’s got that pampered cat stance going on with the occasional flick of the tail tip. Ahh, it’s a cats life indeed (said with a George Sanders voice).
On days like this, all dreams are possible. May everyone be on the mend today and the healing begin in earnest.
Just a quick update on the 50th birthday celebration. People came, ate, and made merry in our new home. My great cake bake turned out, if I do say so myself, delicious! I’m a weirdo and not a great fan of dark chocolate so the ganache frosting was chosen to please my husband but the cake with the coconut pecan filling was to die for…and so was the frosting, according to the birthday boy. Ah sweet success! I searched for recipes on the web and chose David Lebovitz’s version of Mary Jo Thoresen’s recipe of Jojo’s in Oakland and formerly of Chez Panisse. http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2005/09/german_chocolat_1.html
Thank you David…it was so good I neglected to tell our guests it was cake time so we lit the candles after the party and my daughter assisted her “old” man in blowing out the flames with just the three of us digging into the chocolatey desert together.
…or at least slightly unveiled. In my previous post I discussed an article by Gail Blanke that caught my attention because I had just dumped (or at least tried to dump) an emotional behavior that was ultimately debilitating. I declared to my long suffering husband that I would take my body shape and size as it was from this day forward instead of beating myself up over the ground lost in just one year of inconsistent behavior (He’s thinking, “Eureka!”). Of course in my head, I have been comparing changes in my body all of my life. As with most women, my body never added up to my expectations. More over, I never added up to my expectations much to my husband’s chagrin. So the timely discovery of an article that has people start with their physical clutter in order to clear the “load” for even greater emotional clutter, gave my actions validation. It’s true. Cleaning house, weeding out closets, putting stacks of mail and junk in order, creates a feeling of freedom to then be able to deal with even deeper “clutter”.
My plan of action is to clean and toss room by room and count as I go. The reason behind writing down the items, according to Gail, is to be able to experience that feeling of declutter-ization in the future. Thus lifting weight from shoulders that are locked to the ears…I have to remind myself frequently to drop my shoulders from my ears it’s amazing how they creep up there without my noticing…
I just read in Real Simple magazine that in order to begin “decluttering” the mind (by Gail Blanke) there needs to be a disposal of physical things. She says to get rid, throw away, 50 unnecessary things adding to the physical clutter of your environment…magazines only count as one even if you throw out 100! Gail also says to make a list of the discarded objects for future reference. What would your 50 objects be? I’m going to try this since that stack in the kitchen always grows right back…I’ll be back with the results and more advice from that article.
Once I was introduced to King’s short stories as a teenager, there was no turning back. I was “his greatest fan.” I waited impatiently for each new selection to come out and then I would scare myself witless sitting alone in bed in the wee hours of the morning, flashlight in hand, reading because Stephen King’s writing grips the reader from the very first sentence and doesn’t let go. Like the endless old fashioned roller-coaster ride, just when the platform was drawing near and survival was imminent, the car would begin to slow and then, jerking the passengers heads back, speed up for one more round at even greater speeds. Thus was, and continues to be, my adventure with Mr. King. Then, just recently, I discovered John Connolly. I ignored his latest volume at the time, The Book of Lost Things, passing the intriguing cover, giving it a look but never committing myself to its purchase. Finally, on a rare and cherished visit to choose a new book, I noticed The Book of Lost Things was no longer on the front shelf. I felt compelled to find out if it was still available. Not remembering the title, I had to describe the cover and who I thought was the author. One clerk recognized my babble and exclaimed the book to be an outstanding read. John Connolly, she said, usually wrote dark murder mysteries and this one was different but true to his style. Dark writer, now my attention was focused. Author’s don’t write a whole lot darker than Stephen King so John Connolly sounded like an interesting reading adventure. And, like King, Connolly hijacks the reader for the duration of the story
Since that first dive into John Connolly’s literary world, I have consumed four more of his books and am currently in the process of completing number five. My fascination with Connolly’s work continues to grow, especially since he writes about Maine, another similarity to King. Both King and Connolly are gifted writers as similar as they are different at their craft.
…that The Secret is real and a must see for everyone when ready…that your thoughts and your feelings create your life. That when you’re a deliberate creator of your life you’ll have a life beyond what you can imagine. I believe I can “Take the first step in Faith. You (I) don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Dr. Martin Luther King
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” – Buddha
I believe each day is a gift and a moment to express my gratitude for:
My appreciation attracts support…”Attitude of Gratitude” – The Secret DVD
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive it can achieve.” – W. Clement Stone
I believe that my joy is within me and through sincere gratitude and feeling the excitement of my biggest dreams will give them the power to exist.
Today is step one; expressing my gratitude and planning my dream…what I want from my life.
More of The Secret to come. Watch The Secret (thesecret.tv) once just to get the idea. Watch it again and take notes. Then, as I am doing now, revisit the DVD as needed to transfer thoughts keeping you from your goals into actualizing thoughts and feelings. One example is I no longer fight against war but pray for peace.
Queen Mab's Muse 
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