Learning styles How do you learn best? How do your children learn best, if you have children? When I think of learning, some part of me remembers Elle Woods in the movie Legally Blonde. She has a...
Remembering and forgetting Learning is about more than simply acquiring new knowledge and insights; it is also crucial to unlearn old knowledge that has outlived its relevance. Thus, forgetting is probably at least as important as learning. Gary...
Don't forget your hands Hands are one of the first places to show aging. It pays to take care of them. Most people forget. The products you use on your face, work on your hands also. No matter your...
The power of music I've spent the better part of my free moments today ripping more music into the format for my MP3, then deciding what to actually put into it. It is really easy to subtract and add...
Scent memories Some of my earliest memories are of my mother and how good she smelled. I remember asking her one time what she was wearing and if it was expensive. It smelled divine. It was not...
I learned through years of parenting that usually there is one of three things behind a child’s tantrum: either they need food, they need sleep or they need love.
That’s such a truism for life, really. When I have a hard day, it’s generally because I need some rest, but the other two factor in also.
It reminds me of the time Elijah was under the juniper tree. He’d just fled for his life after a seeming spiritual victory (but you note God didn’t tell him to do what he did). And there he was, exhausted, asking God to take away his life, he wasn’t any different than the others.
Did God do it?
Nope. First he had him sleep. Then he fed him. Then he appeared as the still, small voice and re-energized him. And he gave him a friend in the work, Elisha.
These three things are almost a spiritual law, and I bet the rabbis had a word for it.
What is there about food that represents all the good in life. Is it because it is such a basic need?
Not too long ago I watched a friend invite another to come over. I’ll fix you breakfast, she offered. In that simple offering was all the power of providing a few wings in a free fall.
The next time you have a hard day, ask yourself if you are missing one or all of these elements, then try to consciously give them to yourself.
And if you are dealing with a recalcitrant child or some other in your life, you’ll find these help also.
I laugh when I think of the truism: the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. There’s a reason for that adage, and it applies to more than men.
I think there’s something about food disorders that gets back to the base line of love. If you struggle with this, know that you are loved and that you can love. You can rest in that.
Discussing hope by Joan Borysenko I'm currently reading Fire in the Soul: A New Psychology of Spiritual optimism. Again, I got this from the library until I knew if I would like to own it. (I'm currently reading several of...
The elusive nature of happiness, part 4 [One] You can't change your genes, but you can tinker with the essential wiring of your brain. Selective serotonin reuptake [this is such an interesting word to me...and has some spiritual parameters, even the next...
Pay attention to the little stings of life Norris Burkes writes thought provoking essays about real life and God. This essay talks about almost losing his daughter to a bee sting, but her new boyfriend thought fast enough to be aware. I like...
Life isn't fair, but it's still good This was an internet forward. I do not know if the attribution is correct. Enough of them hit the spot to pass them on. Karin Lessons for Life By Regina Brett The Plain Dealer, Cleveland...
Sunday Money Roundup - Food, Inc. Edition. If you guys haven't seen the film Food, Inc. yet, please do yourself and your family a favor and check it out. It will change...
Player Profile: Tiger Woods Tiger Woods may be out of commission for the 2008 season, but he is never really out of mind. When he first burst onto the...
professional envy I don't usually like to prepare a straight-up reaction piece to other bloggers' posts, but this one just got me thinking so much that I...
Finding a market for an idea — and not taking no for an answer.
I recently read an article about David Rowland and his 40/4 stackable chairs. (40 chairs stack in a 4 foot high space.) Likely you’ve even sat in one.
Never let an idea go, if you think it is inspired. Karin
He told church friends for 8 years that he was working on his chair, and they likely thought he was crazy. But in October 1964, The New York Times put his chair on the front page because it won the Gran Prix award at the Milan Triennale (an international showcase honoring emerging design quality.)
His motive was that he wanted to help provide for his parents in their elder years.
But to get to this point, he networked with others in the field who at times told him, among other things, that there was no market for it.
Ultimately he was led to see how many chairs he could fit in a small space.
My only answer was that the idea came from God…And if it came from God, then I’d better fight for it. David Rowland
He was first offered $20,000 for the rights to the chair — a lot of money even today. He was led to turn it down, instead taking a percentage for each chair. He found that some in the company were working against him. So the contract was canceled. A short time later he ran into the national sales manager for the same company and was led to offer his hand. As they spoke together, because he acted in kindness, not resentment, the man suggested another lead. When he called them, they needed 16,000 of his chairs. That paid for the manufacturing. Millions of the chairs have been sold in 43 years, even in Europe.
He was able to provide for his mother in her retirement. (His dad died before the chair was produced.) In the years since then he has also designed other chairs for mass production.
Not only did he design the chair, but he wouldn’t give up until he found a market for it. Never let an idea go, if you think it is inspired.
A convocation of eagles Robert Klose, as a single man, has adopted two sons, both from Russia, I believe. They were adopted separately a number of years apart and are now brothers. He has written extensively in essays for...
KEM How did you find your way back into my life Kem has a beautiful voice. If you aren't familiar with his sound, he is sound-worthy. He is a Nigerian American R&B/soul singer, songwriter, and producer raised in Detroit, Michigan. Many of his songs deal with...
Neil Morris Fragrances, Part 2 his bespoke fragrances I could tell how much Neil loves creating perfumes by his gentle enthusiasm when he spoke with me. He is knowledgeable and enjoys sharing his gift with others. He speaks plainly but in layman's terms,...
One decision away Reading Leap!: What Will We Do with the Rest of Our Lives? makes me think we could all be one decision away from a more interesting life or at least a changed one. Of course,...
2007 FiFi Awards Finalists Announced The Fragrance Foundation has announced the top five finalists in each of 20 award categories on Friday, April 27th. "The winners will be presented at the 35th Annual FiFi Awards & Celebration event on Thursday...
Lee Rodgers Canned for Not Sugar Coating Islam BABE HUGGETT: On Thursday morning, February 18th, with one minute left of his popular San Francisco Bay Area early morning talk show on KSFO 560-AM,...
Self vs. Ego What’s the difference between presence and present? Present is ego. Presence is self. There are two types of instincts? No, there is one type of...
Nicholas Winton, now 100 years old, was a 29 year old London stockbroker who traveled to Czechoslovakia in 1938, where he rescued hundreds of Jewish children from likely or certain death. Winton’s parents were of German Jewish descent.
Even his wife didn’t know about it until 40 years after they were married, he remarked in 1999.
Everything that happened before the war actually didn’t feel important in the light of the war itself.
Winton, alarmed at the time — and rightly — that Czechoslovakia would be invaded by the Nazis and Jewish residents sent to concentration camps, persuaded British officials to accept the children as long as foster homes were found and a 50 pound guarantee was paid for each child. He set about raising funds and organizing passage.
Eight trains carried the children to Britain in the months before the war. A few went to Sweden. Many never saw their parents again, because of the Holocaust.
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the rescue, a vintage train carrying about two dozen survivors and their families pulled into London’s Liverpool Street Station this past Friday after three days journey by rail and ferry from Prague. They greeted Nicholas, frail though he was.
It’s wonderful to see you all after 70 years. Don’t leave it quite so long until we meet here again. Nicholas Winton
I never heard about him until today when the story of the kindertransports was retold in our paper.
It’s quite remarkable that someone in the heat of confusing times would be led to act decisively in a timely fashion without regard to himself to save others and give them life. It looks easy in retrospect, but I bet we don’t know the half of it or the persuading that needed to take place. And I don’t suppose that 50 pounds each was a small sum in those days, not to mention the cost of passage.
To me, he is a righteous man. The world would have been poorer without him. He’s another man I’d like to know. I was glad he lived long enough to be recognized for his part. And not to forget the part of all those who aided in giving funds, some of whom might have been their own families. May their memories be for a blessing.
Had you heard of him before?
Don’t be prepared in your life only to do no wrong; Be prepared every day to try to do some good. Sir Nicholas Winton
Karin
www.savvythinker.com
don’t steal my posts — you know who you are!
Blessed by a safety patrol kiddo Nearly every day I take my youngest to her elementary school. I enjoy spending this time spent with her, as I enjoyed spending it with her siblings. Some days it gives us the only real...
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Trafficked children in Nepal Conor Grennan, another hero, backed by a small NGO that he started Next Generation Nepal is walking back roads in Nepal trying to reconnect families with their trafficked children. Here's part of one of his...
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How it began
Perhaps you’ve heard of the church that gave out rubber bracelets with the words No complaint. The idea was to wear the bracelet on one wrist, moving it to the other when you caught yourself complaining, with the hope of going 21 days without complaints. I’m not sure, if this was only for expressed complaints or included complaints in thought, but unexpressed to others.
They offered these bracelets to others for a donation. Later they added a charge for them.
My little complaint — sorry! — is that I ordered some bracelets for myself and a few friends which were never grandfathered in, so I never received them. I thought it would be a good exercise for us.
Prone to complaining
Some personality types seem more prone to chronic complaining. It’s not easy to be the person thinking complaints all the time or the one around them.
For the most part I try not to complain — perhaps I do more of it than I think!
I knew someone who would express negatives, then say, “I’m not complaining; I’m explaining!” However, it was voiced just the same.
Habit of complaining
The habit of complaining can be routed out of ourselves, sometimes with difficulty, if we desire it to be and are willing to work — and sometimes pray — toward it.
We can leave the negatives of our personality type behind and pick up the positives from other personality types as we become more Christlike.
Is complaining ever a good thing?
It’s hard to know what part of complaining is a good thing. It’s almost a truism that progress comes when complaint turns to action. If we were always satisfied with the status quo, we’d still have gas lights and live in caves.
Yet complaining for the sake of complaining, or being in the habit of complaint, works to suck the joy out of the very air around us — and out of the consciousness of those around us who might most need a little boost, not something to drag them down.
If our complaining doesn’t add up to our own happiness or the happiness of those around us, then it is time to be free(r) of it.
I venture to say that nearly everyone has a joy-sucker in their life — it isn’t always a person, it can be a situation — but hopefully we are not adding to the negatives!
Gratitude is riches
There’s a hymn with the words:
Our gratitude is riches, complaint is poverty. Vivian Burnett
It’s something to contemplate: that every bit of gratitude or appreciation expressed or even thought — no matter how small — adds to the riches of ourselves and those around us.
And then, the reverse: that every time we complain for the sake of complaining it depletes us in some way — or perhaps even worse, shows up on our face — ouch!
We would be less quick to complain about vexing situations, without some action following it that might bring change, if we would just catch ourselves with these reminders.
My bracelet
I thought about making a bracelet with the words No complaint, but for me, I wanted a positive reminder of what I hope to bring.
I was playing around with alphabet beads to see what letters I had to work with. It isn’t necessary to put much money into making a bracelet like these. I made two bracelets that I alternate wearing. If I find I really enjoy them, I will remake them in silver beads. I added crystals and carved beads to make them more interesting.
Create-Imagine-Appreciate
Bring Joy-Love-Pax
What do you do if you find yourself chronically complaining? What do you want to bring to situations? How do you keep resentments and complaints from sizzling?
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I had never heard of Leymah Gbowee until recently. She is a Christian from Liberia. Never let it be said that one person cannot accomplish the impossible, despite terrible odds and circumstances that most of us have never experienced.
Wisdom, beauty and peace shine out from her face in the portrait I saw that was made in New York.
One night she dreamed — in the midst of the hell her country had devolved into during civil war covering 13 years (violence, rape, murder) — that she should gather a group of women together to pray for peace. When speaking, she felt ordained by God. The Liberian Mass Action for Peace, a movement of Christian and Muslim women, came together in prayer as a result of that dream.
…sometimes the process is slow and painful…It takes the love of God to get you out of the bed every morning to face the perpetrators of injustice. It takes the love of God …it takes your faith … Lehmah Gbowee in the above youtube.
The new documentary feature Pray the Devil Back to Hell shares the story of how this interfaith group of women helped put an end to Liberia’s civil war.
Abigail E. Disney, producer, and director Gini Reticker used footage from archives, and current video and interviews to tell the story. The film premiered in Los Angeles November 14, 2008, and may be seen in some local film festivals.
The women’s rallying cry was:
Does a bullet know a Christian from a Muslim?
Early in the film, despite the obvious disapproval of men in the front row, Gbowee is shown urging her fellow Christian women in St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Monrovia, to protest the war. A Muslim woman in the crowd, pledged to mobilize her community.
And from this small beginning, the interfaith group of women became their country’s conscience, convincing the warlords and the president to attend peace talks in Ghana in 2003.
You can read more about her here and read a conversation here.
Here’s a more complete account of how the documentary came to be.
Review: Halle by Halle Berry What a surprise to run into this at CVS tonight. And it was a lot better price than one place I found it for online. And then I used my CVS coupons...even better! Quelle surprise!...
Peaceful Warrior, movie A friend and I went to see this movie tonight using our free tickets. You don't get deals like that very often! The theatre was quite crowded. I don't know how many were using free...
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I enjoyed this book by Fern Michaels. It is only the second one I’ve read by her.
Central to the story are three sisters ranging in age upwards from 69. They were so funny to me, especially when they instigate a ‘kidnapping’ of sorts, which is really a rescue. I suppose what I like about them is that I want to be like them when I get to that point in life — feisty, involved, loving, fun to be around, engaged in what is going on around them, taking care of their families. I wasn’t enamored of the amount of drinking they did. And there is a brief mention of a child born and left to be raised in Japan.
Alongside their stories (and two brief forays into romance for two of them) is the story of their grown niece, interwoven with the stories of the historical nature of where they live, as well as those who live in their neighborhood.
Also central to the story is the subject of organ donation (which was done against the will of well-beloved character.) It ultimates in finding those who received the donations (by computer hacking) — and ultimately redemption.
It is a story of love, affirmation and good will, with a tidy ending, perhaps tidier than real life would be, but evidencing forgiveness.
I think I enjoyed it as much for the older women and their relationship to each other as anything. In some ways they reminded me of a beloved grandmother. While there are difficult subjects tackled, they are tackled in a light way. Sort of like the substance of whipped cream. Not real satisfying, but an attempt to be deeper than the average romance novel.
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This is a great story about a Chinese adoptee who was chosen to be the voice of Kai-lan. Don’t miss the rest of the story.
Hearing what her adoptive mother has been through and seeing the IHappy license plate brought tears to my eyes.
Karin
Jade-Lianna Peters steps into an audio recording booth at I V Media in Brookfield. Jade-Lianna Peters, 10, the voice of Kai-lan, rehearses before a recent recording session at I V Media in Brookfield.
Kai-lan and YeYe are among the characters in “Ni Hao, Kai-lan.”
Jade-Lianna Peters , 10 – with her mother, Kathleen “Candy”; sister, Alexis-Mariah, 7; and father, John – began appearing in commercials when she was 2.
Half a continent away, at Nickelodeon Studios, an animation production team marvels at the 10-year-old’s voice, one that is as natural and light-hearted as a songbird’s, with a sandpapery edge that adds just a rasp of mischief. It’s the pitch-perfect tone for Kai-lan, the lead character of “Ni Hao, Kai-lan,” a preschool series coming to Nickelodeon in August. Executives at the children’s network hope the half-hour episodes will be to Mandarin Chinese what “Dora the Explorer” has been to Spanish. Production continues on a first season of 20 episodes, animated and partly designed in Taipei, Taiwan, and Shanghai, China.
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To say, my fate is not tied to your fate, is like saying, your end of the boat is sinking. Hugh Downs
Forgiveness is not an elective in the curriculum of life. It is a required course, and the exams are always tough to pass.
Charles Swindoll
These two quotes happened to be side by side in my miscellaneous quote file. I thought, I think they look like they could go together. So I’ve been thinking of them that way. I’m not sure how to tie them in so it would make sense if your thoughts weren’t following the same path. It’s easier for me to see it, than to write it.
Maybe it’s just the syncretism I see in tying them together. If all parts are necessary for the whole, then it stands to some sort of reason that we need all parts, that we are not as separate as we think.
I think we all learn forgiveness, but I’m not sure all-forgiveness is possible in this life (or maybe even a goal.) We do what we can with what we have, and throw some grace in that makes things possible that are not ordinarily possible, and that’s about all I can say about that. And somehow our fates are tied together, forgiveness or not. The required course is tough, but a passing grade is all that is required, not perfection. I think passing can be a sliding scale depending on what we are dealing with, do you? Mercy and grace cover a multitude of falling short of the goal, when we are still doing our best to see our way through.
And somehow, it makes me think, today, of the last HP book in the series. Maybe not the forgiveness part, but the entwined fates part. And how much friendship can make our path easier, even if it is hard.
And it made me laugh to think of only one end of a boat sinking. As if!
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I liked the progression of this quotation. Often one quality in thought leads to another, and it’s difficult to get off the treadmill. So it is important what qualities are in our progression of thought, or our progressive steps might be blocked by qualities that don’t allow a forward flow.
I’m not always as quick as I’d like to be in stopping a thought, but I work at it daily. I don’t think we have to think every thought that presents itself to our consciousness. We have a choice.
I was taught as a child to stand porter at the door of thought and only allow those thoughts in that are helpful. It was the natural way for me to think, but I have a friend who had never heard of the concept and didn’t know she had a choice in her thoughts, but of course, she knew she didn’t have to act on everything she thinks.
How about you? do you turn away thoughts or do you feel you have to think every thought that comes?
Karin
Hope is the seed of belief.
Belief is the seedling of faith.
Faith is the stem of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is the flower of love.
Love is the blossom of life.
Author unknown but you can buy it at signals.com
It reminded me of the progression in this quote:
Phil4: 8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. KJV
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I know anger is a universal emotion. But the juxtaposition of my short remark yesterday about dealing with my own angry anger was followed by receiving this message into my email box. I had to laugh. Again, I think this reaches way beyond the bounds of divorce, into universals.
Defining Anger
Day 59
Dr. Les Carter says that having anger means standing up for your own worth, needs, and convictions.
“You don’t get angry when folks are kind, pleasant, or understanding. Anger shows up when someone has rejected you or is being uncooperative, or when a person is being critical, harsh, or difficult to get along with. When anger appears on the scene, it arouses your sense of self-preservation.
“You want to preserve one of three things. You want to preserve your worth as a human being; your anger can be your way of wishing to say, ‘Please, show me some respect, will you?’ Anger can be your way of preserving your basic needs: ‘Recognize that I have needs, and acknowledge them, please.’ Or anger can be a way that you stand up for your deepest convictions. It is your way of saying, ‘I believe in things, and I don’t want to back away from them.’”
You will feel anger at some point in your divorce. [You fill in the blank for whatever is making you angry. Karin] Do not try to deny or suppress this emotion. God does not condemn you for your anger when it is justified. God Himself is described as “slow to anger”–not “never angry.”
“And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness’” (Exodus 34:6).
Lord God, sometimes my anger is justifiable; sometimes it’s not. Help me to be slow to anger, like You. Amen.
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I can’t figure out if I have very little anger (because I hardly ever feel or express it) or if it is so sublimated and running so deep that I’d better get a handle on it. Who knows. I’m not going to waste any time over it. I imagine it’s a bit of both. The Serenity Prayer comes in handy at times:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Reinhold Niebuhr
It’s a truism that progress happens because of discontent, even anger. Otherwise, we’d still be living in caves.
A Bible verse I especially love is:
Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. KJV
Karin
I do not know about the workbook that is presented below as I have never seen it.
Suggested reading from the DivorceCare HelpCenter
The Anger Workbook
Les Carter
A 13-step interactive plan that explains how emotions and unmet needs can feed anger–and tells how readers can find healthy ways to express and control it. This unique workbook offers answers for anyone who struggles with destructive anger and wants to develop healthy alternatives for dealing with it. The only anger management program on the market that offers interactive exercises to help the readers understand and modify behavior.
Go to the following link to order this or other resources from the DivorceCare HelpCenter:
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