Indeed, it should be no secret to anyone that the reason we consider ourselves to possess a will that is utterly free is simply that we experience our desires and wishes through ourselves, i.e., we cannot experience what's prior to our awareness, and what determines its operations, by the very fact that they precede it.

Yet, many who consider this type of determinism in the same term as conventional chains and imprisonment will find it too terrible and harsh a reality to believe, though in truth nothing about our lives changes. For in the conventional sense of freedom, the man who is unchained remains free, and the one who is chained is bereft of his liberty. That is, if we consider the realization of cause and effect as summoning a prison, we are making something other of it than it is, for it is merely what we are living right now, but with awareness.

We are thinking of redesigning the shirts so they are simpler, more fun, and are equally appealing to men and women.

We have two styles we're looking at - distressed and/or solid colors. We're also investigating different colors for the shirts.

Which design do you like? What colors would you prefer?

Let us know below and who knows, you just might see the shirt of your dreams up here in a few days!

There are so many who do such incredible things to raise awareness about breast cancer. I've been searching for just the right group to share their ideas on how to help...and I think I've found them.

Meet the Etsy Angels. The Etsy Angels are a Self-Representing Team of Artisans that create a variety of unique handmade items including Artisan Jewelry, Lampwork Glass and Polymer Clay Beads, Bath and Body Products, Quilts, Knits and Plush, and Paper Products to name a few.

This unique team was formed after the many hours spent together promoting for Dawn’s Boys; an effort that began in late December 2007 after a Jewelry artist who was on both Etsy and Ebay lost her life in an automobile accident. She left behind two little boys. Several "Angels" came together to help. After spending countless hours promoting donations from more people than they could imagine that wanted to help, many friendships were made. They couldn’t imagine it all ending without creating a Team for Dawn’s Angels. ♥

This month, the Etsy Angels are donating a portion of their proceeds to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
You can view their complete profile by going to the following link:
http://team.etsy.com/profilest/angels.shtml

You can also visit their Blog for more information about the Team and what they've been up to!
http://etsyangelsteam.blogspot.com/

Here are just a few of my favorites from the shops of these wonderful girls!

I don't accept living under such rule and neither will most of the US 300+ million population so what the hell are they're going to do? Kill off citizens?

Are we to witness another example of history repeating itself?

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/7/us_army_denies_unit_will_be

October 07, 2008

Is Posse Comitatus Dead? US Troops on US Streets

Guests:

Col. Michael Boatner, Future Operations division chief of USNORTHCOM.

Matthew Rothschild, Editor of The Progressive magazine.

Related Links

• “Invasion of the Sea-Smurfs” by Amy Goodman

AMY GOODMAN: In a barely noticed development last week, the Army stationed an active unit inside the United States. The Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Team is back from Iraq, now training for domestic operations under the control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The unit will serve as an on-call federal response for large-scale emergencies and disasters. It’s being called the Consequence Management Response Force, CCMRF, or “sea-smurf” for short.

It’s the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to USNORTHCOM, which was itself formed in October 2002 to “provide command and control of Department of Defense homeland defense efforts.”

An initial news report in the Army Times newspaper last month noted, in addition to emergency response, the force “may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control.” The Army Times has since appended a clarification, and a September 30th press release from the Northern Command states: “This response force will not be called upon to help with law enforcement, civil disturbance or crowd control."

When Democracy Now! spoke to Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Goodpaster, a public affairs officer for NORTHCOM, she said the force would have weapons stored in containers on site, as well as access to tanks, but the decision to use weapons would be made at a far higher level, perhaps by Secretary of Defense, SECDEF.

Well, I’m joined now by two guests. Army Colonel Michael Boatner is future operations division chief of USNORTHCOM. He joins me on the phone from Colorado Springs. We’re also joined from Madison, Wisconsin by journalist and editor of The Progressive magazine, Matthew Rothschild.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Why don’t we begin with Colonel Michael Boatner? Can you explain the significance, the first time, October 1st, deployment of the troops just back from Iraq?

COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: Yes, Amy. I’d be happy to. And again, there has been some concern and some misimpressions that I would like to correct. The primary purpose of this force is to provide help to people in need in the aftermath of a WMD-like event in the homeland. It’s something that figures very prominently in the national planning scenarios under the National Response Framework, and that’s how DoD provides support in the homeland to civil authority. This capability is tailored technical life-saving support and then further logistic support for that very specific scenario. So, we designed it for that purpose.

And really, the new development is that it’s been assigned to NORTHCOM, because there’s an increasingly important requirement to ensure that they have done that technical training, that they can work together as a joint service team. These capabilities come from all of our services and from a variety of installations, and that’s not an ideal command and control environment. So we’ve been given control of these forces so that we can train them, ensure they’re responsive and direct them to participate in our exercises, so that were they called to support civil authority, those governors or local state jurisdictions that might need our help, that they would be responsive and capable in the event and also would be able to survive based on the skills that they have learned, trained and focused on.

They ultimately have weapons, heavy weapons and combat vehicles and another service capability at their home station at Fort Stewart, Georgia, but they wouldn’t bring that stuff with them. In fact, they’re prohibited from bringing it. They would bring their individual weapons, which is the standard policy for deployments in the homeland. Those would be centralized and containerized, and they could only be issued to the soldiers with the Secretary of Defense permission.

So I think, you know, that kind of wraps up our position on this. We’re proud to be able to provide this capability. It’s all about saving lives, relieving suffering, mitigating great property damage to infrastructure and things like that, and frankly, restoring public confidence in the aftermath of an event like this.

AMY GOODMAN: So the use of the weapons would only be decided by SECDEF, the Secretary of Defense. But what about the governors? The SECDEF would have—Secretary of Defense would have—would be able to preempt the governors in a decision whether these soldiers would use their weapons on US soil?

COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: No, this basically only boils down to self-defense. Any military force has the inherent right to self-defense. And if the situation was inherently dangerous, then potentially the Secretary of Defense would allow them to carry their weapons, but it would only be for self- and unit-defense. This force has got no role in a civil disturbance or civil unrest, any of those kinds of things.

AMY GOODMAN: Matt Rothschild, you’ve been writing about this in The Progressive magazine. What is your concern?

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: Well, I’m very concerned on a number of fronts about this, Amy. One, that NORTHCOM, the Northern Command, that came into being in October of 2002, when that came in, people like me were concerned that the Pentagon was going to use its forces here in the United States, and now it looks like, in fact, it is, even though on its website it says it doesn’t have units of its own. Now it’s getting a unit of its own.

And Colonel Boatner talked about this unit, what it’s trained for. Well, let’s look at what it’s trained for. This is the 3rd Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat unit that has spent three of the last five years in Iraq in counterinsurgency. It’s a war-fighting unit, was one of the first units to Baghdad. It was involved in the battle of Fallujah. And, you know, that’s what they’ve been trained to do. And now they’re bringing that training here?

On top of that, one of the commanders of this unit was boasting in the Army Times about this new package of non-lethal weapons that has been designed, and this unit itself is going be able to use, according to that original article. And in fact, the commander was saying he had even tasered himself and was boasting about tasering himself. So, why is a Pentagon unit that’s going to be possibly patrolling the streets of the United States involved in using tasers?

AMY GOODMAN: Colonel Boatner?

COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: Well, I’d like to address that. That involved a service mission and a service set of equipment that was issued for overseas deployment. Those soldiers do not have that on their equipment list for deploying in the homeland. And again, they have been involved in situations overseas. And having talked to commanders who have returned, those situations are largely nonviolent, non-kinetic. And when they do escalate, the soldiers have a lot of experience with seeing the indicators and understanding it. So, I would say that our soldiers are trustworthy. They can deploy in the homeland, and American citizens can be confident that there will be no abuses.

AMY GOODMAN: Matt Rothschild?

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: Well, you know, that doesn’t really satisfy me, and I don’t think it should satisfy your listeners and your audience, Amy, because, you know, our people in the field in Iraq, some of them have not behaved up to the highest standards, and a lot of police forces in the United States who have been using these tasers have used them inappropriately.

The whole question here about what the Pentagon is doing patrolling in the United States gets to the real heart of the matter, which is, do we have a democracy here? I mean, there is a law on the books called the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act that says that the president of the United States, as commander-in-chief, cannot put the military on our streets. And this is a violation of that, it seems to me.

President Bush tried to get around this act a couple years ago in the Defense Authorization Act that he signed that got rid of some of those restrictions, and then last year, in the new Defense Authorization Act, thanks to the work of Senator Patrick Leahy and Kit Bond of Missouri, that was stripped away. And so, the President isn’t supposed to be using the military in this fashion, and though the President, true to form, appended a signing statement to that saying he’s not going to be governed by that. So, here we have a situation where the President of United States has been aggrandizing his power, and this gives him a whole brigade unit to use against US citizens here at home.

AMY GOODMAN: Colonel Michael Boatner, what about the Posse Comitatus Act, and where does that fit in when US troops are deployed on US soil?

COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: It absolutely governs in every instance. We are not allowed to help enforce the law. We don’t do that. Every time we get a request—and again, this kind of a deployment is defense support to civil authority under the National Response Framework and the Stafford Act. And we do it all the time, in response to hurricanes, floods, fires and things like that. But again, you know, if we review the requirement that comes to us from civil authority and it has any complexion of law enforcement whatsoever, it gets rejected and pushed back, because it’s not lawful.

AMY GOODMAN: Matthew Rothschild, does this satisfy you, editor of The Progressive magazine?

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: No, it doesn’t. One of the reasons it doesn’t is not by what Boatner was saying right there, but what President Bush has been doing. And if we looked at National Security Presidential Directive 51, that he signed on May 9th of 2007, Amy, this gives the President enormous powers to declare a catastrophic emergency and to bypass our regular system of laws, essentially, to impose a form of martial law.

And if you look at that National Security Presidential Directive, what it says, that in any incident where there is extraordinary disruption of a whole range of things, including our economy, the President can declare a catastrophic emergency. Well, we’re having these huge disturbances in our economy. President Bush could today pick up that National Security Directive 51 and say, “We’re in a catastrophic emergency. I’m going to declare martial law, and I’m going to use this combat brigade to enforce it.”

AMY GOODMAN: Colonel Michael Boatner?

COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: The only exception that I know of is the Insurrection Act. It’s something that is very unlikely to be invoked. In my thirty-year career, it’s only been used once, in the LA riots, and it was a widespread situation of lawlessness and violence. And the governor of the state requested that the President provide support. And that’s a completely different situation. The forces available to do that are in every service in every part of the country, and it’s completely unrelated to the—this consequence management force that we’re talking about.

AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned governors, and I was just looking at a piece by Jeff Stein—he is the national security editor of Congressional Quarterly— talking about homeland security. And he said, “Safely tucked into the $526 billion defense bill, it easily crossed the goal line on the last day of September.

“The language doesn’t just brush aside a liberal Democrat slated to take over the Judiciary Committee”—this was a piece written last year—it “runs over the backs of the governors, 22 of whom are Republicans.

“The governors had waved red flags about the measure on Aug. 1, ²⁰⁰⁷, sending letters of protest from their Washington office to the Republican chairs and ranking Democrats on the House and Senate Armed Services committees.

“No response. So they petitioned the party heads on the Hill.”

The letter, signed by every member of the National Governors Association, said, “This provision was drafted without consultation or input from governors and represents an unprecedented shift in authority from governors…to the federal government.”

Colonel Michael Boatner?

COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: That’s in the political arena. That has nothing to do with my responsibilities or what I’m—was asked to talk about here with regard to supporting civil authority in the homeland.

AMY GOODMAN: Matthew Rothschild?

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: Well, this gets to what Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont was so concerned about, that with NORTHCOM and with perhaps this unit—and I want to call Senator Leahy’s office today and ask him about this—you have the usurpation of the governor’s role, of the National Guard’s role, and it’s given straight to the Pentagon in some of these instances. And that’s very alarming. And that was alarming to almost every governor, if not every governor, in the country, when Bush tried to do that and around about the Posse Comitatus Act. So, I think these are real concerns.

AMY GOODMAN: Matt Rothschild, the Democratic and Republican conventions were quite amazing displays of force at every level, from the local police on to the state troopers to, well, in the Republican convention, right onto troops just back from Iraq in their Army fatigues. Did this surprise you?

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: It did. It surprised me also that NORTHCOM itself was involved in intelligence sharing with local police officers in St. Paul. I mean, what in the world is NORTHCOM doing looking at what some of the protesters are involved in? And you had infiltration up there, too. But what we have going on in this country is we have infiltration and spying that goes on, not only at the—well, all the way from the campus police, practically, Amy, up to the Pentagon and the National Security Agency. We’re becoming a police state here.

AMY GOODMAN: Colonel Michael Boatner, a tall order here, could you respond?

COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: Well, that’s incorrect. We did not participate in any intelligence collection. We were up there in support of the US Secret Service. We provided some explosive ordnance disposal support of the event. But I’d like to go back and say that, again, in terms of—

AMY GOODMAN: Could you explain what their—explain again what was their role there?

COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: They were just doing routine screens and scans of the area in advance of this kind of a vulnerable event. It’s pretty standard support to a national special security event.

AMY GOODMAN: And are you saying there was absolutely no intelligence sharing?

COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: That’s correct. That is correct. [inaudible] we’re very constrained—

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: But even that, Amy, now the Pentagon is doing sweeps of areas before, you know, a political convention? That used to be law enforcement’s job. That used to be domestic civil law enforcement job. It’s now being taken over by the Pentagon. That should concern us.

AMY GOODMAN: Why is that, Colonel Michael Boatner? Why is the Pentagon doing it, not local law enforcement?

COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: That’s because of the scale and the availability of support. DoD is the only force that has the kind of capability. I mean, we’re talking about dozens and dozens of dog detection teams. And so, for anything on this large a scale, the Secret Service comes to DoD with a standard Economy Act request for assistance.

AMY GOODMAN: Boatner, in the Republican Convention, these troops, just back from Fallujah—what about issues of, for example, PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder?

COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: Well, my sense is that that’s something that the services handled very well. There’s a long track record of great support in the homeland. If those soldiers were National Guard soldiers, I have no visibility of that. But for the active-duty forces, citizens can be confident that if they’re employed in the homeland, that they’ll be reliable, accountable, and take care of their families and fellow citizens in good form.

AMY GOODMAN: Last word, Matthew Rothschild? Ten seconds.

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: Well, this granting of the Pentagon a special unit to be involved in US patrol is something that should alarm all of us. And it’s very important to the Army. General Casey, Army chief of staff—

AMY GOODMAN: Five seconds.

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: —was a drill exercise for this group just last week, or just three weeks ago. It was called—

AMY GOODMAN: We leave it there. We’ve got to leave it there. Thank you to Matthew Rothschild and Colonel Michael Boatner.

6 Brainwashing Techniques They're Using On You Right Now | Cracked.com

After my passion branding trip with Charlie and Ellie, I united with beautiful people and received many compliments from sharing my speech in front of the room with them. It felt good at the moment, and I felt that I was heading into the right direction, but still a bit fuzzy.

So, I have contemplated every moment I could, put my mind in the quite space, so hoped that I could hear more from my intuition about what direction to talk.

Since I haven’t been connected to any signs yet, the negative energy then infused its strength and increasing the frustration, and I heard my inner voice said “What the hectic is going on?” Everything around me was easily stirring my energy. My body felt exhausted from the trip, but I was practicing hard on my mind and plus had to do some other important chores. Finally around 5:30pm, I told myself that this wasn’t working, and I pushed myself too far.” Then, I decided to pack my swimming gear and went for swimming. While I was driving, I heard myself said that this action might not be a good act to take upon, I probably ended up pass out. Well, it actually was taking a different turn, the endorphins was helping me big time. I was out from YMCA’s building with a refresh, uplifting, and feeling like I could do everything and nothing can stop me (again).

This action has been one of my cheerful habits that uplifting my energy when nothing else can, using my physical motion to create the endorphins hormone to feed my energy. I have been persistence with this action and 99% it safes me.

Well, now I am connect back with my beauty within, so ok I don’t intone with my intuition yet, but the world isn’t end yet and I have tomorrow to do it, and by saying that I humbly respect the shift of the universe.

Keep A Breast is a non-profit organization that makes casts of women's chests, has them painted by artists all over the world and then they're auctioned off or donated to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness. If you follow along with us, here on the VAA site, you've probably heard me mention them before. I was fortunate enough to work with them during their stop in Philadelphia for the Zumiez Couch Tour where I painted a skateboard for them. I could tell you about how great they are but I think instead, you should watch this video and CLICK HERE to learn more about Keep A Breast.

Things still look a tad garish. Perhaps it could do with a cute header image. Other than that, the retina-scorching hues you see on the blog don't mean your display has gone kaput overnight. To the contrary.

Julius Caesar once famously said Veni. Vidi. Vici., which meant "I Came. I Saw. I Conquered."

Oh...so it works! To know more about this attribute, head over to this URI at the W3C.

Did you notice that I've also pitched in a acronym tag as well? No? Hover your mouse over the W3C in the line above. That's the usage of the acronym tag whereas the URI in the same sentence is within the abbr tag. No marked difference there!

In case you're curious, here's the raw html I used:

[sourcecode language='html']
Veni. Vidi. Vici.
URI
W3C
[/sourcecode]

[EDIT] Curious! Firefox 3 does show the dotted-underlining for the URI and W3C words but Safari and IE7 do not! Something to do with compliance, maybe?

The month October touches on two very important issues. October is Domestic Violence Awareness and also National Breast Cancer Awareness. Domestic Violence is represented by the purple ribbon and Breast Cancer is represented by the pink ribbon. Are you or someone you loved affected by either?

Breast Cancer

2.3million women in the United States are living with a breast cancer diagnosis. It’s a scary thing. Anyone regardless of age or race can be affected. It’s important to have regular annual checkouts and more if you have a relative or family member who’s been affected by breast Cancer. Early detective is so important. Reach out to your family and friends for support and

get the facts. Surround yourself by people who love you and reach out to cancer survivors.  

RESOURCES:
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
www.nbcam.org

American Cancer Society
Resource Link:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_6x_National_Breast_Cancer_Awareness_Month.asp 

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence shouldn’t happen to anyone. Don’t settle and never feel you are not worthy of a violence-free environment. Domestic violence goes undetected behind closed doors way too often. Usually the woman or man is embarrassed that it is taken place, they are scared, and they believe or at least hope everything will get better. 

“Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.”

“Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives.”

Both statistics were taken from http://endabuse.org/resources/facts/

Know that you have options and there are support groups. Don’t allow yourself and your children to continue to live in an unsafe environment. You are worthy of a better life – we all are.

RESOURCES:

Domestic Violence

http://www.domesticviolence.org/

The National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-7233 (Call within any 50 states. Help is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year)
http://www.ndvh.org/

Article written by
Tinisha Nicole Johnson
http://www.tinishanicolejohnson.com

The month October touches on two very important issues. October is Domestic Violence Awareness and also National Breast Cancer Awareness. Domestic Violence is represented by the purple ribbon and Breast Cancer is represented by the pink ribbon. Are you or someone you loved affected by either?

Breast Cancer

2.3 million women in the United States are living with a breast cancer diagnosis. It’s a scary thing. Anyone regardless of age or race can be affected. It’s important to have regular annual checkouts and more if you have a relative or family member who’s been affected by breast Cancer. Early detective is so important.

Reach out to your family and friends for support and get the facts. Surround yourself by people who love you and reach out to cancer survivors.  

RESOURCES:
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
www.nbcam.org

American Cancer Society
Resource Link:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_6x_National_Breast_Cancer_Awareness_Month.asp 

----------------------- 

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence shouldn’t happen to anyone. Don’t settle and never feel you are not worthy of a violence-free environment. Domestic violence goes undetected behind closed doors way too often. Usually the woman or man is embarrassed that it is taken place, they are scared, and they believe or at least hope everything will get better. 

“Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.”

“Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives.”

Both statistics were taken from http://endabuse.org/resources/facts/

Know that you have options and there are support groups. Don’t allow yourself and your children to continue to live in an unsafe environment. You are worthy of a better life – we all are.

RESOURCES:

Domestic Violence

http://www.domesticviolence.org/

The National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-7233 (Call within any 50 states. Help is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year)
http://www.ndvh.org/

Article written by Author, Writer and Poet.
Tinisha Nicole Johnson
Visit the author at her site to learn more:
www.TinishaNicoleJohnson.com

What does a robot possess? Is it the same material that a human can hack with and be hacked with? Do robots have a soul, demons, viruses, desire, self-awareness, a free will, etc.?

Click on the link below to read an essay about the relationship between humans and machines that were created with a free will.

http://www.positiveliberty.com/2004/10/evil-robots.html

--

Robots can evolve to communicate with each other, to help, and even to deceive each other, according to Dario Floreano of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Floreano and his colleagues outfitted robots with light sensors, rings of blue light, and wheels and placed them in habitats furnished with glowing “food sources” and patches of “poison” that recharged or drained their batteries. Their neural circuitry was programmed with just 30 “genes,” elements of software code that determined how much they sensed light and how they responded when they did. The robots were initially programmed both to light up randomly and to move randomly when they sensed light.

To create the next generation of robots, Floreano recombined the genes of those that proved fittest—those that had managed to get the biggest charge out of the food source.

The resulting code (with a little mutation added in the form of a random change) was downloaded into the robots to make what were, in essence, offspring. Then they were released into their artificial habitat. “We set up a situation common in nature—foraging with uncertainty,” Floreano says. “You have to find food, but you don’t know what food is; if you eat poison, you die.” Four different types of colonies of robots were allowed to eat, reproduce, and expire.

By the 50th generation, the robots had learned to communicate—lighting up, in three out of four colonies, to alert the others when they’d found food or poison. The fourth colony sometimes evolved “cheater” robots instead, which would light up to tell the others that the poison was food, while they themselves rolled over to the food source and chowed down without emitting so much as a blink.

Some robots, though, were veritable heroes. They signaled danger and died to save other robots. “Sometimes,” Floreano says, “you see that in nature—an animal that emits a cry when it sees a predator; it gets eaten, and the others get away—but I never expected to see this in robots.”

http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jan/robots-evolve-and-learn-how-to-lie

--

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/01/will-robots-evo.html

Don’t Drink Drive!

I was walking around in a Target store, when I saw a Cashier hand this little boy some money back.

The boy couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years old.

The Cashier said, ‘I’m sorry, but you don’t have enough money to buy this doll.’

Then the little boy turned to the old woman next to him: ”Granny, are you sure I don’t have enough money?”

The old lady replied: ”You know that you don’t have enough money to buy this doll, my dear.”

Then she asked him to stay there for just 5 minutes while she went to look a round. She left quickly.

The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.

Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to give this doll to.

‘It’s the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for Christmas

She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her.’

I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all, and not to worry.

But he replied to me sadly. ‘No, Santa Claus can’t bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.’

His eyes were so sad while saying this. ‘My Sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister.”

My heart nearly stopped.

The little boy looked up at me and said: ‘I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the mall.’

Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He then told me ‘I want mommy to take my picture with her so she won’t forget me.’

‘I love my mommy and I wish she doesn’t have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister.’

Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly.

I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. ‘Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll?”

‘OK’ he said, ‘I hope I do have enough.’ I added some of my money to his with out him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money.

The little boy said: ‘Thank you God for giving me enough money!’

Then he looked at me and added, ‘I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give It to my sister. He heard me!”

‘I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn’t dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose.”

‘My mommy loves white roses.’

A few minutes later, the old lady returned and I left with my basket.

I finished my shopping in a totally different state from when I started.

I couldn’t get the little boy out of my mind.

Then I remembered a local news paper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a truck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl.

The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able to recover from the coma.

Was this the family of the little boy?

Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the news paper that the young woman had passed away.

And in a fraction of a second, a drunk driver had taken all this away from him.

Will you think again before you drink drive??????

Now you have 2 choices:

1) Forward this. only for ones who have a heart

2) Ignore it as if it never touched your heart

Help stamp out drink driving, please pass on.

Everyone at the event scored a white ONE wrist band and we had on display Bono's new book On The Move that is filled with a speech he gave at the National Pray Breakfast in DC and photos from his first trip to Ethiopia.  About 30 people came out that night, but here is the remaining members at the end of the movie.  Together as ONE we are going to some great things this semester.  Join us!

I've been reading The Places that Scare you; A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times, by Pema Chodron.  She reminds us that Buddha taught three principal characteristics of human existence: impermanence, egolessness, and suffering or dissatisfaction.  Recognizing that these are inescapable parts of life will help us relax with things as they are. 

1. Life, people and situations are unpredictable,
2. life does have it's ups and downs, and
3. everybody knows the pain of getting what they don't want. 
It's just life.  We increase our suffering when we try to make the impermanent, permanent. 

Let's don't bow to the pressures of the day that shout at us to be afraid of change.  Change is life. 
The question is how do we take that change, learn from it and feel stronger because of it?  
How can we become creative in the midst of that change? 
How can we create something positive from the scary details of the day?  

I will try accepting things I cannot change and focus on the things that I can do to make my world a more positive place to be.  That's really all I can do.  

I love this quote.  "Everyone is an explorer.  How could you possibly live your life looking at a door and not open it?" --Robert D Ballard   So go ahead, feel the fear and do it anyway;  accept what is, take a chance, and make a change.           

The storm clouds showed their first dark undersides in my brain by late morning. At first they were hardly noticeable. Just a faraway rumble now and then, and an occasional blotting out of the sun. I visited my parents for lunch, together with my brother and his family. But the visit turned out to be not-at-all-rosy ... and so the storm clouds grew.

By this afternoon it was dark and windy in my mind, dust and leaves and birds blowing past, a full-blown attack of restlessness, that undefinable awareness that something is so not right. The sort of feeling that makes me reach for chocolate.

But as we know, chocolate (or anything else we put in our mouths) can't feed an emotional-spiritual hole. Or weather storms. It didn't stop me from trying, though.

By early evening I knew that there were too many bad and sad memories whirling in my mind. They were building on each other, creating a vortex so strong that the good thoughts found it impossible to keep their diaphanous wings stretched open, flying against the tempest. They were simply sucked into the vortex, broken, white fragments of wing visible for only a moment before disappearing into the roar.

Sometimes I think ~ dare I say it? ~ that taking leave of someone through disillusionment is so much harder than the alternative of taking leave through death.

Death cuts clean and deep. Disillusionment leaves a poisoned wound.

Or so my storm-riddled mind pleads. Yet both leave the bewildered survivors with 'why?'s and 'what if?'s... Both close doors and burn bridges. Both are so painful that your breath gets blown away.

There's virtually no difference between them, after all.

And really it doesn't matter. What matters is how we deal with the bereavement left by either of the two D-words.

You can't wish a storm away. You can only close the shutters of your house, secure the door, place a bucket under that leak you had still meant to fix in sunnier seasons, and keep on living till it is over.

I keep one shutter open to watch the force of the storm, though, knowing I am safe within the embrace of my nest. Because once you allow them to simply be, and fulfil their function in your life, you learn that storms have a fierce beauty and purpose all of their own.

Strange ... just realizing this already calms the howling of the wind in my mind.

I can almost hear my heartbeat again.

Love,

Pippa

"Ask the LORD for rain in the spring, and he will give it. It is the LORD who makes storm clouds that drop showers of rain so that every field becomes a lush pasture." ~ Zechariah 10:1

the Army of Women

Go beyond a cure and joine the Army of Women.

It is easy to join.  Just sign up.  For women of all ages, ethinic backgrounds and more.  For Survivors and those who have never had breast cancer.  They want us all.  One million women.

What does it mean to be sustainable? It simply means lasting into the future. It means that everyone else could do it indefinitely into the future.

Yesterday I volunteered to man the Green Everett table at the 3rd Annual Renewable Living Fair & Green Building Home Tour event held at the Snohomish County PUD building in Everett.

It was a nice event with over 56 exhibitors. From biking to compost tea, green building and solar heating, it was all there. It was also well attended with hundreds of people milling around at all time and a host of great speakers on topics from "Solar Incentives" (Washington's Net Metering Law allows net metering for customers with solar, wind, hydro, biogas from animal waste, or combined heat and power technologies) to worm composting.

There are a variety of ways to learn more about sustainability and interact with others who are engaged in sustainable practices here in Everett. I have created a separate "Sustainability Page" on this blog with resources.

It should be clear that we are in a time and a place where awareness and conscious action with regard to personal choices and their impacts on ourselves, others and the planet are important. Your health is connected to my health and our health is connected to everyone else's and the planet's health (at least with regard to it's ability to support human life - it can get by fine without us:-). Here's to you health!!

In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what's wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it's putting the entire planet at risk.

When: Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Time: 7:00 pm—9:00 pm

Where: Sobeys Community Room,

9 Kinlock Road, Stratford, PE

Who: David Mikkelsen, Autism Treatment Services of Canada

Autism treatment services of Canada is a national affiliation of organizations that provide, or are actively planning to provide, treatment, educational, management and consultative services to people with autism and related disorder across Canada.

David Mikkelsen is the Executive Director of Autism Treatment Services of Canada and will be visiting Prince Edward Island to listen to Island families and share information about the organization. More information about ATSC available at www.autism.ca.

This discussion on local needs and supports will be of interest to all families of preschool and school-age with children affected by autism.

For more information or to RSVP, please contact April Ennis at aprilennis@gmail.com or (902) 620-1377. www.aprilennis.com

~ October is Autism Awareness Month ~

Now, regardless of your take on Biblical interpretation, when the main character, Jesus, does anything, generosity is an integral part of it. There is always more than the original gift (which can certainly be an odd choice): mud leads to restored sight; shame leads to freedom; a happy meal feeds thousands more than it should. The point is not the supernatural healing or multiplying - the point is the modeling of generosity that Jesus exemplifies.

Jesus is speaking volumes with his actions. We can discount mud and fish as cheap, but the essence is not the original supposed value of the items, it is what happens when ordinary items become part of a pattern of giving. When giving becomes a part of your life, your life will change.

I've made a point to not become political in my posts - there are much better analysts to discuss such things, but through this election season we have seen something that has largely gone unnoticed. Barack Obama, from the onset, decided to enlist the "average Joe" to contribute five or ten dollars at a time to the campaign. In those small amounts people began to feel that they were a part of something. I don't have numbers, but I would be willing to guess that if you added up the total contribution of an average Obama supporter, you would find a much larger amount than if they had given just one time. Here is what I think is interesting. Throughout the campaign season a habit of giving has been engendered by the Obama campaign. This is not a small thing.

Think about this - the truth is that the Bible promotes the idea of giving (whether rich or poor), and also promotes the concept of blessing associated with giving. The election will come and go, and someone will be the next President, but the combined effect of hundreds of thousands of people giving (some out of their overflow and some out of their poverty) will be, if we believe the Bible, historical in terms of economic effect.

The practices of a generous heart are not a "Christian only" or "Jewish only" concept. The idea of generosity is waiting for anyone who will embrace the giving of themselves and their "stuff" for someone else. The result of such giving is simply amazing!