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New York Times	Al Jazeera

I'm waiting for you. You will turn my life upside down, I want that!

It's over, except for a miracle.

I need one. But don't deserve one.

Births are for the most part wonderful.

And I'm well pleased to see some continuity here, the new curevents.org!

GIVEN UP

18 Ways to Power Search Google - Duncan Riley

Nearly everyone uses Google, but most people search Google by entering the term or word they are looking for without ever using any of Google’s built in features. Google is great as it is, but as the web gets bigger even Google, once famed for its great results, is delivering poorer results for basic search terms.

Google power users know the tricks, and they aren’t hard to pick up at all. Using Google’s built in features helps you find what you’re looking for faster, and that’s always a good thing. Here’s 18 ways to power search Google that you can use today to improve your Google experience.

# Not: adding a minus (-) allows you to narrow your search, for example if you wanted to search for New York but not City you’d enter New York -City
# Either/or. Google looks for the combination of terms you type in, but you can tell it to look for multiple words, for example Olympic or Gold. The short cut is | so Olympic | Gold works as well
# Specific Document Types use the modifier “filetype:” if you’re looking for documents or pictures, for example blogging filetype:pdf delivers pdf documents that include the word blogging.
# Quotation marks: I use this trick regularly. If you’re looking for the exact phrase, not the words entered, do your search like this “I did but see her passing by”
# Wildcard: old DOS users will remember doing directory searches using an asterisk (*) as a wildcard, and Google supports wildcard entries as well. Example: blogging *.com.au
# Definitions: stuck on a word you don’t understand? in Google, it’s as simple as define:word to deliver you a list of definitions
# Similar terms: ~ in front of a word tells Google to look for similar terms to that word, for example ~blog web 2.0
# Site Specific Search: another shortcut I use regularly. To search within a specific site, start the query with site:name.com term. Other rules can be used in the search.
# Calculator: who would have thought you could use Google as a calculator. Google supports /*-+ for a result.
# Phone Listing: Want to know who your missed call was from? type phonebook:555-555-5555 for the answer. Works primarily in the United States.
# Links: want to know who is linking to your blog, or even specific post? enter link:url.com into Google for the answer.
# Format specific search: sometimes finding what you want in Google can be difficult, but Google offers a range of format specific search sites. Google News, Blog Search, even Video are a few Google sites you can use to find what you’re looking for.
# Area Code Lookup: type in the US area code into Google to find out where the area code is.
# Movies: Get the latest movie times at your local cinema by typing movie:movie name zip.
# Stock Price: enter a valid stock symbol for the latest reported stock price, for example YHOO.
# Music: want the details of a song? use music:song name for Music specific search on Google
# Metric conversion: convert imperial measurements to metric and back again quickly via the Google search box. For example: 100 lbs in kg
# Term location: use inurl:, intitle:, intext:, or inanchor: to tell Google where it should look for the term your looking for.
# Cache: Google keeps a comprehensive cache database of many websites, and you can search this database by starting your search with cached:

Many of these features and more, including the ability to define the date rage for content, can be access via the advanced search link next to the Google search button.

Vale, Daniel, one of Canberra's special people.

A man with a beautiful voice who enunciated so well that one could imagine an angel was talking to you.

An angel with a dark side, an angel often bashed and abused.

An angel fighting demons within and self medicating so often.

'twas a privilege to care in small ways for Daniel.

Be at peace, and may the angels lead you into paradise.

Ronald Rolheiser writes again...

Some Guidelines for Service

To try to serve others is to be caught up in many tensions, some that beset from without and others that beset from within. How can we remain energized, effective, and true? Here are some guidelines for the long haul:

Be beyond ideology, be both post-liberal and post-conservative

Have an unlisted ideological number! Refuse to be pre-defined by any ideology of the left or the right. Like Jesus, transcend boundaries, constantly surprise, refuse to be classified. Don’t be liberal and don’t be conservative, be a woman or man of faith and compassion and let that take you down whatever roads it takes you, liberal or conservative.

Strive to incarnate both the kenotic and the triumphant Christ.

Don’t be afraid to be nothing and don’t be afraid to be everything! Christ emptied himself and refused to claim any status or to stand out in terms of public titles, distinctive dress, or in any triumphant display of power. But he is too the Christ who rose triumphant from the tomb and who needs to be proclaimed publicly, with color, pride, and display. He is both the Christ of silent, anonymous witness and the Christ of chanting, public processions. Honor both.

Be for the marginalized, without being marginalized yourself.

Walk a fine tightrope! Take your stand with the marginalized, even as you are known for your sanity and capacity to relate warmly and deeply to every kind of person and group. Be known for your radical stance for the poor even as you are recognized for the wide scope of your embrace.

Lead without being elitist.

Be led by the artist, but listen to the street! Be a leader, an aesthete, an artist, a creative person trying to lead others forward, even as you shun elitism of every sort and ensure that every kind of person is comfortable around you. Be a leader, but with empathy, without disdaining others’ culture, sentiment, or piety.

Be iconoclastic and pious at the same time.

Don’t be afraid to smash idols and don’t be afraid to bow in reverence! The problem is that the pious aren’t liberal and the liberals aren’t pious. Be both, one doesn’t work without the other. Great hearts hold near contradictory principles, lesser ones do not. Help smash the false gods that need to be smashed, even as you are unafraid to kneel often in reverence.

Be equally committed to social justice and to intimacy with Jesus.

Learn to be comfortable leading both a peace march and devotional prayer! Do not choose between justice and Jesus, between committing yourselves to the poor and fostering private intimacy with Jesus. Don’t choose between interiority and action. Dorothy Day didn’t. There’s a lesson there.

Be thoroughly in the world, even as you are rooted elsewhere.

Live in a tortured complexity! Love the world, love its pagan beauty, let it take your breath away, even as you root your heart in something deeper so that the realities of faith also take your breath away. Carry the tension between having a hopeless love for the world and a hopeless love for things beyond it. Love the world as you would a lover with some quirks of character and weaknesses that cause you pain. Pray a lot. Cry occasionally. Sneak off to a church as needed and walk in the sun regularly. The church has secrets worth knowing, and the world is also beautiful.

Ponder, in the biblical sense, by carrying the tension inside the community.

Eat the tension around you! Mary pondered, not by thinking deep intellectual thoughts but by holding, carrying, and transforming tension so as not to give it back in kind. Like Jesus, she helped take sin and tension away by absorbing it, like a water-filter that keeps the impurities, toxins, and dirt inside of itself and gives back only pure water. Be a tension-absorber inside all the communities wherein you live. Absorb the bitterness, the anger, the hardness, the group hysteria, the lack of reconciliation, as a water-filter might. Then drink wine with a friend to rid yourself of your own toxins.

Help incarnate a deeper maturity.

Go into dark places, but don’t sin! Stand up for the God-given freedom we enjoy, even as you model and show others how that freedom can be carried in a way that never abuses it. Like Jesus, who went into the singles-bars of his time (except he didn’t sin), walk in great freedom, go into dark places, but go there not to assert human autonomy but to take God’s light there.

Make love to the song!

Forget about yourself and how others react to you! A bad singer on stage makes love to himself; a more mature singer makes love to his audience; a really mature singer makes love to the song. Service is the same. Forget about yourself, your image, your need to prove yourself, and eventually forget about your audience too so that you and your song are not about yourself or about your people, but about God.

What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations? Building something that will endure? The world needs this renewal. The Church also needs renewal. She needs your faith, your idealism and your generosity so that she can always be young in the spirit.

Pope Benedict, Sydney, Australia, 2008.

'Parity' with the Euro, best price around Canberra is about $1.51 Australian/litre.

For USA readers approximates to about $9.00/gallon, we can all fume together!~

Mirrorball Jesus - photo Nick Moir

THE pilgrims queueing up to have their photograph taken have named him Mirrorball Jesus, Disco Jesus or The People's Jesus. Sarah Robinson, the Sydney artist who spent seven weeks making him, prefers to call him Reflection. But everyone agrees he is one of World Youth Day's biggest celebrities. The 1.6-metre sculpture, whose surface is covered in a mosaic of mirror fragments, has become a magnet for pilgrims since it was installed near the Hyde Park fountain on Tuesday morning. They kiss him, pray to him, light candles at his feet and leave gifts, including a bunch of roses. "It's amazing to watch," says Robinson, a high school teacher who applied the mirrors by hand in her Coogee flat. "I'm finding people are having really intimate, private experiences in a very public space. They drop to their knees and pray in front of him and make the sign of the cross."

Back in 2005 I spent some time researching Scott Parkin, and used his story as part of a theology assignment, now ASIO is squirming.

Pope Benedict pauses in his homily:

"Here I would like to pause to acknowledge the shame which we have all felt as a result of the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy and religious in this country..Indeed I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure them that, as their pastor, I too share in their suffering.

"These misdeeds, which constitute so grave a betrayal of trust, deserve unequivocal condemnation. They have caused great pain, they have damaged the church's witness.

"Victims should receive compassion and care, and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice

"It is an urgent priority to promote a safer and more wholesome environment, especially for young people. In these days marked by the celebration of World Youth Day, we are reminded of how precious a treasure has been entrusted to us in our young people, and how great a part of the church's mission in this country has been dedicated to their education and care.

"As the church in Australia continues, in the spirit of the gospel, to address effectively this serious pastoral challenge, I join you in praying that this time of purification will bring about healing, reconciliation and ever-greater fidelity to the moral demands of the gospel.

It won't be enough for some, but Pope Benedict has done good. God bless him, and all victims.

Let there be rock: Benedict - Tracey writes...

SOME people have described World Youth Day events as Woodstock for Catholics, and to some degree this is true. There is usually a lot of sleeping on the ground and getting rained on while listening to music, making friends and even falling in love.

What will Pope Benedict XVI, successor of St Peter, the "vicar of Christ" and the head of the Vatican state, make of this? It is well known that when it comes to liturgy, he has no time for happy-clappy masses. He teaches that dumbing down the liturgy so that people can better relate to it is a form of apostasy, analogous to the Hebrews' worship of the golden calf.

For Pope Benedict, the liturgy is about the worship of God, not self-worship or the worship of the parish or school community. While he has nothing against building up the emotional bonds between members of a parish, he recommends that this be done at barbecues, picnics or nights at the pub, not in the middle of mass. In his pre-papal works, Benedict wrote that rock music had no place in a liturgical context, that rock concerts were pseudo-liturgies that lifted people out of themselves but gave them a counterfeit mystical experience that didn't link them to God.

In scholarly essays he compares contemporary rock music to the music of the Dionysiac cults in ancient Greece, as does the English philosopher Roger Scruton, who is not a Catholic, but shares the Pope's concerns about this musical form. Scruton argues that rock music arrests people in a state of adolescent psychological immaturity.

Some Christians, particularly evangelical Protestants, take the view that there is nothing wrong with rock music per se, just that the lyrics can be a bit crude. This has given rise to Christian rock bands that substitute biblical lyrics for explicit sexual references. Benedict and Scruton argue that there is something wrong with the form of the music itself, quite apart from the lyrics.

Critics of Benedict say he is a middle-class Bavarian snob who plays the piano, was raised on a diet of Beethoven and Mozart and needs to broaden his cultural horizons. Whatever one makes of the criticism, it is true that Benedict has had a very strong classical education with an emphasis on languages, history, literature and music and has been immersed in the world of European high culture and the great European universities.

In our postmodern times, members of generation Y tend to be open to an expansion of their own cultural horizons and find Catholic high culture fascinating. They are like children in an attic, rummaging through old boxes and finding treasures. Benedict is like a venerable grandfather who recounts the milestones in the family history and talks about things other people are too scared to mention.

In his homilies he presents youth with the historical and cultural capital they need to make sense of their place in history, including their place in the history of the church. He helps to meet their need to establish their own identity. It's impossible for them to do this if they live in a twilight zone cut free from historical moorings.

However, if Benedict is right that rock festivals are a symptom of a universal human need for an experience of self-transcendence, then the Catholic church needs to rediscover its own ways of meeting this need. Benedict's prescription is a combination of rigorous catechesis, which presents the Christian vision in its synthetic totality, with elevated liturgy, and of course, plenty of opportunities to meet other young Catholics and realise that one isn't the last surviving practising member of the church on the planet.

World Youth Day engenders a sense of belonging to something greater than oneself, of being a member of a vast universal family that transcends all national boundaries. The spiritual highs come not from drugs but from meeting people who are brothers and sisters in Christ from all over the world. Email addresses are exchanged, along with pilgrim memorabilia.

There is Christ's saying that unless we become like little children we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. In other words, you don't get in if you are sitting around like Eeyore on a bad day, bored with life and feeling sorry for yourself. While rock music might be off the agenda, at least at the official events with Benedict, there is nonetheless some common ground to be found with the spiritually lost generation of Woodstock.

While Benedict would not agree that one can find the answers blowing in the wind, he would probably empathise with the lyrics of Bob Dylan's Forever Young: May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true, may you always know the truth, and see the light surrounding you, may you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong, and may you stay forever young.

Perhaps one of the unpredictable consequences of WYD/SYD is that for a week at least we might all remember how it felt to be young and idealistic, and we might put aside our own personal psychological baggage and allow ourselves to be awed by the presence of someone who, (even if we don't think he is the successor of St Peter, or the vicar of Christ) is a person of great wisdom and warmth that transcends denominational boundaries.

Tracey Rowland is dean of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne and the author of Ratzinger's Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI.

background briefing on Tracey

yEs I aGrEe:

Cardinal Pell said Australia faced two challenges.

"One is the Australian temptation to believe that you can have a good, happy life without God," he said.

"And the second challenge revolves around the concept of sexuality, marriage and family."

To keep on trying, to make the effort, to keep seeking God is not easy.
To forget to see the good and focus only on the dark side, is a cop out.

So many cop out these days.

'When truth goes forward it is often fragile and alone; falsehood on the other hand can have many helpers .' "


Frere Bartholome de las Casas

A is for anniversary, B is for blessing.

Some things are counted in days, others in months. I celebrate with a young couple whose child with neo-natal problems reaches 4 months, and also sit with a mother whose baby died at four months. I counted months, but now count the years in my own pain.

The Roman Catholic church currently begins the Jubilee year celebrating the birth of Paul the apostle two thousand years ago. Paul who counted nothing as worthwhile except knowing Jesus Christ. Paul who experienced a conversion so deep that he endured floggings, beatings, shipwrecks, imprisonment to continue preaching the good news that Jesus Christ is the answer.

The answer to our deepest longings, angst and experiental woes.
Jesus Christ the only person who can fill the earthen vessels that we are. Jesus Christ the real treasure. Not a treasure that makes us feel good for a day, a season for a number of years, but for eternity.

Paul ran the good race, and ran until he was crucified. No stranger to his own failings he knew that Jesus was the one who made him wholly whole and well. Well for eternal life. A promise he preached around the ancient Mediterranean world.

Paul knew that nothing can separate us from the love of God, made visible and Gods' proof of resurrection in Christ Jesus. The next twelve months is a time to re-engage and deepen in the understanding of God's love for each of us.

It was Paul who prayed that:
May God give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparable great power for us who believe.

and

May your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you will be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.

It's never to late to meet Jesus again. To accept him as Lord and Saviour, to realise that the things of earth grow dim compared to the glory that Jesus offers.

Favourite Quotes:
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection of the dead

With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity

and my penultimate fav:
What can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

and thus to my #1 fav:
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

And so gentle reader I pray with Paul that The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.

hattip chickadee
vale George "I'm a Modern Man"
(Audio at Carlin George Carlin, November 5th, 2005
Beacon Theater, NYC

I'm a modern man.
I'm a modern man.
I'm a modern man.
I'm a modern man.

I'm a modern man,
A man for the millennium,
Digital and smoke free.

A diversified multicultural postmodern deconstructionist,
Politically anatomically and ecologically incorrect.

I've been uplinked and downloaded.
I've been inputted and outsourced.
I know the upside of downsizing.
I know the downside of upgrading.

I'm a high tech lowlife.
A cutting edge state-of-the-art bicoastal multitasker,
And I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond.

I'm new wave but I'm old school,
And my inner child is outward bound.

I'm a hot wired heat seeking warm hearted cool customer,
Voice activated and biodegradable.

I interface from a database,
And my database is in cyberspace,
So I'm interactive,
I'm hyperactive,
And from time-to-time,
I'm radioactive.

Behind the eight ball,
Ahead of the curve,
Riding the wave,
Dodging a bullet,
Pushing the envelope.

I'm on point,
On task,
On message,
And off drugs.
I got no need for coke and speed,
I got no urge to binge and purge.

I'm in the moment,
On the edge,
Over the top,
But under the radar.

A high concept,
Low profile,
Medium range ballistic missionary.
A street-wise smart bomb.
A top gun bottom feeder.

I wear power ties,
I tell power lies,
I take power naps,
I run victory laps.

I'm a totally ongoing bigfoot slam dunk rainmaker with a proactive outreach.
A raging workaholic.
A working ragaholic.
Out of rehab,
And in denial.

I got a personal trainer,
A personal shopper,
A personal assistant,
And a personal agenda.

You can't shut me up,
You can't dumb me down.
'Cause I'm tireless,
And I'm wireless.
I'm an alpha male on beta blockers.

I'm a non-believer and an over-achiever.
Laid back but fashion forward.

Up front,
Down home,
Low rent,
High maintenance.

Super size,
Long lasting,
High definition,
Fast acting,
Oven ready,
And built to last.

I'm a hands on,
Foot loose,
Knee jerk,
Head case.

Prematurely post traumatic,
And I have a love child who sends me hate mail.

But I'm feeling,
I'm caring,
I'm healing,
I'm sharing.
A supportive bonding nurturing primary care giver.

My output is down,
But my income is up.
I take a short position on the long bond,
And my revenue stream has its own cash flow.

I read junk mail,
I eat junk food,
I buy junk bonds,
I watch trash sports.

I'm gender specific,
Capital intensive,
User friendly,
And lactose intolerant.

I like rough sex.
I like rough sex.
I like tough love.
I use the f word in my email,
And the software on my hard drive is hard core, no soft porn.

I bought a microwave at a mini mall.
I bought a mini van in a mega store.
I eat fast food in the slow lane.

I'm toll free,
Bite sized,
Ready to wear,
And I come in all sizes.

A fully equipped,
Factory authorized,
Hospital tested,
Clinically proven,
Scientifically formulated medical miracle.

I've been pre-washed,
Pre-cooked,
Pre-heated,
Pre-screened,
Pre-approved,
Pre-packaged,
Post-dated,
Freeze-dried,
Double-wrapped,
Vacuum-packed,
And I have an unlimited broadband capacity.

I'm a rude dude,
But I'm the real deal.
Lean and mean.
Cocked, locked and ready to rock.
Rough tough and hard to bluff.

I take it slow.
I go with the flow.
I ride with the tide.
I got glide in my stride.

Drivin' and movin',
Sailin' and spinnin',
Jivin' and groovin',
Wailin' and winnin'.

I don't snooze,
So I don't lose.
I keep the pedal to the metal,
And the rubber on the road.

I party hearty,
And lunch time is crunch time.

I'm hanging in,
There ain't no doubt.
And I'm hanging tough,
Over and out.

hattip zuma

George Buttrick, a Biblical scholar, says of “offer the wicked man no resistance”: “What does such teaching mean? Our imagination recoils from it, and our everyday morality (our speedy recourse to law, for instance and our ultimate dependence on force) flatly contradicts it. Christ has in mind the injured man. Such a person’s concern for justice is never pure; it is subtly entangled with vindictiveness. Christ warns them against that revenge. Revenge is not sweet despite the proverb: it is poison, strife breeding strife in endless circle…Do our law courts and jails really satisfy the oppressed, or reclaim the oppressor? How often they confirm the oppressor in guilt, leave the injured unrequited, and thus hurt everyone! The wrongdoer must be brought to truer personhood, and that change is not wrought by retaliation. Above all Christ has God’s will in mind: He intends that the world shall be a home in which children dwell in mutual love. He is not pleading for any cowardly yielding. The children of the Kingdom must show goodwill, with no other strategy and no other ulterior motive.”

Christian reflections on the secret. I am well pleased!

gratuitous meme _{hattip tina} Yes, I am aware of all internet traditions.
update: from 9 hits on google, now over 1000.

I subscribe to a number of daily emails including Daily Meditation for Women and Todays Turning Point. Todays Turning Point is great:
No Excuses
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here I am! Send me."
Isaiah 6:8

An old Yiddish Proverb says, "If you don't want to do something, one excuse is as good as another." One school teacher received an apt example of that when a note arrived from the mother of an absent student. "Please excuse Jennifer for missing school," said the note. "We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday, we thought it was Sunday."
Another teacher was handed a note that read: "Please excuse Lisa for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot."
When it comes to working for Christ, no excuse will do. Don't say: I don't have time, I don't have what it takes, I'm not the right person, That's not my gift, I'll do it later, I'm too shy, I don't know how, I think someone else would be better. I'm not good enough. I'm not old enough.Jesus once told a parable about those who "with one accord began to make excuses" (Luke 14:18).
Instead, just prayerfully kneel before the Lord and say: Here am I! Send me.

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
Benjamin Franklin

Scientists tell us that the universe is billions of years "old" with billions of stars in billions of galaxies. Latest research reported from European researchers informs us that 'they have discovered a batch of three "super-Earths" orbiting a nearby star, and two other solar systems with small planets as well. They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common. "Does every single star harbour planets and, if yes, how many?" asked Michel Mayor of Switzerland's Geneva Observatory.'

From the magnitude of time and space I spiral into the human condition. There are only two real questions of magnitude: Is there a God? & Does God love us? There are only whispers of answers.

The human heart at its core is loving and caring. Seeking the good of others. A restless heart, only finding peace in God to paraphrase Augustine. Whispers found in all world religions and philosophies give one pause for thought, and an appreciation that the sunsets point towards a sunrise in the opposite direction.

I have delved deeply into marriage counselling sans partner the past years and discovered that the best counsellors have found that when they encourage people to peel back the layers of their lives, the innermost core is good and seeks the best for the other.

When I peel back the layers of the universe as is known I find a wonder and care that speaks to me of God and love.

Time is more than just linear. Life appears linear, but so much of my life has become loop-like, spiral like and circular that one cannot just claim randomness.
Things that meant a lot to me 30+ years ago have become available again, and I wonder at the meanings.

There are random occurrences of repetition and that which seemed gone and forgotten re-surfaces and sheds new light on the past.

Moments of grace and wonder abound. Plans collapse and other things, better things occur within the time frame of the previous, seemingly important or satisfying, plans.

Old habits rear their head again, and humble me. Within it all Mother Julian whispers :all will be well, all manner of thing will be well, and the universe resonates thus as well.

I am well pleased with life.

Change is good, gentle reader!
Even as I type it is a fact change is happening so fast that there is really no change. A second is a thousand years is a minute is a universe expanding, or was that just a side-swipe?

Telstra Tower aka Black Mountain Tower dominates the local landscape. Sunset above!

So I'm actually having a sunday morning sleep in for a change. And I'm thinking why is Ms 9 watching barack saying yes we can. Then I fully woke up and realised she was watching Bob de Bouwer. Heh, barry and bob both have a positive message!

"Do no harm" is the motto of many. I hope that I live up to such a motto, I know that I have to be so careful in how I participate in life. I am blessed with faith, and know that the Almighty has blessed me in so many ways. Ways that I do not fully understand at present. I know the human condition, and that so much is mystery, a painful mystery, a lonely mystery and yet there is a peace that surpasses understanding. Hurrah for life!

Michael Collins has An Exclusive Interview with Bush Political Prisoner Susan Lindauer.
background from 2004 here

Democracy is alive, just, whew...

Social Networking for WYD2008.

I just love the moments of serendipity and synchronicity in every day.
Personally reflecting on understanding and compassion during the morning, a lunch time customer tells me unsolicited that "forgiveness leads to understanding or is it understanding leads to forgiveness." Sounds like thich to me... :)

I have spent some time gazing at the latest infrared imagery of the galaxy, and contemplating that the latest data would indicate over 135 billion galaxys in the known universe.

Such ponderings, naturally make one feel more than small, and raise the eternal questions of who am I, why am I here, what's it all about...

Descarte solved it philosophically for a while: cogito ergo sum, but modernity probably says it better: I believe, therefore I am human. Belief in ones identity enables one to survive.

Too often ones identity is seen as black or white. But Ratzinger in Introduction to Christianity reflects that

The beautiful black and white into which one is accustomed to divide men changes into the grey of a universal twilight. It becomes clear that with men there is no such thing as black and white, and that in spite of all possible gradations, which do in fact span a wide range, nevertheless all men stand somewhere in the twilight.

To really live in the twilight is to fully appreciate our brutishness to others, and our loving to others, to really appreciate the brutality of others, and to accept the loving of others.

I find peace in knowing that I am loved by some who have seen my imperfections, impatience, insecurities, resentments and frustrations. When we know others accept us unconditionally ones restlessness is sated, and even more so when one comes to realise that God's love and mercy is even greater, beyond the universe.

Dendy does it again, earlier in the year the projection bulb kept blowing, now this time the projectionist puts some foreign flick on, ten minutes later Then She Found Me begins, but the projectionist has the wrong soundtrack playing... aaarrghhhh....



fortunately the trailer explains the movie fairly well.

the angst ridden colin single betrayed Dad works for me, and my long time love affair with bette continues... the woes of relationship are well explained but the last three minutes of the movie seemed to lack continuity... a deep and meaningful dialogue between Helen and Colin, then quick cut to Helens adoptive bros apartment, then a lingering interaction between Helen and her chinese child..

Could it be that Dendy skipped some scenes as the movie was over time and the long snake of young things waiting to watch sex in the city were getting impatient?

hattip Raja
As for lasting happiness, divorce happens in all kinds of unions – in marriages to the man of your dreams and to Mr. Okay. It can be as mysterious as love in some ways.
..... nothing is perfect: not men, not marriage and not life.

streams of consciousness from The Way of the DreamCatcher - my man Robert Lax, a m8 of my m8 Merton ;)

on the state of calmness
important for good living
when you are relaxed
you can listen more,
hear all the voices,
dream more too,
that way you make the right choices
and can form a better plan for living.

"What should I do?" asked the wind.
And the voice said, Blow, blow, blow."
"What should I do?" asked the river.
And the voice said, Flow, flow, flow.

What I really need, what is essential:
Simply the grace and peace of heaven, anything more just seems to get in the way.

Bob lived out his final days on Patmos - AWESOME!

light bearer lyrics

Try not to get worried, try not to turn on to
Problems that upset you, oh.
Don't you know
Everything's alright, yes, everything's fine.
And we want you to sleep well tonight.
Let the world turn without you tonight.
If we try, we'll get by, so forget all about us tonight

APOSTLES' WIVES

Everything's alright, yes, everything's alright, yes.

MARY MAGDALENE

Sleep and I shall soothe you, calm you, and anoint you.
Myrrh for your hot forehead, oh.
Then you'll feel
Everything's alright, yes, everything's fine.
And it's cool, and the ointment's sweet
For the fire in your head and feet.
Close your eyes, close your eyes
And relax, think of nothing tonight.

APOSTLES' WIVES

Everything's alright, yes, everything's alright, yes.

JUDAS

Woman your fine ointment, brand new and expensive
Should have been saved for the poor.
Why has it been wasted? We could have raised maybe
Three hundred silver pieces or more.
People who are hungry, people who are starving
They matter more than your feet and hair!

MARY MAGDALENE

Try not to get worried, try not to turn on to
Problems that upset you, oh.
Don't you know

APOSTLES' WIVES and MARY

Everything's alright, yes, everything's alright, yes.

JESUS

Surely you're not saying we have the resources
To save the poor from their lot?
There will be poor always, pathetically struggling.
Look at the good things you've got.
Think while you still have me!
Move while you still see me!
You'll be lost, and you'll be sorry when I'm gone.

MARY MAGDALENE

Sleep and I shall soothe you, calm you and anoint you.
Myrrh for your hot forehead/
Then you'll feel
Everything's alright, yes, everything's fine.
And it's cool and the ointment's sweet
For the fire in your head and feet.
Close your eyes, close your eyes, and relax
Think of nothing tonight.

APOSTLES' WIVES

Everything's alright, yes, everything's alright, yes.

MARY MAGDALENE

Close your eyes, close your eyes, and relax

This dialogue from 2006, still makes me smile, especially now that places are selling

. I
Queanbeyan tees around Canberra

tfisb said...
Ah Queanbeyan

tfisb said...
I remember it well. The oil stained concrete, the smell of poorly maintained gas lines, the roar of engines being tuned by a thousand motorheads on a Sunday afternoon. I bought my first Nirvana tape in a near-empty mall by the creek downtown. The one with the baby grasping for a dollar note hung on a fish hook.

mdw said...
Nevermind I do believe it is titled.
mdw

Show Your Spirit WYD 2008
World Youth Day in Canberra 2008

Stories of Inspiration, humour, life and cleanliness #6891

Voided Warranty--How Roomba Treated Me

Tweety summarises Ron Rolheiser well:

There is a popular theme within Christian apologetics that goes something like this: Christianity is the most hated of all religions and that is a certain proof of its truth. The logic works this way: If we are so unfairly hated, we must be doing something right. Truth and innocence draw hatred. Jesus was hated, and so are we!

We need to be careful with that because, among other things, today, thanks to certain radical fundamentalists claiming to be Muslim, Islam is probably the most hated of all religions, and hated not because of what is true and best inside of it. Not only innocence and truth draw hatred. Being hated is not always a good sign or an indication that you (alone among the unfaithful) are holding to the real truth. It may be that you have made a vow of alienation rather than of love. Both eventually make you hated.

Being hated is only a criterion of carrying the truth if you have made a vow of love. Jesus wasn’t trying to be divisive and unpopular, he was trying to speak his truth in ways that precisely didn’t alienate and didn’t provoke hatred. But that isn’t always possible. He was trying to love others, purely and in the truth, but it eventually made him an object of hatred.

That isn’t surprising.

There is a certain proclivity within human nature to hate innocence and goodness. We see this illustrated in many books and movies. Notice how in so many stories that depict the struggle between good and evil, invariably, the bad will eventually train its sights on and fixate on what is its opposite, innocence and goodness. In most every dramatic epic, eventually the guns of the bad guys will end up trained upon the most innocent and loving person in town. It’s the saint who invariably bears the brunt of wound and hurt inside of a community. It is the saint who eventually is the scapegoat. It happened to Jesus. It happens to all goodness; by its stripes we are healed.

Why?

Because such is the anatomy of hatred. Hatred is a perverse form of love, love’s grief. It’s what love becomes when, because of wound and circumstance, it cannot be warm and reciprocal. Rollo May once famously stated that hatred is not the opposite of love. Indifference is. Hatred might instead be described as cold, wounded, frustrated, and grieving love, love gone sour. You can’t conjure-up a powerful hatred for someone unless at some level you first love him or her. When love is wounded and frustrated, the tears it provokes can be warm and cleansing, but they can also be bitter and cold. Cold grief. Hatred with its children, jealousy, bitterness, murderous feelings.

That’s part of the anatomy of love and that’s why love can so quickly turn into hatred and why most murders are domestic. When love breaks down what follows is rarely indifference (a parting in good friendship). What follows is often hatred, bitterness, coldness. Affairs mostly grow sour, not indifferent, and the same is, sadly, true of love in almost all its aspects.

What’s to be learned from this?

That hatred needs to be understood, whether it’s at a personal level or at the level of whole civilizations hating each other. Hatred is not the opposite of love. It is a perverse form of love, cold grief, bitter disaffection, that needs not to be met in kind, with a reciprocal form of coldness, but with warmth and forgiveness, tough as these are in the face of their opposite.

One of the great moral struggles of our lives lies precisely in this. When people hate us what spontaneous feeling rise within us? Feelings of coldness and anger, along with the wish, secret and not-so-secret, that their lives will go badly and that, in the ensuing misery, they will be forced to see their error and have to swallow against their will the fact that they are wrong, particularly about us. Hatred wants the other to choke on his or her own error.

But none of that will be productive for those who hate us, or for ourselves. Only if good things begin to happen in the lives of those who hate us, only if they feel the warmth of love and blessing, can their hearts let go of the bitterness, jealousy, and hatred that’s there. Hearts don’t thaw out inside of bitterness and jealousy. They break. It’s not when people are bitter that they admit the error of their ways and the unfairness of their hatred. Hearts begin to see how wrong their hatred is only when the very object of their jealousy and hatred is itself strong enough to not give back in kind, but instead to absorb the hatred for what it is, wounded love, love gone cold when it would want to be warm.

Leo Tolstoy once said: "There is only one way to put an end to evil, and that is to do good for evil."

RONROLHEISER

from back in the day _{Pastor Wright at the opening of the Kansas City House of Reps. (hattip LS)} A prayer that should be mandatory:

Heavenly Father, we come before you to ask your forgiveness. We seek your direction and your guidance. We know your word says, "Woe to those who call evil good." But that's what we've done.

We've lost our spiritual equilibrium. We have inverted our values. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word in the name of moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We've exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We've neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. In the name of choice, we have killed our unborn. In the name of right to life, we have killed abortionists.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it taxes. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, oh, God, and know our hearts today. Try us. Show us any wickedness within us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of the State of Kansas, and that they have been ordained by you to govern this great state.

Grant them your wisdom to rule. May their decisions direct us to the center of your will. And, as we continue our prayer and as we come in out of the fog, give us clear minds to accomplish our goals as we begin this Legislature. For we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

IT'S NICE how synchronicity and serendipity and interconnectedness happen.

Currently reading Robert Lax, and listening to Thomas Mertons' seeds of contemplation, both with links to Hanh, whom a customer came in waxing lyrical about today, customers favorite quote:

"I vow to look at all beings through eyes of compassion"
Thich Nhat Hanh

_{Sometimes we go on a search and we don't know what we are looking for, until we come again to our beginning} Robert Lax

when I grow old i may beard up again in honour of bob!

ANother day, another chain email....

_{I am sending this to you to see how many actually read their messages. Your response will be interesting. Pay attention to what you read. After you have finished reading it, you will know the reason it was sent to you. Here goes: People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person. When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on. Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real. But only for a season. LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant. Thank you for being a part of my life, whether you were a reason, a season or a lifetime}

What do you think, gentle readers? Reasonable thoughts or email manipulations?

Random brain dump
_{a memory stirs} sandyd writing about seal:
Here is the thing....you can blame others for a break up but if it really was meant to be, then no matter what others said to her, she would have stayed with ya. It's something you did/or didn't do, that made her choose to leave.

Anyone who leaves cuz of what others say or do about you, does not deserve your love.

Get it?

_{Paul plays the youtube of monty python philosophers song}
John Stewart (sic) Mill, of his own free will, the most eloquent explainer of utilarianism maintained that our actions are right in the proportion to which they facilitate happiness.

and so it begins....

utilarianism is concerned with the evil or good an action produces, throw into the mix altered perception and we discover a moral mindfield, where aliens can be blamed or we can choose to analyse behaviour without taking a moral position.

gentle reader, I am trying to change my thinking and attitudes to the die that have been dealt.

My moral certitude has been dealt a huge blow, and now I am adrift upon the waves of
an uncertain future.

Awareness is a brilliant light, and burns brightly.

There is both a redux and a return to the future... No half pint of shandy to make me feel particularly ill...

Plato they say, could stick it away but down through the centuries hear Aristotle scream: We become ethical by practicing being ethical. He defined virtue as the excellence of the soul, and happiness as the virtuous activity of the soul. In the moderate, self-controlled and courageous, everything is in harmony with the voice of reason.

But when the crazies scream, who screams for thee?

Don't panic gentle reader, trying to re-situate myself to recommence some philosophical meanderings...

If it grabs you, great, if not, watch some you-tubes! Heh, life is wonderful.

Yep, been there done that, but time mellows the pain, and acceptance comes ever more easily.

Sheila continues to excite my literary appreciation brain cells.

One day, Plath then more proulx.

more power to sheila, I say!

_{Personally I am doing ok, gentle readers. Funny how everywhere I go I meet someone special from days of yore. A big picture has emerged, and I have to accept the change the big picture means to moi. The Gospel reading at Holy Mass today was the appendix to St John, it's 27 years to the day give or take 24 hours I guess, that the import of that reading first grabbed hold of me, and I now apreciate more and more what it is to walk with the Lord.}

Rev Mosy Madugba is coming to Canberra for the Prayer, Nations and Government 2008 gathering in the Great Hall of Parliament House, on 22, 23 and 24 June.

Googling, as one is wont, I found his wife Mrs Madugba has written a number of books, two quotes from her that I really like:

"We also need to know that pruning does not necessarily mean removing what is bad. It involves cutting away the good and even the better so that we might enjoy the best. This is God''s desire for us".

"There is no place in the whole Bible where God promised us a trouble-free journey to heaven, a journey without pains, hassles and problems of life".

NOICE! VERRRY VERRY NOICE!

Crawled out of bed sub sunrise this morning and off to Church thence to a mens breakfast. I need more male energy in my life. Or do I?

email Russian style, if you want to imitate or emulate it, in your part of the world, the shopping list includes:

- 162 meters of gray tape
- 45 lego pieces
- 32 sticks of plasticine
- 18 brushes
- 18 square meters of batten
- 12 cans of spray paint
- 10 liters of white paint
- 4 reams of paper
- 2 kilograms of millet porridge
- 1 printer
- 1 hair dryer
- 1 mop
- 1 saw

Only in books has mankind known perfect truth, love and beauty.
- George Bernard Shaw


"The books will always be there.
If we give up many other distractions, we can turn to them. We can browse among the millions of words written and often just what we find can nourish us, enlighten us, strengthen us - in fact, be our food just as Christ, The Word, is also our food."
Dorothy Day

"The books will always be there. If we give up many other distractions, we can turn to them. We can browse among the millions of words written and often just what we find can nourish us, enlighten us, strengthen us - in fact, be our food just as Christ, The Word, is also our food." Dorothy Day

From Auschwitz, a Torah as Strong as Its Spirit

taking it to a personal level:

Ein Mann kann mit jeder Frau glücklich werden, solange er sie nicht liebt.

2true

'tis funny how life goes and comes around in circles.

I have moved to the southern end of Canberra, where I would have liked to have lived back in '89. I am mixing with the folk I would have been involved with as well. Not my time but God's time.

There is nothing more secure than abandoning ones self to God.

or as someone else says 'the safest place in the world is found when we place our trust in God'

it's all good, even though the weather has turned into winter within 2 days of Anzac day....

some rain which is good, and snow high up the ranges...

TORRRCCCCCHHHHH LIGHT!!!!
A week ago steel barricades went up on Canberra streets in preparation for the Olympic Torch relay.

Very early this morning busload after busload disgorged thousands of people from Sydney.

Over the 10 mile or so route, there were interesting examples of democracy in action.

Protestors supporting human rights in Tibet and Burma were outnumbered by Chinese supporters.

Some Chinese supporters were thuggish in their behaviour surrounding protestors and kicking and screaming at them. Fortunately the police intervened several times to allow the surrounded protestors escape.

Unfortunately at the concert protestors were basically escorted away, and were not allowed to continue with their activism.

However, other Chinese, particularly students, were dignified, pleasant and amicable.

A sea of red flags diluted the presence of Free Tibet protest flags.

It was heart-warming to see some Chinese in yellow T-shirts calming Chinese who were aggresively attacking verbally protestors.

Isolated incidents of Chinese physically assaulting protestors, snatching Free Tibet flags and breaking the sticks attached to the flags occurred.

Australians ranged in behaviour from saying that sport should be separated from politics, to others saying that protestors were well within their civil rights to make their protest.

A Buddhist nun, walking slowly along a road, holding a banner for a free Tibet, and chanting quitened Chinese activists who had been abusing protestors, and other Buddhists joined in the chant, a memorable moment, that had a deep affect on all who watched it.

A huge police presence did much to maintain the peace, and it is worth noting that 8 arrests compared to 76 at the Skyfire firework celebration indicate the police were not over zealous.

At Commonwealth Park the Australian and Chinese national anthems were sung with much gusto, and the crowds enjoyed the following concert.

As dusk quickened over the national capital, the barricades were being put back on trucks and the streets returned to normal.

The Olympic Torch symbolises something that cannot really be attained in the world, but at least today in Canberra sport, politics and activism and national pride intersected.

People were exposed to differing viewpoints and memories result.

FREE TIBET!

buy it, just buy it, read it, and ponder.

If you don't enjoy it, let me know, and I'll ponder...

shamelessly stolen from becky of Arabia:
Quotes Part IV
From The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

It is the possibility of having a dream come true that makes it interesting

It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary

To realize one’s Personal Legend is a person’s only real obligation

People learn early in their lives what is their reason for being – maybe that’s why they give it up so early

The boy felt jealous of the freedom of the wind, and saw that he could have the same freedom. There was nothing to hold him back except himself

Dreaming gives me something to live for

Sometimes there’s just no way to hold back the river

Never stop dreaming. Follow the omens.

And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it

There is a force that wants you to realize your Personal Legend; it whets your appetite with a taste of success.

God has prepared a path for everyone to follow. You just have to read the omens that he left for you.

Urim – white stone – no

Thummim – black stone – yes

The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon (never forget what is true and dear to you)

Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.

The desert is a capricious lady, and sometimes she drives men crazy

The closer one gets to realizing his Personal Legend, the more that Personal Legend becomes his true reason for being.

Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of Life

People need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want

When you want something with all your heart, that’s when you are closest to the soul of the universe

All things of manifestations of one thing only

Because people become fascinated with pictures and words and wind up forgetting the Language of the World.

If he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path.

Don’t be impatient. Eat when it’s time to eat. And move along when it is time to move along.

He felt the urge to go out into the desert to see if its silence held the answers to his questions.

Always heed the omens

The secret is here in the present

All of us know that whoever believes in dreams also knows how to interpret them

To die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day.

You already know all you need to know. I am only going to point you in the direction of your treasure

Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. You’ve got to find your treasure so that everything you have learned along the way makes sense.

Life attracts life

Are you a man of the desert knowing that you have to go away in order to return?

The omens will abandon you because you’ve stopped listening to them.

One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.

I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.

Listen to your heart

In pursuing your dreams, you might lose everything you’ve won.

The fear of suffering is worse than suffering itself.

Strongest qualities – courage, enthusiasm

Be aware of the place where you are brought to tears. That’s where I am, and that’s where your treasure is.

The path was written in the omens and there was no way I could go wrong.

We are Australians!
Following on from the 2020 Summit, when the headlines are buzzing with an equal and reconciled republic, the nation's best-known performers have come together under the name of The GetUp Mob to release a new version of the Paul Kelly classic "From little things, big things grow". Already today it's splashed its way into the nation's papers. Let's make it a number one hit!

If together we top the charts, this message will rocket around the country's airwaves and TV screens on high rotation to an audience of millions and it costs you just $1.69 online to achieve that goal. Our power is in numbers, our message can inspire reconciliation. Click here now to view it (for free) and buy the world's newest history-making song:

Make this a hit

An author whome I sell, has written this:
Humanity reflected in the diversity of books Brian Doyle April 21, 2008
They have faces, of course — covers for what is inside. Often the cover belies the interior, just as the bright alluring faces of people often hide the seething and confusing stories beneath them.
And they have spines of various strengths and tensile pliability like we do. Spines that sag and crack and creak, spines that are wonderfully strong and flexible for a few decades and then invisibly deteriorate and lose their glue. They have arms too, so to speak — a book opened wide very like arms flung open. And their back covers, so dense with explanation and blurb, look very like the hirsute backs of heads;.
continues here

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you," - Nietzsche.

There is a Gary Larson cartoon that shows two old women looking out of a window at a monster. One says to the other, “Calm down, Edna. Yes, it is a giant hideous insect, but it may be a giant hideous insect in need of help!”

I'm feeling gutted and at the end of the road, once again!

Life continues to change. Time to stop being a doormat!

May I take to heart and mind and soul and deep within my guts; Robert Murray M'Cheynes' advice: It is far better to begin with God—to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another.

again and again Cher comes to mind:
If I could turn back time
If I could find a way I'd take back those words that hurt you and you'd stay

I don't know why I did the things I did I don't know why I said the things I said
Pride's like a knife it can cut deep inside
Words are like weapons they wound sometimes.

I didn't really mean to hurt you I didn't wanna see you go I know I made you cry, but baby


If I could turn back time
If I could find a way
I'd take back those words that hurt you
And you'd stay
If I could reach the stars
I'd give them all to you
Then you'd love me, love me
Like you used to do

If I could turn back time

My world was shattered I was torn apart
Like someone took a knife and drove it deep in my heart

Another day, drove three hours and got to Sydney,
Mary met me and drove me down to Newtown and dropped her car off at her place, with awesome views of the east side of Sydney.
Then a quick prayer to St Anne to find us a man, and a taxi man drove us to the Great Hall at the University of Sydney, where we sucked champagne and enjoyed munchies at the book launch.
Thence onto a bus back to Newtown and a visit to Graeme at work and got some $$$.
To a Mexican restaurant and more champagne and great food.
Another taxi back to the hotel and a quick blog before collapsing into bed before the drive home.
Mary is a delightful woman, wounded by love but finding her own way. More power to her!

There be dragons
where you least expect them,
no use fighting or running,
the secret is to jump on their back
and ride them.

dragon_rider

Gentle reader, the synchronicity/serendipity stakes are raised:

Whilst continuing my informal online education which in recent weeks has involved much Jungian pyschology, shadow work and enneagram research, I stumbled upon Mr Integral Pysch again, and realised that he mentions my beloved protagonists Yuri and Lara.

Interestingly I was at a talk on forgiveness run by the Canberra School of Practical Philosophy, and dear old doc zhivago got mentioned there.

Enough coincidences: I AM going to buy the book.

best male version???

King David is an interesting example of the complexities of human nature, hattip to the sheila variations for this wonderful poem.

Tales to be told #453
Tried to lodge the divorce application at the Family Court of Australia, after spending three hours photocopying documents and getting a Justice of the Peace to witness them blah blah blah.

Went through the security to gain access to the court, a la airport, but no duty free once inside.

Joined the queue sitting on the bench, and had to endure the sad and sorry stories of other folk as they fronted up for their interviews.

Why they don't provide a sound barrier/ partition/ wall / room in courts to protect peoples privact I don't know. Apparently you can request a room ahead of time, if you are in the loop, but for most folk who rock up you are there with all the people on the bench privy to your conversation.

Finally it was my turn. The clerk started to read the application and then said sorry theres a small problem, we cannot accept your application.

Why? I enquired and she explained that it could only be lodged 12 months after the date that I considered the marriage over. Seeing I had put down 23/12/2007 that is the date. I smiled and said "that's ok". The clerk, with a very puzzled look on her face, said most people get really upset about the delay. I explained that it gave more time for the impossible miracle to happen. I made her Friday afternoon with my attitude apparently.

A smile and being nice can be so good! I walked out of the court into the lovely sunshine laughing and feeling happy.

II fait bon... faire son possible...
___________________________________________________________________________________

meanwhile on the lighter side of the rainbow, a worker in the ACT Government sent me my licence update for my change of address, I joke not, this was sent to me by the government!

don't read on gentle reader if you are squeamish:


Two nights of nightmares:

Driving along a road, realising I cannot see, that I am blind.

Working on a farm, chasing a steer with a dog nipping at it, then I have a 12 month old lamb in my arms and the farmer is killing it by slashing it with a knife. The slashes are across the top of the legs but he then moves up and slashes the belly and blood, bile and other fluids are oozing out of the cuts.

At a fuel station which is cheaper than the one next to it, the staff member working at the next one is outside wearing a wide cloth belt similar to a strait jacket restraint with a chain attached which stops him leaving the fuel station.


Dunno what's going on in my head, the unconscious or sub-conscious is hard at work.

of mirror neurons and loving ones enemy - i have been a long time fan of James, who recently wrote a confronting letter on acceptance of homosexuals "Letter to a young gay Catholic".

However controversy aside, James is probably one of the best english speaking proponents and teachers of the theories of Rene Girard which deal with mimetic violence.

sometimes words are not necessary

Poisson d’Avril

_____________________________________________________

"Was sich liebt, das neckt sich"

"The Miracle is to walk on earth" an awesome quote. See the NHUYD link to the left.

other quotes making me peaceful:

"folk spend most of the first half of their lives climbing to the top of a tall building. For many, when they reach the top, they discover it was the wrong building" possibly Joseph Campbell, but to oft quoted to get the original...???


Jacque le Clerc:

perfection is something I create for myself, holiness is given to me by god.. perfection is often humiliated.. holiness never is... is humble

Igumen Nikon:

we realise the sufferings are actually necessary but we can't realise this until we purify ourselvesthrough repentance as often as we plunge again, we don't lose heart on that account. If we repent and continue the battle, we can even draw profit from the plunge.. pray passionately to God, the Lord, for the greatest of all gifts: to see ones' own sins and weep over them. Whoever has this gift has everything.

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Somewhere the desert fathers and the sufi too iirc tell us that our gifts and talents are what destroys us.

destruction is only bad if there is no creation following. May I become a creator not a destroyer.

Some may find part of my blog objectionable, moi apologises.

to continue: Give me an O, give me an R, give me a C, gimmee an E.
Paperwork is almost completed, but I am not rushing. Going quietly amidst the business of each day.

For those who emailed me overnight, I am fine, just venting as the final movement of the marriage begins. Singleness here I come. Wiser and humbler, 'tis good, 'tis good.
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I finished my blog entry yesterday morning saying I need to read Dr Zhivago again.

I went out for a dinner party last night, and as it was the turn the lights off and light candles evening, our host dragged out an old record player and some vinyl.

Top of the pile, soundtrack to the movie! I got to dance to Laras' theme, and pondered the circular notion of life once more. Other favorite music of the night Cat Stevens. Our host had invited three singles and one couple. The couple had to endure four single folk belting out the first cut is the deepest. In vino veritas :)

There is something quite comforting hearing the pop, whistles, crackles and scratches as a record plays. It affirms something to the effect that life is not perfect.

So Dr Zhivago hey! Serendipity or synchronicity, you be the judge; O gentle reader.

Give me a D! give me a I! give me a V! You pest, with your click here comments! And you putz who booked the aircanada tickets bwhwhaahahahahahahah!

Sayonara - and just in case anyone freaks out, I am identifying with the book, not the movie.

memo to self: re-read Dr Zhivago.

A friend recently returned from the UK with an old newspaper.

I have little 'knowledge' of the USA, my perceptions are filtered by the TV shows and media, theological texts, and online relationships.

The USA is culturally dissonant from my Australian and UK roots.

So I cannot really comment on their election processes and candidates.

However, I recognise a great speech when I read one:

enjoy

MOre than just thirty seconds of fame, the worlds most popular toob download of March is interviewed here:
in cyrillic

Apparently ,a rough translation indicates that she has been singing the song in her own very own imicable manner for 14 years! more power to her! and just goes to show the power of the net to interact in peoples live worldwide...

Five aussie blokes kill themselves each day

not good, not good, not good.

So the challenge is how to help! Personally I have committed myself to a small group of blokes, to meet with them and support them. Not much, but at least it's something, and who knows I may be helped more than I can help. :D

light hearted toob of the week:
KEN LEE which is even more amusing in light of the subject matter above...

Rick Warren is worth remembering:

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

been cogitating a bit on projection and transference lately.
and our shadow side...

evil and unredeemed beauty resides in our shadow...

meanwhile this post gave me some cognitive reflection.

I thank God for my handicaps, for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God.

Helen Keller


Purification comes slowly sometimes, but we start from where we are.
Easter week has begun, the Great Week, the celebration of the triduum looms, three days that mean much more than Christmas, but without Christmas they would never happen.

So it is, life begins with birth, and with no birth; no growth or change, or suffering or a thousand little deaths can occur.

can you blog away the blues?

sometimes!

Wise Advice from Mother Teresa
( because it was never between you and them )

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind,
people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful,
you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight.
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis
it is between you and God;
it was never between you and them anyway.

This poem is engraved on the wall of Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta.

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LIFE IS******
Life is an opportunity—benefit from it.

Life is beauty—admire.

Life is bliss—taste it.

Life is a dream—realise it.

Life is a challenge—meet it.

Life is a duty—complete it.

Life is a game—play it.

Life is costly—care for it.

Life is wealth—keep it.

Life is love—enjoy it.

Life is a mystery—know it.

Life is a promise—fulfil it.

Life is sorrow—overcome it.

Life is a song—sing it.

Life is a struggle—accept it.

Life is a tragedy—confront it.

Life is an adventure—dare it.

Life is luck—make it.

Life is too precious—do not destroy it.

Life is life—fight for it!Mother Teresa

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Time and time again I think of you . . . and smile

Jamie Delere

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Its easy to look on the bright side of things, when all is going well...

when the smiles outweigh the frowns and the sunshine is streaming in the window

- But the happiest people are the ones who can say

- when all is going wrong, when the clouds get in the way,

that a little unhappiness must balance the joys,

and that a bit of sadness has its place in the world, too.

For they know, these special people, of the balace of natures ways.

They know that nothing grows where the sun always shines,

and that gray skies and rain can be an unregrettable sign of the day...

For these fortunate people, their favorite season is always the one they are in,

and they continue to look on the bright side,

knowing that the sunshine might leave for awhile,

but that it will never be gone for long!!! Jamie Delere