For the entire month of April, every quote I will post will be about a “GIFT”. Some might think this is a bit curious, so bear with me.

Going on SIX years ago, I was given the most AMAZING GIFT that any human being could give someone else …. the true gift of life. This gift came by way of a heart transplant,  saved my life and has left me in total AWE and humbled ever since.

Combine the thought of that gift, with the fact that April is “ORGAN DONOR AWARENESS MONTH”, I have decided to honor this gift I’ve received and honor my incredible anonymous donor with a gift quote daily.

You too can give this incredible gift to others by registering to become an organ donor. If you are already registered, I THANK YOU!

If not, I kindly request that you give it some serious thought and then visit this site ORGANDONOR.GOV where you can register in a few seconds by looking in the upper right hand corner of the page, find your state and register.

Thank you and may each & every day you have be a GIFT !!

(And don’t forget to give THANKS for that GIFT)

Is there a protest because of the legalized gay marriage? yes, and it is fine. Is there a reasonable reason to be afraid gay marriage? No. So, I applauded France for being open-minded. I too appreciated New Zealand for their votes on gay marriage a while ago. Now, I am looking forward to applaud the supreme court. I am looking forward to feel safe in every place.

For the entire month of April, every quote I will post will be about a “GIFT”. Some might think this is a bit curious, so bear with me.

Going on SIX years ago, I was given the most AMAZING GIFT that any human being could give someone else …. the true gift of life. This gift came by way of a heart transplant,  saved my life and has left me in total AWE and humbled ever since.

Combine the thought of that gift, with the fact that April is “ORGAN DONOR AWARENESS MONTH”, I have decided to honor this gift I’ve received and honor my incredible anonymous donor with a gift quote daily.

You too can give this incredible gift to others by registering to become an organ donor. If you are already registered, I THANK YOU!

If not, I kindly request that you give it some serious thought and then visit this site ORGANDONOR.GOV where you can register in a few seconds by looking in the upper right hand corner of the page, find your state and register.

Thank you and may each & every day you have be a GIFT !!

(And don’t forget to give THANKS for that GIFT)

For the entire month of April, every quote I will post will be about a “GIFT”. Some might think this is a bit curious, so bear with me.

Going on SIX years ago, I was given the most AMAZING GIFT that any human being could give someone else …. the true gift of life. This gift came by way of a heart transplant,  saved my life and has left me in total AWE and humbled ever since.

Combine the thought of that gift, with the fact that April is “ORGAN DONOR AWARENESS MONTH”, I have decided to honor this gift I’ve received and honor my incredible anonymous donor with a gift quote daily.

You too can give this incredible gift to others by registering to become an organ donor. If you are already registered, I THANK YOU!

If not, I kindly request that you give it some serious thought and then visit this site ORGANDONOR.GOV where you can register in a few seconds by looking in the upper right hand corner of the page, find your state and register.

Thank you and may each & every day you have be a GIFT !!

(And don’t forget to give THANKS for that GIFT)

So, against my better judgement, I chose to watch the Wes Anderson film: The Darjeeling Limited. At that same moment I was watching St Elmo’s Fire on Dvd for the hundredth time and there is only so many times that I can watch Demi Moore free-falling into debt, drugs and booze, Rob Lowe doing his ‘Aren’t I cute doing the bad boy thing?’, Andrew McCarthy having to hide his feelings for Ally Sheedy, whilst Emilio is lusting after Andie McDowell. Therefore I decided to turn my attention to the Wes Anderson movie which was showing on free to air telly thinking it would be the better option. After all, I didn’t mind Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. Turns out, I was wrong.

The movie started with promise: Bill Murray arriving in a hurry, in a taxi, somewhere in India to catch the train: The Darjeeling Limited. The train has just left the platform and he starts to run in a vain attempt to catch it. Then, Adrain Brody comes running up next to him, runs past him and manages to get on board, but only just. He then looks on to see Mr Murray give up the chase. All this was done to the music of The Kink’s ‘This Time Tomorrow’ and it was brilliant. I rubbed my hands with glee, thinking I had struck movie gold.

It was a short celebration because after that wonderful, opening scene, things started to go south from there. Well, for me anyway. Adrian meets up with his  two estranged brothers, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman and hence begins a roadtrip on a train. They were off on a spiritual trip, a bonding thing that Owen had organised. There was clearly tension between the brothers, and mid-way through the movie, I found myself not caring about these people. It didn’t work. I didn’t feel the connection between them. The cinematography was magnificent and so was the soundtrack, but I couldn’t get into the film.

I gave up on it. I tried, I really did. But the scene of them going back in time where the brothers try to revive their father’s porsche which was still at the mechanics, so that they could drive it to their father’s funeral was the final straw for me. I gave up. Instead of seeing it through, I decided to make myself a hot chocolate and read Mr Penumbra’s 23-Hour Bookstore instead, which was what I should have done in the first place. Serves me right.

For the entire month of April, every quote I will post will be about a “GIFT”. Some might think this is a bit curious, so bear with me.

Going on SIX years ago, I was given the most AMAZING GIFT that any human being could give someone else …. the true gift of life. This gift came by way of a heart transplant,  saved my life and has left me in total AWE and humbled ever since.

Combine the thought of that gift, with the fact that April is “ORGAN DONOR AWARENESS MONTH”, I have decided to honor this gift I’ve received and honor my incredible anonymous donor with a gift quote daily.

You too can give this incredible gift to others by registering to become an organ donor. If you are already registered, I THANK YOU!

If not, I kindly request that you give it some serious thought and then visit this site ORGANDONOR.GOV where you can register in a few seconds by looking in the upper right hand corner of the page, find your state and register.

Thank you and may each & every day you have be a GIFT !!

(And don’t forget to give THANKS for that GIFT)

So, I think it’s time for me to do this, and I can’t delay it anymore, I have to send an email, mark it with ‘high importance’, and ’follow-up flag’ signs and type this confidential message:“Dear [crush name], I am still in love with you, as always. Best wishes, [my name]“.

For the entire month of April, every quote I will post will be about a “GIFT”. Some might think this is a bit curious, so bear with me.

Going on SIX years ago, I was given the most AMAZING GIFT that any human being could give someone else …. the true gift of life. This gift came by way of a heart transplant,  saved my life and has left me in total AWE and humbled ever since.

Combine the thought of that gift, with the fact that April is “ORGAN DONOR AWARENESS MONTH”, I have decided to honor this gift I’ve received and honor my incredible anonymous donor with a gift quote daily.

You too can give this incredible gift to others by registering to become an organ donor. If you are already registered, I THANK YOU!

If not, I kindly request that you give it some serious thought and then visit this site ORGANDONOR.GOV where you can register in a few seconds by looking in the upper right hand corner of the page, find your state and register.

Thank you and may each & every day you have be a GIFT !!

(And don’t forget to give THANKS for that gift)

]]> http://brokennhalo.com/2013/04/19/today-is-not-the-day/ Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:42:10 +0000 Broken Halo http://brokennhalo.com/2013/04/19/today-is-not-the-day/ http://my2ndheartbeat.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/the-gift-day-19/ Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:14:01 +0000 DAP http://my2ndheartbeat.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/the-gift-day-19/ “Every problem in your life carries a GIFT inside it.” – Richard Bach.

For the entire month of April, every quote I will post will be about a “GIFT”. Some might think this is a bit curious, so bear with me.

Going on SIX years ago, I was given the most AMAZING GIFT that any human being could give someone else …. the true gift of life. This gift came by way of a heart transplant,  saved my life and has left me in total AWE and humbled ever since.

Combine the thought of that gift, with the fact that April is “ORGAN DONOR AWARENESS MONTH”, I have decided to honor this gift I’ve received and honor my incredible anonymous donor with a gift quote daily.

You too can give this incredible gift to others by registering to become an organ donor. If you are already registered, I THANK YOU!

If not, I kindly request that you give it some serious thought and then visit this site ORGANDONOR.GOV where you can register in a few seconds by looking in the upper right hand corner of the page, find your state and register.

Thank you and may each & every day you have be a GIFT !!

(And don’t forget to give THANKS for that gift)

Did you know that I hate not being in the driver’s seat? Uh huh, it’s true. It’s especially worse, when I’m forced to be a passenger in my own car. For example:  my partner decides to drive me to the doctor because I am just too sick with the flu to be trusted behind the wheel. I resist the offer, but eventually relinquish control because I can’t stop sneezing every five minutes and my head feels like it’s about to explode. Still, this doesn’t stop me from being a total pain in the arse when my partner’s driving and it goes a little like this:

“Oh. My. God. Can you go any slower? I’d like to get to my place of destination some time this YEAR! Thank you very much”

“Why must you always keep to the speed limit. It’s not like you have to always follow the rules you know. Step on it!”

“I would have totally driven through the yellow light!”

See? How painful I can be? I’m a complete CONTROL FREAK! I can’t even let anyone in my household feed the cats. I have to to do it because only I know how to divide their food up in their individual bowls. Only I know how much to give them. And only I know how to wash their bowls exactly the way they like it.

Washing the dishes? Are you kidding me? How can I trust anyone not to leave greasy stains on the plates and utensils? Do they triple soap every thing? Even if they do and say they do, how can I trust that they are telling me the truth? Yes, I know it’s a waste of soap and water, but do I care? The answer is: NO. It has to be done my way.

I could never live with anyone who didn’t let me have control over the remote when watching the telly. It’s lucky that my partner and occasional friend lets me take over, because for most of the time, they couldn’t care less about what’s on the television and I for one am thankful.The thing is, I like to flick at random. I have an extremely short attention span and get bored easily. Often, the person sitting next to me might occasionally lift their head and ask ” So what are we watching now?”  But they know that what ever channel/show I’ve landed on is not going to stay that way for very long. For instance, the ads that come on during the movie, instead of muting it or just letting it be, I have to change channel. Even if it’s just for a couple of minutes, because you never know, I might find something more interesting. Or, if I’m really tired, then I just mute the ads. But at least I get to choose.

I know, it’s not good. But I’m working on it. It has been suggested to me that meditation is a good way to relax and  learn to go with the flow more, to loosen up so to speak. I’m trying, but first, before I go cross-legged and into a mindful state, I need everything to be quiet. I need it not to be too windy outside, I need the cats to be settled, the dishes to be stacked according to my liking and I need to first check my horoscope to see how my day is going to pan out.

You never know, one day, with much persistence, I might be able to let go and relax about life a little. But first I have to know what tomorrow’s weather is going to be.

Here’s the lyric from the video (taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokarekare_Ana

For the entire month of April, every quote I will post will be about a “GIFT”. Some might think this is a bit curious, so bear with me.

Going on SIX years ago, I was given the most AMAZING GIFT that any human being could give someone else …. the true gift of life. This gift came by way of a heart transplant,  saved my life and has left me in total AWE and humbled ever since.

Combine the thought of that gift, with the fact that April is “ORGAN DONOR AWARENESS MONTH”, I have decided to honor this gift I’ve received and honor my incredible anonymous donor with a gift quote daily.

You too can give this incredible gift to others by registering to become an organ donor. If you are already registered, I THANK YOU!

If not, I kindly request that you give it some serious thought and then visit this site ORGANDONOR.GOV where you can register in a few seconds by looking in the upper right hand corner of the page, find your state and register.

Thank you and may each & every day you have be a GIFT !!

(And don’t forget to give THANKS for that gift)

If you let your son does the opposite of all those things, do not be shocked if one day you will find a jerk hanging around in your house; because you have spoiled your college-age son. You’ve raised a spoiled brat, you get a spoiled brat. Now that he is old enough and a college student, he is no longer a spoiled brat. He has ‘increased’ his ‘spoilness-level’ to the point that he becomes a jerk. You know something? There is nothing as annoying as having a spoiled-jerk-college-age-boy hanging out in the office.

*Note: Pictures were pulled from internet, coincidentally, the last picture (including the beards, etc.) resembles the spoiled-jerk-college-age-boy (try google image search spoiled brat).

Be prepared to fall in love. Be prepared to have your heart thrown wide open and to experience new facets of being through shared experience with others. The thing with love, is it’s tricky. You think I’m only talking about finding your “soul mate” or having a passionate love affair and finding a friend for life. Don’t be so limited in your thinking. Many of you will be graduating and heading off into new directions on your life’s path, and love comes in many different forms. You could fall in love with a place, a career path, an idea or muse. You get the picture. This kind of love is no less vulnerable and full of exploration of the unknown than the love shared between two human beings. So strap in and enjoy the ride.

Aries – Mar. 21 to Apr. 19

The daily routine of work, eat, sleep is starting to wear on you. You feel as though life is dull and uneventful, for you anyway. Everyone else is having all the fun. However, you are aware that the work you do now is a form of sacrifice for future goals, and if you just hold on and don’t give up, things will change. Your hard work will pay off in the form of new connections, a sense of community and the ecstasy that can be experienced with finally realizing your goals.

Taurus – Apr. 20 to May 20

What is it you really want to do? Are you on track with this dream? I tend to think so, as life, at almost every corner, is presenting you with magic and possibilities that could lead to harmonious and joyful outcomes if you allow it. However, it doesn’t hurt to check every once in a while. If life is shitty for you right now, you might want to reassess your goals and priorities and own up to what calls you above anything else.

Gemini – May 21 to Jun. 20

You’re one of those people who tends to still think, even as an adult, that the world doesn’t understand you. You are all alone in your experience. Thus you remain stuck, and often you find that you cannot move in any direction even if you know it will make you happier. Open to the understanding of others and widen your perception to the ways in which humanity is, in fact, homogenous in many of its characteristics. Your artistic self wants to bloom, but it can only do so if you to take a strong and affirmative step onto whatever road you choose.

Cancer – Jun. 21 to Jul. 22

It’s OK to protect the tender shoots of new understanding and self-awareness. If you need to retreat from the world for a while, that’s just part of the process. However, though you may be tempted, try not to follow old, self-destructive patterns and thus perpetuate your notion that you are not worthy or that no one cares. You have an opportunity to tap your own creative and intellectual reservoir and gift others around you in the long run through moments of self-reflective epiphany.

Leo – Jul. 23 to Aug. 22

Don’t be afraid to take things in stride this summer. If you plan too much, you will miss opportunities that are waiting to knock on your door. The fact that you are unsure about exactly what you want to do is an indicator that you should not jump on any band wagon just yet. Follow your heart, your feet, your spur-of-the-moment impulses and see where the day takes you. There is no wrong path here. You will only find what you are looking for by not looking. Ha!

Virgo – Aug. 23 to Sept. 22

If you ever want to truly understand what patience really feels like, ask an expectant mother. Little does this mother know, however, how much more patience she will have to exercise once the child is actually born. Now, I’m not asking you to be patient with others, or with the world around you. I’m asking you to be patient with yourself. You are like that newborn child, or even better, a two-year-old. You are learning about new aspects of life all over again. You are exploring and you might fall down and skin your knee. There’s no need to get mad at yourself. You are learning from your own mistakes.

Libra – Sept. 23 to Oct. 22

You’ve been given an opportunity. In some form or another, someone has handed you the means to accomplish your goals, or to make your life easier. Think of it this way: you are standing at the top of a long staircase, your hand on a doorknob. The door you are about to open looms in your mind as some kind of insurmountable task. But you are making a mountain out of a molehill. If you just turn the knob, you will actually experience less stress than you are now. In other words: it’s OK to ask for help.

Scorpio – Oct. 23 to Nov. 21

You are like a monk coming down from the mountain. Life feels a little surreal as you adjust to the outside world. Be deliberate in your actions, weigh them against your inner integrity meter and don’t be hasty in your decision making. By doing so, you will find that your responses to life will be more holistic and thus more truly representative of who you are. This kind of deliberate action will yield success and signal an end to the long string of “bad luck” you’ve been experiencing.

Sagittarius – Nov. 22 to Dec. 21

As your heart cracks open and you learn to allow yourself to expose your vulnerability to those people who have helped you feel a sense of safety, remember that love is also one of the many tools used by life to teach valuable lessons. This does not mean that you should shut down and return to a stance of mistrust. Rather, it means keep plunging forward and embrace all that life has to offer. The underlying message here? Life is complicated and unpredictable. But that’s why it’s so glorious. I assure you, you don’t want to miss out.

Capricorn – Dec. 22 to Jan. 19

The feeling that we are separate from each other and from nature is largely a Western world view. In many indigenous societies, there is no separation between the individual and the group and the landscape in which they reside. It might help you to remember this in the coming weeks. Your belief that you are alone is an illusion, one that you are only helping to reinforce by pushing loved ones away. Seek out what inspires you. Go after it like your life depends on it. Don’t let anything stand in your way. In doing so you will find others with whom you feel a kindred connection.

Aquarius – Jan. 20 to Feb. 18

What is your idea of a moral person? Now, now, don’t assume you know what others deem to be moral. Though we like to think morality is universal we all have very different ideas about what constitutes a moral person depending on personal life circumstances and cultural influence. It is noble to stand up for what you feel is right, but make sure you do some soul searching before you decide to condemn those who hold your attention.

Pisces – Feb. 19 to Mar. 20

You are like a projection screen, upon which the goals and ambitions of others endeavor to display themselves. Don’t fall for it, Pisces. You have a unique path, one which only you can tread. If you allow the needs, wants, and desires of others to become your story, or be the burden you bear, how will you have time and energy to project your own story out into the universe? Seize opportunities as they arise, but don’t feel obligated to any particular one, especially if your gut tells you that it is not furthering your intent. And no, this is not equal to being selfish. The integrity with which you handle yourself will make the distinction for you.

Today is Transplant Nurses Day!!

If you are an organ transplant recipient, or are on the waiting list, send your transplant nurses and coordinators some much deserved LOVE!!