The Paradoxical Pilgrimage of Love

“There is within each of us,

at the Soul level

an enriching fountain of Love.

Through their need for love,

people who lead solitary lives

often stumble upon this great fountain.

They learn to whisper awake

the deep well of Love within.”

~John O’Donohue

What does it mean to love, to be loved, to be in the space of love, to experience love, to know love?  I have attempted to begin this paper on three separate occasions and with each have quickly run into a road block. It’s as if I am in a familiar city walking down a familiar street and as I turn a corner suddenly I am in unknown territory. What should be familiar has suddenly become mysterious and unfamiliar. Perhaps it is due to my attempt to write about the subject of Love, which is proving to be as challenging as herding cats.

Carl Jung has said that even he falters before the task of finding the language to express the incalculable paradoxes of love. His conclusion is that whatever one can say about love, no words can express the whole.  Maybe this is why my heart and mind are playing twister with the contradictory truths of Love. Or perhaps it is because I am attempting with the mind to use words that when strung together hopefully will describe what is indescribable- for Love is felt in the heart.

According to the late poet, and philosopher John O’Donohue, Love is the threshold where Divine and human presence ebb and flow into each other. This is one of Love’s contradictory truths. My question is how does our humanness prevent us from feeling the wellspring of Love from our Divine source?  Is our birth into human form actually a death, a slow strangulation, an insidious erosion of the connection we have to our Divine Source and the ever-present Love that surrounds us? John Welwood says,” there is an ocean of Love that surrounds us. We have been trying to hold ourselves up, not realizing that Love is the ever-present ground supporting our whole existence. We have been trying to prove we are worthy of Love, while failing to realize that our very nature is already lovely and lovable.” This Love is as available to us as the air we breathe. But, so many are unaware of it, can no longer feel it. How do we lose this knowingness? How does this innate connection to Source evaporate into a small puddle from what was once an ocean of Love?

Rainer Maria Rilke reminds us to be patient with the unresolved questions in our hearts. He asks us to love the questions themselves and to think of them as if they are locked rooms we do not have the key to or books written in a language we are not yet able to read, let alone comprehend. He also advises us to stop our search for the answers, for if we were to receive the answers we could not live them, we could not apply them consistently. We must live everything, even the questions and through living the questions we gradually live our way into the answers.

Perhaps the loss of our innate connection to the Divine Source is due, in part, to the human experience in and of itself. We are born into families that may teach us that we are unlovable. We are not given what our inherent nature needs to maintain the connection to our  Source. It is the steady drip from a rusted and leaky faucet of family, society, as well as cultural beliefs and practices that slowly erodes this connection.  Eventually, we are unable to feel the fullness of Love. It’s as if many years of sediment has built up, layer upon layer, upon layer, until eventually if we experience and feel the Love of the Divine it is but a thimbleful instead of the entire ocean. I agree with Anais Nin’s statement, “ love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”

So how do we go about living the answers into being? What is the Divine and human presence that ebbs and flows into each other? I view the Divine and Human presence as unconditional and conditional forms of love, respectively. I know I am in a space of Divine Love when I feel expansive; when I am able to fall into the colors of the trees in autumn as they ignite the mountains in flames of magenta, orange, and gold; or while on a walk I stop in awe and delight as a gust of wind enfolds me in a shower of golden leaves while I gaze upward at the cerilian blue sky. These are my cues I am experiencing unconditional Love. On the other hand, contracted feelings are from the human form of love which may take the form of self-sabotage, allowing fear to dictate my life choices which reduce the size of my world, or continuing in relationships with strings that entwine around my heart, slowly constricting the love I am able to share. All of these are forms of conditional love.

John O’Donohue illuminates the distinction between unconditional and conditional love in the following poem:

When Love awakens in your life,

in the night of your heart,

it is like the dawn breaking within you.

Where before there was anonymity,

now there is intimacy;

Where before there was fear,

now there is courage,

Where before in your life there was awkwardness,

now there is a rhythm of grace and gracefulness,

Where before you used to be jagged,

now you are elegant and in rhythm with your Self.

When Love awakens in your life,

it is like a rebirth, a new beginning.

How do we become the midwife to the rebirth of Love in our life? As I look back on mine I see it as an evolving journey, a pilgrimage, through the intricacies of love; learning how to give and receive love, not only with others, but more importantly, myself. I agree with Arnaud Desjardin, “You will never feel Loved until you Love yourself.” One of my favorite poets, Jalal al-Din Rumi, suggests, “Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really are.” This stonger pull guided me to explore where my connection to Source had been eroded so it could be healed. I discovered that the rusted and leaky faucet is attached to a wellspring that bubbles up from the depths of my being; flowing directly from Source.

As midwife I comfort, nurture, and offer support to myself as I grieve the loss of what could have been. I open to the grief and sit with it as I discover the wounds inflicted by the collective beliefs of society. The quickening of labor, the pain that is felt, indicates birth is near. The beliefs I had been indoctrinated with are left behind as I am birthed into a new state of being. Rebirth into unconditional Love removes the rusty faucet completely, allowing the wellspring to flow unimpeded. Once again I am open to receive and give Love unconditionally.

~Liisa

www.spiritusilentium.wordpress.com

Colour is associated with Chakras. They heal them and make us reap the following benefits and develop certain characteristics in us:

LEISURE
During the interregnum, between retirement and re-employment, I got a chance to live in the country side and learn about rural life and customs.
The Kannadigas, as the people of Karnataka are called, are a lovable, emotional people, very friendly to strangers,courteous and polite. Once I asked something in Hindi, to a group of school going children. They looked at me silently, as if they are deaf. I forgot it and moved on. When they were at some distance, I heard their leader shout from behind: Hindi Nahi Atha.

 
There are two roads from Karwar to the Plant Site. One is along the left side, the route we went in project vehicles, as it is more convenient. The other route on the right bank(when viewed from Karwar) is more grand, as the road is closer to the river, which inundates a large area of the adjoining plain, being low lying and marshy. The villages are small and far from each other. Once I saw the thorns of a porcupine which must have been shot by men . I collected the colourful, smooth thorns, sharp at one end, but my wife threw it awy as something unlucky to keep.
I had heard of Yakshagana.
Then, I actually saw the tent etc. though I was reluctant to go inside. The language cannot be understood. I t is somewhat similar to Ramleela of the north. The tickets are costly. Ramleela is free. There was good response from the public.

Another notable event was a festival in which the lady of the house comes out, with a lighted earthen lamp, duly escorted by the family members. Near our hut, was an improvised temple, for which the base platform is made of concrete, entirely manned by children, during  these days. Once, myself and wife attended the arti and received prasad, very tasty. We gave  money by placing it near the deity. I was indifferent, or else, I could have collected all details about such festivals.
Work in the office was really back breaking. For the first time in my life, I did real work.
In the audit offices, there was hardly three day’s work, when I was a clerk, except when we go on inspections. After becoming audior, it was only supervision. (Now, these terms have been changed. We were ashamed to be called upper division clerk. So  our association took up the matter with  the Controller and Auditor General, who graciously now calls UDC as Auditor, auditor  as Section Officer, Chief Auditor as Director Of Adit etc.)
After becoming Accouts Officer, my main work was signing of letters, notes, initialling of papers received in the office etc. My table was always clear and I used to sit idle or read some book, as I did not know how to be busy without any work!
Now, in Konkan railway, I had to check and pass all cotractors’ bills received every day. I am a workaholic and I enjoyed my new assignment. I became famialiar with all the works going on in Karwar section, icluding earth work, bridges and tunnels
.
There is a Hanuman temple near our office at Karwar, before we shifted to Shirwad, now the railway station, and I used to pray there as soos a I got down from th bus. Afterwards I saw the big, ancient temple of Lord  Ram opposite. The former was very small, and devotees had to stand in rain during monsoon. I gave Rs. 500 to our works supervisor and requested him to do the needful to initiate action by the poojari, for construction of a small shelter, by collecting money.
After several years, I saw a fairly big hall there! I felt gratified.
Each division has a Chief Engineer and Raju, a Keralite, was our chief. He approves payments, which we have to honour. My Accounts Officer told me to forget”audit”. I forgot it then and there!

 We used to make payment of bills, for which there is no agreement, at least about rates.
Sreedharan’s word is the law. He is a workaholic, with a mania about target dates. He believed that Accounts is interested in delaying payments and considered them as enemies. So he clipped our wings.
Explosives were being purchased on a large scale for blasting rocks for tunnelling works. We were concerned only with recovery of the cost from contractors. Now, it comes to my mind, that some technical check regarding the quantity required for the works, were also reqired, as these are not available in the open market without licence. They could easily draw more and sell it at black market rates. Now there is the added risks of the material going into the hands of terrorists. I wonder if Audit is aware of  it.

An Engineer in charge of tunnel survey, for which they have to cross the mountan, used to come to me. He offered to take me along, during his mountaineering trip, but it never became a reality.
I did climb the mountain,which is near our office at Shirwad. As the tunnel was yet to be completed, we went around in a bus, and then by walk, till we reached the base. The villagers pointed out a way up, as they used to go there, probably for wood. When we reached the top, it was like an embankment of pure rock, through which a stream flows in the rainy season. Now it was dry. Going upstream, we came across some thing like a steep wall of rock. In the rainy season it was a water fall.
We proceeded further, in spite of protests by my wife. After some time, we came across a pond in the midle of the river, all rock only here, and it was the most beautiful pond I have ever seen. The water, some ten feet deep, was clear as ladies’ tears. I coud see a small pebble at the bottom. I waned to jump into it; but all others dissuaded me as it was getting dark. My friend was afraid that pythons may be around, which was quite a possibility. So we hurried back home.

Grateful for Denis’ words here and whenever he shares.  Amazing way to ‘get through’ to people because his Leadership is all about helping others.  He does not do it for himself, he does for others which in turn, returns many blessings to him.  Do you target others’ success or your own?

Get beyond what you hold near and dear and on to the needs of others.  Your rewards will become far more abundant than you ever imagined… CSea Perkins

_______

Here’s a question for you: Can you think of a successful relationship without mutual trust?

Break that trust and you break the relationship. Subvert it and it’s almost impossible to put together again. Creating a long-term relationship takes two or more people—whether they’re executives, representatives of labor and management, or husband and wife—who are grounded in and operating on the same non-situational honesty.

The central secret of good communication is bringing the other person over to your side by satisfying one of every person’s most fundamental emotional needs: Make him or her feel valued. With rare exceptions, people who feel valued—who are allowed to feel important in the sense that they are recognized—answer with openness, cooperation and reciprocated respect.

If you want respect, be respectable. If you want to be loved, be lovable. If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy. If you want a lifelong relationship, listen openly to the other person’s needs.

Much more than trying to accumulate money and power, leaders in the new era will acquire good will by helping their associates, customers, neighbors, and loved ones to win. Instead of what can you do for me, we need to embrace the new stewardship role of what can I do for you.

Action Idea: At the beginning of each workday, do something special for someone you work with or provide a service for. At the end of each day, say or do something positive for a family member or friend.

—Denis Waitley

Questa è la nuova affissione che ho trovato a Milano della marca Lovable per la nuova collezione di intimo femminile. Una modella taglia 38 è adagiamente sdraiata su una A in una posizione sottomessa da oggetto sessuale con le gambe divaricate.
Sotto appare la scritta adorable/desiderable/lovable che sembra un doppio senso riferito alla modella lì sdraiata che sembra essere lì ‘pronta all’uso’.

Premesso non è piazzare una donna seminuda che fa la publicità sessista poichè la pubblicità prevede l’uso di un corpo seminudo ma sono i gesti che deve assumere quel corpo seminudo che rendono la pubblicità sessista.
Esempio:

1)Se un auto o prodotti che non hanno nulla a che fare con il corpo femminile utilizza l’immagine di una modella nuda è sessismo poichè equipara la merce al corpo umano che non ha nulla a che fare con il prodotto ma vuole essere messo lì per attrarre una fetta di consumatori maschi che danno una connotazione maschile al prodotto.

2) Se un prodotto maschile usa una donna discinta è sessismo.

Se un raggiseno utilizza una modella sexy ma in una posa che non allude alla seduzione e alla passività sessuale non è sessismo.

Questo spot è sessista perchè pone la donna in una posa di disarmata, da preda sessuale riproponendo la cultura dello stupro e suggerndo vulnerabilità sessuale. Da notare come la posizione della modella è scomoda e innaturale, quasi costretta ad assumerla per recitare un ruolo sessista di ornamento sulla A che la regge.

Nobody wants to be perfect. It’s just an annoying thought of becoming a perfect person. It’s impossible and so I just haven’t tried it at all. Well, there were times, when I thought it was possible, but it normally didn’t take a long time until I realized the reality. Being perfect is perverse, isn’t it?

So, girl. Just let me be. I’m here to touch your hair, to kiss your neck. I’m here to spent my time with you. You make everything easier than it is. You make me blind and I make you sick. It’s okay. I just have to do it. I really love you, from to bottom of my heart to the top of my brain. Yeah, it’s true. One of the first times my heart and my brain were united in an unbelievable symbiosis. I love you and I really don’t want to hurt you. And I hope, I’m not able to do it, by the way. You are fragile, and the same I am. Everyone seems to be fragile when he/she is in love. Isn’t it awful. Everything becomes more dangerous, more horrifying just by loving a person? It is.

I do everything that you need. I really try to. It’s hard work, but I’m willing to do it. This is love. Do you know? And that’s the reason, why I was so fucking sad, when you weren’t able to show me the love I need, too. I’ve learned so much, the past few years and now I know. You can’t love a person in a perfect way. Everone has his/her own failures and problems. You don’t have to hide them. And by the way: You aren’t able to. This is love, do you know? It’s love just to love a person not only “with all his/her problems” but “because of all his/her problems and failures”.

So, just let me disappoint you. Let me be who I am, and I promise. Everything will be easier. And: I still will be lovable, won’t I?

photocredits: ok23| flickr

“We must reveal ourselves at the deepest level in order to find out how lovable we really are. When we dig deeply enough into our real nature, we do not find darkness. We find endless light. That is what the ego doesn’t want us to see; that our safety actually lies in letting down our mask.”

Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love

Courtney and I decided tonight that we are going to make a delicious dessert… while googling different desserts we randomly took a different path and looked at the puppies we want in the future. We both screamed “pupppppppies!” haha here is my choice:

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

This picture makes me melt!!

Now Courtney’s choice:

AWWWWWWWWWW!

Courtney would “steal” this dog.

Alyssa just came in (gotta love roomies ) here is her choice:

EEEEEEEEEEEE!

Oh man…. that tongue…

So what kind of puppy do YOU want??

(All images via google images)

]]> http://dyosagretta.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/9-classification-of-girlfriends/ Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:18:46 +0000 dyosa gretta♥ http://dyosagretta.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/9-classification-of-girlfriends/ http://kuiliu.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/funny-television-commercial/ Mon, 17 Aug 2009 02:24:51 +0000 k http://kuiliu.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/funny-television-commercial/ http://covdevotionals.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/6-things-the-lord-hates-7-that-are-detestable/ Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:56:52 +0000 bigem4 http://covdevotionals.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/6-things-the-lord-hates-7-that-are-detestable/

There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him,

Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who stirs up dissension in the community.                              Proverbs 6: 16-19

I think most of us believe we are better than what’s described here as hateful/detestable to God.

 However, when I look at the list carefully, I am convicted.  Have I shed innocent blood?  Not literally, but whose hearts have bled because of something I said, a time when I failed to speak up to defend them, something I failed to do on their behalf?  I can be honest to a fault, but if I pass on a bit of gossip, might I not prove to be a false witness?  If I fail to correct something I know to be false, isn’t that being a false witness?   Can a lying tongue be one where truth is not spoken, as much as where untruths are spoken?  I don’t rush into evil – oh no, not I.  But what about sitting and listening to gossip and doing nothing to stop it?  My feet may not be rushing, but I’m still deep in evil.  And then there are those haughty eyes.  What are haughty eyes?  I do try to treat people in a loving, kind way – but how often do I look down on someone for whatever reason?  How often do I elevate myself over another?  When do I displace God by standing in judgment over others?

Then there’s the break-down between six hateful things and seven detestable things.  Why did Solomon do that?  Why not just seven things that God hates?  Look at the seventh – a person who stirs up dissension in the community.  How many of us are guilty of that?  We disagree about something, dislike something, are told “no” when we want a “yes,” and we gather folks around us to complain to and convince to join us in our dissent.  I’ve know pastors driven from their churches by the machinations of a very few in their congregations.  These same few frequently do so over and over again.  They are known as pastor-killers.  But one has to wonder about the majority of the congregation who do nthing to stop them.  Where are their voices?  Where was my voice when I heard someone complaining, gossiping, and stirring up dissension?  What was Jesus’ prayer for his followers?  He prayed for unity.  He prayed they wouldn’t fall prey to that 7^th detestable thing.

But, there are opposites to these detestable ways.  While there are seven things the LORD detests, there are also ten things that He loves.  May we continually strive to move away from the seven evils to the ten things He desires.

Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary?  Who may live on your holy mountain?

Those whose walk is blameless, who do what is righteous, who speak the truth from their hearts; who have no slander on their tongues, who do their neighbors no wrong, who cast no slur on others; who despise those whose ways are vile but honor whoever fears the LORD; who keep their oaths even when it hurts; who lend money to the poor without interest and do not accept bribes against the innocent.

Whoever does these things will never be shaken.                                              Psalm 15

Prayer:  Lord, help me to move away from those things you detest and help me to be as you would have me be, that I may do and radiate those things you love.

 Emily Montfort

Animals are lovable and we all love to watch their funny actions. The more we see, the more we would like to see them because they are the most adorable ones on earth. Here are some of the lovely pictures of these wonderful animals.

See More….

Hi, Everyone!  It’s Linda here again… And, Oh, what a delicious treat I have for you!!    I love stories about my friends because they are the delights of my life…

AND we aren’t always wonderful with our friends… are we?    And, if we can’t always be great with our friends — if we can make even the ones we love wrong, what chance do we have with the world? 

There’s a way out, but it doesn’t come easy….  AND it’s worth the effort….  

See if you agree…. 

This is a story about two of my friends who taught me an amazing lesson about love…   actually, I think we all taught each other an awesome lesson about life and love and partnership  and communication and being together in relationship… 

The three of us were in a yearlong course together this year called “Power and Contribution” – all about taking a stand for what we want to see in the world — making a promise to the whole world that we will live inside of for the rest of our lives….     Mine starts out, “By 2025, I promise a world in which all people know themselves as lovable and precious….”    Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? 

So, what shows up when you take a stand like that?  THAT….being loving, treating everyone as the precious Beings that we all are…  and everything that is NOT THAT!  Not feeling lovable and precious, making it so everyone around me doesn’t feel lovable and precious….  

It really takes something for me to stay present to my stand for myself and the world ALL THE TIME…. sometimes, I wonder if it’s even possible… and then…   I create it all over again that it is MY possibility… and I’m alive once more, joyfully living inside my promise! 

So, here’s Laurie and Shana and me – all up to really great things – all three of us committed to life and to each other and to everyone else in the course…. and, to even greater things…. to everyone in the World! 

I was at Shana’s house a couple of weeks before our fourth weekend of the course….  five of our group showed up and it seemed like everything was going great… we ordered food in, we shared what we were up to…  the only downer of the evening for me was that I looked in my handbag to find my wallet to pay for dinner and it wasn’t there.  I was scared at first that I had been pick-pocketed on the subway, but then I remembered that I had taken it out to buy something on-line… “Hmm…,” I wondered….  “had I forgotten to put it back afterwards…?”  

No problem.  Shana covered me and I promised to give her the $11 at the reviewer’s Landmark Forum that we were doing that weekend…. 

Shana pulled out boxes and boxes of chocolate…  She had had a chocolate-tasting event as a fund-raiser the week before… and, now, here we were, all tasting, yet again, all these different kinds of delicious, delightful chocolates…..  

(You all know I LOVE chocolate, right?) 

There was one in particular that I loved… chocolate that had chili pepper in it…  what an unusual flavor!  Quite unexpected…. and so yummy… 

As we all got ready to leave, we helped Shana clean up and put everything back….  I saw that there were three pieces of the chili chocolate left in the package…  I couldn’t resist….  I called out to her, “Can I take these home?” 

And, off we all went… 

I saw Shana briefly on Friday as the Forum got started, but when I sought her out later, she was nowhere to be found… 

The course was so glorious…  I thought, “How could there be anything new to get out of the Landmark Forum after all this time?”  Wow, how wrong could I be…!  it’s all about “seeing with new eyes” and we get to do that all the time…  like an adventure to a new land each and every day… 

When I arrived home Saturday night, I realized that I hadn’t seen Shana at all that day….  Hmmm….  “I wonder what happened?”  

I dashed off an email to her…  “Where were you?  I have your money for you….  AND, is everything OK?” 

I awakened early Sunday morning for Day 3 of the Landmark Forum and did a fast fly-by of my emails….  There was one from Shana – she explained that she had left mid-day on Friday with a head-ache…. and, then she wrote, “Can we speak on Monday because something has been on my mind and I think it’s time we talked…..”   

What could that be? 

I wrote back that if anything was bothering her, I wanted to clean it up right away….  could we talk that day on one of my breaks?  “Call me,” I wrote. 

It sat in the background all day….  It didn’t  ruin the day… but there was an “incompletion” there – this gnawing feeling that something was wrong… 

I watched myself in action over the next few days…  I went from worried:  “What did I do wrong?” to frantic:  “What’s this all about?” – and then, in crept the anger….  “What the….???” 

Human beings are so funny, really….  we make up stories of what something is about because we cannot stand not to know, then we believe those stories, then we make the other person wrong and we justify ourselves….  and, half the time, we don’t even know what it’s all about in the first place!!!  

What made it even more frustrating for me was that it was a busy week for both of us and we kept missing each other’s calls…. the longer whatever it was stayed in the air, the worse it got… 

By the time we got to San Francisco the following weekend, we could barely speak to each other….!  We tried to talk about what was there for each of us…  Who could hear anything?  What was there for both of us was anger, defense, justification…. 

She was annoyed at me for talking too much,  for taking the chocolate, and for forgetting my wallet… 

I was annoyed that she threw a “sour” note into my Forum weekend and didn’t give me the opportunity to get things “straightened out” between us….  When she brought up the chocolate…  I really lost it…! 

“Lovable and precious…?”  Hah!  We were like vipers in a nest…. 

And, we were roommates! 

And…. we REALLY love each other. 

We finally got it that we couldn’t do this ourselves… we needed someone who was not involved to “mediate” this – whatever “this” was…  we both knew that it wasn’t really about what we said it was about…  we were “hooked” by something…. something that reminded each of us of a time when we felt small… and now something triggered that hidden feeling… and both of us were right “there” again…. 

Like two little three-year-olds, fighting over a toy…. 

We agreed that we would ask our friend – and our other roommate – Laurie, to help us resolve what was there to resolve….   What’s important here is that, as annoyed as each of us was, we were committed to getting it cleaned up with each other… we knew that our friendship was too important, too rich, to allow “stuff” to get in the way…

And now… Let me tell you about Laurie….  amazing master of transformation that she is….  She’s been a Course Supervisor at Landmark Education for years….  really present, really authentic, really courageous… 

She took it on…  She took us on… 

Later that night, the three of us sat in our room…  With Laurie’s guidance, we said what was there for each of us…  starting with the surface and going deeper into what was there from an earlier, similar time in our lives…. 

It was tough… at first, we couldn’t even listen to each other…  AND we kept talking, getting it all out…  What was critical in this process was to just let the other person say what was there for them, without trying to defend it or explain it away or justify it…  That was what Laurie was being vigilant about… to remind each of us…. “Just ‘get’ the communication…. that’s how it is for her, do you get that?”

For Shana, it was about being taken advantage of….  a story that is not mine to share here –  that my asking for the chocolate and forgetting my wallet took her right back in time… 

For me, it was the always worrying that I wouldn’t please my father and he would be angry…  and an incident when I was little that got triggered in me by Shana being angry that I didn’t bring a chicken that I had promised I would bring to an earlier gathering, but forgot…. 

I remembered when I was 8 years old and I wanted to play with this group of girls… they saw that I always looked at them and finally, they asked me to come to their “club” the next day – but I had to bring something… cookies or cupcakes… 

I was so excited.  I got DRESSED UP and went to meet them with a box of chocolate-chip cookies….    They came up to me, grabbed the cookies out of my hands, and ran away, laughing…. 

I ran home, crying… 

Never again, I thought…. 

I found myself blurting out to Shana, “This reminds me of the girls who didn’t want me, they just wanted my cookies…”   Wow!  I didn’t realize that was how I saw it!

Sounds silly, doesn’t it..? 

That’s our lives…. incidents happen and we make decisions about others and about ourselves… and, if we’re not aware… anything that looks like that now can take us right back — into that hurt…  into the pain… 

It didn’t have anything to do with a chicken or pieces of chocolate…..   

It never does… 

We kept at it….   each time we thought we had released everything, Laurie would ask us if there was “anything else there?”…  and, for more than an hour…. there WAS more…. 

Until there wasn’t… 

Until there was nothing but this beautiful space…. and out of that space emerged the love that we both have for each other…  that the three of us have for each other…  We were moved beyond anything we could speak of right then…. 

Soon, hugs and kisses and laughter rang through the room… 

We climbed into our beds and turned out the lights.  We were quiet, but we were all aware of what we had just done.  We were fully present to the love….   all three of us said… softly… and almost at the same time, “This is the most awesome thing — what we’ve done here….”, “I am so in love with the two of you…”, and, finally: 

“What if everyone in the world did this?” 

Well, then… All people would know themselves as lovable and precious….

Deliciously yours in the Beauty of it All!   Linda 

“When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself.  As you treat him you will treat yourself.  As you think of him you will think of yourself.  Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself.”  

“A Course in Miracles”, Text, page 142

© Linda Ruocco and “Spiritual Chocolate”, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Linda Ruocco and ”Spritiual Chocolate”  with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  Thank you.

I was very excited to see a little “shout out” to New Kids on the Block on the season finale of Lost last night.  If you missed it, or have given up on Lost, said shout out was  in the form of a lunchbox.   Just a little something unexpected.

I’m looking forward to the New Kids at SPAC next month.   I don’t care that my co-workers laugh when I mention the show, I’m genuinely excited.   I have no shame in my New Kids on the Block tickets, I haven’t listened to a New Kids song since my friend Kim’s wedding two years ago, but to be able to see a band that I all but idolized at age 9 will be satisfying.    Perhaps I can make an attempt on my 9 year old fantasy of joining the band as a backup singer and marrying Jordan Knight…all while wearing hot pink leggings and crimped hair.    Anything’s possible.

photo via kaboodle.com

I was just half paying attention to the tv when I half heard a Jared commercial that mentioned CHOCOLATE DIAMONDS…that got my attention.

While I love jewelry, I’m not a big bling owner….I have a lot of zirconia in my collection:)   Are chocolate diamonds a new thing?   I’ve never heard of them before.   They certainly are pretty….and expensive.

Chocolate Diamond Ring ($1400)

Chocolate Diamond Earrings ($1650)

Chocolate Necklace (bit more my speed at $780)

They look so delicious…must find a decent knockoff soon!

Wonderbra è il noto marchio di reggiseni che sostengono ed esaltano il decoltè. Grazie al loro sistema push-up sono conosciuti come i “reggiseni delle meraviglie”,  inutile spiegare il perchè.

Molte volte il brand è ricorso al non convenzionale per promuovere e far conoscere i benefici del proprio prodotto. Sicuramente ogni volta è riuscita a colpire e a sorprendere il consumatore.

Forse, alcune realizzazioni non sono di immediata comprensione, ma è proprio stuzzicando la riflessione che il brand riesce a  stimolare il ricordo.

Prima di mostrarvi l’ultima azione della Wonderbra, ve ne ricordo alcune del passato del tutto meritevoli.

Una rivista:

Billboard:

Fermata del bus:

Fermata della Metropolitana, linea di sicurezza:

Con l’ultima operazione Wonderbra sbarca sulla rete con un virale.

Il video “Chi ha colpito questi due ragazzi?” è stato caricato su youtube tre giorni fa, eccolo:

Per scoprire il mistero basta visitare il nuovo sito .

L’obiettivo dell’operazione è pubblicizzare la promozione “Fai colpo due volte” e il concorso Miss Wonderbra Button.

Rimanendo in tema di intimo e di virali, è  impossibile non mostrarvi quelli ideati dalla Lovable.

A supporto della campagna pubblicitaria dal claim “Adorabile/Desiderabile/Lovable” , Lovable ha lanciato online il progetto lovableandyou.it. Il video contest prevedeva la realizzazione da parte degli utenti di un video in cui spiegassero quando si sentono desiderabili e cosa per loro è adorabile. Per la stessa campagna sono stati diffusi in rete questi due video.

Buona visione:

Gennaio 2009

Febbraio 2009, festa di San Valentino.

We had a fantastic day at Thacher Park over the weekend.  Perhaps tomorrow I’ll post the pics of the ice cave we ran into on the Indian Ladder Trail…it was 80 + degrees on the day we saw it…bizarre and beautiful.

Thacher Park is full of surprises, there’s just so much to do.  Playgrounds, picnic areas, opens spaces, great trails and at one time a pool.    I don’t know the full history of the Thacher Park pool, a quick google search tells me it opened in 1953 and finally shut down in 2005.   There have been rumors of reopening the pool here and there, but with the recession and the state of the economy in New York, I’m sure it will be some time before we see an improved Thacher Park pool.

Sadly, this is the state that I found the old pool in this weekend.   The fences put up had been torn down…

View from what was the shallow end…the pool house used to be in the background:

Another view of the shallow end:

Side of the pool:

Deep end…remember the HUGE diving board?

I feel like there was a snack bar here too, and of course the tiny diving boards:

Many thanks to All Over Albany for sending some link love my way via the neighborhood.   The Thacher Park Pool is quite quite sad.  I know it will not open this summer, but perhaps there could be just a little bit of money found to put the fences back up:

and also cover this…I’m not even sure on what is is….well?  Whatever it is, it’s a hazard for a little one.  I’ve been trying to figure out the best point of contact for Thacher Park to let them know…

Ciao, la nuove linee per Lui e per Lei firmate FILA:

Viva: realizzata in cotone elasticizzato, linee essenziali, dettagli ricercati, look frizzante e femminile.

Active fit: intimo streth che si adatta alle forme.

Questi alcuni capi disponibili sul sito:

Smanicato (Active fit)

Culotte (Viva)

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