Here are Ways #s 4 and 5 from the last post which promised you 5 Ways to Be More Great-full (Boost Your Gratitude Attitude)…

#4: FAMILY (or couple’s) GRATITUDE BOOK
We just spent a very pleasant hour doing this great art & writing interactive project. So simple and yet so meaningful and fun! Quality family time!

We do not watch television, nor do our children. We are dedicated to parenting consciously and strive to support a vibration of love in our household. Yet, given that my husband and I are both entrepreneurs, with seven businesses between the two of us, and given that our children are still quite young, we know how important and sometimes challenging it can be to come up ideas (not to mention time, energy and materials) for positive family experiences.

I myself am about the least craftsy person you will ever meet and can draw a stick figure on a good day! So believe me when I tell you: Yes, you CAN do this project, and probably with what’s already available in your home. It really ranks high on simple, high on fun, high on memorable, and low on expense. (I can NEVER do those Origami things, puuleeeeeazzze, can we talk?)

Thanksgiving weekend is the perfect time to do this Family Gratitude Book…but of course so is any day that ends in “y.” Monday, Tuesday…. Enjoy!

Materials:

All you need is:

Some blank paper (we used printer or copy paper, white)

Construction paper

Ribbon or brass brads to secure the book

Markers, pencils, hole punch and/or scissors

Optional: Stickers, stamps, other art supplies, scrapbook, photos

Definitely: A little bit of time and lots of love!

We started by making a brainstormed list of everything we are grateful for. You can do this any way you like; follow your own creative impulses & inspiration. We have four family members, so I decided to color code what we wrote on this collective page or you could just all write and draw without attributing who said/drew what, or make a chart, have sections of the page, etc. The things my 6-year-old called out first were written in yellow, my 10-year-old chose blue, I picked purple and my husband green. We made a color key on the page and wrote and drew various things we are thankful for: Our dog came first, followed by a lovely torrent such as family and friends, food, a good home, music, the Earth, music, health, God, life and so on.

Then I gave each family member a separate page on which to do whatever they like, the only requirement being that whatever is on the page relates to or represents what they are thankful for. We stuck in some more blank pages, so we can add more later as we are inspired.

The kids each got to pick a color for the front and back covers. The older did the words, the younger did the drawings. We punched holes, added brads, all signed the masterpiece and voila! A Family Gratitude Book.

Not only a wonderful way to spend part of our Thanksgiving Day, but a precious keepsake, and, I trust, a new family tradition as well. We will be sharing this book with family all weekend long and inviting them to add to it as well. And of course, it can be done any day! Every day bears its own gifts if we just open the package.

Today we focused mainly on what we are thankful for in our current lives (now), but we could also include wonderful memories (past) and gratitude for all the blessings on the way! (future)

Alternative for Couples: You can also do this as a Couple’s Gratitude Book or Journal, a beautiful way to show appreciation and deepen connection. So few marriages last or are happy, as we all know, and I am blessed to have a deliriously, deLIGHTfully ecstatic marriage, 12 years strong and better every day. One of the reasons is of course, the selection of the right mate; but in order to do so, we had to do the necessary self-healing and inner preparation to bring whole, healthy individuals to the relationship. Much of this work is presented in my book: The Radical Self-Love Workbook. But it is also essential to nurture even the best of relationships, and my husband and I do so daily in many creative ways such as this.

More tips on love and relationships are at

www.LoveandSpirit.org

and at my love blog: loveandspiritblog.wordpress.com.

Whether you do the Gratitude Book as a homemade book like we did today, like a scrapbook or journal, and whether you do it as a family activity or a couple’s relationship-enhancer, it will help you see your life through the eyes of love and gratitude, and bring you even closer with those you love. Enjoy! And I welcome you to send me a comment or email to share your experience.

#5: Honor the 4 Directions and 4 Sacred Elements:

Earth, Air, Fire, Water

You do not have to be Native American to appreciate one of their traditions, which is to honor the Medicine Wheel, facing each of the four directions, thanking each one for their gifts. This is also a tradition in all indigenous cultures including pre-Christian Europe (a.k.a. Wicca, Druidry, paganism, et al.), Africa, Australia, Hawaii and South America.

In fact, if you scratch the surface beneath contemporary religions on any part of the Earth, you will find an ancient shamanic tradition that honors all the directions and all of nature as sacred.

All things follow this cycle of birth, growth, fruition and quietude, whether we are looking at seasons, a lifespan, a day, or a garden. The beauty of Medicine Wheel ceremony and the paradigm itself is that it can be applied to our lives in so many ways.

So how do you honor the directions and elements, to give thanks for what they give to us so generously? Here are a few ideas:

* Altar: Create an altar to each direction or a Medicine Wheel altar encompassing all the directions/elements. This can be in your home or outside. My husband specializes in creating Medicine Wheels as a sacred practice on the land, and has helped others to do this as well.

* Cherokee Dance of Life – You would need to learn this in person from someone who has learned it, oral tradition. This is an incredible moving meditation to all 4 directions, peoples, and elements which also honors Mother Earth and Father Sky, balances their energies as sacred partners in our hearts, and helps us give away the gifts of Spirit that are our special medicine to share with the world through our right work and service. Occasionally my husband and I share this Dance with our community. If you live near Sacramento, and would like to experience this dance, let us know so we can invite you. Or perhaps Spirit will guide you to another teacher of this beautiful tradition.

* Drum, chant, play flute to each direction

* Give offerings such as cornmeal, tobacco or sage smoke to each direction

* Speak aloud from your heart to each direction and give thanks

* Sweat lodge

* Vision quest

If you do either sweat lodge or vision quest, please do so with the guidance of a Native elder to be sure you do it properly and safely.

* Journal or journey (shamanic meditation) to discover what power animals comprise your personal Medicine Wheel of your own energy field. I love to lead these meditations when I am called to do so. Honoring your own inner Medicine Wheel supports a strong aura and keeps you connected to your spirit guides, if this resonates for you.

Associations with Each Direction

Depending on which culture or even which tribe you consult, there are somewhat different associations with the directions, colors, elements and meanings, the medicine or power that direction helps us receive and embody. The one I am most familiar with follows but this is not dogma, merely a summary of what I have found to be the more universal associations. Follow your own heart and work with any spiritual practice in the way that resonates for your own heart and inner truth.

While I have a small amount of native blood, I was adopted and was not raised in that tradition. I discovered shamanism after my initiation and spiritual awakening 15 years ago. I do not claim to be a tribal elder or teacher of any one tradition. I am an interfaith minister, meditation teacher, hypnotherapist, energy healer and intuitive life coach. I have been on the path of Spirit, studying, practicing and sharing healing and wisdom teachings from many cultures for several decades, so I offer here a simplified summary as a starting point for your discovery journey. You would do well to study more in depth with a local teacher steeped in the particular tradition that calls to your spirit, and of course feel free to research further on the Web, in books, classes, and listen to your own inner guidance. I always say the best way to pray, do ceremony or ritual is the way that feels best to you, with harm to none, of course. But we do need to honor the specific traditions so they are not all diluted through multiculturalism.

From the East we have the yellow people (Asia) and the gift of Air, Brother Wind, clarity of vision, inspiration, the new day, new beginnings, establishment of purpose and intention, and springtime.

From South, we receive the wisdom of the black people (Africa), Fire. The tools, strength, perseverance and energy to follow through and manifest, midday/ noon, summer, also humor and passion, innocence and trust.

The West gives us the culture of the Red people (such as Native Americans), the setting sun, Water, emotions, the fall season, self-evaluation toward completion, looks-within time, peace, rest and healing.

And the North represents the White (European) people and all their cultural gift. The sacred mountain, winter, midnight, time to slow down, go within and be still to receive guidance for what comes next. Completion, what you keep from the past cycle and all that you have accomplished and learned. It is also associated with the Spirit and wisdom.

Note: You can also honor the other 3 directions: Earth (below), Sky (above) and Center (within).

I hope you enjoyed these five creative ways to give thanks and I wish you abundant blessings on your journey!

Finally, in the spirit of Sufi mystic poet Rumi, I invite you to kiss the ground. Blow kisses to the sky. Bow to everything. Everything is sacred.

With Love,

Sage

More resources for your path, including free special reports on abundance, love, transformational classes, soul and energy healing sessions, intuitive readings, matchmaking and more are at:

www.LoveandSpirit.org

Taylor@LoveandSpirit.org

“Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

- Rumi

Happy Thanksgiving!

“The eye, altering, alters all.” – William Blake

I recently saw the movie Up with my family and we were touched by the sweet message that it is the most simple moments that have the most meaning for us. I call those moments, like when Russell sits on the curb counting red and blue cars with his dad and then with his new (grand)father figure at the end of the movie, the “pearls on life’s necklace.” Individually, they are precious and delicate, yet strung one after another, they form a true treasure.

In an earlier post, I shared several reasons why it is so essential to enhance our gratitude attitude. So now, as promised, here are some fun, practical ideas for how to become even more grateful (great full), how to count more of those pearls and value them with your heart, while they are in your hands:

1. My Feet Touch the Earth.

A Native American custom is to give thanks to Mother Earth each morning upon rising, when your feet first touch the floor or ground. This helps us remember that the land we live upon is alive and sacred, worthy of our deepest respect and greatest appreciation. It also helps you receive her bounty, through food, health, abundance and every good thing you can touch or experience through your senses, and to feel more grounded and “in your body.” Another thing I love about this practice is it takes zero extra time; it’s just a shift in consciousness, and isn’t that what we are most striving for?

2. Write a (different kind of) Thank-You Letter.

Well, you already know about the traditional thank-you-for-the-gift kind of letter. I believe it’s on the Endangered Species List. (When’s the last time to sent or received one of those?) I highly recommend we resuscitate these as they bring and spread so much joy, especially the kind of letters, cards and notes you can actually…what’s that called?….Oh, yeah, TOUCH with your actual hands and reread over and over without having to go online. What a concept!

In addition to writing to give thanks for specific gifts or favors you have received, I propose you explore writing Thank-You Letters to:

* Your loved ones…just because

* Yourself

* God/The Universe

* Your Body

* Money

* Your Ancestors

* The Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Sun, Moon, Stars…

You see, the possibilities are as infinite as your abundantly grateful heart.

3. Take a Gratitude Walk.

Dedicate a walk to the awareness of thankfulness. This is a walking meditation and is best done in silence or punctuated only with your statements of appreciation or a simple mantra such as:

* Thank you, God, for all that is.

* Right here, right now, beauty all around me.

* I give thanks.

* I am thankful.

Your gratitude mantra can also just run in your mind without being spoken aloud. You can rhythmically coordinate the mantra to your steps, or not; follow your own guidance and what your body tells you to do.

Another option is to think or praise something with each step or everytime you notice something you are thankful for, such as: “Thank you for my feet that I may walk. Thank you for these trees I see…. Thank you for the air I breathe. Thank you for my children (husband, wife, etc..). Thank you for my home. Thank you for my dog. Thank you for my car. Thank you for my work. Thank you for music….”

While you are walking, you may give thanks for gifts from Spirit which you can see and hear and touch in the present moment, or other blessings in your life, counting your pearls, but the key is to keep every step, every breath, every moment focused on hearful, mindful appreciation.

This is an excellent exercise which combines nourishing your body through the movement itself with nourishing your mind, heart and soul by returning your awareness to what is precious and good, all around you and within you.

As a meditation teacher for the past 11 years, I have frequently met beginning students who lament, “I can’t meditate because I can’t sit still so long. My body hurts and gets fidgety.” Some meditation disciplines and teachers simply reply to this: “Just sit. Let the distraction of the mind chatter and body aches just fade away and just sit anyway. They are all illusions, and your mind will eventually clear as you ignore the ‘monkey mind.’”

This is true for some people, some of the time, as with so much wisdom. However, some people really do need to move more often. This can be due a medical condition, a tendency toward being highly kinesthetic, and/or a need to move energy and remember they have a body through touch and motion.

I am solidly in the latter category myself and find that I benefit optimally from a kaleidoscopic, multicultural meditation practice, drawn from Eastern and Western traditions – like the Meditation for Busy People course I designed for and taught at Kaiser Permanente. Sometimes still, some moving, sometimes silent, others with chanting or music or sacred sounds, sometimes focusing on the heart, third eye, or other chakra, other times aware of the whole body and energy field, sometimes open-eyed (gazing meditation is called “tratakam” in India), sometimes closed, focused on the inner space. Let me know if you would like to me to share more of my knowledge of meditation in this blog column. I teach many methods in my workshops, teleseminars and private practice and share them also on my meditation audios.

For whatever reason, if you do not enjoy an extended sitting meditation practice, you will likely give up on it, so I highly recommend exploring moving meditation such as Tai Chi, Chi Gun, Native American Dance of Life (Dance to the 4 Directions) and even some dynamic forms of yoga, or simply authentic body movement and dance as a meditation. Walking meditations like this gratitude walk is another wonderful way to integrate Body, Mind, Heart and Spirit, so give yourself permission to move while you meditate, and give yourself credit for “meditating” if you are moving consciously and feeling a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual benefit.

Anything you do that brings your awareness to the present moment, that cultivates mindfulness and what I call heartfulness, is a form of meditation, be it walking, stretching, drinking a cup of tea, even cooking or cleaning.

As Buddhist monk and teacher Thich Nat Hanh says, whatever you are doing, even if you are washing dishes, it is the most important thing in the world.And it can be done joyfully and gratefully. Absolutely anything and everything is a meditation when done with focus and appreciation. Right here. Right now. Love.

So I invite you to join me in striving to live Life as The Grand Meditation. The Prayer of Thankfulness that Never Ends. The moment of choice, the moment of change, the moment of power, healing and grace, is now.

∞

As for me, time to go practice gratitude with my family. Right here. Right now. We are about to create a Family Gratitude Book! I’ll let you know how it turns out, and I suspect that may become Gratitude Tip #4.

Your life can change in a moment’s notice.

And the moments you notice can change your entire life.

So, my friends, have a beautiful day…and another…and another…Keep adding to, and treasuring those precious gifts of moments of simple pleasure, in oneness, and in the company of loved ones, the pearls on your necklace of life.

With Love, Sage

P.S. Please share in comments:

What part of this article did you most resonate with?

What are your favorite ways to deepen your gratitude attitude?

And what are you most thankful for this season?

(what are some of your precious pearls)

Just click on the article title to add a comment if the box is not visible below. Thanks for visiting!

www.LoveandSpirit.org

I know, strange title but if you’re familiar with what we’ve been through, you will understand the ability to say “thanks” is obedience to God’s Word where He says to “give thanks in all things”. So, no I’m not being ungrateful, just living in the moment of today and enjoying the blessings He’s given us and how faithful He’s been in sustaining us! This is actual progress if you think about the fact that we were living second to second, then moment to moment, so day to day is moving closer to where we should be. We will dream again about our futures. We will look forward to things again. We are experiencing hope again just not looking too far out in the distance, staying right here, just today! That’s great to us, believe me!
Some times when we have family devotions, the kids ask to go around and do our little “give thanks through the abc’s” and it can get be somewhat of a challenge. We start with “a” and that person has to name something that begins with “a” that they’re thankful for, even if it’s a little difficult. Think about some of the letters. It can get really hysterical but mostly the kids are serious and very thankful. Sometimes something comes to mind that we don’t normally consider and it’s a real eye opener. It’s a great reminder of all the blessings God has provided for us! So, today, when you’re filling your bellies, we will be for sure, remember everything, every little and big detail of your blessings and Have an amazing THANKFUL THANKSGIVING! Our God is so Good all the time! Then become as restful as a stuffed slug deserves to be for Just Today! God bless all of you!

This is only a moment, it is not the rest of your life.

You do not have to identify yourself as your illness. You are not just a depressed person, a bipolar or an anguished person.

You are a whole and complex person. You have dreams and needs. You have hobbies, qualities and faults. You are not a single thing but a multiple of things. You have a past, a present and a future.

This is only a moment in time. A portrait of what is…but it is not the rest of your life.

I only shoot when I am moved by the moment itself.  Regardless of the subject, my camera simply becomes my translator of the moment as I experience it.  Instinctively maneuvering myself and my lens to embrace the moment fully, through framing, perspective, and ambient lighting, I ‘dance’ with my camera.  Like a first kiss, a moment cannot live again.  Thus I only have an instant to capture that moment… no re-takes… either I caught it or I did not.

Black and white photography has always held an added dimension of wonder for me.  The hushed unfolding of the moment, without the distraction of color, leads me straight to the story itself.

Color photography recently became a renewed form of storytelling for me.  The energy of color, whether bold or subdued, can heighten the sensory connection to the moment.

Regardless of your own preference for color or black and white photography, I invite you to ‘dance’ with the moment as you view my images.

Spiritflow – 2007

Your fucked.

I experienced on of those today. To say the least, it has not been a good day

“And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.” – The Far Sweet Thing, Libba Bray

Sometimes I wish I could let yesterday go up in smoke so there wouldn’t be any remnants of it, and then when I think of doing just that I realize all of what I am today comes from who I was yesterday. Those things of the past allowed me to have the experiences I have this moment…no matter how hard it was to go thru. So, let me focus on things I can change in this moment.

This is what I choose:

1. Instead of acting out of hurt, I choose to pray for someone whom I love that hurts me greatly.
2. Instead of acting out destructively to punish myself in some sort of fashion or way, I choose to treat myself with loving kindness as if I were someone else…not just someone who hurts or who feels like I am “bad.”
3. Instead of trying to stuff down the pain, I choose to feel it and let it go through the stages of grief, so I can move past the hurt and pain.
4. Instead of looking back, I choose to look forward and focus on what is happening this moment, so I don’t overwhelm myself with could have been or should have been.
5. Instead of me feeling ungrateful for the chance to love my loved ones, I can feel grateful I can choose to love beyond what another chooses for her/his life.
6. Instead of me defining myself on what happens, I choose to define myself by my character, the values and beliefs I uphold, and the love I have to freely give.
7. Instead of hating, I choose to have love for another even though I am hurt.

I interrupt my regularly-scheduled broadcast……to bring you this very important breaking news update.

Today I found out my uncle is sick and in the hospital.

Our entire family is praying for him – that he will recover – and have many more years to celebrate life. Hearing this news from my mom this morning started me thinking about a “moment” that my Uncle Wes and I had together during my wedding in may.

I was showing him the video I had made for John and my Uncle became visibly touched. Now, you have to know my Uncle Wes to know, this just does not happen!

Uncle Wes is my favorite “tough-guy” uncle, replete with tats and would probably have a Harley if my Auntie would let him. He has this gruff voice that lumbers in the air far after he leaves the room. When I was a kid, if Uncle Wes got mad, you had better leave the country because you were about to get a lickin that would keep on stingin for months!

After watching the video, my Uncle Wes shared some wisdom and encouragement with me about marriage that I bring to remembrance daily as I navigate these new waters of “one-fleshness” with John. My whole world stopped as I stepped into that “moment” with my Uncle Wes and just soaked in it. Of all of the “moments” during my wedding day, it is that one that I will cherish in my heart forever.

This is my Uncle Wes at the wedding…

And this is my Uncle Wes, my mom & step dad, and my Auntie MaryKay… ain’t they cute!

So before we move on, could you lift my Uncle Wes and Auntie Mary Kay up in prayer today for God’s healing touch?

It has been said that…Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

The older I become, the more I realize this to be true. It is those captivating moments that I look back on that I can point to and say “in that moment I learned something… became something… gained something… in that moment I was defined…or in that moment life took on a whole new meaning for me…”

Those moments have no monetary value but yet they are a treasure no amount of money can buy.

Criminal justice sytem

From my book CHILDHOOD MEMOIRS

 The words crime, punishment, criminal etc. were coined in the feudal era. At the time of the the capitalist revolution in France ( 177 5 ), when wooly-eyed writers and intellectuals took it as the true revolution ,words like liberty, fraternity and equality came into vogue. Victor Hugo’s Le Mirable  for the first time, made us aware of the fact that  a thief is also a human being. Alas! We have forgotten Hugo. Is  his name mentioned in any text book?

No wonder. It is highly inconvenient to mention his name, now that money is the supreme deity (in Malayalam the word for a billionaire is KODEESWARAN !). How else can we explain public linching of a poor harijan boy in front of TV cameras? If we claim to be humanists, we should have intervened to save the poor boy. Let us re-read Hugo. The word criminal must be deleted from dictionary.

We are all fallible. I used to travel in DTC bus, paying the minimum fare, until I was caught. Did I earn money this way? It is just human tendency to enjoy any gain, howsoever pitifully trivial it may be! Yet I am not a miser. We have to continuously improve our own thinking, attitude, outlook and behaviour. (To thine own conscience, be true). The system should help us to become a true gentleman, in every sense of the term! Wash away the criminal in me. Lockup, police brutality and the jail will only make me a hardened criminal. Parents and teachers have empowered themselves to beat a child whose sole parent is God. Will He be happy with our conduct?

A pick pocket or smuggler is let away with light punishment. Their patrons are in the good books of the police. Does the system have any way of reforming a criminal? The latter is just a tool .There is no law for punishing the real villain who works behind the scene. This aspect has to be taken care of.

In the proposed set up, a team of dedicated people will conduct a thorough probe into all aspects of even a petty crime and recommend measures to eradicate it forever. If only an individual is concerned, he can be given work of cleaning the gutter, removing garbage or some such useful work. Jails can be converted into schools. Hardened criminals  can be chained like slaves and made to work hard.

The investigating team should be headed by a judge (A retired one may be preferred).

The members of the team must be well trained, thoroughly honest and dedicated. The whole department could be under the control of the Chief Justice of India and function independently, without interference from any quarter. All proceedings must be video recorded, but the proceedings must be  in camera, lest others involved may know what is happening and arm themselves accordingly. The culprit shall remain in humane custody. No bail, even if the crime is trivial. The whole lot of lawyers should be asked to go home and tend cattle!

At present they work only to distort or delay the investigation and save the culprit for the sake of money. How do we tolerate this brazen miscarriage of justice?

APPOINTMENTMENT OF JUDGES

Like the election commission, there shall be a permanent judicial commission. Appointment of judges will follow the same pattern as that of MPs (see Democratic Disfunction).T he judges too should work hard from 8 am to 6 pm every day, with weekly holiday by rotation; but they will get suitable salary because they are not elected by the people.

Even a shadow of suspicion shall debar him .Once appointed, he should work for life time, without any age limit, so long as he is healthy and willing to work .Transfer and promotion etc. must also be decided by the commission.

They may be removed any moment, if proved to be incompetent or unhealthy or on grounds for suspicion; otherwise they can serve indefinitely as in the US.(Their system is better in all respects. If their system is a motor car, ours is a bullock cart, with one wheel broken and the animal unable to pull !)

Any person, not necessarily an aggrieved one, on the basis of news ,a first information report may be lodged even by e:mail  The concerned judge shall immediately start investigation ,assisted by CIDs, police etc., but in strict secrecy .Any person may be arrested, including witnesses who shall remain in custody till investigation is over.The people detained must not be allowed to meet each other. All questioning shall be video recorded in the presence of the judge. Refusal to answer a question will be treated as confession .

The judgement shall be given then and there .

The whole system must function independently, without  interference from any quarter. Nobody will even come to know ; how can they meddle ?

The policemen must be like elder brothers to the citizens, in the model of the English police.

The Samsung Moment wasn’t a phone I’d originally intended on test-driving, but it was on display immediately next to the Pre and it runs Android, so I decided to give it a go.  Software-wise it seemed pretty similar to the CLIQ I tried at T-Mobile, though it is a slightly older version (1.5 “Cupcake” instead of 1.6 “Donut”) so there are some small differences.  After my hands-on I learned that the Moment has an 800MHz processor that is supposedly much faster than its competitors, but I couldn’t tell while using it.  The keyboard was a bit laggy and scrolling was sometimes a bit herky-jerky, putting its performance merely on par with the other phones I’ve tried.

Build-wise I was unimpressed.  While it didn’t feel shoddy, it also didn’t feel as solid as I’d like.  There was a bit of give in the body when twisted and buttons wiggled a little more than I’d like them to, but overall there was nothing that gave me serious concern.  I’m beginning to suspect I’m simply spoiled by the iPhone’s rigidity, but regardless it’s the standard I’ve come to expect in that department.  Also, the headphone and USB jacks had those annoying little rubber covers you have to pick at to get off, which I really didn’t like.  Related to the build, the phone felt kind of big.  In terms of raw measurements it actually isn’t much bigger than my iPhone and isn’t dramatically heavier, but something about it just felt kind of clunky.  It might be its less-than-slick design, or the presence of the massive keyboard, but whatever it is it does make the phone seem a little hefty regardless of whether or not it actually is.

The keyboard is indeed huge, and it really set this phone apart from the others I’ve seen.  The numbers get their own row (unlike the Pre and the CLIQ), the keys aren’t in perfect, vertical, un-keyboard-like rows (unlike the Pre and the CLIQ), and the keys are big enough and have enough space between them to be usable by my big hands.  I found it one of the more comfortable hard keyboards I’ve used, and a big improvement over the Pre’s.  The keyboard layout, however, really wrecks what otherwise could have been my favorite keyboard so far.  The space bar is annoyingly inserted between the V and B keys, and the letters on the bottom row are aligned with the letters above them differently than a normal keyboard layout.  So you basically have to learn a new keyboard layout to type on this keyboard.  While I’m sure that could be accomplished with time, it was maddening to try to use it initially because my fingers kept going to the wrong places.  While I understand the placement of the space key is made tricky by the welcome addition of a dedicated row of number keys, I felt it was simply unwise to put the function and shift keys on the left where they bump the top and middle rows of letters out of place.

The phone seems like it has some advantage over the others on paper, but the real-world implementation really left me underwhelmed.  I’d be willing to overlook the dull design and obnoxious port covers if there weren’t any functional problems (e.g. the keyboard was improved), but as it is it’s just another point against the Moment.  Hopefully Samsung’s future Android efforts will improve.

Be free to leave a comment if you’d like to say more.

Nói làm sao cho hết

Nói làm sao cho hiểu

Trái tim là thế giới quay cuồng, hỗn loạn, quẩn quanh và đầy bất trắc.

Nắm trọn nó ư?

Chiếm giữ và điều khiển nó ư?

Không tưởng

Biết rằng mệt mỏi nhưng có lẽ như hiện tại là tốt nhất

Chí ít, tốt cho trái tim đang đầy băn khoăn

Tốt cho tất cả .

p.s: thật ra anh đang mưu tính gì, và em đang suy nghĩ gì? Có phải em đang chờ đợi anh hay chờ đợi 1 điều gì khác?

Em không nắm rõ và anh cũng vậy. Anh cứ khiến em có những dự cảm và rồi biến nó thành những nỗi đau bất tận…

Em thả trôi trái tim và đó là điều nguy hiểm, bởi lúc đó em biết em sẽ không thể yêu được nữa..

Hoặc em sẽ quỵ ngã trước bất cứ điều gì..

Không cảm giác, đó là sự tra tấn dã man nhất

Anh, em, chúng ta cần gì?

How is it that the impossible is possible? It is not just that certain acts are mistakenly considered impossible, but actually are possible. These are not strictly-speaking impossible acts. An impossible act is one which reconstitutes the field of possibility at the precise moment of its enactment.

Bo czasem tak bywa, że coś się zmienia. A zmienić się może naprawdę wszystko.
Ale historia lubi się powtarzać, status quo powraca, a my znów jesteśmy na lodzie.
Chociaż inna sytuacja, skutek jak zawsze ten sam…

Od jakiegoś czasu nie byłem sobą.
Tym dawnym, którego znałem, i który był dla mnie wygodny.
A teraz sam nie chcę jego powrotu.

Czwarty dzień
Nocny – Fajki – Piwo
Nuta
Ona
Już druga w nocy
Jutro koniec…

(…)
Happiness was there awhile
And from me it… it slipped one day
Happiness come back I say!

I na koniec:

Stanął przed nią. Stanął z szeroko rozpostartymi ramionami.
Stał bezbronny jak niemowlę, a przepełniał go strach.
- Strzelaj – powiedział.
Stali długo.
Stali długo, wśród ciemnej nocy, z rzadka rozjaśnionej słabym światłem latarni. Chciał powiedzieć jej wszystko.
Gdyby tylko udało się uronić choć słowo, sylabę chociaż.
Wtedy zacząłby mówić. Mówił by długo. O tym jak kocha ją gdy się złości i śmieje, gdy żartuje, gdy jest poważna, jak kocha ją gdy śpi lub pali cienkiego, długiego papierosa. Mówiłby jak uwielbia sposób w jaki wypuszcza dym lub uśmiecha się, gdy ją łaskocze. Rozprawiałby o tym, jak trudno mu było uświadomić sobie tą miłość i o tym o ile trudniej będzie wypuścić ją ze ścierpniętych, drżących ramion. Kląłby na siebie i cały świat, na młodość, na deszcze i niespełnienie. Wykrzyczałby – jakby do samego siebie – całą złość jaką kiedykolwiek czuł. Mówiłby długo, do świtu lub dłużej, lecz na końcu uśmiechnąłby się świadom tego co czuje. Pocałowałby ją, zapalił papierosa i zamilkł.
Ale milczał cały czas. Ciszy jesiennej nocy nie zakłócił żaden dźwięk. Stali tak chwilę, która wydała się wiecznością, aż poczuł pierwsze krople deszczu na twarzy. Spojrzał raz jeszcze w niebo pełne gwiazd, zamknął oczy i westchnął ciężko.
A ona strzeliła…
18.11.09

… Taka moja spowiedź.

1. mother remember the night
that the dog had her pups in the pantry

some songs
pin themselves
to one moment

moment explodes
into layers
of narrative
that lay themselves
against each other
like sediment rock
dripping rust pigment
on the shores
of the st. lawrence

moment gives itself over
though i cannot own
i almost do

a piece
of  real-estate
tiniest parcel
overgrown
underkept
field mice
gnarled trees
brown bottles
buried deep into clay earth

some songs
invite me into the pantry to witness
a softness
not usually associated
with your family
some songs
press my palm
against specter of your warm chest
chronicle of home

2. happy birthday
sharon olds