If anything is on this page, it’s because I was in a hurry and forgot to tag and categorize!
A post I should have written ages ago.
From Elise with soulful love #Rohingya
Browsing Category Uncategorized
When feelings fade & we’re worn out; faith.
Read this.
So many of us are exhausted by the endless breaking news cycle filled with catastrophe after scandal after disaster. When we look around our cities we see homelessness, potholes, pollution, and displacement. When we survey our own lives, most of us aren’t where we want to be in life. And so our feelings evolve into cynicism, defeatism, fatigue, and apathy. We used to care, but that didn’t seem to get us anywhere. Things don’t seem to change for the good. So we just stop “feeling like it”, turning to distractions that make us feel something better, and we insulate ourselves from being emotionally jaded and exhausted, settling for rhythms of life that keep us feeling good.
Our feelings and moods are pretty powerful stuff. They can move into action or paralyze us altogether. They are one of the most significant forces in how we make choices: “I felt like…
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Transformational love. It can suck.
There are some basic truths to life: Everybody will get blisters. Love is overrated.
No, this is better: Pimples are inevitable. Love hurts.
Or, how about this one: All will have bad hair days. Love sucks.
And then the ultimate: The blisters, the pimples and the bad hair days come and go, but love lasts forever.
Over the many years I have lived, I have loved much. I have loved pets and people the most. But I have also loved a knitted cardigan, a ragdoll with matted hair and a cozy corner of my living room.
Right now I love avocados, the dog we used to have, to run, and to feel the cold air playing on my face after ascending a mountain top. I love the smell of rosemary and of cinnamon. I love the sound of children giggling.
The avocado love is the kind of love that doesn’t…
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A Wedged Bear in Great Tightness
“But I know that for me, I need the book and I need the friends around me who help me get out of the hole I feel stuck in.”
The wisdom of Pooh comes to me in small drips every so often. “Would you read a Sustaining Book, such as would help and comfort a Wedged Bear in Great Tightness?” he humbly asked when he was stuck in Rabbit’s rabbit hole. And, the way I see it, he summarised the plight of mankind.
A Wedged Bear in Great Tightness (or is it a pig? Same, same, but different. I drank this bear-pig.)
My little friend at Starbucks felt like Pooh this morning when he tried to add all my purchases for breakfast and promised me a discount that he wasn’t able to punch into the computer. It took me 20 minutes and many encouraging nods before I finally had my coffee, yoghurt and musli. In the end, the coffee wasn’t so good and I burned my tongue.
I too feel wedged in great tightness these days. It is like…
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“Expert Diarrhea Medics”
Read about the experts at diarrhea:
The jungle has been awake long before we rise, with raucous bird calls and cicadas greeting the day. A slight chill is in the air, as we creep out from under our mosquito net.
The medics rise early. Soon we hear chopping of firewood with a machete, for the morning meal. An aromatic resinous wood is used to start the fire, and the smell is like burning incense offered up to this new day.
Here is our breakfast one morning, cooked with love by K’Nyaw Say, one of our medics. 
Jasmine rice, spicy pumpkin curry, potato patties, stir-fried greens and carrots, and warm (ready…
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Creating a new gospel and justifying killing
A hate and gospel are an oxymoron. You state it clearly. Great reflection and challenge to be god news, not bad.
This mother, she is a Muslim. She loves her baby too.
Over the years I have made some Muslim friends.
Some of them like spicy food. Some don’t. Some of them listen to rap, others to classical music. Some of them are good at the times tables. Some of them suck. Some of them are skinny, others are a bit meatier. Some of them cover their heads, others don’t. Some are well educated; some don’t know how to read. Some sing in a choir, others play soccer.
The Muslim friends I have are as different as wild flowers in a field during summer.
Of course they have some things in common as well: They feel hunger. They get cold. They can feel lonely. They are afraid. Many laugh when they get tickled. They want to live in peace. They are happy when people say nice things to them.
There are…
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The Black Friday Alternative {an email that messed up everything for me today}
This email arrived today while I was browsing amazon.com looking for gifts for my family. Actually, I accidentally ended up looking at cool camera lenses for myself. (grovelling and sick confession) See, Amazon and everyone else in the consumer culture world are having these irresistible sales to kick off the shopping season. It’s Black Friday (Reminds me just now of the 80’s The Cure anthem: It’s Friday, I’m in love).
Then into my inbox came this disturbing email. Please read it and consider being a part of the Black Friday Alternative with me and the team of all stars at Partners Relief and Development.
“He had tears in his eyes as he told us about the lack of food for his people and the Rohingya community that hadn’t received any aid in the past three months. A few hours later we delivered 17,500 kg of rice to 1,015 families.” – Partners Relief Team Leader
Our team went to help the displaced Rohingya community near Sittwe that we had supported with goats and vegetables earlier in the year. Our relief partners living in the area were frightened to go as the last time they visited, the police had threatened them, simply because they were providing food to starving families. It had been so long since they had received help that some had even been forced to sell the goats we had given them in order to have rice for their children to eat.
Despite security concerns, our relief team went to the community last week and confirmed there had been no food delivered to these isolated people in three months. One elderly man sobbed as he told us of his 4 children who were starving. We made the decision to bring them rice no matter the risk and a few hours later delivered 17,500kg of rice to two communities totaling 1,015 families.
This is the sort of action that your support empowers. Rice is more than food. It represents life for impoverished communities and for these Rohingya refugee families. The rice they received made the difference between life and death.
This Christmas, be a life saver and give a friend or family member the gift of #RICE4LIFE to help a family of 5 have enough rice to eat for a week and support training communities in sustainable rice production.
Your partner in Burma,
Dave Cando
Relief team leader, Partners Relief & Development
Helping others to help myself. Self care
I’m not sure if she is allowed to talk like that. What do you think?
The Good Samaritan. Did he have pure motives? Beautiful painting by van Gogh.
Once, some years ago, my daughter, Elise, who has always been wise beyond her years, asked this: I have some money I would like to give the refugees, but the reason I want to give it is so that people will think highly of me. If that is my motive, should I or should I not give the money? Did I mention she was 11 when she asked this?
I told her she should give the money, because the money has the same value whether it is given by a selfish bastard, or by a selfless nun. But that her goal should be to work on her heart so that eventually she would start giving simply because it was the right thing to do. Not because of the praise, or other benefits, she will receive. Eventually, I…
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