19 Kalimat 163 B.E. - July 31, 2006
I had an interesting thought today. It resulted from a prompt sent by a journal group I subscribe to. The prompt concerned the way I defined myself. Anyway my answer had to do with the frequency at which my soul vibrates. I've never really thought of the soul in quite that way before. I've written two or maybe three poems about light and poets writing in shades of light. One of them was about a Baha'i poet who passed into the next world. Another had to do with a poets in general and what would happen if instead of ordinary in they used the light spectrum as their ink.
As it turns out, apparently I define myself by light, but the way my soul reflects the attributes of God. I don't remember a specific verse that talks about the frequency of light and the human soul. I can remember verses from the writing of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha about reflecting the attributes of God. I'll have to do a search of Ocean to see if I can find the verse I'm thinking about. I remember a verse, but I can't remember the precise location. I think I'm going to have to start writing the references down so that I can find them when I want them.
This is my take on the subject of the soul and light, of the vibration of the human spirit and the way it reflects the attributes of God. Just as we see visible light though the color spectrum, we see spiritual light through the spiritual spectrum. The spiritual spectrum are divine attributes, which every human being can potentially reflect. In order to reflect those spiritual attributes, we have to polish our souls. We shine the spiritual mirror through prayer, meditation, reading the sacred writing, trusting in God, and confronting tests and difficulties. As we shine the mirror it reflects the divine attributes more fully. Polishing the mirror of the soul is a life times project. We never stop polishing in the material world. When we pass into the next world, at death, we take with us the divine attributes we've developed on Earth through the work of polishing our souls.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Sunday, July 30, 2006
An Accident Waiting to Happen!
18 Kalimat 163 B.E. – July 30, 2006 A.D.
“An accident waiting to happen,” this was on of my Grandma Newland’s favorite sayings. She usually used it when one of us left the scissors lying on the divan or something similar. I’ve had three encounters, that I can remember, with accidents waiting to happen. The first happened when I was around the age of four or five. The second occurred when I was, in grade school I don’t remember how old I was at the time and the third when I was in my twenties.
The first incident occurred at my cousins’ house. The family went to visit them on their farm outside of Blackwell. My cousins’ father had gotten and new refrigerator that day and the old one was setting on the back porch. While the adults were in the house playing cards, we kids were in the backyard playing games. One of the games we played was hide-and-seek. I decided that a good place to hide was in the old refrigerator. Therefore, I got in and let the door close behind me. The next thing I remember was seeing my grandfather reaching into the refrigerator and taking me out. Needless to say, the next time we visited them the refrigerator had no door.
Anyway, my grandfather had put a swing up next to the garage for us to use. One day someone (I don’t remember who or even why) suspended a wire with a sharp end from the cloths line behind the swing. The wire was hanging so that if you reach for it from the swing, you could grab hold of it with your hands. One day I decided to play “Jane” (Tarzan’s girl friend), so I grabbed the wire with both hand and tried to use it as a jungle vine. I fell off, onto the ground, with the ring finger on my right hand bleeding. Thinking about it today, I’m probably luck the swing didn’t hit me in the head. My grandfather took me to the emergency room, where the doctor sutured my finger. I still have a scare on that finder today.
The third occurred when I became an adult. I was living with my grandparents, in Blackwell, Oklahoma, at the time. It started to rain so I decided to get the chickens into their “chicken house”. I went into the pen and begin to chase on of the hens around the compound. There were boards with nails in them laying in one part of the enclosure. As I chased the hen that way, I stepped on one of the boards and a nail went right though my shoe. I drove myself to the emergency room, where a doctor bandaged my foot and gave me tetanus shot. Now all of those incidents were avoidable, if someone, either myself or another person, had just considered the possible consequence. Of course, I wouldn’t have learned anything if they had not happened and I wouldn’t be writing about this in my blog about today.
“An accident waiting to happen,” this was on of my Grandma Newland’s favorite sayings. She usually used it when one of us left the scissors lying on the divan or something similar. I’ve had three encounters, that I can remember, with accidents waiting to happen. The first happened when I was around the age of four or five. The second occurred when I was, in grade school I don’t remember how old I was at the time and the third when I was in my twenties.
The first incident occurred at my cousins’ house. The family went to visit them on their farm outside of Blackwell. My cousins’ father had gotten and new refrigerator that day and the old one was setting on the back porch. While the adults were in the house playing cards, we kids were in the backyard playing games. One of the games we played was hide-and-seek. I decided that a good place to hide was in the old refrigerator. Therefore, I got in and let the door close behind me. The next thing I remember was seeing my grandfather reaching into the refrigerator and taking me out. Needless to say, the next time we visited them the refrigerator had no door.
Anyway, my grandfather had put a swing up next to the garage for us to use. One day someone (I don’t remember who or even why) suspended a wire with a sharp end from the cloths line behind the swing. The wire was hanging so that if you reach for it from the swing, you could grab hold of it with your hands. One day I decided to play “Jane” (Tarzan’s girl friend), so I grabbed the wire with both hand and tried to use it as a jungle vine. I fell off, onto the ground, with the ring finger on my right hand bleeding. Thinking about it today, I’m probably luck the swing didn’t hit me in the head. My grandfather took me to the emergency room, where the doctor sutured my finger. I still have a scare on that finder today.
The third occurred when I became an adult. I was living with my grandparents, in Blackwell, Oklahoma, at the time. It started to rain so I decided to get the chickens into their “chicken house”. I went into the pen and begin to chase on of the hens around the compound. There were boards with nails in them laying in one part of the enclosure. As I chased the hen that way, I stepped on one of the boards and a nail went right though my shoe. I drove myself to the emergency room, where a doctor bandaged my foot and gave me tetanus shot. Now all of those incidents were avoidable, if someone, either myself or another person, had just considered the possible consequence. Of course, I wouldn’t have learned anything if they had not happened and I wouldn’t be writing about this in my blog about today.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Growth: Today’s Power Word
15 Kalimat 163 B.E. – July 27, 2006 A.D.
I’m subscribed to a yahoo prompt group called Daily Power Words (click on the title of this entry and it will take you to the website http://www.dailypowerwords.com). Every day Christine, the monitor of the group and the owner of the mentioned site, sends a word with two or three paragraphs of her thought about the word and a journal exercise. In addition, she sometime includes a saying by a famous person on the subject.
Today’s power word is growth. This subject struck a chord with me. Lately I’ve been excessively focused on the difficulties hindering me from achieving my goals, rather than on achieving the goals. I look at the goal, I look at the barriers between myself and the final outcome, I look at what I’ve achieved toward the goal, but I don’t think I’m focusing on the steps of achievement. Because of not focusing on the necessary steps, I haven’t accomplished much toward the final outcome. According to Christine it’s the achievement steps taken every day that allows us to grow and this is true.
I find the things that hold me down are focusing on the difficulties, on the perceived barriers coming between the goal and myself. If I focus on the walls preventing me from accomplishment, then I don’t make any progress, I don’t grow spiritually. Therefore, I need to change my focus. Rather than looking at the barriers before I get to them, I need to focus on the steps themselves. By paying attention to the steps, I don’t make the difficulties, the limitation, the barriers any more concrete or larger than reality. Often when I do get to the barrier I find it’s a speed bump rather than a wall or a rose bush instead of a towering hedge of thorns.
Now the question arises: How do I change my focus? My answer is prayer and meditation. First, let me say, I have no rituals when it comes to prayer and meditation. My prayers consist of those revealed by Baha’u’llah and the Bab, or written by ‘Abdu’l-Baha. My meditation is chanting the Most Great Name. Normally I don’t have a specific time of day to chant, however, I’m going to change that, I’m going to set a specific time of a morning to chant. Setting a specific time has nothing to do with rituals; it has to do with discipline. In order to grow spiritually a person needs discipline. That’s my first step in changing my focus. I know that others will follow, but one doesn’t reach the destination in one giant step. One reaches the destination after a journey of many steps.
I’m subscribed to a yahoo prompt group called Daily Power Words (click on the title of this entry and it will take you to the website http://www.dailypowerwords.com). Every day Christine, the monitor of the group and the owner of the mentioned site, sends a word with two or three paragraphs of her thought about the word and a journal exercise. In addition, she sometime includes a saying by a famous person on the subject.
Today’s power word is growth. This subject struck a chord with me. Lately I’ve been excessively focused on the difficulties hindering me from achieving my goals, rather than on achieving the goals. I look at the goal, I look at the barriers between myself and the final outcome, I look at what I’ve achieved toward the goal, but I don’t think I’m focusing on the steps of achievement. Because of not focusing on the necessary steps, I haven’t accomplished much toward the final outcome. According to Christine it’s the achievement steps taken every day that allows us to grow and this is true.
I find the things that hold me down are focusing on the difficulties, on the perceived barriers coming between the goal and myself. If I focus on the walls preventing me from accomplishment, then I don’t make any progress, I don’t grow spiritually. Therefore, I need to change my focus. Rather than looking at the barriers before I get to them, I need to focus on the steps themselves. By paying attention to the steps, I don’t make the difficulties, the limitation, the barriers any more concrete or larger than reality. Often when I do get to the barrier I find it’s a speed bump rather than a wall or a rose bush instead of a towering hedge of thorns.
Now the question arises: How do I change my focus? My answer is prayer and meditation. First, let me say, I have no rituals when it comes to prayer and meditation. My prayers consist of those revealed by Baha’u’llah and the Bab, or written by ‘Abdu’l-Baha. My meditation is chanting the Most Great Name. Normally I don’t have a specific time of day to chant, however, I’m going to change that, I’m going to set a specific time of a morning to chant. Setting a specific time has nothing to do with rituals; it has to do with discipline. In order to grow spiritually a person needs discipline. That’s my first step in changing my focus. I know that others will follow, but one doesn’t reach the destination in one giant step. One reaches the destination after a journey of many steps.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Reading Somebody Else’s Journal
13 Kalimat 163 B.E. – July 25, 2006 A.D.
There is a Follow the Leader Journaling contest on writing.com. I was in the first one, but haven’t enter it since. A new session of the contest started on Monday, July 24, and it will end on Sunday, August 13. The idea of the contest is simple, one person makes a leading journal entry then everyone else in the contest responds to the entry. I looked into the contest today.
The title of the first leading entry oddly enough, as I was reading the entry I realized that while I don’t know what the person looks like, I do know the person. Some many times we base likes and dislikes of their people on what we see. We choose to like or dislike a person because of a judgment we make by sight, by visual clues. In this case, I can’t because I’ve never met writer of oddly enough in person and I’ve never seen a picture. The only contact I have with the author of this specific leading entry is through what the person writes. I like this person because I’ve read journal or rather blog entries and I find the person’s thoughts intriguing.
The internet has changed so much about the way we interact socially. We meet someone on a website and get to know them through what is written in a blog. We base our likes and dislikes not on visual clues, but on the written word. We learn thing about people we have never met, people we may never meet in person, in the real world, without ever seeing them. True there are photos on blogs, but those photo are often a person’s best and usually posed. I like learning about others by reading their writings, by reading their blogs. I can read their thoughts, I can read their opinions, I can learn about them without the distraction of physical appearance. When you read someone else’s blog you get a look into that person’s soul oddly enough.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Random Ramblings
12 Kalimat 163 B.E. – July 24, 2006 A.D.
I don’t know what’s going on with me lately. I haven’t made a blog entry in a while, my reason is I’ve focused on writing a paper for my class. Actually, I don’t know what’s going on with me right now. I’m sitting staring at the screen considering what to write and nothing comes to mind. OK, so I’ve gotten that out of my system, now maybe I can write.
Went to bed early last night and lay looking out the window at Metro’s Copter fly over. Don’t know what was going on in this neighborhood, but they were looking for something. Anyway, as I said, I went to be early, which means I got up early this morning. Got up and worked on the paper that’s due Sunday, but I want to post by Wednesday. It’s the discussion board and it is an annotated bibliography of educational websites. It’s just four websites, but they have to be something I can use. I’ve found three websites that qualify, but haven’t found a fourth yet.
I’ve got two papers due on Saturday. The other has to do with educational standards. I have to form an opinion on them and then find sources that both refute and agree with my opinion. That’s fun, I’ve already found a few documents on the subject. I’m going to read them before writing down what my opinion is, I mean there’s no use in forming an opinion before one has a few fact anyway. I’ve got enough articles downloaded to make an informed opinion, actually probably more than enough. I always think I need more articles in research than I use.
I’ve got other writing to do, but thought I’d better make a blog entry first. Writing, prayer, and reading the Baha’i scriptures (not necessarily in that order) always change my attitude. I can be in a bad or lousy mood and read the writings of the Bab, Baha’u’llah, or ‘Abdu’l-Baha and my mood with change. I can be on the verge of tears, say a prayer and I no longer want to cry. Writing works too, but not as quickly and reading the sacred scripture. When I write I have to write for over five minutes before my mood changes. I guess that’s all I have to write in this blog today, if it isn’t I’ll make another entry later on.
I don’t know what’s going on with me lately. I haven’t made a blog entry in a while, my reason is I’ve focused on writing a paper for my class. Actually, I don’t know what’s going on with me right now. I’m sitting staring at the screen considering what to write and nothing comes to mind. OK, so I’ve gotten that out of my system, now maybe I can write.
Went to bed early last night and lay looking out the window at Metro’s Copter fly over. Don’t know what was going on in this neighborhood, but they were looking for something. Anyway, as I said, I went to be early, which means I got up early this morning. Got up and worked on the paper that’s due Sunday, but I want to post by Wednesday. It’s the discussion board and it is an annotated bibliography of educational websites. It’s just four websites, but they have to be something I can use. I’ve found three websites that qualify, but haven’t found a fourth yet.
I’ve got two papers due on Saturday. The other has to do with educational standards. I have to form an opinion on them and then find sources that both refute and agree with my opinion. That’s fun, I’ve already found a few documents on the subject. I’m going to read them before writing down what my opinion is, I mean there’s no use in forming an opinion before one has a few fact anyway. I’ve got enough articles downloaded to make an informed opinion, actually probably more than enough. I always think I need more articles in research than I use.
I’ve got other writing to do, but thought I’d better make a blog entry first. Writing, prayer, and reading the Baha’i scriptures (not necessarily in that order) always change my attitude. I can be in a bad or lousy mood and read the writings of the Bab, Baha’u’llah, or ‘Abdu’l-Baha and my mood with change. I can be on the verge of tears, say a prayer and I no longer want to cry. Writing works too, but not as quickly and reading the sacred scripture. When I write I have to write for over five minutes before my mood changes. I guess that’s all I have to write in this blog today, if it isn’t I’ll make another entry later on.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Summer Storm
6 Kalimat 163 B.E. – July 18, 2006 A.D.
The monsoon season has finally started. The lightning storm last night was beautiful. The streaks of light were clear and bright. The thunder was so loud that it shook my bed and rattled the windows. It was the first storm of the season. It rained, the lightning struck a tree somewhere in town and knocked it down. An empty mobile home was set fire by the lightning. We usually don’t get this type of storm this early in the season, normally August is when the real lightning storms start and we haven’t had a storm like this in Las Vegas in several years.
Yesterday, during the day, there was an excessive heat warning, the temperatures to somewhere between 113 to 115 degrees. Then after dark, it rained with thunder and lightning. Today it’s been cloudy all day, but no rain. Just as well because the parking lot of one of the casinos flooded last night and fire department search and rescue had to retrieve a man from his car. Electricity went out in some parts of town. Quite a storm for the first one of the monsoon season, which means it should be an interesting season.
The monsoon season has finally started. The lightning storm last night was beautiful. The streaks of light were clear and bright. The thunder was so loud that it shook my bed and rattled the windows. It was the first storm of the season. It rained, the lightning struck a tree somewhere in town and knocked it down. An empty mobile home was set fire by the lightning. We usually don’t get this type of storm this early in the season, normally August is when the real lightning storms start and we haven’t had a storm like this in Las Vegas in several years.
Yesterday, during the day, there was an excessive heat warning, the temperatures to somewhere between 113 to 115 degrees. Then after dark, it rained with thunder and lightning. Today it’s been cloudy all day, but no rain. Just as well because the parking lot of one of the casinos flooded last night and fire department search and rescue had to retrieve a man from his car. Electricity went out in some parts of town. Quite a storm for the first one of the monsoon season, which means it should be an interesting season.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Family Memories
1 Kalimat 163 B.E. - July 17, 2006
It’s interesting what people remember from their childhood and youth. I remember my Grandma Darbe, I don’t remember my Grandpa Darbe, I think he died before I was born. I remember several different visits to my Grandma Darbe’s house in Burbank, Oklahoma. I remember she had an old cast iron stove in her kitchen. She would put pieces of wood in and use the stove to bake bread. I couldn’t have been very old when this event happened, but the memory is still with me today. Every time I smell wood smoke, every time I smell bread baking, I can see my Grandma Darbe’s face and she is always smiling.
What brought on this bit of nostalgia was a picture. A picture taken around Christmas; we went to Burbank to see her. This was the last time I saw Grandma Darbe, we never went back to see her after that. I’m not sure why, but I am glad I got to see her around my birthday. My mother found the picture a few days ago, it’s not in an album, but it soon will be. In the meantime, I scanned it and I am going to e-mail a copy to my brothers and to my nephews.
I’m going to use this in a chapbook called Family Memories. I’ve written several poems about family and where I grew up. I’ll have to do two or three about visiting Grandma Darbe. My memories about visit to see her are like vacation snap shots scattered through a photo album. I encounter them at the most unexpected time. There is the memory of bread baking in a cast-iron stove, of attending a small one-room school on another visit, of going to a revival meeting or the church she attended, anyway the preacher frightened me and my father had to carry me out of the church until I stopped crying. All those will go into a poem or poems about visits to Grandma’s House.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Feast of Words
1 Kalimat 163 B.E. – July 13, 2006 A.D.
On the evening of Wednesday, July 12, at 7:30 p.m., I attended the Feast of Kalimat, the Feast of Words, at the Baha’i Center in Las Vegas. I started out early, because I had to stop for gas and normally, when I have to stop for gas before Feast there are lines at the gas station and I have to wait. There were not lines this time, so I was in and out in record time. I arrived at the center a little early, but that’s OK because I like to sit and meditate before the Feast begins.
The decorations in the main meeting room of the Center were beautifully. There were three vases of flowers. The vase I particularly noticed set on top of the piano. It contained a bouquet of yellow roses. The other two vases contain white and red flowers, not roses, but some other types of flowers. I couldn’t tell you what type of flowers they were because I don’t know the names of them. I can only identify a few flowers by sight. I can identify roses and lilies, but I can’t identify the different varieties.
The readings at the feast were a smorgasbord of sacred writing by Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha, plus prayers in three languages. At the social portion there scrumptious dishes such as watermelon, carrot cake, chocolate cake, a deli wrap, nuts, juice, coffee, and tea. We laughed and talked, everyone had a great time.
I got an idea for a poem; the title of the poem is the Feast of Words. The way I’m going to approach it is to describe attending the Nineteen Day Feast from the point of view of eating a delicious meal. I suspect this may be a long poem, because I’m considering dividing it into more than one section, similar to a multi-course meal. I think I’ll divide the poem into three section. Describe the Feast as a three-course meal, because there are three parts to a Feast. The three parts or courses of the Feast are the spiritual, business, and social portions.
OK, what do I have so far? I have smorgasbord, buffet, salad bar, or desert table for the sections of the poem. Other words I can use, in the lines of the poem, are delicious, tasty, appetizing, yummy, luscious, delectable, mouth-watering, delightful, lovely, wonderful, pleasant, enjoyable, appealing, enchanting, and charming. How about, a smorgasbord of delight met my eyes. That sounds nice, I’ll see what I come up with and add it to the rest of my poems about the Feast. I’m working on my faith book, which has a separate section for each of the Feasts. Each section of the book opens with a poem about a particular feast.
On the evening of Wednesday, July 12, at 7:30 p.m., I attended the Feast of Kalimat, the Feast of Words, at the Baha’i Center in Las Vegas. I started out early, because I had to stop for gas and normally, when I have to stop for gas before Feast there are lines at the gas station and I have to wait. There were not lines this time, so I was in and out in record time. I arrived at the center a little early, but that’s OK because I like to sit and meditate before the Feast begins.
The decorations in the main meeting room of the Center were beautifully. There were three vases of flowers. The vase I particularly noticed set on top of the piano. It contained a bouquet of yellow roses. The other two vases contain white and red flowers, not roses, but some other types of flowers. I couldn’t tell you what type of flowers they were because I don’t know the names of them. I can only identify a few flowers by sight. I can identify roses and lilies, but I can’t identify the different varieties.
The readings at the feast were a smorgasbord of sacred writing by Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha, plus prayers in three languages. At the social portion there scrumptious dishes such as watermelon, carrot cake, chocolate cake, a deli wrap, nuts, juice, coffee, and tea. We laughed and talked, everyone had a great time.
I got an idea for a poem; the title of the poem is the Feast of Words. The way I’m going to approach it is to describe attending the Nineteen Day Feast from the point of view of eating a delicious meal. I suspect this may be a long poem, because I’m considering dividing it into more than one section, similar to a multi-course meal. I think I’ll divide the poem into three section. Describe the Feast as a three-course meal, because there are three parts to a Feast. The three parts or courses of the Feast are the spiritual, business, and social portions.
OK, what do I have so far? I have smorgasbord, buffet, salad bar, or desert table for the sections of the poem. Other words I can use, in the lines of the poem, are delicious, tasty, appetizing, yummy, luscious, delectable, mouth-watering, delightful, lovely, wonderful, pleasant, enjoyable, appealing, enchanting, and charming. How about, a smorgasbord of delight met my eyes. That sounds nice, I’ll see what I come up with and add it to the rest of my poems about the Feast. I’m working on my faith book, which has a separate section for each of the Feasts. Each section of the book opens with a poem about a particular feast.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Getting My Thoughts Organized
Day Month 163 B.E. – Month Day – Day, 2006 A.D.
Writing help me get my thoughts straight. I know that sometimes when I’m writing this blog my subject and my thought wonder across the landscape. That isn’t going to stop, in fact it may get even worse in the coming five weeks. That because I started a new class today and I need to get my thoughts for the assignments organized. So rather than attempting to write about the assignment and keep my blogs (yes, I wrote blogs) updated, I’m going to use the blog posts to organize my thoughts. This way I can concentrate on the class and keep my blogs up-to-date at the same time. It’s called multitasking, I think my grandmother had another term for doing more than one thing at a time, but right now I can’t remember what.
Anyway, as I was saying I started a new class today. It is EDU660 Curriculum Design and Evaluation. I have two assignments due each week, one of the assignments is a discussion board project (maybe I should say paper, project makes it sound tremendous) and the other is an individual paper. The discussion board project is a maximum of seven paragraphs and the individual paper covers several pages. The format is APA, which, judging from earlier classes I seem to have a problem achieving. Oh well, it is a learning experience and I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’m going to learn a lot more as well.
I haven’t been writing a lot about the classes before, but I have a goal of getting an A in this class, which means I have to do something different than I did in the earlier classes. The grade’s in those classes were Bs and a C, so to get an A in this one I have to do something different. I had to ask myself, (to quote Dr. Phil) “How’s that working for you?” The way I was doing it wasn’t working for me, so I’m changing the way I approach the work and how I do it. If these works better than it has so far, my readers are in for a lot of interesting topics and intriguing approaches to those topics. That’s all for now, if you are interested in what’s coming up come back and see how my mind works.
Writing help me get my thoughts straight. I know that sometimes when I’m writing this blog my subject and my thought wonder across the landscape. That isn’t going to stop, in fact it may get even worse in the coming five weeks. That because I started a new class today and I need to get my thoughts for the assignments organized. So rather than attempting to write about the assignment and keep my blogs (yes, I wrote blogs) updated, I’m going to use the blog posts to organize my thoughts. This way I can concentrate on the class and keep my blogs up-to-date at the same time. It’s called multitasking, I think my grandmother had another term for doing more than one thing at a time, but right now I can’t remember what.
Anyway, as I was saying I started a new class today. It is EDU660 Curriculum Design and Evaluation. I have two assignments due each week, one of the assignments is a discussion board project (maybe I should say paper, project makes it sound tremendous) and the other is an individual paper. The discussion board project is a maximum of seven paragraphs and the individual paper covers several pages. The format is APA, which, judging from earlier classes I seem to have a problem achieving. Oh well, it is a learning experience and I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’m going to learn a lot more as well.
I haven’t been writing a lot about the classes before, but I have a goal of getting an A in this class, which means I have to do something different than I did in the earlier classes. The grade’s in those classes were Bs and a C, so to get an A in this one I have to do something different. I had to ask myself, (to quote Dr. Phil) “How’s that working for you?” The way I was doing it wasn’t working for me, so I’m changing the way I approach the work and how I do it. If these works better than it has so far, my readers are in for a lot of interesting topics and intriguing approaches to those topics. That’s all for now, if you are interested in what’s coming up come back and see how my mind works.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
My Harley Cap
15 Rahmat 163 B.E. – June 8, 2006 A.D.
It’s been windy lately. As I’m typing this the limbs of the stone pine tree in my front yard are swaying. The birds don’t seem to mind the wind, it not blowing hard enough to bother them, but it blowing hard enough to blow my hair into my eyes and make it generally difficult to keep my hair looking good. That’s why I carry a hair brush in my purse, so that when I get anywhere I’ve got something to make my hair lay down, at least until I get out in the wind again.
Of course, it really doesn’t matter if the wind blows or not because when I drive I drive with the windows down. You see I have four forty five air conditioning in my care. I roll down all four windows and drive forty-five miles an hour. Not only can that mess up my hair, but my hair gets in my face when I’m driving and I have to push it out of my eyes. That gets a bit irritating sometimes. So I need to do something to keep my hair out of my eyes when I’m driving. Now the obvious solution would be to either get my haircut or get hair spray.
I’ve never been know to go for the obvious solution. I usually find the least obvious or the off-the-wall solution. Anyway, that brings me back to the wind and my leather Harley-Davidson cap, at least I think it’s leather, it looks like leather and it has the Harley-Davidson logo on the front.. Yesterday or the day before, I went out to put the car back into the garage and, for some reason, put on the cap. As a result, the cap held my hair in place in the wind. So from now on, when I’m driving I’m going to wear the cap. It’ll keep my hair from getting into my eyes, I’m what use is having the cap if it’s not being used.
Someone give me the cap a couple of years ago and it’s been hanging in my room ever since. Just hanging there on the bookcase doing nothing, but no longer because it’s going to be worn, by me. And since I keep a hair brush in my purse, I can always take the cap off and brush my hair when I’m wearing a dress. I can always put the cap in my purse if I don’t want to leave it in the car.
It’s been windy lately. As I’m typing this the limbs of the stone pine tree in my front yard are swaying. The birds don’t seem to mind the wind, it not blowing hard enough to bother them, but it blowing hard enough to blow my hair into my eyes and make it generally difficult to keep my hair looking good. That’s why I carry a hair brush in my purse, so that when I get anywhere I’ve got something to make my hair lay down, at least until I get out in the wind again.
Of course, it really doesn’t matter if the wind blows or not because when I drive I drive with the windows down. You see I have four forty five air conditioning in my care. I roll down all four windows and drive forty-five miles an hour. Not only can that mess up my hair, but my hair gets in my face when I’m driving and I have to push it out of my eyes. That gets a bit irritating sometimes. So I need to do something to keep my hair out of my eyes when I’m driving. Now the obvious solution would be to either get my haircut or get hair spray.
I’ve never been know to go for the obvious solution. I usually find the least obvious or the off-the-wall solution. Anyway, that brings me back to the wind and my leather Harley-Davidson cap, at least I think it’s leather, it looks like leather and it has the Harley-Davidson logo on the front.. Yesterday or the day before, I went out to put the car back into the garage and, for some reason, put on the cap. As a result, the cap held my hair in place in the wind. So from now on, when I’m driving I’m going to wear the cap. It’ll keep my hair from getting into my eyes, I’m what use is having the cap if it’s not being used.
Someone give me the cap a couple of years ago and it’s been hanging in my room ever since. Just hanging there on the bookcase doing nothing, but no longer because it’s going to be worn, by me. And since I keep a hair brush in my purse, I can always take the cap off and brush my hair when I’m wearing a dress. I can always put the cap in my purse if I don’t want to leave it in the car.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Cover to My Faithbook
12 Rahmat 163 B.E. - July 5, 2006
Here is the cover to my faithbook. I am going to divide the book into 19, 20, or 21 sections. Each section will contain poems, about the Baha'i months, holy days, and days of celebration. There will be an introduction which will contain a poem about the year. I'll post what the section dividers look like later. I just decided on the cover today.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
What Freedom Means to Me
11 Rahmat 163 B.E. – July 4, 2006 A.D.
For me freedom is taking personal responsibility for my own spiritually, individual choices, personal opinions, emotions, and happiness. I am the only person I can control; I am not in control of anything except my own emotional reaction and my own thoughts and opinions. In order for me to be at peace with myself and there for happy, I must define these concepts for myself in a context that allows me to live in relative contentment with the rest of humanity.
According to the Declaration of Independence “…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." This is the theory on which the founding fathers constructed the United States. True the country has not always lived up to this, but it is something the country must continually work on this ideal. This ideal must be lived at the grass root level, before it is reflection on a state or even national level.
As an American citizen, I am responsible for defining this ideal in my own life and then reflecting it to the world around me. What does this ideal mean to me? First, I define “all men” as humanity, which includes male and female, every complexion of skin tone and political opinion and every religion. Next is my definition of “Creator”, for me the Creator is an unknowable essence, without descent or assent, and reflected to humanity through certain individuals that appear at critical points in human history to reveal to humanity the spiritual concepts necessary to carry the human race into the next stage of its collective evolution.
How do I define “unalienable Rights”? Dictionary.com defined unalienable this way: “Not to be separated, given away, or taken away…” Unalienable rights are those privileges innate to humanity, which does not mean that we receive them without work. Nor does it mean the individual can do whatever he or she wants without considering the rest of the human race. This is because humans were created to live as part of a human unit and as independent from the rest of humanity. The basic unit of humanity is the family; from the beginning of our existence as a species or a race (which ever you want to refer to humanity), the individual human is a component of a family unit. The family unit is a member of a tribe, a city, a nation and a planet.
Since I am a member of the human race and a citizen of both America and the planet, I am responsible for living my life in such a way that brings no intentional harm to the rest of the human race. Being a human being means I have both a body and a soul, I am a dual natured creature and I am responsible for learning what that means and how to live with other dual natured creatures.
This is what freedom means to me at this point in my life.
For me freedom is taking personal responsibility for my own spiritually, individual choices, personal opinions, emotions, and happiness. I am the only person I can control; I am not in control of anything except my own emotional reaction and my own thoughts and opinions. In order for me to be at peace with myself and there for happy, I must define these concepts for myself in a context that allows me to live in relative contentment with the rest of humanity.
According to the Declaration of Independence “…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." This is the theory on which the founding fathers constructed the United States. True the country has not always lived up to this, but it is something the country must continually work on this ideal. This ideal must be lived at the grass root level, before it is reflection on a state or even national level.
As an American citizen, I am responsible for defining this ideal in my own life and then reflecting it to the world around me. What does this ideal mean to me? First, I define “all men” as humanity, which includes male and female, every complexion of skin tone and political opinion and every religion. Next is my definition of “Creator”, for me the Creator is an unknowable essence, without descent or assent, and reflected to humanity through certain individuals that appear at critical points in human history to reveal to humanity the spiritual concepts necessary to carry the human race into the next stage of its collective evolution.
How do I define “unalienable Rights”? Dictionary.com defined unalienable this way: “Not to be separated, given away, or taken away…” Unalienable rights are those privileges innate to humanity, which does not mean that we receive them without work. Nor does it mean the individual can do whatever he or she wants without considering the rest of the human race. This is because humans were created to live as part of a human unit and as independent from the rest of humanity. The basic unit of humanity is the family; from the beginning of our existence as a species or a race (which ever you want to refer to humanity), the individual human is a component of a family unit. The family unit is a member of a tribe, a city, a nation and a planet.
Since I am a member of the human race and a citizen of both America and the planet, I am responsible for living my life in such a way that brings no intentional harm to the rest of the human race. Being a human being means I have both a body and a soul, I am a dual natured creature and I am responsible for learning what that means and how to live with other dual natured creatures.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Summer Memories
9 Rahmat 163 B.E. – July 2, 2006 A.D.
Summer is here! When summer comes, my mind wonders back to Oklahoma and my Grandparents mobile home on Lake Blackwell. Every year beginning with the Fourth of July weekend, my grandparents would take us to their mobile home every weekend. We would spend the weekends on Lake Blackwell boating and water skiing. My grandparents would plant a garden with potatoes, corn, squish and other good things on their leased lot at the Lake.
We always referred to Lake Blackwell as the Lake. We always called the mobile home a trailer house and Independence Day the Fourth of July. When we went to the trailer house on the Lake, we would go on Friday evening and stay until Sunday afternoon. That was the only time we didn’t go to church on Sunday. Instead of going to church or rather the First Southern Baptist Mission in the Heights’, we spent Sunday morning on the Lake and Sunday evening going back to Blackwell. I always enjoyed those weekends at the Lake, we fished, we water skied, we swam around my grandparents boat dock. My grandfather never left the motor boat at the Lake; instead, he would put the boat on the boat trailer and pull the boat back and forth every weekend.
In Blackwell, my grandparents lived in the Smelter Heights’, on the other side of the tracks, in the section of town located near the Zinc Smelter that provided jobs from before World War II. I haven’t been back to Blackwell so I don’t know if the Smelter Heights’ are still there or if the Zinc Smelter is still there. I think I’d like to go back sometime, but I’m not even sure about that. There are many other places in the world I’d like to go before I go back to Blackwell.
Maybe I’ll look up Blackwell, Oklahoma and see if they have a website. It would be interesting to see how the town has changed since I was last there. They say you can’t go home again, and I think that is true. In my case I can’t go home again because I can’t go someplace I’m already at. Now home is Las Vegas, Blackwell is where I was born and raise, at least until I started to high school, in high school we moved from Blackwell to Shawnee, Oklahoma. I did go back to Blackwell after I graduated from high school, but it wasn’t the same as when I’d been a child.
Summer is here! When summer comes, my mind wonders back to Oklahoma and my Grandparents mobile home on Lake Blackwell. Every year beginning with the Fourth of July weekend, my grandparents would take us to their mobile home every weekend. We would spend the weekends on Lake Blackwell boating and water skiing. My grandparents would plant a garden with potatoes, corn, squish and other good things on their leased lot at the Lake.
We always referred to Lake Blackwell as the Lake. We always called the mobile home a trailer house and Independence Day the Fourth of July. When we went to the trailer house on the Lake, we would go on Friday evening and stay until Sunday afternoon. That was the only time we didn’t go to church on Sunday. Instead of going to church or rather the First Southern Baptist Mission in the Heights’, we spent Sunday morning on the Lake and Sunday evening going back to Blackwell. I always enjoyed those weekends at the Lake, we fished, we water skied, we swam around my grandparents boat dock. My grandfather never left the motor boat at the Lake; instead, he would put the boat on the boat trailer and pull the boat back and forth every weekend.
In Blackwell, my grandparents lived in the Smelter Heights’, on the other side of the tracks, in the section of town located near the Zinc Smelter that provided jobs from before World War II. I haven’t been back to Blackwell so I don’t know if the Smelter Heights’ are still there or if the Zinc Smelter is still there. I think I’d like to go back sometime, but I’m not even sure about that. There are many other places in the world I’d like to go before I go back to Blackwell.
Maybe I’ll look up Blackwell, Oklahoma and see if they have a website. It would be interesting to see how the town has changed since I was last there. They say you can’t go home again, and I think that is true. In my case I can’t go home again because I can’t go someplace I’m already at. Now home is Las Vegas, Blackwell is where I was born and raise, at least until I started to high school, in high school we moved from Blackwell to Shawnee, Oklahoma. I did go back to Blackwell after I graduated from high school, but it wasn’t the same as when I’d been a child.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Asking Questions
8 Rahmat 163 B.E. – July 1, 2006 A.D.
In order to find truth a person must ask questions. Not only must we ask the comfortable questions, but we must ask the uncomfortable questions as well. We must question our doubts, our comfortable ideas and our preconceived notions. If we do not learn to ask questions, we will never find truth for ourselves and if we do not find truth for ourselves, we will remain bound in our superstitions.
Why are questions so important? The obvious answer is that questions eventually lead us to truth, but that is not the complete answer. Questions is one of the attributes of God, are innate to the human soul. From the time, we are old enough to know the difference between the outside world and ourselves form queries.
Why are questions so important? The obvious answer is that questions eventually lead us to truth, but that is not the complete answer. Questions is one of the attributes of God, are innate to the human soul. From the time, we are old enough to know the difference between the outside world and ourselves form queries.
We ask, “Who am I?”
We ask, “What is my purpose in life?”
We ask, “When will there be peace on Earth?”
We ask, “Where am I going?”
We ask, “Why is the sky blue?”
We ask, “How did I get here?”
We ask, “What is my purpose in life?”
We ask, “When will there be peace on Earth?”
We ask, “Where am I going?”
We ask, “Why is the sky blue?”
We ask, “How did I get here?”
Speaking of asking questions, I found an intriguing website that does just that and not only does it ask question, it ask the important questions. In fact, this website would like your questions. It is called dropping knowledge, it is a worldwide initiative whose goal is to transform apathy to action. The creators of this website want you to ask yourself a question about the issues confronting humanity today. After you have asked your question, they request that you submit that question, that you donate that question to them so that they can post it on the website.
If you are curious about dropping knowledge simply, click on the title to this entry to access the website. Donate a question, it does not have to be a world-shaking question, it can be whatever you want to ask. The categories’ of questions range from Animal Rights to Science and Technology. Look at the categories, ask your question, submit it and donate your question to the website. If you are not sure which of the twenty-five categories your question belongs to, use the “Other” category.
If you are curious about dropping knowledge simply, click on the title to this entry to access the website. Donate a question, it does not have to be a world-shaking question, it can be whatever you want to ask. The categories’ of questions range from Animal Rights to Science and Technology. Look at the categories, ask your question, submit it and donate your question to the website. If you are not sure which of the twenty-five categories your question belongs to, use the “Other” category.
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