When we don’t know how the next chapter will end

Day after day, we are confronted with all kinds of issues that can keep us busy at that moment, but also for longer than a day.

How we view all these issues will occupy and make us our day but also our many years of life…. We need to realise that we have a choice in how much we are influenced by the people and events around us.

Whether we should believe in miracles is another matter, but they can exist and they can happen to us. We must dare to believe in them and dare to move mountains.

“Life may cut you down, yet your roots are strong beneath.
You will rise once more.”

~ Alec Depledge ❤

Whatever happens to us, we have to keep holding onto hope.

image source: Mitra Shahidi

New Week Inspiration 💕🌞 . . . Let’s consider rising like the sun

…unworthy of a human being who wishes to evolve spiritually.

We human beings, are only mere creatures in the great masterpiece of the Divine Creator, Who we want to recognise or not. It is up to us to live according to the Creator His commandments or to ignore Him. The way we behave, the choices we make, are going to have a decision in way for our future. It is up to our intellect to choose for the right way. We need the intellect that dwells in our brains, when we wish to accomplish tasks on Earth, inspired by our souls!  So:

Mind your daily life and the present moment you are living in!

Every individual in his daily life, his choices shall determine his future. Do not hide for yourself or try to do all the time what others want, because then you shall fall apart.

Focus on what God wants. When you are on a spiritual path, you must come face-to-face with yourself
and acknowledge all of who you are. Never forget that

he shall reap what he sows. This is the infallible Divine Justice that
acts within the Laws of Creation.

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By the same blog:

1. ‘Tis hard for man to rouse his spirit up—
2. Hope is the clear window that allows light…
3. Inside beauty is the best source of Light
4. To thyself be true!
5. You could have……….BUT…
6. Sunday reflection . . . . The forces of Love
7. Sunday reflection . . . Praise the Creator Who has granted you life!
8. #TenderTuesday . . .Radiate boundless love…
9. …. if spiritual intuition were in charge.
10. High recognitions . . . the age of spiritual awakening on Earth…
11. High recognitions . . . The intellect is just an instrument of our souls.
12. High recognitions . . . Nature had no secrets…
13. High recognitions . . . . the future that waits for us
14. High recognitions . . . Divine Justice is infallible and goes beyond one earthlife.
15. High recognitions . . . Not even a single hair of a person will be touched if…
16. High recognitions . . . The Grail Message “In the Light of Truth”
17. High recognitions . . . Human beings have not taken advantage of their precious, varied lives on Earth
18. The plain fact…

Purplerays

To intentionally go through hardship or endure physical pain in exchange for the fulfillment
of some wish is unworthy of a human being who wishes to evolve spiritually. If a person feels
in his soul the urge to pledge to his God, then he must commit to striving to improve in
everything, seeking to keep his inner volition always pure, and also take care of his words,
thoughts and deeds….

The person who strives to improve in some way shows humility and goodwill, while one who
yields himself to suffer pain and deprivation shows unlimited vanity and conceit. The first
shows respect for the Will of the Almighty, while the latter reveals contempt, supposing, in
his puerile imagination, to be able to trade with it in some way.

The Day Without Tomorrow

Text & image source: The Day Without Tomorrow https://www.facebook.com/TheDayWithoutTomorrow/

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Healing Choices

Roth Poetry

Hurt and pain

leave scars on our soul

Forgiveness

removes the source

How we heal

is a choice we make

**

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

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What God should I believe in

On the Facebook Group Christadelphians we found the following letter we want to share with you:

I have been deconstructing my faith for some time now and found that I have not got a faith. I do believe though that God exists,somewhere, and that Jesus is his Son So I am not an atheist. But I now lean towards agnosticism. I have found that God cannot be relied on when I have needed his help I cannot believe that the bible is inherent and divinely inspired. And prayer is unreliable.

I did post a question Why did God need a human sacrifice to enable Him to forgive sin. I havent yet found an answer.

I read about the God of the Old Testament and cannot reconcile Him to the New Testament .John ch 3 v 16 in particular

In the OT we see God sanctioning slavery, Ordering the slaughter of Men, Women ,and Children, Genocide on a grand scale, ie the Flood. If all humans inherit Adams sin /Original sin then so did Noah and his family So why wasnt he destroyed as well as everybody else.

What God should I believe in

John Gale

Virginia McInturff replied

Man was created in God’s image. Man was given a choice to 1)follow God by blind faith or 2) do it his own way and learn good and evil.

God ket man go through the consequences of these choices to learn good and evil, allowing evil to exist. God can do good; God can do evil, just as we can all in His image do. He chooses to have good for His children, which Jesus in his many miracles that God did through him, all were good. Jesus didn’t harm or kill people. He did curse a tree. He could have called thousands of angels to save him…

All the evil we see is consequence of God allowing mankind to learn that, choosing to disregard God’s guidance, thus causing God to allow it.

He hates evil because it harms His children, His creation… air, water, creatures, land, plants… to the point of destroying it.

His plan for a world cared for by His children is wonderful and will happen, after the children of Adam are brought to learn that God is right.

Meanwhile God allows people to learn evil. It all comes from Him. He wants good for His creation. Eden held good, but outside the gate was the other side of God’s world.

Man has the power of being able to keep the good going by caring for the animals and earth, working it in balance with the things that are wholesome and healthy for the dirt, water, air, animals, our bodies and minds. The battle comes when shortcuts are chosen because of lusts and pride. So trust God’s promises that He wants good and has a good wonderful plan for our earth and His children. We will live and appreciate His choice to rid the world of evil!

Julie Snobelen adds:

I’ve been thinking a lot about gardening in terms of our lives… the Bible often alludes to this analogy for example in the parable of the sower. And I have been reading about no-till agriculture and cover crops and how it is so much better for the soil instead of thinking that a field has to be ploughed and harrowed and left bare for a while each year. This may not seem to have a lot to do with your questions, but I have found that thinking that I have to have all the answers to all the difficult questions is a bit like ploughing up the soil – it destroys all the little micro-ecosystems that have built up and eventually makes it difficult for anything to grow without a lot of chemical fertilizer and chemical pest control. I think sometimes we just need to count up all the ways that God is good, all the little ways that He is faithful – they are there even in trouble if you look for them. It is really human pride that thinks we have to have all the answers and be able to understand all the ways of God before we can give Him approval. I don’t mean we ignore the questions we may have but do we give God the benefit of doubt when we try to find the answers,? I hope you can find your way back to faith.

At the end of the day…

Dutch translation / Nederlandse vertaling: Aan het einde van de dag…

Purplerays

At the end of the day, you can either
focus on what’s tearing you apart
or what’s holding you together.

Text and image credit: Spiritual Awakenings https://www.facebook.com/SpiritualAwakenings/

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Your view of the world….

Dutch translation / Nederlandse vertaling: Kijk op de wereld afhangende van het raam waardoor men kijkt

Purplerays

Your view of the world depends a great deal
on the window you choose to look out of.
~

Text & image source: Precious World https://www.facebook.com/ourpreciousworld/

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A harsh life and guarantees

Many of us are not so happy with their life. Many find life difficult and a source of problems. It can be harsh and sometimes people do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. The only guarantee all have is that it will end.

This website like some other website on the 20 year old WWW is created to let you know, you always have a choice.

• A choice to acknowledge and embrace your positives and your limitations.
• A choice to keep on walking, step by step if necessary.
• A choice to reach out, to connect, to offer and to accept help.
• A choice to be YOU: a Beautiful Soul and thrive.

It is no surprise that life can be harsh and throw you in a situation you feel like the world is swallowing you and you’ve lost all control.

…

Feeling (a bit) better about yourself can be easy, if you’re looking for a quick boost. Playing or singing your favorite song, exercise for an hour, joining a yoga-class, eating a healthy meal or a big bowl full of ice-cream, drinking a glass of wine, reading a book, write a poem, walk with the dogs, swim in an ocean…so many different ways to lift your spirit. {Boost Your Soul}

Acknowledgement is more important than you might think. As human beings, we are by nature a creature who prefers to belong to others. At the same time, we are also each unique individuals and living in harmony is unfortunately no longer a given.
It even seems the frustration, anger and violence continues to increase worldwide. Understandably, people are tempted to withdraw from society and seek solitude: no longer trust human beings are wonderful creatures and question, if there are still Beautiful Souls among us.

We would love to see similar feeling people, people who find it necessary to give each other the hand to unite as brethren and sisters, as creatures of One Bigger Element.

Social media has become a large part of modern society. Instead of connecting many people in real life, we can see that it created more a virtual world where many can escape the reality of the real world. Many are glued on the little screen of their smartphone and do not often look up to see what is happening around them in the real world.

A ‘Mimosa pudica‘ who when she was a child was called ‘Kruidje-roer-me-niet’ (Mimosa Pudica) a lot because of her intensity when she believed something unjust or dishonest had happened in the world around her, wrote

Allowing ourselves to be too active on various social media platforms, to a point we can’t even have diner without checking every notification we receive, is of course not healthy.  Whether we use social media work related or as a hobby, there is a time and a place for everything.

Just like it is not healthy to work twenty-four-seven, sit or stand behind our laptops for over two hours straight, binch-eating while surfing, or forget about eating, sleeping and other necessary pursuits in life… it is not healthy to be online all the time.

Predators are everywhere in our society, unfortunately they do exist in our virtual Dreampack too. Just like we don’t share passwords with just anyone, have locks on our  valuable assets… we should use the security and privacy options each social platform provides. {Social media part of modern society. Embrace it !}

We have come into a world where the bullying does not any more takes place at the place of confrontation, but also on the social media. Today blackmail, treason and deception are not uncommon, however, shamefully, it is not exclusive to the virtual world.

Just like we choose who we invite in our daily life, use our gut feelings who to trust and who we like… We don’t have to click with everyone. At the same time, let us not forget that behind every account one of our neighbors is connected to it. {Social media part of modern society. Embrace it !}

Naturally not everything about social media has to be bad. Social media may give a true picture as well as a total false picture of the other but it can also be a way to learn from each other’s differences,

a platform through which beautiful collaborations can be created. It can be a wonderful way to make real connections, even friendships for life. {Social media part of modern society. Embrace it !}

we have the choice between focusing on the negativity around us or acknowledge the positive at our big Dreampack. We have a choice to acknowledge the negatives and seek understanding, to become better. Which will lead to a more peaceful Dreampack. For all of us.

In addition, we also have the choice to gather Beautiful Souls, who share the same hope, beliefs, values, etc., posses the willingness to live in peace and include them in our Dreampack(s). We have the choice to be open to different perspectives, opinions, cultures and belief-systems. {Beautiful Souls}

“From Guestwriters” is here for you, willing to connect you with others, with similar or with positive ideas. We want to inspire people and we want to offer positive thoughts for this life.

We can learn so much from each others’ stories and perspectives. {When Souls Connect}

Hence, the reason we too want to share inspiring, thought-provoking and motivational stories, perspectives, thoughts, quotes, etc. from ourselves and from our neighbours or like-minded people and from artists who want to give or return something beautiful to the world.

We do know that

You can read all the positive quotes in the world, eat ice-cream all day, numb yourself with alcohol, retreat to an uninhabited island… Most people will stay unhappy, because all those quick boosters are just that. Not long-lasting, no realistic ways to feel joy and satisfaction as much as possible. People can tell you, you’re a Beautiful Soul all the time, but it isn’t just a random quote: you really have to believe that yourself, choose to be and the feeling you are will follow. {Boost Your Soul}

We sincerely do hope we can inspire you to look into yourself and to come to love yourself. but we also want to give you some warning where to stand in this world to stay alive. At the same time we do hope we can offer you some inspiring texts which shall be able to pull you through another day.

We all deserve to feel, to be happy.

***

Humility

Who is choosing who? Is it leaders choosing people for them or are it people who choose the leader?

In history we can see that more than once people followed the wrong leader, but we also can see how the Divine Creator had chosen Him a people, who not always remained faithful.

Human pride made that people went astray from the Most Precious and Most Righteous Leader, the God above all gods. It is man’s self-reliance and whimsy that brought him into all kinds of difficulties.

Today, man still has a lot to learn about humility and dignified recognition.

*

To remember

• Humility = virtue asserted by every religion + every spiritual tradition > understood by very few.
• Humility = self-forgetfulness.
• A leader, particularly one in a spiritual position, must live a paradox.
• natural + lamentable temptation to see leadership status as a privilege => affirmation of one’s own superiority.
• best leaders =  people do not notice their existence.
• Focus on self, whether in praise or in criticism  =/= humility.
• leader of a people must forget himself => no room for selfishness
• leader = clear channel for the people’s will + for wisdom => no room for his own desires, his own aggrandizement, his own ego.
• Beware the rich man bearing gifts.
• For the leader to be among the wise =>  first necessary a measure of wisdom be found in the people.
• people follow a venal leader, keep him tightly bound with restraints of law + of their own suspicion => can do little good, dares do little harm, + law + people restrain him.

Brian Rush

Humility is a virtue asserted by every religion and every spiritual tradition and understood by very few. It’s something that was brought home to me recently by an exploration of the phenomenon of leadership.

A leader, particularly one in a spiritual position, must live a paradox. He is “above” the rest in certain ways: taking greater responsibility, providing guidance and help to others that they cannot as easily do for themselves, upholding the highest standards of thought and behavior. If he starts to think of himself as above the rest, though, he hampers his ability to fulfill his function as a leader. There’s a natural and lamentable temptation to see leadership status as a privilege, and to take from it affirmation of one’s own superiority. It’s very difficult to avoid doing this, but the very best of leaders do.

As Lao Tzu put it:

To lead people, walk beside…

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The Forgotten

chrisnelson61

The future will kiss

Our shadows as if it knew

The things that we had chosen

And all the things that we had forgotten,

It will stare back as if

We were a part of all to come

The things that we had seen

And everything that we had prophesied,

But we are the lost

The souls who burned on Hell’s cold fields

And left the lessons buried there,

The future will still close

It’s cold unempathetic eye

It’s vengeful ghost still chained against

The cliffs we fought so hard to tame,

The laughter rings like rain

Upon the boxes we built as defence

Which wall out the moments frozen

To stop them scratching out our eyes,

The future will still blow

It’s kisses downwind to hide its fear

And all the things that we had chosen

For we are the forgotten.

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2018

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Moral Patterns and Moral Decisions

All human beings were created in the image of the Divine Creator and as such got implanted in them brains which could think or reason. After getting to know good and evil, each one of us has the instinct for knowing the difference and having the choice to choose between good and evil.

Too many christians do think because they are saved they do not have to obey the commandments of God. They are so wrong and deceiving themselves. Still today they have to base their moral reasoning on obeying rules (deontology), on producing good results (utilitarianism), on imagining what a good person would do (ideal observer theory) we daily having to recognize the often heartbreaking difficulty of moral choice, letting us engage both logic and feeling.

*

To remember

• we always want things to be simple =/= just intellectual laziness => Our minds automatically prefer things that are simple + symmetrical
• 20th century, Gestalt psychology explored how we find patterns in information > Pattern-finding = one reason our memories are often unreliable.
• moral decision =/= always simple >requires more than just logic => also requires feeling, imagination, + courage.
• God gave us both intelligence + conscience. => giving us questions => expecting us to figure out the answers

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Additional reading

1. Framework and vehicle for Christian Scholasticism and loss of confidence

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Related

1. God is the greatest question
2. Is Pain Necessary?
3. You got me so wrong
4. “Whatever we may think or affect to think of the present age, we cannot get out of it”*…
5. Utilitarianism Discuss the ideologies associated with utilitarianism and deontological ethics concerning human behavior and the ethical or unethical decisions and/or actions of those working in law enforcement
6. Utilitarianism Utilitarianism (Religion and Ethics 2b) Which two thinkers do you need to know about for the exam? What kind of theory is Utilitarianism? What is meant by the term Principle of Utility?
7. Is Utilitarianism a thing?
8. Utilitarianism against Utility
9. Utilitarianism: John Stuart Mill
10. An Argument for Utilitarianism: Omelas
11. Notes on Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873): An Act is Right or Wrong According to Its Consequences
12. Utilitarianism: Jeremy Bentham
13. Utilitarianism and its controversies according to Jeremy Bentham
14. Discussion on Bentham’s and J. S. Mill’s Doctrines of Utilitarianism (university paper / philosophy)
15. The Dangers of Utilitarianism in “The Lathe of Heaven” by Ursula K. Le Guin
16. How to be happy-according to Jeremy Bentham
17. Why I became a utilitarian
18. A Letter to Utilitarianism
19. The red light
20. Good for Goose and Gander; One and All?The Free Will FallacyThe Profound and the Mundane – Moral Choices

The Thousand-Year View

My new blog post for The Jerusalem Post:

Some things in life are simple. Some aren’t. In fact, a lot of them aren’t.

That’s a problem, because we always want things to be simple. And if they aren’t, then we still try to see them as being that way.

It’s not just intellectual laziness. Our minds automatically prefer things that are simple and symmetrical, whether they are political ideas, scientific theories, melodies, or geometrical shapes.

In the 20th century, Gestalt psychology explored how we find patterns in information, even if the patterns aren’t really there. Pattern-finding is one reason that our memories are often unreliable. If a past event didn’t make sense to us, then when we remember it, we unconsciously impose a pattern so that it makes sense in retrospect.

Moral situations are often too complex to fit into simple patterns or be solved by simple moral principles. Consider…

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Confrontation by people telling lies to force others to avoid the targetted groups

Many times in our life we have to make choices and do we have to be confronted by people willing to force us to make certain choices or to go certain directions. Those who want to re-direct people often are not afraid to use very offensive or intimidating language.

On the internet we do find lots of people who do not mind their way of speech. Some are convinced that their offensive manner of speech can attract more followers (what it seems to do) and shall get people so much afraid that they would not dare to give a negative reaction or would not dare to contradict the web-owner.

Dave Norris picturing Son. H. Spirit. Father. Christadelphians. Unitarians. Created Being. Mere Force. GOD. Jehovah Witnesses.

One such person is Dave Norris who seems to find pleasure in attacking Roman Catholics, Christadelphians and also seems to have a thing (or fling) with Mormons, because all people who dare to give an other reaction than what he expect he calls Morons and Mormons. Because this (seemingly very frustrated) author bombards the net with anti-Christadelphian material and provides several Christadelphian members with hateful or inappropriate language mails, the Belgian Biblestudents, after a lot of patience, did find it time to react on the net and to provide a special website to show people the many lies such people as Mr. Norris are presenting on the net as so called proof that Christadelphians, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other non-Trinitarian Christians are following false prophets, adhering false teachings and are people sent by Satan.

Too many people do forget that this matter about Trinity or not is a very old issue that came into existence after the death of Christ and became a terrible matter long after the death of the apostles, bringing clergy agreeing to a three-headed god for political and power reasons.

The clergy also found an interesting tool to keep people in their power and to please them with offering them all heathen pleasures, being able to have graven images to pray for, to use incense and do all sorts of rites taken from the pagan people and traditions. People also found more  pleasing answers in possibilities to have an other life after this life on earth, than the teachings of the Bible could offer them. The mixture of the philosophical writings, of the Greek and Roman cultures could find a nice amalgamation with the many pagan teachings and were blended in the Roman Catholic Church its teachings.

The Belgian Christadelphian Biblestudents (not to confuse with some other Belgian Christadelphian groups) are aware that lots of people do not have enough bible knowledge and therefore they would love to give an incentive to come to read the Bible, so that it can be examined who keeps most to the teachings of the bible, the trinitarians or the non-trinitarians.

Please come to know this website which want to come to the defence of all non-Trinitarians and in the near future also wants to present the different denominations which believe in only One God Who is One and not three.

Unmasking anti Jehovah sites and people

Showing the only One True God and the Way to That God

 

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Have a look at one way of Dave Norris reacting: Reaction to Vragensteller on Christadelphian Hogwash

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Find also

1. Anti Jehovah sites
2. For those who do everything to stop the work of Christadelphians
3. The Trinity matter
4. The Trinity – the Truth
5. Altered to fit a Trinity
6. Trinity – behind a false doctrine
7. Trinity – History

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Related

1. Unitarism [745] – Please take into account that the Belgian Christadelphians have no ties with the JW and that the Belgian Christadelphian Biblestudents may have connections with and have ex-JW members in the Biblestudent movement [those who returned after they first went with the schism group of the JW which was founded by Rutherford and not by Charles Taze Russell, the student of John Thomas (the founder of the Christadelphians)] Mr. Crossroman seems to have a limited view on the Christadelphians in general, but perhaps also thinks all Lutherans are as followers of the woman unfriendly Martin Luther women-haters, though he misses the point that the Christadelphians are not called Thomasians or Thomasists, like we can find Calvinists and Lutherans.
2. Trinity, Logic, and the Transcendence of Transcendence
3. What Constitutes a Cult?
4. Moongazers and Sunflowers
5. In which I cement my place in hell via Newton
6. 18 May: Alison Patrick of the Unitarian Church in Shrewsbury: Unitarian? What’s that?
7. Worship
8. Please don’t call me a Christian
9. I am an agnostic at heart
10. Is religious faith madness?
11. The Conflict that lives on.
12. A Theology of Doubt
13. Letter of the Day: Government must probe trial process
14. When Windows Become Mirrors
15. All One InTent
16. Open Minds, Welcome Hearts
17. The Broken Pastorate
18. Labyrinth #17: Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Rock Tavern, NY
19. A Rescued Life from Cult to Freedom: A Rebuttal of JW’s Beliefs
20. Top Of The Morning: What Do You Know About Jehovah Witnesses
21. Why Jehovah Witnesss confuse people 
22. Jehovah’s Witnesses
23. Denomination’s 5..Jehovah’s Witnesses.
24. August Dickmann-executed without a trial.
25. 10 Things You Should Know about Jehovah’s Witnesses (at that site once again we read the false statement that Charles Taze Russell would have been the first JW.)
26. Leaked Documents Reveal Jehovah’s Witnesses A Pedophile Cult David Zublick Channel Leaked internal documents from the Jehovah’s Witnesses church reveal a cover-up of a huge pedophile ring operating within the …
27. How Should We Act In The Face Of A False Teacher?
28. Was Jesus the Archangel Michael?
29. Do You Have to Believe in the Trinity to be Saved?
30. Ep. 4 – Jehovah’s Witnesses
31. More advice on dealing with Jehovah Witnesses
32. Why I hate fundamentalist people so much
33. Is the Watchtower Using (or Creating) Apocryphal Material?
34. Enduring as a Transgender Christian
35. OSC’s Watchtower street teach pt 1
36. YouTube: Who’s Lying Now Stephen Lett?
37. YouTube: Bigotry & Emotional Manipulation
38. My Interview with Mick Pillar-A Survivor of the JW Cult
39. Congratulations to Naomi!
40. ‘Extremist’ Faith: Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses Report Wave Of Police Raids, Detentions
41. UnBiblical Interpretation Can Cause Havoc To Your Faith
    Unitarian group supports BDS nomination for Nobel Peace Prize
42. Welcome! on a website to promote Unitarian Christianity as the best path to a personal relationship with God.
43. Dare Not Linger
44. Weighing Our Choices
45. The Peace of Wild Things
46. The End of the World

You decide the things that ultimately you do

You decide the things that ultimately you do.

You have choices in this world,
and that’s how I live.

Leah LaBelle

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Jij bepaalt de dingen die je uiteindelijk doet

2017 September – Upcoming Days of Awe

The ten days starting with Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets), 21 September 2017, 1 Tishrei 5778, and ending with Yom Kippur, 30 September 2017 or 10 Tishrei 5778, are commonly known as the Days of Awe (Yamim Noraim) or the Days of Repentance (High holidays). This is a time for serious introspection, a time to consider the sins of the previous year and repent before Yom Kippur.  On Wednesday September we have Erev Rosh Hashanah, followed by the 1st and 2nd Rosh Hashjanah days and the Yamim Nora’im or Days of Awe closing on September 30 with Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement.

Starting the Hebrew Year 5778 we should seriously think about how we want to continue is this particular time where there is so much anxiety and where we can find in so many  places religious groups fighting against each other. Jews and Christians are already a few years under fire and now we curiously also find Buddhists fighting Muslim groups.

What was our reaction when we heard all that bad news about terrorism and fighting (so called) religious people? Did we dare to come up or defend those who were attacked for things they did not do or for which their religion was not guilty?

Gary Bowers questions

What is your level of insecurity over menacing events conjectured by some geopolitical and socioeconomic experts? Such as: the dysfunctional disintegration of the European Union that could cause a chain reaction melt-down of the entire European economy; collapse of the financial system in the United States linked to or independent of Europe’s demise; Iran launching a first nuclear strike to make good on its threat to wipe Israel from the face of the earth and the United States along with it; North Korea doing the same thing; Russia’s ominous intrusion into the Middle East, potentially taking on the United States should we do anything to oppose Russia’s real agenda for being there; an all-out conventional attack by a powerful Islamic coalition of nations against Israel; and other harbingers of man-made catastrophes and natural disasters. {Yom Kippur / With Or Without Atonement?}

These days we should take time to search our heart, look for how we want to approach our life but also the life of others, and draw close to God in preparation for the coming Day of Judgement, Rosh Hashanah, and Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

We have all different ways of handling ourself and our way of life. We also are eager to look at others and often do not mind judging them or pointing with a finger at them.

According to vain Jewish tradition, God supposedly weighs every man’s work to determine who will be written in His books, who will live and die, who will have a good life or a bad life for the next year. The judgement is based on one’s works during the Days of Awe (e.g., repentance, prayer, obedience, acts of charity). The individual’s fate is then sealed on Yom Kippur.

But we should know that we all are already written in the book of life and death from the beginning of times. Also from the moment we are born we do have our own choice to make the right or the wrong decisions, all the time. Nothing is decided just in one day or in one week or in ten days.

Rabbi Mark Glickman

The Days of Awe encourage us not to get other people to take responsibility for their misdeeds, but rather to get each of us to take responsibility for our own. The emphasis isn’t on what they’ve done wrong; its on what you’ve done wrong. Rabbi Mark Glickman, the spiritual leader of Temple B’nai Tikvah in Calgary, suggests:

During the upcoming Days of Awe, when you feel your finger starting to pop out and point at someone else – and pop out it surely will – then just bend that finger back so that it points at you. Focus your efforts not on what others have done to you, but on the ways you’ve fallen short and can improve in the future.

Check what you have done this last year, which past so fast. I am sure you, probably like me, wanted to do so many things and have to admit lots of things we wanted to have done are not done or we did not succeed to do. Let us do teshuva, to give tzedakah and to reflect on how we may improve ourselves. And let us consider how we can help others on that path to the Most High Elohim.

A Temani (Yemeni Jewish) style shofar made from a horn of the greater kudu. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

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With best wishes to you, your family, and all klal Yisroel for a good, sweet, safe and healthy year, full of success spiritually and materially, with much nachas ruach, and a geula shlema for the coming year.

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Please come to read:

On the Virtue of a Bent Finger: A Challenge for the Days of Awe

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Preceding article

Elul Observances

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Additional reading

1. Perhaps a little bit late, though not less well ment: Happy Rosh Hashanah
2. From dust and breath into living beings
3. Prophets making excuses

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Further reading

1. What about Blowing the Esrog on Shavuos?
2. Haftarat Simchat Torah—Joshua: Strong and Resolute
3. Days of Awe
4. A Sober Israel Experience
5. Looking Back to Look Forward
6. Day 1081: Days of Awe
7. Elul Journey: A New Year Is Emerging 5775 – 11 More Days
8. 49 days until Rosh Hashanah
9. Rosh Hashanah’s Shout for Joy
10. Comfort for a Traumatized Age
11. Respite
12. Elul: Month of Return and Renewal
13. Days of Teshuva 2017
14. Embracing Elul by Heather Rosenberg
15. The Waters Meet Their Limit
16. Melodies for the Days of Awe
17. Days of Awe at CBI 2017 / 5778
18. Contemplative Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
19. High Holy Days 2017: Finding Interfaith Community
20. About this weekend: Selichot and cemetery service
21. Yom Kippur / With Or Without Atonement?
22. Hurricane Harvey & A Year of Prophetic Milestones (2017)

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Related articles

• Faith Council Members Take A Step Back From Advising Trump
• Shadowhunters 2×16 “Day of Atonement” Synopsis & Photos

don’t look at me in that tone of voice!

“Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice.
Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice.
Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.”
Roy T. Benett

Related articles

• Reform is a state of mind
• Britons “pretty gloomy” about the future, global poll finds
• Benefits of Positive Thinking
• Misleading world, stress, technique, superficiality, past, future and positivism
• Signposts of the Kingdom
• Thoughts for the day

heartprints

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
Kurt Vonnegut

I have often been fascinated by people’s perspectives; the fact that two people can look at the same thing or event and experience totally opposite emotions.
I have seen siblings growing up in the same environment where one is adversely affected by something and the other continues with life as if nothing has happened.
I have seen people living in dire circumstances that encourage others that live in luxury.
I have seen people excel despite harrowing experiences.
I have seen the suffering of those living in close proximity to negative people and the ripple effect that it has on the spiritual temperature of a home.
I have often wondered if a person is born with a tendency to have a positive or a negative attitude.

“Attitude is a little thing…

View original post 952 more words

Adar 6, Matan Torah remembering the giving of Torah

In the people of God their year 2448 (1313 BCE), on the 6th (or 7th) day of the third month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar, Sivan, after Moshe was called up at the mountain of Sinai, God told his chosen one what to tell to the people. With the Shemoth or  Exodus from Egypt only three months in the past, the Jews arrive at Mount Sinai to hear a terrible noise and to see flashing lights. They saw a mountain which was been touched and burned with fire and to blackness and to darkness and to tempest.

“Now all of the people were seeing the thunder-sounds, the flashing-torches, the shofar sound, and the mountain smoking; when the people saw, they faltered and stood far off.”
(Exodus 20:15 SB)

“The people stood far off, and Moshe approached the fog where God was.”
(Exodus 20:18 SB)

Moshe having entered into the thick ‘darkness’ of the clouds, came to hear the Voice of God, the Most High Divine Creator. God spoke to Moshe

“… Say thus to the Children of Israel: You yourselves have seen that it was from the heavens that I spoke with you.”
(Exodus 20:19 SB)

V11p133004 Torah (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There God gave to the Children of Israel what is by most Christians known as the “Ten commandments” but would be better referred to as the (literal translation) ““The Ten Sayings” or Decalogue. These Sayings including more than ten actual mitzvahs. Later Jeshua would tell that he has come not to take that Law away, like so many christians think, but to explain it and to fulfil it.

“Do not suppose that I came to tear-down the law or the prophets; I did not come to tear-down, but to fulfil.”
(Matthew 5:17 MLV)

“But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one serif of the law to fall short.”
(Luke 16:17 MLV)

“Now I am saying this: the law, which happened four hundred and thirty years afterward, does not invalidate a covenant* validated beforehand by God in reference to Christ so as to do-away-with the promise.”
(Galatians 3:17 MLV)

Many thousand years ago God found it time that what He wanted people would know very well what He expected from them. He wanted to make it clear to them what His expectations were.
He made it clear what He wanted man to keep to.

For those who doubt it, or use graven images in their worship places God made it clear He does not like such things.

“You are not to make beside me gods of silver, gods of gold you are not to make for yourselves!”
(Exodus 20:20 SB)

No body, who wants to be a child of God, may have more than One God before him or may become unequally yoked with unbelievers and take part in pagan rites and pagan festivals (like Halloween, Christmas, Easter, just to call a few).

It was on Sivan 2 that the Almighty God tells Moshe that He not only wants to give the Jews the Torah, but also wants to make them His chosen, set apart or holy nation, who will follow His commandments. The Jews wholeheartedly agree, replying,

“All God wishes we will do.”

On the third day of the month Moses relays the Jews’ answer to God and then returns to the Jews to tell them that he will be the messenger for the Ten Sayings; that what God told him up high on the mountain.

This weekend, Adar 6, 5777, we remember the giving of Torah and this transitional moment in our history — a moment known as Matan Torah (the Giving of the Torah). No longer were we merely the descendants of a great man named Abraham, or simply a Middle-Eastern people known as the Israelites. We had now become God’s people, chosen to learn His Torah and keep its laws. It’s a moment we celebrate every year on the festival of Shavuot, and this year will take place from May 30–June 1.

The Torah and Talmudic sources describe the delivery of the Ten Commandments as a unique experience — complete with thunder, lightning and a smoking mountaintop — and an event of historic significance. Yet the Talmudic account itself actually makes it quite difficult to understand what was so earth-shattering about

“the giving of the Torah.”

It was not that people did not yet know God’s Will. A significant body of legislation and moral lore was already in existence long before the historic event described as “the giving of the Torah.” Indeed, even without the Talmudic tradition it would seem that all of the Ten Commandments given at Sinai are either philosophical axioms (e.g., monotheism), moral imperatives and ideals (e.g., do not murder, do not steal, honour your father and mother, do not covet), or previously received mandates (e.g., the Sabbath). In other words, not the sort of material that would seem to warrant a divine revelation — and certainly not one of such grandeur.

But we should know that it was no simple handing over a book of lore …  God gave man the basic rules to live by, the Ten Commandments.

Please do understand, though the name of the event — the Giving of the Torah — implies that the entire Torah was given that day, this is not the case. In fact, only the Ten Commandments were taught to us that day, and even they were only transmitted verbally. The physical luchot—the tablets — were not given for another 40 days.

Nevertheless, the name remains, as it marks the day the Elohim began the process of giving us the Torah. In that light we should remember this weekend which great gift we were given so that it would be much easier for us to know how to keep in line with God’s desires.

First we were taught the Ten Commandments. Then, Moses stayed on Mount Sinai to learn from God, for 40 days. We too can take such 40 days to meditate and wonder about our relationship with the Most High. You can call it a time of reflection. Also Jeshua took such a time to think about what God wanted from him and his followers. He too had gone in the desert for 40 days to contemplate. Jeshua also took time to cogitate and was not afraid to deny the requests from others to denounce God or to test God. Also God’s people had to wait such a long time before they saw Moshe back. Though they proved not to be as strong as Moshe and Jeshua, Jesus Christ, who thought it most important to do the Will of God and not his own will. Though it is clearly impossible for Moshe to have learned ‘all 385 commandments’, he did learn the rules they are based on, and so it is considered as if he actually learned them. On stone tablets the basic 10 sayings cover most rules. The rest of the Torah was communicated in stages throughout the Jews’ 40-year sojourn in the desert.

In short we could say

The Ten Commandments

1. Believe in Only One God.
2. Do not believe in other deities.
3. Do not take God’s name in vain.
4. Keep Shabbat.
5. Honour your parents.
6. Don’t murder.
7. Don’t commit adultery.
8. Don’t kidnap.
9. Don’t give false testimony.
10. Don’t covet another’s possessions.

The Ten Commandments, In SVG (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This our the basic rules for man to follow. The 4 first ones you could consider laws believers in God should follow, but the 5th until the 10th commandment form the basic rules for all people, who should take care to be able to live with each other in the best and most peaceful conditions. By obeying those given ethic laws for humanity man should be able to live in peace.

Although Matan Torah is known as the time when God gave us His Torah to study and keep, there were a few Israelites who had kept the entire Torah of their own volition before Matan Torah.

Now the moment had come that the Elohim Hashem Jehovah asked man to take the act of making a conscious choice or decision. It had become time man had to show for Whom he wanted to stand. From the beginning of times God had given man freedom to act or judge on one’s own. Now it is time for man to show that he has the ability or power to discern what is responsible or socially appropriate.

Man has to make the choice how he is going to behave in a community. He has to choose the position he is going to take opposite others and how he is going to treat them.

Before Matan Torah, those who observed Torah did so entirely of their own accord. It was their own choice and we can not tell in what way they wanted to do it. We can only guess how they saw it as a matter of having a good relationship with the Divine Creator.

Probably their connection to God, therefore, was only as deep as their understanding and feeling. Like today people who come into the faith cannot know yet all what they have to keep to and have to go on a path of learning to come to know what God really wants from them.

The Title page of Mishnah Torah by Moshe ben Maimon haRambam, published in Venice in 1575 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For us tonight having Matan Torah in our mind, we look at the time the Elohim connected His Essence to the Torah and gave it to mankind and as such also to us. Each of us has the own responsibility now to decide to accept that given Torah or to deny it. Each of us should see how The Law of God is our safeguarding but also our inner set apart (holy) contact with the Most High. When we observe the Torah, therefore, we are connected to God’s essence, no matter who we are and how much we understand or feel. {Likutei Sichot, vol. 28, pp. 11-12.}

Fear may have seized those at the fields before the mountain of Sinai, but we should not be in fear, because “God has visited his people!” and given His instructions so that they could live according to the Wishes of God. We should know that in every place where God’s Name is recorded He will come to us and will bless us.

“Moshe said to the people: Do not be afraid! For it is to test you that God has come, to have awe of him be upon you, so that you do not sin.”
(Exodus 20:17 SB)

“A slaughter-site of soil, you are to make for me, you are to slaughter upon it your offerings-up, your sacrifices of shalom, your sheep and your oxen! At every place where I cause my name to be recalled I will come to you and bless you.”
(Exodus 20:21 SB)

“I will make a great nation of you and will give-you-blessing and will make your name great. Be a blessing!”
(Genesis 12:2 SB)

“So are they to put my name upon the Children of Israel, that I myself may bless them.”
(Numbers 6:27 SB)

Moshe wrote down the Words of God and that way even today we can read what God wants from His creatures.

“Now Moshe wrote down all the words of YHWH. He started-early in the morning, building a slaughter-site beneath the mountain and twelve standing-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.”
(Exodus 24:4 SB)

Moses repeated the commandments to the people, detail by a Carolingian book illuminator circa 840 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Preceding articles

Our life depending on faith

God’s wisdom for the believer brings peace

Mishmash of a legal code but importance of mitzvah or commandments

Written by inspiration of God for our admonition, to whom it shall be imputed if they believe

Whoopi Goldberg commandments and abortion

29. Laws that Value People

Responsibilities of Parenthood for sharing the Word of God

Luther’s misunderstanding

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Additional reading

1. Statutes given unto us
2. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
3. Necessary to be known all over the earth
4. God-breathed prophetic words written torah and the mitzvot to teach us
5. Observing the commandments and becoming doers of the Word
6. Displeasures and Actions of the Almighty GodJudeo-Christian values and liberty
7. Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #1
8. Hello America and atheists
9. 1,500 to 1,700 years old Chiselled tablet with commandments sold at auction

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Further reading

1. Our Competition With God
2. A Summary of Exodus
3. February 6, 2017-The Beginning of Law’
4. Intro to the Ten Commandments or The Ten Words
5. Ten Commandments – Exodus 20:1-17
6. Exodus 24:12-18 Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights
7. The first commandment – Putting God first
8. God verses our gods
9. God’s nature revealed as Law
10. The 10 Commandments
11. The Ten Commandments
12. The Ten Commandments and Prophesy
13. Daily Prompt: Ten
14. Do You Keep the Ten Commandments
15. 10 Rules Worth Following
16. Ten Commandments
17. Do the Ten Commandments apply to Christians?
18. The beginning
19. Can the Old Covenant be abolished if the Ten Commandments are not?
20. “The Catechism in Six Parts: The Ten Commandments”
21. How Not to Learn from The Bible
22. God the Father – “I did not create you so that you could do whatever you want…”
23. Want What You’ve Got! (Lent)
24. Christian Parenting, Ten Commandments, and Les Miserables
25. It Depends
26. Idolatry & The Shack
27. Honor Your Parents
28. What I’m Reading: Are You Normal?
29. Simple Standard
30. Rules of the Road
31. Sabbath, Creation, Guarding and Observing
32. Top Ten Secrets From The Foundation Of Our World
33. Simply following the Ten Commandments isn’t enough
34. Seven Fundamental Practices: Sabbath Rest
35. Sermon: Who Do You Love?
36. Love and the Meaninglessness of Scripture
37. Lying
38. Lust of the eyes
39. Morality and neurochemical impulses
40. Shorty*: What Ultimately Comforted Job?
41. Jesus Christ – “Remember, you are not here to please man with your actions but God – God’s Laws never change”
42. I’ll Do It My Way -the terrible harvest of moral relativism

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Related articles

• Why Do Christians Fight?
• School Does UNTHINKABLE To Ten Commandments After Liberal Mom’s Attack
• Valley High 10 Commandments monument to find new home at Catholic school
• Sufjan Stevens Wants You To Remember The Ten Commandments
• TODD STARNES: Atheist forces school to drop Ten Commandments – New York Times ignores Starnes’ latest best-selling book ‘Deplorables’
• School district agrees to remove Ten Commandments monument
• God Hates Fags church now attacking Jewish people too
• God Will Sustain You
• Oldest known 10 Commandments is in America, in Ancient Hebrew Script-From time of king Solomon
• Passover Traditions

You might be an extrimist if …

Each person is responsible for his or her own choice. We all have to check how we and others behave and relate it to the reality of life.

We all should allow others the same freedom we want ourselves, this in the understanding that the freedom is respecting the freedom of the other.

In life we always shall encounter others with a different idea than ours. We always shall meet others who have other opinions, other tastes, other lifestyle, and we should respect their way of living like they also should accept our way of living, as long as that way of living does not disturb the other.

Somehow we always shall have to find a consensus in life, trying to reach to an agreement so that each person can have his or her relative freedom outdoors in public, but full freedom in their own home, between the four walls of the living quarters.

What do Religious fundamentalists (Islamic, Christian, etc.), White Nationalists (or Black Nationalists, or Hispanic Nationalists, etc.), Sovereign Citizens, Anarchists, Libertarians, Constitutionalists, and “Conspiracy Theorists” all have in common?

They all have strong ideologies or opinions that in some form or fashion create competition and opposition to the dominant power structure and the elite that control it. These are ideologies that supersede the allegiance to the State in the minds and hearts of those individuals who subscribe to them. These are ideologies that if left alone, threaten the power monopoly of the State, which is why the State will either seek to infiltrate and “co-opt” them, so as to use them for its own purposes, or it will seek to destroy them.

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To remember

• Religious fundamentalism = strict adherence to particular religion + its doctrine
• violent Islamic extremism (typically government enabled and funded) = used to de-stabilize various regions resistant to Globalism => goal = to be absorbed into a Corporate Global Monoculture based in consumerism + debt slavery.
• Nationalism, gaining steam in Europe = belief that state, acting as an extension of a particular culture, tribe, folk, or race needs to remain sovereign + maintain ability for self-determination, free of influence or pressure from outside nations or groups.
• Factions of Power Elite used Nationalism to their advantage in the past
• Sovereign Citizens or “Freeman” essentially reject notion that State has any legitimate authority over their lives.
• Anarchists = similar ideology to Sovereign Citizens = do not believe in the legitimacy of the State or government at all whatsoever + not believe that any group or individual has the right do declare itself as an authority over another.
• Anarchists believe = any imposition upon an individual’s free will (including taxation and imprisonment) that isn’t self-defense is immoral and illegitimate.
• Anarchy =/= “without rules”=> = “without rulers”
• Libertarianism ~=~ “Anarchy Lite”.
• Libertarians = many of same beliefs as Anarchists + believe in some form of severely limited representative government + anti-imperialism.
• Libertarians often identify as “fiscally conservative” but “socially liberal” + “pro-choice”
• Constitutionalists = similar to Libertarians in ideology +> specifically hold allegiance to Bill of Rights + (U.S.) Constitution. >>> many Constitutionalists = conservative Christian + “pro-life”
• Constitutionalists reject idea that Constitution is a “living document” open to free interpretation that changes with the times.
• “Conspiracy Theorists” = blanket term used to apply to pretty much anyone that believes that governments lie or that small groups of people meet in secret + make plans.
• “Conspiracy Theorists” run gamut as far as areas of focus, from false-flag terrorism to U.F.O. cover-ups, nearly all of them point to secrecy, deception + outright lawless actions being perpetrated by the State in the past or in the present.
• “Conspiracy Theorists”=~=  “belief in a New World Order conspiracy” = nothing more + nothing less than logical end-result of Trans-National Corporate Globalism.
• “feudal lords” sit in offshore tax havens + fortified compounds = sit atop this “pyramid”
• Judeo-Zionist, Anglo-American + European elites primarily drive New World Order = comprehensive system of dominance in financial, corporate, and government spheres where the most ruthless rise to the top => system tailor-made for psychopaths = cooperation in the manner of a group of cartels.
• “New World Order” = Global Corporate Mega-State.
• => governments aren’t afraid of terrorism = Governments have used terrorism for quite some time to advance their own power.
• State seeks to establish itself as God (although it will never say that) + wants you to look to it for life + sustenance + safety + security => State = provider, parent + master.
• State wants “poor and oppressed” to look to it for hope, opportunity, + charity = will give in exchange for loyalty + elimination of its enemies. The State must crush any + all competition + must silence any + all dissent or ridicule + will choose what words + language is appropriate + will decide what technology you can + can’t have.
• State wants you to consume more and more + to be self-absorbed + apathetic +wants you to care about frivolous things + obsess over mindless entertainment + wants you to believe you can only be what it says you can be.
• State wants you to believe everything its “experts” + media pundits tell you = State dictate your reality.

 

• At the end of the day > “extremist” = anyone who does not agree with legitimacy of the power monopoly of the State + its attempt to dictate reality.
• Humanity = at a fork in the road => time coming where we will all have to make “hard choice” = Honest, sincere, conscious action will be required of us.

Related articles

• Pope Francis Nails Conservatives By Shaming Religious Extremism In Speech To Congress
• The Age of Enlightenment, Religious Cowardice and Religious Ignorance
• Pope Francis to Congress: act with hope, healing, peace and justice
• Religious fundamentalism keeping God away from people, says Pope Francis
• The Pope Stays Understated
• Pope Francis Stresses Immigration, Climate Change in Address to Congress
• Carson’s Constitution: The candidate has a basic misunderstanding
• Muslims on Shariah Law and the Constitution
• Pope Francis: We Must Combat All Types Of Religious ‘Fundamentalism’
• Bangladesh’s imperilled writers

LIGHTNING WARRIORS

Ex·trem·ist (n):
Somebody who holds extreme or radical political or religious beliefs;
(adj): involving, typical of, or motivated by extreme opinions, especially in politics or religion.

Rad·i·cal (adj):
Favoring or making economic, political, or social changes of a sweeping or extreme nature.

Ter·ror·ist (n):
Somebody who uses violence or the threat of violence, especially bombing, kidnapping, and assassination, to intimidate, often for political purposes.

The above listed terms and their definitions are ones that we as Americans, as well as people in Western nations in general, have become all too familiar with. Here in the States, the “War on Terror” has officially gone on for over 14 years now, and shows no sign of stopping. As myself and many others have previously stated, it is not something that is ever meant to end, as it enriches the Military Industrial Complex both in military operations abroad, as well as…

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The Things We Carry, by Penny

When we go and look for help we also should look fro the priorities of that organisation by whom we knock at the door.

Having people giving endless lectures from puberty onward about the interests of boys, from a wrong viewpoint does not help either. Catholic institutions often did not help bringing up the children to be strong enough to be themselves and to be able to cope, resist and or communicate with persons of the other sex.

In many extreme religious countries we have seen fundamentalist groups and others terrorising the female sex. Often women were considered as the lower species to bring forth the next generation and to be a puppet ‘spiel’. Many boys who got that education as well used those of the other sex as their toy. They were brought up that way. Who can blame them?

At the beginning of this 21st century the West carries still many scars of the previous century where unwanted children or babies of young girls were considered as the bad in the world which had to be cast out and the girls punished. We would not like to think how many boys or man did got away unpunished, whilst they left an unhappy girl behind.

Shame and intimidation were the easiest tactics which could bring people down. But there were also many girls who came out of it much stronger and being much more aware of this precious life.
Some went looking for their child which was taken away from them at birth. Those who got an abortion had it more difficult facing the dark spot in their life. For many of them it was like an eating cancer making them rot away in grieve.

Several countries hoped to regulate and control abortions and help children who became pregnant. But shamefully we have to conclude that several organisations had other options than the well-care of those girls and looked more at the welfare of the community and politics, nor wanting to present them with some unwanted children or with children without loving parents or not being able to grow up in a stable family.

In certain groups of the community it looks cool when the man knows to dominate the woman. Certain man tiranise their partner and often use the children to set them up against the partner.

There that partner has to make certain choices and can avoid that there do come any more children. But as we can see sometimes the male part can be so dominant and so in control, that the partner still becomes pregnant. Others do find it normal to use the woman and have not the word ‘rape’ in their vocabulary.

For victims of such beings it becomes even more difficult to make certain choices. what we may not forget is that they sometimes also are forced to go to an abortion clinic. Other times they would love an abortion, but have no means or have lots of people who take care she doesn’t.

It is good to hear some witnessing from people who went through different stadia and not only became victim of rapists, wrong sex actions, but also victim of our societies attitude or certain organisations who want to regulate and control too much.

Let us not forget that those who are brought in a situation where they have to make a choice for what is inside them, it will never be an easy choice, and it will demand courage and it will demand perseverance and shall bring a turning point in the life of that person who shall never be able to be the same.

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To remember:

• On the sidewalk, the “antis” look at us
• We all have reasons for being there, unique experiences we carry up and down the sidewalk.
• bit the hand that assaulted me => scolded by the nuns for “unladylike” behavior + note sent home to parents
• endless lectures from puberty onward that “men only want one thing – that’s how they all are, they can’t help it, and so you have to protect yourself.”
• in order to receive any affection from men <=  to reduce myself to my body +  mind irrelevant in any romantic entanglements => took almost the rest of my life to unlearn this.
• body only valuable thing > had little control over what happened to it
• as sex worker > could pay my bills.
• boyfriend “rescued”
• went alone to a Planned Parenthood for an abortion
• impotent rage of fighting my way through protesters, with no escorts to assist me
• gain skills needed to survive in the nine-to-five world
• never once doubted my decision, + don’t to this day ====> I do wish that I’d been brave enough then to confide in a friend, and that I’d had escorts to run me through the gamut of shaming
• We need to draw a hard line here, because raising girls to believe that they are only their bodies – as blow up dolls, incubators, or punching bags – is dangerous
• Make any choice you want, as long as it’s yours.
• Stay brave, stay free, and may your pack be light.

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Additional reading

1. Happiness mapping and getting over gender mapping
2. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
3. Eternity depends upon this short time on earth

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Related articles

• Infants in the Hands of Planned Parenthood: What is the Duty of Love?
• Eight Catholic schools cut ties with Planned Parenthood
• LGBT Ally Leaves Catholic School After Coworkers Fired
• Should Rapists Write Memoirs?
• Why do women need to shout about their abortions?
• Fewer US women underwent abortion for unintended pregnancies in pro-life states
• Group calls for enforcement of law on rape
• #ShoutYourAbortion: Pregnancy termination has transformed women’s lives and should be celebrated
• ‘Abortion rights an election issue’, says Clare Daly
• Rape: NGO, experts seek strict enforcement of law against culprits

Louisville Clinic Escorts

TW:  Violence, rape

On the sidewalk, the “antis” look at us, escorts as well as clients, and based on our ages, the vehicles we drive or don’t drive, the clothes we wear, the overheard snippets of friendly conversation, they’ll tailor the harassment to what they believe is the greatest effect.

“Does your mother know you’re here – you may be an outcast!”

“That’s what a real baby is supposed to look like.”

“You are not young, nearing the end of your life – repent now!” and memorably,

“Go home and put some decent clothes on!”

We immediately think through all the counter-arguments, the snappy retorts, the “you-don’t-know-me’s,” and sometimes a client or companion will voice them. Mostly we hope to avoid the added annoyance of them learning our names. I can’t help but cringe when this happens, because any acknowledgement feeds the antis. But it’s hard. It’s so hard not…

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The Real ‘Choice’

In this world were superficially everything seems to be so nice there are lots of people who at first trusted everything and everyone with their huge open heart, but by all they ever wanted was people and the world to love them back, suddenly something went totally wrong in their life.

For some such a day of horror or day of the unexpected may have the direct consequence which gets them facing one of the most uncomfortable and emotionally challenging moments they probably will ever have. For sure their experience will change their life forever.

When after such an incident they become pregnant an other difficult matter bothers their soul. At that time that person has a weight on her head she shall have to carry for her whole life. To make a decision either to carry the baby and to be confronted for the whole life with the horror experienced or to abandon the fruit of the nightmare and remember the lessons she learned along the way, will give her thoughts ‘for ever’.

It is a sad situation and the consequences in both cases are very sad for both parties.

In such instance it is the environment, the people around the victim who play an important and supporting role.
When people have voluntary sex with each other they must be aware of the consequences of their act. Though sometimes it might have happened before the girl and boy really realised what was happening. Being carried away at a young age also can happen.

Afterwards people have to realise that we as human beings have to be responsible for our acts in the past, the present and in the future. Therefore we should think before we act. And even when things which we do not like came over us and have certain consequences we would never would have liked, we should come to make choices we shall not regret later.

That is not easy.

As a wife and a mom the writer of the article calls rightly to start being real and stating what the real choice is. For her it is clear that we should look at the only two possibilities: 1. a choice to raise a kid (or to give up for adoption) or 2. it is a choice to kill.

Much more people should also come to see the second option in the first choice. That part of possibility is much too often overlooked or not looked at at all.
There are so many people hoping to get a child, but not able to get one from their own. For them an adoption would be a good solution and for many it can be a real blessing. So, what is a curse for the one should be made in a blessing for the other.

It must have been not an easy choice for the 11-year-old Paraguayan girl who denied an abortion after allegedly being raped (when 10) by her stepfather and this August gave birth to a healthy baby girl in Asunción, Paraguay, where a fierce debate was brewing over a law banning most abortions.
In that mostly Catholic country, 684 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 gave birth last year.

“The physical and psychological impact of forcing this young girl to continue with an unwanted pregnancy is tantamount to torture,”

Guadalupe Marengo, deputy director for the Americas at Amnesty International said then.

“The Paraguayan authorities cannot sit idly by while this young rape survivor is forced to endure more agony and torment.”

Naturally by abortion sometimes also comes an other terrible choice at the forefront. When the doctors are sure something is wrong with the foetus or that there never shall come out a normal child. What than?

Having to hear the ordeal of the doctors, having to be confronted having to make a choice, does not make life easy.

Others may than easily say you may not abort the foetus and have to make the best out of it. But who is going to turn up to care for years for the handicapped person? Who is going to deal with the many costs to take care? what life is one going to give to that handicapped person, when the mother is not able to take care physiologically, physically or economically?

For the ones standing at the site it may be easy to judge and condemn.

For the one to make the decisions it may be an other nightmare to go through.

Those who call themselves Christian should remember the Nazarene rabbi they should have to follow. Jesus did not judge. He will do later at the authority of his heavenly Father. In the end it is to that Father of Jesus, Who is also our Father, to Whom life belongs, knows the heart and will judge last.

It is in His hands we should leave it.

And the ones who doubt and are in our neighbourhood we should try to help to come to a good decision. we should try to show the beauty of life and how we should try to give everybody the right to live.

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To remember:

• don’t enjoy shaming people for choices they make > haven’t been in their shoes
• made choices in life > everyone has
• blessed to have not been in the position to make the decision
• pregnant with first child => beauty of real life growing inside of me was magical
• if I would have miscarried, my mourning and grief would have been real and deep > Because I had life growing inside of me.
• couple who has struggled to get pregnant >  You can make the decision to try, but it isn’t always that easy
• ‘choice’ to be a parent > real choice is not whether or not you want to be a parent … but rather a choice to kill your child because you don’t want to be a parent.
• raped = tough one
• ask myself the option of taking care of the life or ending the life = >  consider the ‘choice’
• wouldn’t want to live with both pains
• always live with the consequences of their ‘choice’

Let’s stop sugarcoating it.

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Preceding articles:

Whoopi Goldberg commandments and abortion

My Choice (by Jezabel Jonson)

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Related articles

• Whoopi Goldberg Admits the Purpose of Planned Parenthood is Abortion
• Whoopi Goldberg Tries to Defend Planned Parenthood, Ends Up Doing Just the Opposite
• LifeNews Pro-Life News Report 9/21/15
• ‘The View’s’ Whoopi Goldberg Blasts Planned Parenthood Foes: ‘Get Out of My Vagina!’
• Whoopi Goldberg Says Bible Doesn’t Condemn Abortion
• Liberal Feminist Whoopi Goldberg Admits ‘Purpose of Planned Parenthood is Abortion’
• Whoopi Attacks Planned Parenthood Critics: ‘Get Out Of My Vagina!’
• Whoopi on Planned Parenthood: ‘Get out of my vagina!’
• Whoopi Goldberg Admits the Purpose of Planned Parenthood is Abortion

Through the Stillness

I know where I stand on the issue. Never have I heard a strong argument to make me doubt my stance. Still though, I have a hard time announcing my stance.  I don’t enjoy shaming people for choices they make.  I haven’t been in their shoes.  I have made choices in my life that I regret, everyone has.  I am not perfect.  I am not taking the ‘high horse’ stance on this.  I am no better than anyone.  I cannot stress that enough.  I know someone will be offended by these words I am about to say.  Someone will think I am being insensitive to those faced with the decision.  And––I know I have been blessed to have not been in the position to make the decision.  But nonetheless, I know what I would ‘choose’.  To me, it just isn’t even my choice to make.

I remember Mother’s Day 2009…

View original post 549 more words

Don’t be afraid to fall

Are You Afraid of the Dark? (novel) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Born at this place of desert storms, small and big battles, darkness, fog and here and there some light, we may feel like floating in the void, looking for ways out of the nothingness. We should know there has been a moment of total darkness and void, a world of chaos, but there was given a Word and everything came to being.
Problem with the world is that most of the inhabitants of that globe do not see the Maker of all things and prefer to stay in the dark.

Often we may feel gliding down hill. Often our our sled does not hit the snowy hill. Avalanches get us down, buried among all relievers waste.

Sinking in the quicksand we may stretch out our hand, but are we willing to give our hand to that One Hand which is always therein the dark?

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Please do find to read further:

1. When discouraged facing opposition
2. Fear, struggles, sadness, bad feelings and depression
3. Fear knocked at the door
4. Fear of failure, and fear of the unknown
5. Uncertainty, shame and no time for vacillation
6. Stronger than anything that wants to destroy
7. What is life?
8. 8 fears caused by the fear of Man
9. The Paradigm of Instinct, Intuition and Intention
10. Where is the edge
11. Eternal Word that tells everything
12. Control and change
13. Fearing the right person
14. Do not be afraid. Good news because a Saviour has been born
15. Fear not tomorrow. God is already there
16. No fear in love
17. Only the contrite self, sick of its pretensions, can find salvation
18. Not holding back and getting out of darkness
19. Why think that (4) … God would reveal himself in words
20. Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
21. Praying and thinking positively
22. Believe What You Will
23. I said God it hurts
24. Getting out of the dark corners of this world
25. We all have to have dreams
26. See the conquest and believe that we can gain the victory

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Related articles

• The Fear of Man is a Trap (codybateman.org)
  Nearly everyone has heard of Abraham and his faith in God. What most do not realize is that he struggled with FEAR. You see, Abraham had a drop-dead gorgeous wife and he knew it too. Because of her beauty, he feared that the wicked ruler of the land they were passing through, might kill him in order possess his wife.
• Ways To Turn Your Thoughts Into Reality | Joanne King Herring (getfreelancersyahoo.wordpress.com)
  Your mind is where your reality begins. Most of us don’t know how to think productively however, how to turn our thoughts and dreams into something concrete
• The Year of Fear (allanbaker.wordpress.com)
  we live in a fearful society that is devoured by anxiety. And we imagine in our anxiety that there are extreme “security” measures that will make us safe.
• Allow the Storm to Push You Into the Arms of Jesus (elisiodiggsministries.wordpress.com)
  The disciples had thoughts of drowning but little did they know that this man Jesus who they were in the boat with could walk on top of water, which is equivalent to a believer walking on top of their circumstance of raging seas. You have the ability to rest in the midst of your storm just as Jesus did if you allow the virtue of faith to be at work in you. Never forget that when you experience sudden storms always run into the arms of Jesus and become closer to Him through His word.
• Fear Factor (denacyd.wordpress.com)
  Some of us are timid, scared. We want to analyze every situation, determine if the benefits will outweigh the risks. Others just take off, no fear, no caution.
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  Over the last few years as I have analyzed my life, I have come to realize that fear has been a controlling factor in my life. I failed to take risks growing up. I probably missed out on a lot of fun and incredible experiences by being afraid of failure.
• The Name above Every Name (theeyesoffaith.wordpress.com)
  As God would meet with people in their lives and manifest Himself to them, they began to know God in certain aspects. They would add this aspect to His Name in order to express this new found quality of the Lord.
• I Sing Praises, Because There is a Name I Can Call On….Regardless of My Need (brandinicolejm.wordpress.com)
  As we speak to one another on a first name basis, we should have a desire to be on a first name basis with God. It is when we seek Him out (regardless of our flaws, weaknesses and shortcomings) with a level of transparency and honesty that God shares with us His last name.
• What Is Life? (survivorparade.wordpress.com)
  Today we focus on tomorrow
  Tomorrow we focus only on sorrow
• Gone : Again : (cultfit.wordpress.com)
  Chances are, a vast majority of us will experience some kind of adversity today. Know what’s cool and interesting – Each one of us is blessed with the capacity to bounce back on our feet after suffering a setback in life. What’s even more cool, is that we all have the potential to improve after we dust off our knees and bandage our open wounds, or as I like to say: Become more resilient.
• God’s Forgiveness (achristianmeditation.wordpress.com)
  Today, meditate on God’s mercy, compassion and love. Let the words of the Psalm radiate brightly in your heart and make them your own. And may the realization of your own forgiveness be imprinted deeply on your mind just as it was on David’s.

Sassy Native

I worry that life is like a patch of quicksand. The moment we choose a path in life, we’re trapped—the more we try and fight it, the deeper we sink.

I’ve spent most of my life walking gingerly in hopes to avoid any sort of trap I do not willingly want to walk into.

My concern is that as I mature it seems as though, every patch of quicksand gets more and more difficult to pass. As if, each puddle of quicksand along our individual journey expands as we walk. In which case, one particular patch of quicksand will become too large to leap, even for the tallest of sorts.

If there is any truth in my theory of quicksand, I’d like to know if there is a chance of turning around before taking the final plunge? Any possibility of choosing a previous patch of quicksand—one you didn’t realize was…

View original post 137 more words

How do Other People Feel About Mental Health?

We all have the choice either to make something in our life or to let life break us.

We better choose to do something and let not fear prohibit us to take further steps. By falling and standing up we get much further than by lying down and hoping we shall get somewhere.

People who feel sorry with us are perhaps not the right people to stay in contact with or to have a nice liaison with.

People are to fast to say a person has a psychological disorder.It is not because you are not the same as the majority that you would be insane or not normal. It also does not say you have a mental illness, and when a person has a mental ilness it does not mean he or she should not have a place in our society and would not be able to do good in our society.

When a person is facing depression and anxiety this may be at a certain point in his or her life, a moment of mental disease, which can pass and should pass when the person can find the strength in making the right contacts and in starting to believe in him or herself.

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Find also to read:

1. Fear, struggles, sadness, bad feelings and depression
2. Anxiety’s Hold
3. Anxiety is the gap between the now and the later
4. When discouraged facing opposition
5. It continues to be a never ending, exhausting battle for survival.
6. What If you’re only driven by stress?
7. Depression, Anxiety, Pressure and megachurches
8. Thanksgiving wisdom: Why gratitude is good for your health
9. Aligned
10. Some one or something to fear #2 Attitude and Reactions
11. Some one or something to fear #3 Cases, folks and outing
12. Some one or something to fear #4 Families and Competition
13. Fearing the right person
14. Searching for fulfilment and meaning through own efforts, facing unsatisfaction and depression
15. Come ye yourselves apart … and rest awhile (Mark 6:31)

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Related articles

• Breaking Taboo….. (nocrybabies.net)
  Of all the taboo topics in the world I think mental illness wins first place for the longest running taboo subject of all time.  We have evolved and come around in matters of sex, gender identity and homosexuality but mental illness……that’s still something most people would rather keep locked up in the dark taboo closet because it is just too uncomfortable to get in to.Mental illness is not just the crazy killer type depicted in Hollywood movies or the crazy guy on the corner yelling at the air.  Many times it something more miniscule like anxiety or depression.  Just like back in the 80’s when people thought AIDS was spread by air or touch, mental illness suffers this same ignorance, this same mis-education of sorts.

  Look around the room you are in, look around your neighborhood, look at your co-workers…..chances are at least one of the people you just scanned over has a mental illness.  Surprised?  Many sufferers are high functioning members of society but they are battling internal forces in the way their mind thinks, perceives and feels.  This does not make them scary, this does not make them unpredictable, this does not make them less of a human being, it just makes them people who have struggles the rest of us do not understand.

• Ideology and Insanity: What is Mental Illness? (rationaloptimist.wordpress.com)
  the whole enterprise of modern American mind doctoring aims at making us a more collectivist society. That’s the import of his saying “mental illness” labeling is a guise for enforcing social conformism. Szasz maintains that for most people in mental institutions, being “treated” for “their own good” is basically a fiction for what is really imprisonment. Moreover, since Szasz wrote in 1970, there’s been a huge shift from putting mentally ill people in asylums to literally jailing them. (See this recent article in The Economist.)
• Mentally ill people need to be helped, not hounded | Polly Toynbee (theguardian.com)
  mental health would get “parity of esteem” with physical health, but so far there is little sign of it. Instead the government has just cut the tariff paid for mental healthcare by more than it cut the tariff for physical treatments. Norman Lamb spoke at the launch of the Layard and Clark campaign in the Commons, protesting that mental health “was first to be cut and isn’t getting a fair share of attention”. Had he forgotten that he is himself a health minister who could say no?
• “Time to change the language we use about mental health” – Gary Nunn for The Guardian (thebigmadexperience.wordpress.com)
  We’ve all had a mental, mad or manic day at work. Frustration has driven us nuts or crazy. Affectionately, we may have referred to an eccentric friend as “bonkers” or “as mad as a box of frogs”. Some people might call a day of very changeable weather “schizophrenic”. The Black Eyed Peas invited us to “get retarded”. Mental health is so ingrained in our everyday vernacular, it’s interesting to me how we now unshackle meaning, intent and potential offence caused by reinforcing negative stereotypes. I spoke to Time to Change, England’s most ambitious campaign into ending discrimination surrounding mental health, for guidance.
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  What of media outlets that have misused language about mental health?
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  If you want to be thoughtful in everyday conversation, what does Time to Change recommend? Nightingale says: “The meaning of words can change over time. ‘Manic’ and ‘mad’ are frequently used in informal conversations and, while we accept they have various meanings, they can also cause offence. Using words like ‘psycho’, ‘nutter’, ‘schizo’ or ‘loony’ to describe someone with mental health problem is certainly offensive and unacceptable. ‘Schizophrenic’ is often misused to mean a split personality, or something that’s very changeable, and usage in everyday speech contributes to the misunderstanding and stigma that there is around this mental health problem in particular, so we would advise against that.”
• Depression in business leaders (bbc.co.uk)
  Clinical depression is an illness. Unhappiness, whether because of something that has gone wrong at work or because someone has died or divorced is quite different.”When I have clinical depression I get no pleasure out of any of the things I [normally] get pleasure out of. I lose all self-confidence and I never believe I can get out of it.”He says it is “presumptive” to think there must be an external factor – such as work – that causes an episode of depression.

  “The big question is what does cause [these episodes],” he says. “The truth is we don’t really know.” He puts it down to a combination of biological and environmental factors.

  But the mental health charity Mind says work can be the root of mental health problems. Recent research from the charity found it was the biggest cause of stress in people’s lives with one in three people describing it as very, or quite, stressful.

• Talking About Mental Health: A Teacher’s Perspective (blogs.vancouversun.com)
  It is so meaningful for kids to meet a person who struggles with a mental illness who is doing well in life and is very much a full-functioning member of society. I think it does a lot to dispel some of the stereotypes that we have in our society about people who have a mental illness.
• The Myths that Society Holds About Mental Illness (drdeborahserani.blogspot.com)
  It is an undisputed fact that individuals who experience mental health issues are often faced with discrimination that results from misconceptions of their illness As a result, many people who would benefit from mental health services often don’t seek treatment for fear that they will be viewed in a negative way.  The World Health Organization agrees and says that in the 400 million people worldwide who are affected by mental illness, about twenty percent reach out for treatment.
• Anxiety – it may catch you unaware but you won’t let it defeat you! Part 2 (naomihanger.wordpress.com)
  Anxiety is not just something you get over, it takes work, time and energy and many times of falling over and having to get back up and try again. Anxiety is something that may remain a part of your life in some shape or form, but I do believe that it doesn’t have to consume your life. Anxiety may flare up from time to time depending on the situations you are faced with and there may be times when it is a daily battle but for those suffering from anxiety now with intensity and regularity I want to assure that there is hope, living a life without the constant suffocating, all consuming, debilitating monster that anxiety is possible!
• Mental Illness Across Cultures: An Interview with Gayathri Ramprasad (thereseborchardblog.com)
  As much stigma as there lives in American homes regarding mental illness, it’s much worse in other countries. Gayathri Ramprasad grew up in Bangalore, India, where traditional Hindu culture has no concept of depression. There was no doctor to diagnose her anxiety disorder as an adolescent girl nor medicine to treat the condition.
• Coming Out Of The Bipolar Closet (godisms.wordpress.com)
  Wonderful article from Danielle of BLC. Her strength and courage in stepping out of the darkness and into the light on BP and depression is so inspiring.
  > Coming Out Of The Bipolar Closet
  I have been open in the past about many of my mental health challenges, and yet, I had never publicly discussed the fact that I have bipolar disorder. I was helping so many other people though my advocacy and Broken Light, and yet I was still hiding. I was still afraid of stigma. A few weeks ago, I decided that I was done hiding. I published the following piece on the Huffington Post. A piece it took me over a year to gain the courage to publish. In the time since it was written, I have come to recognize that bipolar is just one piece of my complex mental puzzle, but in that moment, it felt like everything. I know many of our Collective family can empathize with parts, if not all of this piece, so I would like to share it here as well. Keep in mind that this piece represents my experience, and not necessarily everyone’s experience with mental illness. We are all individuals on our own twisting journeys to mental health and wellness.