Be it in May or September: Run the race

The last two academic years have been very weird with many restrictions. September is here again and soon it will be October, the month when everybody is back at work or back in school. Once more we faee a new academic and church year. Once more we are reminded we have work to do on this earth. We have our obligations and we have to strive to get some results in what we are supposed to do.

In Belgium, last year, sports were more a thing for one person on his own, because no group events were allowed. Everyone had to stay in isolation and contact sports were not allowed. The text underneath normally was to be published in May, when we had the underneath ‘prayer theme’ for the month, but we got somewhat behind with a lot of work, because other matters, like taking care of people, providing food to isolated people and help for those in need, certainly after the floods, required our attention.

In the Covid period it might not have been easy for many. Now it could well be that this year may be a year of transition, for becoming back to normal.

Jane Edwards has a look at what happened mostly in May. In her country that is the time the sun starts showing herself more and more attention is given to outside sports. She then thinks of the race which we have to finish.

Be it May or September, each day we are confronted with a lot of matters. Every day of the year, we have to get on and continue our way.

°°°

Run the race

When I was at school, the month of May meant only one thing…..
Practicing for Sports day.
Today, children are encouraged to just take part, and they are all winners. Helping others along the way to finish together.

When I was at school, it was all about the winning!
Who could run fastest.
Who could throw furthest.
Who could jump highest.

Winners were winners, and losers were just that – losers.
Winners received prizes, losers were scorned.

There were cheers, and plenty of boos.

I hated Sports day. Whilst I enjoyed hockey and netball – team games, I hated the one against one competition of Athletics – mainly because I was rubbish, and not really built to run!

We are told in the Bible in Hebrews 12 that we need to ‘run the race’ , but we are also told that ‘bodily exercise profits little’ in 1 Timothy 4v8 – which is correct?
Of course we need to exercise.
For our hearts and minds exercise is good, but too much can become an obsession – and take us away from other activities that matter.
So, what race do we need to run?

Of course, this is the race to the Kingdom. This race is much better than the ones I failed miserably at school. This race, (perhaps more apt to call it an Obstacle Course) makes everyone a winner!
It’s about getting to the finish line – some may reach that before others, but everyone has a chance to finish and win… and have help from others along the way.
And the prize – eternal life!
No boos, but cheers from the Heavenly Hosts.
As we watch our children on Sports Day, or think about exercise for ourselves, let us remember the most important race of our lives.

 

 

 

Dear Lord,
Please be with us as we run the race to your Kingdom.
Some of us may be slower through lack of faith, anxiety, and fatigue.
Give us the encouragement and strength needed to make it to the finish.
Please help us to help others to the end,
giving them encouragement as you have to us.
Amen

 

Jane Edwards

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Preceding

Race and Grace

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong

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Additional reading

1. Life is like a ten-speed bike.
2. The high calling of God in Christ Jesus
3. We are redeemed; we are “bought with a price”
4. Followers with deepening
5. Troubles testing your faith and giving you patience and good prospects
6. Matthew 20 Are you willing to work for Jesus?
7. Today’s Thought “There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness” (May 27)
8. Every athlete exercises self control
9. Running the battle
10. A race not to swift, nor a battle to the strong
11. Run for the Everlasting Cure
12. Atonement and the race been bought
13. Being of good courage running the race

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Related

1. “Fit In!”
2. Just Keep Going by Bridget A. Thomas
3. A Crown Beyond the Sun
4. Running The Race
5. Running The Race by Tara Randel
6. Running This Race Called Life
7. His Closed Circuit!
8. Life’s race
9. How do you stay strong in the midst of change
10. ending well
11. Leaning On The Father
12. Running the Race of Holiness: DON’T give up
13. Catching up to the Win
14. Old and Heavy
15. The Race
16. It’s Friday…Run With An Eye For Nothing Less
17. Preparing to Fly!
18. First of All!
19. How To Run A Steady Race Right Into Glory
20. One Thing I Know
21. With “Blinders” of Grace!
22. The Surrendered Disciple!
23. The Funneling Effect!
24. With Reverence, Returning…
25. Reawaken the Redeemed!
26. Saved from Self’s Strainings!
27. The Second Hand’s Moment!
28. His “Stone Soup” Creations!
29. Sunday Morning 7/25: Unit 34, Session 4: Running the Race
30. Clear ye the Way!
31. Shaking the Comatose!
32. Eyes on the Goal
33. A Cloud of Witnesses
34. The Fool’s Boundary!
35. Discarding Camouflage!
36. The Piper’s Promised Peace!
37. Keep the Focus
38. Choice Intersections!
39. Faithful to the End
40. Wholeness…in Him!
41. Running the Race
42. Finishing well

Why Oldies Are Goldies

Music is something that always vibrates and keeps coming back in all sorts of forms. Regularly artists find again inspiration in older songs , give it some contemporary touch and soon those who hear the renewed cover go looking for the original music which can receive a new life again.

Anita's Perspectives on Life.

Are you a fan of old music…then this blog is for you.

The connection people have with old music is far from grey and old. Even teenagers and young adults do like old music. People have always had a close connection with music because its ability to evoke our emotions and feelings.

The stronger your feelings are while listening to a song, the stronger a connection you make with the music. Music represents who you were when you first made a connection with it.

This holds especially true when you are adolescents and very young. From the age of 13 to 26, people are going through the most physical and psychological changes. This is a transition time for them and they face their first heartbreaks and other emotional turning points, which turns them towards making a strong connection with music.

Music plays an important role in our lives. Sometimes we…

View original post 604 more words

Let South America come to you #2 For those with a good taste

When you can not go to South America, why do you not bring South America into your home?

For those with a good taste

From waterfalls to wines

South America is the continent that is home to a vast array of rich cultures, history, traditions, food, and once-in-a-lifetime places to visit.

Angel Falls, Venezuela | © David Kjelkerud / Flickr

When you would love to go exploring South America it would not be bad to prepare yourself and to get already some taste of it before you take the long voyage. A place you have to visit is the waterfall in the Guiana Highlands in Bolívar state, southeastern Venezuela, on the Churún River. Before you would like to fly over Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world, coming in at over 3000 feet it would not be bad to feel a bit like an angel tasting all sorts of well-tasting goods from that continent, which will bring you to the seventh heaven.

You also do not have to go straight away, deep in the Amazonian rainforest to find a melting pot of indigenous traditions and a perfect place to see centuries of Peruvian history and culture coming together.

Before you would go to the Belén Market, the largest traditional market in the Peruvian Amazon, and a place where visitors can taste and see the food, textiles, and wares of the region, on the web there is a place where you already can have a peep-show of some handicrafts from the South American continent

Mendoza, Argentina

Wines

As state and local governments order people to stay home to limit the spread of the virus, toilet paper and canned goods are not the only items people are snapping up. Wine sales at wine shops are soaring and large, highly-distributed wine brands are struggling to keep wines on the shelf.

Meanwhile, small wineries that depend on restaurants and on-site sales are trying to figure out how to survive. The question on the mind of everyone in the wine business is what will things look like on the other side when they get the virus under control.

Having poached the Malbec grape from Europe and turned it into a roaring superstar, Argentina is rightly celebrated for its wine producers.

The Mendoza region, in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region, dominates Argentina’s wine scene. It enjoys prestige for the wine produced on its vineyards. It also can be refreshing to see genuine contenders from elsewhere, such as the Bodegas Callia from the San Juan province.

In the Mendoza region, you may find one of the original Bordeaux grape varieties from the Bordeaux region of France, namely Malbec. Because grown on a higher altitude then in France the wines tend to have a higher level of acid, which makes them ideal to go with the Argentinian meat.

The Cabernet Sauvignon which was introduced in Argentina in the 19th century by the French agricultural engineer Michel Amié Pouget. He further introduced Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Malbec vines to Argentina and founded the first vine nursery and agricultural school in his new country.

Located in the Tulum Valley, Bodegas Callia aims to produce the best Shiraz in Argentina.

Since we cannot go to South America, we will have to bring the heat and sun here. And what better way to do so than with a few good bottles of wine? Certainly when those wines earn it to keep on the palate.

The dry, hot climate of Argentina is really great for growing Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes ripen very easily, so these Cabs are almost always filled with tons of blackberries, cherry, pepper and vanilla with a little bit of mint. If you like rich, full-bodied wines with dark fruit flavours, then you might want to try a Cabernet Sauvignon from Navarro Correas Private Collection which since a few moths you now easily can get over here in Europe by an excellent deliverer.

When you are looking for a nice rich tempting wine with a big, nutty, creamy nose or bitter cherry awash with orange peel and gravely splendour, you might find it at Pequeña SudAmerica.

As the second largest country in South America and the eighth largest in the world by land mass, Argentina could even offer much more in case the country would have been more organised and receiving more support from those in charge.

Beers

Stylistically Argentina is perhaps the most European of Latin American countries, especially when it comes to cuisine. You can find the traditional wineries (the world’s fifth biggest wine producer) and you also may find the principal beer types which were based on central European styles of lager and wheat beer. It is impossible to taste every beer produced in South America, Pequeña Sudamerica offers a very good selection of 6 or 7 selected beers in a trial pack.

The historical influences in South America which have created a cuisine that offers a variety of delicacies has also brought some very, very tempting sweets around the corner. For diabetics is it not always so easy, because a lot of sweets and drinks are very sweet.
But nimble fingers and kitchen princesses can already prepare a lot for those who want a taste of that delicious South America.

Craftworks

It might not always be easy to bring Argentinian wines over to Europe, but for traditional artisans, it is even more difficult to get their goods over to Europe. Those craftsmen in particular have serious difficulties to virtuously market their products.

Carla Scalia

With corona-restrictions the Argentinian Carla Scalia, now living in Belgium, could only go twice to her home country to bring some beautiful handicrafts from her family and friends with her. Therefore those craft works are very limited. And because they are not made in a factory they are all individual pieces of art, which makes them special. This makes that when you might see some sculptures or drawing on the website, next time you come onto the website they already might be gone.

Mate Alados by Noelia Álvarez

All the South American accessories Pequeã SudAmerica is offering are hand made by local artists, and by selecting it properly at the artist’s workshop this is how they ensure to always offer you the best quality. As such they present mate cups of the best quality in an exclusive and unique design, hand painted and varnished for complete protection.

You also shall be able to find a selection of original accessories for your kitchen and table.

From the southern United States to northern South America the Lignum vitae, with its evergreen leaves can be found. As a source of a very hard and heavy wood that is brownish green in colour, the wood being relatively waterproof because of its high fat content, makes it ideal for making kitchen utilities. It is used to make pulleys, shafts, axles, and bowling balls, and Pequeña SudAmerica is offering the tropical wood in magnificent small objects, like food and toothpicks.

Argentinian artist Noelia Álvarez, who has performed incredible exhibitions in San Rafael, Mendoza and Buenos Aires in Argentina and Catalonia, Spain, is not only responsible for a great variety of mate cups with a unique design. Although her work focuses on paintings with incredible designs and details, Noelia has taken her passion to the limit and from painting large murals and paintings in acrylic on canvas, she designed very beautiful and exclusive wooden mate cups.

For sure, the founders of the webshop Pequeã Sudamerica took great risks to start their business to bring Sud American articles to the European continent, whilst there was and still is a Coronacrisis, limiting them going back and forth to Argentina to contact local traders, to support them and offer them a fair price for their goods. At the moment Carla Scalia her parent’s wines are not yet available, but perhaps this would be made possible in the future (when some good shipping arrangements could be organised).

Pequeña Sudamérica, or “Little South America”, has the goal to make South Americans in Europe taste home again, and get Europeans to experience their great specialities.
In addition to the best known mate tea brands, you shall be able to find a wide variety of drinks, delicacies and accessories.

We would say:

Enjoy some chocolate and dulce de leche products at your afternoon tea.

And enjoy South America at your home in our wet regions, so that the sun (at least) may shine in your house.

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Please find the shop:  https://pequena-sudamerica.eu/en/

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Preceding

Let South America come to you #1 Reasons to stay away from South America

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Related

1. Mining Camp Memories — Foreword, Prologue, Chapter #1, and first part of Chapter #2
2. Wonderful Place!
3. Aerial view of Churun Meru in Canaima National Park, Venezuela
4. Angel Falls, Venezuela by Gabriel Riva
5. Angel Falls, Venezuela by Austin Shaffer
6. Angel Falls, Venezuela – by Aegis Wanderlust
7. 10 Best Places to Visit in Argentina – Travel Video
8. Haurez
9. Lomas de Lachay
10. Buenos Aires Electronic Music Travel Guide by Forma
11. For The Love of Wine: A brief history of South American Wine.
12. Here’s what was #inmyglass
13. Argentinian Malbec
14. Following Malbec’s fingerprints to identify terroir
15. “I Will Gladly Pay You Tuesday”
16. Dalwhinnie Shiraz 2006 Wine Review
17. Que Syrah Syrah…
18. Baked Chorizo Gnocchi With Fat bastard Shiraz
19. Salad Shirazi – Cucumber and tomato salad with dried mint dressing

Earth’s pandemic and T-shirts for young people

We at the Belgian Christadelphian office have passed a certain age, so that it would not be appropriate to walk on the street with a T-shirt. As elders, we tell the visitors in our churches about the task we as human beings have when living on this planet. We talk about our responsibility and the task God has given us. But we do know the majority of inhabitants of this planet are not believing in God and are mostly concerned about gaining as much money as possible, whatever the cost may be.

The last few months, lots of people were very worried about the Covid-pandemic, but for years there has been another big virus circling around us, which most people seem to ignore. Though for more than a decade, several of the Boom generation with the millennials and the Generation Z have been writing essays, articles and making posters for awareness about global warming and cried out into the world to save our planet. Because that planet is getting very ill. People have used and wasted earthly resources, if nothing. In our so-called ‘civilised’ countries most citizens were and are not concerned about the pollution they cause.

For us the time of publicly protesting and going on the streets, protesting for this and that, may be gone or not so appropriate.
But for young people, we would like to introduce some very interesting clothing and tote bags with a different angle. We are namely very concerned about the world where we and our children and grandchildren but also next generations have to live in. Therefore, we do find it five past twelve to call on all the responsible people to use their senses and to do something against the horrible state we have brought our planet. We cannot sit still and do if global warming does not exist.

Everybody can use his own voice to bring awareness to others. A T-shirt is a wearable message board that can pull the attention to our planet and to what we have to do about it. The world needs to change as we are currently hurtling towards climatic changes that will alter the way the planet is configured. This will certainly be to the detriment of humanity if not cause its extinction. Crazy you may say but 99.99% of all species that have ever lived have gone extinct so just because we can walk and talk and use a smart phone does not mean that we will not go the same way.

Scientists and philosophers don’t in general want to be celebrities but it is important that we listen to what they have to say because they offer the only way out of this current crisis. So enjoy our range and change the world at least in one tiny way, an environmentally friendly piece of clothing. {Scientist and Philosopher}

It is not bad to have a look at their products to make others aware of this dramatic situation.

> A collection to highlight the need for us all to stop and think. > Think

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Find also to read

1. Weather, climate-change and man-made global-warmingGlobal WARming: An Overlooked Pandemic
2. Hot weather
3. Global Warming
4. Global Warming Was Explained in 1856. By a Woman
5. Environment
6. Climate explained: how the IPCC reaches scientific consensus on climate change
7. Rapid Climate Change Makes It Hard for Butterflies and Moths to Adjust
8. From CNN: Unprecedented heat, hundreds dead and a town destroyed. Climate change is frying the Northern Hemisphere
9. Time to write again, getting the word out, climate change is a reality
10. Too Dumb to SurviveThe Arctic’s last ice area
11. Last Ice…
12. Update on Climate Referendum in France
13. Julia Conley: ‘This Is Our Future’ Without Climate Action, Advocates Warn After Pipeline Causes Fire in Gulf of Mexico
14. IPBES/IPCC Report: Tackling the biodiversity and climate crises together
15. The Climate Crisis Is Accelerating – Now What?
16. An Actual Space Laser Shows How Devastating Sea Level Rise May Be
17. Climate Change & Joshua Tree National Park
18. Highest Ever Temperature Recorded In Finnish North
19. Why Polar Bears are on The Verge of Extinction
20. The monarch butterfly cab use our help to stay alive by Kalpana Sutaria, Austin American-Statesman
21. Seabird Salvation
22. Impeach Bolsonaro and Topic on Climate
23. global participation…

Having a problem with wonkiness…

In the European Union there are so many rules and regulations that certain things become a little bit ridiculous or do more damage than good.

When looking at the food stands, is there something you notice?

We have been trained to look for “beauty” and became accustomed that vegetables have to look a certain way to be good.

Beauty standards for food? Sounds crazy right? The function of food is to nourish and fuel our bodies, and yet every day, without our input or knowledge, perfectly edible food is being discarded around the world because it does not fulfil an arbitrary standard.

And to be clear, this is not a standard of whether it is edible, it could be that it’s been classified too small, too big, too pitted, blemished… wonky. Sounds familiar right? A standard on aesthetics that is being imposed by invisible faces. We treat our food like we treat out bodies – as items that need to be perfect, blemish free, symmetrical and picture-perfect. This is utter lunacy – and hugely damaging.

Whilst millions struggle to ‘achieve’ a certain beauty standard promoted through fashion and social media, farmers and producers around the world are struggling in a similar way – trying to produce food, yet control nature to fit the box of what others have deemed acceptable.
But what happens when nature does not play ball?
Whilst food is the most essential element we need to survive and hugely energy (and water) intensive to produce… often it goes to waste. Ploughed back into field, left to rot, fed to animals. All because it doesn’t tick a box somewhere.

Read further: Beauty standards for food? We have a problem with wonkiness…

Non-kosher fish eaten in Jerusalem during early days of Judaism

Richard Jonathan shared a link on the Facebook Christadelphia Christadelphians page:

https://www.newscientist.com/…/2278415-non-kosher-fish…/

An interesting archaeological story doing the rounds today showing that plenty of scaleless fish were being eaten in Israel in Old Testament times, despite them being forbidden in the Law of Moses. This is in contrast to the near absence of pig remains – indicating that this aspect of the Law was being observed.

Some will see this as evidence that the Torah was written quite late. However, all it tells us is that this aspect of the Torah wasn’t being kept, which is entirely consistent with the Old Testament account of even pretty major parts of the Law being routinely ignored (e.g idolatry / Passovers not being kept).

Either way, it’s a reminder that the strict focus on keeping the Law that we associate with the Pharisees is something much more characteristic of the Greek and Roman periods, and not Jews in earlier periods.

The full journal article is here: https://www.tandfonline.com/…/10…/03344355.2021.1904675

newscientist.com

Non-kosher fish eaten in Jerusalem during early days of Judaism

Do books with more reviews get better ratings?

How factors like number of ratings and number of reviews have an impact on book ratings.

Book-reading is an activity that a lot of people enjoy. It is one that places one’s mind in a different setting while providing one with an empathetic feeling.

Mubarak Ganiyu was stunned by his discovery that The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown got a rating of 3.8/5 from the book collection website Goodreads.

Stunned by this discovery, he decided to look into the highest rated books on Goodreads. As he got higher up the list, he noticed a trend that highly rated books generally got more reviews.

Therefore, it became a task for him to confirm this hypothesis of him which is: Do books with more reviews get better ratings?

Read more about it: Do books with more reviews get better ratings?

+find a 3-d image to perfectly show how the relationship occurred between the books’ average ratings, the text reviews count and the ratings count.

a Path to explore more

When I started with this website, I wanted to share common thoughts or give similar minds an extra open door to reach others, as well as to present a selection of websites, blogs and writings I thought (and think) worthwhile reading or looking at.

For years on all my websites I also presented a “Related” articles list, to give my readers other opportunities to find more writings on the subject. After the many complaints having linked to their article, and having to search for placed links I was asked to remove, from this year onward, I stop to invest time looking for related articles, investing time to read them for after approval, placing links after the posted articles. Now much more time shall come available to publish more articles which are in unison with my thoughts and not bringing readers away from my own sites. (From the statistics more readers from this site went looking at the mentioned site, than receiving readers from the linked site.) At the same time on my websites I shall not any more bringing people to websites which are against me or my beliefs.

After giving all my energy to the world of dance my body could not fit any more the physical world of exuberance and graceful unlimited mobility. Having reached a certain age where they consider a human being not able enough to give enough to the world, I was made redundant, considered to be part of the ‘third age’ group.
First having been very disappointed by the way I was treated, the first two years I did not want to do much with ballet or theatrical dance. Not having to work full time for our living, receiving retirement fund, I could spend more time to my church work. My religious activities started even taking so much time I had less time to write at my own personal blog. (Because pensions not enough to survive I still have a few days a month I work for my living.)

I feel blessed that I am allowed to work at three Bible translations, even when it might consume also a lot of time and lots of thinking-work, being it a seriously very faithful responsibility, not to add or change anything in the saying or purpose of the original words supplied by God. Therefore, those translations in Judaic Dutch (Yiddish Dutch or Flemish), with the eye of two (or three) different groups (namely a Jeshuaist, a Jewish and an Orthodox Jewish public) is and shall be a time-consuming job with lots of thought and consideration).

This does not take away that I would have lost my interest in humanity and how man treats other people, animals and plants. I even became more active, spending also time in meetings concerning our way of life, necessary political actions a.o..
I must admit at meetings and conferences I seem to belong to a minority who strive to get unity in Europe, with some liveable world for everyone. Convinced we have to do something against this capitalist greedy world which does not show respect to the gross of people, animals and plants, I keep going strong and letting my voice being heard.

From  the moment I got retired I did not stop to seek a connection of like minds, to share common positive beliefs, and to be able to learn from each other about how to live life to the fullest.

Jonathan Hilton seems also on such a track. He writes:

Even when things don’t go as we plan, we all know no matter how hard we plan, life will throw us curve balls designed to engender growth. Our lives are defined by the lessons we learn at this moment and the way we handle ourselves. {Mind Connections}

Raising his level of consciousness has become Jonathan Hilton’s passion in life.

and understanding that when I follow and focus on certain core principles in my life and live in alignment with them, things go well. {Mind Connections}

He writes on the opening of his blog Mind Connections, admitting:

When I fall off, and my focus isn’t so sharp, then things are not so pleasant. Conscious thought about where my attention goes allows all of my energies to flow in that direction. {Mind Connections}

With the knowledge that each viewpoint may bring a different set of emotions, a different thought process, and a different reality to the perceiver it only can be enriching to share thoughts and to get to know more people from all over the world and getting to know how they manage to make the best of their life.

We have little control over the perceptions of others, but we may not forget that when we utter our ideas, share our thoughts, we might bring others to other ideas too.

How often do we not wonder if what we are doing is or would be right? How often do we not wonder if we should openly write what we think or if we should write in ways and words others would love to hear? I always have been a bad one at that. By creating my ballets I did not mind criticising the way our society was moving. I never tried to be popular by my creative works. [Choreographing fashion shows was a totally different matter, there I tried to bring the customers to find a connection in a future world to form. (We always had to be seasons ahead, manipulating the fashion trends – and yes, there stimulating human desires of consumption.) There it was also part the business to know beforehand what others would love to wear and see. ] In such way I also kept busy to try to find out what others would like to see and read.

On the surface, it is a simple choice, but in reality, it is a constant battle, {Life is a Mirror}

Hilton notes.
According to him

There is only a short time allotted to each of us to write the story of your life and with that time, we are tasked with a lot of things to accomplish. You have really only one life to get things right and sing the song that you want to sing. {The Story of Your Life}

We can try to make our dreams so compelling, that we will that we can’t wait to work on them, because waiting to experience them, in reality, is too painful. Often it is that enthusiasm which gets us to be restless and gets us up in the middle of the night to scribble something down or even to write certain texts.

A difficulty might be to:

Tune your enthusiasm to the size of your goals and attack it like your story depends on it because it does. That is how you write the story of your life. {The Story of Your Life}

At this blog I want to give, as many people as possible, the opportunity to share their thoughts which they and I find interesting enough to think about. I keep chasing my dreams that we can find enough people all over the world willing to bring others to see how we have to be careful which way of life we want to choose. As a Christian I also would love to see more people sharing the faith in One God and in His Gift and Good News of the coming Kingdom.

Once more, I dare to invite people to join us to share positive thoughts, but also to bring warnings how to tackle ecological and other problems.

Please do not hesitate to contact me, for becoming a part of joining hands across this globe.

Ten simple rules to avoid negative effects of social media

Always keep your feet on the ground and do a reality check when encountering messages on the internet. Plus keep everything in perspective.

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To remember

Social media = the link that links us all in an ever expanding virtual community = much wider, bigger + beyond anyone’s control.

looking at selective best moments of friends, seemingly living better lives => feel low and depressed

Social media has some serious issues and it’s negative effects can’t be ignored. But we can’t avoid it’s use completely.

dependent on it for sharing information + reaching out to wider communities.

can’t avoid using it but definitely can avoid some of it’s negative effects.

ten simple rules to avoid negative effects of social media –

Rule #1
Don’t take anything personally

Rule #2
Laugh at yourself

Rule #3
Do not indulge in unnecessary comparisons

Rule #4
There is no such thing as the perfect life

Rule #5
Curb your enthusiasm to share personal information at all cost

Rule #6
Never ever share anything when you’re feeling emotionally charged up

Rule #7
Keep a limit on the time you spend on social media

Rule #8
Use every setting available to minimize distractions

Rule #9
Acknowledge your feelings, even of jealousy and envy

Rule #10
Last but not the least, love your real life more than the virtual

Educated Unemployed Indian

“Distracted from distraction by distraction.”
~ T. S. Eliot

Social media has become the link, the link that links us all in an ever expanding virtual community. A community much wider, bigger and beyond anyone’s control.

It will make you feel popular one moment and deserted the next. It can leave you feeling quite lost if you don’t bring along your only defense-a sense of humour.

“Yet the best determining factor of how comfortable we are with ourselves, is our ability to laugh at ourselves.”
~Wes Adamson

A lot of people are of the opinion that social media tends to make people feel low and depressed. That makes sense; looking at the selective best moments of friends, seemingly living better lives will do that to anyone.

Social media has some serious issues and it’s negative effects can’t be ignored. But we can’t avoid it’s use completely.

We’re…

View original post 1,476 more words

A great five-minute “film” from Bianco, a Danish shoe brand

Receiving followers of my personal blog, it gives me also more possibilities to find writers from all over the world who have something good to contribute or giving others possibilities to discover other things.

Today I found my way to a

“Husband, dad, brother, uncle, nephew, friend, teacher, ex-swimmer, blogger, vegan, juggler, learner, introvert”

and as such someone who many more people could fit this cultural stereotype. As a “60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it” he does not mind going into minds of others or showing what others might think and feel. Doing that he gives us the opportunity to have some nice feeling coming over us. Sometimes he even might write a post he had not planned. {The 18 Uses for Dr. Bronner’s Amazing Soap}

I am not so good in following the fashion world any more (though I must admit I also made my way of living of it by choreographing fashion shows in the past). We should not be afraid to know presents brands, soon our children or grandchildren may let us know about them or give it to us. {The 18 Uses for Dr. Bronner’s Amazing Soap}. Mr. Jim Borden may always be looking for something to write about,

it almost became a necessity to proactively go out into the world and do things or to simply observe more closely what is going on. {Writing Is a Symptom of Thinking}

The blogger may know that the essence of Wheeler’s Which is that the customer should always be given a choice between something and something, not a choice between something and nothing. {What in the World Is Wheeler’s Which}

Good to notice that last year, the company Bestseller made great strides towards sourcing 100 percent more sustainable cotton and made a significant commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions plus revealed plans to build its own solar power plant. More: Fashion FWD seems to be Bestseller’s ambitious strategy that will make sustainability central to its way of doing business. Bestseller wants to do its part to transform the fashion industry for a sustainable reality. It’s the right thing to do and it also makes good business sense.

There you can get shoes of Bianco, which was founded by René Piper Laursen in 1987 with a vision of developing an international brand based on a profitable franchise concept. Bianco tells its customers that it offers fashion-forward footwear with sublime international standards and at an affordable price to a wider audience of women and men. Bianco is represented in more than 100 retail stores (a mix between own stores and franchise) and wholesalers in Scandinavia. I must confess I do not know if they succeed to make great shoes, pumps, stilettos, trainers, hi-tops, boots, bootees, ballerinas and other cool accessories like bags, belts, clutches, scarves and jewellery, but for sure I was pleasantly surprised when by the article of Mr. Borden I could enjoy one of their “spectacular ad campaigns”.

Lovely to see they dare to touch social strings.

He presents a film of the Danish shoe brand, part of Bianco’s “Step Out of Your Head” campaign and gives their description of it from the campaign web site:

In this year’s campaign, we’re encouraging you to silence your worst critic, yourself. Most of us tend to let our thoughts run away with us, and let our insecurities take hold. But by giving our inner thoughts its time in the limelight, we might inspire a more positive way of thinking about ourselves.

He too had never heard of Bianco before watching this video, and he also would not have known that it was a footwear company based on watching it. {Falling in Love on a Lift} (Though when they look down at their feet one could perhaps notice the Product Placement – and by law in Belgium it should have the PP logo in the right corner when screened publicly.) (- On the video there is no PP-logo, so viewers might stay in the dark. -)

I loved the short film.

In any case it is by such findings and people writing about their explorations we too can find some other worlds and interesting things to see. Therefore, now my turn to introduce you to Mr. Borden his blog and the Bianco film. Please do enjoy his trying to figure out the world, and his place in it.

Borden’s Blog

Falling in Love on a Lift