Tag Archives: Isolation

Solitude

The Little Mermaid

“There are two types of solitude-one that pulls you into darkness and another one that pushes you towards light. While the former drowns a person in the tangled inferno of harrowing isolation, bottomless depression and lugubrious despondency; the latter transforms him to a fireball of energy when he is fully connected to his own being, thereby allowing the individual to get a glimpse of quintessential empyrean.”

-The Little Mermaid, MMXVI

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Passover 7 days of meditation opening a way to conversion

Immanuel Verbondskind looks back at the lockdown period and the impact on the small Jeshuaist community and some Jewish communities. For Jews it has even been more difficult to undergo the lockdown, because many do have no television or internet and have been in a real-time strict isolation, not being able to have worship moments with brethren and sisters.

Those times of seclusion and restriction could be called a ‘reflection time‘ or retreat, where one had enough time to think about faith and religion. On the 15th of April this year (2022) it was 14 Nisan, the evening to remember the liberation of God’s People from the enslavement in Egypt, but also to remember the gathering of Jeshua and his disciples, where at the last supper Jesus talked about the blood being shed for the liberation of all people.

In Wintertime, many Christians celebrate Christmas and have some holiday, where they also can think about the light that came in the darkness. For true Christians and for Jews, 14-22 Nisan is the most sacred period of the religious year, where is remembered how the Elohim brought to light in the dark night by passing over the houses where there was the blood of the lamb, giving the opportunity for the Jews to flee their world of slavery in Egypt.

True Christians with Jeshuaists remember also the Passover lamb Jeshua (Jesus Christ) and show their gratitude for the salvation by the Grace of God, Him accepting that ransom Jesus was willing to pay for all people.

Last Supper 2

 

Since Friday night Jeshuaists and Christadelphians, like other true Christians, since some long time of isolation because of lockdown, could at some places get together (in restricted form) and make connections with other brothers and sisters, either in place or via the internet streaming. Many, the previous time in isolation got lots of opportunities to think about the value of such a connection or ‘fraternity‘. They had enough time in the lockdown period to think about their religious affiliation, and some also about their need to go over into a conversion. Because the last few months, more signs could be seen that we are entering a new period in the Time of Ages or in God’s Plan.

Because of those “Signs of the Times” there has come a certain pressure to know what to do and which direction to go. Now many more ask themselves who shall be part of the things going to be there after the big battle or great tribullation.

Several people have wondered in those Covid times if it would not be better to become part of a community. There also have been Jews by race or non-believing and non-practising Jews, who started to change ideas about the world and its Creator. The Jews from Middle European origin also started wondering by which denomination of Jews they would best join. Those people living here in Belgium, France, Holland and Germany wonder if they would convert to Judaism, if they then would be accepted as a Jew.

Anti-Zionists often claim that Ashkenazi Jews are white imposters, fake Jews who are entirely descended from European converts to Judaism. This is completely rebutted by genetic studies which have proven a Middle Eastern patrilineal origin for Ashkenazi Jewry. However, when the Anti-Zionists make the Apartheid accusation are Jews suddenly a single racial group. The notion that Jews generally constitute a racial group is Nazi in origin and is at the core of the Anti-Jewish Apartheid libel. {Why Many Ashkenazi Jews “Look” European}

There is a long history of the racialization of Jews. There have also been religious and non-religious Jews in several countries.

Racialization of Jews have a long pedigree in the history of Anti-Semitism. Racialization of Jews was practiced in Spain against the Anusim (“Marranos”), Jews who were involuntarily converted to Christianity during the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Racialization of Jews in Germany became prominent already in the second half of the 19th century when religious Anti-Semitism (Anti-Judaism) was increasingly supplanted by racializing Anti-Semitism. The third phase is the current racialization of Jews by the extreme left.

Racialization of Jews is intended to paint Jews as “genetic aliens” in a certain country (e.g. Spain, Germany or Israel). Of course painting any other people as “genetic aliens” is not socially acceptable beyond Nazi circles. But Anti-Semitic opponents of Israel systematically engage in discourse to stigmatize the Jews in the land of Israel as genetic aliens despite Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Mizrahim patrilineally being very very genetically similar to Palestinians due to common historical origin, with the genetic divergence accounted for by historical conversions to Judaism and by immigration to the land of Israel from other parts of the Middle East during the Islamic era.

Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Mizrahim are more similar to each other than to any other populations and are predominantly of Middle Eastern origin in genetically confirming the historical narrative of ancient Israelite origin. The Anti-Semitic accusation according to which Ashkenazi Jews are exclusively descended from European converts to Judaism despite that part of Ashkenazi ancestry accounting only for only 30% of the Ashkenazi gene pool with the remaining 70% being Middle Eastern in origin is used by Anti-Semites such as Palestinian-American professor of Columbia University Joseph Massad to libelously paint Israeli Jews as “European colonizers” and against the scientific consensus denying that most modern Israeli Jews are Levantine returnees to Israel. The false claim that Ashkenazi Jews are “European colonizers” is in fact one of the main claims involved in the Anti-Semitic racialization of Ashkenazi Jewry. {Jews are a Nation of Color}

After the covid pandemic several feel a greater need to come to connect with one or another Jewish or Jeshuaist denomination. Having been on their own, in their own living room, with nobody else to share the faith, was too lonely. Some, who were previously connected with a shul, lost contact but also interest to go to a prayer and study house. Though others have now, even more than ever before, felt the need to be connected to other fellow believers.

This Passover is for several an essential time to consider the way how God handled His People and how, also today, He is still willing to guide them through the desert of this (non-religious) world.

Some people take time to think about separation and isolation, and look at the lessons we get from the Scrolls that teach that the priests were deliberately separated from everyone else. They even couldn’t go to family funerals, like many could not in the Corona crisis. Their job was to remain separate from the people they served, which may sound strange. But their goal was to maintain their close connection with the Most High in purity or holiness.

To remain separate at all times isn’t healthy for anyone. All over the world many learned that all too well the last two years. this year many felt a great joy they were able again to come together with some friends to do like the apostles did, following up the permanent ordinance… a celebration for all of God’s people throughout all time, remembering Passover.

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Find to read:

Times of seclusion, restriction, liberation, connection, religious affiliation and conversion

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Preceding

Measure of loneliness whilst time drags

Adar 6, Matan Torah remembering the giving of Torah

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Additional reading

  1. Jewish diaspora
  2. December a joyful time for many
  3. Lenten Season and our minds and hearts the spiritual temple in which God seeks to live
  4. Remember the day
  5. Ransom for all
  6. A perfect life, obedient death, and glorious resurrection
  7. Redemption #4 The Passover Lamb
  8. Redemption #7 Christ alive in the faithful
  9. Atonement And Fellowship 8/8
  10. A strange thing might happen when you come under Christ
  11. Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
  12. Falling figures for identifying Christians
  13. What is happening in America to religion and to the language of faith
  14. Who is a Jew?
  15. Counting sands and stars
  16. We Count. We Just Weren’t Counted.
  17. Judaism and Jeshuaism a religion of the future
  18. Great tribulation and Armageddon
  19. Armageddon or the Great Tribulation
  20. Ashkenazi Jews are extremely inbred

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Related

  1. Passover Blessings – April 15th through 22nd, 2014
  2. Proselytism
  3. Jesus Became Our Passover Lamb
  4. How Jews look to non-Jews – Part 1
  5. Going back to shul
  6. Fighting ignorance

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Optimism or pessimism: Which is better for you?

If it would be up to us to say, we would assure you that optimism is the best way to live longer. We advise you to do away as much as you can from negative influences.

In these dark Corona days and time of Climate Change, we are pulled back and forth by the many changing reports and many feel very insecure. Today, for the umpteenth time in a row, the government is coming up with new tightening corona measures that will again restrict us in so many areas. (Positive thinkers will rather look at the new or renewed measures with an attitude of “ah, we can still do this!

Negatively you could say “what the heel, again a lockdown”. Positively you could say

“Is it only the fourth wave of the pandemic, or is it already the fourth lockdown?”

For many it almost has become part of their everyday life.

Somehow it is everyday life. This pandemic reminds us of what we like to ignore: life is unpredictable. Now it’s just being taken to the extreme. {Another Lockdown}

Thanksgiving Day and weekend is already behind us, but soon we shall get some other days of family gathering and happiness. For some Christian it is now Advent (peculiar to the Western churches) and a time to prepare for Christmas. In the old days that period was a time of fasting and meditation. For Catholics with November 30 (St. Andrew’s Day) it is the beginning of the liturgical year. So, when you think of starting a new year, hopefully, you would not do that with a grim, dark mind, but would look forwards with a lot of good ideas, positivism and hope. In many Eastern churches, the Nativity Fast is a similar period of penance and preparation that occurs during the 40 days before Christmas. Normally having a ‘Fast’ a person would take such action to clear the mind and to do away with all bad things. As such in that period a person should also do away with negative thoughts and come to see the good things in life, appreciating again all the tiny bits.

Those who believe in Jesus Christ have the advantage, that there is hope for them for better times. Therefore, there should be no reason for a Christian to run around with the chin hanging on the ground. Our faith provides the foundation of courage to assist us when we have to endure that difficult ‘walk of life‘. Even when the days are becoming shorter and darker, this does not have to make our mind darker and has to stop us from dreaming or going further with our bold adventure and directs our steps to greatness. The light in the darkness Christians may see, they can show also to others, to bring them some positive news in these darker days.

The coming of Christ in his Nativity was overlaid with a second theme, also stemming from Gallican churches, namely, his Second Coming at the end of time. Some people are convinced we have already entered that time of the end. For others, this interweaving of the themes of two advents of Christ gives the season a peculiar tension both of penitence and of joy in expectation of the Lord who is “at hand.”

In life it often goes the wrong way with people when they have too many expectations. We typically do demand too much from ourselves. At the same time, we create borders for ourselves thinking that we shall not be able to do this or that. By setting such limitations in front of us we collide with a bare wall. We should know our feelings have all to do with our attitude to ourselves and to others. But it also has to do with what we want from ourselves and how we want to project ourselves to others.

Some of us are afraid to have some dark thoughts or see such pessimistic ideas as a threat or danger to our well-being.

Studies suggest that around 80 percent of people have an optimism bias, or tendency to overestimate the likelihood of positive events. But does that mean they live happier lives?
Marnie Chesterton – accompanied by Hannah, a CrowdScience listener and self-proclaimed pessimist – investigates how we form our views on what the future holds, and whether it’s better to always look on the bright side of life.

‘If we think things are gonna be good for us in the future, we tend to put in the effort’

Can CrowdScience answer your question?

Let us not forget even when we are becoming restricted, we can use this time of more isolation, to think more about ourselves, what we have done and what way we shall continue to go. Now it is time to think of ways to go forward, even when we have to face certain times to draw back, and considering that tis moment may be totally different from the moment and time of someone else we know. Not comparing ourselves with others all the time shall make life much easier.

In this darkness, dare to step forward at your own speed and with your own capabilities!

Photo by Kampus Production on Pexels.com

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Preceding

In October-November People often too busy with death and the dead

Misleading world, stress, technique, superficiality, past, future and positivism

What kind of attitude do you have?

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

Some Hope for 2021

Expectations

Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself

Getting up to bring changes into your life

On Positivism

Benefits of Positive Thinking

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Additional reading

  1. Unlikely silence
  2. CoViD-19 Curation
  3. No time yet to relax the CoViD-19 restriction measures
  4. Another Lockdown
  5. The importance of utopia and how to get there
  6. Utopian dreams
  7. Thoughts for the day (Our World) = Thoughts for the day (Some view on the World)
  8. Thanksgiving wisdom: Why gratitude is good for your health
  9. Good time to sort out your friends and contacts
  10. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement (Our World) = Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement (Some view on the World)
  11. Offering words of hope (Our world)Offering words of hope (Some View on the World)
  12. God, let me be a light in these dark times

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Related

  1. Punch Through: Harsh Life and the Problem of Positive Thinking
  2. When You Make A Mistake
  3. Seeds, Roots and Shoots
  4. Changing World
  5. Confidence in the Lord
  6. 🤗 A Better Life ~ Sing a Happy Song
  7. 👊 Today’s Power Thought ~ Yes, Good Things Are Headed Your Way
  8. 👊 Today’s Power Thought ~ You Have Undiscovered Potential
  9. Review of “The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis”
  10. Throwing of the Gauntlet: Quotes for Philosophical Dads
  11. The Walk down Memory Lane
  12. One Lesson From a 100 Day Tweet Challenge
  13. Dancing Lights 

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Happy New Year. SIGH.

Being chained for some more months we should be happy when we are still not infected by that terrible disease. Though we shall still have to be on the safe side, avoiding contact with too many people.

When staying in our little bubble, what do we want more. Today there are so many technological wonders that can bring people from all over the world to our doorstep.

We have the facility to be in contact with so many people all over the world and can share our thoughts with them. But we now have also much more time to read books and to watch films on our small or big screen.

So, let’s enjoy the life that we are privileged to have!

Coronavirus Diaries

It’s January 2021. We are way into the future and China has unleashed a whole load of hell into the world with Covid-19. We’re all still social distancing like mad, washing our hands, wearing masks, going nowhere, doing nothing, getting fat and lonely. No holidays, no hugs with friends, no eating in restaurants or going out dancing. We’re not even popping out for a cup of tea in a café. It’s a shitty life and I don’t see how it can change any time soon what with the new, ultra-transmissible mutation of the virus in rampant circulation.

But there is hope. Vaccines are being given. Snowdrop shoots are peeping out of the muddy grass, and I’ve bought a new armchair and sofa bed on a 0% finance deal from DFS. You’ve got to take happiness where you can get it. Plus:-

  • The children are healthy
  • I am healthy
  • We have…

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A difficult year soon to forget and a Kindness Calendar

2020 has been a difficult year in so many ways.

This year many have suffered with uncertainty, anxiety, isolation and challenges with their financial situation, health or relationships.

Though we had not many opportunities to meet friends in real life, luckily we had the cool media tools like Zoom, Hangouts, Jitsi meet, Meets, Messenger and FaceTime to have some virtual contact and be some balsam against loneliness. Many did not see directly a solution for their bad feelings and how to continue. They should know they were and are not forgotten.

One thing that can hold us together and help us get through is kindness. Although we can’t change our situation, we can choose to respond to others (and ourselves) with kindness. And when we’re kind, everything goes better. We help others, we help ourselves and we encourage others to be kinder too.

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Do you know there exists a Kindness Calendar?

The Do Good December calendar is full of ideas to help you help others. It’s the advent calendar we need in 2020! Please share the calendar with others

December 2020 small

Here’s how you can get involved and make a difference:

This month’s theme is based on Giving: Do things for others which is one of the Ten Keys to Happier Living >> Find out more about the Ten Keys.

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A virus giving the world an opportunity to re-evaluate and change the way we live

For weeks now many people have found themselves bounded to just a few square metres of their living quarters.

In the lockdown many people found themselves obliged to find ways to keep themselves busy and not pulled down by isolation. In this world of exuberant consumerism and going out for relaxation and meeting people, we were bounded to the modern tools of the internet to have virtual contact with each other.

Everybody now got some weeks just for themselves, enabling each of us to reflect on their life, but also on the way our society goes on with her materialistic life.

It seems this virus is giving the world an opportunity to re-evaluate and change the way we live, work, produce, and distribute goods and services. Travel, work, food, and manufacturing may have to dramatically change.

By lockdown hearing nature to revive, hearing more the sound of singing birds and seeing more animals going around free in nature.

Let us think about new and better ways to continue our life in the future.

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For thought

The key is how we respond to this new challenge. 


“All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting.
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way.
All over the world, people are waking up to a new reality.
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes, there is fear, but there does not have to be hate.
Yes, there is isolation, but there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes, there is panic buying, but there does not have to be meanness.
Yes, there is sickness, but there does not have to be disease of the soul.
Yes, there is even death, but there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic.
The birds are singing again.
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul and sing.”

-from Richard Hendrick (Brother Richard) in Ireland, March 13th, 2020

 

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Ecological affairs, Health affairs, Lifestyle, Nature, Positive thoughts, Quotations or Citations, Welfare matters

April 2020

The 50 year old poet

Flowers are still growing,

birds are still singing

but a darkness has come

which will mean the end for some.

In just a short while

the world has lost its smile,

people forced into isolation

with the hope it may save their nation.

Politicians try to offer hope

to those finding it hard to cope,

mankind can be changed for good,

but only if the reality is understood.

yellow daffodil flower in tilt shift lens photography Photo by David Cole on Pexels.com

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Broken daily routines

How many of us take our daily routines for granted, not looking at everything we encounter and inspecting what we allow entering into our lives?

Today lots of people are facing a world they do not seem to cope with, them presenting more time for themselves, which for some might not be so easy to tackle. Being confronted with oneself is for many not the most pleasant thing. In the ‘previous world’ (some jokingly say BC = ‘Before Corona’), the world when there was no coronavirus, most people had their daily duties away from home, and now they seem stuck at home, many feeling prisoned in their own surroundings. Instead of just feeling free, having more time for themselves and their family.

Others who had already felt in isolation, because they belonged to people who had made their choice to be part of God’s World instead of being part of Man’s world, now seem to have become more isolated. Luckily this time in history they are not accused to be the cause of this disaster coming over man. In the past that has been different. In previous centuries it happened more than once that we, as the People of God, were targetted, as the ones bringing disasters on others. More than once it seemed the more we tried to do good, the more the enemy was and is coming against us.

This Passover we could not come together and as such many of us could have felt even more isolated than at other times. Though we can be pleased to hear most of our brethren and sisters took time again to thank the heavenly Father for His provision and continued their quest of looking for leaven in all their dwellings and in their minds.

We took at heart that the Father is telling the Bride to get rid of the leaven in our lives. If we are to be a bride without spot or wrinkle, then we should start learning how to identify the spots and wrinkles in our lives, for the purpose of getting rid of them.

In the days of our fathers in Egypt, through the plagues, the social system was so disrupted that they certainly experienced it. In this time of age many people do not see how disrupted our society is. Lots of people have become the slaves of this world and slaves of money and gadgets. They are blinded by the things of the world and have lost track of God.

We live widely in the four winds of the earth and the majority of people living in the industrialised world is not bounded by borders and every year take the time on several occasions to go abroad, some even very far away from home, to find pleasure and relaxation. Many even forgetting you can have that at home too. That is why we see so many in distress because they feel bound by lockdown, whilst now they should feel free from the worldly chains.

Until now, we could still choose to celebrate Pesach in the nations or in the land of Israel, but today we are tied to our local territory. The Elohim had asked to go into our inner chambers, and to close our doors after us; to hide for a little while until the wrath passes.  (Isaiah 26:20) This year as our forefathers did at several times in history, (the last time in Nazi-time) we could feel how it must have been, hiding, just being with a few, not able to feel that unity of a people chosen by God.

As in previous times this year we strongly could feel how The Adonai gives perfect peace to those whose faith is firm. Once more we could feel the importance to always trust the Elohim Hashem Jehovah because He is forever our mighty Rock (Isaiah 26:3-4) this year, more than in other years we could fully set our minds on our Divine Creator. Now more than in other times we can feel how it is Him Who keeps us completely whole, steady on our feet, because we keep at it and don’t quit. Enough reason to call others also to believe in The One we do believe and to say

Depend on God and keep at it because in the LORD GOD you have a sure thing. (Isaiah 26:4-5)

Let us in this time of disease not be afraid of that disease to go out in the world, to help those in need. Let us be there for the elderly and sick, and help them by their shopping and by providing for the needs they might have.

Jehovah knew that there would come a time when we must remain in our place and He has provided that we can worship Him in Spirit and in Truth through the Spirit of Holiness that was poured out at the time. Let us also show others why they best come to our Bore, and come to see how Jesus is the way to our God, Who is the God above all gods.

Let us others know that they can trust God and should come to believe in the one He has sent. Jeshua out of the tribe of Judah has given himself as a ransom for mankind and taken over the Scepter and is confirmed as the Firstfruits. We have to let others know that because of Jeshua’s death and resurrection, those who have received faith have, become children of Israel according to the promise. We should show others how the time has come to accept that through his awesome work of redemption, the old has passed and the new has come  (Luke 5).

Let us then letting down doctrines that do not bring us as spiritual firstborns to our goal by those who are not spiritual firstborns. They are of no use to us, because the firstborn learns straight from his / her father and not from the other children in the household. We are banns and should listen to ‘our Man’ instead of people who do not know our Man (Jeremiah 31:9) The firstborn who chose Jehovah over the natural firstborn. Draw the line of the birthright according to the written Word.

Let us make God His Name known but also the name of His son who is the one who carries the Scepter. He is the one who teaches the teaching of the written Word by the outpoured Spirit of Holiness to those named after his name (Jeshuaists).

Even in lockdown we can continue to preach, having enough possibilities by internet and modern technology.

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Additional reading

  1. First time since Nazi-time no public gathering
  2. Importance of Tikkun olam

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So many being afraid – reason enough to step in the boat with Christ

For weeks already in Italy, Spain, France and Belgium the inhabitants are feeling limited with their country in lockdown. All over the world people are confronted with an unseen enemy, and that frightens many of them.

Normally the lovers of God who are worshipping Him alone and not other gods, are accustomed to living in a certain way somewhat isolated. The majority of Christendom worshipping a Trinity does not like those Unitarians and avoid contact with them as if they are affected with a terrible disease. Worship services for those isolated Christians are often followed by the internet, because of the distance between many too far. Those able to share the Breaking of Bread in real life, under normal circumstances only find themselves with a few. The 14th of Nisan is for many the big exception for the year. That day is often the ‘high-mass’ bringing many lovers of God together to commemorate the liberation of mankind. That special commemoration day in several prayer halls or kingdom halls often brings more than a hundred people together, showing how even when they are not with many, they also are not with such a few that they should feel alone. This year it was a totally different experience for many, not having the Memorial Gathering in public. It was nice to have several groups providing for internet sharing, but it is not the same and can not be a surrogate or placebo for the real thing.

Remarkable to notice is how so many expressed their calmness and accepted totally those restrictions the governments gave them. Opposite to many unbelievers most members were convinced the time of quarantine should take as long as necessary to keep everybody safe, no matter of the economic impact. We also can notice the members of those Unitarian denominations respect the social distancing and trust God that everything shall turn out back to normal in a certain time.

On the other hand all over the world, we find certain Christian groups calling to gather for Easter and to ignore such social distancing. They forget they perhaps do not only bring their own life in danger, but worse bring other people, they could encounter also on other days, in great danger. We can only say they have a very selfish attitude.

Around us, we can find unbelievers and believers who express their fear. Normal when one does not know the unseen enemy thoroughly and does not know how it all shall evolve in the near future. People also love to have everything under control and when they feel they loose control they start panicking.

For those with fear, we would like to remind them of a little event which took place some two thousand years ago.

Like on many great lakes and seas the wind can come up forcibly and bring dangerously high waves.

The disciples and Jesus were on passage on a boat and when the master teacher went to sleep, and a violent storm came.  The wind was howling, the boat was taking on water, these men felt that their lives were in danger from forces they could not control.  Take note, these were not inexperienced Saturday afternoon boaters.  Most of these men were professional fishermen.  These men were of strong hand and backs, they had been in a storm or two in their years of fishing.

If you have ever met a sailor, they often pride themselves on the storms they have endured on the seas.  However; this was not the same kind of storm that these men had endured before.  This storm frightened them to the point of fearing death.  It was pretty easy for them to see that the boat would likely be crushed in the waves, the wind and water was overtaking the boat.  They had no control over their circumstances.  All of their lives were passing before their eyes.  Wives lips that would never be kissed again, children that would never be played with again.  The sunrises they would miss.  Songs that they would never sing again.  As they looked over their possessions, their homes, their clothes, money, land, and more they began to realize how little value those things actually had.  They could see that they had focused their whole lives on things that really didn’t matter.  Their children, their spouses, their families, and their God are the things that mattered. As devout Jews they knew they could trust their God, the God of Abraham. Though it looked like as if they feared That God would not be with them.

On land they would know who to turn to when they had doubts of certain matters or fear for certain things. But far from any temple, no synagogue at hand, to whom had they to turn? Where could they find a rabbi or rebbe who could help them?

In want of having a Rabbi there now they turned their eyes toward their friend Jeshua (Jesus) who was lying quietly sleeping.  In all of this storming wind, spraying of water, beating of the waves, screaming of the men, he seemed steadfast asleep.  It looked like he was in a place of safety and comfort.  Peacefully like a baby he was there sleeping, probably laying in a puddle of water, soaked from head to toe, but asleep none the less.

A few decades ago Lenny LeBlanc released a song with the name “Asleep in the Boat”.  It talks about a promise God made, and that He is always there, just as Jesus was here with his disciples.  Just like when we are in the storm, He is here for us.

In these times of trouble we better look at how Jesus cope with difficulties and uncertainties. We do know many Christians take him as their god. God does know everything, but Jesus, not being God, did not know everything and like us just had to trust his heavenly Father.
Jesus has encountered several very difficult moments, and we should know that also he, even doubted God and asked Him why He had abandoned him. From the stake, Jesus cried out loud to His heavenly Father, the Only One True God.

46 And about the ninth hour Yahushua cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My Elohim, my Elohim, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matt 27:46, NRKJV)

But God never had abandoned or had forsaken His only beloved son. Nobody can do anything to God and God is the only Being that can not die. But Jesus could be hurt by men and he knew very well that those people could kill him. His death was a certainty, but what would happen after his death was not so sure. For that he had to trust his heavenly Father to Whom he cried that he would not be forsaken. Only by having enough faith in his heavenly Father Jesus could face those difficult moments. The Nazarene Jew had enough faith in his heavenly Father, the God of Israel, Who had already for centuries guided His People.

Jesus so much trusted his God, that he was willing to put his own will aside to do the Will of his heavenly Father, Whom Jesus considered to be the Only One True God, the God above all gods and above all kings. Like his ancestor King David, Jesus trusted his God.

We too, should have the same trust in God like the son of God had in his heavenly Father, Who is also our heavenly Father. In the Elohim Hashem Jehovah, we should find security and peace at heart, not having to have fear for what might come.

When we are children of God let us behave like it, and show others what a good Father we have. Let us take this period of more free time, to let Jehovah’s Name resound in many more places. That we who believe in Him show others how the Elohim has given the world the opportunity to be free of all worldly matters and that this time on this earth is only a temporary period. Let us take the opportunity to witness over the beauties of the Highest and how He has given the world a solution to be free of all worries.

We should step in the boat of Christ and be aware that even when he would be asleep, we still shall be safe, because he is with us and his God is with us.
When we feel abandoned by the world, them not liking we do not adhere to their god or gods, do not worry. One is better to worship the True God of the Bible instead of the many gods human beings love to worship. The God of Jesus, Hosea, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Solomon, David, Nehemiah, Abraham, Moses and Adam is the Best God we can have and Who can make sure we shall be able to receive the best life, “is it not today than tomorrow” ….

When we feel the pains of this world, and lost dear friends or family members, let us always remember that once they died their pain would be gone, and all worries would be over for them. Let us also put everything in the right perspective, comparing our luxury life with the millions of people in worse circumstances. And let us not forget how there was once a man who had not done any fault in his life, but was tortured and nailed at a wooden stake, giving his life for so many people he did not even know, so that they could live unto righteousness.

30 The Elohim of our fathers raised up Yahushua, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. (Acts 5:30, NRKJV)

24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1Pet 2:24, NRKJV)

Let us remember that event when the apostles were afraid and think about the storm in which we landed today.

23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. 24 And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. 25 And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, My master, save us: we perish. 26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. 27 But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him! (Matt 8:23-27, NRKJV)

It would be wrong to think Jesus had no fear. He, like his brothers and sisters, also had many fears. Though Jesus feared more God than people and therefore was not afraid to speak out. Jesus very well knew his humble position and that he could do nothing without his heavenly Father, His God. Only by listening to his God, and doing what God wanted from him, Jesus could do exceptional things.

19 Then answered Yahushua and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. (John 5:19, NRKJV)

From those around him, Jesus asked them to come to him and to his God, so that what God had given to His son also could come unto us. Jesus knew that his God was the Only One to trust and knew that those who have complete trust in God will be kept in perfect peace by keeping their minds focused on Gods promises.

3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. (Isa 26:3, NRKJV)

Like so many before Christ let us also the same as Jesus did, trust the Divine Creator and give ourselves in His Hands. Even if we fear others or such disease as CoViD-19, we should have more fear for the God of Christ, the God of Abraham and should pray to Him and trust HIm, in the same way as Jesus and Isaiah trusted their heavenly Father.

9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of יהוה. 11 יהוה, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them. 12 יהוה, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. 13 O יהוה our Elohim, masters instead of thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. (Isa 26:9-13, NRKJV)

While we may not know what tomorrow holds for us, we have chosen to follow Jesus and to have the same trust in his heavenly Father and as such should not have to worry about the future. In Christ Jesus lies our hope for the future, because he gave his life for us and God accepted his sacrificial offering as a ransom for once and for all.
When we believe who Jesus is and what he really has done and how God has now taken him out of the dead as an example for what might happen to us, we should not be afraid because in such resurrection is our hope and future.
It is in our belief in the promises of God and in the certainty of salvation that we have a present peace.

We just have to be patient and trust the Most High God. By following This God His only begotten beloved son, we have the assurance that one day there shall come a Kingdom which surpasses all other kingdoms and where there shall be peace for all without any pain or sorrow. Let us look forward to such days in the coming Kingdom of God.

 

**

Let us thank God for everything that we got for good things in our life
and let us trust Him as our Guide and Helper in difficult days
as well for Him being a Stormstiller

From Sticky Note to God ~03.31.20~

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Preceding

Why are you afraid?

Fear in your own heart or outside of it

Our life depending on faith

The Struggle Ends When Gratitude Begins

Many opportunities given by God

If you keep your faith and trust in God

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Additional reading

  1. Matthew 8:23-27 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Jesus Calms a Stormy Sea
  2. Matthew 9:32-34 – How others look at the blind, speechless and demoniac being healed
  3. The unseen enemy
  4. Fear of failure, and fear of the unknown
  5. 8 fears caused by the fear of Man
  6. Fearmongering succeeded and got the bugaboo a victory
  7. A Living Faith #9 Our Manner of Life
  8. Thanksgiving wisdom: Why gratitude is good for your health
  9. Problems on a dark road and A look at our ego-centric world
  10. Not fear or dread or blind compulsion
  11. The chosen ones to fear or not to fear
  12. What is life?
  13. Greatest single cause of atheism
  14. Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies) by Chris Tomlin
  15. Control and change
  16. We find by losing. We hold fast by letting go.
  17. A treasure which can give me everything I need
  18. I Am Not Alone – By: Kari Jobe
  19. Necessity of a revelation of creation 3 Getting understanding by Word of God 1
  20. Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be
  21. Today’s thought “Faith in Troubled Times” (January 14)
  22. Today’s thought “Crying to God” (August 04)
  23. The Wrath of God
  24. Today’s thought “Plea for Vindication or for Protection against Oppressors” (January 07)
  25. Today’s thought “My times are in your hand” (January 14)
  26. Today’s Thought “You will keep … in perfect peace” (May 03)
  27. Kingdom of God what will it be like

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Related

  1. Housebound
  2. Right Attitude in Trouble… Joshua of Ghana
  3. Isaiah 26: Content in God alone.
  4. The Sea of Galilee
  5. Sonnets For My Savior 24
  6. “In The Midst Of The Storm”
  7. Jesus Feared God, Not Circumstances
  8. Pandemic: Be Calm During the Storm
  9. Praying the Bible with Gratitude
  10. The Wind and Sea Obey Him
  11. Today’s Theme Song: Above All
  12. Hide Yourself
  13. Isaiah Chapter 26
  14. 100 Blessings for Pandemic
  15. Podcast #299: “Thank You, Lord” by Dennis Jernigan
  16. The rock on which we stand

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Crimes & Atrocities, Headlines - News, Health affairs, Lifestyle, Religious affairs, Social affairs, Welfare matters, World affairs

Isolation Blues

drycrikjournal

To ease the pain of living.
Everything else, drunken dumbshow.

- Allen Ginsberg (“Memory Gardens”)

Chill in the dark,
the day before forever—
before eternity slips
into twinkling space.

Alone with ourselves,
we have no secrets left
to bury, only seeds to sow
for summer fruit.

Two owls are talking
across the yard:
emphatic hoots,
promises of spring.

Dogs bark at the scent
of coyotes near—
neither know, neither care
about tomorrow.

It is our moment
to find diversions
in search of awe,
the small and the majestic—

to do the work
to ease the pain of living.
All the rest
drunken dumbshow.

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Recrafting our World

According to psychologist Peter Kramer, resilience is the ability to cope with life’s frustrations without falling apart. And reslilience, not happiness, is the opposite of depression.

  • essence of a good life =  how well we pay attention, compassionately accept our situation, take action toward meaningful goals, learn from our choices, and move on, with as much trust + love as we can.
  • time at home = opportunity to reflect on life >  how to live closer to your credo => opportunity to re-evaluate + change way we live, work, produce, + distribute goods + services.
  • shift away from mindless consumerism => begin living for higher purposes, mindful of our impact on other people & planet.
  • Clarifying + aligning with our priorities.

key = how we respond to new challenge. 

  • slowing down & reflecting
  • waking up to a new reality.
  • isolation =/= loneliness.

Essence of a good life: how well we pay attention, compassionately accept our situation, take action toward meaningful goals, learn from our choices, and move on, with as much trust as we can. And remembering that what matters most is love. {Happy or Resilient?}

writing to freedom

Recrafting our World

dreams, rebirth

It’s impossible to avoid the news and impact of coronavirus.

I’ve progressed from denial to concern, to acceptance and opening to new ideas. I’ve been sick for the last few days wondering if I have the virus, flu, a cold, allergies, or am simply run down. I’m considering whether to go to a doctor and be tested for the coronavirus. The virus is forcing us to slow down and live differently, at least for a while, Maybe asking us to consider how we can become healthier, more resilient, and more helpful in a connected world. Here’s a related post I wrote about resiliency a few years ago called Happy or Resilient?  From that post; the essence of a good life is how well we pay attention, compassionately accept our situation, take action toward meaningful goals, learn from our choices, and move on, with as much…

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let go… or be dragged

heart prints

image

I used to feel uncomfortable when people asked me why I am estranged from my family. It is difficult to explain a life-long struggle in a few sentences. How do you describe the rejection and the hurt? How do you share openly without being judged? People with strong relational families find it hard to understand.

It was a decision that left me with a limp.

How do I explain the fact that I used to live in constant fear; that I continuously questioned people’s intentions instead of embracing and enjoying the joy of companionship? Can one measure the amount of time it took to rebuild my capacity to trust others; to build a new support structure?

Sometimes the strongest thing you will ever do will be to let go of someone. It will be painful, you will suffer guilt, and you will second-guess yourself, but for your own sanity…

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Tax to pay to atone for a certain complexity of mind


Loneliness truly is the tax we have to pay to atone for a certain complexity of mind.”
There are few more shameful confessions to make than that we are lonely.
The basic assumption is that no respectable person could ever feel isolated
– unless they had just moved country or been widowed.
Once we accept loneliness, we can get creative:
we can start to send out messages in a bottle:
we can sing, write poetry, produce books and blogs, activities stemming from the realisation that people around us won’t ever fully get us but that others – separated across time and space – might just.

via The School of Life – There are few more shameful confessions to make…

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Laboring in the Vineyard or Sitting on the Hillside with Jonah?

The defender of both the rich and the poor, the weak and the strong, the young and the old is calling onto all and want to see that all the world may hear about His Name and His wonderworks.

In the previous centuries we have seen many monasteries being build all over the western hemisphere. Many convent groups were created and had so called religious people who segregate themselves from the country folks. Not all of those who detached themselves from ordinary day-life got to do some work for God that brought some positiveness and something extra to the Christian community.

To seclude oneself from the world does not resolve anything. It will not let the Christian community grow. They may pray a lot for expansion of that community but that is not what God requires from His children to repeat continuously the same words or prayers.

The son of God also did not demand to enisle oneself. To dissociate of the community not making efforts to reach them with the Word of God, will not bring more people to God.

We always have to remember what Jesus asked his disciples, to go out into the world to preach the gospel-message.

There may be those people who think isolation will bring them closer to God, but sharing the Word of God with as many as we can shall bring us even closer to God.

To get harvest there has to be the labour. Without labour no harvest.

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SonShine's Journal -

prov 18 laboring vineyard2Just as there are two sides to a coin there are two sides to every story. Note vs 1 of Proverbs 18: “One who has isolatedhimself seekshis own desires;he rejectsallsound judgment.” (NET). Note this is self-imposed not God imposed as in the case of Moses (Ex 3:1), the plain for Ezekiel (Ezek 3:22), the wilderness for John (Luke 1:80), Arabia for Paul (Gal 1:17) and the wilderness for His Blessed Son (Mark 1). And that is where we find the two sides to every story.

There are those who seek isolation due to a need or desire to grow closer to God but vs 1 clearly indicates that this is not the case. These are people who have a “Jonah complex.” They fail to see the ramifications of their isolation and God’s plan and purpose for…

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Looking at a conservative review of Shop Class As Soul Craft

Some might think we are

“constantly striving to develop lives of meaning without any outside recourse. The soul is increasingly insulated from the world outside our heads.” {Against Kant and Consumerism}

but today lots of people strive to enrich themselves with material wealth and consider their live worthwhile when they can be more wealthier and better showing off than others. Lots of people think they miss enough money or enough gadgets to enjoy fully life. For many everything seems to turn around the gathering of as much money as possible.

Lots of people do not look for the depth of meaning of life and are not so much interested in the others around them and the influence or necessity of them for them.

thisissueappearsThe American Conservative in the May/June 2015 article speaks about Matthew Crawford his books “Shop Class As Soul Craft” plus “The World Beyond Your Head” and looks at ‘the subtitle to his latest book which promises a look at our “age of distraction“.

The article says:

The premise of Crawford’s book is that our distractedness is merely symptomatic of a deeper cultural defect, a misrepresentation of the self that has permeated our society. He traces this back to Enlightenment philosophy, especially the thought of Immanuel Kant. Enlightenment thinkers of the late 17th and 18th centuries presented a view of the person that contrasted drastically with medieval and ancient thought: they put unprecedented emphasis on the rational individual as separate from society or community. They posited new theories about freedom founded upon reason and self-determination, with epistemological roots in ideas such as Descartes’s famous claim that “I think therefore I am.” Kant believed that knowledge and ethics must necessarily be situated within the mind—that existence must be interpreted through the autonomy of the individual.

The writer thinks

The soul is increasingly insulated from the world outside our heads.

Whereas in the real world, Crawford writes,

“we are subject to the heteronomy of things; the hazards of material reality,”

and continues

what Kant has given us is our modern identification of freedom with choice, in which choice is a “pure flashing forth” of the individual will.

that identification of freedom with choice has been there already from the period of the beginning in the Garden of Eden. Man had the choice either to follow his Creator His Will or to go his own way. Man choose the latter.

Thousand of years later, many think the world around them limits them and nature is to  block  their leg.

dumb nature is understood to be threatening to our freedom as rational beings, it becomes attractive to construct a virtual reality that will be less so, a benignly nice [reality] where there is no conflict between self and world

How many people do not want to be on their own and have the world turning around themselves. For many it is most important that everything turns around their own “I” so that they can say with proud: “I am“.

The associate editor of  The American Conservative Gracy Olmstead writes:

Consumer culture tries to destroy the discomforts and imperfections that are necessarily part of life.

Is not there one of the greatest problems of our present society, which has put most of its hopes on the material things it can require to make its own. It is not that they want to hoard things, but they love to gather all the newest things so that they can show off against others who have to do with older things.

Though the writer of the article finds that modern cars are designed in an insulating and distracting way, we more see them as copies of each other not having any more the specific personality or difference as the cars had in the 1950ies, when each car looked so specific and really could get its fans for one or another model and each model with its own flashy personal colours. to us it looks like that car owners lost the interest to have a car or any other object (clothes, houses) that look very personal and have their won story to tell. People do want all the same and are willing to cue for the latest gadget. Everybody else has to be able to see that they have this or that brand and can afford this or that mobile or i-pad, which has to be of the latest and newest ‘invention’.

Concerning the cars we could agree with the idea the  critic has

Everything within a car is constructed to give a sense of isolation and ease.

When the author would mean that the person who is driving the car would like to have the feeling to being his own world, having his own little world where nobody else around is being part of it. When the music can play loud it does not matter that others can hear it in their bathroom or are whipped out of bed. It is there music and everybody else should have to hear that is the best music to listen to.

Naturally the cultivation of “me-worlds” extends beyond auto-mobile design, but form men this might still be the thing to make their ‘me’, though the i-pad has taken a lot of that place.

Olmstead finds that Crawford spends a good deal of the book arguing that an Enlightenment approach to epistemology leads to narcissism: an understanding of the world that revolves entirely around the self and writes

The narcissist “treats objects as props” and struggles to comprehend them as objects with a reality of their own. The fantasy of autonomy, when full-grown, results in a “project of open-ended, ultimately groundless self-making.” {Against Kant and Consumerism}

Interestingly, Crawford identifies our treatment of others as the root of online narcissism in the age of Facebook:

“We increasingly deal with others through representations of them that we have,” he writes. “This results in interactions that are more contained, less open-ended, than a face-to-face encounter or a telephone call, giving us more control.”

Automobiles, the reviewer says

“can foster circumspection—literally, looking around for others and regarding oneself as an object for others in turn—or a collection of atomized me-worlds.” Our experience becomes ever more “mediated by representations, which remove us from whatever situation we inhabit directly, as embodied beings who do things.”

Throughout the ages the world has received its many distractions. The tools may have changed but the aim and way has stayed the same. Today “virtual reality” allows many to find back lost friends or schoolmates and gives the opportunity to interact with more, and more diverse, people, not fewer and not more homogeneous.

For American society to emerge from the distractions of consumer culture and virtual existence

Ms Olmstead finds

we must look beyond the symptoms and consider the disease: the shroud of individualism that prevents us from fully embracing the real world.

The individuals looking for themselves to acquire as much material wealth as possible have to come to see that they would be better to work at their social contacts spending more time to be with each other in real life than in chat sessions, never going deep in a conversation. For sure we we must

cultivate an awareness of—and love for—the world beyond ourselves.

The Edge Foundation / Flickr

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Preceding articles:

Material wealth, Submission and Heaven on earth

Why “Selfishness” Doesn’t Properly Mean Being Shortsighted and Harmful to Others

The I Am to explore

little i

Path/Walk/Sink

Comic: The Last Time I Felt Accepted For Who I Am

Be realistic, do not pretend

The world starts with yourself

Believe in yourself!

Believe in your greatness

Find Inspiration and Follow Your Dreams

Wishy-Washy…

There can only be hope when there is a will to be and say “I am”

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Additional reading:

  1. Souls and Religions with Nirvana and light
  2. For those who make other choices
  3. Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience
  4. Detroit, A city not to be understood

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Illusion of Separateness

English: Logo for the Addicted to Social Media...

Logo for the Addicted to Social Media Blog (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lots of people look for social media to feel at ease and like to be carried away by the mobile phone, television or cinema screen. On the many screens were many eyes are glued on these days everything is done to get people away from the Divine Creator. With smashing sparkling flashing lights on those screens not the light comes in the hearts but those lights blind the many searchers and many are placed in the dark catacombs of the present world.

Instead of uniting with the many social media friends, people get even more isolated and lonely, forgetting also the most important relationship they should work at. That Higher Friend even get not in the mind of most human beings.

Instead of gaining power those caught up by social media and those falling in the trap of the growing number of atheists get more reasons (they think) to be afraid and start fearing people who seem to be different than them, though often they are not so different as they are thought of to be. The clam of the world brings the darkness of the torture rooms of the dark ages. History keeps repeating.

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To remember:

  • some humans want to keep other humans in darkness
  • cutting off from awareness of our full potential, cutting us off from true connection with our Creator
  • creating reasons for us to feel separate from our fellows
  • feeding idea of winners + losers > right + wrong.
  • feed fear => cannot come together to create a real evolution of consciousness
  • more easily controlled when feeling afraid, isolated
  • Everyday on television, internet + radio news = fed lies to distract us +> dish out fear
  • truth = all are one, connected by a single consciousness => when we harm another we actually harm ourselves +  when we judge another we are judging ourselves =>  plug into our divine creator and perform miracles on planet
  • => Open your eyes and rise above the illusion.

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Preceding articles:

  1. Putting your feelings into words and sharing them
  2. Lonely in the crowd
  3. Less… is still enough
  4. Less for more
  5. The Art of Doing Less – Your Time is Finite
  6. How to Find the Meaning of Life and Reach a State of Peace
  7. Fear, struggles, sadness, bad feelings and depression
  8. Thought of the day: We want more, i want more, but why is that?
  9. Of old and new ideas to sustain power and to feel good by loving to be connected and worship something

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Additional reading:

  1. Walking alone?
  2. What Are You Seeking?
  3. What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?
  4. Engagement in an actual two-way conversation with your deities
  5. Be realistic, do not pretend
  6. Disscusion Questions
  7. Gender connections
  8. Companionship
  9. Subcutaneous power for humanity 5 Loneliness, Virtual and real friends
  10. Dealing with worries in our lives
  11. Migrants to the West #7 Religions
  12. Subcutaneous power for humanity 1 1940-1960 Influenced by horrors of the century
  13. Subcutaneous power for humanity 3 Facing changing attitudes
  14. Subcutaneous power for humanity 5 Loneliness, Virtual and real friends
  15. Journal for and from bothered citizens
  16. Faith because of the questions
  17. Religion, fundamentalism and murder
  18. Let us not forget it was God who chose us
  19. 2013 insecurity
  20. 2014 Social contacts
  21. Americans wrongly informed about situation in Europe
  22. A little ray of sunshine.

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Finding My Authentic Self

image

There are some humans that want to keep other humans in the darkness, cutting us off from the awareness of our full potential, cutting us off from true connection with our creator.

Make no mistake, they benefit from creating reasons for us to feel separate from our fellows, feeding the idea of winners and losers, that there are those who are right and those who are wrong.

They feed us with reasons we should fear each other, different races, religions, countries, so that we cannot come together to create a real evolution of consciousness.

We are more easily controlled when we feel afraid, isolated, separate from one another and alone.

Everyday on the television, internet and radio news we are fed lies to distract us and they dish out fear, fear and more fear.

If we all knew the truth, that we truly all are one, connected by a single…

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Coming Out Of The Bipolar Closet

We like to introduce the online photography gallery for people affected by mental illness and share this witness which can help many people.

Every person should know that it is most importatn always to be and stay your own self, loving your self and loving the others like they are.

To free yourself from the chains and boundaries it is necessary to get rid of secrets and to dare to be open to others. They either may accept you or leave you for what you are. But in this world there are enough people and you can not be befriended with everybody, so it is better you concentrate to become befriended with those who are willing to take you as you are.

Let yourself be known, come out of the dark and let others also come out the closet.

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To remember:
  • Be open about many of your mental health challenges
  • dare to publicly discus them
  • do not hide
  • be not afraid of stigma.
  • Gain the courage to do and act
  • recognize what you have but also that it might be just one piece of your complex mental puzzle
  • We are all individuals on our own twisting journeys to mental health and wellness. 
  • Frustration, anger, guilt, shame, sadness, isolation, self-loathing, and hopelessness
  • Nothing is  hopeless.
  • Feel a shift, and realize you can choose to live.
  • Come to live with the emotional ups and downs
  • Dare to look for help
  • Stop ignoring advice and stop hiding in that damn closet
  • take your meds, see your doctors, and be more self-aware — you can actually take some control, and start moving in a positive direction. One baby step at a time.
  • There are still a few people in your life that find you worth fighting for
  • fight through this for them, and … do it for yourself
  • You are strong. You are capable. You are talented. You are worthy of a life worth living. A change will come.

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Broken Light Collective

Photo taken by contributor Danielle, a woman in her thirties from New Jersey who has suffered from a variety of mental health challenges, including severe depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, as well as traits of BPD, OCD, and ADD. Danielle is a writer, photographer, photo editor and certified professional life coach. she is also a passionate mental health advocate and the founder and director of Broken Light Collective.

About this photo: “I took this self-portrait several years ago, in the midst of a two-year major depressive episode. I had become agoraphobic and spent almost all of my time in that bed. I ate there, I started Broken Light Collective from there, and I even did my therapy from there. This photo represents sadness, fear, isolation, and hopelessness.

I have since emerged from that particular darkness. I still have moments of sadness, fear, isolation and hopelessness, but I also have moments of joy, connection, and hope.

I have been…

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Lonely in the crowd

Population growth rate world

Population growth rate world (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I started writing this article there where 7 238 080 161 people on this globe. When I finished writing there where already 7 238 100 805  living human beings, thriving on only 17% of the earth its surface. Find out how many there are now when you reading this, at Worldometers info: world-population. Current UN projections show a continued increase in population in the near future with a steady decline in population growth rate; global population is expected to reach between 8.3 and 10.9 billion by 2050. {“World Population Prospects, the 2012 Revision – “Low variant” and “High variant” values”} {“World population projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050 – UN report”}

World population

World population (Photo credit: Arenamontanus)

With the millions living around us we are like a very tiny ant or even more like a microbe. But those microbes which we know are often more in symbiosis or unity than those human beings.  With six of Earth’s seven continents being  permanently inhabited on a large scale, we may find Asia as the most populous continent, with its 4.3 billion inhabitants accounting for 60% of the world population. In our own region many people do think they are already with too many living on the small space which is around them. Though finding themselves living in an overcrowded area, many of those people do feel so lonely. Even when they search on the internet and add so many people on their social media profile, many people feel very lonely. You could not say they are really isolated, but what matters is that there is no real connection with the others in their surroundings.

Many invite people they meet on the internet to join as ‘friends‘ and to ‘register’ on this and that and to ‘vote’ for this and that. Voters can start and join voting blocks for the issues, sites, and groups they care about, and gather massive followings. But hose followings do they bring up something? And do the joiners really feel connected, supported or find they all can work for the same good cause?

Looking at this world 

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have 509 friends on Facebook, but I still feel lonely.

he writes in Look Up and See the World Around You at his jukebox of writings by him and by the straight forward and happy go lucky girl of sixteen Navneet Kaur. Saswata Mitra is an eighteen year old (or was) who declared himself to be selfless and caring about everyone. He also feels like everybody else the need to feel that others also would care about him. And that is normal; We all need that feeling. We all need to feel that somebody else cares about us. this feeling or want to be cared and loved does not always get answered. People to get more satisfaction from having the assurance that many like them, got so entangled or chained by social media where they can build up friends like nothing.

facebook

facebook (Photo credit: dkalo)

On that virtual platform many “friends” are made, but not so many contacts made into silver and even less are converted in silver or redeemed for gold.

I see what they do everyday yet I barely know them. In this Global Neighborhood, we share and post everything we see, hear and experience. We have somehow managed to convince ourselves of the illusion that updating everything we do will get us connected to everyone around us. But hey, life your head from your screens and look around you. You’re alone. {Look Up and See the World Around You}

Having 509 friends on Facebook does not say anything about having real friends or having real communication with others. As such in this world there may be many who have lots of connections on their social media sites, but who still feel very lonely.

The whole virtual worlds sucks many into a world of belief but even more of a world of wishful thinking. On one site there are those who boast with their holiday trips to far away places and with all the gadgets they may retrieve. Lots of chit-chat and backbiting or malicious gossip can be found at those social media platforms.

We may see what they want us to or like us to see. Do they let us see their own self? Give they really something from their own which they want to share to get into a better relationship with the other?

Do those people in their everyday postings on that Global Neighbourhood really share and post everything they see, hear and experience and how much are they involved with it or want to be involved with it?

How many do not live in that illusion that updating everything we do will get us connected to everyone around us? Or is that really the intention of many?

As you say we better come to look for real connections by looking around us in the real world, living our head from our screens, seeing but also willing to become connected with that real world.

Though I think lots of people today prefer to stay connected in their virtual world, playing games and ‘doing as if’. They seem to find more indulgence by enjoying the distraction by the games and chit-chat, instead of going to spend time in having serious discussions or a real serious talk. Lots of youngsters can not read or concentrate on long texts any more. It has to be all telegram style short messages, and by preference not asking too much thought.

God’s Will and Design For Your Life – Inspirational Bible Verses, who is well aware that one of the problems might well be that most people use not their eyes to see further than this world around them personally and do not want to grasp a little bit of what the Plan of the Planner of this universe might be.

We only see mere seconds in part of God’s plan as a whole. As such we cannot grasp what is the blueprint for our life. We all have a definite past, but with God we have an indefinite future that is infinite by His grace, full of hope and wonder. There is unity and harmony in God’s plan for our life and we must embrace it. So, have faith in the Lord and in His providence as all things work together for good for them that love Him and are called according to His purpose. {God’s Will and Design For Your Life – Inspirational Bible Verses}

Being so self focused many of us have you become so tired, worn out, broken down, frustrated, stressed out, hopeless and discouraged that they feel like they can’t even make it through the day and dread facing tomorrow.

We all know that feeling of being pushed in the corner by others, or by awkward situations. Many of us even have the impression it are they who are in the picture for the bad.

Sometimes in life it seems that the only experiences that we are having are all bad ones. There are times that it seems that today is worse than yesterday, and we are in fear of what tomorrow will bring. Life seems to be one disaster after another, and we seem to be going from crisis to crisis. There are times when life drains all the energy from us and we find ourselves wiped out from the stress we are dealing with on a daily basis. {Bible Verses for Hurt, Broken, and Discouraged Lives – God Has a Plan}

All of us seem to grow fearful and anxious as we wait for things to get better. {Bible Verses for Hurt, Broken, and Discouraged Lives – God Has a Plan}

Many think they shall find answers in their virtual world of the internet social media. After work, or many already at work, do not mind forgetting what they really have to do at the workplace or at home, and get into their own little world of virtual friends and games of building farms or villages. They try to forget the real world with its many stressful situations.

We rush through life without stopping to check where we are going, or what we are doing.{Bible Verses for Hurt, Broken, and Discouraged Lives – God Has a Plan}

We should know that we better get into the real world and dare to face all its problems. We for sure can not solve all those problems. We should not worry that we are not able to solve everything. We should just try to do our best and get together with others to help each-other to grow strong in this tempting world.

The Nazarene Jeshua (Jesus Christ) was a Master-teacher, who was totally not concerned about himself. He put himself totally at the side and only wanted to do the will of his heavenly Father. He brought the Words of his Father to many and asked them to spread the same Good News he gave them. Jesus asked them to go out in the world and to look for like minded people who are willing to share the same hope as he gave them.

He warned them they also could feel lonely and hated, because others would not like it they being followers of him, worshipping the Only One God of gods. But he assured them that when they would come to look for each other and join in meetings, they would find the brotherly love he gave them and which could bring us all united in a world where there would be no war or pain any more.

By sharing that love Jesus gave to us, and finding believers who also want to worship that Only One God we shall be able to find those friends who can build us up and together would be willing to build up that community in which Jesus is the cornerstone. There we shall be able to find the real friends, who we shall be willing to call ‘brothers‘ and ‘sisters‘. With them we shall be looking forward to the fulfilment of God’s Plan.

Part of the process of God’s wondrous ability to bless our lives is you and I taking the time to slow down petition the throne of Grace and listen for His voice. As we slow down and wait on Him, we will be reminded of our complete and utter dependence on His strength. When we take the time to stop, pray; slow down and wait on Him – He will bring the resolution to our problems as and reveal His plan for our lives. {Bible Verses for Hurt, Broken, and Discouraged Lives – God Has a Plan}

As disciples of Christ we can come to counting lives and friends dear to us. Today this can happen in a less dangerous manner than in the first century of this era. The message did keep the same and the reason to make friends in Christ has become to be quickened, because time runs out. Day by day we shall be coming closer to the end times and when World War III will be a fact, it would be to late. Today our priority should be to form a loving brotherhood. It is now that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us by sharing true riches with as many as we can. Knowing that tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair we should be giving out our hand to many around us in love speaking words of kindness. Willing to walk with all kinds of people in love by faith, not by sight, together making church as united people under Christ.

When you are feeling lonely do know you are not alone. Tsundukani Baloyi writes:

The thing about feeling lonely is that it doesn’t matter who you choose to waste your time with whether it may be with friends, a lover or any significant other, you will still feel lonely. You could be in a room filled with people and still not feel as though you are part of the crowd. I don’t know, feeling lonely sucks at times. It drains the living hell out of you and the worst part of it is that you won’t even know why you feeling lonely in the first place. {Lonely}

When you are feeling lonely then, it is perhaps because you do not feel the mediator Jesus close to you, nor his heavenly Father who shall always be there by those who are looking for Him.

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When this article was published there where: 7 238 140 550 people on this earth.

Additional literature:

  1. Internet absurdities
  2. Changing screens
  3. Words to push and pull
  4. How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
  5. When you think you have nothing to say or to show
  6. Sharing thoughts and philosophical writings
  7. Putting your feelings into words and sharing them
  8. Hello America and atheists
  9. Message of Pope Francis I for the 48th World Communications Day
  10. Be Honest
  11. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #12 Prayer #10 Talk to A Friend
  12. From Winterdarkness into light of Spring
  13. To be chained by love for another one
  14. God won’t ask
  15. Man’s plans prevailed by God’s purpose
  16. A goal is a dream with a plan
  17. If You want to start winning the war
  18. Engaging the enemy
  19. Intellectual servility a curse of mankind
  20. We should use the Bible every day
  21. People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations
  22. Science, belief, denial and visibility 2
  23. A participation in the body of Christ (CdEcclesia)
  24. A participation in the body of Christ
  25. Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them
  26. Congregate, to gather, to meet
  27. Meeting – Vergadering
  28. Parish, local church community – Parochie, plaatselijke kerkgemeenschap
  29. Reasons to come to gether
  30. Fellowship
  31. Integrity of the fellowship
  32. Feeling-good, search for happiness and the church
  33. Making church
  34. What’s church for, anyway?
  35. The Church, Body of Christ and remnant Israel synonymous
  36. Many churches
  37. Synagogue, Church or Ecclesia for the Christian
  38. When we love we do not need laws
  39. Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them
  40. Priority to form a loving brotherhood

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  • Not So Lonely, After All (galinbluejeans.wordpress.com)
    I thought you came back for me. So I’d not feel lonely, especially ’cause Priya & Sahana weren’t at school, and neither was Shyam. It was really sweet of you, RB
  • Now 7.2 billion humans, and counting (earthsky.org)
    United Nations demographers declared a day last week (July 11, 2013) as World Population Day, at the same time saying that our global human population has now reached 7.2 billion and counting. The 7.2 billion number appears in the most recent of the biannual reports from the UN Population Division called World Population Prospects, which you can find here. This report also gave current projections for future population:
  • Nigeria’s population will outstrip US as world’s population will rise to 9.7bn in 2050 (vanguardngr.com)
    The world’s population will rise to 9.7 billion in 2050 from the current level of 7.1 billion and India will overtake China as the world’s most populous nation, as Nigeria’s  population will outstrip that of the United State  a French  study said Wednesday.A bi-annual report by the French Institute of Demographic Studies (Ined) projected there would be 10 to 11 billion people on the planet by the end of the century.The projections ran parallel to forecasts by the United Nations, the World Bank and other prominent national institutes.A UN study in June said the global population would swell to 9.6 billion in 2050 and the number of people aged 60 and above would catapult from 841 million now to two billion in 2050 and nearly three billion in 2100.
  • Think the U.S. Is a Crowded Place? Check Out This Cool Map Showing Where Nobody Lives (theblaze.com)
    Unless you live in the middle of nowhere and witness this first hand, it’s probably hard to imagine that inhabitants haven’t covered the whole of the U.S., especially if your abode is in a city where it might feel like humanity is so dense that people are living on top of each other.But a new map drummed up by mapsbynik shows just how much room there is left in North America to spread out, where not another soul is reported to live — where the population is exactly zero.
  • My Poem ‘The Lonely Word’ (poetofthesphere.com)
    You can sometimes think you are walking alone
    even when you are in a crowd;
    you can sometimes feel you are hearing nothing
    even when the world sounds so loud;
    you can sometimes see the world distorted;
    you can sometimes hear the distant call
    of someone who you may not have seen for a long time,
    who is nowhere even near you at that exact time-
    like the voice of a ghost,
    but even though you can’t see that person
    you have no doubt as to its origin,
    and you will swear on your life
    that you heard the person that you heard say what they said
    in the way and in the voice that they said it.
  • You’re so used to (lynneadam.wordpress.com)
    You’re so used to being lonely.
    Not alone, but lonely.
    Lonely,
    Because alone is only for a while,
    But lonely is a state.
    Lonely is forever.
  • Philly’s Population Still Growing (phillymag.com)
    “In its estimate for 2013, the Census Bureau put the city’s population at 1,553, 165, an increase of about 25,000 residents – or two percent – over 2010.  … Nineteen of the nation’s 20 largest cities rose in population between 2010 and last year. The lone exception is Detroit, which saw its population decline by 3 percent.” Here’s the full list of America’s biggest cities and their growth since 2010.
  • ‘Lonely’ bacteria increase risk of antibiotic resistance (scienceblog.com)
    Scientists from The University of Manchester have discovered that ‘lonely’ microbes are more likely to mutate, resulting in higher rates of antibiotic resistance. The study, published today in Nature Communications and jointly funded by The Wellcome Trust and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, explored the mutation rates of E.
  • Lonely (tsundukanibaloyi.wordpress.com)
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Filed under Being and Feeling, Religious affairs, World affairs