know who you are

There is no other greater ecstasy, no other greater blissfulness, than to know who you are. ~Osho

Make a Personal Peace Impact!

Create & spread peace yourself, today, right from your computer. Please join me in impacting the lives of thousands with just a few clicks of your mouse.

You can literally impact the lives of thousands with just a few clicks of your mouse. Help create a more beautiful and peaceful world working side-by-side with some of the world’s top peace-makers.

For the first time in history you can directly help fix global problems! You won’t wait for governments, or hope the next election will bring leaders who’ll take more positive healing actions.

This powerful combination will deliver you and your family a more meaningful, abundant, and happier life, while creating a more peaceful world for countless others. And while you’ll soon see the effects of your peace-making on your Personal Peace Impact Meter™, your instant and most touching reward is knowing you’re healing lives and giving hope.

On the way to your Personal Peace Impact Meter, you’ll see a page about how the donations, collected by 10 Million Clicks For Peace, are used to assist war refugees recover from the devastating effects of war, and how funds are also used for peace education to prevent future wars and violence to keep our children (and future generations) safe from those tragedies.

You’re under no obligation to donate, but do listen to the audio message and help us send out kind thoughts and prayers to these distressed people. (Building a field of compassion into your daily life is a powerful method for creating peace.)

www.tenmillionclicksforpeace.org

Live in Joy!

Lilly

We are all part of each other

We are all part of each other
connected spiritually
mostly unaware until one’s actions moves the other to cross paths
Our consciousness and experiences expand
- touching another soul -
growing once more

“Maikaru”

How To Read People Before They Ever Say A Word

Committed to my own personal growth, I continue ongoing academic studies, educational programs, apprenticeships, and volunteer programs to deepen and expand my personal, as well as professional knowledge, experience, and capabilities.

Every so often (and not very often at all!) I come across a personal growth program that I truly believe is worth recommending and sharing. Today, I want to introduce you to a uniquely beneficial program that I implement on a daily basis, and I am certain you will want in your learning library.

This is a remarkable “must have” program. Please indulge me a moment while I explain why.

Joe Navarro is a former counterintelligence officer for the FBI and a recognized expert on nonverbal behavior. He spent his professional career developing a system for “reading” people that is used today by this top government agency.

This is not a program about the meaning of crossed arms! It’s an in-depth, easy-to-learn system for reading people’s true intentions through their body language. The truth is, what Joe has to say in this program is riveting, informative, and tremendously applicable to every encounter you have with every individual you now know or will meet.

I’m sure you’ve considered learning a new foreign language at some point in your life. Why? So you would be able to communicate in ways you couldn’t before. Well, Joe reminds us there is a language that will tell us more about an individual than any words can.

In his new program, The Power of Body Language, (published by Nightingale-Conant) he explains how to “speed-read” people: decode sentiments and behaviors, avoid hidden pitfalls, and look for deceptive behaviors. What’s more, he unveils how YOUR body language can influence what your boss, family, friends, and even strangers think of you.

Filled with examples from Navarro’s professional experience, this definitive program offers a powerful new way to navigate your world. You’ll learn:

? The ancient survival instincts that drive body language

? Why the face is the least likely place to gauge a person’s true feelings

? What thumbs, feet, and eyelids reveal about moods and motives

? The most powerful behaviors that reveal our confidence and true sentiments

? Simple nonverbals that instantly establish trust or communicate authority

(just to name a few!)

If you think learning a new language is important, put it on hold until you master learning about body language. You’ll be armed with the “decoder secret” about people’s motives and attitudes that most people never realize exist — knowledge that will change your life in ways you can’t begin to imagine.

It will take only one listen to The Power of Body Language, for you to learn how to detect what people really mean. It will send your nonverbal intelligence soaring! I guarantee that this program is going to give you an amazing edge when negotiating or even just getting to know a person for the first time. I find it very helpful when being approached by people interested in new business deals … or by guys who want to date my daughter!

Live In Joy!

Lilly

It Is Not Always May

The sun is bright,–the air is clear,
The darting swallows soar and sing.
And from the stately elms I hear
The bluebird prophesying Spring.

So blue you winding river flows,
It seems an outlet from the sky,
Where waiting till the west-wind blows,
The freighted clouds at anchor lie.

All things are new;–the buds, the leaves,
That gild the elm-tree’s nodding crest,
And even the nest beneath the eaves;–
There are no birds in last year’s nest!

All things rejoice in youth and love,
The fulness of their first delight!
And learn from the soft heavens above
The melting tenderness of night.

Maiden, that read’st this simple rhyme,
Enjoy thy youth, it will not stay;
Enjoy the fragrance of thy prime,
For oh, it is not always May!

Enjoy the Spring of Love and Youth,
To some good angel leave the rest;
For Time will teach thee soon the truth,
There are no birds in last year’s nest!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Often we regret and brood about past decisions – what we should or shouldn’t have done. Or we think of what we should now be doing and are not doing, of what we would like to learn, and it makes us uneasy.

We regret misunderstandings – words we wish we hadn’t said, words we wish we had said, mistakes we have made, people we have offended, opportunities gone by, errors and carelessness that could have been avoided, places we might have gone, things we might have been.

The past has its place and is valuable for lessons learned. The present also has its place, and what we cannot change should not now needlessly keep us from looking and moving forward. Nothing lost or left behind should keep us from now becoming what we can become, from learning what we now can learn.

There are new decisions every day, every hour, and reasons to improve and to repent. Whatever we are, wherever we’ve been, each day we have some opportunity to determine direction.

Each day we need to win, or keep – and certainly to deserve – the love of loved ones; each day to be more patient, more pleasant, more understanding. If there have been loved ones neglected, unreconciled differences, unspoken gratitude, unacknowledged debts, we ought to do now what we should do. If there has been within something that has soured us, we well would turn now to sweetening ourselves, for we hurt ourselves as well as others when we live below the level of our possibilities.

Whatever the past or its meaning, or its length, or its losses, or its lessons learned or left unlearned, we go on from where we are – wherever we are – and become what we can become; with work, repentance, improvement; with faith in the future.

Live in Joy!
Lilly

The Law of Harmony

Laws are the dictates of nature. When adhered to, they produce harmony. Human laws ideally ought to reflect laws of nature. When they don’t, then disharmony is created.

When we think of harmony we typically think of music, as this is a clearly seen, or heard, expression of harmony. When sounds are harmonious they are pleasing to us. When notes are combined in different ways they can produce chords, which are used to produce pieces of music we can enjoy together. What is interesting about this example is that for a chord to be produced from a combination of notes, each note must contribute to that formation. Otherwise, discord results from the disharmony.

When a note ‘disregards’ the whole of which it is a part and does its own thing, discord results. When an individual disregards others and is focused just on doing his or her own thing, disharmony is often created. Just as the note finds its true value in relation to what it contributes, so too humans find their personal value and deeper satisfaction in their contribution to others.

This contribution does not imply conformity, however. When we conform we lose our individuality and our personal uniqueness and value. It is this unique value which is our most precious contribution to others.

Harmony implies that a living thing, including you and me, must contribute in a way that augments (we often say, empowers) others if harmony is to be created. What empowers are those universal qualities we have within ourselves that others need to have supported or awakened within themselves.

When the question of harmony is considered there are always two realities – individuals and a collection of individuals, be they notes, people, animals, etc. A collection of individual humans can be called a community. There are many words in different languages that relate to this fundamental reality of human nature – words like community, commune, communication, communion, common, the commons, commonwealth, and commonweal.

The principle law governing community is the Law of Harmony. A community is a natural reality, and the Law of Harmony is a natural universal law. One of the greatest difficulties we have on the planet is existence of communities in conflict. We have a real need to attempt to create more harmonious communities. Our ability to express ourselves adequately and fulfill our purpose for being depends upon it.

Community is an externalization of the reality we call soul. Literally, a community is a group of individuals living in unity. Most people do not think of unity when they think of community, seeing it more as a collection of individuals who happen to be together. When a community does not live in unity, the soul of the community is denied, and therefore unconditional love, which is the essence of soul, is thwarted. This deprivation of connection and acceptance, easily leads to fear, mistrust, isolation, and in many cases also to racism, hatred and war.

Unity is not uniformity. It therefore does not require conformity. Unity is a state of consciousness and therefore respects diversity of form and expression. It suggests unanimity, which means to be of one spirit or one soul. It is an inner identification with the other as oneself. We could say that it is the soul within recognizing itself in the other. For at a soul level we are one.

Harmony produces harmonics. These are resonances in other octaves. What this means psychologically and spiritually is that when harmony is present those experiencing it open themselves automatically to other dimensions of reality and other levels of their own being. Harmony awakens potentials and expands consciousness, bringing into expression through individuals such qualities as respect, acceptance, tolerance, understanding, empathy, compassion and unanimity.

Harmony awakens the soul and soul creates a community of people who live together creatively and purposefully through which the very best in human nature can unfold.

Exercises: 1. How do you promote unity in your relationships? 2.  When do you conform in a way that inhibits you from expressing your uniqueness in support of others? 3.  How and when do you create disharmony or discord? 4.  How would describe your valued contribution to your community?

Cheesy Tater Tots Recipe

Oh no, I didn’t! LOL, yes I did   Snack time on a Friday night!  In addition to french fries and mozzarella, tater tots are another one of my guilty pleasures. But do you know how hard it is to find a decent plate of tots? Cheesy tater tots are the food single-handedly responsible for the Freshman 15 I put on in college because the dining hall sold them all the time. Now that I know how to make them on my own, I’m in serious trouble.

Ingredients

* 2 medium russet potatoes, peeled , chopped
* 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
* 2 green onions, chopped
* 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
* 1 egg, beaten
* 1/3 cup flour
* oil for frying

Directions

1. Preheat 1 inch of oil in a pot.

2. Place chopped potatoes in a food processor and pulse about 8-10 times or until potatoes are roughly chopped but not mush. Do not over process, you don’t want mashed potatoes.

3. Transfer processed potatoes to a bowl. Add in cheddar cheese, green onions, seasoning salt, egg and flour. The mixture will be thick. Place some of the mixture on a spoon, if you can gently push it off with you finger and it falls in one piece it is ready to go. Add more flour if needed.

4. Once oil reaches 375 degrees. Carefully spoon rounded teaspoonfuls of mixture into oil. Fry until golden brown, about 3 minutes.

5. Sprinkle with more seasoning salt. Serve hot with creamy ranch dip.

Serves 2-4

Notes:

* I had had a couple of disasters making homemade tater tots before. I had originally tried using parboiled potatoes thinking that if I started with raw potatoes I would have raw potatoes inside the tater tot. Well, the result of that first round was a glop of fried potato in the bottom of the frying pan. Not so good. This time around, I decided to start with raw potatoes and it seemed to work perfectly. The potatoes were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

* Another thing I learned while making these is to not make them a head. The first time that I made them, I prepared the mixture about an hour before dinner, put them in the refrigerator and thought nothing of it. When I went to begin frying, the potatoes had released a lot of water and my mixture was total mush. To avoid this prepare the mixture just before you are about to fry them.

She

She may be the face I can’t forget
The trace of pleasure or regret
Maybe my treasure or the price I have to pay

She may be the song that summer sings
May be the chill that autumn brings
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day

She may be the beauty or the beast
May be the famine or the feast
May turn each day into a Heaven or a Hell
She may be the mirror of my dreams
A smile reflected in a stream
She may not be what she may seem
Inside her shell….

She maybe the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I’m alive
The one I care for through the rough and ready years

Me, I’ll take the laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes I’ve got to be
The meaning of my life is
She …

Elvis Costello Lyrics – She

A Sick Society

I know I’m getting on my soap-box again, but that’s just me. One day I’ll probably fall off it and anyone who wants can laugh but for now let me just mention the stark fact that six times as many Americans die every year from lack of health care as the number killed on 9/11. Acceptable ? Not in any sane society.

The health care system in the USA is broken. No-one can seriously argue that its not. It does not operate in the best interests of everyone who needs it. The richest country in the world has 46 million people with no health insurance and even more that are dangerously under-insured with high deductibles and co-payments. The cost of essential drugs is obscenely high compared to other countries. The result is that more than 18,000 Americans die needlessly every year from preventable illnesses because they cannot see a doctor when they should.

Remember, this is six times the number who died on 9/11 but this avoidable carnage occurs every single year and nobody does anything about it. That’s not even counting the far higher numbers who live in misery with treatable illnesses they can’t get treatment for. This crazy system costs the U.S. far more per capita than any other country and health care costs continue to soar. Its not value for money. Sick people are being ripped off.

Why is it so hideously expensive yet so bad ? Really simple. Greedy individuals and big business interests add to the cost at every stage of the process by gouging out profits and resist any reform or effective regulation. Well maybe you can sell T-shirts or Coca-Cola like that but its sure as hell totally inappropriate for a fundamental human need like health-care. Its a disgrace and the whole discredited system needs to be radically and urgently overhauled so that good quality health-care is available to every single citizen, free at the point of delivery and regardless of their ability to pay.

No one should have to hesitate about seeing a doctor because of cost. No-one should have to forgo the drugs they need because they’re too expensive. No-one should be left crippled by debt because they fall ill. None of that is acceptable in a civilized society. Other countries can manage it so why not the USA ? Its hardly rocket-science after all. It just requires political will and common-sense.

Let me be blunt. I believe that any unscrupulous politician or self-interested big business lobbyist who tries to block or sabotage the desperately needed health-care reforms is an enemy of ordinary Americans in a very real way. If they succeed thousands more decent people will suffer and die needlessly. Its time to get angry. Its time to get serious. Failure is not an option. Compromise is not enough. Only radical, root-and-branch change that puts people ahead of profit is acceptable. The way things are is a national scandal and it can’t continue.

Send in The Clowns

I just wanted to show my sincere appreciation for all of the slapstick clowns who have worked so tirelessly to entertain us during the health-care debate. I mean, of course, the ‘right-wing’ TV hosts, political pundits and snake-oil salesmen. Here’s to good old Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Bill o’Reilly, the sainted Sarah Palin and many more. Merchants of doom, purveyors of hot air, peddlers of hate and vitriol all. For every lie and half-witted fabrication, for every unscrupulous scare-tactic and clumsy attempt to mislead the American people, our only response can be ….
hahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha …
ohmygosh, you guys are funny

New Rule: electing a smart president does not mean its a smart country – The incomparable Bill Maher using wit like a straight-edged razor on that section of America which is gloriously stupid and by-God proud of it! Alarming but sadly true facts to make you either laugh or cry, depending on your mood. Its hard to disagree with anything the man says.

Einstein goes high-tech to treat patients with eating disorders

The body’s innate relaxation response is an incredibly effective remedy for stress and anxiety. Relaxation methods such as deep breathing, guided meditation, visualization, progressive muscle relaxation, and various forms of yoga can aid individuals in activating this powerful response.

When performed on a regular basis, these various activities can eventually cause a decrease in daily stress or anxiety levels and contribute to a heightened level of happiness and peace. In addition, they instruct individuals in techniques to utilize to stay calm and level-headed when faced with a stressful or unexpected situation.

The Belmont Center for Comprehensive Treatment, part of the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, has begun employing Healing Rhythms as an aid to a variety of behavioral disorders. Patients recovering from eating disorders may, early on, experience panic attacks and physical discomfort while learning how to eat healthy. This software is used in 50-minute sessions, twice a week, to help patients cope with a wide range of symptoms.

Healing Rhythms, developed by a San Diego company called Wild Divine, is designed to help patients learn to relax and control their heart rate, pulse and skin response through their breathing.

One program shows balloons peacefully rising and falling on the screen. As the participant does deep and focused breathing, the balloons will slowly float in a steady and straight course across the screen. In a different program, balls are juggled in the air. The more relaxed the person becomes through their breathing, the slower the balls move. If the person increases his or her stress levels, the balls are juggled faster and higher.

“The aim is to offer these patients another way to gain control of their psychological and physiologic responses, and, ultimately, their lives,” said Stacey Saleff, an occupational therapist at Belmont.

Original Suorce

http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2009/02/02/newscolumn1.html

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