Training golden eagles to hunt is physically and mentally demanding. Young Nurguli needs all her strength and a great deal of focus to call her eagle to come to her from a perch at the top of the hill and to land on her gloved arm. Her two uncles and her grandfather are on hand to help in the training process.

 

For the PhotoBlog story, please visit: www.ursulasweeklywanders.com/animals-2/nurguli-kazakh-eag...

What Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)?

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CSF) is a condition characterized by constant fatigue that tends to worsen with mental and physical exertion and does not improve with rest.

Characteristics of CSF are:

· Malaise after exerting one’s self mentally or physically;

· Unproductive sleep;

· Substantial impairment in memory/concentration;

· Chronic muscle pain;

· Pain in multiple joints;

· Headaches of a new type, pattern or severity;

Sore throat;

· Tender neck or armpit lymph nodes,

 

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is often confused with fibromyalgia syndrome but the two are not the same. Also CFS can be mis-diagnosed as chronic mononucleosis, neurasthenia, hypothyroidism, sleep apnea, lyme disease, thyroid conditions, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, various cancers, depression and bipolar disorder narcolepsy, and/or multiple chemical sensitivities.

 

Who Does Chronic Fatigue Affect?

Over 1 million Americans over the age of 40 are affected by CFS and less commonly teenagers are afflicted with this.

What Causes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

The specific cause of CFS is still unknown. However, there are many possible causes being researched including:

· Infections;

· Pathogens;

· Chemical sensitivities;

· Autoimmune disorders.

Examination Procedures for the Diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue

Although there are no specific tests for chronic fatigue syndrome, your doctor of chiropractic will most likely perform a complete history, orthopedic tests, x-rays, and possibly send you out for a blood test to rule out other underlying and/or contributing conditions.

 

Common Chiropractic & Other Conservative Treatments

Treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome can be frustrating and slow. Treatment is geared towards homeostasis, improving balance physically, nutritionally (chemically), and mentally.

Conservative treatment can consist of:

· Joint manipulations ;

· Stretching ;

· ROM Exercices ;

· Massage techniques (Myofascial release);

· Posture rehabilitation head, neck, shoulder girdle, and ribcage to reduce further stresses on the shoulder and surrounding joints;

· Diet and nutritional counseling.

 

Common Medical Interventions

Medical treatment usually consists of anti-inflammatory medications, sleep medications, anti-depressants, and cortisone injections. Due to the common adverse risks associated with anti-inflammatory drugs (stomach bleeding, kidney damage, accidental death, etc…),1 it is our opinion that Chiropractic treatments should be attempted initially for those patients with spinal and joint involvement.

Chiropractic Care May Have a Positive Influence on Chronic Fatigue

Several outcome investigations have been performed using a variety of conservative Chiropractic procedures aimed at improving the patient’s impairment and disability associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. These include 1 randomized clinical trial and a number of case reports in the Chiropractic, peer-reviewed literature.2-7

Collectively, these investigations indicate that patients benefit from a Chiropractic intervention aimed at improvement in and/or restoration of a patient’s spinal abnormality (termed vertebral Subluxation).2- 7 Thus, Chiropractic adjustments and rehabilitation procedures offer a safe and effective means of an initial course of treatment for patients suffering from Chronic Fatigue induced health disorders.

   

References

 

Moore TJ, Cohen MR, Furberg CD. Serious adverse drug events reported to the food and drug administration; 1998-2005. Archives Internal Med 2007;167(16):1752-1759.

Christman, Herbert K DC. Chiropractic And Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Chiropractic Economics. 1989; :43-44.

Colloca, Christopher J., DC; Polkinghorn, Bradley S., DC. Chiropractic Management Of Ehlers-DanlosSyndrome: A Report Of Two Cases. Journal Of Manipulative And Physiologic Therapeutics 2003;26:448-459.

DeGeorge, Dwight DC; Gambale, Anthony DC. Cbp Case Study: Wouldn't It Be Nice. AmericanJournal Of Clinical Chiropractic 1995; 4:26-26.

Farinelli, Edward. Effective Treatment For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Case Studies Of 70 Patients. The American Chiropractor 1988; :58-61.

Morter, Ted; Schuster, Tonya L. Changes In Salivary Ph And General Health Status Following TheClinical Application Of Bio-Energetic Synchronization. Journal Of Vertebral Subluxation Research1998; 2:1-7.

Palmer, Bj DC, PHC. The Hour Has Arrived. 1930;Cases 1-4 :53-71.

 

With every year of this transformation, I could feel myself changing. A little spiritual growth would lead into emotional health. Emotional health aided my mentality. My mentality allowed for the desire to move actively. Then it would continue to cycle. Getting in shape physically lead to more discipline and drive in other aspects of life. The more I accomplished in other areas, the more possibility opened up before me. Getting into Crossfit inspired me to begin a massage specialty with athletes. I wanted to be able to bring balance into my community. They all knew how to workout, but I wanted to help everyone take care of themselves outside of the gym. As a gym owner, Tim was looking to offer this sort of balance to his members and asked me if I knew any yoga instructors that might be interested in teaching at his gym. My response was I definitely know someone, and signed up for my 200 hour yoga teacher training.

 

One of my final elective weekends for my yoga teacher training was an energy based course with Ray Crist at the beginning of 2016. Being a huge fan of energy work, I was particularly excited for this workshop. I made sure to bring some of my most special quartz crystals with me to help magnify the energy. I got to the class a little early so I could set up my space, crystals displayed at the front of my mat. Other students were filing in and getting set up. It was a full classroom. Then a beautiful woman I had never met before came right up to me. “Hello,” she said. “I’m sorry if this is weird but I was just drawn to come over and talk to you. Are those your crystals?” This was an amazing compliment to receive right from the start. I introduced myself, explained my crystals, and shared that I am an energy worker and a massage therapist. She introduced herself as Kendra, and she was in the 300 hour yoga teacher program at the same school. She was also very excited to hear that I was a massage therapist and asked if I’d be willing to come to her house to massage her and her husband. It just so happened this was during the time I was preparing to become self-employed and was taking on new clientele. We exchanged information and scheduled appointments for later in the month.

 

Kendra & Gustavo were instant favorites of mine, and we became close. They are worldly, educated, and fascinating. Kendra’s energy easily pairs with my own, and we share a lot of the same interests and values. Gustavo is from Brazil and has such an interesting perspective on most matters, and has always really made me think.

 

Early on in our relationship, Kendra mentioned she had participated in a workshop called the Landmark Forum. She said it had really resonated with her and was helping her view her life in a different way. She said it was something I would probably really find interesting, but left it at that. About a year later Gustavo took the same course and he was blown away. When I saw him for the first time after he had done it, he couldn’t stop telling me about it. He said, “I can’t believe Kendra has lived with me for an entire year without me speaking this language with her!” From that moment on, every time I saw Gustavo he would talk about Landmark, how much it had impacted his life, and how much he thought I’d like it. I wasn’t opposed to it, but it also wasn’t at the top of my financial priorities. I had gone self-employed and was taking other certification courses to enhance my career. I kept it in mind as an option.

 

One Thursday when I was meeting with them, Gustavo was asking about how my little sister was doing. He perked up when I mentioned she was 13 and said, “So Landmark only hosts one teen class each year, you have to be at least 13 to take it, and the one this year starts tomorrow!” I was caught off guard. I was leaving for Europe the next week and didn’t know how I’d be able to manage bringing her back and forth between Carver and Quincy 3 days in a row with my client schedule, never mind pay for it. He said, “If money and driving weren’t a problem, do you think she would do it?” I couldn’t answer that question for her, and said it was up to her and my mother. In order for a teen to take the course, a parent or guardian needs to also take the course. I called my sister and spoke with my mom, telling them that my amazing friends had offered to put Rhiannon in this incredible program and cover the cost and rides. They also signed me up and covered that, thinking I’d count as a guardian. Later that day Kendra called me saying that I unfortunately didn’t count as a legal guardian, and also offered to sign my mom up as well. I was so taken aback by their generosity, and their care for me and my family.

 

My sister took the teen course in September 2017, and I took the adult Forum in January 2018. I went in with an open mind and happier than I had ever been. I came prepared with all my healthy meals, tools for mobilizing while I sat for the three 13 hour days, and a desire to learn more about whatever it was they were going to teach me. I wasn’t expecting things to come up for me the way they did and I got very uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that I called Kendra the second day boiling over. She was kind and empathetic to what I was saying. She told me to hang in there, and that she didn’t know for certain but was thinking something with my father might be trying to surface. I knew she was right and that something was there for me to discover, so I stuck with it. Having Kendra & Gustavo in my life to continue instilling what I learned that weekend was invaluable. I was able to work through what came up for me. A few months later, I reconnected with my father whom I hadn’t spoken with for almost 14 years. Then with a little more guidance and self reflection, I was able to help my mom get to the Forum in March 2019. I was being braver than I ever thought I could be. By this point in my life, I would often say there is no ceiling to the potential for happiness and knowledge, but this experience lead me to believe I wasn’t standing in a building with no ceiling. I was finally climbing my mountain.

 

I view Kendra & Gustavo as dear friends and mentors. I thrive off of being around them, and always learn something new. Kendra helping me work through tough spots I struggle to figure out, and Gustavo helping me bring tough spots to the surface I didn’t know were there. My life has dramatically improved and my quality of spirit enhanced just in the few years of knowing them. They are role models for relationships, humanitarianism, communication, and self-responsibility. I will forever be grateful for their generosity and wisdom.

Training Jackie mentally is just as hard as training him physically. Damn kid didn't clear his mind, he was just sleeping! Still, couldn't stay mad at him. Had worse things to worry about, like the 4 idiots causing a ruckus at East Harbor. When we arrived, tons of police units were gathered around pier 4. Well, finding them was easy. Containing them is another beast, though. And it only got worse when we saw what we were up against. There was Roadkill and Deadshot, but the other two were a bit...left field.

 

"Merlyn and Clock King? Aren't these guys Green Arrow's problem?"

 

"They're ours now. I say we send them back to Star City. You guys?"

 

"Yep!"

 

"I can take 'em! I've been training, after all!"

 

The brain trust didn't even bother with the whole villainous mocking-of-us. Thank god. Steph Bolted through a hail of gunfire at Deadshot, Jackie outright bum-rushed Roadkill, and I decided to take Merlyn. We spar for a bit before he does some backflips onto...whatever those pole things are you tie the ships to. I dunno. Anyway, he starts shooting arrows at me. Call it a hunch, but I get a feeling those arrows might be laced with something. I mean, Merlyn being the big world-class assassin he is, who knows? Not wanting to figure out if it was cobra venom or anthrax on those arrowheads, I start dodging like crazy. Gave me a good view of the other hells going on. I catch Jackie, the freaking weird 11 year old pick up Roadkill and slam him into the wall. If it weren't for the fact that I gotta concentrate, I'd be laughing my ass off. Looks like Jackie has some pent-up aggression against Roadkill. Can't say I blame him. Hell,I hate the scumbag too. But the best part had to be Steph clocking Deadshot across the face with a left swing. Speaking of clocks, Clock King was on top of a crate about to let loose one of those pocket watch grenades of his. I had to depend Steph to do something about it. I was still dodging arrows. I pull out a shuriken, hoping to knock that bow out of his hands. Never got the chance,though. The instant I raise my arm up, and arrow goes into it. Jesus break-dancing Christ, and I thought a musket ball to the leg hurt! Shortly after, I hear a small explosion behind me and Steph goes flying into the ground next to me, dust and rubble covering her costume. She struggles to get to one knee, unsteady and probably injured. Hopefully she just hit the ground a bit hard. If she's hurt, I swear... I then hear a loud smack and Jackie falls next to me, holding the side of his face. I hear Roadkill's laugh getting closer. The other villains join him and encircle us. Well, this is quite the hole we've dug ourselves into...

In the last year I have been trying to improve my life physically after a pair of back surgeries…honestly, I have always been trying, but within this last year I have actually been doing it by hiking, biking and kayaking. On the first of this year I was planning a trip to the UP from Oregon, OH, just east of Toledo, which would take me around Lake Michigan. I am a geocacher so I plan every trip with the goal of collecting a few geocaches in different states and at random geological or historic sites. I was zooming in on the websites map north of the Mackinac area and I found a string of caches titled “NCT - (all kinds of things)” making a big weird S through Hiawatha National Forest. In the geocache description there is an elaborate but brief explanation of the NCT. Needless to say at this point I was floored that I had never heard of the North Country Trail. Around here the AT, PCT and CDT are public knowledge but how did I not know about the NCT which runs only 30 some odd miles away from my house and passes through all the places I love to visit. Hours of internet reading and book ordering later I had registered for the hike 100 challenge and adjusted my spring and summer trips to include a number of out and back hikes along the trail. In the first few months of the year I made the long round trip drive to do some short hikes along the historic Erie Canal, Wabash/Cannonball trail, through Maumee State Forrest and of course the beautiful Oak Openings Metro Park and then came our first planned trip. My kids and I (they are 10, 6 & 4) have a goal to visit all 74 Ohio state parks in the next two years. My youngest has Cerebral Palsy and does not walk yet so he gets to ride along for all of the hikes in a pack that helps him build his core muscle strength and keep his legs stretched, but most of all it lets him see and experience the world. So while in North East Ohio visiting parks we went a little further to Allegheny National Forest to collect some Pennsylvania and New York geocaches as well as to hike a few NCT miles. On one hike we went up from PA to the NY border. That was an 847’ elevation gain in just over a mile, a great challenge for the kids and beautiful hike. Later in the same trip we found ourselves at the Ohio / Pennsylvania border heading up into the state game lands. Another beautiful hike out (up) and back. [See if you can tell what the focus becomes for my hike 100 challenge - side goal]. I used “The North Country Trail” book by Ron Strickland to find some cool destinations and we decided to head over to Zoar, OH for a history lesson and lunch. That was a terrific stop and my hats off to Ron for the excellent guide, it led us to some fine sections of the trail already. Another interesting landmark was achieved on that short hike; it is the Eastern confluence of the NCT and the Buckeye Trail System. In the last month or so I made the trek out to my closest points of the trail and did a few miles here and there. Oak Openings is about as beautiful and “challenging” as it gets in the Great Black Swamp region where construction levels are more crooked than our skyline. I did however complete a little section hike where the Buckeye Trail splits off of the NCT (or joins depending on which way you go) at the Western end in Liberty Center, OH, so that landmark was completed. It is now July and my original vacation trip plans were getting finalized. Looking back I had already logged miles in three of the seven states, with both border crossings; why not add 12 or so hours to my trip to collect all the states and all the crossings? Fast forward to July 26th, that is today for me, and I will share the tale of a 2,300 mile road trip week that led me not only around the lake but to the conclusion of my hike 100 challenge. On a Monday morning at 0330 I left work in a rain storm with a final destination of the Historic Fort Abercrombie in North Dakota. The rain relented early enough that I was able to stop quickly and walk across the OH/MI border without too much trouble. As any fellow geocacher will understand, I could have delayed my trip exponentially by caching everywhere so I limited myself to caches close to the borders, highlight earth caches and those all-important state souvenirs. With only one side trip at the end across the South Dakota border I made it to ND as the sun was setting and found the trail. I set off for an out n’ back from the fort to Kent, MN across the beautiful Red River. It is interesting to note that just to the north in MN there is a pair of high water marks from 1897 and 1997 that are only made more ominous when arriving in Kent to find a nice memorial from the 1997 event. I had a nice local beverage at the pub before walking back and setting up camp in the state park to enjoy my sleep. As the sun rose over the fort the next morning I set out for Lake Itasca and the headwaters of the Mississippi. While driving along Rt. 34 I stopped at the Hubble Pond trail crossing, I had to, it is a very well maintained trailhead with beautiful signage and information. I was really impressed, thank you. I did not spend as much time on the NCT at Itasca as I did at the actual headwaters (only about half a mile) but I will say that the pure energy of the people and atmosphere in that park was so refreshing, like we were all in on some simple but profound secret that was improving our lives, it was awesome to be there. I was trying to make it into Ottawa National Forrest in the UP to visit my Uncle and Cousin that I have not seen in 15 years by the evening so my MN/WI border crossing hike was quick and uneventful. The WI/MI border proved to be more difficult as just a few weeks ago the area received a rainfall…er, deluge really, of 12-14” in less than two hours. There were still a large number of washed out roads and detours but I eventually made it down to the Montreal River, parked and hiked across my sixth and final NCT border. Now all I had to do was put on some serious miles to wrap this up, Pictured Rocks, here I come! Before I set out in the Pictured Rocks NF I stopped in Au Train for a loaded test hike. I parked at the river and headed west but it felt more up than out. There is something weird and beautiful about the Hiwatha National Forest and Au Train Region, somehow when I turned around I was still going up to get back to my truck. I know that is not physically possible but I could not convince my legs otherwise. I know you long hikers are giggling at me but hey, that was a tough 1.8 miles. The only thing I had set up in advance was my Altran ride from Munising Falls to Grand Sable for 1230 that afternoon; this was almost a major mistake. As a sidebar from my story I strongly recommend anyone planning a trip through or to Pictured Rocks to call more than 30 days (it used to be 14) ahead to reserve your campsites and obtain your permit. I was able to get my back country camping permit on the first come basis but it meant in the next three days I was hiking 7, 14 & 21+ miles respectively based on available camping sites. I would rather have finished sooner on the third day but that was it. So, permit in hand I offload the pack and gear ready for transportation. About halfway to Grand Sable I realized my hiking poles were in the bed of my truck tucked under my kayak. Ugh. Second bit of advice is that a written list would have been better. I was able to use a pole that that had been left on the Altran by someone two weeks prior and offered by the driver. I am not a fan of single sticking it but that was 50% better than nothing, thank you trail angles, I hope I deserved it. At the trail head visitor center I came upon a very adventurous soul who on his first ever experience backpacking had made it there along the NCT from Tahquamenon Falls, and found himself in the same dilemma I was in an hour earlier without reservations for the next 42.4 miles. He ended up with the same itinerary as I had so we buddied up to keep an eye on each other through the next three days. I will save the details of my Pictured Rocks experience as my own but share the highlights. “Awe”, as in awe inspiring, or awe-some is really the only English language word to describe it as a whole. It makes me wonder if founders in Michigan gave names like Au Sable, Au Train or Point Aux Barques with that in mind while doling out city names. In Pictured Rocks the views are amazing, the hikes are challenging, the people are few (in the eastern two thirds) but quality, the geography is top notch, the thunderstorms are violent, the history is ever present, the flies are legendary and the water is scarce. Okay, the last one needs explaining. Along with leaving my sticks I left my iodine tabs, and filters break. Tap water is scarce; lake, river and stream water is plentiful, plan accordingly. This year PRNP is also having a 50 and 100 mile hike challenge so I kept track of the camp and water hikes and ended up getting 50.2 total miles during the three days in the park, another challenge met. But most important is that just as my feet and muscles were really starting to scream at me south of Sand Point I achieved the NCT 100 mile benchmark! In the next few days as my muscles recovered I visited NCT sites at Tahquamenon Falls, St. Ignace, where the trail crosses M 123 (near the geocache that started it all) and the last stop on my way home yesterday was at Lowell, MI to poke my head in at the headquarters, visit a great cast and crew, and pass along my thanks for everything while collecting my patch and picking up souvenirs for the kids. All told in 28 different hikes at 25 different locations I recorded 100.8 unique miles along 108.1 total miles in all 7 states to include all 6 border crossings with 5 different people and the kids were along for 19.8 miles. The only thing left now is the East and West Terminus…oh…and those other 4,500 miles.

Being healthy and physically sound will be the meaning of fitness. Good fitness and health has emotional and mental benefits, along with physical ones. If you've been having difficulty maintaining good fitness and health, this post may help you to get started.

 

Pick a fitness routine that you just enjoy, and so are confident it is possible to maintain. Choose exercises that can make you happy using this method you will be in the great mood when contemplating exercising.

 

Should you be a lttle bit older, or perhaps not as mobile as other folks then just create your own garden. Gardening and yard work will be more demanding than you might think. Weeding, digging, and being in your knees working the soil is essential for the good garden. Gardening is probably the simple things you can now do while in your house to keep up an effective fitness level.

 

If you would like increase your fitness results, count all calories taken in and burned by exercising. Knowing how much consume daily is very important, mainly because it assists you to monitor whether you are more likely to gain or lose fat. When your consumption of calories is in your maintenance level without exercise, so you lose calories by exercising, you might be lean and fit in a short time.

 

There are lots of different ways you can get your daily exercise. Many highly effective and enjoyable exercises can be accomplished without ever stepping foot in the gym. Finding a task you like is crucial for maintaining motivation, especially if you have never worked out before.

 

Doing some simple push-ups may help you get your triceps in shape. Normal, style pushups don't really target your triceps. To remedy this, rotate your hands inward 45 degrees. Your fingertips must be parallel to each other. This modified pushup is the most effective way to acquire those triceps strong and toned.

 

As this article shows, it is possible to realize a degree of fitness that will make you proud of yourself. Don't be ashamed about being fat change it! Your goals for getting fit will be within your grasp when you make use of the advice outlined here. healthyfit4ever.com/category/female-sexuality/vaginal-tig...

www.jsricephotography.com

 

Imagine a 90-year-old man with a heart for farming. He's unable physically to do what he did as a young man, yet the love for the ground is as young and real in his mind as ever. Unfortunately, he had no sons; and his two daughters are not farmers. So he's left with land that he now rents out to young farmers with the strength to do what he can no longer do. In his barns sit worn out tractors, old Ford trucks, plows, discs, and a myriad of farm equipment that isn't used for farming anymore.

 

Why does he keep the equipment and the barns? Common sense says sell the equipment, tear down the barns, minimize the pain of caring for things you can't use. But common sense often forgets about the heart and the mind. Though a man might be 90 years old, his mind still feels no age. He can remember the dream. And he wants to keep the dream alive.

 

And so the 90-year-old man gets out and starts his tractors and keeps the batteries charged and the tires aired up. He can only mow with a tractor and not without someone watching carefully -- there is no farming for the old man. But he still fires up all the equipment and it's ready to go. Keeps them greased and changes the oil. When he fires up his old Ford tractor a smile comes across his face and his eyes twinkle. He rarely moves it, but he knows it will always start.

 

He looks across his fields and his gaze narrows. He looks at his daughters and knows his time is short -- "don't sell this ground, it's good ground", he says. He thinks the girls will need to hold on to this ground or else they might forget him. He hasn't said that, but it's easy to see. If this ground gets out of the family, what will be left, he thinks?

 

He's keeping the dream alive, and I admire the man for that. He won't be forgotten, no matter what. For in his waning years, his two girls reconnected with the man, and loved him despite the past and the mistakes he made. They watched him keep his dream alive and discovered a soft heart inside a hard shell. While he was keeping the dream alive, he was mending fences made of flesh and blood, not posts and wire.

 

This image is in honor of keeping the dream alive. If God allows me to live to 90, no doubt my cameras and photos will be all around me. I may not be able to shoot like I did when I was younger, but my hands will be on the cameras, the batteries will be charged, the lenses clean, and the hard drives ready. I will be keeping the dream alive.

modern furniture series: "red cross semae" sticker / tee logo / card, des. #8

 

the semae represents the Eames Low Side Chair by Charles and Ray Eames, 1946

 

- a. golden, eyewash design, c. 2008

 

After years of freelance work to "pay the bills", I've decided to go back to university. That's right! I'm going for a MPS in Art Therapy. I'm shooting for Pratt Institute. For more information on the program: www.pratt.edu/creative_arts_therapy

 

My concentration will be on children. More specifically, those most in need. Those who've suffered the most terribly ---> in other words, the socio & economically disadvantaged, those sexually, emotionally and/or physically abused, the neglected & the abandoned children, as well as children diagnosed with Autism.

 

Let me know what you think --->

 

Any constructive criticism is also most welcome! I'm trying to earn my Master's in Art Therapy. BUT, I MUST FIRST take 19 additional undergraduate courses which will qualify my eligibility to apply. I WILL get in!

 

I firmly believe that together we CAN make a difference.

 

Thanks, in advance!

 

THE SKINNY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

 

It is hard to imagine now, but the use of plywood and chrome-plated steel in residential furniture was considered edgy, risky, and thoroughly new when this chair made its 1946 debut. It is modern, lightweight, strong, sculptural, and a complete departure from what furniture was.

 

Charles Ormond Eames, Jr was born in 1907 in Saint Louis, Missouri. By the time he was 14 years old, while attending high school, Charles worked at the Laclede Steel Company as a part-time laborer, where he learned about engineering, drawing, and architecture (and also first entertained the idea of one day becoming an architect).

 

Charles briefly studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis on an architectural scholarship. He proposed studying Frank Lloyd Wright to his professors, and when he would not cease his interest in modern architects, he was dismissed from the university. In the report describing why he was dismissed from the university, a professor wrote the comment "His views were too modern." While at Washington University, he met his first wife, Catherine Woermann, whom he married in 1929. A year later, they had a daughter, Lucia.

 

After he left school and was married, Charles began his own architectural practice, with partners Charles Gray and later Walter Pauley.

One great influence on him was the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (whose son Eero, also an architect, would become a partner and friend). At the elder Saarinen's invitation, he moved in 1938 with his wife Catherine and daughter Lucia to Michigan, to further study architecture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he would become a teacher and head of the industrial design department. One of the requirements of the Architecture and Urban Planning Program, at the time Eames applied, was for the student to have decided upon his project and gathered as much pertinent information in advance – Eames' interest was in the St. Louis waterfront. Together with Eero Saarinen he designed prize-winning furniture for New York's Museum of Modern Art "Organic Design" competition. Their work displayed the new technique of wood moulding (originally developed by Alvar Aalto), that Eames would further develop in many moulded plywood products, including, beside chairs and other furniture, splints and stretchers for the U.S. Navy during World War II.

 

In 1941, Charles and Catherine divorced, and he married his Cranbrook colleague Ray Kaiser, who was born in Sacramento, California. He then moved with her to Los Angeles, California, where they would work and live for the rest of their lives. In the late 1940s, as part of the Arts & Architecture magazine "Case Study" program, Ray and Charles designed and built the groundbreaking Eames House, Case Study House #8, as their home. Located upon a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and constructed entirely of pre-fabricated steel parts intended for industrial construction, it remains a milestone of modern architecture.

 

In the 1950s, the Eameses would continue their work in architecture and modern furniture design, often (like in the earlier moulded plywood work) pioneering innovative technologies, such as the fiberglass and plastic resin chairs and the wire mesh chairs designed for Herman Miller. Besides this work, Charles would soon channel his interest in photography into the production of short films. From their first one, the unfinished Traveling Boy (1950), to the extraordinary Powers of Ten (1977), their cinematic work was an outlet for ideas, a vehicle for experimentation and education.

 

The Eameses also conceived and designed a number of landmark exhibitions. The first of these, Mathematica: a world of numbers...and beyond (1961), was sponsored by IBM, and is the only one of their exhibitions still existant. The original was created for a new wing of the (currently named) California Science Center; it is now owned by and on display at the New York Hall of Science. In late 1961 a duplicate was created for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago; in 1980 it moved to the Museum of Science, Boston. Another version was created for the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair IBM exhibit. After the World's Fair it was moved to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle where it stayed until 1980. The Mathematica Exhibition is still considered a model for scientific popularization exhibitions. It was followed by "A Computer Perspective: Background to the Computer Age" (1971) and "The World of Franklin and Jefferson" (1975-1977), among others.

 

The office of Charles and Ray Eames, which functioned for more than four decades (1943-88) at 901 Washington Boulevard in Venice, California, included in its staff, at one time of another, a number of remarkable designers, like Don Albinson, Deborah Sussman, Richard Foy and Henry Beer.

 

Among the many important designs originating there are the molded-plywood DCW (Dining Chair Wood) and DCM (Dining Chair Metal with a plywood seat) (1945), Eames Lounge Chair (1956), the Aluminum Group furniture (1958) and as well as the Eames Chaise (1968), designed for Charles's friend, film director Billy Wilder, the playful Do-Nothing Machine (1957), an early solar energy experiment, and a number of toys.

 

Short films produced by the couple often document their interests in collecting toys and cultural artifacts on their travels. The films also record the process of hanging their exhibits or producing classic furniture designs, to the purposefully mundane topic of filming soap suds moving over the pavement of a parking lot. Perhaps their most popular movie, "Powers of 10", gives a dramatic demonstration of orders of magnitude by visually zooming away from the earth to the edge of the universe, and then microscopically zooming into the nucleus of a carbon atom. Charles was a prolific photographer as well with thousands of images of their furniture, exhibits and collections, and now a part of the Library of Congress.

 

Charles Eames died of a heart attack on August 21, 1978 while on a consulting trip in his native Saint Louis, and now has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Ray died 10 years later to the exact day.

 

At the time of his death they were working on what became their last production, the Eames Sofa which went into production in 1984.

 

graphics: a.golden, eyewash design c. 2007

 

By Florine Meadows

 

Staying physically fit is a large component of health and wellness. People who are active on a regular basis and exercise their muscles are more likely to feel and look good. Weight training is a popular form of strength training. This is done to develop the size and strength of the skeletal muscles. This is done by men and women all around the world, including in Marlborough MA. Weight training Marlborough MA services and support is available through many sources, including personal trainers and gym facilities.

This involves using force of gravity to oppose the force of muscles. In simpler terms, it involves working out the muscles. Special equipment may be used for targeting specific muscle groups and applying varying movements. Exercises are used in sports like bodybuilding, Highland games, discus throw, weightlifting, shotput, strongman, javelin throw, Highland games and bodybuilding.

A lot of other sports use this activity to help them train. It is most often seen in mixed martial arts, wrestling, basketball, track and field, rugby football, rowing, hockey and baseball. Strength drills are becoming more commonplace for athletes involved in other physical activities or sports.

This workout differs from most traditional exercises and activities. This terminology is inclusive and used to describe all exercises that are geared toward increasing physical strength. Weight training employs weights to achieve results.

When it comes to endurance routines, aerobic exercises are typically used. Flexibility programs are associated with exercises that help stretching, including pilates and yoga. Weight coaching and strength coaching go hand in hand and are often consider the same. This approach to exercising is said to benefit both men and women bodies. When correctly done, it can increase the resting metabolic rate, aid in burning excess body fat and even promote development of lean muscle.

Basic principles of this are just like those for strength training. They involve manipulating the number of exercise types, tempo, reps, sets and weights moved in order to create desired increase in size, endurance and strength. Therefore, the method and technique used will differ by individual. People who choose to do this should assess their goals and determine what they want to achieve before putting together a workout plan. It might also help to work with a professional, such as a personal trainer to develop a regime. The combination of sets, exercises, weights and reps will vary based on the individual and his or her goals.

Every body is different. Therefore, every person will witness different results, even if they do the same regime as another. Diet also plays a significant role. Eating a balanced diet that is full of protein and other vitamins and minerals that support the muscles is essential to seeing progress. Ultimately, people who engage in this activity often set up an elaborate plan so that they see the best results. The amount of time it takes to see these changes will range.

Some people choose the easier and faster route to see results by using drugs like steroids. These are not recommended. In fact, most people frown upon them and note their negative side effects. The risks are often more visible in the long run, but most people choose to go about this process the right way. They put forth the hard word and are determined to meet their goals. It will take a lot of consistency and some patients to see it through, but the outcome is often worth it.

 

About the Author:

 

To practice weight training Marlborough MA fitness instructor can give you all the guidance you need. Start your workout sessions today by logging on to the site here ift.tt/12Q7s66.

 

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The Indian Pacific has a Gold Access Cabin available for wheelchair bound/physically impaired guests travelling in Gold Service. I attach photos.

 

Gold Access Cabins are exclusively reserved for the mobility impaired.

 

The cabin is designed specifically for guests who use wheelchairs, and as such we must discuss your mobility requirements with you to determine whether the Gold Access cabin is the correct cabin for your needs.

 

All-inclusive dining, beverages and a wide range of amazing Off Train Excursions and Outback Experiences are also included.

 

When you travel with Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions, you will be introduced to a Hospitality Attendant who will be available throughout your journey to ensure you have a comfortable and memorable experience on board.

Please note your Hospitality Attendant will be unable to assist you or your carer with the following:

Lifting of another person

Assisting in the use of bathroom facilities which includes bathing, showering and toilet use

Administering routine medication

Any routine tasks usually carried out with the assistance of a carer

Pushing of the on board push chair

On-board Push Chair

 

Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions offers an on board Push Chair for guests who have restricted mobility and find they are unable to walk long distance.

 

The on board Push Chair has been specifically designed to fit within the confines of train corridors, aisles and doorways as these are of unique dimensions and smaller than standard corridors and doorways due to the space constraints within a railway carriage. The design of the on board Push Chair does not allow for the guest in the chair to operate it themselves and therefore requires a second person to assist in pushing the chair.

 

The on board Push Chair is only for use on board the train and when boarding through an external train doorway. If you require this service, please advise our Travel Consultant at the time of booking to ensure this has been requested for you.

 

At all major terminals (Darwin, Alice Springs, Adelaide, Sydney and Perth), Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions is able to offer a people mover to assist guests with restricted mobility to board and disembark from the Indian Pacific.

  

Physically he had all the inherent traits of the standard grandpa. All but a ring of hair around the side of his head was present. It had been that what since his teens. He walked shifted to one side and stooped over from polio. He got it when my mom was young. His voice was a few octaves deeper then normal and his laugh was a rough bellow and rare, although his smile was always ready. He ate Post Toasty’s every morning. Every Morning! A nap was taken almost every day after lunch. His chair was reclined back and a arm was draped and bent over his eyes. The nap was short, maybe 30 minutes. He hated carpentry but did it when required and never drank or cursed.

 

As a young boy, he remembered sitting on the running board of on old car while his parents where out in a field burning crosses. They were in a group of like minded white folk, and all cloaked the same. This was a time when Detroit built cars with wide running boards that went from fender to fender.

 

His half sister Daisy was a true depression area outlaw. A dime store novel was written about her, ‘The Raven Haired Harlot.’ During his childhood, she would sneak in at night and leave money and food for them. Tying up a sheriff and leaving him to die in the desert, murder and stealing were just a few of her resume worthy skills and experiences.

 

He married Katie. They had 3 sons and 1 daughter. Although it was a marriage of length and I am sure there was love there, the liking each other part seemed to have been difficult. She was a sharp edged woman but a good grandma to her grandsons. The granddaughters enjoyed a more stern and judgmental side of her. For years there was a mistress and given the warmth at home, I can’t hold it against him. I think her name was Janie, and I wish more was known to me about her.

 

As a kid my brother, mother and I would spend our summers at their olive and alfalfa farm in Corning Ca. Those were great summers, full of mechanical splendor. He had these old junk iron piles, in which I spend hours building greatness, and other oddities. By the scrap piles was a line of 4 or 5 cars. My brother, cousins and I traveled the world in those old clunkers. I would use a chain hoist that hung in his barn to pick my bicycle up for service. He had a toolbox that was purchased used when my mother was a little girl. It was a Snap On. The drawers pulled smooth from decades of use and the top outside edges where warn from it being chained down in the back of his hugger orange Chevy C-20. It was a late 60’s model. At times the box was mounted on an old washing machine cart that he modified. The Box was simply an extension of his expertise and the one physical piece of him that I remember the most.

 

He was a farmer and worked for Mister Stafford for many years, never earning much more then a high level of respect for his kind way and vast mechanical knowledge. Scares on his hands where the story of a life spent toiling with sweat on his brow. It was a common story of people that shared his generation. One of his fingers was used to soften the blow between 2 objects of steel when an engine block was lowered in hast. The nail grew over the end of what remained of that finger. I bet only small wince was noted at impact.

 

I remember sitting on his leg and standing next to him for hours on end while he worked the orchard or alfalfa field on an old Ford 9N. He also had an old Massey Harris, Super 44 if I remember it correctly. The Ford was used more, as I think the Massey didn’t have a 3 point hitch. He had a unique smell of earth, sweat and tobacco which I came to know. His shits always had tiny burn holes in them from the small embers falling from his pipe. The tobacco was a combination of Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Walter Raleigh aromatic. He blended it ½ and ½.

 

The family would get together and go camping at Bodega Bay, Calistoga, and Patrick’s Point. He and one of my uncles built these two fifth wheel trailers that carried a slide in type camper. Those were the coolest campers that I have ever seen. They had a well built, sturdy, practical stance. He carried the same stance.

 

A life of field work left the skin on his arms and neck sun darkened with deep folds. The skin that always lay protected, under his shirt was bone white and free of flaws. Upon his death some of the skin was harvested and grafted to a baby that was badly burned.

 

I acquired some of the things form his life. A love for naps, pipes, old tractors, farms, home made campers, and tool boxes.

 

His name was Frank and his toolbox was left in my care!

   

Words continued from previous shot...

 

Jumping forwards one hour and I am sitting in the sauna, confused and lost. My decision to go it alone suddenly seemed admirable, but also terribly ill thought out. While it had seemed sane and brave to enter the establishment with little more than the flimsiest idea about what cultural mores I should adhere to, in my more physically exposed state it all seemed rather foolish. If I was honest I had overcome my pre-massage nerves by conjuring up an imagined version of what was about to be done unto me. I had envisioned a crumbling stone chamber awash with swirling steam and the smell of age itself. I had held the hands of my fictional self repeatedly, walking him through time itself into this world where he sat amongst aged locals in the warped stone seats where so many had sat before me.

 

Sitting there in the sauna, reality took great pleasure in shattering my comforted and imagined ideals with abrupt, harsh lessons. The real me had entered an all too modern building replete with plasma screens and coke machines. The Hammam chamber itself was pristine white marble and bathed in garish white light from lights clustered somewhere in the swirling steam. The sauna I was interred in had tasteful wood fittings and a plate glass door that allowed views into the Hammam itself. Its interior was sparse, unremarkable and clearly of this age. In short, there was not a hint of decrepitude or history about anything. It was all so far from what I had imagined it would be. So startling to me that that I was lost in some befuddling place that lurked somewhere between my imagined experience and my own reality. There I sat, clad only in a loin cloth and facemask. Unsure of when I was supposed to leave the scorching room and of course, petrified that I was about to unwittingly unveil my genitals to an unsuspecting Turkish public. I will admit I felt very alone and very, very far from home.

 

Despite my fear, I could have gotten used to this harsher version of reality if it hadn't been for the choice of music. I had imagined a weighty silence that would ebb through a labyrinthine series of gloomy chambers. I was instead assaulted by an endless series of soft rock and MOR anthems, each seemingly designed to taunt me. My entrance to the Hammam had been sound tracked by The Police singing 'So lonely', a coincidence that I had laughed off with ease. Sitting paralysed in my increasingly sweaty rag I found it much more difficult to block out the the musical choices. When the speakers began to sing a certain Celine Dion song into my mud-caked ears I began to crumble. 'My Love Will Go On' I could have handled, 'All by Myself' was a step too far. It took a gargantuan effort not to cry along in empathy.

 

In an attempt to distract myself from those welling tears I stared through the glass door of the sauna and out into the main Hammam chamber. My eyes focused solely upon trying to spot whether or not the men out there had retained their Y-fronts or were like me, commando with a facemask on. To my great annoyance there were no tangible signs, no flash of gluteus maximus, no welcome glimpse of a passing teste. All I could see through the steam was the hulking masseuse assaulting a prone figure and a handful of well wrapped Turks calmly waiting their turn. With the heat rising steadily around me I knew that soon I would have to step out of the relative haven that was the sauna, if only to avoid passing out and having my potential faux pas being discovered in a most unpleasant way.

 

With more urgency and intent I peered out into the Haman, this time arising from my perch and pressing my face close to the glass. I still cringe when I consider how I must have looked. My face slathered in grey mud, my sub-athletic body covered modestly by that infernal rag and my face a muddy portrayal of bewildered nerves. Regardless, I needed reassurance and fast and thus I stared closely at the nearest masseuse-victim coupling, trying hard to deduce what exactly they were wearing. This act caused a considerable and surprising rumpus out on the Hammam floor with both the victim and the the masseuse gesticulating angrily at me. I don't speak Turkish but years of Glasgow living make me a dab hand at aggressive hand gestures and it was clear to me that my attention was most unwanted. For a second I could not understand why and then the final blow to my confidence was dealt. I realised that the victim I was staring at was a female. A lathered up, young, buxom, topless female who was not taking too kindly to my leery stares. The cognitive process was fast. I was in a mixed Hammam. I was potentially illegally naked in a mixed sex Hammam. I slumped back down on the sauna bench to be grilled some more, The cloud of nerves now became a stratospheric cumuli nimbus dominating my every thought. The only course of action seemed to be to embark upon a sweaty course of reflection and mild self flagellation.

 

Why oh why had the Gavin of one hour ago dragged me to here? Why oh why had the Gavin of 30 minutes prior deliberated so little and acted so swiftly when faced with the underwear dilemma? Why in the changing room I was pushed into had I cast aside my nerves, my modesty and of course my pants with such alarming speed? I had some recollection of thinking that if I was to do this properly that tough decisions must be made, action must be swift and the repercussions accepted without fear. This was the first big lesson of my trip; tough, decisive decisions are not the same thing as good, considered decisions.

 

The second lesson I learned on my trip was that I learn nothing. I promptly opted to make another tough, decisive decision in an attempt to resolve the dilemma caused by the original decision to make a strong, decisive decision. If you follow? With a view to removing myself from the increasing heat of the sauna and finding out once and for all whether or not my untamed state was appropriate I raised myself up from the burning logs that were the sauna bench, clasped the door handle and pushed it open and there I was. I was in the Hammam. I, Gavin Russell, all 5'9 of skin and nerves stood in embarrassed defiance in the doorway. I was actually there, I was actually doing it!

 

There is increasing evidence to indicate that direct contact with natural environments has important positive health outcomes.1 Engagement with both wild and cultivated natural places improves self-esteem and mood,2–5 reduces stress and anxiety6 and fosters mental well-being.7,8 Furthermore, being physically active while exposed to nature (‘green exercise’) provides additive benefits for mental well-being above those received from contact with nature alone.4,9,10 These benefits are derived from all types of natural environments and from durations of exposure from 5 min upwards.9

 

Over half of the world's population and more than 70% of those in Europe reside in urban areas.11 Given the importance of nature for well-being, such changes in urbanization may be having a negative impact on health. Some urban living is associated with an increased prevalence of mental ill-health: one meta-analysis of 20 studies comparing mental illness in urban and rural areas found that urban dwellers were 38% more likely to develop a mental illness, 21% more likely to suffer from anxiety and 39% more likely to develop a mood disorder.12 The quantity and quality of available green space close to the home is also correlated with longevity and a decreased risk of mental ill health.13–16 People in urban areas with plentiful tree cover and green space have a lower prevalence of asthma, improved mental well-being, a reduction in stress, lower morbidity and cardiovascular disease risk, greater longevity of the elderly, improved cognitive function and healthier cortisol profiles.9,13–15,17–20 Less green space typical of deprived communities produces higher stress and flattened cortisol profiles21 and increased incidence of obesity.22

 

Gardening provides an opportunity for people residing in urban and rural areas to have regular contact with nature, be physically active and engage in green exercise. Home gardens and allotments have long been important for domestic food production and consumption; and in the mid-20th century, half of the nation's vegetable needs were produced via vegetable gardens.23 In addition, gardening can improve health; restoring physical, mental and spiritual health,24 improving mood,25,26 encouraging physical activity27 and increasing life satisfaction.28 Furthermore, Van den Berg and Custers5 found that gardening leads to greater reductions in stress following a stress test than reading indoors.

 

Many people in the UK do not have access to a private garden.29 There is also an increasing demand for allotment gardens. There are an estimated 3 million individual allotments gardens across Europe which are utilized by a variety of different populations and in the UK waiting lists for allotments are at a 40-year high having grown from 13 000 to 100 000 since the mid-1990s.30–32 Allotment gardening is different from traditional gardening as it is an activity in a public space separated from the home, requiring the renting of a plot and is focused on food production as well the relationships between people and the land.33–35 Recent studies have demonstrated that allotment gardening provides a number of environmental benefits including the support and regulation of ecosystem services.36–39 Allotment gardening also results in more sustainably produced food, promotes healthy eating and acts as an educational resource.30 Evidence also suggests that gardening on allotments improves general health, aids recovery from stress, increases life satisfaction, promotes social contact and provides opportunities for low to moderate–high intensity physical activity, all of which promote mental well-being.25,26,40–47 Simply ‘being’ on an allotment garden can improve health and well-being;48 with data from the European Quality of Life Survey indicating that people who grow their own food are happier than those who do not.49 Furthermore, compared with an indoor exercise class, allotment gardening results in significantly lower levels of stress.50 Allotment gardening might also play a key role in promoting health and well-being in the more vulnerable groups in society through the development of social support and cohesion.49,51 However, much evidence regarding the health benefits of allotment gardening is descriptive32 and little research has been conducted to assess the health benefits of allotment gardening specifically.

 

Additionally, there are few comparisons of the health of allotment gardeners with those who do not garden. A study by Van den Berg et al.32 found that allotment gardeners had a higher life satisfaction, reduced loneliness, fewer health complaints and better overall health and well-being than non-allotment gardeners. However, the response rate of allotment gardeners was low and it is conceivable that only those people who believed that they received benefits from allotment gardening responded. The non-gardener group was also small, not well-matched in relation to their allotment gardener counterparts and 64% had access to a garden at home and may therefore have been active gardeners. Furthermore, not all outcome measures were assessed using a validated scale. The aim of our study was to determine the effect of allotment gardening on self-esteem and mood as two key indicators of mental well-being and long-term disease risk9 and to compare the mental well-being of allotment gardeners with non-gardener controls.

 

Methodology

 

Participants

 

Two hundred and sixty-nine participants aged 55.6 ± 13.6 years volunteered to participate in the study, comprising 152 males (56%) and 117 females (44%). Participants consisted of both allotment gardeners (n = 136) and non-gardeners (n = 133) and were matched in terms of age and gender to within 10%. Participants were also closely matched in terms of main occupation, with the majority of participants in each group identifying themselves as employed.

 

Allotment gardeners were recruited from 10 allotment sites in North-Western England. All allotment gardeners were eligible for participation in the research; however, only one participant was permitted per allotment plot to prevent data duplication. The sites were predominantly situated within the Greater Manchester conurbation, in the South and West Manchester area. Two of the sites were in the towns of Glossop and Chapel-en-le-Frith, to the east of Manchester on the western edge of the Pennines, while one was also on the Southern edge of the Pennines. Non-gardeners were recruited from 10 local supermarkets and consisted of participants who did not partake in any gardening activities. These participants were identified by asking the question ‘do you garden’ and informing potential participants that the study required participants ‘that do not do anything in the garden’. Supermarkets were recruited based upon their distance from each of the allotment sites, with the closest supermarkets being approached initially. Of the 10 supermarkets recruited for the research, six were the nearest store to the allotment sites.52 The index of deprivation for the allotments and their surrounding areas ranged from 15.4 to 84.5%, indicating a large variation in participants in terms of income deprivation, employment deprivation, health and disability deprivation, education and skills training, barriers to housing, crime and living environment.53 All participants provided individual consent to take part in the study. Institutional ethical approval was granted

  

Procedure

 

In the spring–summer growing seasons of 2006–09, the allotment sites and supermarkets were visited. During the visits to the allotments, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing self-esteem, mood and general health at the start of their allotment session. At the end of the allotment session, participants completed a further questionnaire assessing self-esteem and mood. Participants were also asked to identify how long they had spent on the allotment in that particular session, in the previous 7 days and their length of tenure on the allotment. Allotment gardeners were also asked to identify what they liked about gardening on their allotment. This question was open-ended allowing gardeners to identify as many things as they wanted to. During visits to the supermarkets, non-gardeners were asked to complete a one-off questionnaire assessing self-esteem, mood and general health. Descriptive data were collected from all participants including sex, age, height and weight. Body mass index was calculated from height and weight by dividing weight in kilogram by height in metre square. Self-esteem, mood and general health were assessed using standardized and validated scales.

 

Instrumentation

 

Self-esteem is defined as a person's positive or negative attitude towards the self in totality54 and exhibits an inverse relationship with depression and anxiety55,56 in addition to being a risk factor for mental ill health.57,58 Self-esteem was assessed using the one-page 10-item Rosenberg self-esteem scale.59 The Rosenberg self-esteem scale is the mostly widely used and popular self-esteem measure. The instrument provides a self-report one-dimensional measure of self-esteem and consists of 10 statements each of which are scored on a four-point Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. An overall self-esteem score ranging from 10 to 40 is calculated with a higher score representing a better self-esteem.

 

Mood is defined as a ‘host of transient and fluctuating affective states that reflect how an individual feels in general, globally or at a particular moment in time’.60 Moods can be positive or negative, persist for long periods of time without specific cause and influence feelings of happiness, quality of life and ability to cope with stress.61,62 Mood was assessed using the 30-item Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire.63 The POMS questionnaire assesses mood under six subscale mood states: tension–anxiety, depression–dejection, anger–hostility, vigour–activity, fatigue–inertia and confusion–bewilderment. Each subscale is represented by five phrases, each of which is scored on a five-point Likert scale from ‘not at all’, to ‘extremely’. Scores for each of the subscales are generated and converted into normative values. A total mood disturbance (TMD) score is also generated by summing the five negative subscales (tension, depression, anger, fatigue and confusion) and subtracting the positive subscale of vigour. A higher TMD score indicates a worsened mood.

 

The General health questionnaire (GHQ) is a screening instrument designed to identify individuals who have mental health problems and breaks in normal function.64,65 The GHQ-12 was used to assess general health and consists of 12 questions categorizing healthy and abnormal functioning.65 Participants respond to each question on a four-point Likert scale from ‘not at all’ to ‘much more than usual’. An overall score from 0 to 36 is generated, with a higher score representing a greater level of psychological distress and abnormal functioning.65.

 

Data analysis

 

To analyse the effects of an allotment gardening session on self-esteem and mood, one-way ANOVA was used to compare pre-self-esteem and TMD scores across the 10 different allotment sites, while one-way MANOVA was used to compare pre-subscale mood scores across the different sites. Paired samples t-tests compared self-esteem and TMD scores pre- and post- the allotment session. One-way MANOVA compared pre–post subscale mood scores. Linear regression was used to examine the relationship between the time spent on the allotment in the last 7 days, during the allotment session and the length of tenure with the change in self-esteem and mood scores. Participant responses regarding what they liked most about their allotment were categorized. The occurrence of each category was summed to give the total number of allotment gardeners who identified that particular category as being what they liked about their allotment.

 

For the comparison of allotment gardeners and non-gardeners, independent t-tests were used to compare descriptive data, including height, weight and BMI; while a χ2 test was used to compare participants main occupation. Group differences in unadjusted mean scores for self-esteem, GHQ-12 and TMD were analysed using independent t-tests while group differences in unadjusted means for subscale mood were assessed using one-way MANOVA. The self-esteem, mood and GHQ-12 scores of allotment gardeners and non-gardeners were also compared using a covariate adjusted model (ANCOVA) controlling for participants' sex, age and occupation. Subscale mood scores were compared using one-way MANOVA with age, sex and occupation inserted as covariates. The pre-allotment session scores were used for allotment gardeners. IBM SPSS version 19.0 software was used for all statistical analysis66 and significance was accepted as P < 0.05 throughout. Missing data were labelled as missing within the database to allow all collected data to be included in the analysis. Data were only missing when a participant missed out a question on one of the scales within the questionnaire; preventing a score from being calculated. Of the 1079 data points collected in total for self-esteem, mood and general health, only 1.4% were missing; equating to 15 pieces of data. These 15 pieces of data were from eight different participants, the majority of which were gardeners (n = 7); and included self-esteem and mood measures.

 

One-way MANOVA revealed a significant difference between pre- and post-session subscale mood scores [F(6,128) = 7.893; P < 0.001], with a significant reduction in tension–anxiety (P < 0.001), depression–dejection (P < 0.0083), anger–hostility (P < 0.001) and confusion–bewilderment (P < 0.001) (Table 1). Paired samples t-test also revealed a significant difference between pre- and post-session TMD scores [t(133) = 4.42; P < 0.001]. The score decreased from the start to end of the allotment session, indicating an enhanced mood (Table 1).

 

Frequency and duration of allotment gardening

 

Allotment gardeners revealed that their average length of tenure on the allotment was 9.3 ± 11.9 years, ranging from <1 year to up to 60 years. In the last 7 days, participants had spent an average of 8.1 ± 6.2 h on their allotment plot (range from 0 to 40 h) and in the session monitored, spent 2.6 ± 1.7 h on their plot. The minimum time spent on the plot in the session of assessment was 0.33 h and the maximum was 8.1 h. Linear multiple regression revealed that neither the length of participants tenure (years) (SE: β = −0.054; P = 0.588; TMD: β = −0.008; P = 0.939), time spent on the allotment in the previous 7 days (SE: β = −0.035; P = 0.737; TMD: β = −0.016; P = 0.881) or time spent on the allotment in the current session (SE: β = −0.034; P = 0.735; TMD: β = −0.029; P = 0.770) significantly contributed to the variance in the change in self-esteem or TMD. Participants who had been gardening on their allotment over a long-term period experienced a similar magnitude of improvements in self-esteem and mood as participants who had been allotment gardening for a short time.

  

Enjoyment of allotment gardening

 

Participants identified six main themes related to what they enjoyed most about gardening on their allotment. The majority of participants (70%) reported that they enjoyed being outdoors and having contact with nature, followed by the sense of achievement derived from allotment gardening (50%) and the opportunity for restoration and stress relief (35%). Participants also reported enjoying the social interaction (31%), growing and eating the produce (19%) and the opportunities to be active (11%).

 

Comparison of allotment gardeners and non-gardeners

 

Table 2 contains descriptive data for allotment gardeners and non-gardeners. Independent t-tests revealed no significant differences between the allotment gardeners and non-gardeners in age or height (P > 0.05). However, the weight [t(267) = 2.14; P < 0.05] and BMI [t(259) = 2.80; P < 0.01] of non-gardeners were significantly greater than those of allotment gardeners (Table 2). A χ2 test also revealed no significant differences (P > 0.05) in the main occupation of non-gardeners and gardeners. In the non-gardener group, 57.9% of participants were employed (including self-employed), 33.8% retired, 3.8% did housework and 2.3% were both seeking employment or identified their employment status as ‘other’. In the gardeners group, 55.1% were employed, 41.2% retired, 2.9% did housework and 0.7% were seeking work.

 

Main findings of this study

 

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of allotment gardening on self-esteem and mood and to compare the mental well-being of allotment gardeners with non-gardener controls.

 

The findings first indicate that one session of allotment gardening can result in significant improvements in self-esteem and mood via reductions in tension, depression, anger and confusion. These findings are supported by previous research demonstrating the health and well-being benefits of participating in green exercise activities.4,9,10 With an increasing number of people residing in urban areas, a decline in the number of homes with gardens,29 and the increased risk for mental ill health associated with urban living;11,12 these findings are particularly important and suggest that allotment gardening might play an important role in promoting mental well-being in people residing in urban areas.

 

In addition to the improvements in self-esteem and mood resulting from a single session of allotment gardening; the findings of this study highlighted that the length of time spent on the allotment during the session and in the previous 7 days; and the length of participants' tenure did not significantly contribute to changes in self-esteem or mood. Thus, participants who attend an allotment for a short period just once per week can experience a similar magnitude of improvements in self-esteem and mood as participants who attend more regularly for longer periods of time.

 

We found that <30 min of allotment gardening produces a measureable and beneficial health affect. This finding is encouraging as participants are more likely to be able to fit short, occasional allotment sessions into their daily routines. In addition, the findings of this study suggest that the health and well-being benefits of allotment gardening do not deteriorate over time. The length of time spent allotment gardening by participants in the current study ranged from <1 year up to 60 years, yet this did not impact upon the magnitude of changes in self-esteem and mood received from one allotment session. Thus, allotment gardening could be used as a long-term tool for promoting and improving mental well-being.

 

The findings of this study also indicate that allotment gardeners have better mental well-being than their non-gardener controls. Allotment gardeners reported significantly higher levels of self-esteem and mood, with reduced levels on the POMS subscales of fatigue and depression and greater feelings of vigour. In addition, allotment gardeners achieved better scores on the GHQ, indicating a reduced level of psychological distress and abnormal functioning. These differences remained statistically significant after adjustment for age, sex and occupation. Given the fact that ∼1 in 4 adults suffer from a mental illness each year,67 this finding is particularly important. Allotment gardening could play a key role in promoting mental well-being in the general population, regardless of circumstance; and could therefore be used as a preventive health measure. However, the lengthy waiting lists for allotment plots throughout the UK,30 and the reduction in the availability of green spaces in urban areas are limiting the ability of people to have access to nature close to their homes. Community allotment plots might provide a feasible solution to this problem as they allow all people to access an allotment and to take part in green exercise; in addition to promoting social interaction, community inclusion and opportunities for healthy eating; all of which promote well-being.33–35 Local public authorities should therefore seek to provide community allotment plots in order to improve the health and well-being of their residents.

 

While this study was primarily focused on mental well-being outcomes, descriptive analyses revealed that non-gardeners had a significantly higher BMI than allotment gardeners. The average BMI for non-gardeners was 27.0 kg m2, compared with 25.5 kg m2 in gardeners. While both of these scores fall into the overweight category (25.0–29.9 kg m2); ∼68% of participants in the non-gardening group were overweight or obese, compared with only 47% in the gardener group. Higher incidence of overweight and obesity is associated with coronary heart disease and increased risk of type II diabetes. Approximately 12% of people with a BMI of >27.0 kg m2 have diabetes while hypertension is associated with a BMI of >25.0 kg m2.68 Thus, allotment gardening could help to reduce BMI and associated disease risk; promoting improved well-being. However, further research comparing measures of physical health and the physical health of gardeners when they take on an allotment would be required to confirm this hypothesis.

 

In addition to the questionnaires assessing health and well-being, allotment gardeners were asked what they enjoyed most about gardening on their allotment. The key themes were being outdoors; the sense of achievement; opportunities for restoration; social interaction; growing and eating produce and opportunities to be active. These are largely linked to the proposed health benefits of allotment gardening which include healthy eating, being active, improvements in physical and mental well-being and social interaction.30,40–50 Thus, participants seem to enjoy the aspects of allotment gardening which contribute to their health. The opportunities for social interaction offered by allotment gardening might be particularly important as the development of relationships promotes social capital.69 Social capital increases life expectancy, while a lack of social capital embodied by loneliness has the equivalent risk to health as consuming 15 cigarettes daily and is twice as harmful as obesity.67,69 Allotment gardening could contribute to a greener and healthier economy focused on the prevention of ill-health. This preventive approach could result in substantial savings to the UK economy, particularly in the treatment of health conditions such as mental illness, obesity, cardiovascular disease and loneliness.

 

Conclusions

 

Overall, the findings of this study indicate that one single session of allotment gardening can improve both self-esteem and mood, irrespective of how long participants spend on the allotment, whether they have attended in the last 7 days and their overall length of tenure. Furthermore, allotment gardeners have a better level of self-esteem and mood and a reduced level of abnormal psychological functioning than non-gardeners. Thus, in order to improve health and well-being, people in the UK should be encouraged to take part in short bouts of allotment gardening. Health organizations and policy makers should consider the potential of allotment gardening as long-term tool for combatting the increasing prevalence of ill-health and local public authorities should seek to provide community allotment plots to allow residents to have regular opportunities to partake in gardening activities.

 

academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/38/3/e336/2239844

About Dr.Mihir Kumar Panda, Ph.D,D.Litt,, innovator

World’s only achiever of large number of World Record for 10,000 Teaching Aids & innovations

Founder & Co-ordinator General, ‘SROSTI’ (Social Development research Organisation for Science, technology & Implementation)

Collaborator Vijnana Bana Ashram

Bahanaga, Baleshwar, Odisha, India-756042

Website : simpleinnovationproject.com

E-Mail- : mihirpandasrosti@gmail.com

 

Face Book link:https://www.facebook.com/mihirpandasrosti

WIKIMAPIA

wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=-6.174348&lon=106.8293...

Contact No. : +91 7008406650

Whatsapp: +91 9438354515

 

Dr.Mihir Kumar Panda, an Educational, Societal and Scientific Innovator has established an NGO 'SROSTI' at Bahanaga, Balasore,Odisha,India

 

Dr. panda has innovated/invented more than 10,000 (ten thousand) teaching aids and different innovations and he has more than 30,000 (Thirty thousand) ideas to make scientific and mathematical models.

 

His creations are very essential guide for school and college science exhibitions, innovative learning and play way method for the teachers and students, science activists, innovators, craftsmen, farmers, masons, physically challenged persons, common men, entrepreneurs and industrialists.

 

He is popularizing science through song, innovative demonstrations and motivational speech since 1990 in different parts of Odisha state without taking any fees.

 

Dr. Panda is an extreme motivational speaker in science and possess magical scientific demonstration and a crowd puller.

 

Innovator Mihir Kumar Panda loves nature and in his agricultural farm he does not uses the chemicals , fertilizers and pesticides. In his farm even the smallest creatures like snakes, caterpillar, white ants, worms ,vermies are in peace and are managed successfully not to do harm.

 

Dr. Panda is an Educationist, an environmentalist, a poet for science popularization, a good orator, a best resource person to train others in specific field of science and engineering.

 

The uniqueness of Simple Innovation and scientific activities and achievements ofDr. Panda can not be assessed without visiting his laboratory which is a living wonder in the realm of science.

 

From a small cake cutter to mechanical scissor, from a play pump to rickshaw operated food grain spreader and from a village refrigerator to a multi-purpose machine, thousands of such inventions and innovations are proof of Dr. Panda's brilliance.

 

From a tube well operated washing machine to weight sensitive food grain separator, from a password protected wardrobe to automatic screen, from a Dual face fan to electricity producing fan are example of few thousands of innovations and inventions of Mihir Kumar Panda.

 

Dr.Mihir Kumar Panda though bestowed to a popular name as Einstein of Odisha is obliviously treated as Thomas Alva Edison of India.

 

Dr. Panda's residential house also resembles a museum with scientific innovations of different shapes and sizes stacked in every nook and cranny which proves his scientific involvement in personal life.

 

Innovator Panda believes that , the best thing a child can do with a toy to break it. he also believes that by Educating child in his/her choice subject/ passion a progressive nation can be built.

 

The shelf made scientist Dr. Panda believes that Education is a life long process whose scope is far greater than school curriculum. The moulding of models/ innovations done by hand always better than the things heard and the facts incorporated in the books.

 

With no agricultural background, Dr. Panda has developed unique natural bonsai in his Vijnana Bana Ashram which also shows path for earning just by uprooting and nurturing the plants which are found to be small and thumb in nature.

 

Dr. Panda's Scientific Endeavour and research is no doubt praise worthy. One cannot but believe his dedicated effort in simple innovation laboratory.

 

Social service, innovation/ inventions, writing, free technology to students for preparation of science exhibition projects, free technology to common men for their sustainability, preparation of big natural bonsai, technology for entrepreneurs and industrialists for innovative item are few works of Mihir Kumar Panda after his Government service.

 

. To overcome the difficulties of science and math, explanation in classes, innovator Panda has created few thousands of educational, societal and scientific innovations which helps teachers and students of the country and abroad.

 

Dr. Panda believes that though inventions/innovation has reached under thousands and thousands deep in the sea and high up in the space. It has reached on moon and mars, but unfortunately the sustainable inventions/innovation has not properly gone to the tiny tots and common people.

 

Dr. Panda is amazing and wizard of innovations and works with a principle the real scientist is he, who sees the things simply and works high.

 

Dr.Mihir Kumar Panda's work can be explained in short

 

Sports with Science from Dawn to Dusk

Struggle some life- science in words and action

Triumphs of Science - Science at foot path

Hilarious dream in midst scarcity

  

A life of innovator de-avoided of Advertisement.

  

FELICITATIONS, AWARDS, HONOURS & RECORDS

* 200+ Felicitation and Awards from different NGOs, Schools & Colleges within the State of Odisha and National level.

* 10 Nos Gold, Silver & Bronze medal from different National & International level.

*Awarded for 10,000 innovations & 30,000 ideas by Indian Science Congress Association, Govt. of India.

* Honorary Ph.D From Nelson Mandela University, United States of America

* Honorary Ph.D From Global Peace University, United States of America& India

* Honorary D.Litt From Global Peace University, United States of America& India

* Title ‘Einstein of Odisha’ by Assam Book of Records, Assam

* Title ‘Thomas Alva Edison of India’ by Anandashree Organisation, Mumbai

* Title ‘ Einstein of Odisha & Thomas Alva Edison of India’ from Bengal Book of World record.

*World Record from OMG Book of Records

*World Record from Assam Book of Records,

* World Record from World Genius Records, Nigeria

* World Record from BengalBook of Records

* National Record from Diamond Book of Records

* World Record from Asian World Records

* World Record from Champians Book of World Records

* World Record from The British World Records

* World Record from Gems Book of World Records

* World Record from India Star World Record

* World Record from Geniuses World Records

* World Record from Royal Success International Book of Records

*World Record from Supreme World Records

* World Record from Uttarpradesh World Records

*World Record from Exclusive World Records

*World Record from international Book of Records

*World Record from Incredible Book of records

* World Record from Cholan Book of World Record

* World Record from Bravo International Book of World Record

* World Record from High Range Book of World Record

* World Record from Kalam’s World Record

* World Record from Hope international World Record

* International Honours from Nigeria

* Indian icon Award from Global Records & Research Foundation (G.R.R.F.)

* International Award from USA for the year’2019 as INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR-2019

* National level Excellence Leadership Award-2020 from Anandashree Organisation, Mumbai

* Best Practical Demonstrator & Theory instructor from Collector & District Magistrate,

Balasore.

* Best Innovator Award by Bengal Book.

* Popular Indian Award by Bengal Book.

* Great man Award by Bengal Book.

* Best Indian Award by Bengal Book.

* The Man of the Era by Bengal Book.

IMPORTANT LINK FILES TO KNOW THE WORK OF

Dr. MIHIR KUMAR PANDA

Dr.Mihir Ku panda awarded at indian science congress Association, Govt. of India for 10000 innovations & 30,000 ideas

youtu.be/MFIh2AoEy_g

Hindi Media report- Simple innovation science show for popularisation of science in free of cost by Dr.Mihir Ku Panda

youtu.be/gPbJyB8aE2s

Simple innovation science show for popularisation of science in free of cost in different parts of India By Dr.Mihirku Panda

www.youtube.com/user/mihirkumarpanda/videos?view=0&so...

Simple innovation laboratory at a Glance

youtu.be/yNIIJHdNo6M

youtu.be/oPBdJpwYINI

youtu.be/XBR-e-tFVyE

youtu.be/3JjCnF7gqKA

youtu.be/raq_ZtllYRg

MORE LINK FILES OF Dr MIHIR KUMAR PANDA

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFIh2AoEy_g

www.youtube.com/channel/UCIksem1pJdDvK87ctJOlN1g

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHEAPp8V5MI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W43tAYO7wpQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=me43aso--Xg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XEeZjBDnu4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPbJyB8aE2s

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNIIJHdNo6M

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPBdJpwYINI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBR-e-tFVyE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JjCnF7gqKA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=raq_ZtllYRg

cholanbookofworldrecords.com/dr-mihir-kumar-pandaph-d-lit...

www.linkedin.com/in/dr-mihir-kumar-panda-ph-d-d-litt-inno...

www.bhubaneswarbuzz.com/updates/education/inspiring-odish...

www.millenniumpost.in/features/kiit-hosts-isca-national-s...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFE6c-XZoh0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzZ0XaZpJqQ

www.dailymotion.com/video/x2no10i

www.exclusiveworldrecords.com/description.aspx?id=320

omgbooksofrecords.com/

royalsuccessinternationalbookofrecords.com/home.php

british-world-records.business.site/posts/236093666996870...

www.tes.com/lessons/QKpLNO0seGI8Zg/experiments-in-science

dadasahebphalkefilmfoundation.com/2020/02/17/excellent-le...

www.facebook.com/…/a.102622791195…/103547424435915/… yearsP0-IR6tvlSw70ddBY_ySrBDerjoHhG0izBJwIBlqfh7QH9Qdo74EnhihXw35Iz8u-VUEmY&__tn__=EHH-R

wwwchampions-book-of-world-records.business.site/?fbclid=...

www.videomuzik.biz/video/motivational-science-show-ortalk...

lb.vlip.lv/channel/ST3PYAvIAou1RcZ/tTEq34EKxoToRqOK.html

imglade.com/tag/grassrootsinventions

picnano.com/tags/UnstoppableINDIAN

www.viveos.net/rev/mihirs%2Btrue%2Bnature

m.facebook.com/story.php…

www.facebook.com/worldgeniusrec…/…/2631029263841682…

 

www.upbr.in/record-galle…/upcoming-genius-innovator/…

 

www.geniusesworldrecordsandaward.com/

www.upbr.in/record-galle…/upcoming-genius-innovator/…

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=699422677473920&i...

www.facebook.com/internationalbookofrecords/

www.youtube.com/channel/UCBFJGiEx1Noba0x-NCWbwSg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL60GRF6avk

www.facebook.com/bengal.book.16/posts/122025902616062

www.facebook.com/bengal.book.16/posts/122877319197587

www.facebook.com/bengal.book.16/posts/119840549501264

supremebookofworldrecords.blogspot.com/…/welcome-to…

www.bravoworldrecords.com/

incrediblebookofrecords.in/index.php

www.highrangeworldrecords.com/

Original Caption: Older Citizens, Retired Persons and Those Unable to Care for Themselves Physically Are Cared for in Two Community Centers. This Man Lives at the Highland Manor Retirement Home, Keeping Busy with "Old Country" Crafts. New Ulm Is a County Seat Trading Center of 13,000 in a Farming Area of South Central Minnesota. It Was Founded in 1854 by a German Immigrant Land Company That Encouraged Its Kinsmen to Emigrate From Europe.

 

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-15875

 

Photographer: Schulke, Flip, 1930-2008

 

Subjects:

New Ulm (Brown county, Minnesota, United States) inhabited place

Environmental Protection Agency

Project DOCUMERICA

 

Persistent URL: arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=558325

 

Repository: Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001.

 

For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html

 

Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html

   

Access Restrictions: Unrestricted

Use Restrictions: Unrestricted

 

At approximately 9:30 p.m. on January 7, 2021, United States Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty.

 

Officer Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters. He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. The death of Officer Sicknick will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, the USCP, and other agencies. Officer Sicknick joined the USCP in July 2008, and most recently served in the Department’s First Responder’s Unit.

I have been working on anti-resistance training in my free writing over the past couple of weeks, exercising my writing to get the lead out of the system, drop any form of resistance and let the writing come through me instead of from me. nobushel.blogspot.com is built to follow the story arc of me becoming myself, so I thought even though some of this is very unpolished it was important to share.

1

 

There we all stood. Make the mark. See the code. It is all in there. What does the end really matter?

 

What can we see, what can be understood about living and life through living and life?

 

Bring about the changes that you wish to see by being the change that you wish to see.

 

The change that I wish to see is that I am part of something, and am connected to the larger whole. There is nothing within me that is not without me as well. I am part of all being, all wonder, all creation. We are all connected. What does flow from one to another is energy. Energy is how we connect with each other. Thoughts are energy. Action is energy manifested on the plane of form. We can interact with each other physically and that is the basis of formal interaction. The meaning of what we have within us at any time is that we are all of the same thing, all part of the same experience, that which is started cannot be finished but by all of us at one time, at one place, under one same thing and entity.

 

Undoing of resistance. The fingers are cold and move slow, the finger nails slide across the keys to make errors. The board is slippery, my body is fat. There is much at stake here, and that is okay, we are practicing. Removal of resistance. Perhaps this will become a post, but it does not have to . To think that it might become a post is not necessarily resistance, but to dwell on the fact whether it will or not is resistance. Thoughts in themselves show no resistance it is in inteeraction of and with thoughts that the resistance is shown. Take time to get it right.

 

Resistance in having errors in the keys and typing of the words. Take time to get it right the first time. Quality and conveyance of the right thing at the right time. The universe being connected to the universe, working through a medium to get what is necessary out and on the sheet of life. Taking action through the universal intelligence and making it all part of what we are here for.

 

Energy is what passes from one being to another. I am here to stretch that energy and to show that the energy can be passed through thought and action from one being to another being. Why are we here? to awaken to our full potential. What has stopped us from developing our full potential? The reality of our brains as living organisms that only want to interact with the objects of their creations. We are all children, tied up in thought, when the reality is our being needs to interact with all of it. Action and being are connected in greater ways than can be known. What makes one thing more clear than another is that there are no thoughts only bubble mind and allowing the universe to work through my body like a vessel. This is what I am here for. To create. No not to create. To allow the universe to create. To allow the universe to create all the energy it can and wants to through me.

 

What are each of us here for? I don’t know, except to awaken. What I am here for is for the universe to create through me everything it wants to create, to get out and let the universe move, to get out of the way and let the universe stretch and be free and allow it to see the world as a place where it can be safe and stretch among the stars and allow it all to frolic and play in the creation of the human mind.

 

What has been buried for years and years can come out and flourish. To show that there is goodness in all of the frivolity. To show that there is a silver lining to this entire episode. We are all creating something from nothing, but it is not us who are creating, it is the universe. The universe creating something through us, as we just sit back and allow the universe to do its work.

 

So, show up with energy and enthusiasm, then get out of the way. That is all that is requested. Show up with energy and enthusiasm then get out of the way. Show up with energy and enthusiasm, then get out of the way.

 

2

 

Where we are from. Where we come from is a higher place. Not physically higher necessarily, though probably it is. From a place that is more conscious, more connected to the source of life and living. What is the purpose of life and living? What is the connection between all the living things that are created and grow and evolve?

 

The connection and interconnectedness of the universe. The thought that we all are on the same playing field. That we all are working toward the very existence of the planet, of the source and force of creation and creating. That we all are working together for the greater good of all the things in life, all the creatures, all the energies and all the interesting flows of power and family and love and life. What means the beginning and the middle and the end?

 

The beginning is when it originated, where it began, where it came from. What really makes a difference is the living and the journey toward what is really going to happen in the end, and that is the end game. With timing a long view and an end game everything is going to be alright.

 

What matters is that things are magical, experience and time are truly working together to create something new and memorable for all of us to enjoy. That is one of the five features of life. To love, to learn, to grow, to enjoy and to share. That is life. To understand. To grasp the concept. To realize what is going on is greater than each one of our personal lives.

 

3

 

Direction, what we lack in direction we make up for with energy and enthusiasm, but it all will come at a price, and the price is not more than I can bare. It is my life and I am willing to give it, though I have resistance, much resistance in me. I am afraid of losing my mind, and I understand that if I lose my mind I still will always have my being, but I am not sure that that is the best place for me to be, or the best thing for me to do. To write and let the resistance fall is an exercise in love and spirit that is important to me. It is also an exercise in typing accurately. The flow of words from the universe through my mind to my fingers to the page needs to be complete and resistance free. And so I need to get in the habit of reducing muscle memory to zero and allowing flow to take place on the way to finger growth and seeing the fingers flow as they move, to move with grace and speed and alacrity and clarity as the words of the universe are sent through me to the page.

 

Remove all resistance. The resistance that I feel toward opening myself to the universe. The resistance I feel toward allowing the universe to work once I allow it in, the resistance the universe encounters in my brain, the resistance between my brain and my physical body, the resistance between my physical body and the tool, the resistance between the tool and the page, the resistance between the page and the eyes of the reader, the resistance between the eyes of the reader and their brain, the resistance between the brain of the reader and their being. But once that pathway and connection is made, it can be expanded upon. It can be built upon.

 

Just as resistance has patterns of action and behavior, patterns of successful behavior can be built, patterns that allow the connection between the universe and the universe, communication between people, allowing the being to really relate and be a part of everything. Resistance is everywhere. I am able to eliminate it for short periods of time, but not able to eliminate it entirely yet, but that is the goal, that is what we work toward constantly, removal of resistance and allowing the universe to work and live through us. Connection to the source of all we are and have and will be and ever were.

 

Connection. It is about connection, and we are all connected. We are all connected to each other and we are all connected to the source of being, which may just be the collective being that we make up, or may be some higher power or force or source. That is not for me to define, that is for the individual to define and decide at this point. It is not something that can be proved or disproved, it is something to take on faith and be understood through experience, and it is clear that some may not see the connection, may not see the connection ever.

 

What matters then is resistance to resistance, but in a different way, resistance is not something that can be blocked or stopped with force, it is something that must be eluded, bypassed, given into the point of its collapse, like a move in aikido, when pushed by resistance, pull until it falls, when pulled by resistance, push until it falls again.

 

Only through removal of resistance to the source are we able to create a life for ourselves that matches and is in congruence and harmony with the world around us and the world from which we came and the world to which we will return. Harmony is only found through understanding that the universe is all we are and all we are is the universe. The world is ours, and we inherited it and we need to make sure we take care of it. What can we do, what can we all do, what can we each do in order to make it all good and better and leave it in a better state than when we found it?

 

That is small steps, that is energy, that is thinking, that is thought and processing toward making things better for the earth, better for each other, better for our loved ones, and better for strangers. We are all the same, we just think we know some of ourselves better, but we are all from the same family, we are all part of the best part of the world where it all connects and all comes together for each of us, for the world, for the universe.

 

Breaking down resistance to living and life and working is the paramount goal and point of my life at this time, removal of resistance to change and tackling obstacles and making a goal of taking the energy that I am given and turn it into communications that can be used by the universe to impart the idea that we are all connected to each other, and that every little thing matters, and the every little thing is going to be alright and that is what is important to what all there is to be and say and show and mean and when the being gets heavy and the going gets tough, there is imagination and energy renewal through being again, and we need the rest we take and get in order to better serve the world and what it means to be a part of the world.

 

Focus is helpful. Focus on what is trying to be accomplished, with a seed for thought to develop around, but it is really not thought that is occurring but experience through the universe, through the universal collective. We are experiencing an awakening, a flowering, and it is all useful and special and a part of life and living, and what makes the experience great is that it comes only once, it is something that happens once, and cannot be repeated the same way any other time. The experience is once in a lifetime, every time we do anything. Every experience is different. What can be done is to tear down resistance

 

Tear down resistance to all that is happening to all that comes between the universe and the universe. There is an attempt at communication all the time, and the seeds and thoughts that are given and imparted are taken and moved toward the other end of the universal spectrum, toward self, and ego, instead of toward being. From being they come, are transmuted toward ego, through ego, into ego, by ego, touched by ego and are passed back as content, communication. We are all communicating all the time, all communicating with our environment, sending out vibes, sending out experiences and purposes for doing and being what can be done and be’d with.

 

Communication with what we are trying to do is part of life and living and part of the magic of all of it….

 

We are connected, we are trying to break resistance, and to do it we need to focus on allowing the universe to work, and not letting ego touch the work as it is transmitted.

 

Transmission happens automatically, when we are open and receptive to the transmission. What we do with the transmission then can change drastically. We can do something ridiculous with it, we can disregard it, we can be part of all of it all, we can partake, take part in the interaction, in the transmission, and the goal is to do it all with zero ego interference, little thought, much body and spirit. The mind is a tool. The being and the body are the substance of all of the content of the human being.

 

We have glorified the tool, but forgotten what it is primarily for. I have forgotten what it is primarily for. For solving problems.

 

4

 

Where we go, what we do, what we see, what makes us us: All those things and events are known, are part of the interconnected reality of the universe, are connected and marked out in time and space as having to occur, having occurred, and having to be willing to occur. But at the same time, there is freedom in all of the world.

 

And nervousness creeps in to stagnate the reality of connection and anti-resistance. Nervousness is resistance. Anxiety is resistance. Depression is resistance. Any thought pattern that is not of the present moment and in the present is resistance. Just allowing the universe to speak at the present moment is non-resistance. Universal source and force is allowed in and allowed to move. Anti-resistance training is here to stay and to allow the work to breathe and be a part of the world.

 

5

 

Breaking down resistance, what is resistance? Resistance is the substance and thought of form identification, it is the idea that we are limited, that things are limited in scope and capability, that we are stuck in only what we can see, feel, hear, etc.

 

6

 

Where does the resistance hide? In the psyche, in the soul, and in the body. There is resistance everywhere, and all we need to do is shine the light of identification and understanding on that resistance, and it will begin to lose its hold on us. There is a lot of resistance in all of our lives. In my life, for that is the only life I can take ownership of and make clear to all that I am the only one that I am concerned with changing, though I hope others will want to join me in changing their own lives….

 

Resistance is hiding at every turn, at every new encounter, at every corner of the universe, and it must be overcome. Similar to the ego, the resistance must be dismantled, carefully and with time, and it will not be something that happens overnight. It is something that will take a good while to master, and something that will take a while for the resistance to disappear. There is something that is positively humbling about the fact that we have been held captive by resistance for this long in our lives. We may not identify with the resistance, but we may see that it is something to be experienced and understood sort of.

 

What the resistance is then is a sense that we are not a part of the whole, that we are somehow separate, not identified with everything and everyone else, that we are not connected in reality. When in reality, it is clear that we are very much connected. And it is certainly going to be an adventure to show the world that we are all connected, that every single one of us is connected to another.

 

There in all the world lived a special reason for all the world to be involved with everything and that reason is to awaken, to realize that we are not the alone people we thought we had been all this time, all alone, all alone and alone, but connected together, forming a web of interrelated oneness and open desire and experience. What may be the same thing here and there may not be the same thing anywhere else. What makes the world true and good is that there is something that makes us all part of being the one part of all that we are being, and when we take that into consideration, we are all we are together.

 

Magic happened tonight. And magic continues to happen all the time, all over the place. There is an interconnected reality in all that there is, in all that there was and will be. When we talk about what made the universe special, and what made the world special, it is because we are taking the chance to see the world for the first time, taking the opportunity to understand the present in the present, and that is magical. The resistance that we all feel once we recognize that we are in the present is a natural opening and awakening process, the resistance makes itself known and by that fact we become self aware, and in turn, it makes us wonder what the real reason for existence is, and really makes us wonder if what we are doing is right, or silly in the perception of others. It seems to me that our perception of the perception of others is the most common and obvious sort of resistance that one can encounter.

 

My perception of how you perceive me dictates my actions. And to some extent that can be good, if what I am considering doing is bad, but if what I am considering doing is good, there need be no feeling that what I am doing will be perceived by others as strange behavior.

 

I am who I am, and if that means I enjoy writing a lot of material in a public place, so be it. Others may think what they may think. What I am doing is not a bad thing. There is actually no necessity to be judged good or bad at all, just what is, is. And if what is, is, then what is, is. And that is all that really matters. We are experiencing the world in a new way.

 

“Not what I pictured” - A statement that shows how we have preconceived notions of how something or someone is going to turn out. We really do not predict the future, we merely live the life, and in living the life we become in tune with reality, and when we only look to form to take the shape of all we are doing, we become dependent on our sense perceptions to tell us about our world. When we are only dependent on our senses, it becomes clear that we are not using our whole selves in order to better see the world and understand it and become one with it.

 

Sense perception has its limitations. What can we ask for instead? A certain kind of knowledge that is intuitive, part of us, a perception that operates based on our bodies but does not come through the five sensory organs, but through our entire presence. And then there is all the stimuli that are out there that bypass us entirely, that we are not subjected to, because we could not handle it all. The universe is moving at an alarming rate, and we in the foreground seem to move quickly at times, but we find it possible to “Stop”, though really it is not possible for us to stop completely, the universe moves inexorably forward, it moves along and through and in and among the world as we can and cannot see it. What matters then is being present, being fully present in order to experience that timeless essence of the now that defines who and what we are at all times.

 

Now is all we can be a part of. Now is all that there ever is. We used to think that there was much more than now, and that we were working on something other than now, but really, now is all we have, and though later may try to invade our psyche, it is only through now that we are able to conceive of or process later or before.

 

A gun cannot stop the force of the universe moving forward, it can only alter its course for a period of time, but time is the universe’s tool, and so any misuse of a firearm will only be a slight speed bump in the course of humanity. What I mean by that is all of man’s desire for war and thinking that they are in the right and so should force others to their same point of view is only a slight delaying of the inevitability of the convergence of all things together for the benefit of the universe. We are on a course to make the universe an amazing place. We are working hard at making things better. What has become the worst will be the best, and what is the best will be the worst, and it will all go tipsy turvey, but in a very sensical way, for those who can understand.

 

I want everyone to understand.

 

I don’t want to beat around the bush. I want it to be clear that what is coming is amazing and a wonderful experience, just as every now is amazing and a wonderful experience.

 

7

 

Can I be free of resistance? Can I escape completely at any time, can I make it away from resistance at all times so that it is not in my way, not a part of who I am or who I think might be here, or there? What is happening is a self using phenomenon. I am afraid of other people looking at me strangely. That is the reality of what I am doing, but really, what I need to understand is that I need to get into what I am doing fully, 100% and that is what I am trying to do all the time. What matters is that I understand there is a meaning behind everything, and that is what is going on, a realization that I am trying to break down all resistance at all times. What I am afraid of is other people’s perception of me, I am afraid that they will be afraid, that they will think I am on drugs or acting strangely, so I decide to curtail my being in the flow, being in the universal stream so that they don’t seem to feel as uncomfortable as I may make them. Or I can just decide to get into the flow by myself when I am alone, get into the universal flow of ideas and thoughts and allow it, just allow it to become one with what I am doing, and make it easy to understand that what I am doing is part of my real personal life, and I am getting into it and working through it and making it happen, and that is what makes it important to do and to visit, and that is why I do it at all.

 

What is the reason behind what I am doing? A desire to help people, a natural inclination toward helping others and creating and sharing. A calling from a higher power to do the same thing.

 

Being pulled away into the land of self delusion and making myself, my ego feel better, making my ego want to enlarge itself, and really that couldn’t be further from my true desires. In fact I want to be able to act fully and completely free of the ego, I want to remove it completely so I don’t have to second guess the motive for my actions.

 

In the upcoming going lean ideas at work, I think I want my self to be glorified and sent northward, and made to seem so important and helpful, but really what I want is to not be there at all, not even to have to do what I am going to do. But if I have to do what I am going to do, and it is going to be successful, I want it to be such that I am not thought of at all, that I am bypassed, can disappear completely, but I fear that would make my ego negatively larger, and I fear also that that would be impossible, and it is not something that would actually happen.

 

And there it is: fear.

 

Being pulled into the world of work, and feeling that there is something there that I must do, and that is to lead the initiative of lean philosophy toward the end goal of pleasing the customer completely, which end goal is that of pleasing the consumer completely.

 

Pleasing the end consumer through providing a safe, quality product that does what it is supposed to do, and nothing else, or is modifiable to do what the user wants it to do.

 

So for drugs, they are issued to help consumers deal with pain and disease, then they are abused and modified in order to alleviate pain in different ways or expand experience in some way.

 

We are not seeing all experience as experience is. I could live a life at home for the rest of my life and every single day would be a joyous occasion and completely different. The reason for that is that I am trying to be completely present, and there are no two ways of looking at a different day, it is the mindless thought patterns that we build that make an every day experience seem like the same exact thing is happening, but that is because the universe is going to continue to give us the experiences we don’t learn from. So what kind of experience have we had over and over that we don’t learn from?

 

Dentist - I haven’t been to the dentist in years. My mouth feels fine, but it is possible there is something terribly wrong just below the surface that I am not aware of. That is fear as well.

 

8

 

What does the resistance mean? The resistance means the distance between my being and the interconnected universe. I was given a true dose of reality, an awakening that showed me that the resistance was there, and now my goal is to remove the resistance completely.

 

The resistance shows itself as my ego, and the ego of those around me. If I can allow the universe to bring the ego down, to take it down piece by piece I will be left with the morsel of my being, and from there I can rebuild the stage. I may not be able to take my ego down completely by myself. I may have to go through “terrible” trials in order to make it happen. I don’t think so though. I think things are going to be bright and sunny all along the way, I just need to see the light.

 

Focusing on the positive instead of the negative in any situation. This is self talk, this is not removal of resistance, or is it? Allow the universe to speak through me. Allow the universe to speak through me, allow the universe to speak through me, without any part of it coming from me, or my ego.

 

That is a tall task. I am intimidated by it, and I am afraid that I may get in the way. I need to let go of my fear, for out of the fear I will taint the message anyway. I need to just do my best, show up and get out of the way. Show up with energy and enthusiasm and get out of the way. Allow the universe to work. Keep myself out of the picture.

 

Am I going in the right direction with the music? Am I placing too much ego in the work, too much of me, not enough of the universe? In creating the songs, they were very much a part of me, a part of the ego, but I think I need to share them in order to bring down the ego partially.

 

Sharing the broken parts of my life is important.

 

Infusing objects with spirit helps them to be more useful.

 

9

 

Show up with energy and enthusiasm and get out of the way. Out of the way, letting the universe guide me through the exercises. The fingers need to be nimble, need to be quick, the mind needs to allow the spirit to work, but process the words and figures, and coordinate the nimbleness of the fingers.

 

What matters is what matters. There is much resistance this morning. I have identified it, I have noticed it. It is there, and it is in my way. It is in the way. The way of the warrior is being blocked by inner resistance. That is the way of it always.

 

We have all the ability to ride the narrow path, but we get in our own way at all times. We have barriers and blockages to get past, we must scoot past them, but first we have to dismantle them, break them down.

 

My physical body is creating resistance. I slept like a wakeful zombie last night, making all sorts of groaning and grunting noises in my sleep because of my snoring. It was awful and scared my wife. Now I am continueing to do the things that created that sort of sleep like smoking and drinking coffee. But I am not drinking coffee much, that is a baby step in the correct direction. Small steps is what it is going to take. How can I take small steps with smoking a cigarette? If I continue to take small breaks between cigarettes and try to lengthen the break, it will take time to get used to the situation. There is a lot of time in there, a lot of time away from there, a lot of time time time, and that is okay, I can take the time because I have all the time in the world. All the time in the world to act and be present in the now. In the now right now I am doing what I am meant to do.

 

I always love to say that, and to remember it is even better, this is what I am meant to do, it is easy to see that as the part and parcel of all there is to see and be. I can bring attention to the fact that I am doing what it is that I am meant to be doing, by creating something, by showing that resistance is futile, that the universe wants more and more and is going to get it. Does the universe actually want? Or does it just expand and all the creations and experiences are a natural outgrowth of that situation?

 

To remove all resistance then is to break down the calcification of the energies, of the bones, of the heart mind and body, to allow the flow to enter into whatever it is that I am doing. What I am doing here (writing) is an exercise in resistance reduction, in helping myself to better understand my world, and the world at large. It is an exercise, and exercising is beneficial. Exercise alone will not be enough, I will need to put it into practice.

 

For me, putting my anti-resistance training on the writing front into practice would mean writing blog posts directly as anti -resistance practice. This is training, and when I am able to directly write the blog posts, it will be practice. And when I am able to directly write the book it will be foresight and possibility.

 

What do I need to do to get into the writing of the blog posts as regular practice?

 

I need to get all the other stuff out of the way, and that is what this is for, that is what this whole experience is for to understand and to know that there is resistance in me which will come out on the page if I don’t break it down first.

 

And I can break it down. Actually, I cannot break it down. The universe can break it down, as I allow the universe to work, as I show up with energy and enthusiasm and get out of the way, the universe will break down the resistance, and as the resistance is broken down, the true light of the universe is able to shine through the creation.

 

And that is the time frame I took in which to write through the resistance this morning.

 

10

 

What the world needs now…

 

Not of my concern what the world needs, of concern only to the universe, what the world actually needs, and when I let the universe work through my fingers I allow the magic of the universe to unfold and become reality.

 

Allow the universe to unfold and become reality.

 

Allow the universe to unfold and become reality.

 

Allow the universe…. am I really allowing the universe to do anything? Or am I simply allowing myself to be a part of the flow of energy, a part of the flow of the universe itself.

 

No thoughts, bubble mind.

 

11

 

Anti-resistance training is not an exercise to do once, it is a lifelong process that allows the universe to come to the forefront of my mind and body, and allows the spirit to work through me. It allows my spirit to truly shine, and my spirit is the same as all the other spirits of people that are out there, we are all one.

 

Sometimes I fear that I am losing my mind. In fact, I am fairly certain of it. But as I am losing my mind, I am gaining my spirit, and that had been lost for a long period of time. That was something that I had neglected for far too long, and it really is what I am here for. To create, and to share, to be a part of something larger than myself, by completely sharing myself with others.

 

Sharing is easier with those close to us, but sometimes it is even harder for those of us who are close with each other, because we are afraid. We are afraid to mess up the status quo, especially if the status quo is good and positive. We are afraid to be ourselves if what ourselves are will be different than what we are now. Not better or worse, just different, and if different then things will need to change. And if things need to change there will be a difficult period of time for all involved with everything. There and then we are without. And so within.

 

I am plagued by delusional thoughts and fears, and I am able to keep them at bay through mindfulness. And allowing the universe to work as it will. How the universe wants to use me is to write, and to create and to share. I am struggling to find a way to do that at work, but I am able to find ways to do it in my spare time. I want my whole life to be part of the constant usefulness of the universe, and not sectioned off to some tiny period of time or life. I want to be completely a part of it, completely a part of the universal working of the world, and furthering the ends that are desired. There is something completely amazing about being alive and being able to create and share.

 

Sharing is secondary. To create is what I love to do and I want to feel this way as often as possible. To create something from nothing, and to build something up from nowhere, and to share with others how it is possible, and how it is something that we all can and ought to do. Ought is for naught, shoulds can dissolve, but I think it is why we are here, but alas I think, and so it is not known, and if it were known it wouldn’t mean anything anyway.

 

The brain plays games, and my brain likes to trick me, trick itself. It tricks my body too, with panic attacks. I stay focused by being present, by being here, by being now at all times. Presence is the art of plainness. The art of simplicity comes from being now, and now only.

 

I am a part of the simple process of expansion that the universe is undergoing. The expansion of the universe is what I am here to take part in, to be a part of. To understand my role is not very important. To take part in my role with energy and enthusiasm is the most important task. I am undermined and devalued in some of my attempts to become one with the universe, and I get in my own way most often times, and I allow others to allow myself to create a mental block around something they are doing. It is always on me though, my mind structures build something out of nothing often times, something negative and not worth my time or effort of life and living.

 

So I will move on from those things. I can let those structures decompose and return into the bowels of my mind as I build new structures.

 

The new structures show that the universe is in constant harmony. That everything works toward the benefit of all living things. That there is enough for everyone everywhere, and that there is no need for competition or war. I can take what I need, and that is enough. I can share everything I have, everything I “own” everything I ever will create, and it will be a part of the main, and the whole of the universe. That is the end all purpose. That is the creative life. That is the life I choose to lead, to live, to breathe to be a part of all the time.

 

Will you join me? Will you knock down your own resistance? Will you leave the prison of your mind and start building the new earth with your being? Will I? I will fail unendingly, and I am okay with that. Continuous improvement is the goal, is the only reality. Practicing what I am set to do on a daily, minute by minute basis is all I am interested in doing. There are other tasks that come to mind, that come to light of which I must be a part, but they are just really working toward some other person’s end or idea of what life should be like. They are not my life goal. I must work within those goals for a period of time while I build the strength to carry my own life and the life of my family.

 

This process, this writing, this time, right now as I type is building the strength. Allowing the universe to work, unimpeded by my resistance. I can drop more and more resistance, and actually it is the universe that drops the resistance for me, for I can do nothing on my own. I am connected, and it is certain that that is why my life has been a continuous blessing.

 

12

 

I am in my glory never. I am in the universe’s glory when I am a vessel to be poured into, open and receiving like water whatever is going to come from the universe to me. I am here, I am ready, I am weak, I am not strong. I don’t know what to do with myself at times. I am not strong at all. I can barely stand, but I am open and ready, ready for what the universe has in store for me.

 

Whatever that may be, I am ready to receive it, I have been called upon, and I am showing up, I am ready to be a part of whatever it is that I am to be a part of. I don’t know what to call it, I don’t know what it may or may not be, I don’t know what to think about any of it. I don’t know what to think, and that is okay, I am not my mind. I am the being behind my mind. And when I think of it that way, when I understand that that is so, everything else seems to disappear, and it is all fine and good again. I am the being behind all that I say, think, breathe and do.

 

I am being.

 

I am one with life.

 

I am one with the universe.

 

All the tribulations of my inner and outer body and mind are nothing, but a candle in the wind, and the light of my being is the light of the candle, which the universe allows to be buffeted and blown but not put out yet. I have not been blown out yet for a reason. This is the reason. To create, to share, to let the world know that the light shines within each of us, the universe allows it to be so, the universe makes it so.

 

I have immediate needs to get to the higher plane. I need to make enough money that I don’t have to worry about making money ever again. I need people in the right place in my life so that I understand that I don’t have to worry about money any more. That will give me freedom to leave where I am in order to pursue my true calling which is just this, to write and create and share with everyone the joy of complete surrender to the universe. It took me months to understand it, but I understand it. It took me to lose my mind, but now I would not get my mind back for anything, for I am at complete peace in the presence of my being. My mind and body are here to serve my being, though both have been turned against being for a long period of time, perhaps too long. I will find out. It doesn’t change my trajectory. It keeps me focused unto the end, for when the end comes, all will be ready, for I am already ready, I just forget sometimes. I just forget that I am already ready. It does make me somewhat sad to those I love and may leave behind whenever I am called home, but I know it is the way of things, and that is the ultimate solace.

 

The way of life is the life. The way of tao is tao. It is all making sense in my life now, in ways I never thought I could understand it. There is nothing to understand, there is only to be. To be awash in the living of life, every precious moment, without wanting to press pause, rewind or fastforward. Just letting it be, as I let myself be.

 

The more I let myself be, the greater the change will be for me, the more I let myself allow the universe to work, the more my change will grow, the more my life will abound in blessings and in the world will work toward a greater future, though that is not the goal.

 

Now is the goal, and the only goal there ever will be. I can make and act on plans, but the only ever time is now, and now alone. There is no other time, it is all a figment of imagination, and my imagination is powerful and so I get caught up quite often in before and after and think that that is reality, when in reality it is only now, it is only and can ever only be now now now..

 

Presence is my calling, my path, my way forward, my experience is such that I am ever present, ever a part of the same thing that I have always been a part of. There is joy and reassurance in living and in life. There is magic in being present and knowing the presence of present and now.

 

When my thoughts do wander, I become disconnected from the universe. The thoughts come and try to steal me away, and often times I let them, but here and now I am part of the flow of the universe, not allowing resistance to stop anything in it’s path for love and joy to flow to every person in the world.

 

What could I possibly be thinking? about love and joy to every person in the world? I am not thinking, I am being, and that is the joy of all of it.

 

I am about ready to be rid of the resistance practice model and get on with writing to share and think and be with all who are interested, all who may be affected in a positive way with what I write about. There is joy in learning, and there is peace in understanding, but neither one touches the light of being.

 

13

 

“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.” Thoreau

 

My goal is to awaken my dreams, and have my life be lived as if it were my dream. Is that the goal of the universe as well? I believe it is. The universe wants all of my dreams to come true, and is working diligently to make that all happen.

 

I have work to do in order for the dreams to come true. I have to show up. Every day. No matter what. And do my best. My best may be different every day, but I have to give everything my all all day and night in order to achieve the dreams I want to achieve.

 

That is the goal. Specifically I want to be worry free when it comes to money. Money and I have never really been on good terms and I want to change that. Money is just a tool, just something that is used as a value holder something that can be manipulated and changed around to do any kind of work. I want to learn to wield that tool and do it well.

 

I thanked the universe for everything this morning, and again, thank you for everything in my life, whether I see it currently as a blessing or a curse, I thank you for all of it. Seeing blessings and curses is looking at the world through a lense. The reality is it all is what it is, there is no good or bad. What happens is what happens.

 

14

 

The resistance can be felt physically, it is there at all times, it is hovering around the outside of all action, waiting to pounce and strangle out the strength of our action and being.

 

But I am breaking through the resistance. I am breaking through with some willpower, but mostly with the strength of the universe, allowing me to become myself, allowing things to work together and come together in the best way possible. These are growing pains. I am going through growing pains. They are here and they are there and that is the way they go.

 

To get past growing pains, I just need to grow. And to grow and grow and let it grow, let it grow! There is something special in the exercises I am performing. I am trying to break new ground to get in touch with the universe by allowing the universe to use me completely. To get in touch with my true self, by uncovering all the resistance and excess crap that has come to cover me up.

 

I have panic attacks when I eat in public. It is not fun. I don’t want to have to go through it any more. I give it up to the universe, allow the universe to take it away from me. Through some miracle of science or space I eat in peace at all times. Because I choose to eat consciously. Not just because it is time to eat, but because I am hungry. And right now, I may not be hungry for a while. My brain is getting itself back, and I am experiencing what is.

 

When I experience a panic attack, I can stay in the now. I am present and I am with the whole process, I am who I am what I am.

 

Presence in the face of crisis is a wonderful thing. Trying to carry on a conversation in the middle of a panic attack is not a nice thing.

 

Get past the panic attacks, breathe deeply. Allow things to move freely, become one with the universe, allow it to move and flow within me. It is inside me and outside me and me. It is everything.

 

When I realize that the universe is everything I can detach from my self a little bit. If something happens to me, I will still be a part of the universe but in a different way.

 

I don’t know why the panic attacks come, and I don’t know if I need to know or understand. I want them to stop coming. I want my ears to stop being red. I want my chest to feel normal. I want my muscles to work correctly. I don’t know what I want. → That is not true anymore! I want everything for everyone. I want my family to be calm, close and connected. I am passionate about helping others learn, love and grow. I want to share my talents in art, writing and music. I can learn any skill at any time. I give all my creations away in order to give back.

 

A “Life Is Fun” party - get together and just hang out. No reason, just hang out together and enjoy each other’s company.

2004/06/02

Sabitra Khadka lives on Jaishithok, Lamidada, Kavre; more 20 KMs to the East from Dhulikhel. She is physically challenged girl with strong desire to learn computers. She cannot use her both hands. Her family is too poor that they cannot afford her for the treatment abroad. And, most of the hospitals of Dhulikhel and Kathmandu had already declared that she couldn’t be treated on Nepal. Doctors said, perhaps she cannot be treated anywhere. She is struggling on 10th standard. She passed ten years of her study only by writing with her toes. She eats directly with her mouth without any help of her hands and toes. She brushes her teeth with the help of her toes. She is 19 years old and has two younger sisters and one younger brother. Bother is struggling on 12 standard. Elder of the younger sisters is already married and has a child, youngest is also on 10th standard.

She wants to learn computers and would like to be the sample for her community. She wants to serve her community by her computer knowledge. But she cannot afford it. ADRA, an INGO, is funding for her education. She placed her interest about Computers to ADRA and it sends her to Dhulikhel Telecenter to solve her queries. When she uses the computer for the first time, it was a laptop and she enjoyed it a lot. Later, she found it much difficult to learn since she is weak in English. She studied on a Public School that starts formal education of English only from class five. So, its been only five year, she is introduced to English. She is perfect on making sentences but is really weak on understanding the meaning of sentences. She placed the same problem to the Dhulikhel Telecenter and came to know about Windows Localization Project. She said, only the Windows in Nepali can fulfill her dreams.

 

I got her when we were making a documentary related to Windows Localization Project.

My niece Tareen the Terrible saying the Namaz.

 

The Meaning of Ramadan

By Ayse Kadayifci tentofabraham.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&...

  

"You who believe? Fasting is prescribed for you, even as it was prescribed for those before you, so perchance you may attain God-consciousness." (Q 2:183)

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic Lunar calendar and the holiest of the four holy months. It is one of the five pillars of Islamic faith. During Ramadan all physically mature and healthy Muslims are required to abstain from all food, drink, gum chewing, any kind of tobacco use, and any kind of sexual contact between dawn and sunset for 29 or 30 days, depending on the sighting of the moon during this month. Moreover, fasting includes refraining from gossiping, lying, slandering and all traits of bad character. It calls for doing good deeds, generosity and kindness, self-reflection, praying and God-consciousness. During this month Muslims read the entire Quran, which is divided to 30 equal parts to be read each day. Muslims also go to the Mosque for special Ramadan prayers after the breaking of the fast.

The end of Ramadan is marked by a three-day celebration and worship called Eid ul Fitr, which begins with a special communal worship service, the first morning after the month ends. During these three days Muslims have feasts for friends and family, give modest gifts especially to children, give charity (fitra) to the poor and needy, and also give the obligatory alms (Zakat), which also goes to the poor and needy. Eid ul Fitr is the second major holy day of the Islamic calendar year.

Muslims believe that one of the last few odd-numbered nights of the month is the Laylat ul-Qadr, the "Night of Power" or "Night of Destiny", the night on which God first began revealing the Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) through the angel Jibril (Gabriel) as the Quran states: "Ramadan is the (month) in which was sent down the Qur'an, as a guide to mankind, also clear (Signs) for guidance and judgment (Between right and wrong)." (Q2:185).This night is especially important for the Muslims, as it is stated in the Quran that "this one night is better than a thousand months of prayer" (Q97:3).

Ramadan has many dimensions, including physical, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions. Ramadan orients the believer to balance between all these dimensions of his/her existence. Physical dimension of Ramadan includes abstaining from all kinds of food, drinks, smoking and sexual contact from sunrise to sunset. It helps physical attunement of the body through cleansing and relaxing, and provides a break in the cycle of rigid habits or overindulgence.

Psychological dimension of fasting is related to patience, forbearance and perseverance. Through observing fasting, the believer enriches his/her patience, forbearance, self-worth, self-strength, self-control, self-reflexivity, self-training and discipline. Through fasting Muslims strive for controlling their urges and resist temptation. And through meditative practices of praying, reading the Quran and remembering God, they are reminded of the bigger picture, and develop an understanding about purpose of creation. Thus, fasting helps dealing with stress, trauma, attain inner peace. Therefore Ramadan helps healing psychological problems.

In terms of social dimension, fasting calls for remembering those who are poor, who do not have food or shelter. Fasting is a way of experiencing hunger and developing sympathy for the less fortunate, and of learning thankfulness and appreciation for all of God's bounties. It calls for purifying ones actions towards others. It reminds believers of their social responsibility, it calls for generosity, sharing and forgiving. It calls for compassion towards those who are in need and are suffering. During this month Muslims are especially called for resolving their conflicts, forgiving each other and asking for forgiveness.

Ramadan is also the month of mercy. Muslims are called to show mercy, compassion, generosity, and care for all Gods creatures, including themselves, other human beings, animals and the environment as the vicegerents of God on earth. By partaking in Ramadan, and experiencing it together creates a social space that is shared by many Muslims across the globe. This creates a unique sense of solidarity among Muslims around the world. By sharing the feast with friends and relatives during Eid ul Fitr, and by giving charity (fitra) and alms to the poor and needy (zakat), Muslims take part in healing social wounds, knitting closer ties with others, redistributing wealth, connecting with those who are in need. This aspect of Ramadan contributes to creating a just and compassionate society based on sharing and giving rather than focusing on consumerism.

The following Hadith captures this aspect of fasting: "Allah (SWT) (the name for The Almighty God, used by Muslims) said that: All services of the son of Adam are for him except fasting. It is for Me, and I will reward him for it. Fasting is a shield. On the day you fast, do not use obscenity, nor yell at others, nor act ignorantly towards them. However, if anyone abuses you verbally or attempts to draw you to fight with him, say 'I am fasting' two times. The Prophet (pbuh) then states: I swore by the One (Allah) in Whose Hand is the soul of Muhammad, the breath of the faster is sweeter to Allah on the Day of Judgment than the scent of musk. The faster experiences enjoyment twice: he is pleased when he breaks his fast, and he is pleased when he meets his Maker" (Muslim).

Finally, in terms of its spiritual dimension, fasting redirects the hearts away from worldly activities, towards The Divine. During this month, Muslims ask for mercy and forgiveness from God. Purity of thought and action is paramount. Fasting is a deeply personal act of worship in which Muslims seek to raise their level of God-consciousness. During Ramadan Muslims feel the peace that comes from spiritual devotion as well as kinship with fellow believers. Ramadan calls for inner-reflection, rethinking of meaning of life and ones place thereof. It is a month for repentance, mercy and spiritual attunement. Because their attention is diverted from the satisfaction of bodily appetites and wants during fasting, Muslims receive a certain amount of ascendancy in terms of their spiritual nature. Thus they become closer to God.

Moreover, Muslims spend the whole month in acts of worship like voluntary Salat (prayer), Tilawa (recitation of Quran), Dhikr (remembrance of Gods names), and etc. By reading the entire Quran, and performing Dhikr Muslims are reminded of the human struggles and Gods benevolence. They draw inspiration from the stories of previous Prophets, such as Abraham, Moses, Joseph and Jesus. Therefore, they renew their commitment to God, renew their faith and family ties, as well as connect to the message of Prophets.

To conclude, as a result of fasting during Ramadan Muslims develop a balance all these different dimensions of their existence. However, all these benefits, may it be physical, psychological, social or spiritual, come as a blessing of God; they are not the aim of billions of Muslims who are fasting. At the end, Muslims observe Ramadan only to please God.

 

my poem

  

The Awakeners in their repetitious

Raucous voice urge the devoted

To wake up the first fast of

The Holy Month Of Ramadan

Hearts swelling with humility

Muslims living all over the world

Bangladesh India and Pakistan

All bound to Allah the best way he can

A month of forgiveness of piety

Of Peace Brotherhood of Man

Of all the months barring Moharam

The Holy Month of Ramadan

One a pledge to Allah to

Keep his laws dusk to dawn

The other remembering the

Supreme sacrifice that saved Islam

From the Tyranny of Man

Two sides of a spectrum

Both showing the path to

Serving Allah his Bayt

The Glory of Ramadan

  

My First Fast begins of Ramadhan

 

Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin was the first Russian writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933. He was noted for the strict artistry with which he carried on the classical Russian traditions in the writing of prose and poetry. The texture of his poems and stories, sometimes referred to as "Bunin brocade", is considered to be one of the richest in the language.

 

Best known for his short novels The Village (1910) and Dry Valley (1912), his autobiographical novel The Life of Arseniev (1933, 1939), the book of short stories Dark Avenues (1946) and his 1917–1918 diary (Cursed Days, 1926), Bunin was a revered figure among white emigres, European critics, and many of his fellow writers, who viewed him as a true heir to the tradition of realism in Russian literature established by Tolstoy and Chekhov.

 

Biography

Early life

Ivan Bunin was born on his parental estate in Voronezh province, the third and youngest son of Aleksey Nikolayevich Bunin (1827–1906) and Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Bunina (née Chubarova, 1835–1910). He had two younger sisters: Masha (Maria Bunina-Laskarzhevskaya, 1873–1930) and Nadya (that latter died very young) and two elder brothers, Yuly and Yevgeny. Having come from a long line of rural gentry, Bunin was especially proud that poets Anna Bunina (1774–1829) and Vasily Zhukovsky (1783–1852) were among his ancestors. He wrote in his 1952 autobiography:

I come from an old and noble house that has given Russia a good many illustrious persons in politics as well as in the arts, among whom two poets of the early nineteenth century stand out in particular: Anna Búnina and Vasíly Zhukovsky, one of the great names in Russian literature, the son of Athanase Bunin and the Turk Salma.

 

"The Bunins are direct ancestors of Simeon Bunkovsky, a nobleman who came from Poland to the court of the Great Prince Vasily Vasilyevich," he wrote in 1915, quoting the Russian gentry's Armorial Book. Chubarovs, according to Bunin, "knew very little about themselves except that their ancestors were landowners in Kostromskaya, Moskovskaya, Orlovskya and Tambovskaya Guberniyas". "As for me, from early childhood I was such a libertine as to be totally indifferent both to my own 'high blood' and to the loss of whatever might have been connected to it," he added.

 

Ivan Bunin's early childhood, spent in Butyrky Khutor and later in Ozerky (of Yelets county, Lipetskaya Oblast), was a happy one: the boy was surrounded by intelligent and loving people. Father Alexei Nikolayevich was described by Bunin as a very strong man, both physically and mentally, quick-tempered and addicted to gambling, impulsive and generous, eloquent in a theatrical fashion and totally illogical. "Before the Crimean War he'd never even known the taste of wine, on return he became a heavy drinker, although never a typical alcoholic," he wrote. His mother Lyudmila Alexandrovna's character was much more subtle and tender: this Bunin attributed to the fact that "her father spent years in Warsaw where he acquired certain European tastes which made him quite different from fellow local land-owners." It was Lyudmila Alexandrovna who introduced her son to the world of Russian folklore. Elder brothers Yuly and Yevgeny showed great interest in mathematics and painting respectively, his mother said later, yet, in their mother's words, "Vanya has been different from the moment of birth... none of the others had a soul like his."

 

Young Bunin's susceptibility and keenness to the nuances of nature were extraordinary. "The quality of my vision was such that I've seen all seven of the stars of Pleiades, heard a marmot's whistle a verst away, and could get drunk from the smells of landysh or an old book," he remembered later. Bunin's experiences of rural life had a profound impact on his writing. "There, amidst the deep silence of vast fields, among cornfields – or, in winter, huge snowdrifts which were stepping up to our very doorsteps – I spent my childhood which was full of melancholic poetry," Bunin later wrote of his Ozerky days.

 

Ivan Bunin's first home tutor was an ex-student named Romashkov, whom he later described as a "positively bizarre character," a wanderer full of fascinating stories, "always thought-provoking even if not altogether comprehensible." Later it was university-educated Yuly Bunin (deported home for being a Narodnik activist) who taught his younger brother psychology, philosophy and the social sciences as part of his private, domestic education. It was Yuly who encouraged Ivan to read the Russian classics and to write himself. Until 1920 Yuly (who once described Ivan as "undeveloped yet gifted and capable of original independent thought") was the latter's closest friend and mentor. "I had a passion for painting, which, I think, shows in my writings. I wrote both poetry and prose fairly early and my works were also published from an early date," wrote Bunin in his short autobiography.

 

By the end of the 1870s, the Bunins, plagued by the gambling habits of the head of the family, had lost most of their wealth. In 1881 Ivan was sent to a public school in Yelets, but never completed the course: he was expelled in March 1886 for failing to return to the school after the Christmas holidays due to the family's financial difficulties.

 

Literary career

In May 1887 Bunin published his first poem "Village Paupers" (Деревенские нищие) in the Saint Petersburg literary magazine Rodina (Motherland). In 1891 his first short story "Country Sketch (Деревенский эскиз) appeared in the Nikolay Mikhaylovsky-edited journal Russkoye Bogatstvo. In Spring 1889, Bunin followed his brother to Kharkiv, where he became a government clerk, then an assistant editor of a local paper, librarian, and court statistician. In January 1889 he moved to Oryol to work on the local Orlovsky Vestnik newspaper, first as an editorial assistant and later as de facto editor; this enabled him to publish his short stories, poems and reviews in the paper's literary section. There he met Varvara Pashchenko and fell passionately in love with her. In August 1892 the couple moved to Poltava and settled in the home of Yuly Bunin. The latter helped his younger brother to find a job in the local zemstvo administration.

 

Ivan Bunin's debut book of poetry Poems. 1887–1891 was published in 1891 in Oryol. Some of his articles, essays and short stories, published earlier in local papers, began to feature in the Saint Petersburg periodicals.

 

Bunin spent the first half of 1894 travelling all over Ukraine. "Those were the times when I fell in love with Malorossiya (Little Russia), its villages and steppes, was eagerly meeting its people and listening to Ukrainian songs, this country's very soul," he later wrote.

 

In 1895 Bunin visited the Russian capital for the first time. There he was to meet the Narodniks Nikolay Mikhaylovsky and Sergey Krivenko, Anton Chekhov (with whom he began a correspondence and became close friends), Alexander Ertel, and the poets Konstantin Balmont and Valery Bryusov.

 

1899 saw the beginning of Bunin's friendship with Maxim Gorky, to whom he dedicated his Falling Leaves (1901) collection of poetry and whom he later visited at Capri. Bunin became involved with Gorky's Znanie (Knowledge) group. Another influence and inspiration was Leo Tolstoy whom he met in Moscow in January 1894. Admittedly infatuated with the latter's prose, Bunin tried desperately to follow the great man's lifestyle too, visiting sectarian settlements and doing a lot of hard work. He was even sentenced to three months in prison for illegally distributing Tolstoyan literature in the autumn of 1894, but avoided jail due to a general amnesty proclaimed on the occasion of the succession to the throne of Nicholas II. Tellingly, it was Tolstoy himself who discouraged Bunin from slipping into what he called "total peasantification." Several years later, while still admiring Tolstoy's prose, Bunin changed his views regarding his philosophy which he now saw as utopian.

 

In 1895–1896 Bunin divided his time between Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In 1897 his first short story collection To the Edge of the World and Other Stories came out, followed a year later by In the Open Air (Под открытым небом, 1898), his second book of verse. In June 1898 Bunin moved to Odessa. Here he became close to the Southern Russia Painters Comradeship, became friends with Yevgeny Bukovetski and Pyotr Nilus. In the winter of 1899–1900 he began attending the Sreda (Wednesday) literary group in Moscow, striking up a friendship with the Nikolay Teleshov, among others. Here the young writer made himself a reputation as an uncompromising advocate of the realistic traditions of classic Russian literature. "Bunin made everybody uncomfortable. Having got this severe and sharp eye for real art, feeling acutely the power of a word, he was full of hatred towards every kind of artistic excess. In times when (quoting Andrey Bely) "throwing pineapples to the sky" was the order of the day, Bunin's very presence made words stick in people's throats," Boris Zaitsev later remembered. He met Anton Chekov in 1896, and a strong friendship ensued.

 

1900–1909

The collections Poems and Stories (1900) and Flowers of the Field (1901) were followed by Falling Leaves (Листопад, 1901), Bunin's third book of poetry (including a large poem of the same title first published in the October 1900 issue of Zhizn (Life) magazine). It was welcomed by both critics and colleagues, among them Alexander Ertel, Alexander Blok and Aleksandr Kuprin, who praised its "rare subtlety." Even though the book testifies to his association with the Symbolists, primarily Valery Bryusov, at the time many saw it as an antidote to the pretentiousness of 'decadent' poetry which was then popular in Russia. Falling Leaves was "definitely Pushkin-like", full of "inner poise, sophistication, clarity and wholesomeness," according to critic Korney Chukovsky. Soon after the book's release, Gorky called Bunin (in a letter to Valery Bryusov) "the first poet of our times." It was for Falling Leaves (along with the translation of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha, 1898) that Bunin was awarded his first Pushkin Prize. Bunin justified a pause of two years in the early 1900s by the need for "inner growth" and spiritual change.

 

At the turn of the century Bunin made a major switch from poetry to prose which started to change both in form and texture, becoming richer in lexicon, more compact and perfectly poised. Citing Gustave Flaubert, whose work he admired, as an influence, Bunin was "demonstrating that prose could be driven by poetic rhythms, but still remain prose." According to the writer's nephew Pusheshnikov, Bunin once told him: "Apparently I was born a versemaker... like Turgenev, who was a versemaker, first and foremost. Finding the true rhythm of the story was for him the main thing – everything else was supplementary. And for me the crucial thing is to find the proper rhythm. Once it's there, everything else comes in spontaneously, and I know when the story is done."

 

In 1900 the novella Antonov Apples (Антоновские яблоки) was published; later it was included in textbooks and is regarded as Bunin's first real masterpiece, but it was criticised at the time as too nostalgic and elitist, allegedly idealising "the Russian nobleman's past." Other acclaimed novellas of this period, On the Farm, The News from Home, and To the Edge of the World (На край света), showing a penchant for extreme precision of language, delicate description of nature and detailed psychological analysis, made him a popular and well-respected young author.

 

In 1902 Znanie started publishing the Complete Bunin series; five volumes appeared by the year 1909. Three books, Poems (1903), Poems (1903–1906) and Poems of 1907 (the latter published by Znanie in 1908), formed the basis of a special (non-numbered) volume of the Complete series which in 1910 was published in Saint Petersburg as Volume VI. Poems and Stories (1907–1909) by the Obschestvennaya Polza (Public Benefit) publishing house. Bunin's works featured regularly in Znanie's literary compilations; beginning with Book I, where "Black Earth" appeared along with several poems, all in all he contributed to 16 books of the series.

 

In the early 1900s Bunin travelled extensively. He was a close friend of Chekhov and his family and continued visiting them regularly until 1904. The October social turmoil of 1905 found Bunin in Yalta, Crimea, from where he moved back to Odessa. Scenes of "class struggle" there did not impress the writer, for he saw them as little more than the Russian common people's craving for anarchy and destruction.

 

In November 1906 Bunin's passionate affair with Vera Muromtseva began. The girl's family was unimpressed with Bunin's position as a writer, but the couple defied social convention, moving in together and in April 1907 leaving Russia for an extended tour through Egypt and Palestine. The Bird's Shadow (Тень птицы) (1907–1911) collection (published as a separate book in 1931 in Paris) came as a result of this voyage. These travelling sketches were to change the critics' assessment of Bunin's work. Before them Bunin was mostly regarded as (using his own words) "a melancholy lyricist, singing hymns to noblemen's estates and idylls of the past." In the late 1900s critics started to pay more notice to the colourfulness and dynamics of his poetry and prose. "In terms of artistic precision he has no equal among Russian poets," Vestnik Evropy wrote at the time. Bunin attributed much importance to his travels, counting himself among that special "type of people who tend to feel strongest for alien times and cultures rather than those of their own" and admitting to being drawn to "all the necropolises of the world." Besides, foreign voyages had, admittedly, an eye-opening effect on the writer, helping him to see Russian reality more objectively. In the early 1910s Bunin produced several famous novellas which came as a direct result of this change in perspective.

 

In October 1909 Bunin received his second Pushkin Prize for Poems 1903–1906 and translations of (Lord Byron's Cain, and parts of Longfellow's The Golden Legend). He was elected a member of the Russian Academy the same year. In Bunin, The Academy crowns "not a daring innovator, not an adventurous searcher but arguably the last gifted pupil of talented teachers who's kept and preserved... all the most beautiful testaments of their school," wrote critic Aleksander Izmailov, formulating the conventional view of the time. It was much later that Bunin was proclaimed one of the most innovative Russian writers of the century.

 

1910–1920

In 1910 Bunin published The Village (Деревня), a bleak portrayal of Russian country life, which he depicted as full of stupidity, brutality, and violence. This book caused controversy and made him famous. Its harsh realism (with "characters having sunk so far below the average level of intelligence as to be scarcely human") prompted Maxim Gorky to call Bunin "the best Russian writer of the day."

 

"I've left behind my "narodnicism" which didn't last very long, my Tolstoyism too and now I'm closer to the social democrats, but I still stay away from political parties," Bunin wrote in the early 1910s. He said he realised now that the working class had become a force powerful enough to "overcome the whole of Western Europe," but warned against the possible negative effect of the Russian workers' lack of organisation, the one thing that made them different from their Western counterparts. He criticised the Russian intelligentsia for being ignorant of the common people's life, and spoke of a tragic schism between "the cultured people and the uncultured masses."

 

In December 1910 Bunin and Muromtseva made another journey to the Middle East, then visited Ceylon; this four-month trip inspired such stories as "Brothers" (Братья) and "The Tsar of Tsars City" (Город царя царей). On his return to Odessa in April 1911, Bunin wrote "Waters Aplenty" (Воды многие), a travel diary, much lauded after its publication in 1926. In 1912 the novel Dry Valley (Суходол) came out, his second major piece of semi-autobiographical fiction, concerning the dire state of the Russian rural community. Again it left the literary critics divided: social democrats praised its stark honesty, many others were appalled with the author's negativism.

 

Bunin and Muromtseva spent three winters (1912–1914) with Gorky on the island of Capri, where they met with Fyodor Shalyapin and Leonid Andreev, among others. In Russia the couple divided their time mainly between Moscow and a Bunin family estate at Glotovo village nearby Oryol; it was there that they spent the first couple years of World War I. Dogged by anxieties concerning Russia's future, Bunin was still working hard. In the winter of 1914–1915 he finished a new volume of prose and verse entitled The Chalice of Life (Чаша жизни), published in early 1915 to wide acclaim (including high praise from the French poet Rene Ghil). The same year saw the publication of The Gentleman from San Francisco (Господин из Сан-Франциско), arguably the best-known of Bunin's short stories, which was translated into English by D. H. Lawrence. Bunin was a productive translator himself. After Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha (1898), he did translations of Byron, Tennyson, Musset and François Coppée.

 

During the war years, Bunin completed the preparation of a six-volume edition of his Collected Works, which was published by Adolph Marks in 1915. Throughout this time Bunin kept aloof from contemporary literary debates. "I did not belong to any literary school; I was neither a decadent, nor a symbolist nor a romantic, nor a naturalist. Of literary circles I frequented only a few," he commented later. By the spring of 1916, overcome by pessimism, Bunin all but stopped writing, complaining to his nephew, N.A. Pusheshnikov, of how insignificant he felt as a writer and how depressed he was for being unable to do more than be horrified at the millions of deaths being caused by the War.

 

In May 1917 the Bunins moved to Glotovo and stayed there until autumn. In October the couple returned to Moscow to stay with Vera's parents. Life in the city was dangerous (residents had to guard their own homes, maintaining nightly vigils) but Bunin still visited publishers and took part in the meetings of the Sreda and The Art circles. While dismissive of Ivan Goremykin (the 1914–1916 Russian Government Premier), he criticised opposition figures like Pavel Milyukov as "false defenders of the Russian people". In April 1917 he severed all ties with the pro-revolutionary Gorky, causing a rift which would never be healed. On 21 May 1918, Bunin and Muromtseva obtained the official permission to leave Moscow for Kiev, then continued their journey through to Odessa. By 1919 Bunin was working for the Volunteer Army as the editor of the cultural section of the anti-Bolshevik newspaper Iuzhnoe Slovo. On 26 January 1920, the couple boarded the last French ship in Odessa and soon were in Constantinople.

 

Emigration

Bunin and Muromtseva arrived in Paris, from then on dividing their time between apartments at 1, rue Jacques Offenbach in the 16th arrondissement of Paris and rented villas in or near Grasse in the Alpes Maritimes. Much as he hated Bolshevism, Bunin never endorsed the idea of foreign intervention in Russia. "It's for a common Russian countryman to sort out his problems for himself, not for foreign masters to come and maintain their new order in our home. I'd rather die in exile than return home with the help of Poland or England. As my father taught me: 'Love your own tub even if it's broken up'", he once said, allegedly, to Merezhkovsky who still cherished hopes for Pilsudsky's military success against the Bolshevik regime.

 

Slowly and painfully, overcoming physical and mental stress, Bunin returned to his usual mode of writing. Scream, his first book published in France, was compiled of short stories written in 1911–1912, years he referred to as the happiest of his life.

 

In France Bunin published many of his pre-revolutionary works and collections of original novellas, regularly contributing to the Russian emigre press. According to Vera Muromtseva, her husband often complained of his inability to get used to life in the new world. He said he belonged to "the old world, that of Goncharov and Tolstoy, of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, where his muse had been lost, never to be found again." Yet his new prose was marked with obvious artistic progress: Mitya's Love (Митина любовь, 1924), Sunstroke (Солнечный удаp, 1925), Cornet Yelagin's Case (Дело коpнета Елагина, 1925) and especially The Life of Arseniev (Жизнь Аpсеньева, written in 1927–1929, published in 1930–1933) were praised by critics as bringing Russian literature to new heights. Konstantin Paustovsky called The Life of Arseniev an apex of the whole of Russian prose and "one of the most striking phenomena in the world of literature."

 

In 1924, he published the "Manifesto of the Russian Emigration", in which he i.a. declared:

 

There was Russia, inhabited by a mighty family, which had been created by the blessed work of countless generations. ... What was then done to them? They paid for the deposal of the ruler with the destruction of literally the whole home and with unheard of fratricide. ... A bastard, a moral idiot from the birth, Lenin presented to the World at the height of his activities something monstrous, staggering, he discorded the largest country of the Earth and killed millions of people, and in the broad day-light it is being disputed: was he a benefactor of the mankind or not?

 

In 1925–1926 Cursed Days (Окаянные дни), Bunin's diary of the years 1918–1920 started to appear in the Paris-based Vozrozhdenye newspaper (its final version was published by Petropolis in 1936). According to Bunin scholar Thomas Gaiton Marullo, Cursed Days, one of the very few anti-Bolshevik diaries to be preserved from the time of the Russian Revolution and civil war, linked "Russian anti-utopian writing of the nineteenth century to its counterpart in the twentieth" and, "in its painful exposing of political and social utopias... heralded the anti-utopian writing of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Bunin and Zamyatin had correctly understood that the Soviet experiment was destined to self destruct," Marullo wrote.

 

In the 1920s and 1930s Bunin was regarded as the moral and artistic spokesman for a generation of expatriates who awaited the collapse of Bolshevism, a revered senior figure among living Russian writers, true to the tradition of Tolstoy and Chekhov. He became the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, which was awarded to him in 1933 "for following through and developing with chastity and artfulness the traditions of Russian classic prose." Per Halstroem, in his celebratory speech, noted the laureate's poetic gift. Bunin for his part praised the Swedish Academy for honouring a writer in exile. In his speech, addressing the Academy, he said:

Overwhelmed by the congratulations and telegrams that began to flood me, I thought in the solitude and silence of night about the profound meaning in the choice of the Swedish Academy. For the first time since the founding of the Nobel Prize you have awarded it to an exile. Who am I in truth? An exile enjoying the hospitality of France, to whom I likewise owe an eternal debt of gratitude. But, gentlemen of the Academy, let me say that irrespective of my person and my work your choice in itself is a gesture of great beauty. It is necessary that there should be centers of absolute independence in the world. No doubt, all differences of opinion, of philosophical and religious creeds, are represented around this table. But we are united by one truth, the freedom of thought and conscience; to this freedom we owe civilization. For us writers, especially, freedom is a dogma and an axiom. Your choice, gentlemen of the Academy, has proved once more that in Sweden the love of liberty is truly a national cult.

 

In France, Bunin found himself, for the first time, at the center of public attention. On 10 November 1933, the Paris newspapers came out with huge headlines: "Bunin — the Nobel Prize laureate" giving the whole of the Russian community in France cause for celebration. "You see, up until then we, émigrés, felt like we were at the bottom there. Then all of a sudden our writer received an internationally acclaimed prize! And not for some political scribblings, but for real prose! After having been asked to write a first page column for the Paris Revival newspaper, I stepped out in the middle of the night onto the Place d'Italie and toured the local bistros on my way home, drinking in each and every one of them to the health of Ivan Bunin!" fellow Russian writer Boris Zaitsev wrote. Back in the USSR the reaction was negative: Bunin's triumph was explained there as "an imperialist intrigue."

 

Dealing with the Prize, Bunin donated 100,000 francs to a literary charity fund, but the process of money distribution caused controversy among his fellow Russian émigré writers. It was during this time that Bunin's relationship deteriorated with Zinaida Gippius and Dmitry Merezhkovsky (a fellow Nobel Prize nominee who once suggested that they divide the Prize between the two, should one of them get it, and had been refused). Although reluctant to become involved in politics, Bunin was now feted as both a writer and the embodiment of non-Bolshevik Russian values and traditions. His travels throughout Europe featured prominently on the front pages of the Russian emigre press for the remainder of the decade.

 

In 1933 he allowed calligrapher Guido Colucci to create a unique manuscript of "Un crime", a French translation of one of his novellas, illustrated with three original gouaches by Nicolas Poliakoff.

 

In 1934–1936, The Complete Bunin in 11 volumes was published in Berlin by Petropolis. Bunin cited this edition as the most credible one and warned his future publishers against using any other versions of his work rather than those featured in the Petropolis collection. 1936 was marred by an incident in Lindau on the Swiss-German border when Bunin, having completed his European voyage, was stopped and unceremoniously searched. The writer (who caught cold and fell ill after the night spent under arrest) responded by writing a letter to the Paris-based Latest News newspaper. The incident caused disbelief and outrage in France. In 1937 Bunin finished his book The Liberation of Tolstoy (Освобождение Толстого), held in the highest regard by Leo Tolstoy scholars.

 

In 1938 Bunin began working on what would later become a celebrated cycle of nostalgic stories with a strong erotic undercurrent and a Proustian ring. The first eleven stories of it came out as Dark Avenues (or Dark Alleys, Тёмные аллеи) in New York (1943); the cycle appeared in a full version in 1946 in France. These stories assumed a more abstract and metaphysical tone which has been identified with his need to find refuge from the "nightmarish reality" of Nazi occupation. Bunin's prose became more introspective, which was attributed to "the fact that a Russian is surrounded by enormous, broad and lasting things: the steppes, the sky. In the West everything is cramped and enclosed, and this automatically produces a turning towards the self, inwards."

 

The war years

As World War II broke out, Bunin's friends in New York, anxious to help the Nobel Prize laureate get out of France, issued officially-endorsed invitations for him to travel to the US, and in 1941 they received their Nansen passports enabling them to make the trip. But the couple chose to remain in Grasse. They spent the war years at Villa Jeanette, high in the mountains. Two young writers became long-term residents in the Bunin household at the time: Leonid Zurov (1902–1971), who had arrived on a visit from Latvia at Bunin's invitation earlier, in late 1929, and remained with them for the rest of their lives, and Nikolai Roshchin (1896–1956), who returned to the Soviet Union after the war.

 

Members of this small commune (occasionally joined by Galina Kuznetsova and Margarita Stepun) were bent on survival: they grew vegetables and greens, helping one another out at a time when, according to Zurov, "Grasse's population had eaten all of their cats and dogs". A journalist who visited the Villa in 1942 described Bunin as a "skinny and emaciated man, looking like an ancient patrician". For Bunin, though, this isolation was a blessing and he refused to re-locate to Paris where conditions might have been better. "It takes 30 minutes of climbing to reach our villa, but there's not another view in the whole world like the one that's facing us," he wrote. "Freezing cold, though, is damning and making it impossible for me to write," he complained in one of his letters. Vera Muromtseva-Bunina remembered: "There were five or six of us... and we were all writing continuously. This was the only way for us to bear the unbearable, to overcome hunger, cold and fear."

 

Ivan Bunin was a staunch anti-Nazi, referring to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini as "rabid monkeys". He risked his life, sheltering fugitives (including Jews such as the pianist A. Liebermann and his wife) in his house in Grasse after Vichy was occupied by the Germans. According to Zurov, Bunin invited some of the Soviet war prisoners ("straight from Gatchina", who worked in occupied Grasse) to his home in the mountains, when the heavily guarded German forces' headquarters were only 300 metres (980 ft) away from his home.

 

The atmosphere in the neighbourhood, though, was not that deadly, judging by the Bunin's diary entry for 1 August 1944: "Nearby there were two guards, there were also one German, and one Russian prisoner, Kolesnikov, a student. The three of us talked a bit. Saying our farewells, a German guard shook my hand firmly".

 

Under the occupation Bunin never ceased writing but, according to Zurov, "published not a single word. He was receiving offers to contribute to newspapers in unoccupied Switzerland, but declined them. Somebody visited him once, a guest who proved to be an agent, and proposed some literary work, but again Ivan Alekseyevich refused." On 24 September 1944, Bunin wrote to Nikolai Roshchin: "Thank God, the Germans fled Grasse without a fight, on August 23. In the early morning of the 24th the Americans came. What was going on in the town, and in our souls, that's beyond description." "For all this hunger, I'm glad we spent the War years in the South, sharing the life and difficulties of the people, I'm glad that we've managed even to help some", Vera Muromtseva-Bunina later wrote.

 

Last years

In May 1945 the Bunins returned to 1, rue Jacques Offenbach in Paris. Aside from several spells at the Russian House (a clinic in Juan-les-Pins) where he was convalescing, Bunin stayed in the French capital for the rest of his life.[3] On 15 June, Russkye Novosty newspaper published its correspondent's account of his meeting with an elderly writer who looked "as sprightly and lively as if he had never had to come through those five years of voluntary exile." According to Bunin's friend N. Roshchin, "the liberation of France was a cause of great celebration and exultation for Bunin".

 

Once, in the audience at a Soviet Russian Theatre show in Paris, Bunin found himself sitting next to a young Red Army colonel. As the latter rose and bowed, saying: "Do I have the honour of sitting next to Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin?" the writer sprang to his feet: "I have the even higher honour of sitting next to an officer of the great Red Army!" he passionately retorted. On 19 June 1945, Bunin held a literary show in Paris where he read some of the Dark Avenue stories. In the autumn of 1945, on the wave of the great patriotic boom, Bunin's 75th birthday was widely celebrated in the Parisian Russian community. Bunin started to communicate closely with the Soviet connoisseurs, journalist Yuri Zhukov and literary agent Boris Mikhailov, the latter receiving from the writer several new stories for proposed publishing in the USSR. Rumours started circulating that the Soviet version of The Complete Bunin was already in the works.

 

In the late 1940s Bunin, having become interested in the new Soviet literature, in particular the works of Aleksandr Tvardovsky and Konstantin Paustovsky, entertained plans of returning to the Soviet Union, as Aleksandr Kuprin had done in the 1930s. In 1946, speaking to his Communist counterparts in Paris, Bunin praised the Supreme Soviet's decision to return Soviet citizenship to Russian exiles in France, still stopping short of saying "yes" to the continuous urging from the Soviet side for him to return. "It is hard for an old man to go back to places where he's pranced goat-like in better times. Friends and relatives are all buried... That for me would be a graveyard trip," he reportedly said to Zhukov, promising though, to "think more of it." Financial difficulties and the French reading public's relative indifference to the publication of Dark Avenues figured high among his motives. "Would you mind asking the Union of Writers to send me at least some of the money for books that've been published and re-issued in Moscow in the 1920s and 1930s? I am weak, I am short of breath, I need to go to the South but am too skinny to even dream of it," Bunin wrote to Nikolay Teleshov in a 19 November 1946, letter.

 

Negotiations for the writer's return came to an end after the publication of his Memoirs (Воспоминания, 1950), full of scathing criticism of Soviet cultural life. Apparently aware of his own negativism, Bunin wrote: "I was born too late. If I had been born earlier, my literary memoirs would have been different. I wouldn't have been a witness to 1905, the First World War, then 1917 and what followed: Lenin, Stalin, Hitler... How can I not be jealous of our forefather Noah. He lived through only one flood in his lifetime". Reportedly, the infamous Zhdanov decree was one of the reasons for Bunin's change of mind. On 15 September 1947, Bunin wrote to Mark Aldanov: "I have a letter here from Teleshov, written on 7 September; 'what a pity (he writes) that you've missed all of this: how your book was set up, how everybody was waiting for you here, in the place where you could have been... rich, feasted, and held in such high honour!' Having read this I spent an hour hair-tearing. Then I suddenly became calm. It just came to me all of a sudden all those other things Zhdanov and Fadeev might have given me instead of feasts, riches and laurels..."

 

After 1948, his health deteriorating, Bunin concentrated upon writing memoirs and a book on Anton Chekhov. He was aided by his wife, who, along with Zurov, completed the work after Bunin's death and saw to its publication in New York in 1955. In English translation it was entitled About Chekhov: The Unfinished Symphony. Bunin also revised a number of stories for publication in new collections, spent considerable time looking through his papers and annotated his collected works for a definitive edition. In 1951 Bunin was elected the first ever hononary International PEN member, representing the community of writers in exile. According to A. J. Heywood, one major event of Bunin's last years was his quarrel in 1948 with Maria Tsetlina and Boris Zaitsev, following the decision by the Union of Russian Writers and Journalists in France to expel holders of Soviet passports from its membership. Bunin responded by resigning from the Union. The writer's last years were marred by bitterness, disillusionment and ill-health; he was suffering from asthma, bronchitis and chronic pneumonia.

 

On 2 May 1953, Bunin left in his diary a note that proved to be his last one. "Still, this is so dumbfoundingly extraordinary. In a very short while there will be no more of me – and of all the things worldly, of all the affairs and destinies, from then on I will be unaware! And what I'm left to do here is dumbly try to consciously impose upon myself fear and amazement," he wrote.

 

Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin died in a Paris attic flat in the early hours of 8 November 1953. Heart failure, cardiac asthma and pulmonary sclerosis were cited as the causes of death. A lavish burial service took place at the Russian Church on Rue Daru. All the major newspapers, both Russian and French, published large obituaries. For quite a while the coffin was held in a vault. On 30 January 1954, Bunin was buried in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery.

 

In the 1950s, Bunin became the first of the Russian writers in exile to be published officially in the USSR. In 1965, The Complete Bunin came out in Moscow in nine volumes. Some of his more controversial books, notably Cursed Days, remained banned in the Soviet Union until the late 1980s.

 

Legacy

Ivan Bunin made history as the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. The immediate basis for the award was the autobiographical novel The Life of Arseniev, but Bunin's legacy is much wider in scope. He is regarded as a master of the short story, described by scholar Oleg Mikhaylov as an "archaist innovator" who, while remaining true to the literary tradition of the 19th century, made huge leaps in terms of artistic expression and purity of style. "[Bunin's] style heralds an historical precedent... technical precision as an instrument of bringing out beauty is sharpened to the extreme. There's hardly another poet who on dozens of pages would fail to produce a single epithet, analogy or metaphor... the ability to perform such a simplification of poetic language without doing any harm to it is the sign of a true artist. When it comes to artistic precision Bunin has no rivals among Russian poets," wrote Vestnik Evropy.

 

Bunin's early stories were of uneven quality. They were united in their "earthiness", lack of plot and signs of a curious longing for "life's farthest horizons"; young Bunin started his career by trying to approach the ancient dilemmas of the human being, and his first characters were typically old men. His early prose works had one common leitmotif: that of nature's beauty and wisdom bitterly contrasting with humanity's ugly shallowness. As he progressed, Bunin started to receive encouraging reviews: Anton Chekhov warmly greeted his first stories, even if he found too much "density" in them. But it was Gorky who gave Bunin's prose its highest praise. Till the end of his life Gorky (long after the relationship between former friends had soured) rated Bunin among Russian literature's greatest writers and recommended his prose for younger generations of writers as an example of true and unwithering classicism.

 

As a poet, Bunin started out as a follower of Ivan Nikitin and Aleksey Koltsov, then gravitated towards the Yakov Polonsky and Afanasy Fet school, the latter's impressionism becoming a marked influence. The theme of Bunin's early works seemed to be the demise of the traditional Russian nobleman of the past – something which as an artist he simultaneously gravitated toward and felt averted from. In the 1900s this gave way to a more introspective, philosophical style, akin to Fyodor Tyutchev and his "poetic cosmology". All the while Bunin remained hostile to modernism (and the darker side of it, "decadence"); Mikhaylov saw him as the torch-bearer of Aleksander Pushkin's tradition of "praising the naked simplicity's charms."

 

The symbolist's flights of imagination and grotesque passions foreign to him, Bunin made nature his field of artistic research and here carved his art to perfection. "Few people are capable of loving nature as Bunin does. And it's this love that makes his scope wide, his vision deep, his colour and aural impressions so rich," wrote Aleksander Blok, a poet from a literary camp Bunin treated as hostile. It was for his books of poetry (the most notable of which is Falling Leaves, 1901) and his poetic translations that Bunin became a three time Pushkin Prize laureate. His verse was praised by Aleksander Kuprin while Blok regarded Bunin as among the first in the hierarchy of Russian poets. One great admirer of Bunin's verse was Vladimir Nabokov, who (even if making scornful remarks about Bunin's prose) compared him to Blok. Some see Bunin as a direct follower of Gogol, who was the first in Russian literature to discover the art of fusing poetry and prose together.

 

The wholesomeness of Bunin's character allowed him to avoid crises to become virtually the only author of the first decades of the 20th century to develop gradually and logically. "Bunin is the only one who remains true to himself", Gorky wrote in a letter to Chirikov in 1907. Yet, an outsider to all the contemporary trends and literary movements, Bunin was never truly famous in Russia. Becoming an Academician in 1909 alienated him even more from the critics, the majority of whom saw the Academy's decision to expel Gorky several years earlier as a disgrace. The closest Bunin came to fame was in 1911–1912 when The Village and Dry Valley came out. The former, according to the author, "sketched with sharp cruelty the most striking lines of the Russian soul, its light and dark sides, and its often tragic foundations"; it caused passionate, and occasionally very hostile reactions. "Nobody has ever drawn the [Russian] village in such a deep historical context before," Maxim Gorky wrote. After this uncompromising book it became impossible to continue to paint the Russian peasantry life in the idealised, narodnik-style way, Bunin single-handedly closed this long chapter in Russian literature. He maintained the truly classic traditions of realism in Russian literature at the very time when they were in the gravest danger, under attack by modernists and decadents. Yet he was far from "traditional" in many ways, introducing to Russian literature a completely new set of characters and a quite novel, laconic way of saying things. Dry Valley was regarded as another huge step forward for Bunin. While The Village dealt metaphorically with Russia as a whole in a historical context, here, according to the author, the "Russian soul [was brought into the focus] in the attempt to highlight the Slavic psyche's most prominent features." "It's one of the greatest books of Russian horror, and there's an element of liturgy in it... Like a young priest with his faith destroyed, Bunin buried the whole of his class," wrote Gorky.

 

Bunin's travel sketches were lauded as innovative, notably Bird's Shadow (1907–1911). "He's enchanted with the East, with the 'light-bearing' lands he now describes in such beautiful fashion... For [depicting] the East, both Biblical and modern, Bunin chooses the appropriate style, solemn and incandescent, full of imagery, bathing in waves of sultry sunlight and adorned with arabesques and precious stones, so that, when he tells of these grey-haired ancient times, disappearing in the distant haze of religion and myth, the impression he achieves is that of watching a great chariot of human history moving before our eyes," wrote Yuri Aykhenvald. Critics noted Bunin's uncanny knack of immersing himself into alien cultures, both old and new, best demonstrated in his Eastern cycle of short stories as well as his superb translation of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha (1898).

 

Bunin was greatly interested in international myths and folklore, as well as the Russian folkloric tradition. But, (according to Georgy Adamovich) "he was absolutely intolerant towards those of his colleagues who employed stylizations, the "style Russe" manufacturers. His cruel – and rightly so – review of Sergey Gorodetsky's poetry was one example. Even Blok's Kulikovo Field (for me, an outstanding piece) irritated him as too lavishly adorned... "That's Vasnetsov," he commented, meaning 'masquerade and opera'. But he treated things that he felt were not masqueradery differently. Of the Slovo o Polku Igoreve... he said something to the effect that all the poets of the whole world lumped together couldn't have created such wonder, in fact something close to Pushkin's words. Yet translations of the legend... outraged him, particularly that of Balmont. He despised Shmelyov for his pseudo-Russian pretenses, though admitting his literary gift. Bunin had an extraordinarily sharp ear for falseness: he instantly recognized this jarring note and was infuriated. That was why he loved Tolstoy so much. Once, I remember, he spoke of Tolstoy as the one 'who's never said a single word that would be an exaggeration'."

 

Bunin has often been spoken of as a "cold" writer. Some of his conceptual poems of the 1910s refuted this stereotype, tackling philosophical issues like the mission of an artist ("Insensory", 1916) where he showed fiery passion. According to Oleg Mikhaylov, "Bunin wanted to maintain distance between himself and his reader, being frightened by any closeness... But his pride never excluded passions, just served as a panzer — it was like a flaming torch in an icy shell." On a more personal level, Vera Muromtseva confirmed: "Sure, he wanted to come across as [cold and aloof] and he succeeded by being a first-class actor... people who didn't know him well enough couldn't begin to imagine what depths of soft tenderness his soul was capable of reaching," she wrote in her memoirs.

 

The best of Bunin's prose ("The Gentleman from San Francisco", "Loopy Ears" and notably, "Brothers", based on Ceylon's religious myth) had a strong philosophical streak to it. In terms of ethics Bunin was under the strong influence of Socrates (as related by Xenophon and Plato), he argued that it was the Greek classic who first expounded many things that were later found in Hindu and Jewish sacred books. Bunin was particularly impressed with Socrates's ideas on the intrinsic value of human individuality, it being a "kind of focus for higher forces" (quoted from Bunin's short story "Back to Rome"). As a purveyor of Socratic ideals, Bunin followed Leo Tolstoy; the latter's observation about beauty being "the crown of virtue" was Bunin's idea too. Critics found deep philosophical motives, and deep undercurrents in Mitya's Love and The Life of Arseniev, two pieces in which "Bunin came closest to a deep metaphysical understanding of the human being's tragic essence." Konstantin Paustovsky called The Life of Arseniev "one of the most outstanding phenomena of world literature."

 

In his view on Russia and its history Bunin for a while had much in common with A. K. Tolstoy (of whom he spoke with great respect); both tended to idealise the pre-Tatar Rus. Years later he greatly modified his view of Russian history, forming a more negative outlook. "There are two streaks in our people: one dominated by Rus, another by Chudh and Merya. Both have in them a frightening instability, sway... As Russian people say of themselves: we are like wood — both club and icon may come of it, depending on who is working on this wood," Bunin wrote years later.

 

In emigration Bunin continued his experiments with extremely concise, ultra-ionized prose, taking Chekhov and Tolstoy's ideas on expressive economy to the last extreme. The result of this was God's Tree, a collection of stories so short, some of them were half a page long. Professor Pyotr Bitsilly thought God's Tree to be "the most perfect of Bunin's works and the most exemplary. Nowhere else can such eloquent laconism can be found, such definitive and exquisite writing, such freedom of expression and really magnificent demonstration of [mind] over matter. No other book of his has in it such a wealth of material for understanding of Bunin's basic method – a method in which, in fact, there was nothing but basics. This simple but precious quality – honesty bordering on hatred of any pretense – is what makes Bunin so closely related to... Pushkin, Tolstoy and Chekhov," Bitsilli wrote.

 

Influential, even if controversial, was his Cursed Days 1918–1920 diary, of which scholar Thomas Gaiton Marullo wrote:

The work is important for several reasons. Cursed Days is one of the very few anti-Bolshevik diaries to be preserved from the time of the Russian Revolution and civil war. It recreates events with graphic and gripping immediacy. Unlike the works of early Soviets and emigres and their self-censoring backdrop of memory, myth, and political expediency, Bunin's truth reads almost like an aberration. Cursed Days also links Russian anti-utopian writing of the nineteenth century to its counterpart in the twentieth. Reminiscent of the fiction of Dostoevsky, it features an 'underground man' who does not wish to be an 'organ stop' or to affirm 'crystal palaces'. Bunin's diary foreshadowed such 'libelous' memoirs as Yevgenia Ginzburg's Journey into the Whirlwind (1967) and Within the Whirlwind, and Nadezhda Mandelstam's Hope Against Hope (1970) and Hope Abandoned (1974), the accounts of two courageous women caught up in the Stalinist terror of the 1930s. Cursed Days also preceded the "rebellious" anti-Soviet tradition that began with Evgeny Zamyatin and Yury Olesha, moved on to Mikhail Bulgakov, and reached a climax with Boris Pasternak and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. One can argue that, in its painful exposing of political and social utopias, Cursed Days heralded the anti-utopian writing of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Bunin and Zamyatin had correctly understood that the Soviet experiment was destined to self destruct."

 

Despite his works being virtually banned in the Soviet Union up until the mid-1950s, Bunin exerted a strong influence over several generations of Soviet writers. Among those who owed a lot to Bunin, critics mentioned Mikhail Sholokhov, Konstantin Fedin, Konstantin Paustovsky, Ivan Sokolov-Mikitov, and later Yuri Kazakov, Vasily Belov and Viktor Likhonosov.

 

Ivan Bunin's books have been translated into many languages, and the world's leading writers praised his gift. Romain Rolland called Bunin an "artistic genius"; he was spoken and written of in much the same vein by writers like Henri de Régnier, Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke, Jerome K. Jerome, and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. In 1950, on the eve of his 80th birthday, François Mauriac expressed in a letter his delight and admiration, but also his deep sympathy to Bunin's personal qualities and the dignified way he'd got through all the tremendous difficulties life had thrown at him. In a letter published by Figaro, André Gide greeted Bunin "on behalf of all France", calling him "the great artist" and adding: "I don't know of any other writer... who's so to the point in expressing human feelings, simple and yet always so fresh and new". European critics often compared Bunin to both Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, crediting him with having renovated the Russian realist tradition both in essence and in form.

 

On 22 October 2020 Google celebrated his 150th birthday with a Google Doodle.

 

Private life

Bunin's first love was Varvara Pashchenko, his classmate in Yelets [not plausible as Ivan was at a male gymnasium and Varvara at an all female gymnasium], daughter of a doctor and an actress, whom he fell for in 1889 and then went on to work with in Oryol in 1892. Their relationship was difficult in many ways: the girl's father detested the union because of Bunin's impecunious circumstances, Varvara herself was not sure if she wanted to marry and Bunin too was uncertain whether marriage was really appropriate for him. The couple moved to Poltava and settled in Yuly Bunin's home, but by 1892 their relations deteriorated, Pashchenko complaining in a letter to Yuly Bunin that serious quarrels were frequent, and begging for assistance in bringing their union to an end. The affair eventually ended in 1894 with her marrying actor and writer A. N. Bibikov, Ivan Bunin's close friend. Bunin felt betrayed, and for a time his family feared the possibility of him committing suicide. According to some sources it was Varvara Pashchenko who many years later would appear under the name of Lika in The Life of Arseniev (chapter V of the book, entitled Lika, was also published as a short story). Scholar Tatyana Alexandrova, though, questioned this identification (suggesting Mirra Lokhvitskaya might have been the major prototype), while Vera Muromtseva thought of Lika as a 'collective' character aggregating the writer's reminiscences of several women he knew in his youth.

 

In the summer of 1898 while staying with writer A. M. Fedorov, Bunin became acquainted with N. P. Tsakni, a Greek social-democrat activist, the publisher and editor of the Odessa newspaper Yuzhnoe Obozrenie (Southern Review). Invited to contribute to the paper, Bunin became virtually a daily visitor to the Tsakni family dacha and fell in love with the latter's 18-year-old daughter, Anna (1879–1963). On 23 September 1898, the two married, but by 1899 signs of alienation between them were obvious. At the time of their acrimonious separation in March 1900 Anna was pregnant. She gave birth to a son, Nikolai, in Odessa on 30 August of the same year. The boy, of whom his father saw very little, died on 16 January 1905, from a combination of scarlet fever, measles and heart complications.

 

Ivan Bunin's second wife was Vera Muromtseva (1881–1961), niece of the high-ranking politician Sergey Muromtsev. The two had initially been introduced to each other by writer Ekaterina Lopatina some years earlier, but it was their encounter at the house of the writer Boris Zaitsev in November 1906 which led to an intense relationship which resulted in the couple becoming inseparable until Bunin's death. Bunin and Muromtseva married officially only in 1922, after he managed at last to divorce Tsakni legally. Decades later Vera Muromtseva-Bunina became famous in her own right with her book Life of Bunin.

 

In 1927, while in Grasse, Bunin fell for the Russian poet Galina Kuznetsova, on vacation there with her husband. The latter, outraged by the well-publicized affair, stormed off, while Bunin not only managed to somehow convince Vera Muromtseva that his love for Galina was purely platonic, but also invite the latter to stay in the house as a secretary and 'a family member'. The situation was complicated by the fact that Leonid Zurov, who stayed with the Bunins as a guest for many years, was secretly in love with Vera (of which her husband was aware); this made it more of a "love quadrilateral" than a mere triangle. Bunin and Kuznetsova's affair ended dramatically in 1942 when the latter, now deeply in love with another frequent guest, opera singer Margo Stepun, sister of Fyodor Stepun, left Bunin, who felt disgraced and insulted. The writer's tempestuous private life in emigration became the subject of the internationally acclaimed Russian movie, His Wife's Diary (or The Diary of His Wife) (2000). which caused controversy and was described by some as masterful and thought-provoking, but by others as vulgar, inaccurate and in bad taste. Vera Muromtseva-Bunina later accepted both Kuznetsova and Margarita Stepun as friends: "nashi" ("ours"), as she called them, lived with the Bunins for long periods during the Second World War. According to A.J. Heywood of Leeds University, in Germany and then New York, after the war, Kuznetsova and Stepun negotiated with publishers on Bunin's behalf and maintained a regular correspondence with Ivan and Vera up until their respective deaths.

 

Bibliography

Novel

The Life of Arseniev (Жизнь Арсеньева, 1927–1933, 1939)

Short novels

The Village (Деревня, 1910)

Dry Valley (Суходол, 1912)

Mitya's Love (Митина любовь, 1924)

Short story collections

To the Edge of the World and Other Stories (На край света и другие рассказы, 1897)

Antonovka Apples (Антоновские яблоки, 1900)

Flowers of the Field (Цветы полевые, 1901)

Bird's Shadow (Тень птицы, 1907–1911; Paris, 1931)

Ioann the Mourner (Иоанн Рыдалец, 1913)

Chalice of Life (Чаша жизни, Petersburg, 1915; Paris, 1922)

The Gentleman from San Francisco (Господин из Сан-Франциско, 1916)

Chang's Dreams (Сны Чанга, 1916, 1918)

Temple of the Sun (Храм Солнца, 1917)

Primal Love (Начальная любовь, Prague, 1921)

Scream (Крик, Paris, 1921)

Rose of Jerico (Роза Иерихона, Berlin, 1924)

Mitya's Love (Митина любовь, Paris, 1924; New York, 1953)

Sunstroke (Солнечный удар, Paris, 1927)

Sacred Tree (Божье древо, Paris, 1931)

Dark Avenues (Тёмные аллеи, New York, 1943; Paris, 1946)

Judea in Spring (Весной в Иудее, New York, 1953)

Loopy Ears and Other Stories (Петлистые уши и другие рассказы, 1954, New York, posthumous)

Poetry

Poems (1887–1891) (1891, originally as a literary supplement to Orlovsky vestnik newspaper)

Under the Open Skies (Под открытым небом, 1898)

Falling Leaves (Листопад, Moscow, 1901)

Poems (1903) (Стихотворения, 1903)

Poems (1903–1906) (Стихотворения, 1906)

Poems of 1907 (Saint Petersburg, 1908)

Selected Poems (Paris, 1929)

Translations

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The Song of Hiawatha (1898)

Memoirs and diaries

Waters Aplenty (Воды многие, 1910, 1926)

Cursed Days (Окаянные дни, 1925–1926)[66]

Memoirs. Under the hammer and sickle. (Воспоминания. Под серпом и молотом. 1950)

  

there is a physically insuperable line

Her name is Justice. Technically it is my dad's girl friends cat, but she is over so much that the cat some times spends weeks at a time... She is a 13 year old Persiam Blue Hair cat. She has her woobie (a blanket a child sleeps with so that they are not afraid they will get taken away by some monster) (my dad's girl friends slipper). She has a gastro-intestinal problem, so she can only eat solid food and weighs 5 pounds. She is still cute, in her own way... Physically she is an ugly little fucker, but when you start to play with her, she is cute in that sense.

Sabitra Khadka lives on Jaishithok, Lamidada, Kavre; more 20 KMs to the East from Dhulikhel. She is physically challenged girl with strong desire to learn computers. She cannot use her both hands. Her family is too poor that they cannot afford her for the treatment abroad. And, most of the hospitals of Dhulikhel and Kathmandu had already declared that she couldn’t be treated on Nepal. Doctors said, perhaps she cannot be treated anywhere. She is struggling on 10th standard. She passed ten years of her study only by writing with her toes. She eats directly with her mouth without any help of her hands and toes. She brushes her teeth with the help of her toes. She is 19 years old and has two younger sisters and one younger brother. Bother is struggling on 12 standard. Elder of the younger sisters is already married and has a child, youngest is also on 10th standard.

She wants to learn computers and would like to be the sample for her community. She wants to serve her community by her computer knowledge. But she cannot afford it. ADRA, an INGO, is funding for her education. She placed her interest about Computers to ADRA and it sends her to Dhulikhel Telecenter to solve her queries. When she uses the computer for the first time, it was a laptop and she enjoyed it a lot. Later, she found it much difficult to learn since she is weak in English. She studied on a Public School that starts formal education of English only from class five. So, its been only five year, she is introduced to English. She is perfect on making sentences but is really weak on understanding the meaning of sentences. She placed the same problem to the Dhulikhel Telecenter and came to know about Windows Localization Project. She said, only the Windows in Nepali can fulfill her dreams.

 

I got her when we were making a documentary related to Windows Localization Project.

modern furniture series: "burned semae" sticker / tee logo / card, des. #1

 

the semae represents the Eames Low Side Chair by Charles and Ray Eames, 1946

 

- a. golden, eyewash design, c. 2008

 

After years of freelance work to "pay the bills", I've decided to go back to university. That's right! I'm going for a MPS in Art Therapy. I'm shooting for Pratt Institute. For more information on the program: www.pratt.edu/creative_arts_therapy

 

My concentration will be on children. More specifically, those most in need. Those who've suffered the most terribly ---> in other words, the socio & economically disadvantaged, those sexually, emotionally and/or physically abused, the neglected & the abandoned children, as well as children diagnosed with Autism.

 

Let me know what you think --->

 

Any constructive criticism is also most welcome! I'm trying to earn my Master's in Art Therapy. BUT, I MUST FIRST take 19 additional undergraduate courses which will qualify my eligibility to apply. I WILL get in!

 

I firmly believe that together we CAN make a difference.

 

Thanks, in advance!

 

THE SKINNY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

 

It is hard to imagine now, but the use of plywood and chrome-plated steel in residential furniture was considered edgy, risky, and thoroughly new when this chair made its 1946 debut. It is modern, lightweight, strong, sculptural, and a complete departure from what furniture was.

 

Charles Ormond Eames, Jr was born in 1907 in Saint Louis, Missouri. By the time he was 14 years old, while attending high school, Charles worked at the Laclede Steel Company as a part-time laborer, where he learned about engineering, drawing, and architecture (and also first entertained the idea of one day becoming an architect).

 

Charles briefly studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis on an architectural scholarship. He proposed studying Frank Lloyd Wright to his professors, and when he would not cease his interest in modern architects, he was dismissed from the university. In the report describing why he was dismissed from the university, a professor wrote the comment "His views were too modern." While at Washington University, he met his first wife, Catherine Woermann, whom he married in 1929. A year later, they had a daughter, Lucia.

 

After he left school and was married, Charles began his own architectural practice, with partners Charles Gray and later Walter Pauley.

One great influence on him was the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (whose son Eero, also an architect, would become a partner and friend). At the elder Saarinen's invitation, he moved in 1938 with his wife Catherine and daughter Lucia to Michigan, to further study architecture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he would become a teacher and head of the industrial design department. One of the requirements of the Architecture and Urban Planning Program, at the time Eames applied, was for the student to have decided upon his project and gathered as much pertinent information in advance – Eames' interest was in the St. Louis waterfront. Together with Eero Saarinen he designed prize-winning furniture for New York's Museum of Modern Art "Organic Design" competition. Their work displayed the new technique of wood moulding (originally developed by Alvar Aalto), that Eames would further develop in many moulded plywood products, including, beside chairs and other furniture, splints and stretchers for the U.S. Navy during World War II.

 

In 1941, Charles and Catherine divorced, and he married his Cranbrook colleague Ray Kaiser, who was born in Sacramento, California. He then moved with her to Los Angeles, California, where they would work and live for the rest of their lives. In the late 1940s, as part of the Arts & Architecture magazine "Case Study" program, Ray and Charles designed and built the groundbreaking Eames House, Case Study House #8, as their home. Located upon a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and constructed entirely of pre-fabricated steel parts intended for industrial construction, it remains a milestone of modern architecture.

 

In the 1950s, the Eameses would continue their work in architecture and modern furniture design, often (like in the earlier moulded plywood work) pioneering innovative technologies, such as the fiberglass and plastic resin chairs and the wire mesh chairs designed for Herman Miller. Besides this work, Charles would soon channel his interest in photography into the production of short films. From their first one, the unfinished Traveling Boy (1950), to the extraordinary Powers of Ten (1977), their cinematic work was an outlet for ideas, a vehicle for experimentation and education.

 

The Eameses also conceived and designed a number of landmark exhibitions. The first of these, Mathematica: a world of numbers...and beyond (1961), was sponsored by IBM, and is the only one of their exhibitions still existant. The original was created for a new wing of the (currently named) California Science Center; it is now owned by and on display at the New York Hall of Science. In late 1961 a duplicate was created for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago; in 1980 it moved to the Museum of Science, Boston. Another version was created for the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair IBM exhibit. After the World's Fair it was moved to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle where it stayed until 1980. The Mathematica Exhibition is still considered a model for scientific popularization exhibitions. It was followed by "A Computer Perspective: Background to the Computer Age" (1971) and "The World of Franklin and Jefferson" (1975-1977), among others.

 

The office of Charles and Ray Eames, which functioned for more than four decades (1943-88) at 901 Washington Boulevard in Venice, California, included in its staff, at one time of another, a number of remarkable designers, like Don Albinson, Deborah Sussman, Richard Foy and Henry Beer.

 

Among the many important designs originating there are the molded-plywood DCW (Dining Chair Wood) and DCM (Dining Chair Metal with a plywood seat) (1945), Eames Lounge Chair (1956), the Aluminum Group furniture (1958) and as well as the Eames Chaise (1968), designed for Charles's friend, film director Billy Wilder, the playful Do-Nothing Machine (1957), an early solar energy experiment, and a number of toys.

 

Short films produced by the couple often document their interests in collecting toys and cultural artifacts on their travels. The films also record the process of hanging their exhibits or producing classic furniture designs, to the purposefully mundane topic of filming soap suds moving over the pavement of a parking lot. Perhaps their most popular movie, "Powers of 10", gives a dramatic demonstration of orders of magnitude by visually zooming away from the earth to the edge of the universe, and then microscopically zooming into the nucleus of a carbon atom. Charles was a prolific photographer as well with thousands of images of their furniture, exhibits and collections, and now a part of the Library of Congress.

 

Charles Eames died of a heart attack on August 21, 1978 while on a consulting trip in his native Saint Louis, and now has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Ray died 10 years later to the exact day.

 

At the time of his death they were working on what became their last production, the Eames Sofa which went into production in 1984.

 

graphics: a.golden, eyewash design c. 2007

 

Our disabled daughter, Christina Nichole, was physically and mentally abused by a doctor and police officer at the Gray's Harbor County Hospital in Aberdeen WA last Thursday, March 11, 2010, while she was there after being transported by ambulance to seek care for a 10-day severe headache and nearly continuous epileptic seizures. She just spent a week in Harborview Hospital receiving her 3rd brain study and medicine change by Dr. Wilensky throughout her life so far, which again diagnosed the many types of seizures she has. Dr. Wilensky's staff had advised her to call 911 to go to the ER, which she did. She was instructed to have the ER doctor call them, with a number they gave Christina, and to make arrangements to have her flown to Harborview, if needed. The ER doctor apparently did not like that, and told Christina to leave, without any work-up or care. Christina requested a different doctor and a patient's advocate. In response the non-caring doctor called the police to have her removed from the ER. The policeman told her to get out of the bed, and she tried to cooperate, but went into a seizure, falling back on the bed. The policeman grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the bed. In the process he damaged her shoulder and neck, and caused her to land on her feet which have both been recently operated on 3 times and are still trying to heal correctly. Her feet were hurt and damaged and she screamed in pain from the abusive, sedistic, arm pulling which resulted in trauma to the arm, shoulder, and neck, as well as her feet. Then she felt nauseaous and reached toward to the wall dispenser for a vomit bag and the policeman forcefully hit her other arm with his fist, not allowing her to get the bag. She again screamed from the new pain of her other arm being hit so hard. She kept falling down because she was still very much disoriented, confused, and unstable from her seizure(s) and the relentless headache, which had been diagnosed a few days earlier when she was taken by ambulance to the same ER for the same reasons, by had a caring doctor who treated her correctly, even though failing to follow standard procedures of care and testing by not taking a cat scan, blood work, or UA, which her family doctor, local neurologist, and Harborview Epilepsy Center had requested when advising her to go to the emergency room, four days in a row while my husband and I were in Seattle where I had surgery at Swedish Hospital leaving home on Monday and returning Thursday night. The policeman continued man-handling her limp body and threw her into a wheelchair without leg and foot rests. He told her to pick up her feet because they were dragging under the wheelchair backwards, but she had no body control to be able to follow his orders. He said she could let her feet drag behind her under the wheelchair because he did not care. He called her a baby and told her act her age when she cried and was terrorized. Her records show clearly that she was in a coma in 2004, declared brain dead, somehow came back but lost 20 years of memory and has daily short-term memory loss and multiple kinds of seizures, including life-threatening grandmal seizures. She looks like a 37 year old woman, but is very much like a 12 year old child when put in stressful situations. She was terrified, feared for her life, and could not understand anything clearly. The officer told her to leave the hospital, go out into the cold, rainy night, with no transportation. She asked to call her parents but could not understand how to operate the pay phone or remember our cell phone numbers. The policeman told her that no one wanted to talk to her so she was on her own and if she did not leave the hospital he was going to arrest her. She somehow left a message on our home phone. As soon as my husband heard the message he called the hospital and told them to keep her there and safe until he could drive the 25 miles to get there. During the wait the policeman intimidated Christina by standing behind her, jingling coins and keys, and threatening her to leave immediately or be arrested. When my husband arrived the policeman attempted to intimidate him by puffing himself up and threatening to arrest them both if they did not leave immediately. My husband took out his notebook and began collecting names and titles. He spoke with the head nurse. When finished he took Christina to our car and brought her home. She was emotionally damaged as much as she was physically damaged, and the brain swelling, headache, and seizures were not treated. The next morning deep bruise marks were showing on both arms and both feet. Her shoulder and neck were in tremendous pain. Her entire body hurt from the abuse, mishandling, torture, and trauma she had experienced. My husband drove her to Olympia WA, to the Capital Mall Hospital emergency room where she received kind and caring evaluation of all her injuries. The staff consulted with the doctor at Harborview Epilepsy Center and they determined an appropriate course of treatment. It was determined that she did not have to be airlifted to Harborview with this treatment plan being provided in this ER. X-rays and a Cat Scan were taken of her brain, arms, and feet. A suspicious spot was found on the Cat Scan that may explain why she was having so many seizures, headache, and brain swelling. It needs to be further evaluated, which she has an appointment with her Neurologist to do. The injuries inflicted by the policeman are severe, but no bones were broken. The bruising is massive and was documented with photographs and medical records by us and the Olympia ER staff. On Saturday my husband took Christina to the local Westport Fire Station to meet with the ambulance crew. Christina is well-known in Westport and everyone on the ambulance crews knows her medical history and has taken care of her dozens of times since we moved here after her coma. They call her their 'miracle girl' and always tell her how much they enjoy her and her always cooperative and happy nature, regardless of how much pain or distress she may be in at any time. The ambulance crew was devastated to learn that Christina was abused by the doctor, nurses, aids, and policeman at the emergency room they took her to on Thursday evening. They documented everything and reported the situation to the local city police department. The Westport police came and was equally upset. He took statements and then called a County Sheriff to the fire station. The Sheriff also took statements and made a report. On Monday (today), 3/15/2010, Christina was seen and evaluated by her family physician, Dr. Jackson, her foot surgeon, Dr. Tronvig, and her Chiropractor, Dr. Failor. They are all shocked and disgusted at what they saw. They all know Christina to be a sweet, trusting, loving child who has survived unimaginable odds and is always happy and thankful. Like us, they cannot fathom how this horrible abuse, neglect, and trauma could have happened to her. Why would anyone want to hurt her this way? Tomorrow she has an appointment to see Dr. Miller, her local Neurologist in Aberdeen. He will do his evaluation of the damages and follow-up on her seizure and headache conditions. He will determine if she needs to begin phychological counseling, either as an out-patient or as an in-patient, because Christina is so severely traumatized now. Coming out of the coma knowing that her doctors fought with us to try to get us to sign papers to allow them to euthanize her and harvest anything viable when she was in her locked-in coma, hearing everything but unable to respond was bad enough, but this added to that is simply too much. She has an appointment to see Dr. Wilensky at Harborview Epileptic Center on March 26, 2010 for further evaluation. I want to stress that Christina was following her doctor's orders to call the ambulance each time she went to the ER while my husband and I were away. Her doctors called her each day, several times a day, to ask how she was doing and to supervise her care while she was home alone. At no time was she seeking 'drugs', as the ER doctor flattly told her and labeled her. At no time did she resist the officer or do anything to warrent him putting his hands on her or drag her feet under the wheelchair. Dr. Wilensky called a prescription of pain pills into the pharmacy for her on Friday to take for her head pain, but she declined to pick up the prescription because she does not like to take pain pills as they make her very sick to her stomach and alter her thinking and feelings. She may take what is prescribed to her at an ER for pain while she is there, but does not want to take it at home. Her foot doctor says that her feet will heal, but her foot surgery recovery has been set back by at least another two weeks due to the damages the officer caused her. The bruises will eventually heal and the pain from them will fade away with time. Her shoulder and neck injuries will heal with the care of the Chiropractor. But Christina's trust in the emergency room at Aberdeen and the police there has been shattered and can never be repaired. The Westport ambulance crew said that they will take her to Willapa Hospital ER from now on, which is about twice the distance, but they no longer trust the Gray's Harbor Hospital ER to take appropriate care of Christina again. When my husband or I take her to an ER, we will make the long drive to Olympia and never let her out of our sight for even a minute. We retained an attorney today to handle this case against the Gray's Harbor Hospital and staff and the Aberdeen Police Dept. and officer. What amazing timing. We are scheduled to give our first depositions this week in Seattle in our lawsuit against Eli Lilly who makes Zyprexa, which put Christina into her coma in 2004. Attached are some photos of Christina's bruises taken on Saturday. If you haven't read the story of her coma yet, you can find it at: pekingeseshihtzu.wordpress.com/christina-nichole%e2%80%99...

 

Cadets from 4th Regiment, Advanced Camp, complete the confidence course at Fort Knox, Ky., June 21, 2023. The purpose of the confidence course is to build teamwork and mentally and physically challenged Cadets. | Photo by Thaliya Martinez, Olivet Nazarene University, CST Public Affairs Office

Sabitra Khadka lives on Jaishithok, Lamidada, Kavre; more 20 KMs to the East from Dhulikhel. She is physically challenged girl with strong desire to learn computers. She cannot use her both hands. Her family is too poor that they cannot afford her for the treatment abroad. And, most of the hospitals of Dhulikhel and Kathmandu had already declared that she couldn’t be treated on Nepal. Doctors said, perhaps she cannot be treated anywhere. She is struggling on 10th standard. She passed ten years of her study only by writing with her toes. She eats directly with her mouth without any help of her hands and toes. She brushes her teeth with the help of her toes. She is 19 years old and has two younger sisters and one younger brother. Bother is struggling on 12 standard. Elder of the younger sisters is already married and has a child, youngest is also on 10th standard.

She wants to learn computers and would like to be the sample for her community. She wants to serve her community by her computer knowledge. But she cannot afford it. ADRA, an INGO, is funding for her education. She placed her interest about Computers to ADRA and it sends her to Dhulikhel Telecenter to solve her queries. When she uses the computer for the first time, it was a laptop and she enjoyed it a lot. Later, she found it much difficult to learn since she is weak in English. She studied on a Public School that starts formal education of English only from class five. So, its been only five year, she is introduced to English. She is perfect on making sentences but is really weak on understanding the meaning of sentences. She placed the same problem to the Dhulikhel Telecenter and came to know about Windows Localization Project. She said, only the Windows in Nepali can fulfill her dreams.

 

I got her when we were making a documentary related to Windows Localization Project.

CPU cooler installed on top of CPU, with thermal paste correctly applied, and fan hooked up to motherboard. Possibly the hardest amd most physically stressful step of the whole thing. There seems to be very little standardization on how you attach these things to the CPU socket, and the attachments themselves are always super-difficult to work, because they are designed to not damage the socket. Plastic screws that you can barely tell which way to turn, and only turn 90 degrees when inserted a specific way. Crap like that. And you can barely see what you are doing, due to the fan being larger than the socket it is attaching to. It's super-painful.

 

My CPU is cutting edge: Intel Core i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.3GHz LGA2011-v3 140W Desktop Processor: $381.54 from SuperBiiz.com ... Yes, 6 cores cost 50% more than 4 cores, and yes, it's totally worth it. Other features/specs include: 12-way multitask processing / Intel turbo Boost Technology 2.0 / Intel Hyper-Threading / Intel Smart Cache / support s 4-channel DDR4 memory / Core Name: Haswell E / Max Turbo Frequency: 3.6GHz / Intel Smart Cache: 15MB / Intel QPI Speed: 0GT/s / Lithography: 22nm / Max Thermal Design Power: 140W / Max Memory Bandwidth: 68GB/s / Max CPU Configuration: 1 / Advanced Technologies: Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology, Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x), Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d), Intel VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT), Intel 64 Architecture, Idle States, Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology, Thermal Monitoring Technologies, Intel Identity Protection Technology, Intel Smart Re sponse Technology, AES New Instructions, Execute Disable Bit

 

CPU Cooler: Arctic Freezer I30 CPU Cooler: $34.98 from SuperBiiz.com ... After having to upgrade CPU coolers TWICE IN A MONTH with my old computer Hades, due to cat hairs, I knew not to bother skimping out this time. I want straight for the more expensive, more large, $40 aftermarket cooler. Unfortunately, it was so large it blocked a RAM slot, and due to the way RAM works in this motherboard, that means not being able to use 2 RAM slots. But my motherboard has 8 RAM slots. I just wish I hadn't bought 4G SIMMS, because 6 * 4G = 24G, and being maxed out at 24G RAM kinda sucks when I regularly break 30G of actual-memory-used. If I could have used those 2 extra slots, I'd be up to 32G of RAM. If I had bought 8G SIMMS, I could have gotten 24G of RAM, and then upgraded up to 48G. But I'm stuck with 24G, and not wanting to spend $300 just to get to 32G (by virtue of having to re-buy all-8G SIMMS). ANYWAY, this cooler has other features/specs: Mfr Part Number: FREEZER I30 / 4 Mounting Directions / Application: Intel / Material: Aluminum finsx48, thickness 0.5mm / Heatpipe: Direct-Touch 8mmx4 (double-sided) / Fan Speed: ARCTIC F12 PWM; 120 mm, 400 - 1,350 RPM (PWM controlled) / Air Flow: 74 CFM / 125.7 m3/h / Bearings: Fluid Dynamic Bearing / Noise Level: 0.3 Sone (@ 1,350 RPM) / Maximum Cooling Capacity: 320 Watts / Current/Voltage: 0.22A / 3.5 - 12V / Dimensions: 139x100x161mm / Weight: 0.9kg / Compatibility List: LGA 2011: i7 Extreme=i7-3980X,i7-3960X; i7=i7-3930K,i7-3820; LGA 1155: i7=i7-2700K,i7-2600S,i7-2600K,i7-2600; i5=i5-2500T,i5-2500S,i5-2500K,i5-2500,i5-2405S,i5-2400S,i5-2400,i5-2390T,i5-2320,i5-2310,i5-2300; i3=i3-3240T,i3-3240,i3-3225,i3-3220T,i3-3220,i3-2120,i3-2105,i3-2100T,i3-2100; Pentium=G860,G850,G840; LGA 1156: i7=i7-880,i7-875K,i7-870S,i7-870,i7-860S,i7-860,i5=i5-760,i5-750S,i5-750,i5-680,i5-670,i5-661,i5-660,i5-655K,i5-650,i5-540,i5-530,i3=i3-560,i3-550,i3-540,i3-530,Pentium=G6960,G6950; LGA 1150 / 6 year warranty

 

My Motherboard is one of the VERY few motherboards on the market that has all the features I want, like on-board 7.1 sound with optical digital out: ASRock X99 Extended-lengthATX Motherboard with LGA2011-3 CPU socket: $280.48 (after $40 rebate) from NewEgg. Other misc specs: Chipset: Intel X99 / Memory: 8x288pin, DDR4 3200+(OC), MAX:128G, channel supported: Quad Channel / 5xPCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots / 1xPCI Express 2.0 x16 slot / SATA 6Gb/s: 10xSATA 6Gb/s / M.2: 1xUltra M.2 Socket / Onboard Audio: Realtek ALC1150 7.1 Channels / Onboard LAN: LAN Chipset Intel I217LM, Second LAN Chipset Intel I210AT (both 1Gbps,with teaming functionality) / Rear Panel Ports: 1xPS/2 keyboard/mouse port, 2xCOM Port Headers, 2xRJ-45 LAN Ports / USB 3.0: 4xUSB 3.0,4xUSB 2.0 / eSATA: 1 / S/PDIF Out: 1xOptical / 2xCPU Fan Connectors (1x4-pin, 1x3-pin), 3xChassis Fan Connectors (1x4-pin, 2x3-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control), 1xPower Fan Connector (3-pin), 1xHDD Saver Connector / Dimensions: 12x10.5" / XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink, Premium 60A Power ±Choke±, Premium Memory Alloy ±Choke±, Ultra Dual-N MOSFET (UDM), Nichicon 12K Platinum Caps, Sapphire Black PCB / Supports Intel Core i7 and Xeon E5-1600/2600 v3 Processor Family for the LGA 2011-3 Socket, up to 18 Cores / Supports AMD 4-Way CrossFireX and NVIDIA 4-Way SLI / 10 SATA3, 1 eSATA, 1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3) / 6 USB 3.0 (2 Front, 4 Rear) / 8 USB 2.0 (4 Front, 4 Back) / 2 COM Port Headers / 1 Thunderbolt AIC Connector / Limited Warranty period (parts/labor): 3 years / Dimensions: 332x352x87mm.

 

building computer, installing CPU cooler.

ASRock X99 WS motherboard, Intel Core i7 5820K CPU, fan.

Thailog.

 

upstairs, ±Clint± and ±Carolyn's± house, Alexandria, Virginia.

 

March 17, 2015.

  

... Read my blog at ClintJCL at wordpress.com

... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress.com

  

BACKSTORY: Building my new computer! We decided to name it Thailog. Thailog ("Goliath" spelled backwards) is the evil twin of Goliath from the cartoon Gargoyles. Carolyn's computer is named after Goliath, so it just makes sense that Clint's computer is the evil twin of Carolyn's computer. A quick summary of the computer's specs is: Intel Core i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.3GHz with an Arctic Freezer I30 cooler on a ASRock X99 WS EATX motherboard with 24G of Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400mHz RAM, a Radeon R9 270 video card, and a Crucial M500 240GB M.2 SSD...all inside a massive NZXT Phantom 820 case. It was a $1560 build, summarized on my blog at clintjcl.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/journal-hardware-purcha...

This was taken on a friend's medieval-fantasy roleplay sim called Hiah. Unfortunately, due to a series of different complications, the sim was shut down some time ago, but the spirit lives on and this is a small memory I've kept of my time there. Below is the blog/journal entry that followed my character's excursion into Hiah on a mission for the leadership of Valahari's dark city, Unra'eth:

 

09.10.10

 

Cat was gone...having left as quietly as she had come. Well, quietly to everyone but Arabella. For weeks before her sister Caterina had physically come to Valahari, she had been frequenting Ara's mind, invading her dreams each evening and twisting them into cruel and vile nightmares, mocking and attacking anything and everything Arabella had once held dear. Towards the end--before the crimson-haired mage in training reluctantly sought the aid of both the Archmagus of the realm and of her mentor, the head of the Psionics School in Vexus, in order to learn to block her mind and protect it from her sister's meddling--all of which in turn likely spurred Cat to journey to this land and seek her out personally--she had almost lost her mind. Days and nights passed during which she barely managed to sleep more than the few minutes it took for the dreams to arrive and rouse her from slumber in fits of screaming and sobbing. Above all others, there had been one sequence which somehow managed to always conclude her torturous, restless sleep.

 

She stood in a darkened hallway in her childhood home, moonlight's silver glow casting a thin sliver of light against the opposite wall as it sneaked through the small gap between the thick, velvet curtains obscuring the window from view at this hour. The real source of illumination came from the half open doorway a few yards ahead. The fire in her father's study might always be counted upon to be well-fed and alive at any time. The serving girls knew better than to put out the flames for the evening only to be awoken in the middle of the night by his angry calls because he needed light to document and consider some idea or spell that had occurred to him. From childhood, anytime Arabella was awakened by some fearful monster in her dreams, her father's study proved her safe haven, especially since it was not uncommon to find him pacing about at all hours of the night there. She would enter without even knocking, lazily rubbing her sleepy eyes against the brightness of the flames illuminating the room, and her father would lift her up and sit her on his lap by the fireplace, smoothing out her mess of crimson curls with his large but gentle hands. No words needed to pass between them to know what the other meant or wished for. It was a closeness Caterina had envied most of her childhood, only fed further by the frequent remarks of their father regarding how much Arabella's physique or gestures reminded him at times of the mother they'd never known, who he said had passed on bringing them into this world.

 

In the nightmares Cat sent to her throughout the past months, Arabella walked softly then towards her father's study, the flowing softness of the white nightgown caressing the tops of her naked feet with each step over the cool stones of the manor floors, a thin shawl pulled about her shoulders more for propriety than warmth. She'd never been one to suffer overmuch from cold in the evenings; now she knew why. She approached the door, small hand outstretched and slowly pushing it open wider, listening to the creaking hinges as her eyes adjusted to the sudden flood of light all around her. It was too quiet. Normally, the sound of a quill scraping parchment or the rustle of pages in a book turning greeted her even before she reached the half open door. Tonight there was only the crackle of the burning embers in the fireplace, the flames not as lively as they normally were. She was about to turn away to call for one of the servants to come remedy the situation when something out of place caught her eye. There was a dark and porous rock their father kept on his desk, occasionally employed as a paperweight. It was volcanic in origin he'd told her many times, as he turned it in the firelight to allow the tiny crystallized minerals within to glint like stars for her to see. A token from their mother's homeland, he would say, but nothing more when she asked for the place's name, for her mother's family, for any other details to shed light on the mystery of this unknown female she apparently resembled so much but would never be able to meet.

 

Tonight, the rock lay on the ground, a small chunk broken off and crumbling beside the main piece, as though it had fallen off its usual perch on the desk. Her father would not be pleased, she thought with certainty as she stepped towards the desk to pick up the memento. The moment her fingers touched it, though, a flash of white heat coursed through her palm and up her arm, making her automatically release her hold and allow the rock to drop the few inches back to the ground as she kneeled and winced in pain. She'd touched the stone many times, always under her father's watchful eye, and yet never experienced anything like this. The sharp burning pain was gone almost as abruptly as it had begun though, and she rested her hand wearily on the ground as she prepared to rise. It was then that a strange dread overtook her. Something was wrong: the dying fire, the broken rock, and now a liquid warmth on her fingertips which contrasted greatly with the cool stone beneath her legs. Lifting her hand up before her eyes she simply stared in silent horror for a few moments at the thick, dark liquid dripping down her palm, staining the lacy sleeves of her nightgown, before crying out and crawling swiftly around the massive desk in search of the source. There he lay, her doting father, eyes wide open in an expression of surprise, lips parted as though he had been about to speak...but pale, unnaturally pale.

 

Her gaze barely registered the wicked dagger still stuck between two ribs, probably piercing the heart which no longer beat in his chest, too focused now on the emptiness of those verdant orbs, the one feature she'd inherited of his. It was then she lost herself, collapsing over the rapidly cooling cadaver, desperate sobs rattling her body as a trembling hand moved to touch the man who had raised her, loved her, taught her, looked out for her well-being even if she did not agree with all of his choices for her, especially not the recent betrothal he'd orchestrated. She tried to call out to him, as though he merely slept and could be awoken, both hands grasping at his shirt collar and pulling him into a tight embrace as the hot tears continued to stream down her face. She was too distraught to even bother to care as the congealing blood seeped into her clothing, her loose curls, stained her skin. Nothing else mattered as she sobbed over the body of her father, unable to think of anything but the fact he was dead, murdered.

 

A shrill cry for help joined her own sobs, but it was not her voice that sounded the alarm. Cheeks flushed even beneath the streaks of blood she'd smeared on her face as her dirty hands wiped at the tears in her mournful display, she turned to see Caterina emerging from just behind the door, as though she'd been hiding and observing there the whole time, though this last realization came to her a few moments later when her sister's expression was illuminated by the now faint glow of the dying embers. Cat's yellow green eyes held a glint of...amusement? Her lips curled slightly into a satisfied, smug smirk as she watched Arabella on the ground, cradling their dead father's body.

 

"If you've any sense in that pretty red head of yours, you'll run. Now!" She hissed the words, expression shifting into disdain momentarily before the mask of terror was put into place and she called for help, screamed of murder.

 

One of the servant girls was the first to arrive a few moments later, though the clatter of the guards' boots could be heard drawing nearer in the hall behind her. Arabella had until now watched in confusion, uncertain of having correctly heard Caterina's words, of having seen that look of hatred so plainly trained on her prostrate form, but when she met the eyes of the girl who'd just burst into the room, one thing was all too clear: she thought Arabella was guilty of this atrocity.

 

"No!" she cried out desperately. "I'd never--" but that was all she could say before the girl screamed, grabbed Caterina's wrist and pulled her from the room, crying out even louder for the guards.

 

Without another thought, Arabella rose swiftly, bare feet almost slipping on the slick blood puddled around her, covering so much of her clothing and exposed skin, and she raced towards the study window, ripping off the heavy drapes in her hurry as the echo of the approaching bootfalls now thundered too close. Sparing one last glance towards her father's limp and crumpled form, she opened the wooden shutters and jumped onto the bushes outside, sharp thorns digging into her skin, tearing her flesh, entangling themselves in her hair as she struggled to get away.

 

"Arabella..." came the taunting call in her ear as the image of the last scene she had taken in of her childhood home formed before her confused eyes again.

 

She was once more at the window, turning to look over her shoulder at the body, but what she saw was a much smaller and familiar form, crimson curls soaked in the drying blood, emerald eyes staring back at her, dull and lifeless, lithe limbs splayed awkwardly on the ground, sharp blade stuck to the swell of a bosom encased in a long, flowing nightgown that was once white before being bathed in the dark red essence staining it now. And there was Caterina, standing barely illuminated in the doorway, wicked grin twisting her features as she showed her sister what she now intended for her.

 

Cat never had to say it in Arabella's nightmares for the latter to comprehend the meaning of the switch. She was next, the next obstacle in Cat's path as her sister sought out greater power. One thing Caterina had made the mistake of not counting on was Ara's will to survive, stronger and more defiant than her usual soft-spoken nature and shy smiles might ever betray. Arabella had done what she must to make herself both physically and mentally ready to face her sister, had even given her fealty to the ruthless drow city both for protection and in an effort to harden herself for what was to come, and one night, without warning, she had struck. Ever since she'd bled Cat to within an inch of her life, the nightmares had ceased, though her sister's presence could still be perceived by her, a small weight on the other side of the link that joined the twins.

 

When Arabella had returned a few weeks ago from her mission alongside the Velkyn and another one of the city's soldiers in a distant land, she knew almost immediately something was different. It took her an entire day of sitting silently in her quarters, eyes blank and gaze drawn inward, in a silent exploration of the recesses of her mind, to realize what was missing: Cat. She was alive--she could at least tell that much--but she had taken advantage of Arabella's absence to sneak wordlessly away, somewhere too far for Arabella to effectively use their bond to track her. While some of her acquaintances might have told her to rejoice in the fact her sister was gone, and the threat to her life along with the raven-haired sibling, Ara knew better. When Cat returned for her, as she most certainly would, it would be with a wrath and vengeance to rival the gods', worthy of the raging flames of their kin...Ara had to be ready, she could never let her guard down...The nightmares might be gone now, but she could still recall each detail of them vividly. There was unfinished business still between the sisters, and neither would rest easy until a conclusion was reached.

Mercer County 9/11 Memorial

 

"The Event

On September 11, 2001, America suffered an assault on its home soil that resulted in almost 3,000 dead and countless others physically and emotionally wounded. The victims were nationals of more than 70 countries, making this tragedy global in impact. Dedicated on this, the 11 Day of September, 2011 on the 10th Anniversary of September 11, this memorial is a lasting tribute to the heroes who perished.

Lest we forget.

Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes and the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders"

 

"The Sculpture

The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City are an icon of the events of September 11, 2001, and a constant reminder of the human loss there, at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. This monument displays a segment of a steel girder salvaged from the World Trade Center site in the aftermath of the attack. The steel cable was part of a World Trade Center elevator and was acquired only a few months before tragedy struck. They are displayed here in a simple setting to keep fresh in our memories the stark reality of September 11th and to encourage reflection on the events of that day and their enduring consequences."

 

------------------------

The design of the Memorial was commissioned by the Mercer County Park Commission, through Kevin Bannon, Executive Director. The design team for the Memorial was led by Michael Sullivan, ASLA, AICP of Clarke Caton Hintz, Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. Geoff Vaughn, ASLA was the project designer for Clarke Caton Hintz.

 

The Memorial design team included:

 

Peter Abrams and Erik Hendrickson of Trenton Atelier, provided the wire rope (cable) segments and designed the configuration of the cables and the way in which they engage the monumental wall and the steel girder from the World Trade Center.

 

John Harrison and Richard Miller of Harrison Hamnett, provided structural engineering design.

 

Frank Tindall of Kelter and Gilligo, provided electrical engineering design.

 

Martin Katz of Princeton Junction Engineering, provided surveying and base plans.

 

(press packet information courtesy of Michael Sullivan)

 

The Mercer County September 11 Memorial is located in the Marina section of Mercer County Park in West Windsor, New Jersey - Google Map -

Additional views

 

Miles from Ground Zero: 58

 

9/11 Index

 

Karate For Kids

 

Karate for kids classes in Cave Creek, Chandler, Mesa, Glendale, Arizona are taught in a method to develop life skills such as respects, enhanced self-discipline, greater confidence and respect in children. The karate for kids programs with the local ATA martial arts schools doesn’t only teach how to kick and punch. The karate classes will teach kids the valuable life lessons of self-control and the ability to defend themselves. All of the Karate Kids classes teach the attributes necessary to be a confident individual within our community.

 

Our Local ATA Martial Art schools in Cave Creek, Chandler, Mesa, Glendale, Arizona have carefully designed the karate programs for the youth within the community- age appropriate programs that are specifically aimed at the child’s development both physically and mentally. These karate lessons are taught through a top ranked and nationally recognized “Karate For Kids” program, that has a well established training curriculum designed school aged students.

 

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#1 with parents in the ATA Karate Schools in Cave Creek, Chandler, Mesa, Glendale, Arizona is the renowned Karate for Kids character development “ATA Life Skills” program designed for personal Victory in Martial Arts with skills such as perseverance, integrity, courtesy, self-esteem and the respect for others while incorporating social life skills that develops naturally within the group.

 

It is always a good time to start a program at one our three locations as the #1 Karate For Kids schools in Las Vegas and Henderson. Together with kids their own age, every youngster can mature and grow with the self confidence that a karate kids program develops within them.

  

Martial Arts Classes For Women

 

In today’s world of fitness, women are looking for a structured and interesting workout in a manner to stay fit that breaks away from their traditional daily routine. Repeating the same exercise every day can be draining and break ones motivation and is rarely goal oriented. It isn’t the normal daily gym workout. ATA Martial Arts of Cave Creek, Chandler, Mesa, Glendale, Arizona is a training facility that women are finding the variety of goal oriented conditioning that is exciting. While the physical nature of martial arts is rewarding and a personal martial arts victory, it also teaches the self defense and survival tactics that is needed in todays ever changing world.

 

There are many important mental and physical health benefits in our women’s martial art classes in Las Vegas and Henderson. While toning vital muscles and building coordination will enhance self-confidence, awareness and increase cardiovascular is health. Women who Attend ATA karate classes will improve balance, flexibility, increase exercise stamina levels while developing a greater sense of self-esteem, hence the term… “Victory” in Martial Arts.

Martial Arts have been known to provide much needed stress relief, promote self-control, concentration, and boost the ability to remain calm under stress. ATA Martial Arts routines are even helping women keep their memory sharp on a day-to-day basis!

 

Cave Creek, Chandler, Mesa, Glendale, Arizona ATA Martial Arts facilities are the community martial arts experts that provide rigorous karate classes for women of all ages to develop their strength of body and mind.

 

It’s a fact! Women are breaking away from their traditional exercise routines such as gym workouts and finding balance, freedom and motivation at ATA Martial Arts. It’s time for you to experience the benefits of karate classes designed for women with the community Martial Art experts in Las Vegas and Henderson.

   

Adult Martial Arts Classes for Men

 

Martial Arts classes for men in Cave Creek, Chandler, Mesa, Glendale, Arizona is more then just kicking and punching. ATA Karate Classes create a stronger self awareness, enhanced confidence, greater focus, and a true Victory in Martial Arts for men of all ages.

 

In an adult class a karate student will train will practical concepts in a safe, clean and enjoyable facility, while incorporating life skills to de-stress from life’s everyday challenges. Las Vegas ATA Martial Arts and Henderson ATA Martial arts offers three location to serve our community. Learning a skill set that will stick with you for life, no matter what age, allowing you to gain the self confidence desired so that you can feel comfortable with confrontation in any real life situation.

 

As one of the top martial arts training facilities in the community our Martial Arts programs such as Karate for Kids, Taekwondo and MMA and Fitness is a key method of enhancing the body’s functions, including flexibility, coordination, and balance with strength and endurance. Yes! It relieves stress while having some fun as well as meeting new people. As an adult, you do not need to have prior training before you get into a Martial Arts class. ATA Martial Arts has a defined teaching curriculum designed to take each student to the peak of their performance while greatly enhancing their skills creating a personal “Martial Arts Victory”.

    

KRAV MAGA & MMA FITNESS

Krav Maga and ATA’s MMA and athletic training is combined to provide a diverse full body workout while incorporating real life scenario drills for self defense.

This class features a structured curriculum that is in continuous motion utilizing all levels of MMA and Krav Maga skills with self defense drills in a manner to enhance cardio-respiratory for your cardiovascular system. Krav Maga students don’t’ just perform blocks, punches, kicks and movements you would find at a gym to music or in the mirror, students train in an environment that is preparing them for real life conditions.

 

The Krav Maga & MMA Fitness in Cave Creek, Chandler, Mesa, Glendale, Arizona is a true Conditioning Program that specializes in a Total Body Workout that doesn’t feel like to boring fitness class you may have taken before. Krav Maga Conditioning Program brings a fresh experience and keeps each and every student motivated in class on a day to day basis.

With a strong dedication and commitment to the Krav Maga and MMA Fitness Training student, Krav Instructors teach a combination of strength training, combatives, flexibility skills, and workouts with our top notch academy training facility. There is a emphasize on muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance for Krav students in Henderson and Las Vegas while instilling the distinctive awareness and self defense techniques needed for street survival in our ever changing world.

Correct body alignment to maximize efficiency can be key, our team of professional instructors will work on refining Krav Maga technique through exciting repetition drills and training.

All levels of Krav Maga, MMA & Fitness from the beginner to the experienced can train at anyone of our three locations. Call today and don’t delay.

 

www.karatebuilt.com

   

I started dieting April 15, 2012. Yes, I remember the day bc I glorified it for so many years. I started bc I didn’t physically feel well a lot of the time & I struggled with body image. We all know the cure for that: DIET & EXERCISE! Right?? I posted about my journey for “accountability” and got so much positive feedback. “You look amazing! You’re such an inspiration! Can you help me too?” I was so excited bc I hadn’t ever moved my body or honored it in anyway prior to that. Fueled by the results & positive reinforcement, I kept looking for better ways to diet and exercise for a few years. Then I found CrossFit, an entire global community of dieters & exercisers looking to do as much of both as possible. Perfect! For over 5 years I learned to micro-manage every seed I put into my mouth and sweat more than I ever had in my life. I was so proud to be a woman that was strong. And I still am. But things started to change eventually.

 

Every morning I’d wait until I pooped to weigh myself naked so that I would know the REAL number. What’s this?? How did my weight go up when I paid someone to tell me exactly how much to eat?! Must have been too much broccoli. I’ll pack food to bring to the pizza party. I’ll go “super clean” before the trip, party, event, etc. Everything I learned about, I tried. When information conflicted, I hedged my bets and restricted more of it. I wanted to be the gold standard and I wasn’t going to let anything mess that up. I even became Precision Nutrition “certified” because paying people to tell me what they learned in that one book - that apparently gave them the legal right to charge people to help them restrict food without any other credentials in nutrition or psychology - wasn’t working, so I opted to just become certified myself. And then the inevitable happened... it all stopped working. No matter what I did, who I paid, the results just stopped. My body began to bloat in ways I couldn’t anticipate, no matter what I added or eliminated. Physical discomfort I didn’t know how to stop. The stress of this sent me spiraling emotionally. The only logical explanation was that I was doing something wrong, that there was something I wasn’t doing, and that I wasn’t doing enough. My mind and time were consumed with how to control my body through food & exercise. Devastated when those around me succeeded with less perceived effort than me. I gave myself no leeway.

 

In May 2017 I was in the thick of this. I had been single for about a year and was ready to start dating again. I had been strict intermittent fasting, 8-10 hours of eating & 14-16 off, no matter what. I was asked on a date by someone I was actually really excited about. We had met a few years back working a wedding together and he was really cool. We made the date for a Wednesday night. I was coaching early on Wednesdays then, which meant I needed to start eating earlier in the day. 7-5 to be exact. I decided to do this even though I knew I was going out that night. NO EXCUSES!! Unfortunately the 2 drinks I had over the 4 hour date left me absolutely drunk and spinning.

We were having a fun evening up until that point.

I didn’t feel unsafe going back to his place to sober up.

I thought I could trust him.

I was tragically mistaken.

When I came to and stopped him I remember him trying to explain why it was ok that he was doing what he was doing. He really liked me and would be my boyfriend, he said. Date rape is a terrible and confusing thing to have happen to you. It took me over a week, walking around like a zombie, and a very concerned response from a friend when I told her the story, to really understand what happened to me. I broke ties with him immediately and tried to move on. I acknowledged the truth, felt what I needed to, and opted to learn from it. That year I only shot one wedding and it was out of state. I pulled up to the venue and I see him walking towards me. Out of all the videographers they could have possibly hired, they chose him. And I worked with him. I knew I had to. I could not go up to a bride on her wedding day, as she’s getting ready, and tell her I can’t do it. I learned a lot about my strength as a woman that day.

 

I think it’s important to understand that this happened to me at a time when I least expected it to. I was, and still am, at a point in my life where I consider myself to be a very happy person. I had become self-employed and was enjoying the successes of that. I didn’t view my dieting and exercising as anything bad at the time, and took a lot of pride in my discipline and knowledge. I was happy being single and very selective about who I went out with. I was confident I’d never put myself into a dangerous position again. I felt strong and empowered. It took me a long time to realize how my dieting/exercise routine had contributed to the events of that night. That guy is 100% responsible for his actions that night. It also breaks my heart to think about that version of myself that was so afraid to eat food. A version that weighed her options and chose to drink on an empty stomach and put her trust into her date’s hands.

 

My best friend got married in August 2019, and I was thrilled to be her Maid of Honor. A very special role with a lot of responsibilities and investments. I cleaned up my eating for months beforehand, and was exclusively strict for the month leading up to the big day. By the time the wedding day came, I was happy enough with my results. I was still struggling with my body image and not looking how I felt I should have with the amount of effort I put in. All that effort paired with the time and money invested into the wedding, I became terrified that if I ate any of the food at the wedding I would either A.) get sick because I knew how my body would react to foods I hadn’t been allowing myself to eat, and/or B.) bloat up and undo all the hard work I’d put in for months to look a certain way. So when everyone else was grabbing slices from the pizza food truck, or sampling the dessert options, I was eating cucumbers and hummus at my table. I wasn’t happy about it either. I felt sorry for myself and made up for it at the open bar. I had a great time at her wedding, but know now just how much more fun and enjoyment I could have shared on this most memorable of occasions.

 

The dangers of diet culture were completely unknown and unheard of in my life until I met my friend Iona. She and her partner run a movement based community in Boston, and I fell in love with them immediately. They used to be Crossfitters so I knew I would be understood there. She would talk a little bit about Crossfit and why she wasn’t doing it anymore and why she had stopped restricting food. Sounded good for her, but I couldn’t imagine not watching what I ate. But we’d keep chatting, and followed each other on social media so I was seeing the things she was sharing on the topic. Some things she shared didn’t sound like me at all. I had never been as great as she was and didn’t feel like our stories were the same. I had started a deep mediation practice at the beginning of 2019 that started to shake the foundation of my food & body beliefs. As I listened more to her story, and as I deepened my own personal awareness, I found myself deeply resonating with her. I was having a hard time putting uncomfortable feelings into words. She recommended two books to me: The Fuck It Diet by Caroline Dooner, and Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole.

 

It has been a year since I read The Fuck It Diet, and it shook me down to my core. So much of what she was describing sounded just like everything I was feeling. I felt angry at an industry I was a loyal disciple of for years. I felt ashamed of all the preaching in it’s favor I had done over the years. I felt overwhelmed in realizing that all the work I had put into optimizing my body was actually doing the opposite. I knew without a doubt that this was what my body and soul needed. A release from the confinement of diet culture. So I purchased Intuitive Eating and the accompanying workbook, and spent the last year slowly chipping away at the 10 principles of IE. In TFID she mentions that it can take 3-6 months for people to heal from disordered eating, some more and some less. I figured I’d be done nice and quick. Nope. This shit is HARD. So hard. Especially when the world shuts down 1 month into your practice and turns your world upside-down. I suffered a lot during the quarantine, and I did it silently. I couldn’t share my pain, and didn’t know how to. But I kept at it. I knew I couldn’t give up on this, too much was on the line. I moved in with my boyfriend during the pandemic which threw in a whole new twist and added challenges. I started unfollowing influencers & nutrition pages by the dozen. I utilized a food delivery service to help me take the pressure off of thinking about food so much. I was sick of it. I reached out to Iona for support. And I kept at it, even when it felt like I wasn’t making any progress. I kept at it. I knew my life depended on it.

 

Then some amazing things started to happen. I would put the pint of Ben & Jerry’s back in the fridge instead of eating it all at once. I could eat half my food at a restaurant and easily ask to bring the rest home. A package of cookies went stale in the cabinet because I just didn’t feel like eating them. I started buying new clothes that fit my body now, and even went as far as to go shopping when I felt most uncomfortable and bloated so I knew I could trust my clothes to truly bring me comfort. I can say no when I’m not hungry. I’m starting to be able to truly identify my hunger and fullness cues, and honor them. I’m starting to trust that my body knows what it’s doing and that it knows what size it wants to be. I can trust myself around food now because I know, without a doubt, that I can have it if I want to. Restriction is what leads to overeating, not the other way around. This, by far, has been the hardest but truest lesson I’ve learned in the decade I’ve spent educating myself on fitness and nutrition. I still have a lot of work to do, practice makes progress, and progress is never linear.

 

I have chosen to share this experience for a few reasons. First, the bravery of my friend sharing her vulnerable yet powerful healing experience inspired me to do the same for myself. This is the biggest hope for this project. We don’t get to choose who we influence, or how our influence is received. But we all have a story, and someone out there needs to hear YOUR story. Second, this has been one of the biggest personal items I have been working on recently and has caused a big upheaval in how I approach my life and my work. I pride myself on being openminded and allowing myself the grace to change my mind. Changing my mind on fitness and nutrition was not something I was expecting, and it is not what big diet culture wants us to believe. It is woven into our healthcare, media, and schools. Third, this is a topic I know millions of people, especially women, struggle with every single day. Fourth and final reason is the intersection of so many things in this experience. Self-worth, body image, sexism, science as a religion. Too much of what we think has been put there by someone else. My hope is that sharing my experience with diet culture, date rape, and orthorexia (eating disorder with the preoccupation with eating healthy food) that someone else will be inspired to free themselves from these cages and live life a little happier. Food CAN be neutral and our bodies do know what they’re doing.

Devon is not doing well. Physically he is alright but he is inconsolable right now. He's depressed and mad as hell and hes lashing out. He is not very good at self entertaining, He is the type of guy that needs constant stimulation, not the kind a video game would give. Hes bored, tired of being in bed, hates his life etc. He is acting out irrationally and when I tell him so he just gets madder.

Part of it is the steroids they are pumping into him and part of it is just the fact that hes stuck doing this instead of enjoying life as a young man. IDK what to do for him. He hates me too right now.

Ya cant blame him hes been through so much. Dev has never been the best patient but this time is a tough one. OMG He has to do this for 3 more rounds!

I have to wait on the refrigerator repairman today, we have been without a working fridge over a week now. ( Im actually sick and tired of fast food) As soon as the repair man leaves I shall go back in...Wish me luck.

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Our disabled daughter, Christina Nichole, was physically and mentally abused by a doctor and police officer at the Gray's Harbor County Hospital in Aberdeen WA last Thursday, March 11, 2010, while she was there after being transported by ambulance to seek care for a 10-day severe headache and nearly continuous epileptic seizures. She just spent a week in Harborview Hospital receiving her 3rd brain study and medicine change by Dr. Wilensky throughout her life so far, which again diagnosed the many types of seizures she has. Dr. Wilensky's staff had advised her to call 911 to go to the ER, which she did. She was instructed to have the ER doctor call them, with a number they gave Christina, and to make arrangements to have her flown to Harborview, if needed. The ER doctor apparently did not like that, and told Christina to leave, without any work-up or care. Christina requested a different doctor and a patient's advocate. In response the non-caring doctor called the police to have her removed from the ER. The policeman told her to get out of the bed, and she tried to cooperate, but went into a seizure, falling back on the bed. The policeman grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the bed. In the process he damaged her shoulder and neck, and caused her to land on her feet which have both been recently operated on 3 times and are still trying to heal correctly. Her feet were hurt and damaged and she screamed in pain from the abusive, sedistic, arm pulling which resulted in trauma to the arm, shoulder, and neck, as well as her feet. Then she felt nauseaous and reached toward to the wall dispenser for a vomit bag and the policeman forcefully hit her other arm with his fist, not allowing her to get the bag. She again screamed from the new pain of her other arm being hit so hard. She kept falling down because she was still very much disoriented, confused, and unstable from her seizure(s) and the relentless headache, which had been diagnosed a few days earlier when she was taken by ambulance to the same ER for the same reasons, by had a caring doctor who treated her correctly, even though failing to follow standard procedures of care and testing by not taking a cat scan, blood work, or UA, which her family doctor, local neurologist, and Harborview Epilepsy Center had requested when advising her to go to the emergency room, four days in a row while my husband and I were in Seattle where I had surgery at Swedish Hospital leaving home on Monday and returning Thursday night. The policeman continued man-handling her limp body and threw her into a wheelchair without leg and foot rests. He told her to pick up her feet because they were dragging under the wheelchair backwards, but she had no body control to be able to follow his orders. He said she could let her feet drag behind her under the wheelchair because he did not care. He called her a baby and told her act her age when she cried and was terrorized. Her records show clearly that she was in a coma in 2004, declared brain dead, somehow came back but lost 20 years of memory and has daily short-term memory loss and multiple kinds of seizures, including life-threatening grandmal seizures. She looks like a 37 year old woman, but is very much like a 12 year old child when put in stressful situations. She was terrified, feared for her life, and could not understand anything clearly. The officer told her to leave the hospital, go out into the cold, rainy night, with no transportation. She asked to call her parents but could not understand how to operate the pay phone or remember our cell phone numbers. The policeman told her that no one wanted to talk to her so she was on her own and if she did not leave the hospital he was going to arrest her. She somehow left a message on our home phone. As soon as my husband heard the message he called the hospital and told them to keep her there and safe until he could drive the 25 miles to get there. During the wait the policeman intimidated Christina by standing behind her, jingling coins and keys, and threatening her to leave immediately or be arrested. When my husband arrived the policeman attempted to intimidate him by puffing himself up and threatening to arrest them both if they did not leave immediately. My husband took out his notebook and began collecting names and titles. He spoke with the head nurse. When finished he took Christina to our car and brought her home. She was emotionally damaged as much as she was physically damaged, and the brain swelling, headache, and seizures were not treated. The next morning deep bruise marks were showing on both arms and both feet. Her shoulder and neck were in tremendous pain. Her entire body hurt from the abuse, mishandling, torture, and trauma she had experienced. My husband drove her to Olympia WA, to the Capital Mall Hospital emergency room where she received kind and caring evaluation of all her injuries. The staff consulted with the doctor at Harborview Epilepsy Center and they determined an appropriate course of treatment. It was determined that she did not have to be airlifted to Harborview with this treatment plan being provided in this ER. X-rays and a Cat Scan were taken of her brain, arms, and feet. A suspicious spot was found on the Cat Scan that may explain why she was having so many seizures, headache, and brain swelling. It needs to be further evaluated, which she has an appointment with her Neurologist to do. The injuries inflicted by the policeman are severe, but no bones were broken. The bruising is massive and was documented with photographs and medical records by us and the Olympia ER staff. On Saturday my husband took Christina to the local Westport Fire Station to meet with the ambulance crew. Christina is well-known in Westport and everyone on the ambulance crews knows her medical history and has taken care of her dozens of times since we moved here after her coma. They call her their 'miracle girl' and always tell her how much they enjoy her and her always cooperative and happy nature, regardless of how much pain or distress she may be in at any time. The ambulance crew was devastated to learn that Christina was abused by the doctor, nurses, aids, and policeman at the emergency room they took her to on Thursday evening. They documented everything and reported the situation to the local city police department. The Westport police came and was equally upset. He took statements and then called a County Sheriff to the fire station. The Sheriff also took statements and made a report. On Monday (today), 3/15/2010, Christina was seen and evaluated by her family physician, Dr. Jackson, her foot surgeon, Dr. Tronvig, and her Chiropractor, Dr. Failor. They are all shocked and disgusted at what they saw. They all know Christina to be a sweet, trusting, loving child who has survived unimaginable odds and is always happy and thankful. Like us, they cannot fathom how this horrible abuse, neglect, and trauma could have happened to her. Why would anyone want to hurt her this way? Tomorrow she has an appointment to see Dr. Miller, her local Neurologist in Aberdeen. He will do his evaluation of the damages and follow-up on her seizure and headache conditions. He will determine if she needs to begin phychological counseling, either as an out-patient or as an in-patient, because Christina is so severely traumatized now. Coming out of the coma knowing that her doctors fought with us to try to get us to sign papers to allow them to euthanize her and harvest anything viable when she was in her locked-in coma, hearing everything but unable to respond was bad enough, but this added to that is simply too much. She has an appointment to see Dr. Wilensky at Harborview Epileptic Center on March 26, 2010 for further evaluation. I want to stress that Christina was following her doctor's orders to call the ambulance each time she went to the ER while my husband and I were away. Her doctors called her each day, several times a day, to ask how she was doing and to supervise her care while she was home alone. At no time was she seeking 'drugs', as the ER doctor flattly told her and labeled her. At no time did she resist the officer or do anything to warrent him putting his hands on her or drag her feet under the wheelchair. Dr. Wilensky called a prescription of pain pills into the pharmacy for her on Friday to take for her head pain, but she declined to pick up the prescription because she does not like to take pain pills as they make her very sick to her stomach and alter her thinking and feelings. She may take what is prescribed to her at an ER for pain while she is there, but does not want to take it at home. Her foot doctor says that her feet will heal, but her foot surgery recovery has been set back by at least another two weeks due to the damages the officer caused her. The bruises will eventually heal and the pain from them will fade away with time. Her shoulder and neck injuries will heal with the care of the Chiropractor. But Christina's trust in the emergency room at Aberdeen and the police there has been shattered and can never be repaired. The Westport ambulance crew said that they will take her to Willapa Hospital ER from now on, which is about twice the distance, but they no longer trust the Gray's Harbor Hospital ER to take appropriate care of Christina again. When my husband or I take her to an ER, we will make the long drive to Olympia and never let her out of our sight for even a minute. We retained an attorney today to handle this case against the Gray's Harbor Hospital and staff and the Aberdeen Police Dept. and officer. What amazing timing. We are scheduled to give our first depositions this week in Seattle in our lawsuit against Eli Lilly who makes Zyprexa, which put Christina into her coma in 2004. Attached are some photos of Christina's bruises taken on Saturday. If you haven't read the story of her coma yet, you can find it at: pekingeseshihtzu.wordpress.com/christina-nichole%e2%80%99...

 

19 Seaman Ave (between Dyckman & Cumming), NYC

 

by navema

www.navemastudios.com

 

Inwood is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City. It is physically bounded by the Harlem River to the north and east, and the Hudson River to the west. It extends southward to Fort Tryon Park and alternatively Dyckman Street or Fairview Avenue further south, depending on the source. Notably, while Inwood is the northernmost neighborhood on the island of Manhattan, it is not the northernmost neighborhood of the entire borough of Manhattan. That distinction is held by Marble Hill, a Manhattan neighborhood situated just north of Inwood, on what is properly the North American mainland bordering the Bronx.

 

On May 24, 1626, Peter Minuit, the director general of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, bought the island from the Lenape Indians for 60 Dutch guilders and, the story goes, some trinkets. On the southern tip of the island Minuit founded New Amsterdam . A plaque marking what is believed to be the spot of the sale is in Inwood Hill Park, the only natural forest left in Manhattan.

 

Inwood was a very rural section of Manhattan well into the early 20th century. Once the IRT subway reached Inwood in 1906, speculative developers constructed numerous apartment buildings on the east side of Broadway. Construction continued into the 1930s, when the IND subway reached Dyckman and 207th Street along Broadway and the large estates west of Broadway (Seaman, Dyckman, Isham, etc.) were sold off and developed. Many of Inwood's impressive Art Deco apartment buildings were constructed during this period.

 

The residents of Inwood were substantially of Irish and Jewish descent for much of the 20th century. The neighborhood exhibited a strong Irish identity with many Irish shops, pubs, and even a Gaelic football field in Inwood Hill Park, while Jewish life was centered east of Broadway. However, in the 1960s-1980s, many Irish and Jewish residents moved out of Inwood to the outer boroughs and suburbs in a pattern consistent with overall trends in the city at that time. During the same period that the Irish and Jewish were leaving Inwood, there was a dramatic rise in the number of immigrants from the Dominican Republic to the area.

 

Today, Inwood has a very predominantly Dominican population in the majority of the neighborhood, particularly in the areas east of Broadway. A few elderly Irish remain in the blocks near the Church of the Good Shepherd at Isham Street, though even its Mass services are now offered in Spanish nearly as often as in English. The Jewish population is greatly diminished and the synagogues and hospital that once served it have been repurposed or torn down. Other than the aforementioned historically dominant groups, the remaining population of Inwood is diverse, similar in makeup to the rest of New York City.

 

Notable current and former residents of Inwood include: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (former NBA basketball star), Jim Carroll (author of The Basketball Diaries), Wynn Handman (Artistic Director of The American Place Theatre), Bess Houdini (wife of magician and stunt performer Harry Houdini), Lionel Mapleson (violinist and librarian of the Metropolitan Opera House for nearly 50 years. Creator of the Mapleson Cylinders, one of the earliest recordings of live classical music), Lin-Manuel Miranda (actor and writer of the Broadway musical In the Heights), Henry Stern (longtime former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation), Isidor Straus (owner of Macy's department store), and Will McIntosh (Winner of the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Short Story).

26 October 2013

  

GRANADA DAY!

  

I woke up this morning feeling awful. No surprise.

  

I was taking the 7:40 bus, so I had to wake up pretty early. Waking up early for me generally means that I feel physically ill. Also, I still had to finish up packing, and that made me feel bad, too.

  

I was sleepy enough that part of me was just like "Maybe I should spend the weekend here being lazy." But I knew that I didn't really WANT TO. So I forced myself out the door and hightailed it to the bus station, pulling my bag behind me.

  

Since Spanish buses are always slow, I made it to the station with enough time. I boarded the bus and fought nausea, which was being exacerbated by motion sickness, and tried to sleep. I was not in a good mood.

  

But then… well, have you ever driven through Andalucía? Man, that can cheer anyone up. In spite of myself, I couldn't help but start to feel wonderful, in awe of the beautiful scenery. The bus drove on a highway that's positioned with the long, endless blue expanse of the Mediterranean on one side, and steep rocky desert mountains on the other side. The cliffs sometimes jut right into the ocean.

  

God, it's so pretty. It was one of those "STOP COMPLAINING, ERICA, you're in such a beautiful place!" moments. It's easy to remember why I wanted to come here so badly, when I see things like that.

  

So eventually after 3 hours of stopping in strange little towns, we reached the bus station in Granada around 11:15. I got a map from the information desk and hopped on a city bus to the area close to my hostel.

  

I didn't need to check into the hostel until 1 pm, and I was hungry. Specifically, hungry for churros. So I wandered the charming, narrow pedestrian-only streets below the Cathedral until I wound up in a FAMILIAR PLAZA (I was there last year!) and stopped at a cafe.

  

I had breakfast and consulted my map to figure out where my hostel was, and then after lazing a little, I walked to my hostel. I was a little early to check in, but I was sick of dragging my bag around and at least wanted to put it into storage.

  

So the receptionist let me store my bag, and told me my room would be ready around 2. That gave me over an hour to explore, so I set off with my camera and went for a walk.

  

Being a spur-of-the-moment trip and all, I really had no plans for Granada. I visited the Alhambra last year, so I've already seen the most important tourist attraction. Mostly, I wanted to familiarize myself with the city a bit more, so I can plan better for trips in the future and navigate the streets more comfortably.

  

So, I just went for a walk. One of the sad parts of Spain is that I never seem to be able to find secondhand stores. I love thrifting in the states, and I've always been curious to see what sorts of things you can get at Spanish thrift stores.

  

Immediately, I found a thrift shop! I guess it's necessary to explain that Granada is well-known for its scene--hippies, gypsies (but not ones that will rob you), and lots of young people. The clothes there were awesome. So many cool jackets. But I didn't buy anything, since I hadn't really been planning on shopping much and I haven't gotten my paycheck yet. Just a mental note for the future.

  

Right around the corner from that store, I found an awesome record store. SO MANY GOOD ALBUMS, and there was also a whole section of alphabetized 45s.

  

I had to buy Right Now by The Creatures. It was only 4 euros, and it was used in the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino's first-ever film, My Best Friend's Birthday. I BOUGHT A JUKEBOX BECAUSE OF QT. So it was a necessary purchase, I believe.

  

Afterwards I stumbled into a cool used book store, and some fantastic shoe stores with reasonable prices. And then I had to leave the stores. Or I would have spent all my money.

  

Anyway, once I get my paycheck and I feel more comfortable spending money, I can see myself doing a lot of shopping in Granada.

  

After walking up and down the main street of Granada, Gran Via, it was almost 2:30 so I went back to my hostel to check into my room and charge my phone a little. It was a cute hostel, and I was the only person in my room at first.

  

After my phone charged a little, I set out for Albaycin, which is the older part of the city. Albaycin is like, built into the hill with VERY narrow cobblestone streets that zigzag up the side of a mountain. The houses are all old architecture, and the scene here is a mix between youthful hippies, Lebanese/Arabic shops, and blatantly tourist restaurants. But it's gorgeous.

  

I wandered (well, hiked) around for a while and then stopped into a téteria (Té=tea). I had an awesome Mediterranean crepe with tuna, olives, and cheese, and some fancy-delicious fruit tea.

  

All these cafes have hookahs on the tables, too, so I smoked some apple shisha and drew pictures. Some Spanish family at the table next to me was being judgy though like "What is that thing (the hookah)? Why is there smoke? Look at that girl smoking, look how weird she is (una chica rara!)!"

  

So that was annoying. Spaniards can be really judgmental, to be honest. It's better in bigger cities, but it's so exhausting to be stared at all the time in El Ejido just for like, having red hair or wearing different shoes. It gets so old.

  

But I'm pretty sure the family in the cafe was from somewhere else and visiting their daughter, and she made the mistake of taking them to a place that was a little too exotic for them. Oh well.

  

Afterwards, the evening was starting to approach, so I hiked up to Mirador de San Nicolas, which is a lookout that offers the best view of the Alhambra and the city. I've been there before, but it's always nice to see, so I relaxed there for a while and looked at the landscape.

  

Afterwards, I walked back down the steep roads and found Grand Via, and made my way back to the hostel. I took a shower, in case I ended up going out later, and then just chilled with some of the people in my hostel. I always meet the coolest people at hostels… everyone is on some sort of different journey, and they all have cool stories.

  

So I hung out with some of the guys in my room, and then a bunch of us went down to have paella and sangria. I talked to a guy from Switzerland and helped him book his next hostel by speaking Spanish on the phone. I met another guy from Canada who has a semester off from grad school and is just traveling through Europe at random, deciding where he wants to go two days before he goes, staying in hostels or couch-surfing.

  

My bunkmate, Shane, was also from Canada. He just came to Spain from Peru, and his next stop is India. Crazy!

  

I was super tired, and most of the people I met had plans early in the morning so they weren't going out… so I didn't go out to the bars and clubs either, which was fine with me. I had a nice long sleep in the hostel bed that night… and I'll be back to Granada soon, I'm sure.

Thanks to Susanne Plummer for the photo

 

Thanks to Sean Brennan for Vincent's Video Link

youtu.be/mfA6im5NWPc

 

Our Journey of Discovery Russia 1989

 

It was the 17th March 1989 St Patrick’s Day and I was looking forward to my second trip to Russia, I had previously gone with my construction’s studies class in Bolton Street Collage in 1986 while serving my time as an apprentice carpenter and joiner.

 

My dad or da Patrick Jackson was a large figure both physically and to be in the presence off. He was 60 years of age and as a family of ten we asked him what he would like for his birthday and he responded I would like to go to Russia. So, we all chipped in and bought him his ticket but he could not go on his won so I went along with him.

 

We left Dublin on what I can only say looked like the oldest Aircraft in the world. It was an illusion Aeroflot Aircraft staffed by a crew who certainly never went to Charm School, my dad asked if we could have the seat next to the emergency exit (MORE LEG ROOM HE SAID) so we got those seats.

 

The flight was full with Trinity College Dublin students and obviously lots of Irish people. When in flight we nearly died of fright the air conditioning was all feeding a gas like substance into the cabin of the aircraft. We were told don’t worry. We had a double problem the door seal well wasn’t fully sealed resulting in a thick layer of ice forming inside the plane. Well, what my dad didn’t say could never be

 

printed. The food was horrific in the plane something that was to resonate in our trip after our arrival.

 

The plane after two and three quarters hours came to land in St Petersburg as the plan descended the thick ice that had formed in flight with the doggy door seal started to thaw much to the consternation of my dad the staff got us blankets to stop the water droplets leaving us soaking wet. We got to St. Petersburg and got on the wrong bus leaving us 20 Km from the hotel we were staying in you see we followed the TCD students who were staying in the very opposite side of the city. After haggling and buying army medals and hats we did not want the bus brought us to our hotel in the dark of night.

 

We had three great days travelling around St. Petersburg, seeing the sights, we were told we must change our Dollars or Sterling in the official Bureau DE Change but my dad soon found out you could get 5 or 6 times a better rate on the black market everyone and I mean everyone was trying to barter for something we had or the thought we had. The tour guides were great but were very cautious as the old communist system was coming to an end, but the state watched everyone. The food was very basic well it was so basic we only had a hard black bread and white shelled eggs for breakfast and a type of

 

carbonated pear juice to drink, meat was almost not existent and if you knew my dad, he loved his meat and veg.

 

The first few days passed quickly and we were travelling again on the overnight train from St Petersburg to Moscow 8 hours that included a sleeping compartment there was 34 people in the Irish groups and the tour guide said the train compartment took groups of 4 well in a flash my dad said we will take the compartment with the odd 2 ie 8X 4=32+2 I said to my dad I hope you know this train looks full and strangers will be sharing with us. NO no not at all my dad said. Well, I regret I was right we were shown our compartment and there were 4 of the smallest beds I have ever seen after a few minutes two Russian’s entered our compartment a very large lady and her new husband who worked in the Salam factory and were going to Moscow for their honeymoon. My dad took the bottom bunk and the lady took the other leaving her husband and myself with the 2 small top bunks.

 

We tried to converse and after a few minutes the lady started to undress in front of us in this tiny compartment my father let a roar get out of here. So here we are speeding through the night towards Moscow freezing cold outside. After approximately 30 minutes my dad was just too tired so he went to the compartment and got some sleep. We had a little stash of chocolate that we brought with us and we shared some with this Russian couple.

 

Moscow was a grim place then all the majority of that Soviet type building functionality was the order of the day. We stayed in a huge hotel 3000 rooms built for the 1980 Olympic games. Which as you may remember was boycotted by the West because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan everything was basic food, transport, tours but it was great fun and you met the most unusual people on those trips.

 

The shops were devoid of any real goods we wanted however you could buy unusual things like LP’s of Classical music for approx. 10p each, Maps of the World in Russian 2p and Russian dolls were all the rage. The Russian’s were looking for anything from the West, Jeans T Shirts, Jumpers etc. We went shopping one day To the sum Dept Store in Red Square this huge store with thousands of staff many unnecessary but this was Soviet Russia. My dad tried to skip a queue to buy a clock for my late mother well the shouts of those in the queue let it be known he had skipped the queue and he was then out of the queue. He bought 3 suits they were XXL and made in Russia they were well made and cost £8.00 each a fantastic price something my dad marvelled at however when he tried to put them on in the hotel they were sized very differently and as my dad said they were only boy’s sizes.

 

We travelled to the state Circus on one of the evenings it was great but we were told it was impossible to get home due to numbers when leaving the venue. The taxi driver wanted say 20 roubles which was £2.00 but my dad said if you bring us home afterwards, we will give you 200 roubles this ensured we would get back to our hotel I can still remember this Taxi Driver shouting to get our attention after the Circus Show bring us back to our Hotel in his Lada Taxi.

 

The trip ended all too soon but upon returning to Ireland my dad who worked in Newry at the time exchanged the three suits in Louis Boyd Store Menswear for £100 and three Peter England Shirts. My dad often marvelled if you had a van, you could make a fortune bringing a whole load of suits over to Ireland. My dad loved travel and following my mothers passing in 1999 I took him to many places Italy, Spain, USA etc. There was never a dull moment with my dad ask anyone who know him or his family.

 

My dad retired from work in 2005 at the age of 77 years as a clerk of works and general foreman in construction. He was so proud of his children but particularly proud of my wife Veronica and I when I was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin in 2006.

 

He was so delighted to have the sapper for the bollards in front of the Mansion House. When he arrived, he kept his hand on the door bell

 

until it was answered. The highlight for him was the trip in the Lord Mayor’s carriage to the Horse Show.

 

We took him on holidays in 2009 to Spain, while we were there, he complained that he was finding it hard to swallow upon our return to Ireland he went to his Dr. O Sullivan on Le Fanu Road and he was referred to St. James Hospital.

 

I got a phone call to call down to St James Hospital as my Dad had me down as his next of Kin upon arrival I knew something was wrong the consultant told me he was sure it was stomach cancer after tests it was confirmed and despite treatment, he left us on the 9th May 2011. His only fear of death was if he would be in pain. He left his beloved home of 38 Drumfinn Ave on the 8th May and passed away on the 9th in Our Lady Hospice Harold Cross. He loved the horse racing and on the Saturday morning before he passed away, he said to me God son I hope to god there is horse racing in haven if there’s not I am going to be bored. I assured him there would be lots to do and see particularly my late mam.

 

In closing four weeks before my dad died, he needed his driving licence renewed. He went as I told him to Specsavers, He came back giving out the glasses were 390 Euro god what did you buy I just got

 

new glasses. Unknown to my dad he had bought Hugo boss designed glasses.

 

As he left us on the 9th May 2011 on that awesome journey, we will all make one day. I left the new Hugo Boss glasses and passport with him for his last journey.

 

Fr Seamus Ryan PP of St Mathews Church once said to me those we love only die when we stop talking of them so folks talk fondly of your loved ones you can animate so many conversations with the stories of yesterday.

 

Regards

 

Vincent……..

First Experience

 

Deep relaxation/trance is an exclusive technique, which I have experienced. Viktoria professionally led me through several layers to the depth of me, my soul, where I could however vividly feel wise combination of conscious/ unconscious, soul/mind/body.

 

Immediately I sensed an active flow of energy inside, my own, freely-moving, smoothly-beating and healing problematic parts of my body. At the very beginning I could brightly see soft light of my mind radiating from brain around, moving around and disseminating the light like a light-house over the water. Probably, it was natural, as the whole interaction between Viktoria and me during the exercise activating inner forces was done through the mind – her mind talking with her gentle balanced pleasant voice - with mine. The tone, sound, intonation of the voice and content of the messages is sincere and loving, creating trust with lack of resistance. Due to that I can entrust myself with my questions, problems, uncertainty, necessity to make sound timely decisions into her hands to direct me and get absorbed into this interesting world, with eyes closed-physically – wide-open internally.

 

We go down, more down, and more, deeper, cleaning layers of negative energy collected from the environment, irritations, fatigue, exhaustion, worries, pains in the body and heart. The severe headache present for the recent period of time is gone. Back-pain too. I feel my spinal cord and muscles opened and strong. Vice-versa – there is an amazing relaxation and healing effect. Healing is so strong that it rolls with blood and energy through the body bumping into aching parts, organs in need of help, then turning around and swimming to the next, staying there as much as it’s needed.

 

I feel all this with pleasure. Now all parts of my body and mind are exquisitely resting. My legs and hands are heavy, impossible to move. That’s the message I got, and right away transferred the message into the real feeling. Viktoria asks me to raise my legs. I can’t and don’t want. What for? There is such a harmony, balance, completeness in this stage, that no action is desired. Is this nirvana? or mental journey?

 

Viktoria asks me to feel a relaxed and pleasant feeling in one of my body’s parts and spread that feeling in the body. Done - as said, it’s all over, pleasantly possesses my poor tired body. We torture it every day by not providing what it asks us for on time. It keeps saying to take care of it: by sleeping when it’s tired, feeding, exercising to stretch muscles and bones – to keep it alive and operational. We often ignore its voice to fit into social behavior and routine. Always answering: not now, wait, be patient, a little more, behave and perform!

 

Before the hypnosis with travel-into-your-world exercise we made more techniques to make my mind and body ready for this stage: tapping - EFT (implying full acceptance of yourself) and bringing mind and soul to harmony. Powerful and effective! Works for sure!

 

Great thing about Viktoria is that she never keeps useful information limited only to her – she disseminates it and teaches others the skills, shares ideas, methods when they need. In order to become capable of controlling themselves instead of always staying dependant on a coach/consultant/psychotherapist, etc. That’s another great thing about NLP of Viktoria, NLP perceived and reflected by “her”: learning process, which changes you, your personality, behavioral pattern, habits, and way of thinking, acting/reacting – once and for ever.

 

During the monologue of Viktoria to me in the condition of trance she leads me to the freedom of choice to move where I want with my mind. Scenes appear and motion. I fly to Venice, my planet. I don’t think about that, interaction is going so smoothly, easily, effortlessly. I don’t think or plan actions – mental journey happens naturally. I’m surprised by my choices, dynamics, next image, vision, which cannot be planned, only felt by all existing senses with eyes physically closed. I feel safe to have a friend sitting next to me during the travel, as I know that guidance and help is coming when needed. As well as when to be back – I’ll be told quietly when it’s enough, to happily return to the reality of this life.

 

Each cell of my body and mind operates now smoothly, in harmony with the universe, so relaxed, so restful. The strongest feeling we have when being deeply in ourselves, connected to the ocean of unconscious, hence, to our higher “Self”. I’ve experienced this feeling many times during the life – I know how it feels.

 

During my flight-escalation to the skies and Venice – I don’t see much around. I feel myself floating in the air up. At one moment I get frightened of altitude and begin to fall down, not believing in my forces. I fear the danger of flight. Then I say to myself: I’m flying only mentally, in my imagination, I’m not physically in the open air, it’s all right, I’m safe and can get there. And the forces of my mind immediately embrace my imaginary body and raise higher. I touch Venice and sit on its surface, lean on it. Now I can feel the Earth with people on it down beneath. I can send positive intentions, healing forces towards it and myself living on the Earth. The imaginary symbol of all these positive impulses from me is again in the form of intensive light, like a long almost transparent stripe, intensively spreading its light like a bunch of sun-rays or targeted light. Forces of mind I see in the form of light.

 

My heart is working balanced. I can feel its even rhythm and pleasant warmth spreading inside it. My breathing is deep and quiet. I have no idea how long I’m out of this reality and in another. From there I need to get power to go on with my eternal search of knowledge, urge to learn, act out of the best interest of my soul for the most complete self-realization, heal my body and strengthen it, self-change.

 

The journey is almost over; Viktoria calls me back, time to turn on for this reality. One, two, three…- I slowly and lazily open my eyes. Probably, 10 or 15 minutes have passed, maybe more – I don’t know. All I know: during that time I became so rested mentally and physically as if I slept for hours, got body-work and exercising – all together. Oh, how rested I am! The feeling is good. Each cell of my body is revived, vertebral spin is soft, not cracking or making funny sounds, the neck too – as if someone oiled them. I’m full of energy, happy and joyful.

 

Still tranquil and thinking of what happened, remembering the feelings and experience. We talk with Viktoria calmly, laugh. My mind is conscious, sharp, rested and shining again. Unexpectedly more thoughts come to my mind with understanding and findings about my past experiences many years ago, understanding of loved ones in the family and people around. It comes itself.

 

I point out once more in my mind that these are precious moments of spiritual journeys with insights, deeper understanding of us, life, the higher meaning in everything, some coming answers to my million of question. I’m a permanent student in this area. And that’s the most valuable for me in this life – the more I understand in this regard – the happier, deeper, wiser, richer I become – the more I can share with others. It’s an activity for which I want to dedicate my time – no regrets about time lost.

 

I carry my feelings with me and take them home for good. It continues: my energy is still tickling in problematic areas of the body for the next days. Moreover, as our mind unconsciously learns so fast, I can revive the feeling of deep meditation/trance whenever I want or need. It stays with me for ever. Thanks to Viktoria for precious experience! Thanks for the help and guiding hand!

 

N.K. May 2007, New York

 

Second experience

 

I am in deep trance, relaxed and quiet. We are fixing problems from the past, carried with me through the life. My eyes are closed. Viktoria asks me if I would like to go to some situation in the past to change my reaction and attitude. I immediately jump into my childhood, feel myself small, with untreatable curly hair, in the sun and joy of our private house’s yard and garden.

 

The situation I want to correct is simple and naïve. Still it stayed with me through my life bright and painful, and my unconscious rushed me there right away to correct it. I remember voices of guests, my family, relatives in the open-air of the yard. Mum is running around to lay the table. I don’t see the majority of faces, at times only the image of Mum and my favorite cousin-brother. I hear them and feel the hullabaloo: they talk, laugh, interact – it seems to be a party or celebration.

 

I’m 4 or 5. They help with the table and barbeque. I help too as I always loved in childhood to take part and play a role. Now I take 2 glass bottles of mineral water – heavy for me – and carry them. Childish joy of a big event – so many people around and kids – it’s bursting out of me, and I carry the bottles above my head so they touch each other during my proud walk. Or run? I pass a few more steps and the bump of bottles above my head is too strong – they break! – I’m stunned and speechless under the flow of water and particles of glass falling on my head and body. I stand in the middle of the yard like that – so embarrassed and ashamed – nothing to carry in my hands.

 

Grown-up people run and shout: “What have you done? Stupid! Why did you do that? Why did you carry the bottles above your head? Why do you run?” Kids laugh at me pointing out with fingers my stupid action. I feel terrible, stupid and ashamed. I’m ready to disappear under ground to cover me from all of them and to erase the situation. Somebody, most probably my Mum, takes me away to clean my head and hair full of glass. All I want is to hear supportive words – but I heard only reprimand. What a feeling of shame for the wrong stupid action in public and public negative attention, judgment and reprimand! That’s what shocked me most: embarrassment not allowing forgetting this silly incident, seemingly unimportant, until now when I’m a grown-up with wide experience behind me.

 

Viktoria asks me if I want to change the situation I traveled to. Sure, I do! I want to change my reaction. I do the same and start laughing like crazy, with full lungs – I’m not concerned about their reprimand and judgment. I’m just the way I am, with my current experience of life helping me there – small and helpless, still not capable to protect myself from public attitude. I laugh and laugh, in a healthy way. And the situation is over, gone for ever, now it’s resolved for me. I’m free of it – overcame the embarrassment.

 

And now we’re moving towards my fears. Viktoria asks me if I want to travel elsewhere. Yes, I do. It’s so quiet and tranquil in meditation. I want to understand the roots of my airplane attitude, a fear triggered by an episode in reality 9 years ago when I got scared and until now I’m trying to conquer the fear by all means.

 

I was thinking that I’m closely connected with Antoine De Saint-Exuperi: his book “Little Prince” is one of my favorite ones, and in the childhood a friend of mine was calling me Little Prince. I didn’t expect but it continued in this age when 2 of my close people without knowing about childhood nickname all of a sudden called me the same way and told many times that I even look like the hero. It went on: during the second phone conversation with a new friend here in New York, the guy mentioned his love of Saint-Exuperi and his books, told that he vividly remembered his face as was often talking to him in his childhood. Also the story of his death in the result of airplane crash in the sands of desert. He was a pilot fighting with Nazis during the Second World War. And his last words before the death in the microphone of the pilot: “God, let me rest in the sands of the desert of the Earth where I worked so hard”. I was shocked by this story. We panic before death, especially in such circumstances, would shout, curse, whatever – but calm message to God last seconds before you disappear from this body?! My second shock was when my friend told that I look like him. I questioned him, not very clear with what I heard:

 

- Wait a minute, you mean I look like the hero Little Prince? I heard that.

 

- No, him, De Saint-Exuperi. Your face reminds his, that’s why seeing this resemblance I trusted you right away.

 

Well, I didn’t know what to say and checked the information in internet.

 

Since then I had a feeling that I might have found a key to my fear. Because every time I was analyzing it – a thought appeared: there must be something behind it, something I still don’t know or understand. So, given an opportunity to check it by mental travel I automatically rushed there. I put all these explanations to make the cause of it clear. It’s still uneasy and painful to go back to that experience – hence, I was procrastinating writing about it.

 

- Do you want to go somewhere else? – I hear Viktoria’s voice with my eyes closed. – Maybe somewhere to heal your fear?

 

- Yes, I do want, - I thought slowly and found myself outside of the plane of Saint-Exuperi, flying next to him during his last minutes.

 

I see his face, him – emotionally tensed and internally calm. This is a trial; he knows and does everything to pass through it with dignity and his head up. He’s fighting with German planes in the sky, moving fast and rapid. There are several French planes with him. I look attentively at the face near me behind the window shield of the military plane from the Second World War. He’s honest in his efforts, actions, fully dedicated to the goal and the truth inside. The scene with rapidly developing scenario is in front of my eyes – and I know the end.

 

In a matter of seconds he understands as well: this is his very last flight and the last minutes. He’s calm and concentrated. I start shivering and crying for what I see – this dignity, readiness to accept the fate, whatever is brought to his direction. I shake, tears are going down my face – I see full concentration into the highest Self, will, heart and mind – and that makes me cry. He’s not allowing himself to be weak – whatever is coming. He’s worried about the unknown but doesn’t show. Now is the time for the words, the last, into the microphone, for his friends-co-fighters against the evil, for himself and to God: “God, allow me to rest in the sands of the desert where I have worked so well…”

 

I go with him through the crash, cannot take my eyes away from quickly changing in seconds and moving pictures. Viktoria saw my condition earlier when I began to cry. She’s distracting me, only helping. She asked me now to look at the final scene when all is behind. The plane crashes and there are two of us together next to it – Antoine freed from his body, from my previous life, and me – mentally transferred to him from my current life. With my experience and knowledge that nothing matters and fears are gone for the highest reason of events and the biggest love of us by the divine forces and God, for our best interests.

 

We are together, sit and chatting on the sand near the plane – very much like the scene from “Little Prince” when they talk to each other during the first meeting in the starry night of the desert. It’s over – the trial and the hardest part of that life – and we laugh and chat with love – me from the past and me from the present. All the rest, others, friends shouting and thrilled, the battle, the rest of the world is in colors not vivid or bright, they’re away from us as if we’re behind a transparent but solid shield of time/space in eternity. We’re like two strangers of the world.

 

Viktoria is asking me to go back to the catastrophe with the knowledge and understanding I got deep inside to help with my current experience. As I know already how fragile and short the current moment is and how everlasting – we’re in eternity. The matter is to remember who we are, where from and to use the best our knowledge gained and recovered.

 

I go back again, knowing what’s going to happen and how freely we were chatting and enjoying when the trial was over. I go again with him, flying next to him, near the shield and the window of the plane – the picture is grey – I look closely, with my eyes on his face, talking to him in my mind: “Don’t be afraid. It’ll be over soon and the eternity begins… don’t be afraid… It’s only a moment…”

 

We go together again, he plays his role of a hero and I’m an observer, supporter. It’s still very hard. But the noise and voices in planes microphones fade away with this inner concentration, the brightest concentration of life, of being one with your highest Self. Now I can understand why Osho calls the moment of death, of passing from their current life to divine the highest moment, meditation, orgasm of life, its culmination, the biggest test for the life. I look closely at him, flying near, outside the plane, in the air. It seems he feels my support - we’re one together in this highest point, pick of his life. And again this strength, self-surrender to the circumstances and the aim. Whatever happens. Though there is not time to think it over, all goes so quickly, without asking you. It seems we all know by some guts to what we go and how. And now his last words. We’re together. The noise and voices go soft, lower; the motion is away, on the background scene. We look at each other, near the crashed plane on the sand. We’re free of this hell!

 

We talk and talk. Long. Not long enough. I don’t remember the words. Most probably we talk mentally, without words. There’s such tenderness and depth in our communication, which I cannot describe. We found each other at last. Unexpectedly. We talk and talk. Have a lot to share. Viktoria calls me back:

 

- It’s enough. You need to come back, – I hear with regret. I don’t want to leave him. Who knows if we’re going to meet again. And hug and touch. Still not enough time.

 

- You stayed too long. It’s time, - says Viktoria softly and I obey.

 

I return rested, filled with this completeness and unusual experience.

 

- I understand you wanted to stay but, sorry, I had to call back, otherwise you might want to stay. How do you feel? – asks Viktoria joking and smiling. I’m happy, so happy that it’s difficult to speak it out, so full with experience, enriched. Viktoria is so experienced that could guess about my conditions during the journey by reaction of my body and little details. I tell some of my experience. I understood so much. And I’m grateful so much for this chance given by my guide to open up the curtain of the reality and us – human beings.

 

N.K. 26 November 2007, New York

Our disabled daughter, Christina Nichole, was physically and mentally abused by a doctor and police officer at the Gray's Harbor County Hospital in Aberdeen WA last Thursday, March 11, 2010, while she was there after being transported by ambulance to seek care for a 10-day severe headache and nearly continuous epileptic seizures. She just spent a week in Harborview Hospital receiving her 3rd brain study and medicine change by Dr. Wilensky throughout her life so far, which again diagnosed the many types of seizures she has. Dr. Wilensky's staff had advised her to call 911 to go to the ER, which she did. She was instructed to have the ER doctor call them, with a number they gave Christina, and to make arrangements to have her flown to Harborview, if needed. The ER doctor apparently did not like that, and told Christina to leave, without any work-up or care. Christina requested a different doctor and a patient's advocate. In response the non-caring doctor called the police to have her removed from the ER. The policeman told her to get out of the bed, and she tried to cooperate, but went into a seizure, falling back on the bed. The policeman grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the bed. In the process he damaged her shoulder and neck, and caused her to land on her feet which have both been recently operated on 3 times and are still trying to heal correctly. Her feet were hurt and damaged and she screamed in pain from the abusive, sedistic, arm pulling which resulted in trauma to the arm, shoulder, and neck, as well as her feet. Then she felt nauseaous and reached toward to the wall dispenser for a vomit bag and the policeman forcefully hit her other arm with his fist, not allowing her to get the bag. She again screamed from the new pain of her other arm being hit so hard. She kept falling down because she was still very much disoriented, confused, and unstable from her seizure(s) and the relentless headache, which had been diagnosed a few days earlier when she was taken by ambulance to the same ER for the same reasons, by had a caring doctor who treated her correctly, even though failing to follow standard procedures of care and testing by not taking a cat scan, blood work, or UA, which her family doctor, local neurologist, and Harborview Epilepsy Center had requested when advising her to go to the emergency room, four days in a row while my husband and I were in Seattle where I had surgery at Swedish Hospital leaving home on Monday and returning Thursday night. The policeman continued man-handling her limp body and threw her into a wheelchair without leg and foot rests. He told her to pick up her feet because they were dragging under the wheelchair backwards, but she had no body control to be able to follow his orders. He said she could let her feet drag behind her under the wheelchair because he did not care. He called her a baby and told her act her age when she cried and was terrorized. Her records show clearly that she was in a coma in 2004, declared brain dead, somehow came back but lost 20 years of memory and has daily short-term memory loss and multiple kinds of seizures, including life-threatening grandmal seizures. She looks like a 37 year old woman, but is very much like a 12 year old child when put in stressful situations. She was terrified, feared for her life, and could not understand anything clearly. The officer told her to leave the hospital, go out into the cold, rainy night, with no transportation. She asked to call her parents but could not understand how to operate the pay phone or remember our cell phone numbers. The policeman told her that no one wanted to talk to her so she was on her own and if she did not leave the hospital he was going to arrest her. She somehow left a message on our home phone. As soon as my husband heard the message he called the hospital and told them to keep her there and safe until he could drive the 25 miles to get there. During the wait the policeman intimidated Christina by standing behind her, jingling coins and keys, and threatening her to leave immediately or be arrested. When my husband arrived the policeman attempted to intimidate him by puffing himself up and threatening to arrest them both if they did not leave immediately. My husband took out his notebook and began collecting names and titles. He spoke with the head nurse. When finished he took Christina to our car and brought her home. She was emotionally damaged as much as she was physically damaged, and the brain swelling, headache, and seizures were not treated. The next morning deep bruise marks were showing on both arms and both feet. Her shoulder and neck were in tremendous pain. Her entire body hurt from the abuse, mishandling, torture, and trauma she had experienced. My husband drove her to Olympia WA, to the Capital Mall Hospital emergency room where she received kind and caring evaluation of all her injuries. The staff consulted with the doctor at Harborview Epilepsy Center and they determined an appropriate course of treatment. It was determined that she did not have to be airlifted to Harborview with this treatment plan being provided in this ER. X-rays and a Cat Scan were taken of her brain, arms, and feet. A suspicious spot was found on the Cat Scan that may explain why she was having so many seizures, headache, and brain swelling. It needs to be further evaluated, which she has an appointment with her Neurologist to do. The injuries inflicted by the policeman are severe, but no bones were broken. The bruising is massive and was documented with photographs and medical records by us and the Olympia ER staff. On Saturday my husband took Christina to the local Westport Fire Station to meet with the ambulance crew. Christina is well-known in Westport and everyone on the ambulance crews knows her medical history and has taken care of her dozens of times since we moved here after her coma. They call her their 'miracle girl' and always tell her how much they enjoy her and her always cooperative and happy nature, regardless of how much pain or distress she may be in at any time. The ambulance crew was devastated to learn that Christina was abused by the doctor, nurses, aids, and policeman at the emergency room they took her to on Thursday evening. They documented everything and reported the situation to the local city police department. The Westport police came and was equally upset. He took statements and then called a County Sheriff to the fire station. The Sheriff also took statements and made a report. On Monday (today), 3/15/2010, Christina was seen and evaluated by her family physician, Dr. Jackson, her foot surgeon, Dr. Tronvig, and her Chiropractor, Dr. Failor. They are all shocked and disgusted at what they saw. They all know Christina to be a sweet, trusting, loving child who has survived unimaginable odds and is always happy and thankful. Like us, they cannot fathom how this horrible abuse, neglect, and trauma could have happened to her. Why would anyone want to hurt her this way? Tomorrow she has an appointment to see Dr. Miller, her local Neurologist in Aberdeen. He will do his evaluation of the damages and follow-up on her seizure and headache conditions. He will determine if she needs to begin phychological counseling, either as an out-patient or as an in-patient, because Christina is so severely traumatized now. Coming out of the coma knowing that her doctors fought with us to try to get us to sign papers to allow them to euthanize her and harvest anything viable when she was in her locked-in coma, hearing everything but unable to respond was bad enough, but this added to that is simply too much. She has an appointment to see Dr. Wilensky at Harborview Epileptic Center on March 26, 2010 for further evaluation. I want to stress that Christina was following her doctor's orders to call the ambulance each time she went to the ER while my husband and I were away. Her doctors called her each day, several times a day, to ask how she was doing and to supervise her care while she was home alone. At no time was she seeking 'drugs', as the ER doctor flattly told her and labeled her. At no time did she resist the officer or do anything to warrent him putting his hands on her or drag her feet under the wheelchair. Dr. Wilensky called a prescription of pain pills into the pharmacy for her on Friday to take for her head pain, but she declined to pick up the prescription because she does not like to take pain pills as they make her very sick to her stomach and alter her thinking and feelings. She may take what is prescribed to her at an ER for pain while she is there, but does not want to take it at home. Her foot doctor says that her feet will heal, but her foot surgery recovery has been set back by at least another two weeks due to the damages the officer caused her. The bruises will eventually heal and the pain from them will fade away with time. Her shoulder and neck injuries will heal with the care of the Chiropractor. But Christina's trust in the emergency room at Aberdeen and the police there has been shattered and can never be repaired. The Westport ambulance crew said that they will take her to Willapa Hospital ER from now on, which is about twice the distance, but they no longer trust the Gray's Harbor Hospital ER to take appropriate care of Christina again. When my husband or I take her to an ER, we will make the long drive to Olympia and never let her out of our sight for even a minute. We retained an attorney today to handle this case against the Gray's Harbor Hospital and staff and the Aberdeen Police Dept. and officer. What amazing timing. We are scheduled to give our first depositions this week in Seattle in our lawsuit against Eli Lilly who makes Zyprexa, which put Christina into her coma in 2004. Attached are some photos of Christina's bruises taken on Saturday. If you haven't read the story of her coma yet, you can find it at: pekingeseshihtzu.wordpress.com/christina-nichole%e2%80%99...

 

Lance Cpl. Rudy Basaldua, a machine gun team leader with 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, directs Trevor Erickson, 13, a native of St. Louis, in the buddy drag portion of the Combat Fitness Test June 23, 2011. Locals were invited to participate in the CFT as part of Marine Week St. Louis activities.

I started dieting April 15, 2012. Yes, I remember the day bc I glorified it for so many years. I started bc I didn’t physically feel well a lot of the time & I struggled with body image. We all know the cure for that: DIET & EXERCISE! Right?? I posted about my journey for “accountability” and got so much positive feedback. “You look amazing! You’re such an inspiration! Can you help me too?” I was so excited bc I hadn’t ever moved my body or honored it in anyway prior to that. Fueled by the results & positive reinforcement, I kept looking for better ways to diet and exercise for a few years. Then I found CrossFit, an entire global community of dieters & exercisers looking to do as much of both as possible. Perfect! For over 5 years I learned to micro-manage every seed I put into my mouth and sweat more than I ever had in my life. I was so proud to be a woman that was strong. And I still am. But things started to change eventually.

 

Every morning I’d wait until I pooped to weigh myself naked so that I would know the REAL number. What’s this?? How did my weight go up when I paid someone to tell me exactly how much to eat?! Must have been too much broccoli. I’ll pack food to bring to the pizza party. I’ll go “super clean” before the trip, party, event, etc. Everything I learned about, I tried. When information conflicted, I hedged my bets and restricted more of it. I wanted to be the gold standard and I wasn’t going to let anything mess that up. I even became Precision Nutrition “certified” because paying people to tell me what they learned in that one book - that apparently gave them the legal right to charge people to help them restrict food without any other credentials in nutrition or psychology - wasn’t working, so I opted to just become certified myself. And then the inevitable happened... it all stopped working. No matter what I did, who I paid, the results just stopped. My body began to bloat in ways I couldn’t anticipate, no matter what I added or eliminated. Physical discomfort I didn’t know how to stop. The stress of this sent me spiraling emotionally. The only logical explanation was that I was doing something wrong, that there was something I wasn’t doing, and that I wasn’t doing enough. My mind and time were consumed with how to control my body through food & exercise. Devastated when those around me succeeded with less perceived effort than me. I gave myself no leeway.

 

In May 2017 I was in the thick of this. I had been single for about a year and was ready to start dating again. I had been strict intermittent fasting, 8-10 hours of eating & 14-16 off, no matter what. I was asked on a date by someone I was actually really excited about. We had met a few years back working a wedding together and he was really cool. We made the date for a Wednesday night. I was coaching early on Wednesdays then, which meant I needed to start eating earlier in the day. 7-5 to be exact. I decided to do this even though I knew I was going out that night. NO EXCUSES!! Unfortunately the 2 drinks I had over the 4 hour date left me absolutely drunk and spinning.

We were having a fun evening up until that point.

I didn’t feel unsafe going back to his place to sober up.

I thought I could trust him.

I was tragically mistaken.

When I came to and stopped him I remember him trying to explain why it was ok that he was doing what he was doing. He really liked me and would be my boyfriend, he said. Date rape is a terrible and confusing thing to have happen to you. It took me over a week, walking around like a zombie, and a very concerned response from a friend when I told her the story, to really understand what happened to me. I broke ties with him immediately and tried to move on. I acknowledged the truth, felt what I needed to, and opted to learn from it. That year I only shot one wedding and it was out of state. I pulled up to the venue and I see him walking towards me. Out of all the videographers they could have possibly hired, they chose him. And I worked with him. I knew I had to. I could not go up to a bride on her wedding day, as she’s getting ready, and tell her I can’t do it. I learned a lot about my strength as a woman that day.

 

I think it’s important to understand that this happened to me at a time when I least expected it to. I was, and still am, at a point in my life where I consider myself to be a very happy person. I had become self-employed and was enjoying the successes of that. I didn’t view my dieting and exercising as anything bad at the time, and took a lot of pride in my discipline and knowledge. I was happy being single and very selective about who I went out with. I was confident I’d never put myself into a dangerous position again. I felt strong and empowered. It took me a long time to realize how my dieting/exercise routine had contributed to the events of that night. That guy is 100% responsible for his actions that night. It also breaks my heart to think about that version of myself that was so afraid to eat food. A version that weighed her options and chose to drink on an empty stomach and put her trust into her date’s hands.

 

My best friend got married in August 2019, and I was thrilled to be her Maid of Honor. A very special role with a lot of responsibilities and investments. I cleaned up my eating for months beforehand, and was exclusively strict for the month leading up to the big day. By the time the wedding day came, I was happy enough with my results. I was still struggling with my body image and not looking how I felt I should have with the amount of effort I put in. All that effort paired with the time and money invested into the wedding, I became terrified that if I ate any of the food at the wedding I would either A.) get sick because I knew how my body would react to foods I hadn’t been allowing myself to eat, and/or B.) bloat up and undo all the hard work I’d put in for months to look a certain way. So when everyone else was grabbing slices from the pizza food truck, or sampling the dessert options, I was eating cucumbers and hummus at my table. I wasn’t happy about it either. I felt sorry for myself and made up for it at the open bar. I had a great time at her wedding, but know now just how much more fun and enjoyment I could have shared on this most memorable of occasions.

 

The dangers of diet culture were completely unknown and unheard of in my life until I met my friend Iona. She and her partner run a movement based community in Boston, and I fell in love with them immediately. They used to be Crossfitters so I knew I would be understood there. She would talk a little bit about Crossfit and why she wasn’t doing it anymore and why she had stopped restricting food. Sounded good for her, but I couldn’t imagine not watching what I ate. But we’d keep chatting, and followed each other on social media so I was seeing the things she was sharing on the topic. Some things she shared didn’t sound like me at all. I had never been as great as she was and didn’t feel like our stories were the same. I had started a deep mediation practice at the beginning of 2019 that started to shake the foundation of my food & body beliefs. As I listened more to her story, and as I deepened my own personal awareness, I found myself deeply resonating with her. I was having a hard time putting uncomfortable feelings into words. She recommended two books to me: The Fuck It Diet by Caroline Dooner, and Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole.

 

It has been a year since I read The Fuck It Diet, and it shook me down to my core. So much of what she was describing sounded just like everything I was feeling. I felt angry at an industry I was a loyal disciple of for years. I felt ashamed of all the preaching in it’s favor I had done over the years. I felt overwhelmed in realizing that all the work I had put into optimizing my body was actually doing the opposite. I knew without a doubt that this was what my body and soul needed. A release from the confinement of diet culture. So I purchased Intuitive Eating and the accompanying workbook, and spent the last year slowly chipping away at the 10 principles of IE. In TFID she mentions that it can take 3-6 months for people to heal from disordered eating, some more and some less. I figured I’d be done nice and quick. Nope. This shit is HARD. So hard. Especially when the world shuts down 1 month into your practice and turns your world upside-down. I suffered a lot during the quarantine, and I did it silently. I couldn’t share my pain, and didn’t know how to. But I kept at it. I knew I couldn’t give up on this, too much was on the line. I moved in with my boyfriend during the pandemic which threw in a whole new twist and added challenges. I started unfollowing influencers & nutrition pages by the dozen. I utilized a food delivery service to help me take the pressure off of thinking about food so much. I was sick of it. I reached out to Iona for support. And I kept at it, even when it felt like I wasn’t making any progress. I kept at it. I knew my life depended on it.

 

Then some amazing things started to happen. I would put the pint of Ben & Jerry’s back in the fridge instead of eating it all at once. I could eat half my food at a restaurant and easily ask to bring the rest home. A package of cookies went stale in the cabinet because I just didn’t feel like eating them. I started buying new clothes that fit my body now, and even went as far as to go shopping when I felt most uncomfortable and bloated so I knew I could trust my clothes to truly bring me comfort. I can say no when I’m not hungry. I’m starting to be able to truly identify my hunger and fullness cues, and honor them. I’m starting to trust that my body knows what it’s doing and that it knows what size it wants to be. I can trust myself around food now because I know, without a doubt, that I can have it if I want to. Restriction is what leads to overeating, not the other way around. This, by far, has been the hardest but truest lesson I’ve learned in the decade I’ve spent educating myself on fitness and nutrition. I still have a lot of work to do, practice makes progress, and progress is never linear.

 

I have chosen to share this experience for a few reasons. First, the bravery of my friend sharing her vulnerable yet powerful healing experience inspired me to do the same for myself. This is the biggest hope for this project. We don’t get to choose who we influence, or how our influence is received. But we all have a story, and someone out there needs to hear YOUR story. Second, this has been one of the biggest personal items I have been working on recently and has caused a big upheaval in how I approach my life and my work. I pride myself on being openminded and allowing myself the grace to change my mind. Changing my mind on fitness and nutrition was not something I was expecting, and it is not what big diet culture wants us to believe. It is woven into our healthcare, media, and schools. Third, this is a topic I know millions of people, especially women, struggle with every single day. Fourth and final reason is the intersection of so many things in this experience. Self-worth, body image, sexism, science as a religion. Too much of what we think has been put there by someone else. My hope is that sharing my experience with diet culture, date rape, and orthorexia (eating disorder with the preoccupation with eating healthy food) that someone else will be inspired to free themselves from these cages and live life a little happier. Food CAN be neutral and our bodies do know what they’re doing.

In memory of

Annie Maria

The beloved wife of

Noah WOOD

Who died April….

Aged 45 years

Also

Noah WOOD

Beloved husband of the above

Died 11th Sept. 1920

Aged 80 years

“A good name rather to be …

Than great riches…

 

According to Auckland Council libraries site, Annie died 4 April 1890 and is buried here also with her sons George Herbert WOOD died 23 December 1870 aged 11 months and Harold Shanott [sic] WOOD died 6 January 1874 aged 10 months

Other information on the grave physically is also mentioned.[4]

  

Noah arrived in Auckland 1 December 1863 on board The Green Jacket [24]

 

Married Annie Maria SHARROTT c1865 [5]

 

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXI, Issue 2557, 28 September 1865, Page 4

On September 26, by the Rev A. Macdonald, at Mr Jeffcoat’s, Clyde street, Noah, second son of Mr Thomas WOOD of Grendon, to Annie Maria, youngest daughter of Mr Joseph SHARROTT, of Polesworth, both of Warwickshire, England – Home papers please copy [23]

 

They had issue:

Charlotte Annie bc1867

Married c1891 to Herbert Frames KNIGHT [see family info below]

 

George Herbert bc1869 died 1879

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 299, 24 December 1870, Page 2

WOOD on 23rd December, George Herbert, son of Noah WOOD, aged 14 months[8]

The funeral will take place on Friday, 28th inst., at 2 p.m.[1]

 

Mary Ethel bc1871

Married John Houghton GARLICK December 18 1895 at her fathers house “Grendon”, Mt Albert.[27]

 

Percy Hindostan bc1875

Born after their return to NZ. Died aged 13 months. His middle name after the boat his parents left NZ on earlier. He would have been conceived around the time they left NZ, approximately April 1874].

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXI, Issue 5541, 27 May 1875, Page 2

WOOD on May 26, at Ponsonby, Percy Hindostan, only son of Noah Wood; aged 13 months.

 

Albert Henry bc1877

Frederick bc1879

Thomas Joseph bc1881

Lawrence Edwin bc1884

Violet Nora bc1887

 

Noah married secondly Laura CAPPER c1894 [6]

 

A newspaper articles states he was Superintendent of Congregational Sabbath School, Newton from March 1866[3] however another newspaper reports this as Enoch WOOD but also mentions Noah Wood in other capacities [7]

 

1872 article states Noah is Secretary of the Newton Congregational School [10]

 

Occupation December 1865: Clerk in Messrs. Thornton, Smith and Firth[2]

Occupation June 1876: Butcher [19]

Occupation March 1877: Butcher [20] Was this occupation for years.

 

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4180, 6 January 1871, Page 7

The Domain on January 2 was the scene of a most pleasant gathering, no less than 1,200 children, attenders at the various Sabbath schools, having assembled within its precincts to spend the day in amusement. Swings, French tig [sic], buns, milk, tea, lollies, merry-go-round, &c., afforded endless sources of gratification…. Newton School (Independent), 140 scholars, Mr. Noah Wood, manager for the day. [9]

 

1871 Noah and Enoch WOOD mentioned in the drinking reform issues

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

 

New Zealand Herald, Volume X, Issue 2868, 8 April 1873, Page 2

“A musical and literary entertainment, in connection with the Newton Band of Hope was held in the Newton Congregational School-room last evening. The room was comfortably filled by an attentive and appreciative audience. The Rev. G. H. Turner presided. The first portion of the musical entertainment was sacred the second secular. Mr. Noah Wood gave an original reading entitled, "Auckland in 1883," in which he showed what a great amount of good the passing of the Permissive Bill had done for this province after it had been in operation for five years. At the conclusion of the reading Mr. Wood was greeted with continued applause.” (I wonder how close to the truth his vision of the effects of drink on society in 1883 were?!) [11]

 

Noah decided to leave NZ and return to England as an advert appears for the whole of his household furniture for sale at his residence, Collingwood Street on 31 March 1874 [12]

 

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1292, 28 March 1874, Page 2

We observe that Mr Noah Wood and family will be among the passengers homeward bound by the good ship Hindostan, commanded by Captain Robert Peek. Mr Wood leaves on account of ill health, thinking that the colder climate of his native land may possibly improve his physical constitution. It is due to Mr Noah Wood to say that he has been most assiduous while in Auckland in his endeavours to advance the public good by advocating the principles of sobriety and imparting religious instruction in Sunday schools. It is meet, therefore, that his friends should publicly recognise his labours previous to his departure from these shores.[13]

 

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1293, 30 March 1874, Page 2

We understand that yesterday afternoon the teachers and children of the Newton Congregational Sunday School presented Mr Noah Wood (who is leaving for England) with a beautiful and valuable collection of New Zealand ferns in a handsomely carved case of mottled kauri, as a token of their respect, and as a recognition of his services in connection with the school, and more especially for the part he took in the erection of their present comfortable schoolroom in Edinburgh-street. The young men's class also presented him with an album bound in morocco, and containing their portraits. Mr Wood has for many years past been secretary of the school, and also teacher of the Young Men's class. We are sure Mr Wood must feel an inward satisfaction that his past efforts have been successful in no small degree. He carries with him not only any special tokens of appreciation, but from everyone who has come in contact with him, expressed or unexpressed regret at his removal. Not only has the church in Newton lost an eminent worker, but in many other matters in the city, which bore in a christian direction in which he was specially useful, must lose considerably. He leaves in a few days for England, and we hope the result of his labours in Auckland will bear much fruit.[14]

 

Also sold “a superior riding mare 12 years old, bred by R. Gaham, Esq. She is very quiet, ad broken to carry a Lady.[15]

  

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 3866, 3 April 1874, Page 2

Shipping

Weather, April 2: Fine

Wind, April 2: Calm

Hindostan passenger list…Mr and Mrs Noah Wood, Charlotte and Ethel Wood. [16]

 

Noted as leaving on 4 April and travelling in the second cabin [17]

 

He was obviously back in to airing his views on the abolition of alcohol. He is mentioned in this article as a rate payer of Auckland:

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

  

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1803, 25 November 1875, Page 3

PONSONBY FAMILY MEAT DEPOT

In thanking my customers, and the residents of Ponsonby and neighbourhood generally, for the encouragement given me during the past six months, beg to assure them that, in the future, no effort will be spared to make my establishment second to none in Auckland, for quality, cleanliness, attention, and cheapness.

The quality hitherto supplied will be continued.

New residents on leaving their orders, will receive prompt attention.

NOAH WOOD

November 25, 1875 [18]

(This indicates that Noah and family were back in NZ at least by May 1875, therefore only out of NZ for approximately a year). He further places an advert in April 1877 stating he had been in business in Ponsonby for 2 years [21]

  

March 1878 signed a public notice along with others, agreeing to use a slaughterhouse contemplated to erect on a Western Springs property provided accommodation afforded is sufficient and the fees to be charged do not exceed any that are current.[22]

 

Noah wood and the Newton Band of Hope:

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

and a long letter to the Editor, 1872

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

 

1896 Noah built a house on what is now 20 Alexis Avenue, Mt Eden[25]

 

Noah’s probate is available. He is described as a retired tradesman:

archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=21457089

  

Family information:

 

Knight, Herbert Frames, Dental Surgeon, Bank of New Zealand Buildings, Queen Street, Auckland. Telephone 1038. Mr. Knight was born at Tewkesbury, England, in 1864. He arrived in Auckland with his parents in 1881, when he commenced to study for his profession, and, having passed the necessary examinations, he was registered on the 30th of October, 1890. Mr. Knight practised in New Plymouth till 1897, when he left on a tour of the American and English colleges for further study and information in the arts of dentistry. He returned about the end of 1898, and established his present practice. As a Freemason he is attached to Lodge Ara, No. 1. Mr. Knight is a brother of Dr. Knight, of Auckland. He was married, in 1891, to a daughter of Mr. Noah Wood, of Mount Albert, and has one son and one daughter.

     

SOURCES:

[1]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[2]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[3]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[4]

www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=QBE...

[5]

NZ Dept Internal Affairs Historic BDM Indexes: marriage registration 1865/3962

[6]

NZ Dept Internal Affairs Historic BDM Indexes: marriage registration 1894/1285

[7]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[8]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[9]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[10]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[11]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[12]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[13]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[14]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[15]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[16]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[17]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[18]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[19]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[20]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[21]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[22]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[23]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...

[24]

nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Bre01Whit-t1-body-d...

[25]

mtalberthistoricalsociety.org.nz/media/MAHS%20Newsletter%...

[26]

nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc02Cycl-t1-body1-...

[27]

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NZ...

 

In the last year I have been trying to improve my life physically after a pair of back surgeries…honestly, I have always been trying, but within this last year I have actually been doing it by hiking, biking and kayaking. On the first of this year I was planning a trip to the UP from Oregon, OH, just east of Toledo, which would take me around Lake Michigan. I am a geocacher so I plan every trip with the goal of collecting a few geocaches in different states and at random geological or historic sites. I was zooming in on the websites map north of the Mackinac area and I found a string of caches titled “NCT - (all kinds of things)” making a big weird S through Hiawatha National Forest. In the geocache description there is an elaborate but brief explanation of the NCT. Needless to say at this point I was floored that I had never heard of the North Country Trail. Around here the AT, PCT and CDT are public knowledge but how did I not know about the NCT which runs only 30 some odd miles away from my house and passes through all the places I love to visit. Hours of internet reading and book ordering later I had registered for the hike 100 challenge and adjusted my spring and summer trips to include a number of out and back hikes along the trail. In the first few months of the year I made the long round trip drive to do some short hikes along the historic Erie Canal, Wabash/Cannonball trail, through Maumee State Forrest and of course the beautiful Oak Openings Metro Park and then came our first planned trip. My kids and I (they are 10, 6 & 4) have a goal to visit all 74 Ohio state parks in the next two years. My youngest has Cerebral Palsy and does not walk yet so he gets to ride along for all of the hikes in a pack that helps him build his core muscle strength and keep his legs stretched, but most of all it lets him see and experience the world. So while in North East Ohio visiting parks we went a little further to Allegheny National Forest to collect some Pennsylvania and New York geocaches as well as to hike a few NCT miles. On one hike we went up from PA to the NY border. That was an 847’ elevation gain in just over a mile, a great challenge for the kids and beautiful hike. Later in the same trip we found ourselves at the Ohio / Pennsylvania border heading up into the state game lands. Another beautiful hike out (up) and back. [See if you can tell what the focus becomes for my hike 100 challenge - side goal]. I used “The North Country Trail” book by Ron Strickland to find some cool destinations and we decided to head over to Zoar, OH for a history lesson and lunch. That was a terrific stop and my hats off to Ron for the excellent guide, it led us to some fine sections of the trail already. Another interesting landmark was achieved on that short hike; it is the Eastern confluence of the NCT and the Buckeye Trail System. In the last month or so I made the trek out to my closest points of the trail and did a few miles here and there. Oak Openings is about as beautiful and “challenging” as it gets in the Great Black Swamp region where construction levels are more crooked than our skyline. I did however complete a little section hike where the Buckeye Trail splits off of the NCT (or joins depending on which way you go) at the Western end in Liberty Center, OH, so that landmark was completed. It is now July and my original vacation trip plans were getting finalized. Looking back I had already logged miles in three of the seven states, with both border crossings; why not add 12 or so hours to my trip to collect all the states and all the crossings? Fast forward to July 26th, that is today for me, and I will share the tale of a 2,300 mile road trip week that led me not only around the lake but to the conclusion of my hike 100 challenge. On a Monday morning at 0330 I left work in a rain storm with a final destination of the Historic Fort Abercrombie in North Dakota. The rain relented early enough that I was able to stop quickly and walk across the OH/MI border without too much trouble. As any fellow geocacher will understand, I could have delayed my trip exponentially by caching everywhere so I limited myself to caches close to the borders, highlight earth caches and those all-important state souvenirs. With only one side trip at the end across the South Dakota border I made it to ND as the sun was setting and found the trail. I set off for an out n’ back from the fort to Kent, MN across the beautiful Red River. It is interesting to note that just to the north in MN there is a pair of high water marks from 1897 and 1997 that are only made more ominous when arriving in Kent to find a nice memorial from the 1997 event. I had a nice local beverage at the pub before walking back and setting up camp in the state park to enjoy my sleep. As the sun rose over the fort the next morning I set out for Lake Itasca and the headwaters of the Mississippi. While driving along Rt. 34 I stopped at the Hubble Pond trail crossing, I had to, it is a very well maintained trailhead with beautiful signage and information. I was really impressed, thank you. I did not spend as much time on the NCT at Itasca as I did at the actual headwaters (only about half a mile) but I will say that the pure energy of the people and atmosphere in that park was so refreshing, like we were all in on some simple but profound secret that was improving our lives, it was awesome to be there. I was trying to make it into Ottawa National Forrest in the UP to visit my Uncle and Cousin that I have not seen in 15 years by the evening so my MN/WI border crossing hike was quick and uneventful. The WI/MI border proved to be more difficult as just a few weeks ago the area received a rainfall…er, deluge really, of 12-14” in less than two hours. There were still a large number of washed out roads and detours but I eventually made it down to the Montreal River, parked and hiked across my sixth and final NCT border. Now all I had to do was put on some serious miles to wrap this up, Pictured Rocks, here I come! Before I set out in the Pictured Rocks NF I stopped in Au Train for a loaded test hike. I parked at the river and headed west but it felt more up than out. There is something weird and beautiful about the Hiwatha National Forest and Au Train Region, somehow when I turned around I was still going up to get back to my truck. I know that is not physically possible but I could not convince my legs otherwise. I know you long hikers are giggling at me but hey, that was a tough 1.8 miles. The only thing I had set up in advance was my Altran ride from Munising Falls to Grand Sable for 1230 that afternoon; this was almost a major mistake. As a sidebar from my story I strongly recommend anyone planning a trip through or to Pictured Rocks to call more than 30 days (it used to be 14) ahead to reserve your campsites and obtain your permit. I was able to get my back country camping permit on the first come basis but it meant in the next three days I was hiking 7, 14 & 21+ miles respectively based on available camping sites. I would rather have finished sooner on the third day but that was it. So, permit in hand I offload the pack and gear ready for transportation. About halfway to Grand Sable I realized my hiking poles were in the bed of my truck tucked under my kayak. Ugh. Second bit of advice is that a written list would have been better. I was able to use a pole that that had been left on the Altran by someone two weeks prior and offered by the driver. I am not a fan of single sticking it but that was 50% better than nothing, thank you trail angles, I hope I deserved it. At the trail head visitor center I came upon a very adventurous soul who on his first ever experience backpacking had made it there along the NCT from Tahquamenon Falls, and found himself in the same dilemma I was in an hour earlier without reservations for the next 42.4 miles. He ended up with the same itinerary as I had so we buddied up to keep an eye on each other through the next three days. I will save the details of my Pictured Rocks experience as my own but share the highlights. “Awe”, as in awe inspiring, or awe-some is really the only English language word to describe it as a whole. It makes me wonder if founders in Michigan gave names like Au Sable, Au Train or Point Aux Barques with that in mind while doling out city names. In Pictured Rocks the views are amazing, the hikes are challenging, the people are few (in the eastern two thirds) but quality, the geography is top notch, the thunderstorms are violent, the history is ever present, the flies are legendary and the water is scarce. Okay, the last one needs explaining. Along with leaving my sticks I left my iodine tabs, and filters break. Tap water is scarce; lake, river and stream water is plentiful, plan accordingly. This year PRNP is also having a 50 and 100 mile hike challenge so I kept track of the camp and water hikes and ended up getting 50.2 total miles during the three days in the park, another challenge met. But most important is that just as my feet and muscles were really starting to scream at me south of Sand Point I achieved the NCT 100 mile benchmark! In the next few days as my muscles recovered I visited NCT sites at Tahquamenon Falls, St. Ignace, where the trail crosses M 123 (near the geocache that started it all) and the last stop on my way home yesterday was at Lowell, MI to poke my head in at the headquarters, visit a great cast and crew, and pass along my thanks for everything while collecting my patch and picking up souvenirs for the kids. All told in 28 different hikes at 25 different locations I recorded 100.8 unique miles along 108.1 total miles in all 7 states to include all 6 border crossings with 5 different people and the kids were along for 19.8 miles. The only thing left now is the East and West Terminus…oh…and those other 4,500 miles.

Mentally, I am there. I know what I have to do. I brainstorm over it often. Physically, that is where the problem lays. It's almost like film, I guess.

Our disabled daughter, Christina Nichole, was physically and mentally abused by a doctor and police officer at the Gray's Harbor County Hospital in Aberdeen WA last Thursday, March 11, 2010, while she was there after being transported by ambulance to seek care for a 10-day severe headache and nearly continuous epileptic seizures. She just spent a week in Harborview Hospital receiving her 3rd brain study and medicine change by Dr. Wilensky throughout her life so far, which again diagnosed the many types of seizures she has. Dr. Wilensky's staff had advised her to call 911 to go to the ER, which she did. She was instructed to have the ER doctor call them, with a number they gave Christina, and to make arrangements to have her flown to Harborview, if needed. The ER doctor apparently did not like that, and told Christina to leave, without any work-up or care. Christina requested a different doctor and a patient's advocate. In response the non-caring doctor called the police to have her removed from the ER. The policeman told her to get out of the bed, and she tried to cooperate, but went into a seizure, falling back on the bed. The policeman grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the bed. In the process he damaged her shoulder and neck, and caused her to land on her feet which have both been recently operated on 3 times and are still trying to heal correctly. Her feet were hurt and damaged and she screamed in pain from the abusive, sedistic, arm pulling which resulted in trauma to the arm, shoulder, and neck, as well as her feet. Then she felt nauseaous and reached toward to the wall dispenser for a vomit bag and the policeman forcefully hit her other arm with his fist, not allowing her to get the bag. She again screamed from the new pain of her other arm being hit so hard. She kept falling down because she was still very much disoriented, confused, and unstable from her seizure(s) and the relentless headache, which had been diagnosed a few days earlier when she was taken by ambulance to the same ER for the same reasons, by had a caring doctor who treated her correctly, even though failing to follow standard procedures of care and testing by not taking a cat scan, blood work, or UA, which her family doctor, local neurologist, and Harborview Epilepsy Center had requested when advising her to go to the emergency room, four days in a row while my husband and I were in Seattle where I had surgery at Swedish Hospital leaving home on Monday and returning Thursday night. The policeman continued man-handling her limp body and threw her into a wheelchair without leg and foot rests. He told her to pick up her feet because they were dragging under the wheelchair backwards, but she had no body control to be able to follow his orders. He said she could let her feet drag behind her under the wheelchair because he did not care. He called her a baby and told her act her age when she cried and was terrorized. Her records show clearly that she was in a coma in 2004, declared brain dead, somehow came back but lost 20 years of memory and has daily short-term memory loss and multiple kinds of seizures, including life-threatening grandmal seizures. She looks like a 37 year old woman, but is very much like a 12 year old child when put in stressful situations. She was terrified, feared for her life, and could not understand anything clearly. The officer told her to leave the hospital, go out into the cold, rainy night, with no transportation. She asked to call her parents but could not understand how to operate the pay phone or remember our cell phone numbers. The policeman told her that no one wanted to talk to her so she was on her own and if she did not leave the hospital he was going to arrest her. She somehow left a message on our home phone. As soon as my husband heard the message he called the hospital and told them to keep her there and safe until he could drive the 25 miles to get there. During the wait the policeman intimidated Christina by standing behind her, jingling coins and keys, and threatening her to leave immediately or be arrested. When my husband arrived the policeman attempted to intimidate him by puffing himself up and threatening to arrest them both if they did not leave immediately. My husband took out his notebook and began collecting names and titles. He spoke with the head nurse. When finished he took Christina to our car and brought her home. She was emotionally damaged as much as she was physically damaged, and the brain swelling, headache, and seizures were not treated. The next morning deep bruise marks were showing on both arms and both feet. Her shoulder and neck were in tremendous pain. Her entire body hurt from the abuse, mishandling, torture, and trauma she had experienced. My husband drove her to Olympia WA, to the Capital Mall Hospital emergency room where she received kind and caring evaluation of all her injuries. The staff consulted with the doctor at Harborview Epilepsy Center and they determined an appropriate course of treatment. It was determined that she did not have to be airlifted to Harborview with this treatment plan being provided in this ER. X-rays and a Cat Scan were taken of her brain, arms, and feet. A suspicious spot was found on the Cat Scan that may explain why she was having so many seizures, headache, and brain swelling. It needs to be further evaluated, which she has an appointment with her Neurologist to do. The injuries inflicted by the policeman are severe, but no bones were broken. The bruising is massive and was documented with photographs and medical records by us and the Olympia ER staff. On Saturday my husband took Christina to the local Westport Fire Station to meet with the ambulance crew. Christina is well-known in Westport and everyone on the ambulance crews knows her medical history and has taken care of her dozens of times since we moved here after her coma. They call her their 'miracle girl' and always tell her how much they enjoy her and her always cooperative and happy nature, regardless of how much pain or distress she may be in at any time. The ambulance crew was devastated to learn that Christina was abused by the doctor, nurses, aids, and policeman at the emergency room they took her to on Thursday evening. They documented everything and reported the situation to the local city police department. The Westport police came and was equally upset. He took statements and then called a County Sheriff to the fire station. The Sheriff also took statements and made a report. On Monday (today), 3/15/2010, Christina was seen and evaluated by her family physician, Dr. Jackson, her foot surgeon, Dr. Tronvig, and her Chiropractor, Dr. Failor. They are all shocked and disgusted at what they saw. They all know Christina to be a sweet, trusting, loving child who has survived unimaginable odds and is always happy and thankful. Like us, they cannot fathom how this horrible abuse, neglect, and trauma could have happened to her. Why would anyone want to hurt her this way? Tomorrow she has an appointment to see Dr. Miller, her local Neurologist in Aberdeen. He will do his evaluation of the damages and follow-up on her seizure and headache conditions. He will determine if she needs to begin phychological counseling, either as an out-patient or as an in-patient, because Christina is so severely traumatized now. Coming out of the coma knowing that her doctors fought with us to try to get us to sign papers to allow them to euthanize her and harvest anything viable when she was in her locked-in coma, hearing everything but unable to respond was bad enough, but this added to that is simply too much. She has an appointment to see Dr. Wilensky at Harborview Epileptic Center on March 26, 2010 for further evaluation. I want to stress that Christina was following her doctor's orders to call the ambulance each time she went to the ER while my husband and I were away. Her doctors called her each day, several times a day, to ask how she was doing and to supervise her care while she was home alone. At no time was she seeking 'drugs', as the ER doctor flattly told her and labeled her. At no time did she resist the officer or do anything to warrent him putting his hands on her or drag her feet under the wheelchair. Dr. Wilensky called a prescription of pain pills into the pharmacy for her on Friday to take for her head pain, but she declined to pick up the prescription because she does not like to take pain pills as they make her very sick to her stomach and alter her thinking and feelings. She may take what is prescribed to her at an ER for pain while she is there, but does not want to take it at home. Her foot doctor says that her feet will heal, but her foot surgery recovery has been set back by at least another two weeks due to the damages the officer caused her. The bruises will eventually heal and the pain from them will fade away with time. Her shoulder and neck injuries will heal with the care of the Chiropractor. But Christina's trust in the emergency room at Aberdeen and the police there has been shattered and can never be repaired. The Westport ambulance crew said that they will take her to Willapa Hospital ER from now on, which is about twice the distance, but they no longer trust the Gray's Harbor Hospital ER to take appropriate care of Christina again. When my husband or I take her to an ER, we will make the long drive to Olympia and never let her out of our sight for even a minute. We retained an attorney today to handle this case against the Gray's Harbor Hospital and staff and the Aberdeen Police Dept. and officer. What amazing timing. We are scheduled to give our first depositions this week in Seattle in our lawsuit against Eli Lilly who makes Zyprexa, which put Christina into her coma in 2004. Attached are some photos of Christina's bruises taken on Saturday. If you haven't read the story of her coma yet, you can find it at: pekingeseshihtzu.wordpress.com/christina-nichole%e2%80%99...

 

A GOD VICTORIOUS JOURNEY Part 1 of 2

by Patricia Diane Cota-Robles

  

Every time I am blessed with the awesome gift of participating in a facet of the unfolding Divine Plan involving the Company of Heaven and dedicated Lightworkers from around the world, I know without question that this blessed planet and ALL her Life are going to succeed in our Ascension in the Light. Our Pilgrimage to the sacred sites along the Mediterranean Sea and the South of France confirmed this Truth for me.

 

The reality is that the miracles that took place during our Pilgrimage transcend what can be expressed in words, but I will do my best to share with you the events of our journey. There were 103 pilgrims who physically joined us on this trip. We were all very aware that there were also thousands of Lightworkers joining with us in consciousness. We held each and every one of you securely in the Divinity of our hearts, and we reveled in the loving support that we received from around the world.

 

To understand the importance of this mission, I would like to briefly share with you why our Father-Mother God sent forth the Clarion Call for assistance from embodied Lightworkers in this endeavor.

 

We are at a critical turning point in the evolution of this sweet Earth. In order for us to accomplish the next step in our evolutionary process, we must reverse the adverse effects of Humanity’s fall from Grace. This process involves bringing into balance the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine Polarities of God within every person’s Heart Flame. It also involves preparing every Heart Flame and the physical, etheric, mental and emotional bodies of each soul, to withstand the 5th-Dimensional frequencies of our I AM Presence, our true God reality.

 

Prior to the fall, the Masculine and Feminine Polarities of our Father-Mother God were balanced within every person on Earth. The Masculine Polarity of our Father God activated our left-brain hemispheres and radiated into the physical plane through the power center of our Throat Chakras. This frequency of Divine Light radiated as a sapphire blue Flame of Power within the Immortal Victorious Threefold Flame in our hearts. The Feminine Polarity of our Mother God activated our right-brain hemispheres and radiated into the physical plane through the love center of our Heart Chakras. This frequency of Divine Light radiated as a crystalline pink Flame of Love within the Threefold Flame in our hearts.

 

These two perfectly balanced polarities of our Father-Mother God then merged into one powerful Violet Flame. This Sacred Fire blazed through our brains and awakened our spiritual brain centers to their full Divine Potential. These centers consist of our pituitary, pineal, hypothalamus glands and the ganglionic centers at the base of our brains.

 

With the Masculine and Feminine Polarities of God balanced within our brains and our spiritual centers activated to their full potential, our Crown Chakras of Enlightenment opened to full breadth birthing the Son or Daughter of God, The Christ or Christ Consciousness, within every person. This frequency of Divine Light radiated as a golden-yellow Flame of Enlightenment within the Threefold Flame in our hearts.

 

The Immortal Victorious Threefold Flame pulsating in every heart is the physical expression of the Holy Trinity in the world of form. In order for a Son or Daughter of God to exist, this blue, pink and gold Flame, representing the Power, Love and Wisdom of our God Parents and Their Beloved Child, must be present within the heart. In order for a Son or Daughter of God to reach his or her full Divine Potential, however, the Threefold Flame must not only exist it must be balanced. This means the perfect balance of our Father God’s Power and our Mother God’s Love, which is better known as the Holy Spirit. Through this balance, the Beloved Child of God—The Christ—is birthed within every person.

 

In our evolutionary process, there came a point in time when the Sons and Daughters of God evolving on Earth made the free-will choice to use our gift of Life in ways that conflicted with God’s Will. Through our thoughts, words, actions and feelings, we created gross mutations of the patterns of perfection pulsating within the Causal Body of God. These human miscreations began manifesting on Earth as aging, decay, disease, lack and limitation, fear, war, violence, corruption, inclement weather conditions, cataclysmic Earth changes and every other malady existing on Earth today.

 

In a futile attempt to keep ourselves from feeling so much pain, we closed our Heart Chakras to try to block our ability to feel. This fateful decision closed the portal through which our Mother God radiated Her Love into the physical plane. This forced our Mother God to withdraw to a mere trickle of Her original Divine Potential. Without the balance of our Mother God’s Divine Love, our right-brain hemispheres became almost dormant. This caused our spiritual brain centers to atrophy and our Crown Chakras of Enlightenment to close. We lost contact with The Christ within. We forgot that we are Beloved Children of God, and we lost awareness of the fact that all our Father-Mother God has is ours.

 

For aeons of time, we have been buried in the effluvia of our human miscreations. Age after Age enlightened Beings, Avatars, Buddhas and Adepts have embodied to try to awaken Humanity to the Truth of who we are and why we are in this Earthly school of learning. Progress has been painfully slow, often nonexistent.

 

Finally, a little over 2,000 years ago, during the inception of the Piscean Age, a plan was set into motion to anchor the archetypes for Humanity’s pathway back to Christ Consciousness. This plan, much like what is occurring now at the dawn of the Aquarian Age, involved embodied Lightworkers working in unison with the entire Company of Heaven.

 

The plan was for two willing representatives of our Father-Mother God to embody on Earth to cocreate the matrix of Divine Balance for the Masculine and Feminine Polarities of our Father-Mother God. This matrix was to be created by these two soul’s modeling the path of Divine Love that would open the Heart Chakra and allow the return of our Mother God through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

 

The souls chosen to accomplish this monumental feat were Beloved Jesus and his Divine Complement or Twin Flame, Beloved Mary Magdalene. Jesus in his full capacity as a Son of God volunteered to anchor the matrix for the Divine Masculine, and Mary Magdalene in her full capacity as a Daughter of God volunteered to anchor the matrix for the Divine Feminine.

 

To herald the coming of the these two resplendent Beings, and to bring the Divine Ceremony that would initiate their mission, the Being we know as John the Baptist volunteered to embody on Earth.

 

Jesus and Mary Magdalene descended to Earth together and began the preparation for their sacred mission. This was not an easy task. The fragmented, fear-based human ego, which developed when Humanity closed our Heart Chakras, thus preventing our power from being balanced with love and reverence for Life, has been fighting tooth and nail for millennia to try to block the return of our Mother God. This manipulative faction of our fallen personality was not going to give up its control of our lives easily.

 

Jesus and Mary Magdalene knew that the fallen consciousness of Humanity was not going to allow people to immediately grasp the opportunity to balance the Masculine and Feminine Polarities of God within their hearts. In fact, they knew that it would be centuries before we really understood what they were trying to teach us. That is why in Revelations Jesus says to John the Beloved ,“In the Day of the Seventh Angel, when he begins to sound, the mystery of God will be fulfilled and time will be no more.”

 

During the Piscean Age, the 6th Solar Aspect of Deity was the predominant influence. Now, during the Aquarian Age, the 7th Solar Aspect of Deity is the predominant influence. This is the Day of the Seventh Angel, and he is beginning to sound.

 

Jesus said that the voice of the 7th Angel would proclaim the time of the Second Coming of The Christ. This heralds the return of Christ Consciousness within every man, woman and child. This will occur through the return of our Mother God and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Baptism by Sacred Fire.

 

In spite of the overwhelming resistance, Jesus and Mary Magdalene accomplished their mission and anchored the matrix for the balance of the Divine Feminine and Masculine Polarities of God within every evolving soul’s Heart Flame. This occurred whether a person was in or out of embodiment or if the soul was from the past, present or future.

 

After Jesus’ crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension plans were set into motion to protect Mary Magdalene from the wrath of the people who were still resisting the return of our Mother God. The Essene Brotherhood and Sisterhood, along with Mother Mary, Joseph of Arimathea, John the Beloved and some of the other disciples, guarded Mary Magdalene and the daughter she and Jesus had conceived.

 

Mary Magdalene was over-Lighted by the Company of Heaven and safely guided to various locations on the planet where she was able to anchor the matrix for the Divine Balance of our Mother God into the body of Mother Earth. This prepared the way for the coming of the Seventh Angel and the day when he would begin to sound, when our Mother God would at last reclaim Her rightful place within the hearts of the Children of God. This would be a time when Christ Consciousness would once again be birthed into the hearts and minds of Humanity.

 

The Truth about Mary Magdalene’s mission and the fact that she was anchoring the matrix for the return of our Mother God was cloaked in secrecy to conceal the plan from the masses and to prevent the plan from being blocked through the abuse of power being wielded by Humanity’s patriarchal human egos.

 

Her protectors were well aware of her mission, and after her Ascension they steadfastly held the Immaculate Concept for the return of our Mother God. These selfless exponents of God’s Will formed mystery schools and passed the information on in veiled and mysterious symbols that could not be deciphered by the common man or woman.

 

The newly formed Christian churches had difficulty blocking the groundswell of information that kept surfacing in mysterious ways about Mary Magdalene and her relationship with Jesus, her Beloved Twin Flame. Various Gospels were being circulated, which gave conflicting accounts of what really occurred during the pageantry and the founding of the Christian Dispensation.

 

In 325 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine I decided that the confusion in the Christian doctrine needed to be stopped and that the various factions needed a unified belief system. He called a meeting of over 300 bishops and organized what has been noted as the first Ecumenical Council. This was the Council of Nicaea.

 

During this gathering he denounced Arianism, which was founded by the theologian Arius. These teachings taught that Jesus was a Son of God, as are all the Children of Earth. He reiterated that God is within every person, and that people do not need to depend on Human Beings outside of themselves in order to communicate with God or to receive God’s Forgiveness.

 

This belief system interfered greatly with the power and control of the priesthood and the Church, so Constantine ordered Arius to cease and desist in teaching such heresy. At the end of the gathering Constantine ordered a vote, and all but three bishops signed the Nicaean Creed forbidding Arianism.

 

Constantine felt this vote of support gave him the right to proceed with his mission. He gathered the 48 gospels that were being circulated amongst the various factions of the Church. He went through all of them carefully and selected only the four gospels that indicated that Jesus was Divine—above all other Human Beings. These four gospels were unnamed, as were many of the 48 gospels. Constantine made the executive decision to name the gospels he chose to be included in the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

 

He then proceeded to go through the rest of the teachings in the Bible. In order to maintain the supreme power of the Church and the patriarchal priesthood, he removed any reference to the relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus, as well as any reference he could identify regarding reincarnation. Constantine’s actions redefined the status of Christianity, and formed the basis for the Bible used today throughout the Christian world.

 

Even with this obvious betrayal of the Truth, the mission of Jesus and Mary Magdalene could not be suppressed. To the total consternation of the Church, the reality of their spiritual and intimate relationship kept surfacing. One by one, the seekers of Truth were guided to the mystery schools and secret societies. Little by little, they learned about the sacred mission of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

 

In 590 AD, Pope Gregory I had had enough and was determined to once and for all put an end to this threat to the patriarchal supremacy of the Church. With the stroke of the pen, Pope Gregory I declared Mary Magdalene to be a prostitute and asserted that she was seething with seven evil spirits. This was the very first time that Mary Magdalene was said to be a prostitute. That unconscionable lie was written nearly 600 years after her embodiment. As far as the Church was concerned, this concocted story squelched the rumors about Jesus and Mary Magdalene’s marriage.

 

In order to maintain a semblance of damage control, the Church leaders tried to transfer the attention from Mary Magdalene to Jesus’ Mother, the Virgin Mary. This was a futile effort in their attempt to block the return of our Mother God, because Beloved Mother Mary was an important Aspect of the Divine Feminine herself.

 

As the forerunners of the Divine Feminine progressed through those tumultuous times, Mother Mary protected the Truth about Mary Magdalene by holding the exoteric focus of the Divine Mother. At the same time, Mary Magdalene continued her mission of preparing the way for the return of our Mother God through esoteric circles and her teachings within the sacred mystery schools and secret societies.

 

For centuries, the Immaculate Concept of Mary Magdalene’s Divine Mission with Beloved Jesus was guarded from the outer world by her valiant protectors. With unfailing tenacity, these selfless souls prepared for the Day of the Seventh Angel when the return of our Mother God would be brought to fruition.

 

Throughout history there are bits and pieces of information regarding the souls fulfilling the service of protecting the mission of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, but most of them are terribly distorted and contaminated with misinformation from the patriarchal Church. The groups most noteworthy in this mission were the Essenes, the Druids, the Cathars and the Knights Templar.

 

Within the historic documentations of England, Spain, France and places throughout the Mediterranean, the mystical stories of the Essenes, Druids, Cathars and the Knights Templar can still be found. The most blatant proof of the Church’s attempt to suppress the secret knowledge of the Divine Feminine is revealed in the accounts of the horrific persecution and the brutal demise of these dedicated Lightworkers during the Crusades and the Inquisition.

 

Since the dawning of the Aquarian Age, which took place a few decades ago, Lightworkers have been making Pilgrimages to the areas where these atrocities took place. The intent of these Pilgrimages was to transmute the Etheric Records of the pain and suffering involved in protecting the Truth of the return of our Mother God. This purification was an important facet of the Divine Plan that had to be completed before the blocked Heart Meridian within the body of Mother Earth could be reopened. This Heart Meridian is the portal through which the completion of Mary Magdalene and Jesus’ Divine Mission will be fulfilled. It is the portal through which the Divine Balance of the Masculine and Feminine Polarities of God will be reactivated in the body of Mother Earth.

 

That brings us to our recent Pilgrimage. To signal to the world that the purification of the past had been completed and that all was in readiness for the next phase of the Divine Plan, an amazing outer-world event took place. On October 13, 1307, the Knights Templar throughout France were arrested and placed in prisons where they were tortured and eventually died. This was a massive endeavor orchestrated by the Inquisition to prevent the Knights from revealing the secret of Mary Magdalene and the Divine Feminine.

 

On October 13, 2007, exactly 700 years later, the Vatican revealed that it had found some 800-year-old documents from the Knights Templar, which had mysteriously been misplaced. The Vatican said that the documents would be released to the world, and they apologized for their transgressions.

 

In this monumental year of completion, this veiled message from the Church asking for forgiveness for its past transgressions involving the Knights Templar was broadcast on CNN via satellite throughout the world. As Humanity focused our attention on this message, the transmutation of the atrocities of the past was brought to completion. This event occurred the day before our glorious Pilgrimage began.

 

We had been told by our Father-Mother God that the time for the opening of the blocked Heart Meridian in the body of Mother Earth had come. This is the meridian that the Essenes, Druids, Cathars and Knights Templar and been protecting over centuries of time in preparation for the return of our Mother God. This was the same meridian along which Mary Magdalene anchored the matrix for the Divine Balance of the Masculine and Feminine Polarities of God in the years following Jesus’ Ascension.

 

Our God Parents said that those of us who were motivated by our Heart’s Call to make the sacrifice of our time, energy and money to accomplish this mission, had made this Pilgrimage again and again over centuries of time. They told us that the ancient footsteps we would be walking in were our own.

 

On October 14, 103 pilgrims from 15 countries began the journey to Barcelona, Spain. We arrived on October 15, and after settling into our hotel we gathered for a group dinner. During that time, Archangel Raphael Consecrated each of our Earthly Bodies and lifted us into a frequency that would allow us to be the most effective conductors of Light possible. We were each given a sacred necklace with a symbol of the open Heart of the Divine Feminine to wear during our holy adventure.

 

On October 16, we had breakfast together and loaded the busses for a tour of Barcelona. Barcelona has over 2,000 years of history. It became a Roman colony in 133 BC. Many of the churches and cathedrals in Barcelona are dedicated to various female Saints, but the grandest of them all is dedicated to the Holy Family: Mary, Joseph and Jesus. These are the Beings in the Christian Dispensation who represent the Divine Father, the Divine Mother and the Holy Child of God, The Christ. They are the representatives of the Sacred Fire, the Holy Trinity, blazing in every person’s heart.

 

This magnificent edifice is called the Temple of the Sagrada Familia. One facet of the structure is called the Central Portal of Birth. Two colossal domes are dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Jesus, The Christ, respectively. This is an example of the outer-world service of Mother Mary in which she is standing in for the esoteric mission of Mary Magdalene.

 

In the sacred endeavor of building this Temple, the architect, Antoni Gaudi, created a staggering sense of verticality, a meeting point between Heaven and Earth, God and Humanity.

 

After our tour of Barcelona, we progressed to the dock to board our beautiful cruise ship to begin our Pilgrimage through the Mediterranean. In Ages past, the Pilgrimage we were embarking on to the various positions along the Heart Meridian of Mother Earth was an arduous and dangerous feat. In this day and age, the trip is made by millions of travelers every year on luxurious cruise ships. This is not by chance. Divine Intervention has played an important part in this phenomenon.

 

The Beings of Light from the Realms of Truth set the tone for our adventure. They revealed to us that the collective body of Lightworkers present on this Pilgrimage represented the microcosm of the macrocosm of Humanity. They said that our collective life experiences through all of our Earthly sojourns contained a fragment of the Earthly experience of every evolving soul on Earth. We were told that the Etheric Records of the painful experiences of the past were now transmuted, and our mission was to serve as surrogates on behalf of all Humanity as we anchored the archetypes for the New Earth. We were also asked by our Father-Mother God to serve as acupuncture needles along the Heart Meridian of Mother Earth.

 

Our guidance from On High was to focus on the Immaculate Concept of Heaven on Earth, as we opened the Heart Meridian and cleared the way for the Divine Balance of the Masculine and Feminine Polarities of God within Humanity and the body of Mother Earth.

 

The Company of Heaven perceived our sense of awe and assured us that we already had everything we needed within our Beings to accomplish our individual facets of this Divine Plan. We were told that each of us had been preparing for lifetimes for this Cosmic Moment, so as one unified Heart Flame we released any feelings of doubt or inadequacy and invoked our I AM Presence to take full dominion of our thoughts, words, actions and feelings.

 

The Company of Heaven asked that during our trek through the Mediterranean, we not organize any group tours involving all of the 103 people on this mission. Instead, we were each instructed to listen to our inner guidance and to participate individually in the available tours and opportunities that resonated in our heart of hearts. The end result of this plan was that our group traversed each location north, south, east and west. This enabled us to cover the gamut of each acupuncture point along the Heart Meridian of Mother Earth.

 

On October 17, we reached the Isle of Mallorca in the Bay of Palma. The first settlers came to this island around the 5th century BC. Most of them came from the South of France. In the year 123 BC, Mallorca came under Roman rule.

 

One of the most important and emblematic monuments on this island is the Cathedral of Mallorca. It was the custom in medieval times to dedicate the first churches built in towns reconquered from “the pagans” to Jesus or Mother Mary. In Mallorca, which is an important point along the Heart Meridian of Mother Earth and thus a facet of the portal for the return of our Mother God, the cathedral was dedicated to Mother Mary.

 

August 15, the day celebrated as Mother Mary’s Ascension Day, is the local Feast Day. The devotion to Mother Mary, the Divine Mother, is reflected throughout the history of the cathedral and the works of art contained within it. The cathedral adopted as its seal the Throne of Mary on the waves. The water element represents the Emotional Body and the feeling nature of our Mother God.