Joyous Dogs at the beach with wheels

Shared pain is half the pain ... shared pleasure is twice the pleasure ...

AWAKEN TO THIS DAY

SANSKRIT PROVERB

Look at this day, for it is life, the very life of life.

In its brief course lie all the realities and verities of existence, the bliss of growth, the splendor of action, the glory of power.

For yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision, but today, well lived, makes every day a dream, a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day

*PICTURE: Detail of an illustration prepared for the print version of this story.

(Neal Cresswell/Neal Cresswell for The Globe and Mail)

LINK:  http://www.ask.com/web?l=dis&o=10150&qsrc=2869&q=globe%20and%20mail%20birthday%20neal%20cresswell

RAVENS ARE CLEVER INDEED

  

RAVENS ARE CLEVER ENOUGH TO HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR AND TO BE MISCHIEVOUS. 

Ravens in the Tower of London

According to legend, the Kingdom of England will fall if the ravens of the Tower of London are removed.

It had been thought that there have been at least six ravens in residence at the tower for centuries.

The earliest known reference to a Tower raven is a picture in the newspaper The Pictorial World in 1883.

This and scattered subsequent references, both literary and visual, which appear in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, place them near the monument commemorating those beheaded at the tower, popularly known as the “scaffold.” 

This strongly suggests that the ravens, which are notorious for gathering at gallows, were originally used to dramatize tales of imprisonment and execution at the tower told to tourists by the Yeomen Warders.

There is evidence that the original ravens were donated to the tower by the Earls of Dunraven, perhaps because of their association with the Celtic raven-god Bran.  

However wild ravens, which were once abundant in London and often seen around meat markets (such as nearby Eastcheap) feasting for scraps, could have roosted at the Tower in earlier times. 

During the Second World War, most of the Tower's ravens perished through shock during bombing raids, leaving only a mated pair named "Mabel" and "Grip." 

Shortly before the Tower reopened to the public, Mabel flew away, leaving Grip despondent. A couple of weeks later, Grip also flew away, probably in search of his mate. The incident was reported in several newspapers, and some of the stories contained the first references in print to the legend that the British Empire would fall if the ravens left the tower.  

Since the Empire was dismantled shortly afterward, those who are superstitious might interpret events as a confirmation of the legend. Before the tower reopened to the public on 1 January 1946, care was taken to ensure that a new set of ravens was in place. 

Ravens in the Tower of London

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_ravens

Portrait by Colin O’Brien

LINK: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/late-shift-1/lecture-creative-connections-spitalfields-life-25072013.php

You are the master of your fate and you create your own happiness.

If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?  And if I am only for myself, then what am I?  And if not now, when?
- Hillel the Elder, 1st Century B.C.
 

 It's never the events that happen to us that make us disturbed, but our view of them.
Epictetus, 1st Century A.D.


Happiness and misery depend as much on temperament as on fortune.
- Francois de la Rochefoucauld, 17th Century


Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
- Abe Lincoln


Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them.
- Leo Tolstoy


 To be in Hell is to drift; to be in Heaven is to steer.
- Geo. B. Shaw


.................

It is not that someone else is preventing you from living happily;
You yourself do not know what you want.  Rather than admit this,    
you pretend that someone is keeping you from excercising your liberty.
Who is this?  It is yourself.
- Thomas Merton, 1961

.................................


I am resposible for the achievement of my desires.
I am responsible for my choices and acktions...
I am responsible for my personal happiness.
- Dr. Nathaniel Branden


 .....................................


"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."

- Thomas Jefferson

..................................

If you think you're free, there's no escape possible.
- Ram Dass

 ...............................

Happiness is something you can work at.  It's a matter of identifying the things you do that get in the way of happiness,  and figuring out what positive activities you can do everyday to augment it.

- David Lykken, U of Minnesota

 .....................................

Depressed people are caught in a  feedback loop in which distorted thoughts cause negative feelings, which then distort feelings further.

You can break the cycle by changing the thoughts.

A big part of cognitive therapy is training clients to catch the thoughts and  distortions and then find alternative and more accurate ways of thinking.


Over many weeks,the client's thoughts become more realistic.  The feedback loop is broken and the client's anxiety or depression abates.



- Johnathan Haidt, Psychologist and Happiness Researcher


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Summer Fiction: Birthday, by Lisa Moore - The Globe and Mail

  This picture really impresses me...Blogger

Detail of an illustration prepared for the print version of this story.
(Neal Cresswell/Neal Cresswell for The Globe and Mail)

The picture caught my eye...unfortunately or not the article did not... Blogger

LINK:  http://www.ask.com/web?l=dis&o=10150&qsrc=2869&q=globe%20and%20mail%20birthday%20neal%20cresswell



Summer Fiction: Birthday, by Lisa Moore - The Globe and Mail

Don't be a Dick.

If none are spayed or neutered, a female dog, her mate, and their offspring can produce 67,000  dogs in 6 years.

Ban Backyard Breeders along with Puppy Mills.  It is downright depressing to know how many puppies and kittens are abandoned and unwanted everyday in North America. 

Responsible people do their best to adopt from shelters but there is no way to keep up with the steady supply of newly orphaned animals.

The statistics can be found on the web.  I don't want to make anyone feel sick reading about it.  Take my word for it that too many animals die because humans no longer want the responsibility of caring for a pet.

Balance external expectations with Reality:

Jennifer Howard, Ph.D.: Are We Addicted to the Idea of Perfection?:

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything,

That's how the light gets in.

-- Leonard Cohen

.. we cultivate in our culture: the pursuit of perfection..  reinforced in the media, in TV ads, magazines and newspapers. Everyone is at risk ...cultural messages feed the deepest insecurity in ourselves and encourage us to hold ourselves to an impossible standard: perfection.

 Balance those external expectations with reality.

...psychological maturity includes awareness, self-regulation, responsibility, interdependence, honesty and integrity. 

Psychological maturity requires the ability to willingly shift our perspective and to have an adaptive healthy self-esteem. These qualities can only be cultivated through our inner quest for self-knowledge.

Some people are obsessed with the continuous pursuit of flawlessness...as addicted to the pursuit of perfection similar to being addicted to a drug or any other destructive behavior. As Marion Woodman, Jungian analyst and author of "Addiction to Perfection," wrote,

"Perfection is defeat ... Perfection belongs to the gods; completeness or wholeness is the most a human being can hope for ... It is in seeking perfection by isolating and exaggerating parts of ourselves that we become neurotic. The chief sign of the pursuit of perfection is obsession. Obsession occurs when all the psychic energy, which ought to be distributed among the various parts of the personality in an attempt to harmonize them, is focused on one area of the personality to the exclusion of everything else. Obsession is always a fixation -- a freezing-over of the personality so that it becomes not a living being but something fixed, like a piece of sculpture, locked into a complex. Addiction to perfection is at root a suicidal addiction. The addict is simulating not life, but death.

... To move toward perfection is to move out of life, or what is worse, never to enter it. A problem arises when our external focus inhibits our ability to focus within, to develop our spiritual, mental and psychological selves."
 

...spend more time, energy and money learning new skills, gaining insights and strengthening your inner landscape to deepen and broaden your experience of life... cultivate a profound sense of understanding and acceptance for yourselves and others just the way you are.   Don't  worry quite as much about the effects of aging, see your lives as an opportunity to develop wisdom... focus more upon your inner connection... and celebrate aging. ...embrace the passage of time that produces mature wisdom

Mature wisdom doesn't necessarily make us richer, thinner or land us a fabulous looking mate. However, it's exactly what we need to weather life's inevitable changes.

It may feel confusing from the quick-fix perspective but focusing inwardly, we develop the strength and compassion that makes life easier, more peaceful and happier.

Matthew 5:48 says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." The Greek origin of the word "perfect" means "to be whole." so read this passage as, 

"Be whole, therefore, as your heavenly father is whole?"
 




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