Seeking

Deleting Thoughts

Create a mental delete button and practice deleting negative thoughts. When a self-defeating thought pops into your head, actually visualize the delete button and take your finger and press it firmly! Then replace that “holding you back” thought with a more positive, encouraging and hopeful one. Repeat as necessary.

Keep the Keys

It is about who WE are.

"But in the end, torture's failure to serve its intended purpose isn't the main reason to oppose its use. I have often said, and will always maintain, that this question isn't about our enemies; it's about us. It's about who we were, who we are and who we aspire to be. It's about how we represent ourselves to the world."
Sen. John McCain

The Train of Life

At birth, we boarded the train of life and met our parents, and we believed that they would always travel by our side. However, at some station, our parents would step down from the train, leaving us on life's journey alone.

As time goes by, some significant people will board the train: siblings, other children, friends, and even the love of our life.

Many will step down and leave a permanent vacuum.  Others will go so unnoticed that we won't realize that they vacated their seats! This train ride has been a mixture of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, goodbyes, and farewells.

A successful journey consists of having a good relationship with all passengers, requiring that we give the best of ourselves. The mystery that prevails is that we do not know at which station we ourselves will step down. Thus, we must try to travel along the track of life in the best possible way -- loving, forgiving, giving, and sharing.

When the time comes for us to step down and leave our seat empty -- we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who continue to travel on the train of life.--unknown
  

Value

Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche communities, has written, “To love someone is not first of all to do things for them, but to reveal to them their beauty and value, to say to them through our attitude: ‘You are beautiful. You are important. I trust you. You can trust yourself.’ We all know well that we can do things for others and in the process crush them, making them feel that they are incapable of doing things by themselves. To love someone is to reveal to them their capacities for life, the light that is shining in them.”

True Peace

Losing Touch

Oppression

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." -Frederick Douglass

The Enemy

So Hard to Do

"I must learn to love the fool in me- the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries." —Theodore Isaac Rubin

As It Turns Out

“As it turns out, selling assault weapons is legal, but using them for their intended purpose is not.”--Gore Vidal

Allow

Best People

Inches

“Victory is not won in miles, but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.” – Louis L’Amour

Murder

How People Treat You

Surround Yourself

Life is Difficult

“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

― M. Scott Peck from "The Road Less Traveled"

You Can't Make Them Happy

Distancing

As A Teacher---

Healing

Stronger?

Float Peacefully

Happiness

Change the World

Supposed To Be

"This is who I want to be in the world. This is who I think we are supposed to be, people who help call forth human beings from deep inside hopelessness." — Anne Lamott

Unlike

Logic?

Progressive Logic: Quality health care is a right, not a privilege. National health care improves quality of life for every citizen (even the rich).

Conservative Logic: "The only thing that can stop a bad guy with Ebola is a good guy with Ebola."

Time to choose America... Progressive reasoning, or illogical conservative catch-phrases.--Randy Johnson

What's Up With This?

To Remember

Psychology Tip

 When thinking about life remember this: no amount of guilt can solve the past and no amount of anxiety can change the future.

Like

Always Evil

Not Enough Time?

You are----

You are the books you read, the films you watch, the people you meet, the dreams you have, the conversations you engage in. You are what you take from these. You are the sound of the ocean, the breathe of fresh air, the brightest light and darkest corner. You are a collective of every experience you have had in your life. You are every single day. So drown yourself in a sea of knowledge and existence. Let the words run through your veins and let the colors fill your mind. — Unknown

Response

Move Through

Attitude

Change

"We cannot change what we are unaware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change." ~ Sheryl Sandberg

One Person

"We all have this hunch that there is this one person in the world that can change our life forever.

And that hunch is correct...

Unfortunately, it takes most of us years until we realize that that person is looking at us in the mirror everyday." - Michael Cheshire

Logic

The Blue Street Journal

For those of you who want to quote Leviticus to justify your "biblically-based" opposition to same-sex marriage ("do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman"), allow me to share a few more verses from the very same book:

"Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material." - Leviticus 19:19

"Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard." - Leviticus 19:27

"If a man sleeps with a woman who is a slave girl promised to another man but who has not been ransomed or given her freedom, there must be due punishment. The man must bring a ram to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting for a guilt offering to the Lord." - Leviticus 19:20-21

"If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death." - Leviticus 20:9

"If a man lies with a woman during her monthly period and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has also uncovered it. Both of them must be cut off from their people." - Leviticus 20:18

Those are just some of the many "laws" which people conveniently overlook when they throw scripture around. The reason for that, I would presume, is because most people don't actually read the Bible; they simply cherry-pick whatever verses suit their purpose in the moment or parrot the scriptures they hear from other people. I have read the Bible cover-to-cover more than once, and I have spent many years studying scripture. I don't pretend to be an expert, but what I know is this: I have no interest in a God or a book that claims that a man who rapes a slave girl gets off scot-free after sacrificing a ram in front of a tent, but two men who express their love for one another must be put to death.

Everyone is entitled to their beliefs, but if you hold people accountable to one verse in Leviticus, then you must hold people accountable to them all. Anything less is unequivocal hypocrisy.

Reason

Truth

How To Create Change

Raising Problem Solvers

No More Patience

“I no longer have patience for certain things, not because I’ve become arrogant, but simply because I reached a point in my life where I do not want to waste more time with what displeases me or hurts me. I have no patience for cynicism, excessive criticism and demands of any nature. I lost the will to please those who do not like me, to love those who do not love me and to smile at those who do not want to smile at me. I no longer spend a single minute on those who lie or want to manipulate. I decided not to coexist anymore with pretense, hypocrisy, dishonesty and cheap praise. I do not tolerate selective erudition nor academic arrogance. I do not adjust either to popular gossiping. I hate conflict and comparisons. I believe in a world of opposites and that’s why I avoid people with rigid and inflexible personalities. In friendship I dislike the lack of loyalty and betrayal. I do not get along with those who do not know how to give a compliment or a word of encouragement. Exaggerations bore me and I have difficulty accepting those who do not like animals. And on top of everything I have no patience for anyone who does not deserve my patience.” _ Meryl Streep

Evolution? Creation?

Evolution is like someone coming up to you and saying 
"I saw your spouse with another person."
"I don't believe you, I have faith in my spouse." 
"Ok, I thought you might say that so I have a photo of them going into a restaurant together."
"That proves nothing."
"Here is a photo of them kissing."
"I still have faith, maybe it was a joke."
"Here is a video of them making out and going into the bathroom together."
"A very unfunny joke but I have faith."
"Here is a video of them having sex with the stall door open."
"Well, you see you might have faith in video, but I have faith in my spouse." 

It's not faith, it's denial.

Motivation

Guns Don't Shoot People??

Now where?

Relationship Before Rules

"Every time God forgives us, God is saying that God's own rules do not matter as much as the relationship that God wants to create with us." —Richard Rohr

Follow

We worshiped Jesus instead of following him on his same path. We made Jesus into a mere religion instead of a journey toward union with God and everything else. This shift made us into a religion of "belonging and believing" instead of a religion of transformation. - Richard Rohr

A Great Way to See What is Fair/Right

Would you trade places with the other person? That is one way 
 of seeing if something is fair or right.

Definition of Success

Success is getting away with doing the things you love.-Steve Thorpe

Healing

Need

Contradicting the Bible for the Sake of Mercy

How many times did Jesus say, "You've heard it said, but I say ..." He contradicted the Bible all the time for the sake of mercy and humanity.

Good Grows

Serving His Country?

Let me get this straight---

Of All Religions---

Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men. -- Voltaire

Jesus Never Asked Us To Worship Him

"Jesus clearly taught the twelve disciples about surrender, the necessity of suffering, humility, servant leadership, and nonviolence. The men resisted him every time, and so he finally had to make the journey himself and tell them, “Follow me!” But we avoided that, too, by making the message into something he never said: “Worship me.” Worship of Jesus is rather harmless and risk-free; actually following Jesus changes everything."
-Richard Rohr

Enemies and Friends

"In the end we will not remember the words of or enemies but the silence of our friends." - MLK.

Defend or Share?

"Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared." - Henri Nouwen

Under the Layers

“We think sometimes we're only drawn to the good, but we're actually drawn to the authentic. We like people who are real more than those who hide their true selves under layers of artificial niceties.” —Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Against Their Conscience? Hobby Lobby

Paying for  the 4 birth control methods they are now suddenly against was not"against their conscience" before the ACA.

Their conscience doesn't prevent them from 
buying most of their merchandise from China, where there are more abortions than anywhere.
 
Their conscience doesn't keep them from investing in 
and profiting hugely from companies that produce the very birth control they object 
to and refuse to allow insurance to cover for their employees.

 Apparently "their conscience" allows them to be hypocrites.

2 Approaches

There ya go. I spent a good deal of my life trying to "save" folks who REALLY had no interest! And and another chunk I spent trying to be a nice guy so people like me and approve.

Both approaches are of very limited usefulness in living a life of integrity and compassion! In the first, people are always disappointing you and in the second, you are disappointing the rest!--unknown

Religious Freedom Defined

Jesus rose so that----?

"And on this day, Jesus rose from the ashes of the fireworks to be reborn again as a true Republican, bringing passionate patriotism and guns to the world, so that the world would be saved from those filthy Democrats, through him."--Jeff Ball

Unlike

Guns?

OK

"My religion doesn't allow me to XYZ."
OK.
"My religion doesn't allow you to XYZ."
Not OK.

The Real Heroes

"The pioneers of a warless world are the youth who refuse military service." -Albert Einstein

Losing My Hearing Wasn't the Worst Part of My Ear Problems

In the late 90's I realized I was not hearing speech very well anymore. I was beginning to misunderstand what people were saying. This is not a good thing for a person who is a teacher in a maximum security juvenile detention center and is only 40 years old.

 A sullen boy, looking down, and mumbling is not easily understood in the best of conditions and I was noticing that even when they were looking at me and did not have any sort of accent or attitude, I was misunderstanding frequently.  I had a roomful of these boys as my students and something had to change.  I had seen an audiologist in the 80's for the same thing, and I was basically told it was all in my head. I left teaching that year to be a stay home mom for a few years and so it seemed the problem went away. Probably, in reality,  it was being out of the classroom environment where I was being bombarded with the need to understand several people speaking at once that made the difference.

In 2001 I realized there was a problem and started noticing a horrible fatigue about noon each working day. I did not realize that these 2 things were connected. When I saw an audiologist, he saw there was something going on, but could not figure it out. I tried several small, in the ear hearing aides and really found no relief. He sent me to a doctor who told me that I was losing hearing, but basically told me to just accept it. Because I was now losing hearing rapidly and my "good ear" was also having worsening fatigue,  I decided to see a specialist about 50 miles away. He wanted to rule out auto-immune diseases and wanted to put me on very high dose steroids for a month to see if that helped. After reading the information on the steroids I decided that I needed a better answer than  to just experiment.

It was at this point where my general physician agreed to refer me to a University of WA Medical Center Otolaryngologist who very quickly diagnosed me with very aggressive, early onset (I was only 45 in 2001) otosclerosis. When he checked my history and found out that I had had a very severe case of a certain strain of measles going around in 1960 when I was 4 years old, he said that it matched an ongoing study showing that the early onset and aggressive form might be related to those measles decades before.

He suggested I have a stapedectomy, which would be an easy outpatient procedure that had a 99% chance of fixing the problem. He joked with me when I asked about the 1% risk and he told me I was the picture of health and much younger than his average oto patient and that I would not be the 1%. I had the surgery and now AM part of the 1%. I came out of surgery with the worst dizziness anyone could ever imagine and very little hearing. I had the surgery repeated less than 30 days later and got back some hearing, but less than I had even had before the surgery. A hearing aide would not help, so I coped.

Eighteen months later I woke up at 4 AM with a strange feeling in my head and my body and realized that it felt like my surgical ear was "dying" and sure enough, as the minutes passed I lost all perceptible hearing in that ear and it was replaced by a sound, known as tinnitus, which for me sounded like the loudest buzz saw imaginable. It was beyond torture. My husband got up and called the dr. who ordered us to get in the car and drive the 5 hour trip to Seattle without even stopping for a shower. I got there and he decided that we must try high dose steroids immediately and within a few days my hearing got a little better. Unfortunately, as soon as we tried to even minimally reduce the steroids, my hearing loss got worse. The dosage was not a dosage I could live on and so we let the hearing go. The tinnitus remained at such a level that I felt I would become suicidal.  I felt I had no hope.

My hearing loss was one thing but the tinnitus was pure hell. I could not sleep, read, or do anything. I called my dr. more than once, sobbing and he said if he had an answer he would be the richest dr. on earth and that I would have to live with it. Despair became my closest friend. In addition to worrying about losing my job, my social life, I also worried about losing my mind. I got a hearing aide for the other ear and within a few months I got a BAHA (bone attached hearing aide) on the deaf side, and coped much better with being able to hear, but it did not lessen the tinnitus at all.

I read everything I could find, began to chart when the sound was better or worse, and tried to "study" what was going on. I quickly learned that if I was tired, not feeling well, pre-menstrual, or stressed, it would get worse. I learned that when I was experiencing something joyful, that I was immersed in, that it would be less IF I were not over excited at the time. I felt I was onto something. I practiced my own form of biofeedback. I learned to slow my breathing, slow my pulse, sit very still, and it helped a little, but I still felt overwhelmed.

In reading about the 5-10% of people who learned to manage tinnitus, I found a commonality. They all had quit actively fighting it and instead were working on acceptance and beyond acceptance to actually welcome it. There is a technique when dealing with anxiety that requires not fighting it but actually welcoming it and even trying to make it worse by concentrating on actively trying to become more anxious and increase the physical symptoms by breathing harder and concentrating on increasing heart rate.  I experimented with trying to hear the  sound and all the intricacies of the sound in my ear. I tried to hear every nuance. I concentrated for 10-15 minutes at a time, and sure enough, it got a bit less.

For some reason, I decided to make the sound positive, as crazy as that sounds.  I decided to imagine the most peaceful setting I could. For me it was in a hammock in the sunlight filtering through the trees in the woods, next to a lovely yellow old farmhouse. In my mind I decorated the porch with items, designed an old fashioned screen door and imagined almost every detail I could. Once I had created the picture and let myself close my eyes and relax into it, I made the tinnitus the soundtrack that went with it. Within a few weeks I was noticing the tinnitus 50% less if I did this several times a day for 10-15 minutes a time. I even got to the point at work where I took 3 minute restroom breaks and did it for 3 minute slots throughout my busy day. I made myself feel happy about the visual setting and made myself accept and even try to like my friend, the soundtrack, that went with it. Over a period of several months I learned to manage the tinnitus to the point that now I can actually go a week without noticing it. No, it has not lessened. The minute I think about it and focus on it, I am completely aware that it is still there. But instead of fighting it emotionally or physically, I make it my soundtrack of peace. Not always easy, but because I can now count on it, I can attain that level of awareness in my mind within a few seconds rather than needing 10-15 minutes at a time. Because I know it works, I can patiently work with it, knowing for sure that it will come back under control.

There are times when stress or pre-menstrually (yes, at the age of 58 I am still regular--which is another tale of being in the 1% yet again) or getting sick, when it gets hard enough to deal with the tinnitus that I have to go back to my 10 minute sessions. I often do this when I cannot sleep at night and find doing it when the tinnitus is not really bad, seems to actually be preventive.

Remember the tiredness? It was from trying to hear and decipher. When I had the BAHA surgery and learned to manage the tinnitus, it went mostly away.

I was able to continue to work and am now in my 17th year as a "juvie jail teacher", which I totally love. Unfortunately, only a few months after my BAHA surgery my husband was diagnosed at age 49 with early onset Parkinson's and 5 years later had DBS surgery for that, my oldest son became life threateningly ill, my MIL died, my father died, and several other things happened all at once. Due to those life issues I sometimes had to do my visualization with my inner "soundtrack" up to 4 or 5 times a day.   Life is much better for all of us now, but I have learned to use my technique for all sorts of things in my life. Some would say it is a form of yoga or meditation and I would probably agree with that. In any case, tinnitus is now my friend and we have called a truce.

The Poor are Not Poor Due to Laziness or Stupidity

I am an American who has lived and worked in Denmark for over
40 years and I have seen what the US has become in that time
and I am ashamed of it. Americans have been sold a fairytale
about individualism and taxes and welfare and it goes on and
on. The poor are not poor because they are lazy and stupid,
they are poor because there are powerful people who profit
from ignorance, crime and poverty.On-the-ground middle class people with normal jobs and small
businesses and no Phd. in Econ find it harder and harder to
navigate in today's world with so much uncertainty. And I see
no reason why people in the US should feel any form of stigma
about help from their government. We have all paid taxes at
some point. It is our way of saying we belong to a group, are
members of a club. And it is up to those member to decide just
how funds are collected and used. In the old days being a
member of a community was how we got by - helping neighbours
and others in time of need and getting it in return. Today's
communities are defined by county, state, or national borders,
but they are still communities.
Tax cuts do not automatically generate jobs - that is a myth
of what we call "Trickle-down-economics" enthusiasts which is
kept alive by false data and it is just incorrect. Recent tax
cuts in Kansas have backfired and had the result of reducing
Kansas tax revenue while increasing the tax revenue of
neighboring states from Kansas-based businesses. It is also
turning every freelance and 2nd job worker in Kansas into a
private business exempt of taxes. This sounds nifty but in
truth it simply has undermined tax revenue and damaged what
remains of the trade union force in Kansas. Remember that
federal tax cut under Bush Jr. were an attempt by ultra right
wing groups to reduce the federal govt. so much it could be
"drowned in a bathtub!"
One thing I've learned as a longtime resident and small
business owner in Denmark, the world's highest taxed country,
is that here, at least, everyone gets some form of tax money
back in some way either directly as child-money, free
healthcare, and free universities, or indirectly in the form
of having a middle class with spending money and no poverty.
Here there is no stigma attached to "government money". It is
considered a citizen's right. And the more there is, the more
of it gets spread around.--by Tim Newlin

Believer?

Impact

Maybe--

What Should WE Be Doing? This!

No Need to Worry. RIP Charles Barsotti.

True Christians

Grace

School Shooting

From a teacher at Reynolds High School where the shooting occurred:

"Whenever there is a school shooting, people use the word "evil" in their discussions of the shooter. I taught the boy who did the shooting at Reynolds yesterday, for two years. I can tell you that he was not evil. He was gentle, shy, kind, sensitive, curious, playful... He had the most surprising smile, that would light up his eyes. He was a child. Obviously, he was a child who had reached a very broken, desperate and hopeless place. The evil lies in us. I was asked today if I "saw this" in him. Would that matter if I had? There are almost no mental health services left for children in poverty. I see broken children everyday and feel powerless to truly help them. No, I did not "see this" in him. He was not evil. He was a child, who died at his own hand, in a bathroom stall. I am heartbroken for him, his family ...for all of us. The evil is in us, until we put our children above ALL else."

You Support War?

Pain

Slander