This is the time of year when children are giddy and parents are stressed. It is sometimes hard for a parent to get back to those feelings that we once had as a child. I think that it is important to remember that there are so many children that never have a chance to feel like we once did at this important time of the year. I say that this is an important time of the year not for only our children but for us to understand all children need to be able to feel like we once did. It is so easy to cast off sympathetic feelings but if there was one day that we should not it would be December 25. To see my children open up a present in wonder and see the shock and joy of finding a present inside fills me with a joy I would happily share if I could to all the children of the world. The pleasure is truly in the giving and the one gift we all can give to everyone, we see, is a smile and "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas". We have to get to the understanding that this is the one time of the year where we have to put what ever differences aside and join in the celebration of Love. For on this day, far ago, a Child was born that taught us Love and gave us Hope.  Never give up on Hope and always show that your Love can never die.

One Life, One Soul, One Thought, One Goal .. .. .. LoVe .. Feel it`s power and Never fear sharing it

All Hallow's Eve

When I was young there was 3 times of the year I looked forward to. Christmas, Easter and Halloween.
Christmas, was a magical time of warmth and presents. Easter was a time of fun finding candy eggs and chocolate bunnies. and Then there was Halloween. Having children commands you to celebrate all three of these holidays but I find that Halloween is the best. I like it because I can dress the house and act like a child myself. For most of the 3 holidays its all work for a parent. The costs in time and money for all three can get out of hand fast. But Halloween is a bit different. Dressing up in an outfit and taking my children out into the night to Trick-or-Treat is like taking me back to a time when I was a child. Even staying at home dressed up in an outfit delivering treats to the kids coming to the door is also fun. Your alone while you partner takes the kids out. It's fun to see all the costumes and meet the people going door to door.
There are those that do not celebrate Halloween because they see it as a celebration of a Pagan ritual, and if you want to cut it out of your children's life then fine.  There will be a time though, when they look out of the window with wonder and regret, no matter what explanation you give them. Halloween is not like Christmas or Easter. Halloween will only occupy a very part of your child's youth. as soon as a child becomes a teenager they become less likely to enjoy trick or treating. I would recommend that every child experience Halloween at least once in their life. Anything is life can be represented in bad way and just because some choose to celebrate witchcraft doesn't mean that Everyone has to. It can be a night to celebrate the fight against evil by dawning angel outfits and walking door to door collecting candy for a good cause .. You!

The price of doing nothing

Today I saw on the news that a little girl got run down and no one did anything about it for far too long. The only way the world knows about this is that it was recorded and placed on Internet for all to see. I suspect that this sort of thing happens far to often and that it goes unreported. In our past we often never heard about such things because we previously lived in a world that didn't have the capability to instantly record, transmit and view. This draws me to thinking about something I thought about a while ago. If we know of a tragic event that falls on someone we know it hits us far more then if we hear about a tragic event that falls on 100 people we don't. It's like from our lives we have rings of emotional distance that radiate from us and that tragic events that happen father away from us effect us less. What's different about viewing it is that it brings the tragic event as close as if we viewed it first hand. I was shocked and horrified and felt helpless to help this child. I wanted to yell at those people who just drove and rode by without even bothering to stop. I imagined the children of those people suffering the same way. This little girl who never had a chance at a happy life was treated worse then an animal. It made me think that we have all paid a terrible price for understanding how some people can be incredibly indifferent to the plight of the vulnerable. We like to think of ourselves as living in a world that people on the whole treat others how they like to be treated. We hope that if our child was in trouble, and for some reason out of reach for us to help, that a neighbour would help until we could arrive. We are relieved when we read about reports of people putting themselves in harms-way to help another in need. We pay tribute and reward those who commit acts of bravery that save many without consideration of the danger they place themselves in. Then something like this pulls us down from our lofty opinion that everyone else would do the same as we would. This little girl has shockingly shown us that we as a civilization have a long way to go in order to call ourselves civilized. We have all paid a price for this despicable act. What this poor girl has paid with her life our civilization has paid for in our thinking. We have all been demoralized by the indifference that has been paid to her. For every time a person past, we all as civilization took a giant step back in justifying ourselves as an enlightened society. This Innocent child has just shown us that we are just one step away from the animals that surround us. What she paid for with her life to show us is a price that, we as a civilization, can not afford to pay. We must resolve ourselves in knowing that for every act that raises our hopes in thinking we are an enlightened people, there are single acts like this that make us think that we are no different then the animals we try to raise ourselves higher than.  To paraphrase a quote:
 We must forever fight against the dieing of the light of hope that someday we can justifingly call ourselves an enlightened society

Stress Relief (Self Helper)

I thought that I would share a mental exercise that helps me de-stress from time to time.

1) First start by imagining yourself sitting down (easy if you actually sitting during this). The only trick is that imagine you are looking down at yourself from above. In your mind paint a picture of your surroundings. From just above you, you can see any furniture, pictures and electronics that may be in the same room as you. take a few minutes to let your mind imagine all of your surroundings as if you were floating from just bove your head.

2) Let your imagination move your point of view higher so now you can see more of your surroundings. If you are inside move your point of view to outside the building you are in. You can still see where you are in the building you just make yourself appear smaller. If your outside you imagine more of your surroundings any trees that mayb nearby. Take a few minutes to imagine all of the things you may here from floating above you sitting there.

3) Now use your imagination to take yourself even higher. You can see the street your on or the entire neighbourhood. You can still see the point on the ground or place in the home where you are sitting but only appear vey small. You can make out more of the things that surround you.any streets or other buildings that are there or any steams or rivers that are nearby. Take time to imagine all of the things in your area.

4) Move even higher now so that you can see alot more of the area around you. At this point you can only barely make out the point at which you are sitting. Your imagining yourself from about 1000 feet above where you are sitting. you can makeout any nearby towns or suburbs. You can imagine any destination that would take 1/2 hour to travel to by car or bus. Again take your time to imagine all of what you might see from that point above.

5) Move higher to see the state, province or district your in. You can't make out yourself anymore just take note of where about you are in your picture you are drawing in your mind. The roads or rivers appear alot smaller now. You can make out vehicles but they appear very small. Let you mind float here for a few minutes .
6) Move even higher now so that your view encompasses the entire country you are in. You can see the different areas of the country as if you were looking down at a geographical view in an atlas. Take time to picture any mountains, large areas of water, nearby oceans if any. You are looking down at your country from above the clouds. They slowly move by as you imagine youself float there.

7) Move back even futher until your mind imagine the entire planet. You can only make out the state, province or district your are in. You can see the earth creep ever so slowly around as it turns. You see the oceans and land areas only. Rest here for a few minutes.

You can continue farther away or end your exercise here. by jumping  to number 10)

8) Time to move to warp speed. Let your mind move ever so farther away from the earth until your at the edge of the Solar System. The sun looks the size of the Moon as you imagine all the planets in their places slowly turning around it. you can only make out the earth as a blue-green dot amoungst the stars. Float here as an astronaught would.

9) Now move back until the sun looks the size of a star in the night sky. This is were we will stop. The sun twinkles in the darkness. We are so far away that we can only see the stars. Let your mind imagine a comet rushing by and think for a second.

10) From your vantage point think the following:
           "Just how big are the problems in my life?"

11) Slowly float back to where you are sitting.

 

First blog

I have lived most of my life trying to understand myself. I started this journey to better understand others. My thinking was "How can I understand anyone else without first understanding myself?". The funny thing was, in understanding myself, I did start to understand others as well. The Internet taught me something important. I was chatting one day and figured out that the person I was chatting with could of been a neighbour or a person from the other side of the planet. I started to understand that we all have the same type of feelings, maybe not in the same amount or for the same things but in a sense they were the same. The same hopes, dreams, loves, hurts, hates. I think that most of us try to understand ourselves as different then everyone else. I  think that most over look that we are more alike then different.. I am going to cut my first blog short, time to get the kids off to school. Be back soon