Rumi’s poems elegantly and consistently touch our inner being and inspire us to go beyond our limitations towards the Divine.
The music: The credits do appear at the end of this video, but it is by the composer, Eleni Karaindrou, and is the theme music called “Eternity and a Day” from the movie, Aggelopoulos.
A note on the music: This entire video was constructed in silence-only the poem and the images were put together without my knowing what music would be the right one. The music is so important to the interpretation of these poems.
Rather than reading them, the music is my voice. When I ‘laid’ this beautiful piece of music over the video it fit perfectly. Few edits were made to accomodate the images to fit the music. They seem to be made for each other.
This past 2 days I was helping my friends out at the Gay Marriage Watch Blog. From OBLOGDEE we wish our friends, Scott and Mark and their families condolences on their tragic and sad family loss. I was able to post several stories on their BLOG which I now cross post here.
I have also added some stories that GMW are highlighting for the week thereunder:-
A San Diego woman, Karen Grube is calling for a boycott of the popular Pasadena Rose Parade because two men from Los Angeles are scheduled to be married on a float called “Love is the Best Protection,” the Pasadena Star News reports. The cake-shaped float is being sponsored by The…
This has been a mantra for so many years!!! How can it be that we are still on the same spot?
Hatred, prejudice, anger ….. and so much more. What we need is LOVE!!!
This has been a mantra for so many years!!! How can it be that we are still on the same spot? Hatred, prejudice, anger ….. and so much more. What we need is LOVE!!!
Lynching is murder by mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a specific sector of a population. It is related to other means of social control such as charivari,Skimmington, riding the rail, and tarring and feathering, but with a drift toward the public spectacle.
Lynchings have been more frequent in times of social and economic tension, and have often been a mean for a dominant group to suppress challengers. However, it has also resulted from long-held prejudices and practices of discrimination that have conditioned societies to accept this type of violence as normal practices of popular justice.
Though racial oppression and the frontier mentality in the United State have given lynching its current familiar face, execution by mob justice is not exclusive to North America, but it is also found around the world as vigilantes act to punish people behaving outside of commonly acceptable boundaries. Indeed, instances of it can be found in societies long antedating European settlement of North America.
The origins of violence against African Americans in the United States is readily found in the common whipping at the plantation and in the massacres of Indian Americans. During the Antebellum, assertive free-Blacks, Latinos in the South West and runaways were the object of racial lynching. But lynching attacks on U.S. blacks, especially in the South, increased dramatically in the aftermath of the Civil War, after slavery had been abolished and recently freed black men gained the right to vote.
Violence rose even more at the end of the 19th century, after southern white Democrats regained their political power in the South in the 1870’s. States passed new constitutions or legislation which effectively disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites, established segregation of public facilities by race, and separated blacks from common public life and facilities. Nearly 3,500 African Americans and 1,300 whites were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968, mostly from 1882 to 1920.
Lynching during the 19th century in the United States, Britain and colonies, coincided with a period of violence which denied people participation in white-dominated society on the basis of race after the Emancipation Act of 1833.
Although some white Southerners attempted to justify lynching by referring to rape, less than a quarter of lynchings resulted from accusations that a black man had raped a white woman; in fact, most black men were lynched for allegedly having assaulted or murdered white men.
Today lynching is a felony in all states of the United States, defined by some codes of law as “any act of violence inflicted by a mob upon the body of another person which results in the death of the person”, with a “mob” being defined as “the assemblage of two or more persons, without color or authority of law, for the premeditated purpose and with the premeditated intent of committing an act of violence upon the person of another”.
Lynching in the second degree is defined as “any act of violence inflicted by a mob upon the body of another person and from which death does not result”. To sustain a conviction for lynching, at least some evidence of premeditation must be produced, but “the common intent to do violence” may be formed before or during the assemblage.
NOW TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS PICTURE!
This picture was taken in the Baymeadows area in Jacksonville, Florida at a local Shell gas station.
Can’t believe this! So disrespectful …. maybe you don’t agree with his policies or views … but this is way out of line!! It doesn’t matter how you feel or what your political ideals and affiliations are. To wish anyone dead is idiotic, immature and heartless.
But to wish the President of the United States dead, is completely un American.
In the words of a US veteran: “I’m a veteran of the US, I dislike many people but disrespect none, I have no compassion for prejudice … I protect the office no matter who stands there … problem is the nation is divided by stupidity.”
This could have been circulating in cyberspace for a while but today is the first time that I’ve seen it.
I remember when George W. Bush was president. Isn’t this supposed to be some sort of treasonous act, punishable by the law? Threatening? Don’t give me the first amendment crap!!
I THINK THIS IS A TOTAL LACK OF RESPECT!! SOMETHING SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT IT!!!
RESPECT THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!
IF I OFFEND ANYONE’S SENSIBILITIES …. GOOD!!
BECAUSE MAYBE SOMEONE IS MOVED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!
A North Carolina resident named VR Phipps is traveling the country in a truck displaying a hanged effigy of President Barack Obama, drawing the shock of local residents and the attention of the Secret Service.
Phipps says he’s protesting the murders of family members by local law enforcement. He says that a cover-up has successfully prevented him from getting justice for his family.
Thetruck was first spotted by Mike Opelka, a reporter for Glenn Beck’s website The Blaze, back in May while driving through Midtown Manhattan.
“After two decades of living and working in Manhattan, this average New Yorker believed he had seen everything. Today proved that to be a false assumption,” Opelka wrote.
Phipps denied racism was a motivation for the hanging in another video posted on his channel.
“You say it’s racism, well, I tell you it’s not. It’s absolutely not. We have been hanging people in effigy when George Bush was President. I would have hanged him no problem. It wouldn’t have been a problem at all.”
In September, the truck was seen in Charlotte during the Democratic National Committee. State troopers told WBTV in Charlotte they stopped the truck for a vehicle equipment violation but issed a warning.
Later in September, the truck was seen driving through Goldsboro, North Carolina, shocking residents. The Secret Service told locals they were aware of the truck.
On Tumblr, a user posted having seen the truck in Jacksonville, Florida.
Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
When 9-year-old Amira Willighagen from Nijmegen stepped onto the “Holland‘s Got Talent” stage, no one was expecting such a big voice to come out of such a very little girl.
Her incredible rendition of Puccini‘s “O Mio Babbino Caro” from the opera “Gianni Schicchi” earned her a Golden Ticket from the judges that would take her straight to the live show.
The judges went numb when Amira Willighagen from Nijmegen sang O Mio Babbino Caro from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchiin an impossible-to-believe powerful voice.
“Are you really nine years old?” judge Chantal Janzen asked. “This is incredible.”
The choice of the aria was also surprising as its actual lyrics can be loosely translated from Italian as something like “Oh, dearest daddy, I so much want to marry my boyfriend that if you don’t let me buy a wedding ring I’ll jump in the river, please let me daddy, pretty please.”
The girl was so charming in her naiveté when explaining the choice and her particular passion for opera:
“My brother Vincent plays violin, and I also wanted to do something … so I thought, I’m going to sing … and then I heard opera songs, which I found very beautiful and that’s when I started singing,” she said.
Holland’s Got Talent 2013 – Amira Willighagen (9)
A YouTube video of her performance has already been viewed over 1mln times, while the gig itself won her a “golden ticket” that will take her straight to the competition’s live show.
One commenter said: “Stop the auditions we have a winner,” while another added: “Congratulations little girl, you just won the internet!
What makes the public go even wilder is the fact that Amira revealed: she had not had any singing lessons but was self-taught, using YouTube tutorials.
Her story may at first resemble the one of Susan Boyle that astounded the world with her breathtaking rendition of “I Dreamed A Dream” on “Britain’s Got Talent.” Before the show, the middle-aged woman from a village called Blackburn never had a driver’s license lived in the same rented house since she was born alone with her cat, Pebbles and was bullied by local kids for spinster image.
All it took was an appearance on “Britain’s Got Talent,” and YouTube top for Boyle to become a worldwide sensation.
Then, the Christian Science Monitor has explained her phenomenon as “redefining grace, beauty and successes” and this seems quite fair – people love Cinderella-like stories. But what about 9-year-old Amara Willighagen? Is the girl on her way to stardom or is she on a dangerous path of further martyrdom?
Ellen Winner, professor of psychology at Boston College and author of ‘Gifted Children: Myths and Realities’, says that life can be difficult for a child prodigy and they often fulfill their parents’ ambitions. So kids are being told to practice more and try harder, placed to schools for gifted kids and, in fact, sometimes deprived of childhood.
According to the expert, problems tend to come when the child becomes older – and his or her peers catch up in terms of achievement.
“The skill of being a child prodigy is different to being a skilled adult, when you need to be a creator,” Prof Winner said.
“Most of them do not make the transition. It can be very narcissistically wounding because suddenly they are not special.” So her advice is “parents have to want their child and not make them feel they are living through their talent. I would say, listen to your child and enable them to do what they want to do.”
IN THE MEANTIME, LET’S ENJOY HER TALENT. LISTEN TO THIS ANGELIC VOICE!
She told the judges, “My brother Vincent plays violin, and I also wanted to do something… So I thought, I’m going to sing… and then I heard opera songs, which I found very beautiful and that’s when I started singing,” HLNBE reports.
Brava, Amira. Brava.
Amira Willighagen (9) does it again – AVE MARIA – WINNER Holland’s got Talent!
Published on Dec 21, 2013
Amira willighagen – Ave Maria
She amazes the Dutch judges of the show “Holland’s Got Talent” again, this time with Ave Maria on 21 December 2013.
To enable subtitles, click on the little box below the video (4th icon from the right).
Not because he was crabby but because he lived his life to the fullest and passed on in an assisted living facility in Puerto Rico when he was almost 96 years old.
I can imagine that these would be things that he experienced in his lifetime and would have written about. He lived a full life, he had his family, he had his job, he had his dreams.
As life went on, he always talked about how his body felt and how his mind wasn’t keeping up with the aging process. Him mind was a sharp as a tack.
~~My Dad and me … circa 2006~~
CRABBY OLD MAN
When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Tampa, Florida, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value.
Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, They found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital.
One nurse took her copy to Missouri . The old man’s sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health.
A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.
~~Crabby Old Man~~
What do you see nurses? … What do you see?
What are you thinking …… when you’re looking at me?
A crabby old man ….. not very wise,
Uncertain of habit …….. with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food ……. and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice …..’I do wish you’d try!‘
Who seems not to notice …. the things that you do.
And forever is losing ………….. A sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not ……….. let’s you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding … The long day to fill?
Is that what you’re thinking? ……. Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse …… you’re not looking at me.
I’ll tell you who I am ……… As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding ……. as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of Ten ……. with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters ……… who love one another
A young boy of Sixteen …. with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now …….. a lover he’ll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty …….. my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows …… that I promised to keep.
At Twenty-Five, now …….. I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide …. And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty ………. My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other ……. With ties that should last.
At Forty, my young sons …. have grown and are gone,
But my woman’s beside me ……. to see I don’t mourn.
At Fifty, once more ……… Babies play ’round my knee,
Again, we know children …….. My loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me …… My wife is now dead.
I look at the future …….. I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing …… young of their own.
And I think of the years …… And the love that I’ve known.
~~My Mother …. circa 1920s~~
I’m now an old man………and nature is cruel.
‘Tis jest to make old age …… look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles ……. grace and vigor, depart.
There is now a stone …… where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass ….. A young guy still dwells,
And now and again …….. my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys ………. I remember the pain.
And I’m loving and living ……. life over again.
I think of the years …. all too few ….. gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact …… that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people ……. open and see..
Not a crabby old man … Look closer ….
see …….ME!!
Remember this poem when you next meet an older person who you might brush aside without looking at the young soul within…..we will all, one day, be there, too!
~~PLEASE SHARE THIS POEM~~
The best and most beautiful things of this world can’t be seen or touched. They must be felt by the heart.
~~My Mom, Dad and me ….. Circa 1955~~
We ALL are ONE!!
We ALL are connected through LOVE!!
Shenandoah – Eric Tingstad & Nancy Rumbel
Uploaded on Nov 14, 2008
“Shenandoah” by Eric Tingstad & Nancy Rumbel.
Off of the CD “Narada Decade – The Anniversary Collection”
Eric Tingstad, acoustic guitar, and Nancy Rumbel, woodwinds, first met at an outdoor music festival in 1984. Both gifted soloists, the two musicians sensed an uncommom rapport in their styles and, a year later, initiated a collaboration. Their fluid interplay has matured into what one observer has defined as ‘contemporary chamber music’. Eric and Nancy often contribute their talents in support of humanitarian and environmental causes.
I went to sleep last night with someone on my mind. I woke up this morning and he’s still on my mind.
This very dear and good friend of mine is going through some rough times in his life. His issues are personal, family related and health related. He needs to know that he’s not alone. He needs to know that there are many who care about him, who depend on him, who love him unconditionally. Love him as he is, with his virtues and his defects. He’s a wonderful human being who has and continues to do good for those around him.
My intention is to let him know that he’s not alone. We know his worth, we know his heart, we know his feelings. It’s paramount that he understands that we are here for him even if those who should be aren’t. I know we can take the place of those he loves, but our love is real, true, binding and everlasting.
HE AIN’T HEAVY, HE’S MY BROTHER!!
The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows when
But I’m strong
Strong enough to carry him
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother
So on we go
His welfare is of my concern
No burden is he to bear
We’ll get there
For I know
He would not encumber me
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother
If I’m laden at all
I’m laden with sadness
That everyone’s heart
Isn’t filled with the gladness
Of love for one another
It’s a long, long road
From which there is no return
While we’re on the way to there
Why not share
And the load
Doesn’t weigh me down at all
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother
“Sei vorsichtig mit dem, was Du weisst. Damit beginnen Deine Probleme” 🍀 “Be careful of what you know. That’s where your troubles begin”
🌷
Wade in The 3 Body Problem
It Is What It Is 