I’m going to be away from this spot, “It Is What It Is“, for a few days. I won’t have full access to a PC or laptop.
I still have the capacity to keep an eye on what happens in the blogosphere while I’m away.
I’m not able to just disconnect, particularly with what is going on in our world at this time.
There are so many problems, issues, conflicts, injustices, bigotry, destruction, killing, wars ….. We need to stay informed and educated about “happenings“.
I will leave you today with a message.
As noted above, we won’t find peace until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, as Mr. Sweitzer noted.
‘Tis the season …
We are all in this together. Be kind to on another.
There’s more, much more to Christmas
Than candle-light and cheer;
It’s the spirit of sweet friendship
That brightens all the year;
It’s thoughtfulness and kindness,
It’s hope reborn again,
For peace, for understanding
And for goodwill to men!
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
“From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest.
But for us, it’s different. Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.
The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character building experience.
~~GRAPHICS SOURCE~~
Google Images
Facebook Timeline
~~GALLERY~~
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There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.
To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
Carl Sagan gives the best speech ever about humanity and how foolish we behave. Pale Blue Dot is one of the most important and reflective speeches about the human condition and our place in the Universe. The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers from Earth, as part of the solar system Family Portrait series of images.
Music
“The Earth Prelude” by Ludovico Einaudi, Antonio Leofreddi, Laura Riccardi & Marco Decimo
Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year.
Here is the Farmers Almanac’s list of the full Moon names.
This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter.
It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.
The early Native Americans did not record time by using the months of the Julian or Gregorian calendar. Many tribes kept track of time by observing the seasons and lunar months, although there was much variability.
For some tribes, the year contained 4 seasons and started at a certain season, such as spring or fall. Others counted 5 seasons to a year. Some tribes defined a year as 12 Moons, while others assigned it 13. Certain tribes that used the lunar calendar added an extra Moon every few years, to keep it in sync with the seasons.
Colonial Americans adopted some of the Native American full Moon names and applied them to their own calendar system (primarily Julian, and later, Gregorian). Since the Gregorian calendar is the system that many in North America use today, that is how we have presented the list of Moon names, as a frame of reference. The Native American names have been listed by the month in the Gregorian calendar to which they are most closely associated.
I’ve been following this season with more enthusiasm than ever before. From the day Season 21 started, I’ve been following, admiring and rooting for Bindi.
Last night, the freestyle which Derek choreographed for her was simply amazing and unforgettable.
She has been consistent in her performances. She has improved so much as the weeks have passed. She seems to be older than her years. The support of her family and loved ones has been remarkable. The presence of her father, Steve, has been quite notable.
Tonight is the night.
I’m holding my breath because I really hope she wins the mirrored trophy.
I found this YouTube video which shows the complete evolution, the practice, the reasoning, the performance and the judging of the dance.
Bindi Irwin reduces Dancing With The Stars audience to tears as she breaks down during emotional performance in memory of her late father Steve
BIANCA SOLDANI FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
There was hardly a dry eye in the Dancing With The Stars arena on Monday night after frontrunner Bindi Irwin took to the stage for a heartfelt tribute dance.
The Australian teenager couldn’t keep her composure and fell sobbing into the arms of her partner Derek Hough, after a childhood image of herself with her late father Steve flashed up at the end of her sequence.
The judging panel and studio audience members were visibly moved by the outpouring of emotion and many were seen wiping their eyes.
A book is pages, pictures and words
A book is animals, people and birds
A book is stories of queens and kings
Poems and songs-so many things!
Curled in a corner where I can hide
With a book I can journey far and wide
Though it’s only paper from end to end
A book is a very special friend.
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
I found out about this awesome talented painter last night. I was traversing through the highways of social media and there is was. This awesome video.
There’s not much information about the artist except the link to her social media.
I think that this is so perfect to address the current world issues, the wars, the conflicts, the killings, the terror. World Peace Day was “celebrated” a few days ago.
Emerson student Jody Steel draws on thigh, gains fame
By Christopher Muther GLOBE STAFF
Students, ignore everything your parents, teachers, and professors have told you and listen carefully: Doodling in class can make you a star.
At least, that is what it has done for Emerson student Jody Steel, whose remarkable drawings, usually on her right thigh, have won her buzz, hundreds of thousands of views online, and job offers.
Since starting at Emerson College in 2011, the Florida native has been using her leg as a canvas on which to produce portraits of Bryan Cranston as Walter White in “Breaking Bad,” Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, and “Don Jon” actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Celebrity crushes, favorite television shows, and an occasional cat have found their way onto her leg as she carefully draws with a Pilot Precise V5 pen during class lectures.
The delicate shadings of her work bring to mind a series of pop-culture chiaroscuro sketches. They are documented on her iPhone and then lost to the ages with the help of soap and water.
“Completely unexpected,” Steel said of the attention. “Obviously you always hope your art will be seen, but I wasn’t expecting it to go so big and international.”
As her doodled masterpieces went viral, they became international curiosities. The story was picked up by websites in France and Britain and in newspapers across Europe. Now a website in Brazil is touting her talents. She has posted many of these stories to her Facebook fan page.
For ways to help people of recent tragedy who may be thousands of miles from where you are, be sure to look into their local International Committee of the Red Cross organizations.
Puerto Ricans (Spanish: Puertorriqueños; Taíno: boricua) are the inhabitants or citizens of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds. As a result, some Puerto Ricans do not treat their nationality as an ethnicity but as a citizenship with various ethnicities and national origins comprising the “Puerto Rican people“.
Despite its multi-ethnic composition, the culture held in common by most Puerto Ricans is referred to as mainstream Puerto Rican culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Western European migrants, beginning with the early Spanish settlers, along with other Europeans arriving later such as the Corsicans, Irish, Germans and French, along with a strong West African culture which has been influential.
Puerto Ricans commonly refer to themselves as boricuas. “The majority of Puerto Ricans regard themselves as being of mixed Spanish-European descent. Recent DNA sample studies have concluded that the three largest components of the Puerto Rican genetic profile are in fact indigenous Taíno, European, and African”.
It Is What It Is 