Dear Friend,
Stand Tall and Proud
Sink your roots deeply into the Earth
Reflect the light of a greater source
Think long term
Go out on a limb
Remember your place among all living beings
Embrace with joy the changing seasons
For each yields its own abundance
The Energy and Birth of Spring
The Growth and Contentment of Summer
The Wisdom to let go of leaves in the Fall
The Rest and Quiet Renewal of Winter
Feel the wind and the sun
And delight in their presence
Look up at the moon that shines down upon you
And the mystery of the stars at night.
Seek nourishment from the good things in life
Simple pleasures
Earth, fresh air, light
Be content with your natural beauty
Drink plenty of water
Let your limbs sway and dance in the breezes
Be flexible
Remember your roots
Enjoy the view!
The Christmas Spirit is making its way in. You can see it everywhere: houses are light up, stores are decorated, people are shopping. Santa’s orders are being filled out.
Meghan Trainor Has Her Own ‘Peanuts’ Character and Song On the Soundtrack
Meghan Trainor is the newest member of the Peanuts gang, and she has a new feel-good song to celebrate.
The “Dear Future Husband” singer revealed her cartoon identity via Twitter and Instagram Tuesday (July 27, 2015), also announcing that she will be on the soundtrack for The Peanuts Movie that hits theaters in November.
The track, titled, “Better When I’m Dancin’,” is another classic confidence-boosting tune from Trainor—exactly what The Peanuts Movie makers were looking for.
“They wanted a song about confidence and knew I was good at writing those,” Trainor told People. “I feel better when I’m onstage dancing and having fun, so I wrote about that!”
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and the rest of the beloved “Peanuts” gang are dancing way to the big-screen, with moves like you’ve never been seen before, in state of the art 3D animation.
Snoopy, the world’s most lovable beagle – and flying ace – embarks upon his greatest mission as he takes to the skies to pursue his arch-nemesis The Red Baron, while his best pal, Charlie Brown, begins his own epic quest.
From the imagination of Charles M. Schulz and the creators of the ICE AGE films, THE PEANUTS MOVIE will prove that every underdog has his day.
The middle of a work week (Wednesday). It’s a phrase used in the context of climbing a proverbial hill to get through a tough week.
After hump day, the weekend gets closer.
Have a great day. My wish for one and all who stop here!
“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!”
Dance to the music
under the stars at night.
Dance to the music
of all time lullabies.
Dance to the music
of your own beat and rhythm.
Dance to the music
that your own heart has chosen.
Air pollution in Asia may be changing weather patterns in the United States
BY CLARA CHAISSON
Increasingly intense storms in the United States might have an unexpected origin: Asian air pollution. Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found that aerosols from across the Pacific strengthen extra-tropical cyclones — a type of storm system that drives much of our country’s weather.
Asia is home to the world’s 20 most polluted cities, but that dirty air doesn’t stay put, as the above animation of aerosol emissions shows. Water vapor in the atmosphere condenses around particles, and an influx of particulate matter — say, from a coal-fired power plant — can produce bigger, badder clouds. So far, the atmospheric scientists have only looked at how pollution from the continent affects North American weather, but they expect that the effects are global in scale. When countries around the world finalize carbon emissions commitments this year, let’s hope they remember we’re on different sides of the same planet.
‘That what I want, basically, what I really want, is what you want. And I don’t know what you want. Surprise me’.
But that’s the kinship between “I” and “thou”. So when I ask, I go right down to the question, which we started with: “What do I want?”
The answer is “I don’t know”.
When Bodhidharma was asked, “Who are you?” which is another form of the same question, he said “I don’t know”. Planting flowers to which the butterflies come, Bodhidharma says “I know not”. I don’t know what I want.
And when you don’t know what you want, you reach the state of desirelessness. When you “really” don’t know … you see, there’s a beginning stage of not knowing, and there’s an ending stage of not knowing.
In the beginning stage, you don’t know what you want because you haven’t thought about it, or you’ve only thought superficially.
Then when somebody forces you to think about it and go through it, you say, “Yeah, I think I’d like this, I think I’d like that, I think I’d like the other”. That’s the middle stage.
Then you get beyond that, and say “Is that what I really want?” In the end you say, “No, I don’t think that’s it … I might be satisfied with it for a while, and I wouldn’t turn my nose up at it, but it’s not really what I want”.
Why don’t you really know what you want? Two reasons, that you don’t really know what you want.
Number one: You have it.
Number two: You don’t know yourself.
Because you never can. The godhead is never the object of its own knowledge, just as a knife doesn’t cut itself, fire doesn’t burn itself, life doesn’t illumine itself. It’s always an endless mystery to itself. “I don’t know”.
And this “I don’t know”, uttered in the infinite interior of the spirit, this “I don’t know”, is the same thing as “I love”, “I let go”, “I don’t try to force or control”. It’s the same thing as humility.
And so the Upanishads say, “If you think that you understand Brahman, you do not understand. You have yet to be instructed further. If you know that you do not understand, then you truly understand, for the Brahman is unknown to those who know it, and known to those who know it not’.
And the principle is that any time you, as it were, voluntarily let up control, in other words, cease to cling to yourself, you have an access to power. Because you’re wasting energy all the time in self-defense, trying to manage things, trying to force things to conform to your will.
The moment you stop doing that, that wasted energy is available. And therefore you are, in that sense, having that energy available, you are one with the divine principle. You have the energy! When you’re trying, however, to act as if you are god, that is to say, you don’t trust anybody and you’re the dictator and you have to keep everybody in line, you lose the divine energy, because what you’re doing is simply defending yourself.
So then the principle is: the more you give it away, the more it comes back. Now you say, ‘I don’t have the courage to give it away. I’m afraid’.
And you can only overcome that by realizing, you better give it away, because there’s no way of holding on to it. The meaning of the fact that everything is dissolving constantly, that we’re all falling apart, we’re all in the process of constant death, and that – ‘The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon/Turns Ashes – or it prospers; and/Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face/Lighting a little Hour or two – is gone all that Omar Khayyam jazz.
You know, ‘The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the great globe itself, I, all which it inherit — shall dissolve, and like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind.’ …
All falling apart. Everything is. That’s the great assistance to you. That fact that everything is in decay is your helper. That is allowing you that you don’t have to let go, because there’s nothing to hold on to.
It’s achieved for you, in other words, by the process of nature. So once you see that you just don’t have a prayer, and it’s all washed up, and that you will vanish and “leave not a rack behind”, and you really get with that, suddenly you find that you have the power, this enormous access of energy.
But it’s not power that came to you because you grabbed it; it came in entirely the opposite way. The power that comes to you in that opposite way is power with which you can be trusted.’
An important secret of spiritual happiness is to always strive to do what you believe in your heart to be good and right.
Doing what you really believe is good and right automatically brings more spiritual happiness. The more you can live in a way that is consistent with what you believe is right, the more peace you will enjoy. You won’t be walking around, plagued by nagging pains about all the ways that you may have violated your own morals. You won’t be weighed down by mountains of guilt, shame, and disappointments.
“It Is What It Is” has been nominated and honored as a one of the first recipients of “The Harmony & Peace Award” by the IdealisticRebel”.
~IN HER OWN WORDS~
“I created this new award to celebrate all those who promote Harmony & Peace, and who add Love & Beauty to the world through their Blogs and through their lives. Their Positivity makes the world a better place for all of us.
~Rules~
As most of you know by now, I am not big on rules, but here they are
Give this award to seven bloggers who have added Harmony & Peace, Love & Beauty and Positivity to the world you live in.
Let them know that you nominated them.
Acknowledge the blogger from whom you received this award
Display your award on your blog, because you have earned it!
Another day is done again. We have completed the tasks at hand. It’s the time to wind down and relax. Time to get ready to rest and recharge the “batteries” to continue our journey tomorrow. Music and Nature … the perfect combination.
For today, this is the “journey’s end”!
~~GALLERY~~
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On his debut album, Journey’s End, Howard Ferré brings his original music to another stage creating an organic soundscape that takes the listener on a road through a rich universe of sound and emotion.
‘Journey’s End‘ fuses innovative musical facets of electronic, rock, and old world sounds, as well as melds several works with classical elements to form a mosaic of music both vivid and compelling.
Musicians find their way to ambient music along a variety of routes. Howard Ferré’s arrival here came via 25 years of doing sound design work for theater productions. It’s no surprise, then, that his debut CD, Journey’s End, works its way through a variety of scenes and moments, each with its own style and narrative. It’s a hard-to-pin-down disc that embraces spacey floats, so-cool jazz flavors and post-rock melodies with equal ease. For all the reach here, it’s a pleasure to say there aren’t any real misses. What’s more, Ferré lays out the work in an order that creates a sensible flow from airy to solid.
The Journey’s End CD (available on Amazon and ITunes), creates an organic soundscape that takes the listener on a road through a rich universe of sound and emotion. In it, Howard fuses innovative musical facets of electronic, rock, and old world sounds, as well as meld several works with classical elements to form a mosaic of music both vivid and compelling.
Anyone else tired of kids being killed by police? Don’t try to justify it, these are very well armed cops who should be trained to deescalate these types of situations. If you are defending a cop killing a 12 or 13 year old when there are other non lethal options, you need to ask yourself why.
Learn how cops gunned down this 12 year old within 2 seconds of being at the scene. Video: http://bit.ly/1ym79Mo
13-year-old with replica assault rifle was shot 7 times in 10 seconds
The shooting death of a 13-year-old California boy believed to be carrying an assault rifle unfolded in no more than 10 seconds, police said. Andy Lopez Cruz, who was later found to be carrying a plastic replica, was struck by seven bullets.
It Is What It Is 