this one is fun too...

LOVE this song!

http://youtu.be/am6rArVPip8

Today did not start as well as I had hoped, but no one EVER hopes their day will be anything less than pleasant. Last night, I prayed for healing and a good following day, as a pressure ulcer has plagued my life the last five years. As with all days, God has his own plans and sometimes, those plans do not include pleasantries I deem necessary. This evening I started drawing: first a yellow scribble, then a purple, and then brown lines. As time went on, I noticed I had created a field of flowers. What started as chaos, eventually showed structure. Your life has structure as well (Jeremiah 18:1-6).

Eve

God built women with all the finest bells and whistles: beauty, laughter, wisdom, humility, modesty, maternity, hospitality.

There be none of Beauty's daughters --Lord Byron

There be none of Beauty's daughters

With a magic like Thee;

And like music on the waters

Is thy sweet voice to me:

When, as if its sound were causing

The charméd ocean's pausing,

The waves lie still and gleaming,

And the lull'd winds seem dreaming:

And the midnight moon is weaving

Her bright chain o'er the deep,

Whose breast is gently heaving

As an infant's asleep:

So the spirit bows before thee

To listen and adore thee;

With a full but soft emotion,

Like the swell of Summer's ocean.

for my C.

I'm in love, obsessed with the joy that you exist, more than just in my mind. You are the quintessential desire my heart has searched for, my counterpoint, my passionate princess.

Half-truths are still bold face lies...

just that. well, it's me blaming Verizon wireless. Man they love to slip in contracts where they said there was none.  gotta read customer agreement and ignore salesman baloney about what you're signing.

Vincent Bugliosi and Atheism

Good day L.A. had Vincent Bugliosi on the show today. it's astonishing to me when people don't believe in God; faith shifts a person's paradigm so fundamentally, they either see God as beautiful, personal, loving or...they see him not at all.

my night

this is my crucible; my breaking point was met with an ear piercing shatter.  My ability to listen, sharpened to a fine edge and in this refinement, he met me in my hurt. i am fortunate to be so loved; his grace has given me strength at the time when i fell and just before i was destroyed.  God loves a rescue just when we see our demise.  when WE see our position cornered, escape impossible, death of our financial situation or at worst our person inevitable, then we are truly ready for rescue and not before.

The Daniel plan has been the single most important diet plan I've ever tried.  Finally!  A plan that actually seems to be working for me, though it is working slowly.  Today, while I was doing my seventh week of the Daniel plan devotional, I got stuck on vitamins and minerals.  Fortunately, a nutritionist through the Dr. Hyman website, has been helping me decide on that myriad of Substances.  It is like shopping on the periodic table!  Calcium, zinc, copper, all these things in my supplement?  And it's making a lot more sense.  She said something that stood out to me.  In order of priority, whole foods first, then supplements, then medicine.

•     Whole food is the most important.  In my own opinion, whole foods present the most unknown factors that we know are good for us.  It has all the good ingredients, plus the supplement's and all wrapped up into, what I hope, is a tasty shell.  Spinach is wonderful for you.
•     Supplements: supplements are helpful, but how many?  Should I take calcium?  I'm actually osteoporotic, but I have no idea if I should be taking calcium?  Generally, I thought I'd take it with vitamin D and magnesium, but now I'm hearing different things.  Supplements are helpful and necessary in our nutrient starved diet, but we should be skeptical as to the motivations of the companies that are selling them and which ones we actually need.
•     Medicine: for all too long, I have relied on medicine as a last resort, which is smart.  The problem, I've also relied on it as by first resort with all my other first resorts?  I actually have.  I would take supplements like crazy, eat well, but not all the time, and then sat down pills.  Is there some way I can handle my spasms, my nerve pain, my depression, cholesterol, without medicine?  It seems so with a few of those.

      learning from her that this is the priority, helped me greatly.  the Daniel plan has not helped me lose any weight yet, as far as I can tell, my nerve pain is not gone and my spasms run amok.  However, I am reporting feeling better, secure, more happy… Happy?  I cannot believe I'm saying that one, given might radical mood swings, depression, anger and the fact that I'm stuck in bed – exasperating all of it.  I've love to blame my condition for many aspects of my life, but I am realizing this: I make bad decisions.  I make them often; as I get older, hopefully, the blinders will slowly peel away and I would think more like God.  I wrote to a friend today and said this regarding his own troubles:

• It's unfortunate that the earlier mistakes we make in life affect us, at times, LATER in life.  I am now realizing in spades, my bad choices with food, my condition, my job choices, whether I worked hard or not, are all having a profound effect on everything going on currently with my life.  I am bedridden now and have few options of healing.  You know how you just use up those lifelines?  Before you know it, though the phrase is more accurately stated "before you are WILLING to know it", you've ran out of those lifelines; you have used them up and now the hour is late.  I'm feeling ALL of the effects of these years of bad choices.  I've always known that God "turns up the heat" on people when they're making bad choices, but now, I know he turns it up slowly.  He is full of grace, turning up the heat slowly to give us a chance to live life by our own decisions.  As with Israel, the best example of his relationship with humanity, it was not immediately that he punished them, but after years of disservice.  CS Lewis said through Screwtape, in the book I told you about, "The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”  It's amazing how fast time goes, but you don't notice it while you are in the moment.  While you are making your mistakes about whether that mistake be an extra shot of rum or, in my case, staying longer on the videogame and choosing ice cream over an Apple – the consequences come slowly.
• But I fret not!  God also likes to see that we turn back to him.  He moves us to realize this fact of life and that we are ready to trust him completely.  When we hear the still small voice, that whisper in our ears advising us on our contemplations, maybe NOW we will think to listen.  I will continue to keep your daughter in prayer.  Life really is about his glory and his desire to give us OUR desires, at least what is true in our hearts.  [excerpt deleted]

Virgin Mary toast?

everything in reality, if Christianity is true, is divinely inspired. Maybe the Virgin Mary HAS shown up on pieces of toast and on the bottom of tortoise shells. Does it mean that toast should be canonized into the Bible or put in the Vatican next to Michelangelo's David? Of course not. nevertheless, it cannot discount a person's faith being untrue, even if based on untruths. an example of this would be the six day creation. Some think it was literally six days, others, like myself, believe it was six long periods of time. It makes sense with what modern science is telling us. Nevertheless, I meet many Christians who believe in the literal six day creation. Ultimately, some things are between the person and God himself. Even people of the same faith, will not see a point to speaking in tongues and barking; but an agnostic – will never understand faith, because they just don't believe. In this elegant irony, an atheist will understand a Christian better, as atheists BELIEVE God does not exist.

Prayer

Praying for people helps me get out of my troubles, to see myself as a smaller part of the universe, rather than seeing the universe as a small part of my troubles.

An amateur astronomer, Rob Gendler's photography of the cosmos is astonishing. These images are truly breathtaking, some, billions of light-years away; some gas clouds span hundreds of light-years in size; galaxies are far larger, the Milky Way a massive 100,000 light-years accross.

Illegal Music Downloads Fall Below 10 Percent - AVRev.com

Illegal Music Downloads Fall Below 10 Percent - AVRev.com

Interesting. People choosing to pay for services they can get for free, albeit illegally. I am not so sure that pirates are finding Jesus or some "peer to peer" (P2P) moral code, but rather downloading illegally is just more trouble than downloading the way your mother taught you too. *wags finger* Peer to peer services like LimeWire may be losing due to the difficulties inherent in using their software. You never know if the song you are downloading from a P2P source is a legitimate copy, or some MP3 audio track telling you to "drink more Ovaltine." at the Apple Store, it's easy. You find the song, click to buy and you know you're getting a good copy. With peer to peer, so much other junk gets thrown in. I guess, when it comes down to it, people like what's easier, not what necessarily less expensive.

In a related matter, P2P software downloading also occurs and is even more riddled with problems. Viruses can easily be written into executables, especially because the software packages are sometimes manipulated. This can be a good thing, the manipulation part, but you can only tell by reviews whether somebody got a bunch of viruses from something they downloaded. it's kind of like how America looks to see what flu and cold viruses are affecting the Chinese people and then we build a vaccine often that. In this case, you just don't go to China…err… Peer to peer software.

Carpe Diem

take advantage of those split-second opportunities… Han Solo could have been played by Al Pacino and Indiana Jones, Tom Selleck. Good going Harrison Ford!

Egypt

I hope the best for Egypt. Their future is uncertain, just as ours is uncertain. Hopefully, they can learn from their newfound freedom, as well as their past.