We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
~Thornton Wilder~
At Thanksgiving, most of us take time from our busy lives to give thanks for what we have. The next day is Black Friday, a mad scramble to start accumulating what we don't have or don't have enough of. Now Black Friday is creeping into Thanksgiving hour by hour. Soon we will be eating turkey for breakfast before we rush off to shop.
For many of us, gratitude is a brief hiatus from the bustle of our busy lives. We can be so consumed with accumulating the latest gadgets that we lose sight of what is important in life. Most of us do not know true lack until disaster strikes. If we were to travel the back streets of the world or places with no streets, perhaps we would start to appreciate how fortunate we are.
In a consumer culture, it is easy to view our possessions as our treasure. We are only as valuable as what we have. Who we are inside seems to have lost significance. At one time people were valued for their stories and their insights. Now we tend to judge others' worth based on their material wealth.
When I was a child, I befriended older people where I lived and everywhere I visited. I would find a way to wander off from my cousins and friends to seek out people like the Slaters in Newark, New York. I never knew what they did when I was not around. I imagined them sitting in their living room waiting for me to show up.
I sat very still, hoping their snow white angora cat would become less bashful and venture out from behind the couch. I paged through the eight hundred pages of Land and Sea with its color plates of real and imagined denizens of the ocean and jungle. We always ended with a snack, watermelon in the summer or cookies and milk in the winter. I never learned much about them. They spent most of our visits asking about my childhood adventures and reminiscing about our past visits.
Now I am nearly as old as most of the people I visited as a child. I think of all the experiences I have had over the years, all the places I have discovered and all the fascinating people I have met. I am grateful for each day I have lived. Even my difficult times have helped me appreciate how wonderful life can be in contrast.
When I look back on my life, I realize that the people I have befriended and learned from have been far more valuable to me than anything I have accumulated. I hope to continue my life adventure with a sense of gratitude for everything and everyone coming my way, especially those little surprises which I can never anticipate.
Life Lab Lessons
What is important to you?Who is important to you?Value what and who you have in your life.Be grateful for what lies along your life path.Find a way to make the best of whatever happens.
Joseph G. Langen is the author of 5 ebooks, Commonsense Wisdom for Everyday Life, Young Man of the Cloth, Navigating Life, The Pastor's Inferno and A Year With My Muse. See more about his writing at www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jlangen Contact him at: jglangen@gmail.com
A few years ago, no one even knew about the term "smartphone." The scenario is totally opposite today, with a truckload of options in terms of smartphone devices that are available in the market. Almost all big mobile brands such as Apple, RIM, Sony, Nokia, HTC, LG and Samsung to name a few, have launched their own smartphone models, and hence, the users are spoilt for choice.
Such is the penetration of smartphones in our lives that we often rely on it for carrying out most of our daily activities. Let us take a look at some of the areas where smartphones help us carry out our tasks with ease.
• Finance and Business
In app stores, plenty of smartphone apps for business and finance are easily available. These apps are used to manage personal finance like keeping a track of your bills and receipts, maintaining your investment portfolio etc.
Additionally, if you are a business professional, these apps will help you catch up with the latest stock updates or help make payments/transfer money wirelessly.
• Education
Yes, smartphones have invaded classrooms as well. Nowadays, kids are more tech-savvy as compared to their parents and can handle the smartphones and the apps in them quite effortlessly. Using their devices, they can learn a lot from various education apps that are easy to use and make their lessons fun.
• Entertainment
When you are bored on a weekend and have nothing to do, you can turn to your smartphone to entertain you. Watch movies, trailers, videos or listen to songs and do much more using lots of other apps that are meant for entertainment.
• Gaming
Advanced technology has turned smartphones into gaming consoles; now you can use your smartphone devices to play a wide range of challenging games such as - arcade games, racing games, puzzle games, role-playing games etc. Also, challenge your friends and fellow gamers to beat your score. Many of the smartphones present today, have touchscreen, which gives an enhanced experience while you play the games on your device.
• Fitness
Smartphones also act as your fitness companion. This is because you can use it to monitor your calories, watch and learn new exercises, maintain a diet chart and do much more. Also, you can use your device to locate various fitness centers/gyms or health spas near in your locality.
• General Utility
With various general utility apps, smartphones let you do so much. For instance, you can enjoy shopping from the comforts of your home, use GPS navigation to get directions, learn new recipes, jot down something important or record reminders in your own voice etc.
• Social Networking
Like smartphones, Social Networking/Social Media is also an integral part of our lives; there are rarely few people left, who are not there on any of the Social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest etc. In fact, there are smartphone apps that are entirely dedicated to these social networking sites.
Apart from the above mentioned points, there are many other ways in which you can use your smartphone devices in your day to day lives.
WASHINGTON – As part of the government-wide response and recovery effort for Hurricane Sandy and the Nor’easter, the Energy Department is providing the Department of Defense with additional ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve in response to a request from the State of Connecticut. The Energy Department will be loaning diesel fuel to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), who in turn will provide emergency loans to fuel distributors in Connecticut to address fuel shortages in the state. This is a continuation of the agreement announced a week ago when President Obama declared that Hurricane Sandy has created a severe energy supply interruption and directed the Energy Department to loan the Department of Defense ultra-low sulfur diesel from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve.
“This latest announcement is part of the broader federal effort to respond to those impacted by Hurricane Sandy and the more recent Nor’easter storm,” said Secretary Chu. “This loan from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve will help ensure communities in the impacted area have access to the diesel fuel they need for their transportation systems.”
The State of Connecticut requested this additional release to address fuel shortages that resulted primarily from curtailed supplies from New York Harbor. The Energy Department is currently planning to release 4.2 million gallons from the heating oil reserve terminal in Groton, Conn. beginning as early as this weekend. The fuel, which represents roughly five days worth of fuel consumption in Connecticut, will then be provided to fuel distributors in the state and will be repaid in the next 30 days by the distributors directly.
The Energy Department and DLA stand ready to make available additional fuel as needed.
The Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve was created in July 2000 as a component of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to respond to emergencies and supply disruptions in the home heating oil market. The reserve holds 42 million gallons of ultra-low sulfur diesel, located at terminals in Groton, Conn. and Revere, Mass. More detail on the history of the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve is available HERE.
It was moving day again; eighteen moves in two years as Rebecca recalled putting the last of her possessions in a sturdy box. Rebecca and her Mother had lived together until her Mother decided to move to a retirement complex. Her Mother's health was poor and Rebecca who had tended her Mother for several years was feeling a need to be on her own - driven by inertia she didn't understand - so at the time it seemed like an appropriate solution for both mother and daughter.
At nineteen Rebecca was wise beyond her years, even though that's not always synonymous with maturity. Beginning a new life with no savings or work is a scary thing to face, yet Rebecca welcomed change. In her immaturity she searched for something outside herself to validate her youngness in understanding, rather than garner knowledge before engaging in situations greater than her reasoning.
Several people had offered her a place to stay but usually not for long. Rebecca had a vision and even though life pulled her in different directions, she knew the importance of keeping that vision alive. To her credit she built mental muscles so as not to do harm to others and learned the value of caring for herself in every possible way.
With another Christmas just around the corner Rebecca could not help but remember move number sixteen. It was almost Christmas, she had a temporary place to stay, but it was obvious the arrangement was not working. Rebecca was asked to move out before the New Year but had her friend's apartment to her self during the holidays.
With festive lights and trimmings and holiday cheer all around, she was experiencing something many people around the world experience every Christmas - loneliness, and she silently wept.
As she dressed that Christmas Eve in her finest clothes she wanted to be around families who were together even though they were total strangers, so she set out on that chilly December afternoon for a local church to observe Christmas services. Rebecca knew that sometimes you feel closer to people you know nothing about than those you have known for a lifetime. As she sat in the church pew watching people enter the exquisitely decorated sanctuary, she couldn't help wonder if they truly knew the value of what they had.
A light snow had begun to fall as she left the church. The crisp, early evening air blew all around her as she made her way to her Mother's apartment. Earlier in the month Rebecca put up a small artificial tree for her Mother. In previous years they had designated it as the traveling tree. When mother and daughter lived together, they were fortunate to have a large evergreen tree that friends would gather round and help decorate every year. Since no one they knew was to feel alone, the traveling tree was offered to those who might have gone without.
Around nine o'clock Rebecca went back to the empty apartment where she had been staying. There was no holiday cheer to be felt there, and she knew the reasons why. Feeling slightly sorry for herself, she knew she had to snap out of it quickly as she changed clothes and went to the kitchen to make a late snack. Amongst boxes and all kinds of clutter in a room where there was a small television for her to watch, she placed her Christmas feast in front of a chair by a large window on the top floor of the high-rise building she was living in at the time.
All at once Rebecca's spirits rose as she looked out over the gently falling snow that by now had covered everything in its path. The city lights twinkled along the horizon, and she could see a few apartment windows here and there, lit-up with strands of blinking white and colored lights - but most windows dark without any sign of life.
While scanning the television she found an old film that had already begun. With the lights in the cluttered room dimmed she began her Christmas feast.
"Oh how I would like to see a Christmas tree in this room right now," she thought.
For a few brief moments Rebecca felt a sense of great sorrow born of the circumstances and consequences of her life. As she put down her hot cocoa and looked across the courtyard between the high-rise buildings, with the snow gently falling in the cold night air, a magnificently decorated and lit Christmas tree appeared in an otherwise darkened room. It took Rebecca's breath away.
"Oh how lovely," she whispered. "A Christmas tree just for me!"
And in that moment she realized that there didn't need to be a Christmas tree in her room - it was already there deep inside her. She might have been without a physical place she called home, but that didn't imply she was without precious insight. When the tree appeared in that darkened window across the courtyard, it could not have been in a better place at that particular moment in time - for Christmas is a state of being - not a place were it is held or exhibited. The essence of Christmas is the space where anything is possible when first welcomed and understood in the heart and mind.
Karin Anderssen is a current contributor to the information website Master Life Instructions @ http://www.master-life-instructions.com/. She has been writing for adults and children for over ten years basing articles and children's fables and stories on her understandings of metaphysics and the humanities. The intent behind her writings is to encourage and support authentic, heartfelt dialogue between generations.
What makes one person different from the other? What makes a successful person stand apart, what makes a great leader? These are questions that constantly come to our minds. When we think of success we look at great lives and admire their strength and vivacity. And wonder if we can also make that difference. A look at the success in life tips which will help you make that difference, to your life, the people around you and aid in your journey towards true achievement.
Success tips - #1 - Dream - Don't be afraid to dream. It is in our dreams that the success of our future lies. Dare to dream, and pave the way to achieving your goals.
Success in life tips - #2 - Set goals - Make definite goals and plan your path focused at achieving them. Once you have focus your path is set towards success.
Success tips - #3 - Focus - Focus on your key goals and do not allow negativity, failure or peripheral distractions lure you away. It is easy to be distracted and fail, to succeed you need to be strong and narrow your vision only towards your goal.
Success in life tips - #4 - Courage - We are all born brave but lose the ability to be so as we grow up and face challenges and failures. Delve deep within and find the inner tiger in you. Your courage will be your weapon to make a difference.
Success tips - #5 - Self-confidence - Believe in yourself. It is this faith that will stand tall by your side whenever you come across new hurdles, face tough challenges and encounter enmity or negativity.
Success in life tips - #6 - Love self - First love yourself and then look outwards. Your love for the self is the fountain of positive spirit that grows, evolves and wraps others around you.
Success tips - #7 - Risk - Don't be afraid to risk the mundane. For it is only by doing so that you can break away from it all and invite the new and exciting into your life.
Success in life tips - #8 - Respect - One who respects his own self finds it easy to respect others. It is this respect that gives you the confidence to make the right decisions, and encourage and motivate others around to perform their very best too.
Success tips - #9 - Be positive - One cannot be successful without being positive. It is in the power of positive thinking that propels one to go beyond the ordinary, riskife tips the unknown and reach up to touch the pinnacle of glory.
Do you want to learn more about personal growth and development and create a life of your dreams and desires?
It seems scientists are getting somewhat close to being able to preserve a human brain, perhaps the first brain transplant may occur within the next several decades? But perhaps this won't be common, so many complications, ethical issues, and challenges of putting one brain into a different body. But if your own body is caput and your brain is fine, well that's just a real shame to waste a perfectly good brain if we don't have too, and I am certain that individual doesn't want to check out early due to a failing body, an accident, or some other challenge.
Now then if we can save the brain, what should we put it in? Providing of course that the brain can psychologically adapt to having lost its host, let's assume it can, humans seem to be able to adapt to all sorts of things right? Should we just download the brain and put that information and consciousness in the cloud - that would be like a digital heaven in a way I guess? Or should we put it into an incasing to protect it, and to give it mobility? How about mounting it into an exoskeleton-like android robot? We could do that too.
If the brain doesn't have the body to deal with, which is the weak link for so many things, then it could be mounted in a deep see submersible, on a UAV, or perhaps enclosed in a special case in a space ship thus, able to travel the galaxy? Maybe we could mount it inside a little unit low to the ground, something similar to a Romba with a docking port, the brain simple goes back to its docking port folds up the legs or wheels, or four-VTOL-rotorblade system and parks itself at the docking station. In this case it could be sent on the space ship and thus attached to the ship when docked?
Of course it might need an escape pod system in case the space ship crashes. The old fighter bomber aircraft, the F-111 had a neat escape pod system. We could make something like that only much smaller of course, as in a three-foot long system, with folding legs or wheels once it landed on the surface of something?
A couple of years ago I was discussing all this with an overseas acquaintance, and he mentioned that the human brain would need stimulus and desire to have something like its "traditional organic sensors" so that it could interact with its environment, and this would go a long way to helping it maintain a positive psychological displacement. If it was controlling a space ship, you wouldn't want it to get any Jihadist type ideas right?
Yes, huge issue, but before we start hiring a bunch of neuropsychologists to start speculating for some super salaries, let's remember they don't know the answers to these questions, and although I completely agree with you, we just don't know yet. The Chimpanzees seem to adapt when researchers have cut into their skulls and wired them up, although they probably aren't too happy about it, still they adapt.
A human while alive may apt for a new extended life within a space ship, just so it wouldn't die, remember self-preservation is a huge need, just as Maslow. Further, the volunteer for such a mission has to accept these challenges in the name of science. People have volunteered for all sorts of things in the past, for science, so you'd be surprised. Well, I hope you've enjoyed today's topic and future concepts dialogue? Please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/
Imagine if the English national anthem were about Flodden, the battle which took place in 1513, when James IV's army invaded England, while Henry VIII was away fighting in France. It could go something like this:
Oh flower of England, When will we see your like again, that fought and died for your field at fair Flodden and stood against him proud James' army and sent him homeward in his own coffin.
Can you imagine how the SNP would react if such a song were sung at rugby matches? Can you imagine how they would cry about bias if the anniversary of Flodden were to be used for political purposes 400 years later? Yet they wish to do exactly this with regard to the anniversary of a battle which took place in 1314.
Any Scot, who is not in self denial, knows that there is widespread anti-Englishness in our country. If someone were to go into a Scottish pub, when England were playing football, wearing an England shirt, he would at the very least receive unpleasant comments, assuming he could hear them over and above the abuse directed at the television screen.
Ordinary kind, decent Scots, including nearly all of us at one time or another, unthinkingly say things about England and the English that we simply would not dream of saying about any other country or people. At times this is just banter and is the sort of humour that everyone enjoys including the English, who equally crack jokes about the French, while remaining very Francophile. But we Scots know of many instances when anti-English comments are not just banter, when such comments and actions really have the power to wound and hurt, when someone is made to feel unwelcome and insulted because of his accent and the place he comes from.
The one thing that this is not, of course, is racism. White English people are the same race as white Scottish people. The experience of racism, which black and Asian people feel in both England and Scotland, is qualitatively different from Anglophobia and far more severe. Few Scots would be unwilling to be friends with, or fall in love with, someone from England. English people are not discriminated against in employment. But many English people do find the common, everyday instances of anti-Englishness, which occur in Scotland, unpleasant and distasteful. Even if these experiences should not be confused with racism, they make the English person feel as if he does not belong.
Let's look at an English person in Scotland. Can someone born in England, of English parents and with an English accent, can such a person be a Scot? I would contend that the vast majority of Scots make it quite clear that such a person cannot be a Scot, no matter how long he has lived here. What counts as being a Scot is that you are born and bred here and that your accent fits. The key criteria looks very much like family lineage and this is confirmed when we come to that piece of Scottish national dress called the kilt.
Until recently almost no one in Scotland wore a kilt apart from soldiers and deer stalkers, but now at weddings they are becoming universal. Many Scots don't have a particularly Scottish name. Such Scots might pick a kilt they like and wear it with pride, but there's always someone who wants to ask what clan are you from, and are you entitled to wear that kilt. It's as if, unless you can trace your lineage to Culloden, you're not quite entitled to be a Scot at all. But if someone with a name like Walker or Robinson is not entitled, how is someone with a name like Khan or a name like Kowalski going to gain his entitlement?
To their credit the SNP maintain that they are civic nationalists and not ethnic nationalists. Therefore if asked can someone born in Pakistan, India or Jamaica be a Scot, they would answer yes. But does anyone really believe this? If the English can't be Scots how can the Poles or the Pakistanis? The SNP's civic nationalism is founded on their ethnic nationalism and would collapse without the ethnic nationalism. But this is really the case with all nationalisms. Why do many people in Quebec want independence? Because they speak French, have French names and are descended from people who came from France. Quebec nationalism is almost exclusively felt by these people. Those people living in Quebec who speak English or who are descended from places other than France do not want independence. They want to be Canadians. Quebec nationalists are also civic nationalists, but the foundation of their nationalism like all nationalisms including Scottish nationalism is ethnic nationalism. It is based on membership of a clan, opposed to those who do not belong to the clan.
Of course anti-Englishness is not exclusive to nationalists. Many unionists, unconscious of the contradiction, will express anti-English sentiments such as the commonly expressed idea that when I go on holiday the French or Germans or Italians don't much like the British, but when I point out that I'm Scottish, they are much more pleasant. Anyone who thinks like this, who is willing to drop their Britishness when it is convenient, should be voting for Alex Salmond. The strength of the union is that we are all in it together, that no matter where we come from we're all fundamentally the same. We're all British. Without that feeling, the union begins to creak and will inevitably fall apart. When Scots express Anglophobia they are saying that those people are not the same as me, they are foreigners. Furthermore this gives rise to ever increasing levels of anti-Scottish sentiments among the English, and so in turn with the Welsh and the Northern Irish. It is for this reason that Mr Salmond seeks to subtly stir up anti-Englishness by continually complaining about rule from London, code for England, saying such people have no right to have a say about what goes on in Scotland. He is saying that such people are not us, they are foreign. When every country in the union hates those who live in every other country, there will no longer be a union; there will just be a small island full of enmity. And that will be a fine legacy for Mr Salmond.
The great thing about Britain is that it enables us to be both Scottish and British. Britishness is inclusive and it is something anyone can feel no matter where their parents came from. It is for this reason that people in Scotland, who were not born and bred here, overwhelmingly support the union. They know that in an independent Scotland, they will not be Scots, not really and neither will they be British. Civic nationalism will allow them to remain, will give them a passport, but the ethnic nationalism which underpins that civic nationalism, will mean that incomers will forever feel like foreigners in their own country. They will live here, but without an identity. They will not really be Scots, they will not quite be entitled. They'll not get to wear the kilt as they have no clan.
Anglophobia is not a nationalist ideology, but it is the foundation of nationalism. Why else choose an anti-English song as an anthem? Why else go on and on about how the English did this and that to us, about how the English oppressed us, how the English say British when we win, Scottish when we lose? Why the chip on our shoulder about the English going on about 1966 when we go on about 1314? In the end the reason that nationalists want to reject Britain is because they can't bear to be associated with the English. The reason they hate the Union Jack is because it contains the cross of Saint George.
Naturally nationalists frequently claim never to have met an SNP member, who is anti-English, but this is like claiming never to have met anti-Englishness in Scotland; a case of self-denial. The virulence and hatred of the cybernats, resembles very closely that Anglophobia, which many English people, to our shame, meet in Scotland, for it springs from the same source. Scots who are willing to abuse someone because of his accent or his parentage, are just as liable to abuse someone who is opposed to the one thing the cybernat wants above all others an independent Scotland free from England, a Scotland where the English have been sent homeward to think again.
Without anti-Englishness, Scottish nationalism would wither. We Scottish unionists should therefore think carefully when we express anti-English sentiments, as really we are undermining the union and helping to develop the narrow ethnic nationalism, which Mr Salmond needs to win his cause.
The Scottish independence referendum will be in 2014. I'm campaigning for Scotland to remain in the United Kingdom, by means of a regular blog exploring all of the issues involved. Please come and join the debate by clicking on the above link.
I have heard many times that the behavior of people might be affected by the weather of the place where they live. That means, for example, that people living in tropical places might be warmer and more social than people living in cold places like Russia or Scandinavian countries, just to mention some examples.
I have never lived in the places I just mentioned, so I cannot confirm this statement, but I met people from this countries and I can say that the weather-people behavior relationship might have some connections. Honestly, at the beginning I was thinking that this was just a stereotype, as labeling people in a certain way (not necessarily bad) could sound like an easy way to go. But the more people from different countries I meet, and the more I'm pretty much sure that THERE IS a connection between the way people interact and the weather or temperatures of the country where they live.
Of course, it's not right to generalize and say that all the people from a cold country will be cold in human relationships as well, and vice versa, but in my opinion there are higher chances that people from, for example, Finland will have more hard time to socialize with other people than people from places like, for example, Spain.
Also, when I share this thought with friends, sometimes I am misunderstood, as some people think that "cold people = bad people". I have to specify that I absolutely don't have this concept in mind when I think of cold people. For me, a cold person is somebody who doesn't necessarily show an interest on socializing with new people or to keep in touch with them, in case the first step is done. I have being living in Canada for 6 years so far and I have struggled making new friends or to keep in touch with them almost all the time. This was one of the first things I have notice when I move here from... a warmer country. I actually remember that when I went back to my home country the first time after only 1 year in Canada, my dad asked me if there was something that I didn't like about it. And, with no hesitation, I said "human relationships".
The first year was pretty hard for me under this point view, even because I was not expecting this, but after a while I unfortunately got used to it. I said "unfortunately" because I tried many times to keep in touch with a small group of friends, but after many tries I realized that people don't care that much, basically because they already have their own friends from high school, hockey or whatever. What's even worse and what still makes me feel bad many times is the fact that when you keep the distance either because you move to a different city or because you change job, the basic friendship that you've been able to built that far is already gone... unless of course it'll be your interest to start an "on distance relationship". And I've noticed that, in terms of socialization, Canadians are also really good saying things rather than doing them. A good example could be "it was really nice meeting, let's keep in touch, I'll see you soon", with the final result that none of these will really happen unless it'll be your choice to do so.
Again, with this I absolutely don't want to label Canadians in a bad way; I simply think that moving to a new country (as it is my case) you notice things that in your home country probably have never noticed, because they are different and characteristic of that new place. Some people can actually find this aspect quite good, so there you go, even better, but for me it is something that simply makes me suffer.
And as bad things are noticed when you move into a new country, the same happens to good things. Indeed, what I admire from Canadians is their honesty and calm, two characteristics that many other countries and cultures should start to "adopt".
I really would like to hearing somebody with my same experience or with an opposite experience, who moved to a "colder" country or to a "warmer" country, to better understand if this can be thought as a general situation and if there is any solution or shortcut to it.
I love traveling, because it opens your mind and let you experience new cultures. El Dido Photos Albums is where you can find the pictures of my trips and of the main cities in Canada. I hope you'll enjoy them!
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