It is chestnut season here in Berlin. There's a chestnut tree in the park across the street. My neighbor Vera and I have been competing with others in gathering chestnuts. So far Vera has hundreds upon hundreds.
I have made chestnut coffee. I have chopped up the chestnuts to make chestnut bacon bits. I have been cutting the chestnuts just so and putting them in the microwave. They spin really fast! Then the shell cracks back and you can eat the yummy treasure inside. I didn't cut one chestnut correctly, and it exploded. It was quite the explosion. It took me twenty minutes to clean the microwave after that.
Did you know that chestnuts are the only nut with vitamin C? Did you know that a person can survive an entire winter on nothing but chestnuts and water?
Today on television they aired a special documentary about the destruction of the towers. They covered the scientific facts, the eye witness accounts, the video coverage that shows thermite burning sparks out of the side of the building, and they covered experts testifying about the impossibility of the situation. They covered the investment that Giuliani personally made, and so on and so forth. They were pretty thorough.
It is a chilling reminder for the German people of what has happened in their nation's recent past, and what has happened in the recent past of several other nations as well.
The lady upstairs is this really sweet great grandma who is going blind. She was telling me about the war. She was able to escape a building that had been bombed before the destruction made its way to her, because she was near enough to the exit to run out.
She also told me of what it was like before the war, and before the Nationalsozialisten came into power. There were tactics used to lull the people into safety. They used inclusive words like Homeland, and promoted sports and health. When ever somebody brought something up controversial about the obvious flaws of the situation, most people would criticize what they had to say, and them as a person for saying it.
Then it got ugly, and by then they had given up their power to do anything about it, and it was too late.
I hope that we as citizens of the greatest nation on this planet can learn from History, and not follow in their complacent footsteps of doom. I hope that we can collectively open our eyes, and assert ourselves against the tyranny that will potentially prevail.
Derek Johnson, you have red curly crazy hair, you were raised in Tonasket, and like me, you're much more capable than you are motivated. Where are you now?
You and I were once young, full of magical adventure, and we were best of friends. Together we experienced some pretty crazy things, much of which to this day I still cannot explain, but I know that it happened.
But, we as close of friends as we were, our live paths lead in different directions. After that last year at Scout Camp, I moved away, and you were dating that really hot Native American girl. Then you moved to Spokane, and we lost touch with each other.
Now I live in Germany, and God only knows if you are still alive. I dreamed last night that I found out from another person that you had died a few years back. Is it true? The other day, I was walking to the car from my apartment building, and a red-headed guy who looked just like you, and a gal were walking and talking American English. My hands were full, and by the time I set everything down and went to check it out, the two people had walked around a corner, and must have gone in a building somewhere.
If you are alive, I really wonder what you are up to. Now that I've blogged about it, I feel much better.
So, yesterday I was SO tired, and I felt really sick. I fell asleep in the afternoon, and slept until about 11:30pm. During my sleep, I can remember just a short part of a dream really vividly. In the dream, somehow the idea came into my head that there was a lunar eclipse going on. I looked up at the moon, and saw that it was part bright and part dark. I zoomed really fast until I was really close to the moon, and I could see the Earth's shadow covering a great portion of the moon, and then I looked back at the Earth. The Sun was peering over the edge, and it made the earth look like a huge shadow ball. I remember going back towards it, making out Europe and heading towards Berlin.
Then just now, Thomas told me that there was a lunar eclipse last night. I hadn't known about it.
This is how the moon looked in my dream before I zoomed up to it.
The view of a partial lunar eclipse seen from Stockholm, Sweden.
Wenn ich tot bin Schau ich aus den Wolken auf dich hinab Wenn ich tot bin Lös ich jeden Abend deinen Schutzengel ab Wenn ich tot bin Erzähl ich im Himmel wie seh ich dich liebe Wenn ich tot bin tut's mir leid, dass ich nicht bei dir blieb
Ich weiß nicht, was ich will Mein Leben fließt durch die Nacht wie der Regen Ich weiß nicht, was ich will Ich bin Odysseus auf den Meeren
Wenn ich tot bin Sing ich jeden Abend nur für dich ein Lied Wenn ich tot bin Wart ich auf dich im Paradies Wenn ich tot bin Weiß ich genau, dass du gut für mich bist Wenn ich tot bin Schnee und Regen wenn du mich vergisst
Ich weiß nicht, was ich will Mein Leben fließt durch die Nacht wie der Regen Ich weiß nicht, was ich will Ich bin Odysseus auf den Meeren Du fehlst mir so sehr
Ich flieg zwischen Welten hin und her Wenn ich zu lang bei dir bin Will ich woanders sein Und woanders denk ich immer nur an dich
Ich weiß nicht, was ich will Mein Leben fließt durch die Nacht wie der Regen Ich weiß nicht, was ich will Ich bin Odysseus auf den Meeren Du fehlst mir so sehr
Ich flieg zwischen Welten hin und her Ich flieg zwischen Welten hin und her
Your Daily Lesson
Current mood: thankful
Category: Blogging
I woke up today at 6:30am, after not getting to sleep until 3am. I should be exhausted, especially after working out for so long yesterday, but I am not. I feel alert, peaceful, and tranquil. The sun was already shining when I awoke.
I went into the kitchen, took a look around, and almost gagged. It was so filthy with little bits of old chinese food plastered about the sink, counters, and floor. I was immediately irritated, and my passive-aggressive instincts (which I know never to listen to) told me to loudly clean the kitchen so that the maker of the mess would wake up and hear me cleaning the kitchen.
Instead I enjoyed a soy mocha and did my homework for school, and then sat down on the computer and decided to look at my Daily Lesson:
Accept everybody as an expression of the reality created by God. It is not your place to judge.
Pay attention to the personal investment or sacrifice required to derive full benefit from your current situation.
You are called upon to reject the dominant self-centered world view. Learn to see every person you meet as an opportunity. Notice the qualities that have triggered feelings of separateness, judgments, aversion, and resistance in you before.
You are challenged to see these as your own projections, and to forgive them in yourself as well as others. This will energize mutual support and cooperation towards the greater good. Sacrifice that part of yourself that wants to be superior. All souls are equally flawed and equally beautiful. Let go of perfectionism. Unconditional acceptance and focusing on the good is how we mend the psychic, spiritual and emotional web of family and culture.
:) I don't know why, but I really love to be put in my place. It helps me appreciate everything around me. Feeling superior is overrated, unrealistic, and toxic. I can't wait to go out and meet the world today!
In 1847, Dr. Semmelweis, a respected Hungarian physician who was concerned about the high mortality rate of women giving birth in hospital, instituted a procedure at one hospital whereby doctors washed and disinfected their hands before delivering babies. Immediately, the mortality rate dropped from THIRTY percent to near zero. Seven other hospitals followed suit with similar results.
The European medical establishment recognized Dr. Semmelweis's achievement by blocking his applications for further research funds, vilifying and ostracizing him, and, ultimately, causing him to lose his prestigious positions at maternity hospitals. In America, the newly formed American Medical Association added insult to injury by threatening to revoke the license of any doctor caught washing his hands. Dr. Semmelweis was so distressed that women continued to die that he suffered a mental breakdown that eventually led to his death in 1865.
Now, why would they do that? What else is going on today that seems similar? Consider the pharmeceutical companies, the supposed lack of cure for cancer, and the money they make off "cancer research," chemo-therapy, and selling these designer drugs.
One man discovered the cure for cancer and many other ailments, and started giving it to people free of charge. He saved many lives, and now he's going to jail.
No Longer a Christian (but rather just plain christian)
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Published on Monday, October 25, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
No Longer a Christian
by Karen Horst Cobb
I was told in Sunday school the word "Christian" means to be Christ-like, but the message I hear daily on the airwaves from the "christian " media are words of war, violence, and aggression. Throughout this article I will spell Christian with a small c rather than a capital, since the term (as I usually hear it thrown about) does not refer to the teachings of the one I know as the Christ. I hear church goers call in to radio programs and explain that it was a mistake not to kill every living thing in Fallujah. They quote chapter and verse from the old testament about smiting the enemies of Israel. The fear of fighting the terrorists on our soil rather than across the globe causes the voices to be raised as they justify the latest prison scandal or other accounts of the horrors of war . The words they speak are words of destruction, aggression, dominance, revenge, fear and arrogance. The host and the callers echo the belief in the righteousness of our nation's killing. There are reminders to pray for our "Christian" president who is doing the work of the Lord: Right to Life, Second Amendment, sanctity of marriage, welfare reform, war, kill, evil liberals. . . so much to fight, so much to destroy.
Let me tell you about the Christ I know. He was conceived by an unmarried woman. He was not born into a family of privilege. He was a radical. He said, "It was said an eye for and eye and a tooth of a tooth, but now I say love your enemies and bless those who curse you." He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5: 3-9) He said, "All those who are called by my name will enter the kingdom of heaven." He said, "People will know true believers if they have the fruit of the spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control."
He knew he would be led like a sheep to the slaughter. He responded with "Father forgive them." He explained that in Christ there is neither Jew nor gentile, slave or free male nor female. He explained that even to be angry is akin to murder. He said the temple of God is not a building, but is in the hearts of those are called by his name. He was called "the Prince of Peace." His final days were spent in prayer, so that he could endure what was set before him, not on how he could overpower the evil government of that day. When they came for him he was led away and didn't resist his death sentence.
This is a stark contrast to the call of the religious Christian right, who vote for war and weapons, and suggest towns and villages be leveled to bring freedom and peace to the people. They proudly boast this country's superiority, suggesting God has blessed our nation. Today, as I listened to a popular Christian news network, I was reminded that in the last days, even God's elect will be deceived, (II Timothy 3:13). When the religious media moguls preaching prosperity spout their rhetoric, I am reminded of the difficulty Jesus described of a rich man's ability to enter the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19: 24) (http://www.4religious-right.info/rr_economics.htm) Some who believe they are fighting evil will cry to the Lord, and he will say "I never knew you." (Matthew 22). They will have a form or godliness but will deny the power (II Timothy 3:5) to move mountains through prayer. (Matthew 17:20). Jesus explained that he has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. (II Timothy 1:17) I wonder if the innocent moms and dads, brothers and sisters, and aunts and uncles, and grandmas and grandpas who were the victims of US military weapons (the never reported collateral damages we are protected from in the "liberal" nightly news) felt the love of Jesus with the shock and awe. I wonder if the surviving family members now understand His radical love and that they no longer have any need for weapons or defense.
The solutions to the social issues used to manipulate good, decent people have no resemblance to how Jesus responded to the social concerns of his time. He never once mentioned the "right to life" the year he was born King Herod ordered the execution of all babies. (Matthew 2:16). He knew that passing laws does not change the heart. As a follower of his teaching I believe in the right to life, including the children in Iraq who stumble onto land mines, cross the street at the wrong time, or who are snugly tucked within the warm bellies of their wounded or grieving mothers as US fighter jets fly overhead. These are living, breathing children. The killing of these little ones are never even reported, and our tax dollars pay for these bombs. I believe in the right to life for those in the United States who are unwanted and impoverished. I believe in the right to life of the naive kid who was promised by the recruiter they could choose a desk job and still get their education paid or could see the world or could accelerate their life or could play a very realistic video game from a cockpit.
I've worked at a shelter, and I know first hand the reality of unwanted children. I know the reality of this right wing rhetoric when week after week I begged and pleaded with people to give up only one night every three months to sit with these unwanted living children for a few hours while the overworked house parents had a night off. Of the few I found, many changed their minds when they discovered that they would need to wear rubber gloves to change the babies diapers. These "believers" stand on the street corners holding right to life signs and then vote against medical assistance for the mothers and their unwanted children creating an impossible existence for them. The few of these abortion activists who might adopt some of these unwanted children generally want the white and the healthy. The ones with hydrocephalous, tracheotomies, emotional/ mental problems and communicable diseases along with their life long medical expenses can be someone else's problems.
I cringe as many christians vote for policies that deny help to the poor in our own county, who vote to support the war and military strength, assuring the latest weapons are developed and that the heavens will be dominated by the military of the United States. We develop electromagnetic weapons to shatter skulls , split the earth (http://www.raven1.net/emr13.htm) and silently destroy a body as a thief in the night. Studies are even now searching for the frequencies to override the freewill. These unbelievable technologies are a reality and DNA specific weapons can or soon will target a specific nationality (http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/981116/1998111619.html ).I weep as the waters Jesus walked on become contaminated with uranium. (http://www.greendove.net/resources3.htm) I grieve as the missiles fly through the atmosphere on the continent where Jesus rose into the sky, defying death and the grave and where the Holy Sprit first descended. I cry out at the horrors of war and the indignity of the prisons so close to where He took captivity captive. So I am no longer a Christian if Christianity has become what is presented to us by our Christian president and Christian media. I cannot support the right of the United States and Israel to develop and use the most heinous weapons ever imagined. I want no part of a temple built on the blood of the innocent. The sheep have been lead astray by the teachings of prosperity and misinterpretation of the final battle between good and evil. Many no longer can recognize the voice of the good Shepherd.
Some "good Christians" even work at weapons facilities. It is not a stretch to say that a woman who tightens a last rivet on a shiny new missile just off the assembly line might be the same woman who licks the gold star on the attendance chart in morning Sunday school. The missile could be launched by the kid in the youth group who reads the invocation and it will find it's destiny at a "target of interest" which might or might not have been a result of good intelligence. The collection plate circulates children are taught to love their enemies and bless those who curse them.
The statements and lifestyle of Jesus are difficult for me to understand. What would he say to evil dictators? This God would not justify 15,000 or more deaths. Even the wrathful jealous God of the old testament spared whole cities for a few righteous souls. For Christians, to support mass killings as a way to prevent future deaths is not at all like Christ. He would not say,"When I am talking about war I am really talking about peace," like the self professed Christian President proudly states. Who but God has the right to determine what price a people should pay for their freedom? The religious leaders on the airwaves today respond to the voices of the few brave peacemakers who dare to speak out. They say that pacifism is insane, and that it doesn't make sense, but what is forgotten is that logic and faith are separate entities. I believe in the example of Jesus and his admonition to love your enemies and bless those who curse you . Do I understand how this works on the global scale? Do I know what Jesus would say to all the world's leaders? No, nor do I totally understand how the example of Christ's life and his message of love works in the world today. That's why I need faith. Am I always correct in my assessments and actions? No, that's why I need grace. Am I brave and unafraid? No, that's why I need the perfect love that casts out fear. Some put trust in Chariots and some in horses but I will remember the name of the lord our God--the Prince of Peace. Perhaps politics has no place for imitators of Christ.
Who will show the face of Christ to the world? Who will speak His radical message? I hear from these so called imitators of Christ that the pacifists are a collection of kids, hippies, socialists and communists who haven't got a clue. Some of us, however, have come to our beliefs as a result of careful and prayerful study of the scriptures and admonishment from our elders. Many are Mennonite, Amish, Quaker and other Anabaptists, whose ancestors did not resist their torturers and were drowned, burnt at the stake and flogged for their pacifist stand. They truly followed the example of Christ, and their resistance against the catastrophic effects of the merging of church and state cost them a great price. Churches today have signed onto the government plan and have agreed to look the other way in exchange for tax free privileges. The true message of Christ still exists to some degree in the quiet of the land to peacemakers, but sadly these good people have been deceived by the angry words from a righteous sounding religious media majority broadcasting in cars and trucks and tractors all over our land ironically preaching the "good news of war for peace" and convincing 24-7 "liberal" bashing. I suspect there are many who share my sorrow at the loss of what it means to be Christ-like, but our voice is seldom heard. The blaring rhetoric drowns out the still small voice of the mighty God. Peace used be the opposite of war, Conservative used to mean the tendency to conserve resources. Liberal used to mean kind and generous, and Christian used to mean like Christ.
So I am no longer a Christian but just a person who continues trying to follow the example of Christ. I'll let him call me what he wants when I see him face to face. Until then, I will pray that someday people like me will be able to reclaim the meaning of Christ's identity, and the world will see the effects of the radical message of Christ's love--the perfect love that casts out fear.
Karen Cobb is a freelance writer and artist in Santa Fe, NM and can be contacted at cairnhcobb@msn.com.
So, lately I have had this little annoyance with our roommate. You see, he is a cook by trade, the only one at Thomas's brother's restaurant. He's been a cook for years. However, he has no idea how to properly clean a kitchen, or much anything else for that matter.
For example, let's say that he goes to make himself a little chinese meal. He loves fish. So, he uses the fish pan that I got especially for him, and fries the fish at a much too high temperature without using the splashguard - that I also got with him in mind - to prevent this. Of course oil splatters up to a foot onto the wall, and all over the glasstop stove. Then he'll make toast, and use the rest of the stove to prepare it, getting crumbs everywhere.
Cooking is messy. No big deal, right? Guess how he cleans it up. He'll take a potholder, or a dishtowel, or whatever else is nearby and cloth, and brush the a good part crumbs into his hand, all the while smearing the fishy oil splatter around, and then at least half of what made it into his hand makes it into the garbage can. Then he puts the potholder back into the drawer with all the other clean things. Sometimes he'll use a sponge and then put it back with the clean sponges without so much as rinsing it, which makes the whole kitchen smell like rotten fish, and requires the rewashing of all the other sponges.
There are other things as well. He puts dishes back in completely random spots. Sure, he has gotten better. He doesn't put the forks with the spoons anymore, but he still doesn't put the same glasses back with the same glasses, or the small plates with the other small plates, or the bowls with the other bowls. No sirry bob. That concept of organization still escapes him to this day. Oh, and he doesn't understand the concept of rinsing the toothpaste spit out of the sink after he spits it out (much less the splatter on the mirror), or the concept of squeegying the shower down when he's done with it. Or the idea of changing out the trash when it is so high that throwing things away is like playing jenga.
Since I have not been employed, I have had a little bit more time to focus of the cleanliness of my home. So when these things happen on a daily basis, I have tended to get rather annoyed. I have tried teaching him how to clean the kitchen with the proper cleaners, often making it a point to strike up a conversation with him and offer him some tasty vegan cooking while I clean the kitchen. I've even come in and helped him unload the dishwasher a few times, and I joyfully sang him the Sesame Street song "One of These Things is not Like the Other." I've also tried passive-aggressive tactics like only cleaning up what I've soiled in the kitchen, and not his messes. And you know what? It hasn't really helped.
Well, the other day when I walked by and saw him using the potholder to skillfully clean the stove, I stopped and gawked. You know what he did? He looked up at me and smiled with a look of pure innocence and culinary joy and then resumed his skillful wiping of fish oil and breadcrumbs.
That's when it dawned on me. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my roommate. Yes, I have a messy roommate. No, he cannot be taught. That is definitely the reality of the situation. The problem is that my expectations are way too high. Each time, I hope to have gotten a different result from the situation, and each time the result is the same.
You see, I am under the firm belief that reality is as it should be. I cannot expect my messy roommate to be something that he is not anymore than I can expect my dog to be a cat, or any other creature besides a dog.
I have a messy roommate, and that is what is. I have been arguing with reality this whole time, and getting all bent out of shape because I thought that it should be some other way than it is, but you know what? It's not.
It's like this quote from Byron Katie, "What is is. You don't get a vote. Haven't you noticed?"
The cause of my suffering was not my messy roommate, but rather the belief that I was harboring that my roommate should be cleaner. If everything is as it should be, then my roommate shouldn't be anything other than he already is. The only thing I can change are things that I can change, and apparently that is not one of them.
So now, instead of being all pissed off about having a messy roommate, I just clean it up. Do I sound like a pushover? In this situation I don't think so. I've already tried everything I could to improve the situation that I am willing to do. I don't particularly want to kick him out. It's really quite simple. I live with a messy person who will never really quite "get it." Whether that's good or bad, that's the reality of the situation, and so far griping about it has only made me the one to suffer.
And you know what else? It doesn't bother me anymore. Not one bit. Sometimes I giggle when I see a stray glass placed between the plates and the bowls, when all the glasses go in another cupboard.
To top it off, there's not this uncomfortable tension between us because of the irritation I was feeling before.
Whenever I find myself arguing with a reality that I cannot change, I do a little self-inquiry into the situation, figure out what the situation really is, and then what I can do about it. Getting all bent out of shape has only made me suffer in the past, and frankly I would much rather enjoy life that suffer needlessly.
Wow, the kitchen sure is a mess. What can I do about it? I can clean it.
So far, from this situation I have learned a lot about myself, along with what a pain it must have been for previous roommates when I have left messes behind. I really appreciate how kind they were about it.
To end this blog, I want to share a few more quotes from Byron Katie:
The teacher you need is the person you're living with. Are you listening?
Reality is always kinder than the story we tell about it.
blessed
thankful