Catherine Todd blog

Winter's Bark tree - flower bud (magnified)

2012-02-04T18:36:00.008-05:00

Fruit under the electronmicroscope

Go here for the video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7591649.stm

Drimys winteri (Winteraceae) - Winter's bark tree; native to Central and South America - half flower bud
Picture: WOLFGANG STUPPY / ROB KESSELER

Drimys winteri (Winter Bark tree)

Sweet mouth-watering fruits provide us with a healthy source of food, but that is not the reason why plants produce them. Fruit, and the seeds they protect, are crucial to species' survival.
A new book - written by two experts from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - reveals the ingenious and often devious strategies which plants have developed to help ensure their continued existence.

Here, with the help of colourful close up images, Kew's seed morphologist Wolfgang Stuppy explains some of the tactics...

Photographs courtesy Papadakis Publisher, Wolfgang Stuppy, Rob Kesseler.
Slideshow production Paul Kerley.

Audio Slideshow: 2008 Chelsea Flower Show

BBC Gardening

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Kew's Millennium Seed Bank Project

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7591649.stm

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Drimys winteri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drimys_winteri
Drimys winteri (Winter's Bark), or Canelo, is a slender tree, growing up to 20 m (65 ft) tall. It is native to the Magellanic and Valdivian temperate rain forests of ...
Images for Drimys Winteri
Drimys winteri - Winter's Bark - Winteraceae
www.plantoftheweek.org/week071.shtml
Drimys winteri is an evergreen tree native to Argentina and Chile. The tree in nature often reaches a height of 50 feet. The leathery, aromatic leaves have a ...

Gorgeous Color ~ Fleurs

2012-01-28T02:04:00.003-05:00

Originally from An Apple a Day: http://emersonmerrick.blogspot.com/

Pinned by Megan Peters (Manion) onto Fleurs.

from http://pinterest.com/pin/17029304810749004/

I repinned it: http://pinterest.com/pin/17029304810749004/

Put into my favorite ColorSchemer program:

Catherine, Candelaria, Delphia

2012-01-25T01:19:00.000-05:00

Having fun carrying things on our head. Candelaria can RUN with that big heavy load on her head... and showed us by running around the longest table in the Design Studio! And we followed... video to follow next time! Photo by Les Todd on his wonderful visit in Jan 2012. Oh how I wish my son could be here and enjoy this life with us...

How Emptiness Sings, by Christa Wells

2012-01-24T23:39:00.010-05:00

This is me, and I have to remember to listen to this every night.
And ask God to Show me The Way.

Sister carries her loneliness
In a hidden hollow inside her chest
And sometimes all that she wants is an end
To the long, long night

http://youtu.be/lOjANZ2VlR8

"How Emptiness Sings"

by Christa Wells, from the album "How Emptiness Sings"

Brother, he’s suffered like a tree taken down
Wept as he witnessed his dreams carved out
And how can a man just keep walking around
With his heart full of holes

But ooh,
His bow is on the strings
And the tune resonates in the open space
To show us how emptiness sings:

Glory to God, Glory to God!
In fullness of wisdom,
He writes my story into his song,
My life for the glory of God.
Hmm, hmmm

Sister carries her loneliness
In a hidden hollow inside her chest
And sometimes all that she wants is an end
To the long, long night

But ooh,
Her bow is on the strings,
And the tune resonates in the open space
To show us how emptiness sings:

Glory to God, Glory to God!
In fullness of wisdom,
He writes my story into his song,
My life for the glory of God.
Hmm, hmmm

I haven’t been asked yet to walk the hard roads
Still there’s a sense of deep loss in my soul
In the middle of a party, I’ll just want to go
Home.

But ooh,
My bow is on the strings,
I’m beginning to learn where to find the words
To the song that emptiness sings
Ooh, bow is on the strings:

Glory to God! Glory to God!
This is how emptiness sings, oh,
This is how emptiness sings
Hmmm, hm

Rumi: HIs Life and Poetry

2012-01-24T23:08:00.003-05:00

Mystery and Mysticism:

Mevlana Jalal’uddin Rumi: His Life and Poetry
by Mark W. Muesse

In the land where he spent the greater portion of his life, the country we today call Turkey, the mystic poet Rumi is scarcely known by that name. The Turks call him Mevlana, or “our master.” “Rumi” is more of nickname than a surname, and it simply means the “Roman” or more accurately, the “Byzantine,” since this part of the world was once the Byzantine Empire, the successor of the East Roman Empire.

But this “Rumi” was not a Roman, or a Byzantine, or even a Turk. He was born in the area of Balkh in present-day Afghanistan, then known as Khorasan, a place bustling with Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Zoroastrians.

Jalal’uddin Rumi was born into this religiously diverse place on 30 September 1207, making him the contemporary of two other great mystics, Francis of Assisi (c. 1182-1226) and Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328).

Jalal’uddin’s father, Baha’uddin Walad, was an expert in Islamic law and a preacher who tended toward mysticism. Jalal’uddin’s mother died early in his life. He himself was the only one of his father’s several children to survive childhood.

Rumi’s early life was characterized by frequent dislocation. When he was five, the family moved to Samarqand to escape invasion by the Mongols led by Genghis Khan. As the Mongols continued to encroach, Baha’uddin Walad took his family westward. They traveled in this general direction for about a decade, but their precise whereabouts are uncertain. When they reached the Middle East, they likely went on pilgrimage in the holy city of Makkah, to fulfill the requirement incumbent on all Muslims. But if so, Rumi never mentions the pilgrimage in his writings. In fact he seems rather skeptical about traveling for religious purposes.

Oh you who’ve gone on pilgrimage—
where are you, where, oh where?
Here, here is the Beloved!
Oh come now, come, oh come!
Your friend, he is your neighbor,
he is next to your wall—
You erring in the desert—
what air of love is this?
If you’d see the Beloved’s
form without any form—
You are the house, the master,
You are the Kaaba, you!
Where is a bunch of roses,
if you would be this garden?
Where, one soul’s pearly essence
when you’re the Sea of God?
That’s true—and yet your troubles
may turn to treasures rich—
How sad that you yourself veil
the treasure that is yours! 1

Rumi and his family settled for a while in Damascus, a great center of Arabic learning, where Jalal’uddin studied with eminent scholars and poets. The family’s sojourn did not end in Damascus but eventually continued to central Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, where they stayed in Laranda, then part of the Seljukid kingdom. In Laranda, Jalal’uddin married at age 18 and fathered his first child, a son.

Rumi’s early travels would certainly have made him familiar with the caravanserai, the guest house where weary travelers stayed and refreshed, often for months during winter, before proceeding on their journey. In his later poetry, the caravanserai becomes an image encouraging hospitality toward all life, all experiences:

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond. 2

Eventually, Rumi’s family settled in Konya, the Anatolian capital, once called Iconium when it was part of the Roman Empire. In the 13th century, Konya was becoming a center for refugee scholars and artists under the patronage of the sultan. Konya was also center for Islamic piety, and it still is today. There is a decidedly different atmosphere in Konya than in other parts of Turkey, which are far more secularized.

In Konya, Rumi’s father taught traditional Islamic theology at a madrasa, or seminary. When Baha’uddin died, Rumi assumed his father’s post as a theologian and jurist. Apparently, Jalal’uddin had little or no inkling of his father’s mystical bent, which Baha’uddin may have kept secret from his son.
It also seems that Jalal’uddin himself had no interest in mysticism as a young man. Sufism was rather suspect among orthodox Muslims, and Rumi seems in his early life to have been every bit a conventional Muslim. During this period, in the 1230’s and 1240’s, he led a normal life for a religious scholar, teaching, praying, and helping the poor.

But in October 1244, when he was 37 years old, Rumi had an encounter that would forever change his life. There are several conflicting accounts of this event. One story maintains that on his way home from the madrasa, Rumi met a wandering dervish (Sufi) who asked him a question that impacted him like a Zen koan. There are even different versions of this question, and today we are not certain of its actual content. But it stirred Rumi profoundly.

In another account, Rumi was teaching by a fountain in a square in Konya. The wandering stranger pushed through crowd and tossed into the fountain the books from which Rumi was teaching. When Rumi demanded to know who this stranger was and why he did this, the stranger replied: “You must now live what you have been reading about.” The stranger then turned to the books at the bottom of the fountain and said “We can retrieve them. They’ll be as dry as they were.” He picked one up from the bottom of the fountain, and it was dry. Rumi said “leave them.”

From that moment, Rumi and the stranger, whose name was Shams’uddin of Tabriz, became inseparable companions. Rumi writes, “What I had thought of before as God I met today in a human being.” Rumi and Shams were literally inseparable for the next several months. What took place between them during this time is not altogether clear; later, Rumi would speak of that time as being transported into sphere of Divine Love. They isolated themselves from the rest of the world to enjoy this deep communion (sohbet), much to the consternation of Rumi’s family and students. Rumi was so rapt in this experience with Shams that he totally neglected his teaching and family responsibilities.

Shams, apparently, was not such an easy person to get along with. He was reputedly rather arrogant with a sharp tongue. He even said himself that he prayed to find a single person who could bear his company and was thus “directed to Anatolia.” In spite of Shams personal qualities, it is clear that Rumi encountered in him the very embodiment of the divine itself. Rumi writes:

It is not right that I should call you human [banda, servant]
But I am afraid to call you God [khuda]! (Diwan-i 2768).

Shamsulhaqq [Sun of Divine Truth], if I see in your clear mirror
Nothing but God, I am worse than an infidel! (Diwan-i 1027).

Whether it be infidelity or Islam, listen:
You are either the light of God or God, [khuda]! (Diwan-i 2711). 3

To understand the scandalous nature of these verses, one needs to know that idolatry is the highest sin in Islam. To Muslims idolatry is shirk, associating God with something that is not God. When Rumi compares Shams to God, he could commit no greater sin from the conventional point of view.

Thus it is not surprising that Rumi’s family and students were extremely suspicious of the mysterious Shams. He was probably not very likeable, and he seemed to be leading Rumi towards heresy. Shams must have caught drift of their suspicion because one day he simply disappeared without warning, after about a year with Rumi. Rumi was devastated by the loss.

Yet, it is at this point that his transformation began to accelerate. Rumi became a poet. He began spontaneously to sing and whirl, and he himself did not understand why this happened. He maintained that he was not the author of the verses that began pouring forth from his mouth.

Do you think I know what I’m doing?
That for one breath or half-breath I belong to myself?
As much as a pen knows what it’s writing,
or the ball can guess where it’s going next. 4

He compared himself to a flute, which cannot sing unless it is played by master flautist.

Listen to the story told by the reed,
of being separated.

“Since I was cut from the reedbed,
I have made this crying sound.

Anyone apart from someone he loves
understands what I say.

Anyone pulled from a source
longs to go back.

At any gathering I am there,
mingling in the laughing and grieving,

a friend to each, but few
will hear the secrets hidden

within the notes. But no ears for that.
Body flowing out of spirit,

spirit up from body: no concealing
that mixing. But it’s not given us

to see the soul. The reed flute
is fire, not wind. Be that empty.” 5

At one level, this poem expresses Rumi anguish over his separation from Shams, and he attributes the music of his mouth to that anguish. At another level, the poem alludes to the Sufi notion that as humans we are separated from our true home, which is God, and we long to return.

Rumi tried to contact Shams, but was unable to do so. He continued to create poems inspired by Shams. He never referred to Shams by name in his poetry but alluded to him as the “sun.” The name Shams’uddin translates “sun of faith.” That image played a key role in Rumi’s subsequent poems. Rumi also referred to Shams as the Beloved or the Friend; what is more, these names applied equally to God and to Rumi himself.

Eventually, Rumi received word that Shams was alive and well in Damascus, and he sent his eldest son to fetch Shams back to Konya. When Shams arrived in Anatolia, Rumi insisted Shams live with him. Again the family was not pleased. This time, they insured that Shams would not take their father away from them. As best we know, Rumi’s younger son and a group of Rumi’s students conspired to kill Shams. Rumi was told that Shams had left once more, but it seems more likely that Shams had been stabbed and the body thrown into a nearby well and later buried.

At first, Rumi tried to believe that Shams was still alive. He even traveled to Syria in search of the missing dervish. Eventually, Rumi began to accept that Shams was dead, and he probably suspected his son’s and students’ involvement in the death. His grief was eased, I believe, by the experience of mystical participation in the life of Shams. Rumi writes: “he found him in himself, radiant as the moon.”

He said: Since I am he, what need to seek?
I am the same as he, his essence speaks!
Indeed I sought my own self, that is sure,
Fermenting in the vat, just like the must. 6

Rumi comes to identify completely with Shams; he even takes Shams’ name as his pen name. His collection of poetry is entitled Diwan-i Shams-i Tabriz, the “Divan of Shams of Tabriz.”

Rumi experienced what the Sufis call fana, or complete annihilation in the Beloved. In fana, there is no difference between lover and beloved, between self and other, the soul and God. Many of Rumi’s poems are about the experience of fana, and he uses many metaphors to express it. Sometimes Rumi calls it burning; sometimes drunkenness; sometimes it is bursting, falling, emptiness, or love and sex.

In the early morning hour,
just before dawn, lover and beloved wake
and take a drink of water.

She asks, “Do you love me or yourself more?
Really, tell the absolute truth.”

He says, “There's nothing left of me.
I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise.
Is it still a stone, or a world
made of redness? It has no resistance
to sunlight.”

This is how Hallaj said, I am God,
and told the truth!

The ruby and the sunrise are one.
Be courageous and discipline yourself.

Completely become hearing and ear,
and wear this sun-ruby as an earring.

Work. Keep digging your well.
Don’t think about getting off from work.
Water is there somewhere.

Submit to a daily practice.
Your loyalty to that
is a ring on the door.

Keep knocking, and the joy inside
will eventually open a window
and look out to see who’s there. 7

After Rumi came to identify completely with Shams, his life entered a period of relative serenity. It was somewhere during this time that Rumi’s first wife died, and he married a woman of a Christian background and had two more children with her. Rumi’s reputation as a spiritual teacher continued to grow and he accepted increasing number of students from all walks of life, including many women, a fact that upset many in Konya. One estimate claims he had over 10,000 students, including the grand vizier.

His students encouraged Rumi to compose a mathnawi, a genre of didactic Persian poetry used by other great mystics. Mathnawi means “couplet” and is a compendium of wisdom written in verse. In the year 1256, Rumi began to compose his Mathnawi, dictating it to his friend and disciple Husam’uddin. The Mathnawi comprised over 25,000 verses composed over a period of twelve years. Yet despite his prodigious compositions, it is clear that Rumi was not attached to his poetry; he counted it as nothing when compared to the experience of the divine.

Don’t worry about saving these songs!
And if one of our instruments breaks,
it doesn’t matter.

We have fallen into the place
where everything is music.

The strumming and the flute notes
rise into the atmosphere,
and even if the whole world’s harp
should burn up, there will still be
hidden instruments playing.

So the candle flickers and goes out.
We have a piece of flint and a spark.

This singing is sea foam.
The graceful movements come from a pearl
somewhere on the ocean floor.

Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge
of driftwood along the beach, wanting!

They derive
from a slow and powerful root
that we can’t see.

Stop the words now.
Open the windows in the center of your chest,
and let the spirits fly in and out. 8

During this time, Rumi continued to teach and tend to social and familial responsibilities. He rarely left Konya. In 1262, his second son died, but Rumi did not attend his funeral. Most scholars think his absence was due to his suspicion of his son’s role in Shams’ death.

In the fall of 1273, Rumi himself took sick, but the physicians could not diagnose his illness. He consoled his friends with lyrics expressing the Sufi belief that death is the great return to God. The Sufis call death the “wedding night.”

Don’t cry: “Woe, parted!” at my burial—
For me, this is the time of joyful meeting!
Don’t say “Farewell” when I’m put in the grave—
It is a curtain for eternal grace (Diwan-i, 911). 9

Rumi’s attempt to console his friends at the time of his death is reminiscent of Socrates in the Phaedo. On the day he was scheduled to be executed Socrates tells his friends that as a philosopher he has lived his whole life in anticipation of dying, so there is no reason to be sad now that the day has arrived. He sees his death as the consummation of his life.

Rumi’s view of death is similar but draws upon distinctive Sufi imagery. Sufism, according to one interpreter, is actually “based on the meditation of death, the hour when the soul had to meet its Lord after undergoing interrogation by the two angels Munkar and Nakir in the grave.” 10 The lovers of God no longer dreaded death but rather longed for it, for “death is a bridge that leads the lover to the Beloved.”

If death’s a man—let him come close to me
That I can clasp him tightly to my breast!
I’ll take from him a soul, pure, colorless;
He’ll take from me a colored frock, no more! 11

After he died on 17 December 1273, Rumi’s funeral was attended by Christians, Jews, and Muslims. His son writes that the Christians grieved saying “He was our Jesus!” and the Jews cried “He was our Moses!” After Rumi’s death, his cat refused to eat and died one week later. She was buried near him by his daughter, as a sign of his friendship with all creatures. Today, Turks still celebrate the 17th of December as Rumi’s wedding night.

After his death, his followers were organized into a Sufi order known as the Mevlevis, which became the most influential mystical group in Turkey. This is the order most closely associated with the practice of the sema, the whirling dance. A mausoleum was later built to house Rumi’s remains. The Yesil Türbe (the “Green Dome”) contains the sarcophagus of Rumi, his father, Baha’uddin Walad and his immediate successors in the Mevlevi order. It is the most visited site in Turkey. In a more obscure neighborhood few kilometers away lies the body of Shams, enshrined in a mosque.

1 Diwan, 648, quoted in Annemarie Schimmel, Rumi's World: The Life and Works of the Greatest Sufi Poet (Boston: Shambhala, 2001) 148.
2 Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997) 109.
3 Schimmel, p. 21.
4 Barks, 16.
5 Barks, 17-18.
6 Schimmel, 19.
7 Barks, 100-101.
8 Barks, 34-35.
9 Schimmel, 30.
10 Schimmel, 3.
11 Diwan-i kabir, 1326, 1326.

Copyright © 2004 Mark Muesse0Muesse

more: http://www.explorefaith.org/mystery/poetsRumi_ext.html

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman_Barks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bawa_Muhaiyaddeen

You Know What You Did

2012-01-23T00:07:00.009-05:00

Does this sound familiar? And of course, it can work vice-versa (male accusing female):

"You Know What You Did"

A common soap opera scenario: young couple Alice and Bob are very happy. But Vamp Dorothy, who wants Bob herself, "casually" mentions to Alice that Bob spent the night with her (when in fact they were simply both stranded in a blizzard with thirty other people).

Given a choice between believing her beloved, who has never lied but always been faithful and true, or believing the scheming bitch with a history of deceit and an obvious agenda, naturally our dumb heroine immediately accepts the worst of the story, and totally rejects her true love without even asking his side of it.

When he pathetically asks why she's upset, she only says, "You know what you did!" with a side of Death Glare, thus cementing what should be a Discredited Trope, but, sadly, is not.

At times the woman will ask the man some transparent question, such as, "Did you spend the night with Dorothy?" Unfortunately, the man doesn't actually get why she's asking, and in responding with detail-free answers - or answers with the wrong details ("Why, yes - we got a lot of exercise that night. Good thing, 'cuz I was getting pretty cold.") - merely confirms the woman's fears.

The woman, of course, never asks clarifying questions that would resolve the matter, and the man never picks up on the fact that he needs to clarify because he does not speak nonverbal* - in fact, sometimes he'll believe that the woman knows exactly what's going on to begin with, hence the lack of necessary detail.

And of course, the woman never wonders why, if he was cheating on her, he'd just casually admit to it like that, being that he hasn't displayed Jerkass traits before. A form of Genre Blindness, with a giant, gooey Idiot Ball.

more: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouKnowWhatYouDid

*http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IDoNotSpeakNonverbal

* * * *

I need to find out more about "tropes"

Discredited Trope

Tropes Are Not Bad. But some tropes haven't aged well. Over the course of time, a trope may be overused, misused, opposed, made obsolete, subverted on many notable occasions, or just end up being widely disliked. Eventually, a trope may reach the point where it becomes one which none should dare use seriously and only belongs in parody, satire, homage or pastiche. Often, if one of these is used straight, people will assume it's a Red Herring.

In some cases, a trope may be discredited due to changes in our knowledge of history or science. Use of the trope in fiction may change to reflect this. See the Time Marches On index.

Note: Just because a trope is discredited does not necessarily mean it is not Truth in Television.

Note #2: This is not Bad Writing because the writing itself is bad, but because the writer doesn't know its audience. After all, Tropes Are Not Bad.

Omnipresent Tropes are immune to being discredited, mostly because those tropes are too natural to the medium of storytelling to ever be considered tired cliches. Undead Horse Trope describes tropes that have been subverted and parodied dozens of times, but aren't quite discredited.

See also Dead Horse Trope, where subversions or parodies outnumber straight use in recent works. See also Forgotten Trope, which describes tropes that aren't used in recent works at all; they may have been considered Discredited Tropes years ago, or just fell from use for other reasons.

Compare Discredited Meme.

more: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DiscreditedTrope

Document Converter

2012-01-13T16:03:00.001-05:00

The one program I found that would open .AI (Illustrator) files on my Mac, and it's FREE. It's called a "pdf converter" but it did so much more! I wonder if I can buy the application and install it on my HD?

http://convert.neevia.com/pdfconvert/done.aspx?cid=d261233e-68e2-4b40-a28e-0ea8f2174f03

compress PDF

merge PDF

resize PDF

Your document has been successfully converted!!!

Double click on the link below to view it in your web browser
or right click on the link and select "Save target as"
to directly download it onto your hard drive.

ROMANT_L1.jpg ( 505 Kb )


Convert another document ...

In case you would like to convert your files locally download docuPrinter Pro from here install it, open the file to be converted and click File -> Print select docuPrinter as your printer followed by OK.

http://convert.neevia.com/pdfconvert/done.aspx?cid=d261233e-68e2-4b40-a28e-0ea8f2174f03

From the Gaslight Cafe to 116... McDougal Street

2012-01-07T02:04:00.001-05:00

Note: Oh, what a life we've led! I can't believe I was lucky enough to be there... with Sandi Sylver, who sent this to me...

Description	From the Gaslight Cafe to 116... 50 Years in Greenwich Village 1 1 6 M A C D O U G A L The Birthplace of New York Bohemia Roots In 1958, John Mitchell converted a coal cellar in Greenwich Village into a subterranean coffee house and performance space. A classic New York urban legend has it that Mitchell renovated the space by hand, using a shovel to dig out the floor. What Mitchell essentially dug out, was in fact, the foundation for the future of New York Bohemia. The Gaslight Café at 116 MacDougal was a proving ground for artists who were pushing the boundaries of spoken word, comedy, and music. Starting with the readings of beat poets, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, continuing with the stand-up routines of Wavy Gravy and Bill Cosby, and establishing the recording careers of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, the underground room at 116 MacDougal that seated 110 left an indelible footprint in the cannon of New York City’s creative community. Beats The first subculture to take the audience’s attention away from the overpriced coffee served at 116, were the Beats. “Spokesman” of the Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac, looked to revive interest in his ground breaking book, On the Road, to new audiences through live readings often accompanied by jazz players. Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and other giants of the time used the Gaslight Café’s destination to further their work, in turn influencing a new crop of upcoming talent. The Beats were regarded as smart and well-read people who were deep into jazz and politics. Once the media got wind of what was happening inside these walls, opportunism came a knockin’. Articles and advertisements in the Village Voice brought the suburban tourists down to the village to check out these freaks. The Beats were the main attraction for the first year the club was open but they were quickly making way for the arrival of another movement. Folk Folk music burst onto the scene in 1960 attracting bigger crowds with its pure and topical songs from an earlier time that rang true to current events. Young Folk singers, like Bob Dylan, who shared an apartment with Gaslight comedian and regular, Hugh Romney (aka Wavy Gravy) tried out new material in this intimate setting. Rumor has it, the bar next door, the Kettle of Fish, would close its doors when the young folkie from Hibbing, Minnesota would play a set of songs he was working on. A bootleg recording of Dylan known as “the Gaslight Tapes” circulated for years among collectors. It featured a set of songs and arrangements from 1962, prior to recording his debut album for Columbia Records. Part of this live set has since been released officially through his label. As the Folk music boom took hold of MacDougal Street and eventually the world for the next few years, the Gaslight attracted record labels looking to sign “the next Dylan” and package this scene for public consumption. Many other folk artists were “discovered” and signed, including Buffy Saint Marie and Dave Van Ronk, but once the labels realized these artists weren’t going to sell millions of records for them, the scene burned out. Rock While many of the original Greenwich Village Folk artists continued to perform and record, the scene absorbed a broader spectrum of what was going on around them. Blues greats from the Mississippi Delta gained new found respect from young guitar slingers influenced by their style and started playing to a new generation of music fans. Son House and Mississippi Fred McDowell both recorded live albums at the Gaslight and the new crop of electric blues rock musicians followed. The Blues Project, Jimi Hendrix, and Bonnie Rait all graced its stage. A sign of changing musical tides towards the end of the Gaslight’s run is highlighted by a performance from future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Bruce Springsteen. Laughs Poets and songwriters weren’t the only people pushing the boundaries of art and performance at the Gaslight. A cutting edge troupe of new comedians challenged audiences during the club’s heyday as well. Hugh Romney (later Woodstock emcee and political activist, Wavy Gravy), Bill Cosby, and Tiny Tim fused story, observation, and humor to new heights. A young college student at Temple University in Philadelphia, Bill Cosby, helped pay for his tuition by poking fun of race relations between blacks and whites at the Gaslight. His career took off in New York from these performances. Cosby brought Wavy Gravy to the office of his new agent to seek representation. Once Wavy saw the shark in the agent’s fish tank, he took off for the west coast, exchanging the cut-throat world of show biz for the peace of hippie communal living and human rights activism. Today The Gaslight ended its impressive run of breaking icons and influential movements of the 20th Century in 1971. The decades that followed are filled with artistic accomplishment and the iconic status that many of its original performers have achieved. The basement space at 116 MacDougal has been home to different incarnations since. During the 1980s, it was a watering hole for punk rock troubadours like Joey Ramone. For years, the front steps have been a must see destination for people the world over. From Japanese Hipsters and Social Documentarians, to Record Collectors and aging Beatniks and Bohemians, all come in hopes of hearing these old walls talk. While some may leave with a quick digital pic on their Smartphone posing in the same spot Mike Wallace once interviewed Jack Kerouac about the Beat Generation and his thoughts on the Vietnam War, others may want to stop in and stay for an evening. 116 MacDougal invites you to take in the stories and songs embedded in its walls and see where people will take them next. ~~~~~!@#$%^&*()_+~~~~~ References and recommended for further reading/viewing: The Mayor of MacDougal Street a Memoir by Dave Van Ronk with Elijah Wald Kerouac and Friends by Fred W. McDarrah and Timothy S. McDarrah Comic Turns Quips into Tuition by Paul Gardener, New York Times, June 25, 1962 Saint Misbehavin’: The Wavy Gravy Movie by Ripple Effect Films
Address	116 MacDougal Street, New York, NY 10012 · Get Directions
Phone	Add Telephone Number
Website	http://www.116macdougal.com/

"Wisdom begins in wonder" (Socrates)
"Dreams are the touchstones of our character" (Henry David Thoreau)
"Be Yourself...Everyone Else is Taken" (Anonymous)

Sandi Sylver: Storyteller-Ventriloquist-

Songstress
www.sandisylver.com
**Illinois Arts Council Artist
**Creative Arts Program Artist, Fairfax County, Virginia

---

The Gaslight Cafe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gaslight_Cafe
The Gaslight Cafe was an American coffee house located in the basement of 116 MacDougal Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the Manhattan ...
Gaslight Cafe / nycgo.com
www.nycgo.com/venues/gaslight-cafe
Gaslight Cafe. Manhattan – Greenwich Village. 1. Gaslight Cafe. 116 MacDougal St Manhattan, NY 10012 212-254-9996. 116 MacDougal St , Manhattan, NY ...
The Gaslight Cafe | Facebook
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Gaslight-Cafe/110836198968303
The Gaslight Cafe - Description: The Gaslight Cafe was an American coffee house located in the basement of 116 MacDougal Street in the Greenwich Village ...

luke173ministries.org - Adult Child Abuse by a parent, sibling or other relative

2012-01-01T05:15:00.003-05:00

Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 3:53 AM

Subject: luke173ministries.org - Adult Child Abuse by a parent, sibling, or other relative

From: Catherine S. Todd

To: David Graves, United Methodist Church
dgraves.stpaul@comcast.net, dave4godsteens.stpaul@comcast.net

This is where we will begin. I am putting together a list of documents which describe the proper role and behavior of Christian ministry. Then we will do a comparison survey, beginning with a deposition. Feel free to add any information you may have in your role as "pastor of a flock." CT

http://luke173ministries.org/

luke173ministries.org

We are a Bible-based and Holy Ghost-inspired sisterhood for those who seek support in developing self-esteem, setting boundaries and limits, forgiveness, Godly confrontation, recognizing and cutting ties with reprobates, healing, and rejoicing in the peace and love of the Lord, our Father.

If you have ever experienced Adult Child Abuse by a parent, sibling, or other relative, we welcome you and pray that you will find our website helpful.

You are not alone.

There are thousands of us just like you, with birth-families just like yours.

You will never be alone.

'When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up'.....Psalm 27:10KJV.

'Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands'......Isaiah 49: 15-16NIV.

TAKE HEED TO YOURSELVES: IF THY BROTHER TRESPASS AGAINST THEE, REBUKE HIM; AND IF HE REPENT, FORGIVE HIM.....Luke 17:3

Luke 17:3 is the scripture often misquoted, usually by an abuser or his Silent Partners, when he tells you that the Bible says 'Forgive and Forget', or that you must forgive him because you are a Christian. However, Jesus is very specific when He tells us to rebuke the sinner, and if he repents, to forgive him. Have you rebuked your abuser, and has he or she repented?

The Bible tells us to forgive as God forgave us (Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13).God forgives us when we come to him, confess our sin, ask for forgiveness (apologize) and repent (turn from our sinful ways).( Ezekiel 33:10-19, Isaiah 55:6, Jeremiah 6:16 & 26:3, Luke 13:3 & 5, Acts 3:19). He does not forgive those who are 'stiff-necked', continue doing evil, or refuse to repent. The Lord does not expect more of us than he himself is willing to do! Do we imagine ourselves to be holier than God? God requires repentance, and so must we.

We hope to provide you with helpful Scripture, book reviews, and original articles on realizing when you're being abused, manipulated, or controlled, setting limits and boundaries, learning to say 'No' without feeling guilty, forgiveness, meaningful vs. meaningless apologies, understanding the abuser as well as other relatives who defend him, learning to let an abuser suffer the Natural Consequences of his behavior, improving your holidays, cutting ties with evil people, recovering from a lost relationship, and, most importantly, learning to rely on our real Father and his limitless love for you.

Please take your time and browse through all the sections on our site. Just scroll to the bottom of each section for articles you can click on to read. For a quick list of all our articles, see the Index of Current and Future Articles. God bless you, dear Sister, in your search for peace.

JESUS IS LORD !

Heavenly Father, we worship you and praise your mighty name. Holy Spirit, we glorify you and thank you for being our Counselor and Comforter. King Jesus, you are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, yet you have called yourself our brother, and called us your friends! Thank you Jesus! We exalt you, Lord! You alone are worthy of all honor and praise. We humbly confess our sins and repent of ever offending you, Lord. Thank you, Father, for your forgiveness and infinite patience with us. We pray for your guidance and blessing upon your ministry, Lord, for , in your mercy, you know that we are only dust and can do nothing without you. Father, we give thanks for our sisters, and for bringing us all through the fire. We lift our sisters up to you, and ask for your comfort, counsel, and courage. We ask you to remember our sisters, and to bless them abundantly, now and throughout their lives, with the joy and peace that only you can give, in Jesus' holy name. Amen.

More: luke173ministries.org

Family Conflicts - What Are They?

2011-12-31T13:33:00.000-05:00

Family conflicts are as varied as the people involved in them. The turmoil can result from a workaholic husband whose wife feels lonely and resentful toward him (and the job that takes him away from her), or children who are a source of continual family conflict and aggravation due to the parent’s lack of consistent parenting skills, or blended families in which an unaccepted step parent or interfering in-laws are the sources of family conflict. In other homes, couples and families are torn apart by verbal, emotional, or physical abuse.¹

If you find yourself in family conflict, be encouraged that there is hope for your situation, whether you are the problem, or someone else is causing the conflict in your home.

Family Conflicts - A Personal Story
Before becoming a Christian, I lived for ten years with an alcoholic who was abusive, verbally and emotionally. I finally had enough of the continual family conflicts and I left him and my sad and empty lifestyle. (I smoked cigarettes and marijuana and was a heavy drinker).

Once I left, I thought in time that my emotional scars would heal but, after getting married, I found they were still raw and painful. It has taken a lot of love, prayer, trust, and patience for my husband and me to resolve the family conflict issues that followed me into our marriage.

Whether only you are searching for solutions to family conflict, or whether your spouse or other family members also want harmony, there are actions you can take immediately to begin changing your own behavior, and your response to the behavior of your spouse and family.

Family Conflicts - Creating Harmony In Your Home
Not only did I bring the pain from life with an alcoholic into my marriage, I discovered that my own selfishness and pride are causes of family conflict (James 4:1-10). In seeking to rid myself of both, God gave me wisdom (James 3:13-18, Colossians 3:16) during my personal Bible studies to see that I was not practicing the biblical strategies listed below.² I applied them in my relationships with my spouse and family and found them highly effective for conflict resolution when diligently, energetically, and prayerfully practiced.

more... http://www.allaboutlifechallenges.org/family-conflicts.htm

Hurt & Hatred in My Heart

2011-12-31T08:04:00.007-05:00

.

Remove this hatred and this hurt from my heart.

Sometimes I think they are one and the same.

Show me what forgiveness feels like.

Dear Lord, please show me The Way.

I know these people would prefer that I were dead, but I'm not.

"Deny until they die." But I'm not. I am alive. Truth lives on, whether we like it or not.

Truth does not keep silent. Truth speaks out loud and the Angels sing.

Spiritual Discernment? Criticism or Judgment?

2011-12-31T04:56:00.011-05:00

Note: Reposted from 6/10/2011. Obviously this is still on my mind. If this is true, I have a long way to go. But I hold pastors and those who call themselves "Christians" to a higher standard. Is this wrong? God is the one to judge. The only one. What right do these two so-called "Christians" have to judge me? Have they not studied and read the same books as I? Do they not understand this excerpt:

"True discernment will not gossip but may report a matter to spiritual Leadership. It will only report the facts without adding fleshly interpretations, suspicions, innuendos or conclusions. It is motivated by Christ’s heart of love, to restore that person to life and godliness."

I have spent my entire life trying to heal my wounds. I have asked God to help heal these wounds. Yet these two, pastor and his wife, have poured acid and salt in the wounds. Why? From people I don't even know?
Dear God help me to understand this. I cannot find a way. CT

"God’s law says that we will reap what we sow, more than we sow and later than we sow. If we have sown seeds of judgment and dishonor when ministers have appeared harsh, contentious and high pressure, we will reap that seed sown in our own ministry."

* * * * *

Spiritual Discernment? Criticism or Judgment?

http://www.cwlinc.com/spiritual_discernment.htm

True discernment is marked by our ability to love others with God’s redemptive sacrificial love. One who has invited Jesus Christ to be Lord of their life, should have humility, peace and a desire to minister the unconditional love of God. False discernment is based in criticism, mistrust, suspicion and fear. Our ability to discern ourselves, others and the Holy Spirit, depends on our ability to perceive correctly. Our perceptions are discolored by our past experiences, if they have not been healed and redeemed.

Rev. Barbara Yoder says that many people often confuse their critical or judgmental spirit with a Spirit of discernment. They may sense an urgency to point out the weakness of another and think that it is spiritual discernment. Have you ever been given a word that was technically correct but it defiled you because it was not given with the redemptive grace of God?

To discern rightly, we have to take our urge to criticize and judge to the cross to be crucified. Most people give others a piece of their mind instead of a word from the Spirit. We have to be willing to renounce all our ungodly reactions - past, present and future - so that we can be the pure in heart, who see God. We have to be willing to demonstrate His great grace, at all times.

1 Cor. 2:16 says “Who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him, but we have the mind of Christ.” To express discernment from the mind of Christ, we have to have the heart of Christ. In John 12:47, Jesus said He didn’t come to judge the world but to save the world. His motivation was not to judge but to rescue or save people out of death and into permanent safety. It's not that a minister never feels a hurt but that they chose a lifestyle of forgiveness before the other sins; they never take offense in the first place.

2 Tim 2:24-26 describes the true discernment: 24 “And a servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who oppose themselves, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

Rev. Barbara Yoder says that spiritual discernment is the grace to see in the spiritual realm, to see into the heart of their spirit, to see the secrets of men’s hearts or to see beyond the veil. The veil that keeps us from perceiving correctly, is the veil over our own heart. Until we can perceive ourselves correctly and deal with the impurity in our own hearts, we will not clearly see what is in the heart of another.

Hebrews 5:1-2 speaks of priests who have great compassion because they can so clearly see their own weaknesses; the extent of their own need became evident as the veil was removed from their own eyes. Carnal perceptions are typified by a compulsion to point out how others are not getting it right. Their motivation may be to judge, gossip or expose rather than to save, restore and cover with the love of God. As Jack Deere said, “Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a skillful carpenter to build one.”

People will gravitate to those who are able to confront with restorative words, without reacting out of their own wounds and experiences. They will choose someone who is able to minister to the root of the matter without reacting to their surface behavior. When God calls us to partner with Him to restore another, we must not take offense at immature behavior and must automatically forgive every weakness.

Mark 3:28, “Whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him.” Jesus was prepared to forgive us before we ever sinned against Him. His mission was to give up his life so that we could have Life. Paul said we must die daily that others might live. He died to his own right to a natural reaction and chose to become a expression of Jesus, in the flesh. It’s not that a minister never feels a hurt but that they chose a lifestyle of forgiveness before the other sins; they don’t take offense in the first place.

John 17:18 “As You sent Me, I sent them.” We have the same mission that Jesus had; we can choose to let Him manifest love and peace through us. We are called to have covenant relationships where we love others with the unconditional love and acceptance of Jesus Christ, when they need it the most. True spiritual discernment sees the weakness of the other as an opportunity to bear them up in prayer and will die to its own convenience so that the other can live.

False discernment is slow to hear, quick to speak and quick to anger. They may judge by surface symptoms and surface causes, without discerning the heart intent or root causes of outward behaviors. They are not motivated by love and peace. They may be unaware of the anger that is inside of them that comes out of their own dysfunctional past or injustices suffered. For instance, we might judge that one who is dependent on prescription drugs, when we should minister healing to the pain and rage that is smoldering inside.

Those operating out of a critical spirit will have a desire to expose the other’s weakness, will attempt to elevate themselves and will forget their own deep need for the grace of God every day. Rick Joyner says that when we sow criticism, we reap blindness to our own faults, which in turn causes us to reap more criticism of ourselves.

True discernment will not gossip but may report a matter to spiritual Leadership. It will only report the facts without adding fleshly interpretations, suspicions, innuendos or conclusions. It is motivated by Christ’s heart of love, to restore that person to life and godliness.

Before God can give us a spirit of discernment, love and forgiveness must mature in us. We cannot be used to free others from captivity, until we can be trusted not to react sinfully to their carnality or immaturity. We cannot react to what they think, say or do. To walk in offense, criticism or judgment is to walk in self-deception ourselves. We cannot prevent feelings from coming but we can choose not to add sinful reactions, which produce sinful emotions.

When we are in self-deception about our own hurts, sins and strongholds, our thoughts about the behavior of others are not trustworthy. Often we will project our own woundedness or sinful motivations onto others. It's not that a minister never feels a hurt but that they chose a lifestyle of forgiveness before the other sins; they never take offense in the first place.

Have you noticed? Accusers accuse you of the self-deceptions in their own life?

Prophetic people can be the first to mistake suspicious thinking for prophetic perception if they are operating in pride. (A wise counselor hears both sides of a story.) A prophetic gift is no substitute for a humble heart that repents readily and keeps short accounts with God. A tendency to “slice and dice” others is not prophetic gifting, but judgment with condemnation. Rom 2:1-2 states, “Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.”

The gifts of the Holy Spirit have to pass through the condition of our own heart as they are ministered. God’s law says that we will reap what we sow, more than we sow and later than we sow. If we have sown seeds of judgment and dishonor when ministers have appeared harsh, contentious and high pressure, we will reap that seed sown in our own ministry.

I grieve for those who are bitter, blaming others who have not recognized their “call to ministry.” They feel self-righteous when they judge and criticize those who will not support their “mission.” A spirit of accusation has caused them to think they are discerning others rightly, when they are actually projecting what is in their own heart. Their friends and leadership know that they will not see clearly to minister restoration until the instinct to judge, blame or accuse has been crucified.

When we receive the grace of God to see the log in our own eye, we will not rush to accuse another of having a spec in their eye. When others find us trustworthy to minister without judgment or condemnation, they will ask for our discernment and value our insights. Can God trust us to be ambassadors of His grace to those who have failed miserably, who justify their sin and can barely feel remorse, much less true repentance?

To receive true spiritual discernment, we must still ourselves before the Lord – on the inside – as a lifestyle. We must choose to aggressively become calm and be willing to hear His heart and mind in the situation. As we receive His love, peace and grace, we will be able to overflow it to others. God’s desire to bring an outpouring of great grace that will enable the church to be healed and to have enlarged hearts that discern by agape love and will not judge by outward behavior.

Can God trust us to take that one by the hand – who was the perpetrator, not the victim? To guide them to the throne of grace, where there are won by the kindness and mercy of God? To be a safe harbors for ships which are in serious danger of shipwreck? To be happy when He not only restores but promotes them?

If so, God will trust us with the secrets of men’s hearts and enable us to discern the roots of the matter. Probably, they have lost the ability to trust a perfect God, much less fallible ministers. They don’t care how much we know; they want to know how much we care. They need trustworthy people to help them to trust again. When we remember how much grace it takes for God to love us, the “unlovable” will come to us for His unconditional love and true discernment.

Favorite Photos

2011-12-18T12:34:00.001-05:00

Meditation Music & Relaxation ~ I've been doing this all along!

2011-12-15T09:50:00.000-05:00

Here's some great sites from Diane Dreyfus, with beautiful, simple music that one can meditate to while being wide awake. I didn't realize that's what I've been doing all along... with the music I've been playing my whole entire life.

1. Slip on your headphones, close your eyes, and let this OmHarmonics Meditation Audio guide you into a state of deep, monk-like relaxation in minutes. Free 10 minute mp3 music download:

http://www.omharmonics.com/audio

2. Free De-Stress Kit for the Changing Times

Click for free Audio Program Download (English Version) MP3 Audio File (30.5 MB) – High-speed connection recommended

Click for free PDF Download (English Version)

Institute of Heart Math

http://www.heartmath.org/free-services/downloads/de-stress-kit-for-the-changing-times.html

3.

Energy

2011-12-14T18:48:00.000-05:00

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Emotion is the resource we treasure when
we're young, says poet Naomi Shihab Nye, but eventually what we thrive
on even more is energy. "Energy is everything," she says, "not emotion."
And where does energy come from? Often, from juxtaposition, says Nye.
"Rubbing happy and sad together creates energy; rubbing one image
against another." That's what she loves about being a poet. Her specialty
is to conjure magic through juxtaposition. "Our brains are desperate for
that kind of energy," she concludes. I mention this, Capricorn, because
the coming weeks will be prime time for you to drum up the vigor and
vitality that come from mixing and melding and merging, particularly in
unexpected or uncommon ways.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Studies show that if you're sharing a meal
with one other person, you're likely to eat up to 35 percent more food
than if you're dining alone. If you sit down at the table with four
companions, you'll probably devour 75 percent extra, and if you're with a
party of eight, your consumption may double. As I contemplate your
horoscope, these facts give me pause. While I do suspect you will benefit
from socializing more intensely and prolifically, I also think it'll be
important to raise your commitment to your own physical health. Can you
figure out a way to do both, please?

Week of Dec 13, 2011

freewillastrology.com

Medieval London Guilds

2011-12-13T23:24:00.000-05:00

Medieval London Guilds

Interesting Facts and information about Medieval London Guilds in the Middle Ages
Names of Medieval London Guilds
The Guildhall
Medieval London Guilds - Ceremonial Livery
Women and Medieval Guilds
Candle making guilds / Soapmakers Guilds

Life in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages Index

Medieval London Guilds

Interesting facts and information about life and the lives of men and women in the
Medieval period of the Middle Ages

Medieval London Guilds
London was the biggest and most important city during the Medieval times of the Middle Ages. The Medieval London Guilds played a major role in the lives of the people in the city. The members of the Medieval Guilds became powerful. The Guilds controlled the way in which trade was conducted in the town. The members of the Guilds also became involved with civic duties and were appointed to important and influential positions in the community.

The chief spokesman of the Guilds became the Mayor of London
The leading delegates of the Guilds became the Aldermen of London
The other members of the Guilds became the burghers of London

The guilds effectively ran the city and controlled commerce. Each guild had its own hall and their own coat of arms, but there was also the Guildhall (1411-1440) where representatives of all the various London guilds met together. The word “guild” derives from the Saxon “gilden” meaning "to pay" and refers to the subscription paid to the Guilds by their members. Other words associated with the term guild include association, society, brotherhood, company, fellowship, fraternity and livery

Names of Medieval London Guilds
The list of names of Medieval London guilds provides an insight in the many jobs and occupations which were available to the people of London during the Middle Ages. The names of some of the Medieval London Guilds included the following:

Apothecaries
Armourers & Brasiers (armour-makers and workers in brass)
Bakers
Barbers (also surgeons and dentists)
Basketmakers
Blacksmiths
Bowyers (longbow makers)
Brewers
Broderers (embroiderers)
Butchers
Carpenters
Chandlers (candle makers)
Clothworkers
Cordwainers (workers in fine leather)
Curriers (dressers of tanned leather)
Cutlers
Dyers
Farriers (shoers of horses)
Fishmongers
Fletchers (arrow makers)
Girdlers (girdles and belts as clothing)
Goldsmiths
Loriners (stirrups and other harness for horses)
Masons
Mercers (general merchants)
Needlemakers
Pattenmakers (makers of wooden clog-style footwear)
Plaisterers (plasterers)
Plumbers
Poulters
Saddlers
Salters
Scriveners (writers of court letters and legal documents)
Skinners
Tallow chandlers (Candle makers)
Upholders (upholsterers)
Vintners
Wax Chandlers ( candle makers)
Weavers
Wheelwrights
Woolmen (winders and packers of wool)

It is interesting to note that many of the streets in London were named after the particular trade which practiced there. These names have survived to the modern day and include names such as Bread Street, Mlk Street, Pudding Lane and Threadneedle Street.

The GuildhallThe major towns of Medieval England had a guildhall. A Guildhall is a building historically used by guilds for meetings. A deed of 1369 refers to the "gildaule", and a charter of 1439 states that "pleas happening in the said borough...shall be pleaded and holden in the guildhall there, before the mayor and bailiffs for the time being". The name for guildhall occurs in early records as "Gialle," "Gihalle," "Guyhalle," "Gihale," "Guihalle," "Gyhale," "Gilda Aula," "Gildaula," "Gyhalda," and "Gildaule" and is derived from "gild " meaning payment or "gildan" meaning to pay. The Guildhall would be the appointed place where the burgesses would "yield" or pay their taxes, hence another name for Guildhall - "Yeldehall". The purpose of the Guildhall building was to conduct the commercial business of the Guilds. It was also used for the civic and administrative duties of the guilds and its members including the mayor who also held the post of chief magistrate in the later period of the Middle Ages. The great hall of the London Guildhall was second in size only to that of the king's hall at Westminster. The mayor of London even sat on a dais as the king did in his hall.

Medieval London Guilds - Ceremonial LiveryThe Medieval Guilds of London had their own Ceremonial Livery. The formal name for the London Guilds are livery companies. This referred to the elegant apparel, called livery, that Medieval London guild members wore on special and ceremonial occasions. The livery clothing was adopted by the Medieval London guilds in the reign of King Edward III (1312 - 1377). The clothes, or livery, worn by the guild merchants were extremely important as they identified the merchants with a specific guild and distinguished their members from one another. The Guild merchants wore their livery when they marched in parades and processions and attended ceremonies and other Royal gatherings during the Medieval times of the Middle Ages.

Women and Medieval Guilds
There were women in Medieval Guilds. A law called 'femme sole' allowed women to trade in their own right in the case of a widow continuing her husband's craft. The whole family were involved in the Craft Guilds helping the craft guild member who was the head of the family. A wife, daughter or son would work accordingly in the trade of the family. Women were therefore able to take over the trade upon the death of a husband.

Medieval London Guilds - Candle making guilds / Soapmakers GuildsCandle makers were called Chandlers in the Medieval times of the Middle Ages. there were two types of candle making guilds - the Wax candle makers and the tallow candle makers. The tallow candle makers were made with animal fat and therefore closely associated with butchers or skinners. The tallow candle makers also became soapmakers, although it is unclear whether there was a seperate medieval ages soapmakers guild. The Tallow candles were much cheaper, leading to chandlers laws being passed regulating the percentage of a candle which could be tallow. Rich people used the wax candles and poor people used the tallow candles. The wax candle makers, made predominantly from beeswax, were often quite wealthy due to the constant demand for their product. The church was one of their best customers. The incidence of widows taking over the family business and access to the Candle making guilds was high due to the profits made in such a business.

Medieval London Guilds
Each section of this Middle Ages website addresses all topics and provides interesting facts and information about these great people and events in bygone Medieval times including Medieval London Guilds. The Sitemap provides full details of all of the information and facts provided about the fascinating subject of the Middle Ages!

Medieval London Guilds

Middle Ages era, period, life, age and times
Life for Middle Ages Men and Women
Medieval London Guilds
Names of Medieval London Guilds
The Guildhall
Medieval London Guilds - Ceremonial Livery
Women and Medieval Guilds
Candle making guilds / Soapmakers Guilds

Medieval London Guilds

Medieval London Guilds - Life in the Middle Ages - History of Medieval London Guilds - Information about Medieval London Guilds - Medieval London Guilds Facts - Medieval London Guilds Info - Middle Ages era - Middle Ages Life - Middle Ages Times - Life - Medieval London Guilds - Medieval - Mideval - Medieval London Guilds History - Information about Medieval London Guilds - Medieval London Guilds Facts - Medieval London Guilds Info - Middle Ages era - Middle Ages Life - Middle Ages Times - Information - Facts - Dark Ages - Medieval - Mideval - Feudal system - Manors - Middle Ages Times - Information - Facts - Dark Ages - Medieval - Mideval - Feudal system - Manors - Medieval London Guilds

The Middle Ages Website

Artist Cooperative

2011-12-13T19:52:00.000-05:00

How to set up a real group with the artisans I work with along the lines of an artist craftsman cooperative, or an artist guild etc.? What are the differences, and what are the benefits of such groups? Do I need to do this, or do I stay as a single business owner who sets rates, wages and benefits? With all this "Fair Trade" talk, and so little oversight or reality to it, I think I will probably end up as a "socially responsible" company, as I am now. But I'm interested in finding out how things have been done to date. I am also going to look up Art Guild, Art Group, Studio, Gallery, Workshop and more.

Here's what I'm finding so far:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist_cooperative

Artist cooperative

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An artist cooperative (also co-operative or co-op) is an autonomous visual arts organization, enterprise, or association jointly-owned and democratically-controlled by its members.^[1] Artist cooperatives are legal entities organized as non-capital stock corporations, non-profit organizations, or unincorporated associations. Such cooperatives typically provide professional facilities and services for its artist-members, including studios, workshops, equipment, exhibition galleries, and educational resources.^[2] By design, all economic and non-economic benefits and liabilities of the cooperative are shared equally among its members. Cooperative members elect their board of director from within the membership.^[3]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

"International Artists Cooperative Forms and Launches Web Site." Art Business News November 2001.

Patty Griffin - Up To The Mountain (MLK Tribute)

2011-12-06T09:23:00.003-05:00

Up To The Mountain [The MLK song]

performed and written by Patty Griffin

I went up to the mountain
Because you asked me to
Up over the clouds
To where the sky was blue
I could see all around me
Everywhere
I could see all around me
Everywhere

Sometimes I feel like
I've never been nothing but tired
And I'll be working
Till the day I expire
Sometimes I lay down
No more can I do
But then I go on again
Because you ask me to

Some days I look down
Afraid I will fall
And though the sun shines
I see nothing at all
Then I hear your sweet voice, oh
Oh, come and then go, come and then go
Telling me softly
You love me so

The peaceful valley
Just over the mountain
The peaceful valley
Few come to know
I may never get there
Ever in this lifetime
But sooner or later
It's there I will go
Sooner or later
It's there I will go

* * * * *

Up to the Mountain (MLK Song) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_the_Mountain_(MLK_Song)

"Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)" is a contemporary folk song written by Patty Griffin. The song touches upon emotions surrounding Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous 1968 "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, given the day before his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. ...

"... this song was inspired by a speech that Martin Luther King made; the last speech he made..."

King said "I mean to get there." He meant to get there, and if others came along fine. If not, he would go alone. And he did. And we try to follow.

* * * * *

Up To The Mountain (featuring Jeff Beck) - Kelly Clarkson

Pilgrimage to Nonviolence --by Martin Luther King, Jr.

2011-12-06T09:17:00.004-05:00

Read the entire thought at iJourney.org: http://www.ijourney.org/index.php?tid=726

Here's the comment that struck me recently, and my response:

kvakutty posted an iJourney comment on Pilgrimage to Nonviolence:

Non violence is the highest virtue.
It means not harming another by
thought word or deed. Our very
civilization is founded on that.

Catherine Todd posted an iJourney comment on Pilgrimage to Nonviolence:

kvakutty wrote: "Non violence is the highest virtue. It means not harming another by thought word or deed..."

This sentence, in all it's stark reality and simplicity, really struck me.

I would say that I NEVER "harm another by deed" but I will ALWAYS harm another by word. In fact, I was raised that way, and I am completely justified in my own mind; it's instantaneous and it's so wrong. Now I really have something to think about. Think, Practice, Do. Become. Gracias, amigo.

Georgina & Me, September 29, 2011

2011-12-02T19:44:00.004-05:00

Are we sisters, or mother and daughter? All things rolled into one...

Until God returns to you

2011-12-02T14:53:00.003-05:00

Young Moon Meets Evening Star
Image Credit & Copyright : Benjamim Ribeiro

The Heart is right to cry

even when the smallest drop of light, of love,

is taken away....

You are right to do so in any fashion

until God returns to you.

Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111201.html

Spiritual Journeys & Creative Intelligence

2011-12-02T12:23:00.002-05:00

.
Excerpt from an excellent website: http://www.asia-pictures.net/spiritual_journey/index.html

Spiritual journeys

An All-One Planet Guide

for the Inner World

The Lonely Planet guides have always been a good companion on my spiritual journeys.

It sounds like a good idea to make such a guide for the inner world too.

Then Lonely changes to Alone which transforms to All-One.

more...

The Source – The Creative Intelligence

Unfolding your unlimited potential

Orion Nebulae

Patanjali, the compiler of the Yoga Sutras,

expresses these unlimited possibilities in a magnificent way:

“When you are inspired by some great purpose,

some extraordinary project,

all your thoughts break their bonds:

Your mind transcends limitations,

your consciousness expands in every direction,

and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world.

Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive,

and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far

than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

more: Spiritual journeys: a guide for the inner world

http://www.asia-pictures.net/spiritual_journey/index.html

A Glimpse of CLIMSO

2011-11-26T11:30:00.000-05:00

A Glimpse of CLIMSO
Image Credit & Copyright: Alain Sallez (picdumidi.org) Explanation: A tantalizing glimpse inside this dome was captured after sunset at the mountain top Pic Du Midi Observatory in the French Pyrenees. But while most are just beginning their work at sunset, this observatory's day was done. The instrument looming within is CLIMSO (for Christian Latouche IMageur Solaire), dedicated to exploring dynamic phenomena across the surface and atmosphere of the Sun. To image the solar atmosphere or corona, CLIMSO uses coronagraphs. Developed by French astronomer Bernard Lyot in the 1930s, coronagraphs block light from the center of the telescope beam to create an artificial solar eclipse and allow a continuous view of the solar corona. In this surreal twilight scene above a sea of clouds, the dome's interior was revealed by the single, long exposure as the open slit rotated across the field of view.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

The Dream ~ Georgina and the Sistine Chapel

2011-11-22T23:25:00.015-05:00

Entrance to the Sistine Chapel, Rome, Italy

Staircase at the Sistine Chapel, Rome, Italy

And God touched man with the breath of life, and man appeared.

Georgina came to me in a dream and she was in Italy in the Sistine Chapel, where we had always talked about going. She said:

"Catarina, I am here in Italy. I went ahead of you, but I'm here in the iglesia and I will wait for you. Don't be sad. I'm here and happy and you will be too."

And I haven't been sad since. I am sure it will be different when I get back to the hotel and she's not there waiting with open arms, but for now it's enough. More than enough. It has to be. And it is.

I have always said that "sitting in the Sistine Chapel is the one thing I want to do before I die."

I haven't been to Italy yet, but now I have to go. And I have someone waiting for me!

* Google translate:

"Catarina, estoy aquí en Italia. Yo iba delante de vosotros, pero yo estoy aquí en la eglesia y yo te esperamos. No te pongas triste.
Estoy aquí y feliz y también lo estará. "

12-17-11, one month later: I am very very sad now. I wish I could go to the church and have a mass but I am immobilized with grief. It has finally hit me. The Atitlan Arts Design Studio is almost finished and she would be so happy to see it.

Georgina left us on Nov 16 or 17, 2011, unexpectedly. A brain aneurysm, I believe. In a matter of hours. See email 11-17-11

2011/11/17 Georgina Kenedy <hotelplayalinda@gmail.com>

aviso urgente.
Catherine

lamento comunicarle que hoy falleció la señora Georgina en la ciudad capital. a ella la traen probablemente el día de mañana, cualquier consulta comuniquese al hotel o por este medio. saludos

Manuel Urízar

Horoscope - STATUS QUO

2011-11-22T11:54:00.004-05:00

This is EXACTLY what I am apparently gearing up to do; I can hardly believe it! Right on target, as always, whether I like it or not. Things just seem to "happen" right before the horoscope comes out. ???

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): It's an excellent time for you to get an
entourage -- or if you already have one, to expand it. For that matter, it's
a perfect moment for you to recruit more soldiers to help you carry out
your plot to overthrow the status quo. Or to round up more allies for your
plans to change the course of local history. Or to gather more
accomplices as you seek to boldly go where you have never gone before.
So beef up your support system. Boost the likelihood that your
conspiracy will succeed.

freewillastrology.com

Into the Wild ~ film review

2011-11-19T23:20:00.001-05:00

Into the Wild (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)

Amazon ongoing review I wrote, with many different comments. Here is the latest one from another Forest Ranger, the "voice of experience."

174 of 226 people found the following review helpful:

Chris McCandless from an Alaska Park Ranger's Perspective, March 5, 2008

Posted on Nov 19, 2011 4:56:48 PM PST

Ranger X says:

I was a National Park Service ranger for over a decade, and I have to agree with the review and the letter by Ranger Christian. McCandless' actual real-life story is germane to the film review because Penn twisted, Hollywoodized, and glorified what essentially comes down to a lack of respect for wilderness, thereby ruining the movie for those who know better. The movie is full of impossibilities, including McCandless' kayaking of the Colorado through the Grand Canyon.

If you want to see a true wilderness hero, watch the video Alone in the Wilderness, which chronicles Richard Proenneke doing what it takes to survive in Alaskan wilderness.

Remember: It's only an adventure if you have the proper skills and abilities to keep yourself alive; otherwise, it's just suicide.

Your post, in reply to an earlier post on Nov 19, 2011 8:09:25 PM PST

Catherine S. Todd says:

Thank you Ranger X for another voice of EXPERIENCE.

I'm heading over to find"Alone in the Wilderness" right now. McCandless' story as shown in "Into the Wild" reminded me of the nonsense of my old hippie days, and the inexperienced "back to the landers" and drug-addled mind-freaks who lived on the edge of the universe. Back then, young as I was and searching for my own place in the world, I probably fit right in.

People learned quick back then and luckily we were in Colorado in the summer time. By winter, most people had hitchhiked home, 20 miles down the road (or all the way back to California). Much different story up in the real wilderness of Alaska.

I hiked out by myself in thigh-high snow in an army jacket, cowboy boots and a pair of long johns and blue jeans and got lost since the road was covered by the pure white glistening powdery snow. I couldn't recognize ANY landmarks at all and could barely recognize the trees weighed down so heavy with snow, falling in huge chunks onto the silent paths that were covered in snow. I couldn't tell any direction and stumbled on, wondering which way to go, falling here and there over hidden rocks and gullies and finally sliding down a mountain side... and wondering if during the Spring thaw the newspapers were going to read "Little hippie girl found frozen in the snow!"

I really wondered about that and that time the absolute silence of that snow covered mountain changed my life forever. I remember that perfect and pure snow covered world to this day, where only a hawk moved overhead. All else in that world was stillness and silence. Peace and Quiet that I had never known and never known since. Nothing moved but me, and once in a while the weigh of the silent snow falling down.

I found the highway by nightfall. Usually you could walk to the highway in a couple of hours, then it was an hour or so to hitchhike into town. Being lost for 12 hours in the cold and wet snow in the daytime - that close to town - sure taught me a thing or two. For the first time, I began to know fear. It showed me what I didn't know!

I didn't make that same mistake again, and consider myself lucky to this day. Four months in the mountains by myself, eating brown rice and oatmeal, and once I moved by myself farther into the mountains, I learned about peace for the first time.

There was one guy up there in the crowd who was a real outdoorsman, named Will if I remember right. He was a real gentleman, and let me stay in his tent. He moved farther into the woods when the rest of the bunch came but he always cut wood for everyone and showed them how to build a fire and helped out when he could. Very silent and quiet fellow - never said much, but the caring and compassion and self-respect and self-sufficiency he carried lit his "self" like a quiet and welcoming flame. The light of a candle on a handmade rustic wooden table welcoming us in repose. He was a candle just like that. I wonder what happened to him, back in 1968 and 1969.

This was outside of Boulder CO in the National Forest, if I remember right. I always wondered where he was now, and I wanted to say THANKS. Funny how some people just stick in your mind. They make an indelible impression and are guardian angels of a kind. Just like forest rangers, in my opinion. Forest Rangers are another kind of guardian of the wilderness and all that is in it, friend or foe.

Thank you all and God bless.

Horoscope - IDENTITY

2011-11-08T16:53:00.007-05:00

Aridi

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): According to my reading of the omens, Aquarius, you can finally take advantage of a long-standing invitation or opportunity that you have always felt unworthy of or unready for. Congratulations on being so doggedly persistent about ripening the immature parts of yourself. Now here's an extra bonus: This breakthrough may in turn lead to you finding a lost piece to the puzzle of your identity.

FreeWillAstrology.com

At long last? The missing piece? I might actually have an identity after all? I might not be all the bad things people have said about me? I might not be "the reason" people have expressed so much anger towards me? Everything might not be my fault? Can't wait to find out... It's always been "my fault" all my life and I've spent my life trying to please un-happy, un-pleasable people. Now I only have to please myself. What an incredible change. I'm almost 62 years old and maybe I will finally be "grown up." At long last.

Now just to find that missing piece... I know I saw it around here somewhere...

Stand In the Tragic Gap

2011-11-07T15:16:00.000-05:00

From iJourney.org

--by Parker Palmer (Nov 30, 2011)

The bad news is that violence is found at every level of our lives. The good news is that we can choose nonviolence at every level as well. But what does it mean, in specifics, to act nonviolently? The answer depends on the situation, of course, and a thousand situations might yield a thousand answers. Yet running through all of these answers we will find a single "habit of the heart": to be in the world nonviolently means learning to hold the tension of opposites, trusting that the tension itself will pull our hearts and minds open to a third way of thinking and acting.

In particular, we must learn to hold the tension between the reality of the moment and the possibility that something better might emerge. In a business meeting, for example, I mean the tension between the fact that we are deadlocked about what to do and the possibility that we might find a solution superior to any of those on the table. In a post-September 11 world, I mean the tension between the fact that we are engaged in the endless cycle of war and the possibility that we might someday live in a world at peace.

Of course, finding a third way beyond our current dilemma may be possible in theory, but it often seems unlikely in life. In a contentious business meeting, a better solution may well exist, but the pressures of ego, time, and the bottom line make it unlikely that we will find it. In a world at war, peace may be our dream, but the grim realities of greed, fear, hatred, and doomsday weaponry quickly turn that dream into a delusion.

The insight at the heart of nonviolence is that we live in a tragic gap -- a gap between the way things are and the way we know they might be. It is a gap that never has been and never will be closed. If we want to live nonviolent lives, we must learn to stand in the tragic gap, faithfully holding the tension between reality and possibility.

--Parker Palmer
.

More: http://www.ijourney.org/?tid=776
.

Cloisters of Europe: Gardens of Prayer

2011-11-06T19:36:00.001-05:00

Cloisters of Europe: Gardens of Prayer

Book Description

Series: Religion | Publication Date: September 20, 2001

If the church is said to be the soul of an abbey, the cloister is surely its heart. The cloister, a space secluded—as its Latin derivation suggests—within four galleries is at once a place of peace and a ceaseless crossroads. As the hub of all activity, through which monks progressed from task to task and prayer to prayer throughout the day from matins to vespers, its classic layout inspired some of the most extraordinary and varied architectural treasures of the world. Cloisters of Europe covers the cloister throughout western Europe—Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, and Britain—between the ninth and fifteenth centuries and is a celebration of art and architecture from stark pre-Romanesque to flamboyant late Gothic. With an enlightening introduction to the history of religious orders and their devotional life, it is a magnificently illustrated monument to art, antiquity, and spiritual profundity.

Photographs by Daniel Faure.

Available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Cloisters-Europe-Gardens-Prayer-Religion/dp/0670030252/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320796192&sr=1-1

The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories

2011-11-06T01:37:00.008-04:00

The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories

J. L. Heilbron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1999

Between 1650 and 1750, four Catholic churches were the best solar observatories in the world. Built to fix an unquestionable date for Easter, they also housed instruments that threw light on the disputed geometry of the solar system, and so, within sight of the altar, subverted Church doctrine about the order of the universe.

A tale of politically canny astronomers and cardinals with a taste for mathematics, The Sun in the Church tells how these observatories came to be, how they worked, and what they accomplished. It describes Galileo's political overreaching, his subsequent trial for heresy, and his slow and steady rehabilitation in the eyes of the Catholic Church. And it offers an enlightening perspective on astronomy, Church history, and religious architecture, as well as an analysis of measurements testing the limits of attainable accuracy, undertaken with rudimentary means and extraordinary zeal. Above all, the book illuminates the niches protected and financed by the Catholic Church in which science and mathematics thrived.

Superbly written, The Sun in the Church provides a magnificent corrective to long-standing oversimplified accounts of the hostility between science and religion.

Available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Church-Cathedrals-Solar-Observatories/dp/0674854330/ref=reg_hu-rd_add_1_dp

Monreale Cloisters ~ Monreale, Italy

2011-11-06T01:11:00.003-04:00

The cloisters of the Monreale Duomo rank alongside those of Santo Domingo de Silos and Moissac amongst the best of European cloisters.

Monreale Cloisters

http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Sicily%20&%20S%20Italy/Montages/Sicily/Palermo/Monreale%20Cloisters.htm

The Cathedral of Monreale

http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Sicily%20&%20S%20Italy/Montages/Sicily/Palermo/Monreale%20Cathedral.ht

Paradoxplace Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Britain Photo & History Pages

Paradoxplace Sicily Photo and History Pages

About Paradoxplace

Monreale Cloisters

Link to Monreale Duomo Link to Paradoxplace Cloisters' Page

The Normans and the Hohenstaufen Kings of Sicily and Southern Italy 1000 - 1266

Back to Paradoxplace Palermo Photo and History Pages

THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD

2011-10-25T00:22:00.018-04:00

1 Corinthians 13

THOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not LOVE I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not Love, it profiteth me nothing.

Love suffereth long, and is kind;

Love envieth not;

Love vaunteth not itself is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly,

Seeketh not her own,

Is not easily provoked,

Thinketh no evil;

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, Love, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.--I COR xiii.

Henry Drummond Page | Cornerstone Books Home Page

http://www.henrydrummond.wwwhubs.com/

WHO WAS HENRY DRUMMOND?....Born in Scotland in 1851, he was a man of varied talents. Perhaps best remembered as a gifted evangelist who assisted Dwight L. Moody during his revival campaigns, he was also a lecturer in natural science. Although he never received a degree, he was an ordained minister and a professor of theology. He also wrote several books. "Natural Law in the Spiritual World", published in 1883, sold 70,000 copies in five years and made him famous. He published another popular book, "Tropical Africa", after making a geological survey of southern Africa. "The Ascent of Man" was also a significant book during his lifetime.

However, "The Greatest Thing in the World" - a meditation he wrote in 1874 that illuminates the importance of 1 Corinthians 13 - is the one that assured he would be remembered by later generations. Widely read and quoted during his lifetime, it went on to sell over 12 million copies and it continues today to influence people to follow God's two great commandments: to love God and to love each other.

http://henrydrummond.wwwhubs.com/greatest.htm#index

THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD

by Henry Drummond
First Published c1880

     EVERY one has asked himself the great question of antiquity as of the modern world: What is the summum bonum--the supreme good? You have life before you. Once only you can live it. What is the noblest object of desire, the supreme gift to covet?

     We have been accustomed to be told that the greatest thing in the religious world is Faith. That great word has been the key-note for centuries of the popular religion; and we have easily learned to look upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong.

If we have been told that, we may miss the mark.

I have taken you, in the chapter which I have just read, to Christianity at its source; and there we have seen, "The greatest of these is love."

It is not an oversight. Paul was speaking of faith just a moment before. He says, "If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. "So far from forgetting, he deliberately contrasts them, "Now abideth Faith, Hope, Love," and without a moment's hesitation, the decision falls, "The greatest of these is Love."

     And it is not prejudice. A man is apt to recommend to others his own strong point. Love was not Paul's strong point. The observing student can detect a beautiful tenderness growing and ripening all through his character as Paul gets old; but the hand that wrote, "The greatest of these is love," when we meet it first, is stained with blood.

     Nor is this letter to the Corinthians peculiar in singling out love as the summum bonum. The masterpieces of Christianity are agreed about it. Peter says, "Above all things have fervent love among yourselves." Above all things.

And John goes farther, "God is love." And you remember the profound remark which Paul makes elsewhere, "Love is the fulfilling of the law." Did you ever think what he meant by that? In those days men were working their passage to Heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which they had manufactured out of them.

Christ said, I will show you a more simple way. If you do one thing, you will do these hundred and ten things, without ever thinking about them. If you love, you will unconsciously fulfil the whole law.

And you can readily see for yourselves how that must be so. Take any of the commandments. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." If a man love God, you will not require to tell him that. Love is the fulfilling of that law. "Take not His name in vain." Would he ever dream of taking His name in vain if he loved Him?

"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Would he not be too glad to have one day in seven to dedicate more exclusively to the object of his affection? Love would fulfil all these laws regarding God. And so, if he loved Man, you would never think of telling him to honour his father and mother. He could not do anything else.

It would be preposterous to tell him not to kill. You could only insult him if you suggested that he should not steal - how could he steal from those he loved? It would be superfluous to beg him not to bear false witness against his neighbour. If he loved him it would be the last thing he would do.

And you would never dream of urging him not to covet what his neighbours had. He would rather they possessed it than himself. In this way "Love is the fulfilling of the law." It is the rule for fulfilling all rules, the new commandment for keeping all the old commandments, Christ's one secret of the Christian life.

     Now Paul had learned that; and in this noble eulogy he has given us the most wonderful and original account extant of the summum bonum. We may divide it into three parts. In the beginning of the short chapter, we have Love contrasted; in the heart of it, we have Love analysed; towards the end we have Love defended as the supreme gift.

THE CONTRAST

     PAUL begins by contrasting Love with other things that men in those days thought much of. I shall not attempt to go over those things in detail. Their inferiority is already obvious.

He contrasts it with eloquence. And what a noble gift it is, the power of playing upon the souls and wills of men, and rousing them to lofty purposes and holy deeds. Paul says, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." And we all know why. We have all felt the brazenness of words without emotion, the hollowness, the unaccountable unpersuasiveness, of eloquence behind which lies no Love.

     He contrasts it with prophecy. He contrasts it with mysteries. He contrasts it with faith. He contrasts it with charity. Why is Love greater than faith? Because the end is greater than the means. And why is it greater than charity? Because the whole is greater than the part. Love is greater than faith, because the end is greater than the means.

What is the use of having faith? It is to connect the soul with God. And what is the object of connecting man with God? That he may become like God. But God is Love. Hence Faith, the means, is in order to Love, the end. Love, therefore, obviously is greater than faith. It is greater than charity, again, because the whole is greater than a part. Charity is only a little bit of Love, one of the innumerable avenues of Love, and there may even be, and there is, a great deal of charity without Love.

It is a very easy thing to toss a copper to a beggar on the street; it is generally an easier thing than not to do it. Yet Love is just as often in the withholding. We purchase relief from the sympathetic feelings roused by the spectacle of misery, at the copper's cost. It is too cheap--too cheap for us, and often too dear for the beggar. If we really loved him we would either do more for him, or less.

     Then Paul contrasts it with sacrifice and martyrdom. And I beg the little band of would-be missionaries and I have the honour to call some of you by this name for the first time--to remember that though you give your bodies to be burned, and have not Love, it profits nothing--nothing!

You can take nothing greater to the heathen world than the impress and reflection of the Love of God upon your own character. That is the universal language. It will take you years to speak in Chinese, or in the dialects of India. From the day you land, that language of Love, understood by all, will be pouring forth its unconscious eloquence. It is the man who is the missionary, it is not his words. His character is his message.

In the heart of Africa, among the great Lakes, I have come across black men and women who remembered the only white man they ever saw before--David Livingstone; and as you cross his footsteps in that dark continent, men's faces light up as they speak of the kind Doctor who passed there years ago. They could not understand him; but they felt the Love that beat in his heart.

Take into your new sphere of labour, where you also mean to lay down your life, that simple charm, and your lifework must succeed. You can take nothing greater, you need take nothing less. It is-not worth while going if you take anything less.

You may take every accomplishment; you may be braced for every sacrifice; but if you give your body to be burned, and have not Love, it will profit you and the cause of Christ nothing.

... more: http://henrydrummond.wwwhubs.com/greatest.htm

Woman in Blue Paint ~ Blue Paint Bucket

2011-10-07T07:30:00.011-04:00

photo image by Christophe Gilbert

10/7/11 Update: Official website: www.christophegilbert.com

4/24/09: Who took this photo? Reminds me of Angelina Jolie... Incredible photo

Reposted 12.28.10 FINALLY FOUND THE ARTIST! Christopher Gilbert [Christophe Gilbert]

http://www.moillusions.com/2006/12/christopher-gilbert-artwork.html

Christopher Gilbert Artwork

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December 4, 2006 by Vurdlak with 34 Comments

I have a rule to avoid placing photoshoped real-life illusions on this site. So many times I hear in my comments: “This illusion is Photoshoped“. I can assure you, that those of you who claim so, are 99% of the time – wrong. Rarely when I post photoshoped illusion, I state it clearly in the post body not to mislead you. Well, this time I couldn’t resist to put this beautiful photos submitted by Eshita Anjum. I’m aware they are edited by a computer, and it is obvious they are. This masterpiece art collection was done by Christopher Gilbert [Christophe Gilbert], and you can see the full collection inside. For more photoshopped images see: painted trucks, water flames and the moon star illusion. Enjoy!

moillusions.com: http://www.moillusions.com/2006/12/christopher-gilbert-artwork.html

Update 5.26.10: found this photo on another place:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4k8q6L4XeQ8/SDY-Eet--KI/AAAAAAAAAZs/Bsf9zCMJqA4/s1600-h/Woman+in+Blue+Paint.jpg

And here:

Amazing Art made by Christopher Gilbert (130 pics)

Aug 28, 2009 ... Artist Christopher Gilbert is the author of the most amazing manipulated photos I have ever seen. Dont miss this collection of pictures.

http://acidcow.com/pics/3662-amazing_art_made_by_christopher_gilbert_130_pics.html

This one looks like Juliette Binoche. Beautiful!

http://acidcow.com/pics/3662-amazing_art_made_by_christopher_gilbert_130_pics.html

More at Christophe Gilbert's official website: christophegilbert.com

Blue paint also posted at pixdaus.com/single.php?id=5384

Last but not least, Dog stuck in car seat cushion! Now I know where this one came from!

Christophe Gilbert, serie 5

http://www.christophegilbert.com/index_low.html

Read more about Gilbert, who started out in advertising for cars in the colorful '80's: http://www.ilovebelgium.be/christophe-gilbert-photography

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

2011-09-30T07:58:00.006-04:00

A Different Person in Private than in Public ...

• In Public a person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder will act the perfect husband or wife and be charming and polite, while giving all of their attention to other people (as if you don’t exist).

• In Private they will be cold, arrogant, sarcastic, haughty and insulting, or withdrawn and unavailable and will show little or no regard for your feelings or well-being unless they want something. They will put people down (including their friends) behind their backs and act like they are smarter and more popular than you are.

• Their arrogance and criticism may cause you to feel hurt, rejected, humiliated, powerless, ashamed and angry and may even cause you and your family to suffer health problems and addictions.

• Despite the heartache and despair this behaviour will cause, if confronted about it they will act angry and put-out and above being questioned.

• They will lie and paint themselves an innocent victim to gain sympathy and to justify their bad behavior.

• They will claim they deserve things they didn’t work for or earn and may trade off other people’s hard work and honesty.

• This person may be so charming (and even humble) in public that people won’t believe the way they talk to you in private or the cruel things they say behind other people’s backs.

•You may have no idea of the lies they are telling you or the lies they may be telling other people about you just to get sympathy from other people.

• They may be suspicious or even aggressive towards people who appear emotionally needy.

by TL/FB

How to recover from Narcissists (Ns)

2011-09-22T17:49:00.012-04:00

.
.

1. Detaching from the Ns/emotional vampires/parasites

2. Seeing your own issues honestly

3. Making healthy changes and working on healing pro-actively

4. Creating and maintaining a good life... this means creating and sustaining a loving inner parent.

"I really respect that and think those are the steps that work the best." ~ Victoria Smitter Barlow

This is what all we codependents need to practice and follow. Sounds simple, and it's not easy, but all is POSSIBLE. With Patience, Practice and Prayer. Dear God, please show me The Way.

Horoscope for September 21, 2011

2011-09-21T02:10:00.001-04:00

Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter

September 21, 2011

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I gathered together a panel of renegade astrologers to investigate your imminent future. By a unanimous vote, they designated you, out of all the signs of the zodiac, as the one "Most Likely to Exceed the Boring Limitations of Good Taste," as well as "Best Candidate to Slap the Conventional Wisdom Upside the Head." That sounds fun. I hope you make good use of the freedom that those roles entail. By the way, the general consensus also suggested that you are primed to find valuable stuff in out-of-the-way borderlands or in off-limits haunts where no one else even wants to look.

FreeWillAstrology.com

Aquarius Personality

2011-09-20T12:30:00.002-04:00

Aquarians present themselves in one of two ways. One on hand, you’ll see someone who is shy, and quiet. On the other, an Aquarian can be boisterous, eccentric, and energetic. Both are deep thinkers with a love of helping others. Highly intellectual, this is a sign of fierce independence that prizes intuition tempered with logic. Both personality types have an uncanny ability to see both sides of an argument without prejudice, making them excellent problem-solvers. While very much attuned to the energies around them, Aquarians have a deep need to take time out alone and away to rejuvenate themselves. The keyword for this sign is imagination. The Aquarian can see a world of possibilities even when there appears to be none.

(Provided by Astrocenter.com)

Famous Aquarians
Take an astrological look at most famous Aquarius:
Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, Christian Bale, Shakira, Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Aniston, John Travolta

Aquarius Key Words:
Strengths:
Progressive, original, humanitarian, independent.
Weaknesses:
Runs from emotional expression, uncompromising, temperamental, aloof.
Charismatic marks:
Good looks, beautiful eyes, angular faces, thin build.
Likes:
Fun with friends, fighting for causes, helping others, intellectual conversation, a good listener.
Dislikes:
Limitations, being lonely, broken promises, dull or boring situations, people who disagree with them.
Best environment:
Any gathering of people to exchange ideas.

Provided by Astrocenter.com

5 years in NYC

2011-09-20T01:37:00.011-04:00

Aridi art.127.jpg

I spent five years going back and forth to New York City, thinking surely I would - someday somehow - I would run into my son on a street corner, in a bakery, passing by a restaurant. How many million people live in NYC now, 8 million? 10 million? More? All crossing streets, busy busy busy going somewhere.

But I was SURE I would pass him on a street corner and I even rented an apartment in the same neighborhood for a number of years, sure that if I just stayed close enough his spirit could not pass me by. That Divine Wisdom would intervene and we would be connected again. Better this time. And all the bad things, the incomprehensible things would fall away.

I found out he had left years before for another borough altogether. Fool that I was. But he's still writing and he's still working and is still alive and that has to be enough for me. I have no other choice. Miracles do happen, every day. Maybe one day a miracle will happen to here. For both of us.

How do you step away from the one you raised and loved and cared for all their life? I can't do it. I don't know how and I don't want to know. For years I thought I was a bad mother; didn't deserve to be a mother, should never have been a mother; did everything wrong based on the reaction of my son to me. That he was unhappy, and unhappy with me. I still think this sometimes. But what's done is done and I chose to have a child on my own and I guess I made the wrong decision, but it was a decision I wanted to make. I worked very hard and truly believed I was doing the right thing. Apparently I was wrong, but we can't cry over spilt milk. I made my bed and now I have to lay in it.

I want(ed) only closeness in my life and wish I knew how to make it happen. But I can't. It's out of my control. It takes two to make harmony so I sing my small slow sad song alone. One day the Light has to shine and one day I know it will. I will continue to pray for peace and harmony and forgiveness to shine it's light inside of me, and ask that God change my heart and cleanse my soul and let my spirit shine. Save my son and help him heal from whatever hurts or ails him. Do what I could not do, and do it for all of us in the entire world. Bring peace to those of us who need it most. Those of us who don't even know what we are missing.

Dear God, please love and protect those that are close to me, those that need it, and those that have not yet found their way. Dear God please show me The Way. Amen.

Update: Seems I spend about five years always "waiting, waiting, hoping, dreaming, that one day all will be well..." and of course it never is. How many years I have wasted this way. And I still don't know why. I guess it's because we are raised with the notion that "love never dies." Or in my case it lingers on for years, until it finally passes in a slow and painful death.

If they never cared, they never will. Just because I did, doesn't mean they will. What ever made me think that things would ever change?
How foolish I have been.

Catherine Todd blog

Winter's Bark tree - flower bud (magnified)

Gorgeous Color ~ Fleurs

Catherine, Candelaria, Delphia

How Emptiness Sings, by Christa Wells

Rumi: HIs Life and Poetry

You Know What You Did

more: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DiscreditedTrope

Document Converter

From the Gaslight Cafe to 116... McDougal Street

luke173ministries.org - Adult Child Abuse by a parent, sibling or other relative

Family Conflicts - What Are They?

Hurt & Hatred in My Heart

Spiritual Discernment? Criticism or Judgment?

Favorite Photos

Meditation Music & Relaxation ~ I've been doing this all along!

Energy

Medieval London Guilds

Medieval London Guilds

Medieval London Guilds

Medieval London Guilds

Medieval London Guilds

Medieval London Guilds

Artist Cooperative

Artist cooperative

See also

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

Patty Griffin - Up To The Mountain (MLK Tribute)

Up To The Mountain (featuring Jeff Beck) - Kelly Clarkson

Pilgrimage to Nonviolence --by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Georgina & Me, September 29, 2011

Until God returns to you

The Heart is right to cry

even when the smallest drop of light, of love,

is taken away....

You are right to do so in any fashion

until God returns to you.

Hafiz, translated by Daniel LadinskyThe Gift: Poems by Hafiz

Spiritual Journeys & Creative Intelligence

Spiritual journeys

An All-One Planet Guide

for the Inner World

more...

Unfolding your unlimited potential

more: Spiritual journeys: a guide for the inner world

A Glimpse of CLIMSO

The Dream ~ Georgina and the Sistine Chapel

I haven't been to Italy yet, but now I have to go. And I have someone waiting for me!

* Google translate:

"Catarina, estoy aquí en Italia. Yo iba delante de vosotros, pero yo estoy aquí en la eglesia y yo te esperamos. No te pongas triste. Estoy aquí y feliz y también lo estará. "

12-17-11, one month later: I am very very sad now. I wish I could go to the church and have a mass but I am immobilized with grief. It has finally hit me. The Atitlan Arts Design Studio is almost finished and she would be so happy to see it.

Georgina left us on Nov 16 or 17, 2011, unexpectedly. A brain aneurysm, I believe. In a matter of hours. See email 11-17-11

2011/11/17 Georgina Kenedy <hotelplayalinda@gmail.com>

aviso urgente.Catherinelamento comunicarle que hoy falleció la señora Georgina en la ciudad capital. a ella la traen probablemente el día de mañana, cualquier consulta comuniquese al hotel o por este medio. saludos

Horoscope - STATUS QUO

This is EXACTLY what I am apparently gearing up to do; I can hardly believe it! Right on target, as always, whether I like it or not. Things just seem to "happen" right before the horoscope comes out. ???

Into the Wild ~ film review

Horoscope - IDENTITY

Stand In the Tragic Gap

--by Parker Palmer (Nov 30, 2011)

Cloisters of Europe: Gardens of Prayer

Book Description

The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories

The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories

Book Description

Monreale Cloisters ~ Monreale, Italy

THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD

THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD

THE CONTRAST

Woman in Blue Paint ~ Blue Paint Bucket

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

How to recover from Narcissists (Ns)

Horoscope for September 21, 2011

Aquarius Personality

5 years in NYC

Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz

"Catarina, estoy aquí en Italia. Yo iba delante de vosotros, pero yo estoy aquí en la eglesia y yo te esperamos. No te pongas triste.
Estoy aquí y feliz y también lo estará. "

aviso urgente.
Catherine

lamento comunicarle que hoy falleció la señora Georgina en la ciudad capital. a ella la traen probablemente el día de mañana, cualquier consulta comuniquese al hotel o por este medio. saludos