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Others on the journey of spiritual awakening...fun, positive people with good hearts and loving souls who are willing through cooperation to be the positive change we all want to see in this world. We are all connected - we are all children of the same Divine loving energy. Together we can create a world of love, peace and compassion - and enjoy God's many blessings along the way!
 
Life is a co-creative process with Spirit. Each soul's purpose in life is to discover the perfect integration and balance of intention and surrender.
"Each and every one of us has an obligation during the bewildered days of our pilgrimage here - the healing of his own soul, and secondarily and incidentally thereby affecting for good such other souls as come under our influence."
~ Kathleen Norris, author
"Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them."
~ Albert Schweitzer
“Everything that is addressed by you is done so because you are part of the solution. It does not matter if it is personal or planetary. You have a deciding energetic vote. You have the deciding quantum that will shift the situation from problem to solution. Every desire you have to make right, to do good, is a deciding vote in favor of illumination, ascension, and evolution.â€
~Gillian MacBeth-Louthan
To share knowledge is to create understanding.
"Hating is easy. It takes courage to love."
"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" ~ Abraham Lincoln
"A rattlesnake, if cornered, will become so angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the harboring of hate and resentment against others is - a biting of oneself. We think we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to ourselves." ~E. Stanley Jones
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
~ Mohandas K. Gandhi, statesman and philosopher
FUN STUFF
FREE HUGS - I dare you not to smile!
SERIOUS STUFF - Pt 1
DON'T LOCK UP CHILDREN IN ADULT PRISONS!
"When you see these types of crimes, it's easy to take the age and face off of the offender and have an emotional reaction. But once I did some research on the youthful offender, and having an adolescent son myself, it made it hit closer to home. I realized that these kids are not adults and whether we certify them as adults or not, it does not make them physically, developmentally or emotionally adults."
~ Janice Willett, Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice
SERIOUS STUFF - Pt 2
STOP CRUELTY TO ANIMALS!
Animals were not put on this earth for
us to experiment on.
VIDEO: Testing...one, two, three.
Sign the Pledge Against Animal Testing
"To a man whose mind is free, there is something even more intolerable in the sufferings of animals than in the sufferings of man. For with the latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man who causes it is a criminal. But thousands of animals are senselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. If any man were to refer to it, he would be thought ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable crime."
   ~Romain Rolland, author, Nobel Prize Winner 1915
"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men."
~ Leonardo da Vinci, artist and scientist
"If slaughterhouses had glass walls the whole world would be vegetarian."
~ Linda McCartney
"You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
PINK CALLS FOR BOYCOTT OF AUSTRALIAN WOOL UNTIL LAMB MUTILATIONS AND CRUEL LIVE EXPORT PRACTICES END
VIDEO: Stop Sheep Mutilation
* * * WARNING - VERY GRAPHIC VIDEO * * *
Learn more at SaveTheSheep.com
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being."
~ Mohandas K. Gandhi, statesman and philosopher
   
VIDEO: Kentucky Fried Cruelty
VIDEO: Meet Your Meat
* * * WARNING - VERY GRAPHIC VIDEO * * *
Pretty much everything (except most gangsta rap because NO, the word "woman" is not synonymous with "bit**" or "ho"!)
Contemporary Rock / Pop / Alternative: The Fray, Rob Thomas, Kelly Clarkson, Nickelback, Five for Fighting, Pink, Fall Out Boy, Evanescence, Josh Groban, My Chemical Romance, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Panic at the Disco, Jewel
Country: Brad Paisley, The Wreckers, Toby Keith, Martina McBride, Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Sara Evans, Keith Urban
Classic Rock / Folk: Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, Journey, Styx, John Denver, Cat Stevens, Elton John (all-time favorite album - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road)
Jesus, Leonardo DaVinci, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Henry Bergh, anyone that goes out of their way to help others.
From dailyword.com
In the quiet of prayer, God speaks to me and soothes my soul:
My child, I love you with an everlasting love. Know that I am with you always, guiding you and making your way safe. There is no place you can ever go where I am not there with you.
I am here for you through every challenge of life. Give Me any worries and fears. Accept My peace, for it is a peace that surpasses all understanding. I give it to you freely and completely.
Let Me guide you, and I will show you a world that is filled with more blessings than you could ever imagine. Believe in Me, child, for I have always believed in you.
LIGHTWORK
The darkness has never been able to suffocate the light, just as the light has always illuminated the darkness.
So, with these two truths, may we all strive for, seek, and live within the light.
May the light we radiate provide warmth and be a comfort to all we meet, even those not yet ready to see.
May our light be a beacon to guide others
to a path of loving kindness, virtue and compassion.
May we always be guided with love
to access even the most obscure places and the shadows, so that not a single being is left alone in the darkness.
Each time you remember the truth of who you are, you bring more light into the world.
GUARDIAN ANGEL
When your heart is heavy,
and you're sad and tearful,
remember that I am near you
and there's no need to be fearful.
Call on me...for I am waiting
to fly down from above,
to comfort and surround you
in soft wings of love.
HOPE
Never let go of hope
You will see that it all has finally come together.
What you have always wished for has finally come to be.
You will look back and laugh at what has passed
and you will ask yourself,
"How did I get through all of that?"
Just never let go of hope.
Just never quit dreaming.
And never let love depart from your life.
~ Jancarl Campi
PRAYER
Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.
~ Mohandas K. Gandhi
Therefore I say unto you, whatever things you ask, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. (Mark 11:24)
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective
(James 5:16)
As a child of God, prayer is like calling home every day.
God's answers are wiser than our prayers.
~Anonymous
NATURE
If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy,
If a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you,
If the simple things of nature have a message that you understand,
Rejoice, - for your soul is alive!
~ Eleonora Duse
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
~ Albert Einstein
The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.
~ Anne Frank
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
~ John Muir
HUGS
Everybody needs a hug. It changes your metabolism.
~Leo Buscaglia
A hug delights and warms and charms,
that must be why God gave us arms.
Hugs are the universal medicine.
A hug is a great gift:
one size fits all,
and it's easy to exchange.
Sometimes it's better to put love into hugs than to put it into words.
It’s funny how a little hug makes everyone feel good;
In every place and language, it’s always understood.
~ Jill Wolf
THE RESCUING HUG
This is a picture from an article called “The Rescuing Hugâ€. The 1995 article details the first week of life of a set of twins. Apparently, each were in their respective incubators, and one was not expected to live. One day the smaller, less healthy twin was having a difficult day and was inconsolable. A hospital nurse tried a number of different things, but nothing worked. She then disobeyed hospital rules and placed the babies together, in one incubator. When they were placed together, the healthier of the two threw an arm over her sister in an endearing embrace. The smaller baby’s heart rate stabilized and her temperature rose to normal.
Never underestimate the power of a hug!
THE LAW OF ATTRACTION
Our beliefs create our reality.
On difficult days, remember that one of God’s most important gifts to us is free will and the power to change our lives by using positive thoughts and affirmations.
That which we give our attention to, we attract to our lives, whether wanted or unwanted. Where thoughts go, energy flows.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.
~ Buddha
If you can imagine it, you can create it. If you can dream it, you can become it.
~William Arthur Ward
Intention – Patience – Awareness.
These will lead to Manifestation.
FAITH
Faith is the bird that feels the Light and sings when the dawn is still dark.
~Rabindranath Tagore
When you come to the edge of all the light you have known and are about to step off into the darkness,
Faith is knowing one of two things will happen:
There will either be something to stand on or you will be taught how to fly.
~Patrick Overton
Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
~ Saint Augustine
THIS ONE'S FOR THE GIRLS
This is for all you girls about 13
High school can be so rough, can be so mean
Hold on to your innocence
Stand your ground when everybody's
giving in
This is for all you girls about 25
In little apartments, just trying to get by
Living on dreams and spaghettios
Wondering where your life is gonna go
This is for all you girls about 42
Tossing pennies into the fountain of youth
Every laugh line on
your face
Made you who you are today
This one's for the girls
Who've ever had a broken heart
Who've wished upon a shooting star
You're beautiful the way you are
This one's for the girls
Who love without holding back
Who dream with everything they have
All around the world
This one's for the girls
Yeah, we're all the same inside, from 1 to 99
This one's for the girls
~Martina McBride
APACHE BLESSING
May the sun
bring you new energy by day.
May the moon
softly restore you by night.
May the rain
wash away your worries.
May the breeze
blow new strength into your being.
May you walk
gently through the world
and know its beauty
all the days of your life.
THE TRUE PEACE
The first peace, which is the most important,
is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship,
their oneness, with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize that at the center
of the universe dwells the Great Spirit,
and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this.
The second peace is that which is made between two individuals,
and the third is that which is made between two nations.
But above all you should understand that there can never
be peace between nations until there is known that true peace,
which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men.
Black Elk, Oglala Sioux & Spiritual Leader (1863 - 1950)
ANGELS
We are like children,who stand in need of masters to enlighten us and direct us; and God has provided for this,
by appointing his angels to be our teachers and guides.
~Saint Thomas Aquinas
The world is changing so rapidly, and many people are paralyzed with fear and anxiety about the future. The angels can guide us through these changes, and give us solid guidance that we can trust.
~ Doreen Virtue
But if these beings guard you, they do so because they have been summoned by your prayers.
~ Saint Ambrose
Make yourself familiar with the angels, and behold them
frequently in spirit; for without being seen, they are present with you.
~Saint Francis de Sales
The angels are here to help you heal your life, and they want you to ask for help.
~ Doreen Virtue
INTEGRITY
Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you.
~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr., Author –Life’s Little Instruction Book
There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience.
~ French Proverb
Real integrity is doing the right thing even though no one is watching.
~Anonymous
In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first quality, the other two will kill you.
~ Warren Buffet CEO, Berkshire Hathaway
HAPPINESS
Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold, the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul.
~ Democritus, (460?-370? BC)
Happiness is an inside job.
~ William Arthur Ward
Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.
~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
I can only think of one thing greater than being happy and that is to help another to be happy, too.
~Jim Thomson
Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.
~ James M. Barrie
Each day is a new canvas to paint upon. Make sure your picture is full of life and happiness, and at the end of the day you don't look at it and wish you had painted something different.
~ Anonymous
Laugh when you can, apologize when you should and let go
of what you cannot change. Kiss slowly, play hard,
forgive quickly, take chances, give everything and
have no regrets. Life is too short to be anything but happy.
~ Anonymous
LOVE
I think that enduring, committed love between a married couple, along with raising children, is the most noble act anyone can aspire to. It is not written about very much
~ Nicholas Sparks, author of The Notebook
Until I loved I never lived.
~ Emily Dickinson
A heart truly in love never loses hope but always believes in the promise of love, no matter how long the time and how far the distance.
~ Anonymous
Where there is great love, there are always miracles.
~ Willa Cather
To love another person is to help that person love God.
~ Anonymous
Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to Love.
~ Anonymous
INTUITION
Intuition is the spiritual faculty that doesn't explain; it seemingly points the way.
~Frances Scovel
We need to be willing to let our intuition guide us, and then be willing to follow that guidance directly and fearlessly.
~Shakti Gawain
It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my Intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. I work with it and rely on it. It's my partner.
~ Dr. Jonas Salk, American
Physician and Researcher - developed the first polio vaccine
Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data.
~ John Naisbitt
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
~ Albert Einstein
Often you have to rely on intuition.
~ Bill Gates
ANGER
Don't hold to anger, hurt or pain. They steal your energy and keep you from love.
~ Leo Buscaglia
Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.
~ Benjamin Franklin
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
~ Buddha
If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
~ Chinese Proverb
Speak when you're angry, and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret.
~ Lawrence J. Peter
VOLUNTEERING / COMMUNITY SERVICE
Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who have need of a man's help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. For remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.
~ Dr. Albert Schweitzer
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community... and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.
~ George Bernard Shaw
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
~ Edmond Burke
FORGIVENESS
Although it may seem that forgiveness is something we do for other people,
We actually do it for ourselves - so that we can heal and move on.
Forgiveness does not mean, "What you did is okay to me." It simply means, "I am no longer willing to carry around pain in response to your actions."
~ Doreen Virtue
If we practice an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the whole world will be blind and toothless.
~ Mohandas K. Gandhi
Vengeance is having a videotape planted in your soul that cannot be turned off. It plays the painful scene over and over again inside your mind... And each time it plays, you feel the clap of pain again... Forgiving turns off the videotape of pained memory. Forgiving sets you free.
~Lewis B. Smeades
Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness.
~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.
~Catherine Ponder
KINDNESS
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
~ Aesop
We wildly underestimate the power of the tiniest personal touch of kindness.
~ Anonymous
Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.
~ Kahlil Gibran
People will forget what you said,
People will forget what you did,
But people will never forget
how you made them feel.
~ Anonymous
You cannot do a kindness too soon,
for you never know how soon
it will be too late.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
GARDENING
The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in the garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
~ Dorothy Gurney
Even the smallest landscape can offer pride of ownership not only
to its inhabitants but to its neighbors.
The world delights in a garden...
Creating any garden, big or small, is, in the end, all about joy.
~ Julie Moir Messervy
When gardeners garden, it is not just plants that grow,
but the gardeners themselves.
~ Ken Druse
All gardeners know that in some way they work out their problems
in the garden. There is no mystery to it. They are simply following
Nature's laws. Planting a garden is an act of optimism.
~ Marilyn Barrett
A fact bobbed up from my memory, that the ancient Egyptians
prescribed walking through a garden as a cure for the mad.
~ Paul Fleischman
An addiction to gardening is not all bad when
you consider all the other choices in life.
~ Cora Lea Bell
ANIMALS
Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.
~ Anatole France
If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.
~ St. Francis of Assisi
Animals are such agreeable friends — they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
~ George Eliot
The assumption that animals are without rights, and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance, is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer
If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man. All things are connected.
~ Chief Seattle of the Suwamish Tribe, to President Franklin Pierce
Lots of people talk to animals. Not very many listen, though...that's the problem.
~ Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh
I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being.
~ Abraham Lincoln
I have felt cats rubbing their faces against mine and touching my cheek with claws carefully sheathed. These things, to me, are expressions of love.
~James Herriot
SMILES
Whenever you smile, it is an act of faith.
Smiling extends what is good in your soul and life.
Not only do you lift your own immune system and light,
but you also lift all those that come in contact with you.
Give the Gift of a Smile to all you meet.
~ Gillian MacBeth-Louthan
I've never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful.
What sunshine is to flowers,
smiles are to humanity.
These are but trifles,
to be sure; but,
scattered along life's pathway,
the good they do is inconceivable.
~ Joseph Addison
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
A smile is a light in the window of the soul, indicating that the heart is at home.
Everyone smiles in the same language.
IMAGINATION
Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.
~ George Scialabba
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
~ Michelangelo
I think the world really boils down to two types of people - those who see shapes in cloud formations, and those who just see clouds.
~ Danzae Pace
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
~Carl Sagan
I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.
~ Duane Michals
Think left and think right and think low and think high.
Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!
~ Dr. Seuss
This is a saying that my father used to tell me when I was a little girl. I always marvelled at how fast he could say it and not mix it up! It wasn't until I was much older that I understood the wisdom of it.
Thanks Dad!
HE WHO KNOWS
He who knows not
and knows not that he knows not, is a fool - Shun him.
He who knows not and knows that he knows not, is a child - Teach him.
He who knows and knows not that he knows, is asleep - Wake him.
He who knows and knows that he knows, is a wise man - Follow him.
~ Arabian Proverb