Wallpapers

Just been having fun designing my own desktop wallpapers. Simply amazing what can be created and what has already been created digitally.



And just for fun some thoughts on love for this month:

Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak.
~~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Follow love and it will flee. Flee love and it will follow thee.
~~John Gay

Love does not dominate; it cultivates.
~~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A man is not where he lives, but where he loves.
~~Latin Proverb

Global Warming Explained

Here are some facts about the global warming debate. I find it very intresting.

Death in the Celtic Tradition

One year ago today I buried my Mother. So today I thought about death naturally, and I found the Celtic traditional thoughts comforting.

"The Celtic tradition had a refined sense of the miracle of death. For the Celts, the eternal world was so close to the natural world that death was not seen as a terribly destructive or threatening event. When you enter the eternal world, you are going home to where no shadow, pain, or darkness can ever touch you again."

"You will never understand death or appreciate its loneliness until it visits. Death is a lonely visitor. After it visits your home, nothing is ever the same again. There is an empty place at the table; there is an absence in the house. Having someone close to you die is an incredibly strange and desolate experience. Something breaks within you then that will never come together again. Gone is the person whom you loved, whose face and hands and body you knew so well."

"At birth you appear out of nowhere, at death you disappear to nowhere."

Ever since reading C.S. Lewis's book, "Mere Christianity" when I was in my teens, I have been fascinated with the concept of time. So I found these Celtic thoughts also interesting:

"Space and time are the foundation of human identity and perception. We never have a perception that does not have each of these elements in it. The element of space means that we are always in a state of separation. I am here. You are there. ...Two people become so close that they really want to become one; but their separate spaces keep distance between them. ....The other component of perception and identity is time. Time always separates us, too. Time is primarily linear, disjointed, and fragmented. All your past days have disappeared; they have vanished. The future has not come to you yet. All you have is the little stepping-stone of the present moment."

"When the soul leaves the body, it is no longer under the burden and control of space and time. The soul is free; distance and separation hinder it no more. The dead are our nearest neighbors; they are all around us. ...Where does the soul of a person go when the person dies? No place. Where else would the soul be going? Where else is the eternal world? It is nowhere other than here. We have falsely specialized the eternal world. ....The soul of the person goes no place because there is no place else to go. This suggests that the dead are here with us, in the air that we are moving through all the time. The only difference between us and the dead is that they are now in invisible form. You cannot see them with the human eye. But you can sense the presence of those you love who have died. With the refinement of your soul, you can sense them. You feel that they are near."

"For those that have died, the world of time is also different. Here we are caught in linear time. We have forgotten the past; it is lost to us. We cannot know the future. Time must be totally different for the dead because they now live within a circle of eternity. The Celtic mind always loved the shape of the circle. ...In the eternal world time has become the circle of eternity. ...For the dead, present time it total time."

"This suggests that the dead know us better than they can have known us in life. They know everything about us, even things that may disappoint them. But since they are now transfigured, their understanding and compassion are proportionate to everything they have come to know about us."

Taken from:
Anam Cara
A Book of Celtic Wisdom
by
John O'Donohue

Well, ending on a light note.....those that knew my mother will smile with me when I say, "She seemed to know a lot more about me when she was alive than I wanted her to!" May she rest in peace and hopefully understand me a bit more now.

Don't Wait

I guess it is to be expected at the beginning of a year to think back on the past year. Sometimes there are loved ones we have lost......

"Tomorrow" I say! "I will call on him,
Just to show that I'm thinking of him."
But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And distance between us grows and grows.

Around the corner, yet miles away,
A note from a friend says, "He died today."
And that's what I get & deserve in the end.
Around the corner, a vanished friend.

Remember to always say what you mean.
If you love someone, tell them.
Don't be afraid to express yourself.
Reach out & tell someone what they mean to you.
Because when you decide that it is the right time,
it might be too late.
Seize the day. Never have regrets.
And most importantly, stay close to your friends and family,
for they have helped make you the person that you are today.

We Noticed

This was written by Sherry Hackett, Buddy Hackett's widow........

"WE NOTICED"
President Obama:

Today I read of your administrations' plan to re-define September 11 as a National Service Day. Sir, it's time we had a talk.........

During your campaign, Americans watched as you made mockery of our tradition of standing and crossing your heart when the Pledge of Allegiance was spoken. You, out of four people on the stage, were the only one not honoring our tradition.

YES, "We noticed."

During one of your many speeches, Americans heard you say that you intended to visit all 57 states.We all know that Islam, not America has 57 states.

YES, "We noticed."

When President Bush leaned over at Ground Zero and gently placed a flower on the memorial, while you nonchalantly tossed your flower onto the pile without leaning over.

YES, "We noticed."

Every time you apologized to other countries for America's position on an issue we have wondered why you don't share our pride in this great country. When you have heard foreign leaders berate our country and our beliefs, you have not defended us. In fact, you insulted the British Crown beyond belief.

YES, "We noticed."

When your pastor of 20 years, "God-damned America" and said that 9/11 was " America 's chickens coming home to roost" and you denied having heard recriminations of that nature, we wondered how that could be. You later disassociated yourself from that church and Pastor Wright because it was politically expedient to do so.

YES, "We noticed."

When you announced that you would transform America, we wondered why.. With all her faults, America is the greatest country on earth. Sir, KEEP THIS IN MIND,"if not for America and the people who built her, you wouldn't be sitting in the White House now." Prior to your election to the highest office in this Country, you were a senator from Illinois and from what we can glean from the records available, not a very remarkable one.

YES, "We noticed."

All through your campaign and even now, you have surrounded yourself with individuals who are basically unqualified for the positions for which you appointed them. Worse than that, the majority of them are people who, like you, bear no special allegiance, respect, or affection for this country and her traditions.

YES, "We noticed."

You are 9 months into your term and every morning millions of Americans wake up to a new horror heaped on us by you. You seek to saddle working Americans with a health care/insurance reform package that, along with cap and trade, will bankrupt this nation.

YES, "We noticed."

We seek, by protesting, to let our representatives know that we are not in favor of these crippling expenditures and we are labeled "un-American","racist", "mob". We wonder how we are supposed to let you know how frustrated we are. You have attempted to make our protests seem isolated and insignificant. Until your appointment, Americans had the right to speak out.

YES, "We noticed."

On September 11, 2001 there were no Republicans or Democrats, only Americans. And we all grieved together and helped each other in whatever way we could. The attack on 9/11 was carried out because we are Americans.

And YES, "We noticed."

There were many of us who prayed that as a black president you could help unite this nation. In six months you have done more to destroy this nation than the attack on 9/11. You have failed us.

YES, "We noticed."

September 11 is a day of remembrance for all Americans. You propose to make 9/11 a "National Service Day". While we know that you don't share our reverence for 9/11, we pray that history will report your proposal as what it is...a disgrace.

YES, "We noticed."

You have made a mockery of our Constitution and the office that you hold. You have embarrassed and slighted us in foreign visits and policy.

YES, "We noticed."

We have noticed all these things. We will deal with you. When Americans come together again, it will be to remove you from office.

TAKE NOTICE!!