For all you rat haters out there...

...check THIS out!

Light Up The Darkness

He had this idea. It was kind of a virologist idea. He believed that you could cure racism and hate... literally cure it, by injecting music and love into people's lives. When he was scheduled to perform at a peace rally, a gunman came to his house and shot him down. Two days later he walked out on that stage and sang. When they asked him why, he said, "The people, who are trying to make this world worse... are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness."

Be As Good As Your Dog

Something I just read today that is worth sharing:

If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can get going without pep pills,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can overlook it when those you love take it out on you when, no fault of your's, things go wrong,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him,
If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,
If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
If you can honestly say that, deep in your heart, you have no prejudice against creed, colour, religion or politics,

Then you, my friend, are as good as your dog.

Interesting Philosophy

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schulz , the creator of the 'Peanuts' comic strip.

You don't have to actually answer the questions.
Just read straight through, and you'll get the point.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday.
These are no second-rate achievers.
They are the best in their fields.
But the applause dies..
Awards tarnish.
Achievements are forgotten.
Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special!!
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

Easier?

The lesson:
The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most awards, or the most prestige.
They simply are the ones who care the most.

Life Lessons Revisited

So, it's been almost a year since I last posted a blog and, looking back on it, I'm not really sure why. I guess I haven't really given myself enough time to reflect on things and really sit back and enjoy my own thought process!

The last year has been full of adventures, new experiences and lessons. I am grateful for every single one and I think I am becoming the person I am meant to be. People often say that everything happens for a reason and, although I haven't always been a believer of fate, I am starting to come around. Everything is a learning experience!

Over the past month, I have done a great deal of self discovery and soul searching. I have learned a lot about myself (and about others) and would like to share some of the quotes that helped me get through it all. Hope you enjoy them and can take something away from them as well.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." -Marcel Proust

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear." -Baba Ram Dass

"When all is done and said, in the end thus shall you find, He most of all doth bathe in bliss that hath a quiet mind; And, clear from worldly cares, to deem can be content, The sweetest time in all his life in thinking to be spent." -Lord Thomas Vaux

"The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp." -John Berry

"We must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose." -Indira Gandhi

"Be vigilant; guard your mind against negative thoughts." -Buddha

"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible." -Jonathan Swift

"Friends are the sunshine of life." -John Hay

"Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue - to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak." -Socrates

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow." -Helen Keller

"A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet conscience." -William Shakespeare

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time." -Sir John Lubbock

"To know balance is to love peace." -Anne Wilson Schaef

"Joy can only be real if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness." -Leo Tolstoy

"The greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being." -Tenzin Gyatso

"Each morning, when I open my eyes, I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it." -Groucho Marx

"Optimist: Person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness." -Mark Twain

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared." -Buddha

"Most people are about as happy as they make their minds up to be." -Abraham Lincoln

"Courage is the power to let go of the familiar." -Raymond Lindquist

"Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go, at some point, in order to move forward." -Author Unknown

"Stand up and walk out of your history." -Phil McGraw

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us." -Joseph Campbell

"Sometimes we need to stop analyzing the past, stop planning the future, stop figuring out precisely how we feel, stop deciding exactly what we want, and just see what happens." -Author Unknown

"Your task is not merely to seek love, but to seek and destroy all the walls you have built against it." -Anonymous

And, lastly, perhaps the strongest quote of all (in my opinion, anyway):

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -Moulin Rouge

I hope, if you have read this blog, that you feel as inspired and moved as I did when I read these quotes. Despite all the hardships and difficult lessons I have learned, I have persevered and come out even stronger and wiser as a result.

Live every day like it's your last because you never know when it will be! Tell your loved ones how much they mean to you. You never know when they might be gone.

For more great ideas and inspirational messages, click here.

Could Use a Hug After Last Post

Neat "free hugs" campaign.


Watch HERE!

Disgusting Dining

Warning! The content of this video is graphic and may/should be disturbing to most viewers. Watch at your own risk!

According to the information provided by the YouTube subscriber, Chinese chefs have developed a way to deep-fry fish without killing them. Subsequently, diners can enjoy their favourite deep-fried fish while it is still alive and writhing (in pain) on their plate. If this weren't designed as a professional blog, the next few sentences consist of profanities.

Firstly, I have to ask how any person, in their right mind, would enjoy eating moving food? If we (as humans) are going to claim that we are separated from the animal world because of our compassion and etiquette, we are certainly not exercising those traits in this instance. Animals eat their food live because they have no other choice. We do!

Secondly, not only would it be extremely painful for the animal to go through a deep-fryer without succumbing to death, but to put it under the knife immediately afterwards seems purely cruel. It boggles my mind. How can someone feel okay about eating something that is experiencing undue and unnecessary torture?

Ultimately, this fish is a living, breathing, feeling creature. Let's put ourselves in the fish's shoes/fins for a second, here. You've been scooped from the ocean/lake to become someone's dinner. That, alone, is a fate none of us would be too thrilled about. However, your troubles have only just begun. You are kept alive on the way to your restaurant destination, where chefs deep fry your body in some new fashion that allows you to survive. The scalds and burns on 90% of your body are excruciating and you simply want to be put out of your misery. This seems bad enough, but no, it's not over yet! Now you are garnished and put on a plate for someone to tear and consume your flesh before your eyes.

We call animals barbaric and lacking intelligence. Yet, things like this make US look barbaric. How are we any different or better than the animals we call savage when we do things like this?

I was a vegetarian for seven years and have only recently returned to the world of meat-eating. I am not saying that eating meat is atrocious, but this kind of behaviour is cruel and unusual. Ultimately, it is inhumane. The word "human" is the root-word of the word "humane" and, according to Dictionary.com, "takes into account only the nobler or gentler aspects of people and is often contrasted to their more ignoble or brutish aspect. A humane person is benevolent in treating fellow humans or helpless animals; the word once had also connotations of courtesy and refinement."

This behaviour is completely unrefined and certainly brutish. We cannot expect to separate ourselves from the savage animal world if we are unwilling to rise above it. Bottom line, this is vile.