#we truly live in a bounteous time

[wanderingaldecaldo]

All my love to @humberg for letting me test out their wonderful pose pack. I cannot believe how easy it is now to put these two together.

[radical-revolution]

Falling In Love With The Earth

This beautiful, bounteous, life-giving planet we call Earth has given birth to each one of us, and each one of us carries the Earth within every cell of our body.

We and the Earth are one

The Earth is our mother, nourishing and protecting us in every moment–giving us air to breathe, fresh water to drink, food to eat and healing herbs to cure us when we are sick. Every breath we inhale contains our planet’s nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor and trace elements. When we breathe with mindfulness, we can experience our interbeing with the Earth’s delicate atmosphere, with all the plants, and even with the sun, whose light makes possible the miracle of photosynthesis. With every breath we can experience communion. With every breath we can savor the wonders of life.

We need to change our way of thinking and seeing things. We need to realise that the Earth is not just our environment. The Earth is not something outside of us. Breathing with mindfulness and contemplating your body, you realise that you are the Earth. You realise that your consciousness is also the consciousness of the Earth. Look around you–what you see is not your environment, it is you.

Great Mother Earth

Whatever nationality or culture we belong to, whatever religion we follow, whether we’re Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, or atheists, we can all see that the Earth is not inert matter. She is a great being, who has herself given birth to many other great beings–including buddhas and bodhisattvas, prophets and saints, sons and daughters of God and humankind. The Earth is a loving mother, nurturing and protecting all peoples and all species without discrimination.

When you realize the Earth is so much more than simply your environment, you’ll be moved to protect her in the same way as you would yourself. This is the kind of awareness, the kind of awakening that we need, and the future of the planet depends on whether we’re able to cultivate this insight or not. The Earth and all species on Earth are in real danger. Yet if we can develop a deep relationship with the Earth, we’ll have enough love, strength and awakening in order to change our way of life.

Falling In Love

We can all experience a feeling of deep admiration and love when we see the great harmony, elegance and beauty of the Earth. A simple branch of cherry blossom, the shell of a snail or the wing of a bat – all bear witness to the Earth’s masterful creativity. Every advance in our scientific understanding deepens our admiration and love for this wondrous planet. When we can truly see and understand the Earth, love is born in our hearts. We feel connected. That is the meaning of love: to be at one.

Only when we’ve truly fallen back in love with the Earth will our actions spring from reverence and the insight of our interconnectedness. Yet many of us have become alienated from the Earth. We are lost, isolated and lonely. We work too hard, our lives are too busy, and we are restless and distracted, losing ourselves in consumption. But the Earth is always there for us, offering us everything we need for our nourishment and healing: the miraculous grain of corn, the refreshing stream, the fragrant forest, the majestic snow-capped mountain peak, and the joyful birdsong at dawn.

True Happiness is made of Love

Many of us think we need more money, more power or more status before we can be happy. We’re so busy spending our lives chasing after money, power and status that we ignore all the conditions for happiness already available. At the same time, we lose ourselves in buying and consuming things we don’t need, putting a heavy strain on both our bodies and the planet. Yet much of what we drink, eat, watch, read or listen to, is toxic, polluting our bodies and minds with violence, anger, fear and despair.

As well as the carbon dioxide pollution of our physical environment, we can speak of the spiritual pollution of our human environment: the toxic and destructive atmosphere we’re creating with our way of consuming. We need to consume in such a way that truly sustains our peace and happiness. Only when we’re sustainable as humans will our civilization become sustainable. It is possible to be happy in the here and the now.

We don’t need to consume a lot to be happy; in fact we can live very simply. With mindfulness, any moment can become a happy moment. Savoring one simple breath, taking a moment to stop and contemplate the bright blue sky, or to fully enjoy the presence of a loved one, can be more than enough to make us happy. Each one of us needs to come back to reconnect with ourselves, with our loved ones and with the Earth. It’s not money, power or consuming that can make us happy, but having love and understanding in our heart.

The bread in your hand is the body of the cosmos

We need to consume in such a way that keeps our compassion alive. And yet many of us consume in a way that is very violent. Forests are cut down to raise cattle for beef, or to grow grain for liquor, while millions in the world are dying of starvation. Reducing the amount of meat we eat and alcohol we consume by 50% is a true act of love for ourselves, for the Earth and for one another. Eating with compassion can already help transform the situation our planet is facing, and restore balance to ourselves and the Earth.

Nothing is more important than brotherhood and sisterhood

There’s a revolution that needs to happen and it starts from inside each one of us. We need to wake up and fall in love with Earth. We’ve been homo sapiens for a long time. Now it’s time to become homo conscius. Our love and admiration for the Earth has the power to unite us and remove all boundaries, separation and discrimination. Centuries of individualism and competition have brought about tremendous destruction and alienation. We need to re-establish true communication–true communion–with ourselves, with the Earth, and with one another as children of the same mother. We need more than new technology to protect the planet. We need real community and co-operation.

All civilisations are impermanent and must come to an end one day. But if we continue on our current course, there’s no doubt that our civilisation will be destroyed sooner than we think. The Earth may need millions of years to heal, to retrieve her balance and restore her beauty. She will be able to recover, but we humans and many other species will disappear, until the Earth can generate conditions to bring us forth again in new forms. Once we can accept the impermanence of our civilization with peace, we will be liberated from our fear. Only then will we have the strength, awakening and love we need to bring us together. Cherishing our precious Earth–falling in love with the Earth–is not an obligation. It is a matter of personal and collective happiness and survival. – Thich Nhat Hanh.

Written for Paris Climate Talk in 2015

***

[aldercaps]

There isn't really a point to this post. I just needed to put these words outside of myself, to give it somewhere to go.

going under a readmore because I had a lot to say apparently (this is not a happy post, nor does it have a satisfying ending)

Toby was a defacto birthday gift to my eleven-year-old self, after I had pestered my parents for over a year on getting a kitten. He was the first cat that was truly "mine", in that I was his favourite person and he held the dearest place in my heart. He turned ten years old this year, in March, which was also the year anniversary of when I last saw him.

He's doing well, last I heard, living with one of my mum's friends, who I don't know. My memory of last year is bad enough that I couldn't remember that it had been march when I saw him last, I thought I'd had more time. I didn't get to see him off, mum dropped him off when I was in class. I hadn't lived with him since 2021, when I moved out into my first flat. I wanted to take him with me, but it is almost impossible to find student housing that is pet friendly, and so I said goodbye to him (temporarily) as my mother's new boyfriend moved in. When my mother decided to move with her boyfriend to the other side of the country to an inner city apartment, she told me she wouldn't be taking Toby with her. I scrambled to find someone I knew that would take him in, just for the rest of 2022 until I could take him with me, but I couldn't manage it. I haven't seen him since march last year, wasn't able to come with my mum to say goodbye. It's taken me so many tries to try and write a post like this but I haven't managed to without being overcome with emotion.

When I was in high school mum always insisted that I take Toby with me when I move, since he was so attached to me and I was the one most willing to put up with his antics. He would play ambush with me, hiding in the dark shadows around the house in the evenings, waiting to jump out at me when I least expected it. He remains the only cat I've ever had that enthusiastically enjoyed belly rubs, and would stretch out on his back over my lap for them. We would play a game where, most days an hour before dinner, he would come into my room, and yell at me until I looked at him. Then, he would walk out of the room and wait for me just outside. Then, he would walk with me downstairs (if I paused he would pause, and jump up to headbutt my hand) to the kitchen where the cat kibble was kept, and do a running leap onto his stool to signify that he wanted dinner now, please.

When I was about 12-13 I took to the idea of training him, and after a couple of years of sporadic practise I could pat a chair or surface in the house if he was in the room, and he would do an enthusiastic running leap onto it, and of course received either a treat or bounteous pats as a reward.

He was my heart animal, and I love him so deeply. I try to console myself that he's living the high life as a single cat in a loving household, which he always preferred (enjoying the company of humans much more than other cats), but I think the not knowing is what gets me. The last photo of the four is the most recent photo I have of him, courtesy of my mother, from November last year. My sister told me that after I moved out he would walk into my old room and cry for minutes on end, or look for me throughout the house for weeks afterwards. I visited him as often as I could, once every two weeks or so, but I never felt properly welcome there with my mum's boyfriend there, since we never got on well at all. Later last year my sister said something that i think sums up the situation well: "I can't believe we lost our childhood home and our cats for some guy mum broke up with two months after she moved." Mum still has Cassie, and I can't blame her for making decisions that she thought would add to her happiness, but I don't know if I will ever get over losing Toby like that. He was one of my reasons to keep living through the worst years of my worst mental health, my light in the darkness. He was a constant I didn't know I needed until I lost it. The grief I've felt after losing him is something that has confirmed to me how much I need a companion animal in my life, and the past two years of not living with an animal of any kind has really cemented that for me.

Anyway. if you got this far, give your pets a kiss or a scritch for me, and tell them you love them.

[troybeecham]

Sermon Last Epiphany 2021

We are used to thinking of our Holy Scriptures as the Word of God, and rightfully so, but in a very particular way of understanding that phrase. Our Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God and contain all that is necessary to lead us to salvation, so we affirm in our catechism. But there’s a greater truth at stake here about what, or more accurately, who is the Word of God. We believe in the Episcopal Church, with all orthodox and catholic Christians, that Jesus is, was, and has eternally been the Son of the Father, begotten from eternity of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father, through him all things were made. Then we have John’s account of the Gospel that begins with those resonant, majestic words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” These are central, core beliefs in what it means to be a Christian. The deeper truth is that Jesus is himself the Word of God, the definitive and final revelation of the nature and character of God the Father, prior to and greatest of all other revelations about God.

Yet we often hear, don’t we, especially in theological debates, the phrase “well, the word of God says…” followed by a proof-text to affirm one perspective over another, usually with the intent to debase or cudgel someone into submission. But there can be no more odious and sinful use of the Holy Scriptures than to wound dominate or to wound another soul made in the image of God.

So, just what does it mean that Jesus is the Word of God?

Over the last several Sundays, we’ve heard the Gospel proclaimed to us:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free, and

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

And:

Jesus came down with the twelve apostles and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them who came to him.

And again:

Jesus said, "I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

In the first reading I just quoted, Jesus freely edits the words of the prophet Isaiah, exchanging “day of God’s wrathful vengeance” for “the year of the Lord’s bounteous favor”. In the second, Jesus freely heals even those whom the Holy Scriptures declared to be unclean and enemies to the covenant people of God. And in the third Jesus commends to us a way of living that freely gives up the right of vengeance and judgement.

In these, and in so many other passages from the Gospels, Jesus freely and confidently takes the Holy Scriptures and corrects them and reinterprets them in ways that both enraged and confused people. His hometown neighbors tried to throw him over a cliff in his home town over it! Yet he goes on in Sovereign majesty, revealing God the Father to the delight and the dismay of those who heard him speak or witnessed his miracles. He used his prerogative as the Son of God, the Living Word of God, to proclaim the inner councils of God.

In today’s gospel reading, we find Jesus with Peter, James, and John, gone to the top of a great hill to pray, and to the utter bewilderment of the disciples, Jesus is transfigured before them, revealed in his eternal glory as the Son of God, the living Word of God – God’s most intimate and ultimate self-revelation in the flesh. And to show the apostles that Jesus has the authority to reinterpret their words, Moses and Elijah show up, too.

The gospel writer notes how they are speaking with Jesus. It is often understood that they have come to give Jesus courage to face his coming persecution and death. But there is something more subversive, more life changing going on here.

Elijah and Moses both were great heroes of faith, and did miraculous things; but they are also indelibly marked by acts of vengeance and sacrificial violence expressed towards other humans.

But not Jesus!

Jesus did not come with a spirit of wrath or a willingness to sacrifice others. He came with the Holy Spirit of loving and humble self-sacrifice, and to confront the spiritual powers of wickedness that continue to this day to hold the human family locked in never-ending conflict. Jesus did not give free reign to wrath or the desire to dominate others; rather, he let himself be sacrificed by those who practiced such abominations in the name of God, and God’s raised him from the dead to bear witness to the love of God, and the futility and grotesqueness of such sacrificial ways of being.

Think back to the gospel just proclaimed to us; when God the Father speaks, he does not say of Moses or Elijah “this is my beloved son, listen to him”. No, God in Jesus reveals himself again once and for all time. Only by listening to him, to Jesus the Word of God incarnate, may the way to our salvation and joy be opened. It remains the express purpose of the earthly body of Jesus, the Church, we who are gathered here this morning, to continue his ministry of reconciling all people to God, confronting boldly that which we allow to separate us, to name that which possesses us and our cultures. And by following his example of self- offering love, we are called to draw all people to God in Jesus Christ.

To do this, we must make a central priority of learning to read the Scriptures and the Christian tradition through the lens of Jesus, the only one of whom God ever said from the heavens “this is my beloved son, listen to him”.

We must learn to interpret all of life and all scriptures in a way that is faithful to Jesus, the living Word of God, and finally prune from our understanding of God all violence and the desire to create winners and losers, insiders and outsiders, or his approval of it.

This is the challenge to proclaiming a loving, completely nonviolent God through the Holy Scriptures, the right relationship between God’s self-revelation in Jesus and our Scriptures. We must read the Law and the Prophets, and the New Testament, in the light of Jesus. So, if Moses instructs capital punishment and Elijah models violent retribution, we must remember the Transfiguration and the voice from heaven that said of Jesus, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’

The final testimony of Moses and Elijah is to hear the voice of God and to recede into the background so that Jesus stands alone in the end, revealed in glorious splendor as the full and true Word of God. Jesus is what God has to say. Jesus is God’s perfect word spoken into human life, and that word is Agape, self-sacrificing love, and only in this, in Jesus, can God be truly known.

How do we do bear witness to God’s self-revelation in Jesus our Lord? How do we sustain this pilgrimage of following Jesus, which is often counter- intuitive or seemingly irrational at times, or even self- defeating? We do it by committing to coming together each and every Sunday, to sing, pray, and receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and then to go out into the world transformed and empowered by love so that Jesus might become known, adored, and loved by all, a love made so winsome to the soul by revealing the love of Jesus that is made visible in us through our love for God and for each other. What an amazing calling that God has placed on our lives. My prayer is that today, we may make a new start of living into this amazing vocation.

Amen.

[furiouspalacepandawombat-blog]

Kids Fancy Dress Costumes For All Ages, Literally

Kids in their fancy dress get-ups - would you be able to make them any cuter? Children venerate wearing fancy dress concerning that minute in time they have become, in their most out of this world fantasies, the very character who they have seen umpteen occasions on their preferred account of a film or TV program.

For kids, fancy dress costumes mean a re-sanctioning of the most energizing experiences with unthinkable demonstrations of courage and brave do. Their must be a component of enchantment, outstanding super powers purchased on by some unexpected transformation or Bond-like gadgetry to additionally start up and mitigate the experience. Truth be told the main distinction with children and grown-ups is that we have restraints and fortunately kids don't and that is a quality we find cute. Kids transform their wild dreams into reality through play and they become their saints. As you get more seasoned those fantasies become yearnings and those saints are "good examples" and normally grown-ups don't go around the mainsail with a sword grasped between their teeth.

Guardians enjoy incredible viewing their little ones carry on scenes from films that they have needed to look out for and over again however as we probably am aware this outflow of creative mind going out of control is a central piece of each child's normal improvement and it will keep the person in question in great stead when managing genuine circumstances and individuals later on throughout everyday life. Obviously there are those of us who carry on for the vast majority of our lives dressing up and imagining we're somebody who we're not yet who we might want to be. This grown-up good example probably won't be a Cinderella or a Buzz Lightyear yet in any case it could be some figure with suffering appeal.........actually it could be Cinders or Buzz as well.

For a kids fancy dress outfit the decision is faltering and on the off chance that it was dependent upon a parent to pick one, at that point you would have a difficult activity yet luckily you truly don't need to notice also near what the little ones are watching and getting a charge out of other than their shouts of euphoria will let you know. In the event that you are purchasing a costume for that exceptional occasion in the far off future since you are very composed then simply be reminded that their saint love can now and then be brief and Snow White may become Lady Gaga.

Particularly with the appearance of PC produced illustrations there are heaps of insane kid's shows and movies turning out as a rule dependent on fantastical fiction packed with legendary animals, vampires, wizards, unnatural privateers, etc and these go down a tempest with children who at that point have a huge amount of characters to copy.

For children, fancy dress costumes have never been progressively bounteous as the methods for delivering them have been made simpler with less expensive materials and assembling.

The decision for a kid's fancy dress costume basically spins around their discernments with respect to who they are in their fantasies. For grown-ups "in your fantasies" signifies something less whimsical however I don't question that given a bit of fearlessness, Dutch or some other, I'm certain couldn't want anything more than to turn into an anecdotal character regardless of whether it was only for a gathering or some other reason to wear a grown-up fancy dress costume.

[luxurykenyasafari]

Masai Mara National Reserve – A Must-Visit Safari Destination In Kenya

The Masai Mara National Reserve has unfenced outskirts with various private conservancies, including Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. This huge ensured landscape is one of the top natural life goals in Africa, and Kenya’s leader preservation region.

How to reach You just have to fly into Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi’s significant international airport for the Masai Mara safari in Kenya. The reputed tour operators will then take you to the reserve from there and you will only have to enjoy and explore the wilderness that unfolds in front of you.

Game viewing possible in Masai Mara Game viewing during Masai Mara safari in Kenya is fantastic all year around gratitude to the differing populace of inhabitant game – including lion, panther, elephant and wild ox – in addition to prominent species like zebra, giraffe, hyena, eland and gazelle. The Mara’s enormous cats are even the stars of a famous untamed life TV arrangement.

From July to November, perhaps the best scene, the Wildebeest Migration, arrives at the Mara – the sheer number of wildebeest landing in the territory is amazing. The relocation is an emotional mass development of very nearly 2,000,000 wildebeest, zebra and gazelle in an occasional yearly cycle driven by rain. The calving season additionally occurs in the Mara between December and January. Known as the green season, it is when surface water is ample and wildebeest, zebra and gazelle bring forth their calves, foals and grovels. With so much simple prey around, it is additionally a decent time for predators to raise their offspring and puppies, making for magnificent photographic chances.

Best Time to Visit the Masai Mara Picking when to go for Masai Mara safari in Kenya is something that should be painstakingly considered to live up to your desires. For the general game view, there is no genuine ‘best time’ to go; because of its bounteous occupant untamed life and mild atmosphere, the Masai Mara is broadly viewed as an all-year safari goal. Its wide, open fields imply there is essentially continually something to see, regardless of what season you go to Kenya.

Top Travel Tips for the Masai Mara Get off the ground: Hot air balloon safaris are a Masai Mara claim to fame and convey an exceptional elevated perspective on the relocation.

Meet local people – with poise: Ensure your Masai social cooperation during Masai Mara safari in Kenya truly benefits the neighborhood network and is an encounter that is both important and contrived. Tour operators prescribe accommodations and administrators that do it the correct way.

Book right on time for the migration: A year ahead is typical as appropriately found accommodations for the wildebeest movement gets booked up rapidly.

Go private: It is ideal to be with reputed tour operators during Masai Mara safari in Kenya. They make possible for you to have the best of accommodations and transportation means along with the services of local guides. You will have safety, comfort and perfect guidance to explore and enjoy the wilderness.

Best Masai Mara Tours and Safaris Home to the yearly Masai Mara/Serengeti Wildebeest Migration, Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve is without question one of Africa’s great safari goals and in this manner includes on the vast majority of top prescribed Kenya safari visits. It’s additionally incredibly mainstream the world over which is the reason we prescribe booking your Masai Mara safari in Kenya well ahead of time – particularly on the off chance that you need to see the migration.

Tour specialists at African Safaris & Beach Holidays will be glad to suggest Masai Mara travel schedules that put you at the core of the movement activity however safaris in the Masai Mara likewise incorporate sentimental and cozy breaks where you will appreciate lavish tent camps set in private concessions. What’s more, in case you are on a financial limit, they have reasonable booked gathering visits remaining at agreeable safari lodges.

They likewise recommend joining a Masai Mara safari with some time in Tanzania’s Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater for tremendous untamed life experience, and on the off chance that you’d like a seashore break toward the finish of your outing, why exclude Lamu Island or even Zanzibar?

Call at +254 705 934 084 or +254 731 631 011 to select the best itinerary that suits your desire and financial plan.

[shorthaircutsmodels]

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[quranreadalong]

#12, Surah 2

THE QURAN READ-ALONG: DAY 12

The good news is that we have less than 60 ayat to go until we finish this surah. The bad news is we’ve got to slog through re-runs of Biblical stories to get there.

We’ll start the day with an ayah encouraging people to keep up their prayer schedule in 2:238. If you’re particularly busy, or under attack or something, Allah says you can pray on horseback if need be. Neutral. Anyway, we have a couple of leftover ayat about marriage: 2:240 is a good (I suppose?) request for men to make a provision in their wills to allow their widows to remain in their residence for a year after their death, which is a “kindness”, though the kindness is evidently limited to a period of twelve months... 2:242 is one of those bland neutral “Allah has told you what to do” things.

But that’s the last of the marital stuff for now. It’s time to dive back into deeply mutilated versions of Biblical stories! Remember how much fun we had with the Moses section? We’re back at it now. Observe:

Bethink thee (O Muhammad) of those of old, who went forth from their habitations in their thousands, fearing death, and Allah said unto them: Die; and then He brought them back to life. Lo! Allah is a Lord of Kindness to mankind, but most of mankind give not thanks.

Allah killed them, then brought them back to life, and the idiots had the nerve to not be grateful towards his kindness (in killing them and then reviving them?!). No one seems to be able to agree on what the hell Mohammed was talking about here, as there is (yet again) no basis for it in any Jewish text that I can find. Some have this mass-murder taking place in the Moses days, others in some unnamed later battle. Tafsir al-Jalalayn and Ibn Kathir tell us that this is a variant of the Ezekiel story:

These were a people from among the Children of Israel who fled their homeland after it was afflicted with plague. God said to them ‘Die!’ and they did. Then He gave them life after eight days or more as a result of the supplication of their prophet Ezekiel (Hizqīl) and they lived on for a while with the effects of death still upon them such that when they wore garments these turned into shrouds for the deceased; and this phenomenon remained with their descendants. Truly God is bounteous to people

Well why in the name of fuck would they be grateful for that??? He turned them into zombies! In the actual Ezekiel story, which is clearly metaphorical, they are already long-dead before they’re revived--YHWH doesn’t kill them and then revive them a week later. And anyway, the Quranic verse doesn’t mention Ezekiel or anyone else. In context, I think the battle variant makes more sense, with Allah killing soldiers for refusing to fight people:

have you not been informed, O Muhammad, (of those of old, who went forth from their habitations) to fight their enemies (in their thousands) eight thousand in total, but they proved too cowardly to fight, (fearing death) out of fear of being killed, (and Allah said unto them: Die) Allah killed them on the spot, (and then He brought them back to life) after eight days. (Lo! Allah is the Lord of Kindness to mankind) to these people for He brought them back to life, (but most of mankind give not thanks) for life.

Either way, Allah tells us that they were bad ungrateful assholes. If you recall, Allah killed some Jews and then brought them back to life in 2:56 (with a lightning strike), and they were similarly ungrateful, in their Jew-y manner.

This may seem an odd non-sequitur from what preceded it, but it all makes sense in context. The context being Mohammed preparing his followers for some more jihad. 2:244 commands: “Fight in the way of Allah”, while 2:245 asks Muslims to give “Allah” some $$$ as a loan (really).

We then go back to the Torah. The Hebrews vow to “fight in Allah’s way”, as Mo’s modern-day followers are doing. An unnamed prophet (Samuel) questions their sincerity, but they promise that they’d really fight the people who caused them to be “driven out from our homes”, meaning, I suppose, the Philistines. But:

when fighting was prescribed for them, they turned away, except for a few of them. And Allah is Knowing of the wrongdoers.

In other words, boys and girls, when your prophet tells you to go to war, you’d best get your ass to war, unlike the wrongdoing Jews. Fighting is prescribed for you, after all.

The following section is a bit of a mess because Mohammed confused a lot of details. First of all, we’ve skipped ahead to the reign of King Saul, so forget about the story of Samuel, who is an old guy by this point in the Bible. Allah declares Saul king, the Jews complain because he’s just some random peasant (“How can he have kingdom over us when we are more deserving of the kingdom than he is?”), and Allah tells them to shut up because he knows better than they do. Demanding obedience to questionable monarchy: bad! (The fact that some people were displeased with Saul’s appointment as king is from the Book of Samuel).

The Jews are told that the return of the Ark of the Covenant proves Saul’s rightful kingship; it is carried by angels to Israel. (In the Torah the Philistines willingly return it and just stick it on a cart and give it back long before Saul is king, no angels involved. It is actually said that Saul and his people barely even looked at the ark, except for one time he dragged it into battle. But... the Jews were probably lying. This must be one of those faked parts of the Torah! Mohammed’s story is the real one, of course!)

Then Mohammed confuses details again and relates a story of Saul leading troops to a river and telling them to prove their loyalty by only drinking it in a certain way before facing off against Goliath’s troops. This is actually the Biblical story of Gideon, not Saul. After that is a recap of the battle of David and Goliath, attributing the victory to Allah. Whatever, neutral.

Allah declares Mohammed a prophet and connects him to previous prophets, concluding with this odd (and bad) thought:

And if Allah had so willed it, those who followed after them would not have fought one with another after the clear proofs had come unto them. But they differed, some of them believing and some disbelieving. And if Allah had so willed it, they would not have fought one with another; but Allah doeth what He will.

Allah could have ensured that the followers of his various prophets lived in peace with one another, but he didn’t want to. Why? Hell if I know. Allah does what he wants.

On that happy note, let’s stop for today.

NEXT TIME: There is no compulsion in religion but disbelievers will be burned eternally.

The Quran Read-Along: Day 12

Ayat: 16

Good: 1 (2:240)

Neutral: 10 (2:238-39, 2:241-42, 2:245, 2:248-52)

Bad: 5 (2:243-44, 2:246-47, 2:253)

Kuffar hell counter: 0

⇚ previous day | next day ⇛

[stevedonnellyfaith-blog]

A Bear Returns to Brooklyn (Post 122) 12-30-15

It was a Christmas where I thought about keepsakes and their value quite a bit.  I guess my understanding of keepsakes has formed that something is really a keepsake only when its personal value exceeds its monetary value by a factor of ten. For instance, the keepsake that reminds me most of my grandfather is a sales trophy that he won years ago selling Electrolux vacuum cleaners door-to-door in Boston.  He never gave me the trophy, it was in my parents’ house and it was not displayed prominently … with pretty thorough justification.  The statue is in the shape a gilded man like and Oscar with arms extended on high as if he is displaying a heavy weight champion belt, except he is holding a vacuum, one of the old-fashioned kinds that you pulled along behind you until eventually the plug pulled out of the wall.

Certainly the trophy is saleable; I have watched enough episodes of American Pickers to know that there is a market for oddball relics of the prosperity boom of the 50’s, but  I won’t be packing it off to Dayton, Ohio or wherever Antiques Roadshow holds their next swap meet disguised as a soiree. I know I am not depriving Natalie of a year’s tuition to Notre Dame or Ohio State, by keeping the statue.  It means more to me than the $20 that Mike Wolfe or Frank Fritz would offer due to its outstanding funkiness monetized.  Nor will the statue ever probably bask in the soft glow of a recessed spotlight as the centerpiece of my mantle, but neither will it languish in a box in the attic.  Each time I spy the Electrolux Oscar as he resides like a gargoyle on a bookcase above my desk, I will think of my grandfather fishing with me on his dock in Winter Harbor on Lake Winnipesauke in New Hampshire.  In my mind I consider the statue to be a major award, more modestly displayed than the ill-fated leg lamp in A Christmas Story.

My few keepsakes and their importance to me made the bear in the basement a problem to my conscience like the buried pulmonary organ in Poe’s story The Telltale Heart.  The keepsake bear has no place of suitable prominence in my home currently with nothing promising in the near future either.  I don’t have a lot of places to display a large-sized stuffed animal that was probably very special to my wife, but about which I had no knowledge whatsoever.  He isn’t a giant grizzly by any means.  Overall he is about the size of Natalie’s American Girl doll.  The most obvious and easiest cop-out solution would have been to add the bear to Natalie’s bounteous collection of stuffed critters.  She offered to house him several times, but her room is already near bursting with curios.  Natalie could outfit an entire battalion with various pellet filled frogs, over-stuffed ursine playthings and dolls or all sorts.  All of them are named and cherished, but they are legion. This bear had been particularly loved by Pam and he didn’t seem to deserve second-teamer status, like Kobe Bryant as an eighth man.

The bear had all the signs of being special to a kid, despite the fact that Pam never told me his name or relayed anything about his origin and history.  The bear had a tag that identified him as a Knickerbocker product.  That the tag was still affixed was truly wondrous because the bear was well worn.  His pelt was looking pretty spotty; he would have been a good candidate for a fur club purveying whatever treatment the Donald or Joe Biden have procured for their cranial rugs.  On the whole, though, that wasn’t the big problem.  The bear looked to have suffered what they termed in the navy as a sucking chest wound. His back left side rib cage had been kind of blasted to shreds by shotgun  so that the best emergency treatment option would have been wrapping him in Saran-wrap or a plastic bag to continue minimal lung function until a corpsman or a priest arrives to provide a better solution.

Anyway, no sheet of cellophane was necessary for the bear, as he had been sewn back together by a seamstress of rudimentary skill that could only have been a ten year old Pam.  A dog must have gotten a hold of Pam’s treasured toy at one time or another, which is exactly the dilemma I worried about if we brought him up into the house.  The bear was safe from dog attack in his plastic container residence in the basement utility room, but he might as well have been in a stuffed animal morgue.  I do keep some keepsakes for the kids there that I don’t feel are necessary to display continuously:  Wonder Woman lunch boxes, school memorabilia, souvenirs from long ago trips and old clothes that were once favorites.  The bear, on the other hand, had been a first teamer of some sort.  Each of my children has had a special stuffed animal, but never have I seen one as worn out as this bear.  There had been a lot of love poured into this particular keepsake, by a very special person to all of us.

Pamela bear is the only keepsake that I would put in a higher class.  She is Natalie’s bear, but only by inheritance.  With Pam home under hospice care at her last Valentine’s Day, I bought her a pink bear that smelled like the chocolate that she loved but could no longer eat.  Short of items to give to a six-year-old girl at the passing of her mother two days later, I gave Natalie the pink bear that had sat in bed with her mother as she slept her last few hours away before leaving us for a better place.  Pamela bear has been Natalie’ constant bed companion ever since and it shows.  The bear in the basement had been loved on the same level.

In the weeks after Pam’s death, I sent a few things to her sisters that I thought they might have wanted. A carving of her name and a Garfield doll that all of our children had tried to steal from Pam at one time or another.  Pam was an eldest child and considered here stuff to be her stuff, so I always imagined that her sisters probably had an eye out for Garfield as well.  I imagine that the little stuffed animal sits somewhere special in Pam’s sister Annette’s house where it catches her eye occasionally and reminds Annette of her sister Pam at the age when they grew up together. For so much of their adults lives the sisters were separated by miles and commitments that didn’t exist in their little four bedroom house in Brooklyn, Maryland where they had just been close family, not far-flung siblings.

I guess that connection through time was what finally convinced me that the bear should travel back to Maryland to Pam’s other sister Stephanie.  So I packed him up last Saturday along with Natalie’s, Stephen’s and my overnight bags for the six hour pilgrimage back to Kramme Avenue near the Annapolis snack bar where I first met Pam and began our life together.  It seemed the right decision:  either store the bear, risk the bear to Natalie and her doggies or return the bear to someone who would recognize him immediately.

As expected, Stephanie provided the name for the bear and stories about how an elder aunt had tried to separate Pam from her bear and blanket as officious adults sometimes do.  Stephanie let me see her imitation of the scowling freeze stare that Pam used on any of her siblings that attempted to touch the bear, blanket, Garfield doll or any other possession of their eldest sister.  

It is a pretty universal visage that I am sure my older brother used on me once upon a time.  It interested me greatly that the bear’s name was the same one that my oldest boy called his own favorite bear that remains in its own plastic container in the utility room of my basement.  I guess I will now consider the remaining animal who Walt Disney like awaits rediscovery to be Bear Bear Junior going forward.  As for Bear Bear Sr., in my estimation, the decision to repatriate Pam’s bear to Maryland was the right one.  I think Stephanie will cherish the keepsake because she has few reminders of Pam.

This ends my discussion of the Christmas of the Keepsakes. Some would chide me for even bringing up all this materialistic stuff in a column about Christian family life, but I don’t really see it that way.  Although we are cautioned against collecting material possessions, I think that refers to more worldly items.  In the Catholic faith images, relics and sacramentals are very important not because of their earthly value but because they draw our soul towards what they are spiritually connected to.  Stephanie will not worship Mr. Bear Bear Sr, anymore than I worship my Electrolux trophy, and neither of us are likely to worship our family members that have the Pilgrim Church to assume their places in the Church Triumphant.  It is helpful for us to think of them still because we all remain parts of the Body of Christ together.  By keeping the trophy where I can see it, I maintain a stronger bond to my grandfather than I would otherwise hold.  My pictures of Jesus and Mary work likewise.

[focusontheeasternlightning-blog]

Bad Things That Happened to New Believers Are Satan’s Temptations

By Titie, United States

I welcomed the Lord’s return.

Since I was little, I had followed my mom in her belief in the Lord Jesus and had enjoyed bounteous grace from Him. After I grew up, blessed by the Lord, I was successful in my career and my family was happy. I was so grateful for everything the Lord had bestowed upon me that I actively attended gatherings and ardently pursued.

At a gathering in the summer of 2003, two brothers testified about Almighty God’s kingdom gospel to me. They fellowshiped with me about various aspects of the truth, such as the purpose of God’s six-thousand-year management plan, the three stages of God’s work, and the significance of God’s name. When they fellowshiped about the scripture: “For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation” (Luke 17:24–25), I realized that the Lord Jesus has become flesh once again and expressed the truth in the image of the Son of man, doing the work of judgment beginning with God’s family; He is condemned and rejected by the pastors and elders in the religious world. This reminded me that the pastor and elders told us to guard against Eastern Lightning at every gathering, stopping brothers and sisters from investigating Almighty God’s work of the last days. It was just like how the Roman government and the Pharisees condemned and rejected the Lord Jesus when He came to carry out His work. This exactly fulfills the words: “But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.” At that time, I felt brightened within and confirmed from my heart that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. At the end of the gathering, the brother gave me a copy of The Scroll Opened by the Lamb and told me that this book is the personal utterances of the Christ of the last days and that I should read God’s words more in my spare time. On my way home, I was very happy, thinking, “In my lifetime, I am able to welcome the Lord’s return. This is truly my blessing and special favor! I will properly follow Almighty God.”

Afterward, I eagerly read God’s words whenever I had time, feeling these words were so good. Through reading Almighty God’s words, I understood many mysteries in the Bible I didn’t understand in the past, my heart becoming more and more brightened. Just when I was enjoying the bountiful supply of God’s words, Satan’s temptations suddenly befell me.

Temptations befell me.

One morning, just after my husband got up, his waist suddenly hurt so badly that he couldn’t stand straight. Unable to work, he could only lie in bed. Seeing his pained expression, I felt distressed and bewildered, “He was fine yesterday. How could he become like this today?” Then I called my parents-in-law, asking them to take my husband to the hospital. Only a few days later, my daughter, who was always very healthy, got a cough and had a high fever all of a sudden. I iced her forehead constantly and gave her cough medicine, but neither worked. She was still running a high temperature and had a sore throat. I had to take her to the hospital to get an infusion. Seeing that my little daughter kept crying when the doctor gave her the injection, I got saddened but couldn’t do anything to help her.

Misfortunes never come single. The brisk business in my clothing store suddenly went south and the daily profit wasn’t enough to cover the rent. I couldn’t help worrying, “My business has been bothering me, and after getting back home, I have to look after my sick husband and daughter. What if things go on like this?” Pained and weak, I thought, “Why have I encountered so many unfortunate things? Why did God not protect me? Could it be that I put my faith in the wrong place? Before I accepted God’s new work, everything in my life went smoothly: My family was at peace; the business in my store was brisk and whatever I stocked sold well. How come things are like this now?” I was loaded down with these problems. Unable to quiet my heart, I read God’s words perfunctorily. Then, I prayed to God silently in my heart, “Oh Almighty God! Since I accepted Your new work, why do I still encounter these calamities? My husband and daughter both are ill, and my business is bad. I can’t feel Your grace and blessings. Oh God! What’s going on? I don’t understand Your will. Please lead me.”

God’s words resolved my confusion.

At a gathering, I told my sisters about what happened to me. Hearing my words, a sister said to me, “The reason why we encounter these unfavorable matters is because of Satan’s disturbance. Satan is hostile to God and it is unwilling to see people return before God and obtain His eternal salvation. So, Satan uses various ways to interfere and prevent us from accepting the true way. Only when we see through Satan’s schemes can we not be deceived by it.” Then, the sister read one passage of God’s words to me: “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God.” After reading God’s words, the sister fellowshiped with me, saying, “Outwardly, your husband and kid suddenly get ill and your business goes south, but actually, it is a spiritual battle; it’s Satan’s wager with God. Today, God’s coming to do the work of judgment in the last days is to save us mankind from Satan’s dark influence, so that we can live under God’s care and blessing. However, Satan is unwilling to let us worship and obey God. So, when God saves us, it trails along behind Him and uses all kinds of methods to tempt and disturb us, doing its best to prevent us from returning before God. For example, Satan targets and attacks our weak points. It makes our family lose peace so that we would fall into its temptation and mistakenly think that we encounter these matters because we put our faith in the wrong place. Its purpose is to cause us to doubt God, deny God and finally refuse God’s salvation and miss the extremely rare chance to be saved. In fact, everything God does in us human is love and salvation; only Satan harms us like this. Yet these matters we encounter are sanctioned by God. God permitting Satan to do so is to make us recognize its evil essence and see clearly the ugliness of Satan that uses various methods to disturb us and stop us from coming before God and obtaining His salvation. Meanwhile, God uses Satan’s obstacle and disturbance to test whether or not we truly follow Him; if we truly believe in God, no matter how Satan disturbs us, we will stand witness for God relying on our faith.”

After listening to the sister’s fellowship, I suddenly realized: These calamities I am encountering are in fact Satan’s disturbance, and it wants to use these to prevent me from accepting the true way. Its motive is too vicious! At the same time, I also understood this: Everyone who accepts God’s new work has to experience the spiritual battle. God’s permitting Satan to tempt me is to make me see through its schemes and know its evil substance so that I can finally stand witness for Him. God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s schemes. After coming back home, I prayed to God, “Oh Almighty God! It turns out that these unhappy situations I encounter are Satan’s disturbances. Oh God! Now I know it is Satan’s scheme. I’m willing to stand witness and won’t forsake You. May You guide me and give me faith.”

I saw through Satan’s schemes.

After my prayer, the emotions I had restrained for so long were a little released. However, after a period of time, the business in my store was still stagnant; sometimes the profit even couldn’t cover the rent. Therefore, I was very distressed, thinking, “Every month, besides our high daily expenses, we not only have to pay the rent but also have to repay the housing loan. We can barely live on my husband’s salary. What if this keeps up?” Unconsciously, I again fell into Satan’s trap. My confidence in God started to ebb away and I felt very weak in my spirit.Right as I was perplexed, I saw a passage of God’s words: “What you pursue is to be able to gain peace after believing in God—for your children to be free from illness, for your husband to have a good job, for your son to find a good wife, for your daughter to find a decent husband, for your oxen and horses to plough the land well, for a year of good weather for your crops. This is what you seek. Your pursuit is only to live in comfort, for no accidents to befall your family, for the winds to pass you by, for your face to be untouched by grit, for your family’s crops to not be flooded, for you to be unaffected by any disaster, to live in God’s embrace, to live in a cozy nest. A coward such as you, who always pursues the flesh—do you have a heart, do you have a spirit? Are you not a beast? I give you the true way without asking for anything in return, yet you do not pursue. Are you one of those who believe in God?”

Through the revelation of God’s words, I realized that my perspective of believing in God was wrong. I thought as long as I believed in God, He would give me peace and grace and I wouldn’t encounter any unhappy situation. When my family was not at peace and I couldn’t afford the rent, I complained against God and doubted His work. I regarded God as an object that I could make demands of. God is the Creator while I’m only a created being; worshiping and obeying God is the law of heaven for me. God became flesh twice to work to save us and has provided for us selflessly without claiming anything from us, while in my belief in God I blindly made demands of Him. I was so unreasonable. Was I at all like a true believer? In the past, I thought I believed in God sincerely, because since I was little I had believed in the Lord, and I also accepted God’s new work. However, today, faced with the fact, I had to admit that my belief in God was only to gain blessings and grace. I was really unworthy of God’s salvation! “Now Satan is taking advantage of my intention of gaining blessings to disturb me, and to make me shun and deny God, and thereby to cause me to betray God due to not gaining grace. Satan is too evil. If I’m weak and passive and complain against God, am I not falling for Satan’s scheme?” At this thought, I had the will to betray Satan and satisfy God. “No matter what environment I encounter, I am willing to rely on God to experience it and never complain against or doubt Him again.” I thought of God’s words, “Any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things.” “Yeah, everything in the universe is determined by God, and changes according to His thoughts. No matter how savage Satan is, it is also under God’s feet. Whether or not I can afford the rent and whether or not my husband and daughter can recover are in God’s hands. I should look upon God and entrust these to God.” At that time, I was no more restrained by these matters.

God showed His deeds.

Thank God! When I was willing to obey, something miraculous happened. My daughter gradually recovered from her fever and cough, and my husband’s waist slowly got better after treatment; my business also picked up. I couldn’t help giving thanks to God in my heart. If it hadn’t been for God’s protection and the timely guidance of His words, I would have fallen for Satan’s schemes and thus have lost God’s salvation.

After experiencing the spiritual battle, I saw Satan’s meanness and evilness and turned around my wrong perspective of believing in God. Instead of seeking blessings and welfare of the flesh, we believers in God should seek truth and grasp God’s will from all people, events, and things we experience based on a belief that God holds sovereignty over everything; at the same time, we should get to know ourselves through the revelation of God’s words and finally achieve changes in our dispositions and live out the likeness of a real man. Only thus can we be said to believe in God. Just as God’s words say, “True faith in God means experiencing the words and work of God based on a belief that God holds sovereignty over all things. So you shall be freed of your corrupt disposition, shall fulfill the desire of God, and shall come to know God. Only through such a journey can you be said to believe in God.” Thank God! All the glory be to God!

[comebeforegod]

Bad Things That Happened to New Believers Are Satan’s Temptations

By Titie, United States

I welcomed the Lord’s return.

Since I was little, I had followed my mom in her belief in the Lord Jesus and had enjoyed bounteous grace from Him. After I grew up, blessed by the Lord, I was successful in my career and my family was happy. I was so grateful for everything the Lord had bestowed upon me that I actively attended gatherings and ardently pursued.

At a gathering in the summer of 2003, two brothers testified about Almighty God’s kingdom gospel to me. They fellowshiped with me about various aspects of the truth, such as the purpose of God’s six-thousand-year management plan, the three stages of God’s work, and the significance of God’s name. When they fellowshiped about the scripture: “For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation” (Luke 17:24–25), I realized that the Lord Jesus has become flesh once again and expressed the truth in the image of the Son of man, doing the work of judgment beginning with God’s family; He is condemned and rejected by the pastors and elders in the religious world. This reminded me that the pastor and elders told us to guard against Eastern Lightning at every gathering, stopping brothers and sisters from investigating Almighty God’s work of the last days. It was just like how the Roman government and the Pharisees condemned and rejected the Lord Jesus when He came to carry out His work. This exactly fulfills the words: “But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.” At that time, I felt brightened within and confirmed from my heart that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. At the end of the gathering, the brother gave me a copy of The Scroll Opened by the Lamb and told me that this book is the personal utterances of the Christ of the last days and that I should read God’s words more in my spare time. On my way home, I was very happy, thinking, “In my lifetime, I am able to welcome the Lord’s return. This is truly my blessing and special favor! I will properly follow Almighty God.”

Afterward, I eagerly read God’s words whenever I had time, feeling these words were so good. Through reading Almighty God’s words, I understood many mysteries in the Bible I didn’t understand in the past, my heart becoming more and more brightened. Just when I was enjoying the bountiful supply of God’s words, Satan’s temptations suddenly befell me.

Temptations befell me.

One morning, just after my husband got up, his waist suddenly hurt so badly that he couldn’t stand straight. Unable to work, he could only lie in bed. Seeing his pained expression, I felt distressed and bewildered, “He was fine yesterday. How could he become like this today?” Then I called my parents-in-law, asking them to take my husband to the hospital. Only a few days later, my daughter, who was always very healthy, got a cough and had a high fever all of a sudden. I iced her forehead constantly and gave her cough medicine, but neither worked. She was still running a high temperature and had a sore throat. I had to take her to the hospital to get an infusion. Seeing that my little daughter kept crying when the doctor gave her the injection, I got saddened but couldn’t do anything to help her.

Misfortunes never come single. The brisk business in my clothing store suddenly went south and the daily profit wasn’t enough to cover the rent. I couldn’t help worrying, “My business has been bothering me, and after getting back home, I have to look after my sick husband and daughter. What if things go on like this?” Pained and weak, I thought, “Why have I encountered so many unfortunate things? Why did God not protect me? Could it be that I put my faith in the wrong place? Before I accepted God’s new work, everything in my life went smoothly: My family was at peace; the business in my store was brisk and whatever I stocked sold well. How come things are like this now?” I was loaded down with these problems. Unable to quiet my heart, I read God’s words perfunctorily. Then, I prayed to God silently in my heart, “Oh Almighty God! Since I accepted Your new work, why do I still encounter these calamities? My husband and daughter both are ill, and my business is bad. I can’t feel Your grace and blessings. Oh God! What’s going on? I don’t understand Your will. Please lead me.”

God’s words resolved my confusion.

At a gathering, I told my sisters about what happened to me. Hearing my words, a sister said to me, “The reason why we encounter these unfavorable matters is because of Satan’s disturbance. Satan is hostile to God and it is unwilling to see people return before God and obtain His eternal salvation. So, Satan uses various ways to interfere and prevent us from accepting the true way. Only when we see through Satan’s schemes can we not be deceived by it.” Then, the sister read one passage of God’s words to me: “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God.” After reading God’s words, the sister fellowshiped with me, saying, “Outwardly, your husband and kid suddenly get ill and your business goes south, but actually, it is a spiritual battle; it’s Satan’s wager with God. Today, God’s coming to do the work of judgment in the last days is to save us mankind from Satan’s dark influence, so that we can live under God’s care and blessing. However, Satan is unwilling to let us worship and obey God. So, when God saves us, it trails along behind Him and uses all kinds of methods to tempt and disturb us, doing its best to prevent us from returning before God. For example, Satan targets and attacks our weak points. It makes our family lose peace so that we would fall into its temptation and mistakenly think that we encounter these matters because we put our faith in the wrong place. Its purpose is to cause us to doubt God, deny God and finally refuse God’s salvation and miss the extremely rare chance to be saved. In fact, everything God does in us human is love and salvation; only Satan harms us like this. Yet these matters we encounter are sanctioned by God. God permitting Satan to do so is to make us recognize its evil essence and see clearly the ugliness of Satan that uses various methods to disturb us and stop us from coming before God and obtaining His salvation. Meanwhile, God uses Satan’s obstacle and disturbance to test whether or not we truly follow Him; if we truly believe in God, no matter how Satan disturbs us, we will stand witness for God relying on our faith.”

After listening to the sister’s fellowship, I suddenly realized: These calamities I am encountering are in fact Satan’s disturbance, and it wants to use these to prevent me from accepting the true way. Its motive is too vicious! At the same time, I also understood this: Everyone who accepts God’s new work has to experience the spiritual battle. God’s permitting Satan to tempt me is to make me see through its schemes and know its evil substance so that I can finally stand witness for Him. God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s schemes. After coming back home, I prayed to God, “Oh Almighty God! It turns out that these unhappy situations I encounter are Satan’s disturbances. Oh God! Now I know it is Satan’s scheme. I’m willing to stand witness and won’t forsake You. May You guide me and give me faith.”

I saw through Satan’s schemes.

After my prayer, the emotions I had restrained for so long were a little released. However, after a period of time, the business in my store was still stagnant; sometimes the profit even couldn’t cover the rent. Therefore, I was very distressed, thinking, “Every month, besides our high daily expenses, we not only have to pay the rent but also have to repay the housing loan. We can barely live on my husband’s salary. What if this keeps up?” Unconsciously, I again fell into Satan’s trap. My confidence in God started to ebb away and I felt very weak in my spirit.Right as I was perplexed, I saw a passage of God’s words: “What you pursue is to be able to gain peace after believing in God—for your children to be free from illness, for your husband to have a good job, for your son to find a good wife, for your daughter to find a decent husband, for your oxen and horses to plough the land well, for a year of good weather for your crops. This is what you seek. Your pursuit is only to live in comfort, for no accidents to befall your family, for the winds to pass you by, for your face to be untouched by grit, for your family’s crops to not be flooded, for you to be unaffected by any disaster, to live in God’s embrace, to live in a cozy nest. A coward such as you, who always pursues the flesh—do you have a heart, do you have a spirit? Are you not a beast? I give you the true way without asking for anything in return, yet you do not pursue. Are you one of those who believe in God?”

Through the revelation of God’s words, I realized that my perspective of believing in God was wrong. I thought as long as I believed in God, He would give me peace and grace and I wouldn’t encounter any unhappy situation. When my family was not at peace and I couldn’t afford the rent, I complained against God and doubted His work. I regarded God as an object that I could make demands of. God is the Creator while I’m only a created being; worshiping and obeying God is the law of heaven for me. God became flesh twice to work to save us and has provided for us selflessly without claiming anything from us, while in my belief in God I blindly made demands of Him. I was so unreasonable. Was I at all like a true believer? In the past, I thought I believed in God sincerely, because since I was little I had believed in the Lord, and I also accepted God’s new work. However, today, faced with the fact, I had to admit that my belief in God was only to gain blessings and grace. I was really unworthy of God’s salvation! “Now Satan is taking advantage of my intention of gaining blessings to disturb me, and to make me shun and deny God, and thereby to cause me to betray God due to not gaining grace. Satan is too evil. If I’m weak and passive and complain against God, am I not falling for Satan’s scheme?” At this thought, I had the will to betray Satan and satisfy God. “No matter what environment I encounter, I am willing to rely on God to experience it and never complain against or doubt Him again.” I thought of God’s words, “Any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things.” “Yeah, everything in the universe is determined by God, and changes according to His thoughts. No matter how savage Satan is, it is also under God’s feet. Whether or not I can afford the rent and whether or not my husband and daughter can recover are in God’s hands. I should look upon God and entrust these to God.” At that time, I was no more restrained by these matters.

God showed His deeds.

Thank God! When I was willing to obey, something miraculous happened. My daughter gradually recovered from her fever and cough, and my husband’s waist slowly got better after treatment; my business also picked up. I couldn’t help giving thanks to God in my heart. If it hadn’t been for God’s protection and the timely guidance of His words, I would have fallen for Satan’s schemes and thus have lost God’s salvation.

After experiencing the spiritual battle, I saw Satan’s meanness and evilness and turned around my wrong perspective of believing in God. Instead of seeking blessings and welfare of the flesh, we believers in God should seek truth and grasp God’s will from all people, events, and things we experience based on a belief that God holds sovereignty over everything; at the same time, we should get to know ourselves through the revelation of God’s words and finally achieve changes in our dispositions and live out the likeness of a real man. Only thus can we be said to believe in God. Just as God’s words say, “True faith in God means experiencing the words and work of God based on a belief that God holds sovereignty over all things. So you shall be freed of your corrupt disposition, shall fulfill the desire of God, and shall come to know God. Only through such a journey can you be said to believe in God.” Thank God! All the glory be to God!

[nervousstarlightlight]

Is Your Food Digesting Or Rotting in Your Gut?

Eating in a way whereby food doesn't process totally will destroy our wellbeing. Eating in a way which empowers amazing absorption is the pathway to prospering wellbeing!

People are given the faculties and resources to choose and totally digest our generally nutritious and naturally reasonable food varieties. Nonetheless, in our cutting edge society we have withdrawn from instinctual, straightforward entire food sources and stomach related illnesses spin out of control. Cheerfully, with the assistance of certain rules, we can address our unsafe dietary patterns and set up amazing stomach related wellbeing.

The Joys of Healthful Eating

At the point when we eat in a way whereby BioFit Probiotic Review - Comfort for Your Gut Health [RESEARCH UPDATE] everything digests totally, we determine exceptional outcomes! At the point when our regular food sources digest totally, we can encounter these significant advantages and that's just the beginning:

o a clean inside substantial climate,

o a quiet, unnoticeable stomach related framework,

o an unmistakable brain and stable digestion, free by synthetic awkward nature brought about by pre-eclampsia (a poisonous circulatory system),

o charming or no stenches,

o charming or no body squander smells,

o easy, charming, ordinary substantial waste departure,

o independence from most diseases and solid protection from ecological microbes,

o the advancement of brilliant, powerful wellbeing, actual magnificence and life span.

The Miseries of Unhealthful Eating

At the point when we eat impulsively, regardless of whether in our decision of food or in our way of eating, supplements disintegrate in our gut through the activity of microbes. We do have stomach related limits! Under this situation, fermentive and putrefactive microscopic organisms break down the food matter, debilitating the intestinal parcel, hindering supplement retention, polluting our whole body with neurotic substances, weakening our psychological capacities and causing weariness. This condition is known as "toxicosis" (general substantial poisonousness or "auto-inebriation") or, less officially, as "food intoxication"; it impedes our wellbeing and ultimately jeopardizes our life. Heartburn (tooting, burping, swelling) and foul inside and stenches are only a portion of the undesirable alerts flagging the start of sickness.

Undigested protein (predominantly from meat, dairy items, beans, nuts and seeds) will promptly fester (decay) in our warm gut, similarly as milk ruins at room temperature on a warm day. Putrefactive results are profoundly harmful and cancer-causing. They include: methane, hydrogen sulfide and mercaptans (which yield the spoiled egg scent when completed by the methane gas), cadaverine, putrescine, ammonias, indoles, skatoles, leukomaines and host of other harmful and cancer-causing gases and substances. Similarly as hydrogen sulfide gas will disintegrate concrete, iron and steel sewer pipes, it will disturb and annihilate the tissue inside our digestion tracts and colon.

Under random eating conditions, straightforward sugars (from leafy foods) carbs (starches from grain items and white potatoes) are promptly matured by parasites and microbes in the gut. The outcome is the creation of liquor and vinegar which is many occasions more harmful than liquor. These assault inside tissue and can cause agonizing ulcerations.

Moreover, the gorging of moderate processing greasy high-protein food varieties makes the stomach emit and hold bounteous measures of corrosive. At the point when this hyper-acidic condition happens persistently, the stomach and digestion tracts can become aggravated and ulcerated and the pylorus sphincter, which regularly permits food to enter the duodenum, can get swollen closed. This normally prompts aging and festering of the stomach's substance, GERD (gastroesophogeal reflux illness), regurgitating and extraordinary torment. Persistent aggravation and ulceration lead to malignant growth.

It is basic to abstain from working our gut as a fertilizing the soil receptacle loaded up with odoriferous, decaying, acidic squanders no matter what! The toxicosis that outcomes from unpredictable, erratic eating speeds up maturing, causes infection, including gastritis, crabby entrail, colitis, Crohn's illness and ulcers, and is the reason for most passings! We would truly prefer not to persevere through persistent, fragmented absorption and poisonous entrails. Tragically, most live along these lines and acknowledge it as "typical." Happily, there is an approach to make amazing gut wellbeing.

The Formula for Perfect Digestion and Superb Health

Through the science and compelling artwork of choosing our regular organic food varieties and eating them effectively - i.e., just when we are really eager, ready and loose, in legitimate grouping and mixes, in amounts which don't surpass our stomach related constraints or point of satiation, in their new, crude state and bit to the place of liquefaction- - we can appreciate total, amazing absorption and every one of the magnificent advantages of a very much supported and clean body!

Here are essential, dependable, experimentally demonstrated fortifying eating rules for advancing ideal processing and gut wellbeing.

Food Selection: Choose crude, new, ready, natural, entire, veggie lover food varieties. Base your eating regimen in products of the soil and eat just those food sources which are appealing to your faculties, particularly your feeling of taste. Acquire enough calories from natural product to keep up supported pinnacle energy and inside neatness. Stay away from creature determined food varieties - they are ineffectively processed and poisonous when cooked. On the off chance that you pick grains and vegetables/beans (nor are suggested, since they likewise digest ineffectively), select them in their entire state and either fledgling or cook them daintily. In the event that you decide to cook vegetables, light steaming is the most un-harmful technique; anyway they will not process consummately, by the same token. Style an eating routine with near 80% of the calories from carb, 10% from protein and 10% from fat. Inferring over 10% of your calories from fat or potentially 10% from protein will perpetually surpass your stomach related impediments, coming about in toxicosis and illness.

Food Combining: Follow food joining rules to a "t." Eat organic product just on an unfilled stomach, alone or with salad greens, celery and additionally cucumber. Eat melons alone. Eat citrus organic products at any rate one-half hour before non-acidic sweet natural products. Dull food varieties (squash, potatoes, grains and old carrots) consolidate well with all vegetables and ringer peppers; they don't join well with tomatoes or other acidic or sweet natural products, nuts, seeds and avocados. Greasy, high-protein food varieties (nuts, seeds and avocados) join well just with non-boring vegetables (greens and celery), cucumbers and insignificant measures of acidic organic products including tomatoes; they don't consolidate well with bland or non-acidic sweet food sources.

Feast Sequencing: The best sequencing is products of the soil suppers during the day, at that point, alternatively, a glass of crude vegetable juice followed in any event one-half hour later by a supper of vegetables with one greasy food, i.e., avocado, nuts or seeds. Note: it isn't required and, much of the time, unhealthful to eat a greasy food consistently. Besides, it is OK to have a supper of essentially more products of the soil.

Feast Spacing: It is generally useful to space suppers insofar as is easily conceivable. Expecting you are not exhausted to such an extent that you need to sleep to reestablish your energy, a somewhat awkward inclination toward the rear of the throat and a dunk in your physical as well as mental energies are the signs that the time has come to eat once more. Sweet, delicious food varieties, eaten in adequate amount, will control hunger, rehydrate you and supply your caloric fuel needs. To lay it out plainly, eat adequate amounts of nutritious, straightforward starch rich, entire food varieties - principally natural product - to keep your glucose and hydration at a level which guarantees supported physical and mental execution.

Daytime Diet: Eat a couple of kinds of sweet natural product for breakfast- - ideally the juiciest organic products to begin - and, for the most part, various sorts of natural products for every one of the accompanying one to three suppers, eaten with or without greens, celery as well as cucumber, taking them in adequate amount for satiation and supported energy.

Supper Diet: If wanted, drink crude vegetable juice, at that point at any rate one-half hour later follow it with a basic plate of mixed greens of vegetables and foods grown from the ground as tomato and ringer pepper. On the off chance that you remember carrot for your vegetable juice, try not to have tomato with your supper. In the event that you want a greasy food, have one to two ounces of nuts or seeds, or two to four ounces of avocado. The greasy food varieties can be salad augmentations in entire or mixed dressing structures. Alert: it is for the most part basic to stay away from greasy food varieties on the off chance that you are exhausted and additionally encountering disease. On the off chance that you incline toward a dinner of more products of the soil rather than vegetable juice and servings of mixed greens, that is by and large an invigorating decision - follow and trust your faculties when they call for crude, flavorful food varieties!

[livingtalks]

Have you ever felt to need to reborn?

On 2nd August this year I turned 57 and celebrated it with my 25 year old son who took me out for a ten course meal at Heaney’s of Cardiff. It was very special and totally delicious. The best food experience I have ever had. My son is a former chef and works  with Tommy Heaney occasionally so it was a treat for both of us to eat there.

After my birthday I headed to Glastonbury for a five day intensive Circles, Ceremonies & Land Activation Experience led by Christof and Alaya Melchizedek. I have taken part of many spiritual retreats and personal transformation type work over the years, however, this one was quite unique as I had never done any land activation work before. I couldn’t even begin to describe the experience I had over those five days so should you wish to satisfy your curiosity, please visit https://www.christof.love and read Glastonbury and Stonehenge review under Christof’s ‘Experience’ page.

What I will share with you though is the fact that, after living those intense five days with some incredible human beings, all working together to upgrade ourselves so our true and better selves could emerge, I came away with a renewed assurance I had made the right decision by listening to my heart.

I left Glastonbury and headed to my second Mindahome assignment in Pontypridd near Cardiff.  I spent two weeks in a farm house which was an ideal space for me to reflect upon my recent experiences and implement new learnings combined with a deeper search for who and what I truly am.

On an incredibly beautiful and sun warming summer’s day in the Welsh Valleys, I went for a walk round Pontypridd’s Circular Trail bursting with lush green fields, stunning heather bushes along countryside footpaths and quiet lanes. Oh the smells and sounds of summer delighting my senses – what joy I felt! How awesome life can be when we commune a few moments with nature and get close to our own essence to feel life’s true beauty at our core. The soul warming feeling of the sun on our backs, the orchestra of sweet birds singing to enchant our ears. The blue sky above us, the majestic trees, the satisfying fresh air… The sheer beauty of our Mother Nature and her bounteous displays of exuberance. Walking in and ‘with’ Nature for me is essential. It gives me the opportunity to reconnect with Spirit and access the inner peace that can surface when I trust the guidance and raise above the circumstances in my life. I get to hear a whisper saying ‘all is well in my world’.  

And talking of whispers, before I left the farm house to go on my walk that Saturday morning, I had asked, in meditation ‘Who Am I really and what is my true name?’ After enjoying my walk, having bathed myself in the splendours of the Welsh Valleys in a beautiful summer’s day, I returned to the farm house joyful, refreshed and invigorated with enthusiasm. Made myself a cup of tea and sat down in gratitude and contemplation. 

Suddenly I heard a gentle whisper in the form of a thought that grew larger and brighter as I started paying attention to it. ‘Ariana – I am Ariana’ ‘Who is Ariana, I asked myself.’ Before I knew it I was googling the name. I found an interesting story written by a 12 year old that captivated me. For the rest of the day, all I could think about was this name. So similar to my own, Eliana, it felt like Ariana was my real name. Strange as it seems, I felt connected with that name to a deep level. I started writing it down, adding colours around it and on that very day, 24th August I decided to give Ariana a place and a meaning in my life. 

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Happy 57th birthday!

Food experience!

Glastonbury Abbey after site clearing

Wishing trees

Communing with nature

Reflection walk

Awesome summer’s day

Whispered name

My brand

Soon, I will be launching my S.E.L.F. Empowerment Services and Ariana will then take over as my brand and image to share my teachings and gifts worldwide.

If you read my recent posts, you might have noticed there were, at times, another voice running through my writings. It became very clear to me that my heart was fully open and ready to lead the way. I decided to create possibilities that would support me in my quest and told myself that who I was being, in relation to pursuing my purpose in life was the possibilities of wholeness, fulfilment and joy.

See, here is the thing, when we reach a place where we fully embrace the responsibilities of how we are showing up in the world and start removing the obstacles that stops us from being the best version of ourselves we can be, then magic starts to happen. Keep tuned in. Ariana will invite you to play a game. Are you ready to join in? In the meantime, do take a look at Ariana’s tale by visiting https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7425714/1/Ariana-Goddess-of-Colors-and-Emotions

May your heart find its way to heal past wounds and blossom into a future you wish to create for yourself. Thank you for reading my blog. I would be delighted to hear your comments or questions. 

  When my he🧡rt whispered her name Have you ever felt to need to reborn? On 2nd August this year I turned 57 and celebrated it with my 25 year old son who took me out for a ten course meal at Heaney’s of Cardiff.

[thesinglesjukebox]

TAYLOR SWIFT - LOVER

[6.61]

We’re mostly likers!

Tobi Tella: Gentle, passionate, and legitimately beautiful. For a song by someone who's normally thinkpiece-inducing, I don't want to think or look at this critically at all. I just want to sit and be enveloped by pure emotion (also a famous London boyfriend). [8]

Joshua Lu: Hot Girl Summer is over and Christian Girl Autumn fast approacheth, heralded by this ode to monogamy that's touching and pretty in all the obvious ways -- at least until the bridge. Taylor Swift, perhaps understanding the inherent cheesiness of ballads like this, pushes the song to its campiest limits as she spins cliche marriage vows to be lyrical and silly. The way she promises at the end to be "overdramatic and true" hints at how she's knowingly playful here, and it's a clever way to enhance this particular kind of song to its hyperbolic end. If only the rest of the song weren't too comfortable just being a "Thinking Out Loud" redux, then it might be worth revisiting. [4]

Jessica Doyle: It's fine! It's pretty, it's soft, it's got echoes of Maddie & Tae (in that lifted "close" in the chorus); Taylor sells the jealousy line as a self-deprecating in-joke that the video chose to play straight. It's a perfectly fine song, all the better for not requiring any additional knowledge to decode. It's a nice high note to leave on. So, without speaking for anyone else, I am adopting the belief that Lover is a stand-alone single released with very little promo by a talented but otherwise unremarkable country-crossover singer, whom this blog will get around to covering again in, oh, 2026 or so. [6]

Alfred Soto: Impeccable craft. Facts are facts. The use of echo, the voluptuousness of Taylor Swift's vocal prodding the acoustic strumming, the overdramatic middle eight/bridge in which she swears "to be overdramatic and true to my lover" -- I need a nap after such a bounteous feast. The other lyrics fascinate me less; the line about Christmas lights staying up is Creative Writing 1102, Week 3: Using Precise Detail. But the yearning in "Lover" is closer to autocratic than tender, which, to her credit, she sees as indistinguishable. [7]

Michael Hong: I once read a comment section where someone referred to Taylor Swift as the "queen of long bridges." Since then, I may have forgotten where I read it, but it remains something that I think is completely true and when Taylor Swift is at her best, she masterfully writes bridges. Her best bridges are midnight realizations, headbanging depictions of the crushing weight of heartbreak, or the anxious and relieving reminders of failing relationships. They often unfold as tightly-wound emotional revelations and are never without their cathartic release. But sadly, going by the early Lover singles, Taylor Swift may have lost her knack for great bridge-writing, producing the infamously cheesy "spelling is fun!" or a slightly too childish reference to Humpty Dumpty. "Lover" is no different. While "Lover" paints a grand picture of romance, everything feeling like just one of the many real possibilities, the bridge spoils the sketch, playing out like an obsessive fever dream. Contrast the way Taylor Swift sings the word "lover" on the chorus, which seems to resolve all anxiety and stop time around it, with the schmaltzy over-the-top way she stretches out the same word on the bridge until it becomes so mawkishly corny, it loses all meaning. It immediately takes you out of the romantic waltz of the rest of the track and into the overdramatic musings of a diaristic fantasy that would have been embarrassing even if read from an actual teenager's diary. The bridge is full of various awkward and uncomfortable moments from the moment we hear "ladies and gentlemen" through Taylor Swift's egregiously awkward and choppy talk-singing that seems to be on full-display across Lover -- it didn't work on "You Need to Calm Down" and it certainly doesn't work here. All's not lost because of the bridge, and I'm certain I could still get lost in the beauty of the rest, but there's certainly more realistic passion and romance in one line of the chorus than there is across that entire bridge. [5]

Ian Mathers: The sound, all that dusky reverb and brushed drums, is pretty lovely. Most of the song works well too, although god she lands hard on that title every single time it comes up, eh? I know I'm supposed to have a more complex reaction to Taylor Swift, but I got so burned out on the competing takes it's hard to focus more than "a pretty nice song I'll be fine hearing on the radio that has some clunky bits". [6]

Vikram Joseph: Love songs are a hard sell; the best ones make you overwhelmed with joy for the protagonist, or make you believe that you one day you could have all of that happiness for yourself, but that kind of listener empathy takes real skill to engender. "Lover" sounds smug and entitled, like your posh acquaintance who's never had to struggle for anything (emotional or material) in their life boring you to death down the pub about their wedding plans. The aggressively cloying middle-eight perfectly encapsulates drink number three, when they're off on one about their honeymoon plans (an all-inclusive resort in Dubai) while you're remembering why you've only seen them twice since uni and wondering whether you can get a lobotomy on the NHS. And yes, it sounds a lot like Mazzy Star, but if I want to listen to a reimagining of "Fade Into You" I'll head straight for "Coming Down" by the Dum Dum Girls, thanks. [3]

Katherine St Asaph: Early reports likened "Lover" to ersatz Mazzy Star (a reminder of what they actually sound like), when what it's clearly trying to be is "Hallelujah," and given the sparkly perkiness of the bridge and all beyond, quite possibly the Pentatonix version. The rest is the usual Taylor Swift problem: the song's supposedly about a "magnetic force of a man" but sounds like it's about a Build-a-Bear. [2]

Sonia Yang: Cozy, intimate, and eschewing glitzy synths in favor of drawing upon her country roots. Rather middle of the road for an album title track, but it's packed with neat little bits such as that relaxed swing-y 6/8, the way everything cuts out for Swift to sing the "lover" at chorus end, and Swift's breathy head voice. It's not a big track but it doesn't have to be. However this is something I can see myself loving much more life than on record; without the immediate atmosphere to bask in, it does feel a bit underwhelming. [6]

Edward Okulicz: "Lover" sits in the middle of songs on its parent album for me -- it's beautifully made, but like a few of its midrange peers has one or two things that annoys me. Here, it's the word itself -- not "lover," but "luvv-verrrr." It's not that it's a weirdly coquettish thing for her to say, because Swift has always done the modern girl dreaming of the romances of literary greatness, although usually she's a little bit more creative ("Starlight") or subversive ("White Horse"). No, it's just that I don't like how she sings that one word and it feels gratuitous in a song that doesn't really need a slightly anachronistic, coquettish touch to it. Other than that, no complaints about a lovely melody, delicate production and a performance that radiates relief and warmth and comfort. Probably an 8 in a month, but not yet. [7]

Rachel Bowles: I never truly believed the old Taylor was dead, the romance of reputation's 'Delicate' hinted at it, and Lover's eponymous single confirms it. It's a wistful, waltzing, breathless ode to long term relationships, making a home and real life happy endings- Taylor's teenage 'Mine' fully realised. [7]

Alex Clifton: I fell in love with Taylor Swift's music when I was nineteen and heartbroken. Speak Now carried me through a time when all I wanted to feel was loved and complete instead of the broken mess of a teenager I was. I thought I wanted a fairytale love myself, grand gestures and bouquets of roses and a partner who would shout their love for me to the city, but I couldn't even have a real conversation with the people I had crushes on. Needless to say, it didn't happen. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to mend my own heart and really open myself up to love. Eventually, I found someone and learned that love lives in the smallest things. He knows the way I take my tea and holds me when I cry; I know his regular orders at restaurants and tell him stories at midnight to keep his anxiety at bay. I never knew I'd prefer a quieter love to something all-consuming that burned red to the point of self-immolation. Instead I revel in the moments we have while walking around our favourite park, playing Scrabble in a cafe, reading together in bed. Swift has found the same sort of security and has carried this feeling into one of her best songs in years. "Lover" is a sun-drenched lazy ode to love itself and is the song that Swift's been building to her whole career, complete with wedding vows. It's a mature outlook on what love can and should be--something that fills each quiet moment between all the drama and major events, a strong feeling that can't be knocked down by a single fight or small mistake. Even with the occasional overdramatic moment (lovahhhhhhhhhh) it's made me remember how much I love my partner each time I've heard it, which is what the best love songs should do. [10]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: The paradox of Taylor Swift is that all of her songs are inherently flashpoints in the discourse, even when there's nothing to talk about. "Lover" is the least controversial thing that Swift has done in years, both in intention and execution, and yet there's still no way to talk about it without talking about Taylor Swift, Important Pop Star And Cultural Figure. It's true that this becomes true of any sufficiently big pop star, yes-- but since (at very least) "Mean," Swift's music has been written like it's almost exclusively commentary about her own reputation. Yet the thing about "Lover," all the way down to its title, is that it's uncomplicated. It's maybe the least complicated single she's ever put out-- it's a love song with no twist, an acoustic ballad that's content to just be a big, stately acoustic ballad. It does its job-- the song will undoubtedly soundtrack twinkly-lighted summer weddings for the rest of eternity, and I won't even be mad. Because underneath it all, Taylor Swift is a pretty damn good songwriter when she doesn't feel the need to excessively perform the role of Taylor Swift. The lyric is full of lines that were clearly written with pride and skill-- the bit about guitar string scars on the bridge, most obviously-- but it doesn't feel as obsessed with the self as, say, anything on "You Need To Calm Down." And in letting the song breathe and stand for itself, she manages to reinvent herself: not as a pop megastar or some empire unto herself, but as a craftsman that happens to be the biggest thing in pop music. It's a compelling guise, and one that feels refreshing after a decade long media slog. But the greatness of "Lover" ends up leaving me feeling more skeptical of the rest of Swift's work than ever. [8]

Kylo Nocom: Taylor replaces the pain of what ended up happening with the comfort of what could have been. Her fairy tale ending is real, but "Lover" is generous enough to let one believe every single thing here can exist forever and ever. The spacious drums sound like they could have been recorded from the moon; that string-plucked bridge came from heaven. [8]

Isabel Cole: Having had some time to acclimate to the roller coaster kinda rush of Taylor following up the two worst songs of her career with the first album of hers I've ever genuinely loved, I'm content enough now to say I just think this is wonderful: unhurried, cozy like a well-worn sweater, pretty without showing off, knowingly nostalgic without being cloying, humbly besotted. Impressive that after half a lifetime making music Taylor is still deepening her skill as a vocalist, finding new clarity and a few welcome hitches; her performance, like her writing here, works by not working too hard, all the more convincing for not needing argue its merits. The fact that Taylor sees leaving the Christmas lights up till January as a show of deep intimacy is as hilarious as it is completely believable -- no one who's not a bit of a control freak winds up with their face plastered on UPS trucks. Similarly, I'm so genuinely endeared by "at every table, I'll save you a seat," coming from an artist who was writing songs bearing the sting of her lifelong dweebishness well into her era of global acclaim: marry me, Juliet, you'll never have to sit alone! It's hard to imagine that when she recorded the breathless final act of Love Story she could have envisioned that one telling a love story would sound as easy as this. [8]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Every time I'm on the verge of disowning Taylor Swift for her terrible choice in singles, she releases something like this. "Me!" was an infantilizing failed experiment at camp, "You Need to Calm Down" was surprisingly thoughtful social commentary let down by a dud of a song, and "The Archer" sounded like a forgotten Hunger Games soundtrack cut. "Lover", though, is a timeless, gorgeous vignette of domesticity, mature in its lyricism and warmly familiar in its sound. It's the most compelling Taylor Swift has sounded since "New Year's Day." [9]

Jonathan Bradley: On early hit "Love Story," Taylor Swift punctuated a marriage proposal with a key change. The moment is one of ecstatic joy: a fairytale promise fulfilled beyond the bounds of reality. "Lover" sounds like a proposal, too -- her vow to be "overdramatic and true" is both lovely and gently self-aware -- but it's a rich and grounded union that finds more to happiness than the relief of a promise "you'll never have to be alone." It is a song of brushed drums, slow steps and brocade, a "Speak Now" from the altar and not the jealous aisles, of pleasure in shared domestic spaces where friends can stay over and Christmas decorations can stay up. There are no princes and bare promises, but Swift sings it with an awe even her earliest romances could not conceive. [9]

Joshua Copperman: Continuing my series of altering professionally produced music, I created an alternate tracklist of Lover, creating an 11 track 40 minute concept album about a battle between naivety and maturity. It goes from a scattered pop album to a fun-size Once I Was An Eagle. On this closer, love definitively wins out. "Lover" is Swift and Antonoff's take on 50s rock; purposefully campy and over-the-top, but genuine in a way that the first two singles from this era did not. As a closer, it resolves a lot of the tensions that have plagued Swift's work this decade, giving her a happy ending... but as the third track, it's baffling. I should not have to make my own context for this to take on a meaning, but that's also the whole point of pop music. (At least, it was before albums became more of a status update for an artist's life than a complete body of work.) I was on the fence about docking a point because "forever and ever" gave me "Jerika" flashbacks, but it's just a phrase that can only be given weight if someone genuinely believes in it. Kind of like "true love." [6]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

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Short Haircuts for Older Black Women - 15+ - https://shorthaircutsmodels.com/short-haircuts-for-older-black-women/ - Short Haircuts for Older Black Women, There are a lot of short hair for more established dark ladies that can assist you with putting your best self forward. African American ladies can have certain troubles with their hair. Also the equivalent is valid for more seasoned ladies. More established dark ladies will in general have coarser and wavy diminishing and drier hair than more youthful ladies. Because you're more established doesn't mean you can't have a hot charming and incredibly female hairdo. Short Haircuts for Older Black Women Short Haircuts for Older Black Women, You have to pick a style that will accommodate your hair surface and character. The objective is to look youthful without attempting to look a lot more youthful. Make sure to keep your hair short particularly in the event that you are utilizing relaxer or warmth drying. 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While this isn't constantly an awful thing a large portion of us are animals of propensity it can make you age. So attempting another hair style isn't as frightening or emotional as it would appear. Best Short Hairstyles for Black Women April 2020 At Ramirez Tran Salon in Los Angeles Johnny Ramirez went through years culminating his trademark lived low support look that everybody got conversing with on the web. You can loosen up realizing that you are in safe expert hands with a customized application strategy. In case you're considering shaking things up we've accumulated 35 hair that we think more seasoned ladies look astonishing on.

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Happy Best Wishes For Marriage Brother And Sister

To have a kinfolk is the best satisfaction on Earth and to have the kinfolk who will get hitched and begin his own one of a kind family is twofold enjoyment. Assurance that your dear kinfolk comprehends the aggregate you esteem him and regard his decision by sending an enchanting authentic wedding message and card to him. In this part, you will discover a storing up of wedding requirements for family with pictures. Here are different plans to any taste, that will add to making your kinfolk's wedding crucial.

The supposition of your satisfaction brings such a great deal of delight into my heart. Be cheerful now and for time everlasting! Love you, kinfolk!

My incredible kinfolk, I really regard you and your life accomplice. I trust that your life will flood with adoration and satisfaction. You will be a stunning life accomplice!

Dear family, I need to salute you with this phenomenal event, this new stage in your life. I greatly know your significant other and I comprehend that your life will be stacked with experiences and satisfaction!

When you asked her "Will you wed me?", she kept an eye on "Yes" with no request. It's incredible to the point that you discovered somebody who reveres you absolutely and would do anything for you. I wish it would remain the proportionate in different years and one day, when you're old and have grandkids, you would ask her "Would you wed me once more?". Also, she would answer "Yes" with no request.

On the off chance that life winds up badly designed and faulty, you all around recognize where to go to discover congeniality and comprehension – your family. Furthermore, I'm so happy to comprehend that our colossal and philanthropic family will grow very soon. Need you to welcome all that life conveys to the table in your marriage!

Sisters are the gainful supports by GOD and they truly fill our lives with shades and satisfaction. It's continually an incomprehensible time to continue with them. They're awesome to the point that the fellowship between a kinfolk and sister is in all regards inside and out more than anything. In any case, at some point or another, they're must be settled with their collaborators and that is their dazzling fate. It's very a fulfilled minute for each kinfolk when his sister gets hitched and settles up with her existence with a fresh start. Thusly, it's an ideal opportunity to discover magnificent words to wish sister on their marriage. These eminent marriage requirements for sister are in fact going to give you the best expects to pick noteworthy words to wish them.

1 ) My sweet little princess has at long last discovered her Mr. Amazing. You've captivated we all with your grin my dear sister. I wish your fondest dreams would work out exactly as expected.

2 ) As you experience out a critical voyage, you desert warm recollections and giggles in bounty. Your sweet grin that has completed off our days as such much love that we couldn't have referenced more. Continue spreading daylight, love and euphoria my dearest sister. Heartiest very much done on your wedding.

3 ) Upbeat wedded life my dear sister. You will be an exceptional life accomplice basically the way wherein you were a puzzling young woman, radiant sister and charming mate.

4 ) My dearest sister. Very much done on wedding the man you regard to such an extent. Both of you look faultless and madly entranced with one another.

5 ) Your tremendous day will return and advance, at any rate may your affection everlastingly make.

6 ) Very much done to my closest companion and sweetheart sister. Worship you my dear sister.

7 ) Made for one another are both of you, An astonishing wedding wishes are here for kin by marriage and you!!! Enthusiastic wedding festivity!!!

8 ) Different needs will come your course, At any rate pick the best one, which never-endingly will remain!!! Upbeat wedding festivity!!!

9 ) I see veritable trust inside you and your life partner, Wish satisfaction in your life is bounteous!!! Upbeat wedding festivity!!! Look at perky birthday kin.

10 ) Wishes after wishes I wish for you, And a chipper wedding festivity to both of you!!! Glad wedding recognition!!!

11 ) You promptly praise your marriage day, Since now a perfect woman, with a hard and fast man, will remain!!! Lively wedding festivity!!!

12 ) A cherishing dream is developing and I trust and ask that fundamentally more dreams and wishes will right presently ended up being invigorated. Warm wishes for an amazing and prosperous future my dearest sister.

13 ) All the best on this inconceivable voyage, as you gather your new lives together.

14 ) My snappy progressively young family is strolling around the walkway and in any case I'm going to shed tears of satisfaction for a long time; I wish you miles of grin.

15 ) My dear sister is completely grown-up and dressed as a lady of extraordinary significance. Such a marvelous minute, that I will survey for a lifetime. Very much done my dearest sister.

16 ) Begin another region of your world with favors and mind boggling wishes. Congrats my enchanting dearest best sister.

Look at More Festival Requirements For Mate

17 ) My dearest sister and partner, I am glad to the point that you have discovered your Mr Right who makes you feel so uncommon. You will dependably remain my noteworthy sweet sister with whom I have shared my fondest dreams. Remain bolstered and be glad dependably.

18 ) My beginning and end the best and favors will dependably be with you my infant tyke sister. Revere you parts. Want you have a chipper hitched life.

19 ) Genuine is your adoration like your marriage, There is nobody, about this who could condemn!!! Cheerful wedding festivity!!!

20 ) Here is a cheer for the splendid lady of incredible significance and appealing authentic article, from everybody here in the room. We ought to celebrate on this exceptional day! May the greater part of the satisfaction will make a plunge for the entire arrangement!

21 ) You have been the best sister to me, Furthermore, the best life accomplice, to your man you'll be!!! Brilliant wedding recognition!!!

22 ) You both confronted the world when it was crude, That represents, your affection was genuine and genuine!!! Upbeat wedding acknowledgment!!!

23 ) From my stunning sister you changed into somebody's lady of extraordinary significance, And to wish you glad festival I take full pride!!! Cheerful wedding recognition!!!

24 ) You appear to have changed into an outright woman, Coming about to getting hitched to your hubby!!! Glad wedding recognition!!!

25 ) Different dreams of your's regardless you need to satisfy, And I know, with the assistance your worship, you unquestionably will!!! Cheerful wedding festivity!!!

26 ) My spirit sister. Heartiest all around accomplished for a match made in paradise.

27 ) Felicitations in riches to the best sister in the world.I esteem you and wish you have a super and duper hitched life ahead.

28 ) Of veritable affection, both of you are the authentic point of reference, Seeing you the despise would be delighted!!! Sprightly wedding festivity!!!

29 ) Here's wishing love, satisfaction and agreeableness to the most amazing sister on earth.

30 ) Here are gifts to the glad couple! May your obligation make and your fulfillment increment. By a long shot the greater part of all, may your reverence become astonishingly more grounded!

31 ) Wishing you a lifetime of kinship and joy.

32 ) Dear sister, as your senior kinfolk I feel enormously happy with and dapper for you. You are the best sister and am certain that you will make the best life colleague.

33 ) Very much done on finding an eminent embellishment and a magnificent combination.

34 ) One more year of exceptional love spent by you and kin by marriage, Eventually it's an ideal opportunity to celebrate, so taste the beverage with a similar straw!!! Upbeat wedding recognition!!!

35 ) Congrats my dear sister. Together you both are two of a sort! I need you to welcome all that life conveys to the table for the span of standard day by day presence.

36 ) My favored sister is getting hitched to the man she had always required. All that I can say is that I wish you happiness uncommon.

37 ) An ideal woman at present has an ideal man, May God give you whatever he can!!! Cheerful wedding festivity!!!

38 ) We've grown up together and since you are getting hitched I feel you are a critical piece of my life. I will miss you in any case I am unbelievably splendid that you are getting hitched. Regard you my dear sister.

39 ) Love is the thing that I grabbed from you, Trust is the thing that I found in you, Remarkable marriage is of both of you, Where you both are one, despite the manner in which that it looks two!!! Brilliant wedding acknowledgment!!!

40 ) From a disliking sister to a cherishing life accomplice. You are the best my dear sister. Congrats.

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