Smile

Smile, though your heart is aching
Smile, even though its breaking
When there are clouds in the sky
Youll get by...

If you smile
With your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
Youll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just...

Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
Thats the time you must keep on trying
Smile, whats the use of crying
Youll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just...

Smile, though your heart is aching
Smile, even though its breaking
When there are clouds in the sky
Youll get by...

If you smile
Through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
Youll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile...

Thats the time you must keep on trying
Smile, whats the use of crying
Youll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile

The day my heart stopped

This has been a day of grief, deep and utterly devasting. He is not here, alive among us anymore. After the first shock of Michael being dead, I struggle with understanding it. I just cry and then I go to the disbelief mode again. I just cannot wrap my brain around it. I know he is still here, but physically he is gone, and that makes me feel so much more alone. I have his music, but he isn't here. And that's just so incredibly sad. My heart is breaking. I can feel it physically break.

I cannot write anymore today, because I can't stop crying.

Fairytale

From In the Shadow of the Shaman by Amber Wolfe

The gifts of Nature and Spirit are available to everyone. Resources abound to help you on your own shamanic path. Seek the information and wisdom you need from teachers in all the worlds of Nature. Listen to the wisdom of your inner council. Follow your heart and stay centered in your personal power. That is the way of the shaman. Be the living tree, connected to the earth, reaching for Spirit, channeling the energies of Nature. You are already walking in the shadow of the shaman.

Painting by J.W. Baker

Pegasus

Arne Næss

This light is a strong light, curiosity and childish innocence and honesty. My your light always find a way back to earth, and may I remember what you showed us by living life the way you did... In memory of a great man, Arne Næss. Hope your journey was more than you expected;)

Life is fundamentally one. ... The deep ecology movement is the ecology movement which questions deeper. ..The adjective 'deep' stresses that we ask why and how, where others do not.

Every living being is connected intimately, and from this intimacy follows the capacity of identification and as its natural consequences, practice of non-violence .. Now is the time to share with all life on our maltreated earth through the deepening identification with life forms and the greater units, the ecosystems, and Gaia, the fabulous, old planet of ours.

The ecosophical outlook is developed through an identification so deep that one’s own self is no longer adequately delimited by the personal ego or the organism. One experiences oneself to be a genuine part of all life .. We are not outside the rest of nature and therefore cannot do with is as we please without changing ourselves ...
Paleontology reveals .. that the development of life on earth is an integrated process, despite the steadily increasing diversity and complexity. The nature and limitation of this unity can be debated. Still, this is something basic. “Life is fundamentally one.”

From Steps toward inner Peace by Peace Pilgrim

FOUR PREPARATIONS

1. Assume right attitude toward life

Stop being an escapist or a surface-liver as these attitudes can only cause inharmony in your life. Face life squarely and get down below the froth on its surface to discover its verities and realities. Solve the problems that life sets before you, and you will find that solving them contributes to your inner growth. Helping to solve collective problems contributes also to your growth, and these problems should never be avoided.

2. Live good beliefs.

The laws governing human conduct apply as rigidly as the law of gravity. Obedience to these laws pushes us toward harmony; disobedience pushes us toward inharmony. Since many of these laws are already common belief, you can begin by putting into practice all the good things you believe. No life can be in harmony unless belief and practice are in harmony.

3. Find your place in the Life Pattern.

You have a part in the scheme of things. What that part is you can know only from within yourself. You can seek it in receptive silence. You can begin to live in accordance with it by doing all the good things you are motivated toward and giving these things priority in your life over all the superficial things that customarily occupy human lives.

4. Simplify life to bring inner and outer well-being into harmony.

Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. Many lives are cluttered not only with unnecessary possessions but also with meaningless activities. Cluttered lives are out-of-harmony lives and require simplification. Wants and needs can become the same in a human life and, when this is accomplished, there will be a sense of harmony between inner and outer well-being. Such harmony is needful not only in the individual life but in the collective life too.

FOUR PURIFICATIONS

1. Purification of the bodily temple.

Are you free from all bad habits? In your diet do you stress the vital foods - the fruits, whole grains, vegetables and nuts? Do you get to bed early and get enough sleep? Do you get plenty of fresh air, sunshine, exercise, and contact with nature? If you can answer "Yes" to all of these questions, you have gone a long way toward purification of the bodily temple.

2. Purification of the thoughts.

It is not enough to do right things and say right things. You must also think right things. Positive thoughts can be powerful influences for good. Negative thoughts can make you physically ill. Be sure there is no unpeaceful situation between yourself and any other human being, for only when you have ceased to harbor unkind thoughts can you attain inner harmony.

3. Purification of the desires.

Since you are here to get yourself into harmony with the laws that govern human conduct and with your part in the scheme of things, your desires should be focused in this direction.

4. Purification of motives.

Obviously your motive should never be greed or self-seeking, or the wish for self-glorification, you shouldn't even have the selfish motive of attaining inner peace for yourself. To be of service to your fellow humans must be your motive before your life can come into harmony.

FOUR RELINQUISHMENTS

1. Relinquishment of self-will.

You have, or it's as though you have, two selves: the lower self that usually governs you selfishly, and the higher self which stands ready to use you gloriously. You must subordinate the lower self by refraining from doing the not-good things you are motivated toward, not suppressing them but transforming them so that the higher self can take over your life.

2. Relinquishment of the feeling of separateness.

All of us, all over the world, are cells in the body of humanity. You are not separate from your fellow humans, and you cannot find harmony for yourself alone. You can only find harmony when you realize the oneness of all and work for the good of all.

3. Relinquishment of attachments.

Only when you have relinquished all attachments can you be really free. Material things are here for use, and anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you. You can only live in harmony with your fellow humans if you have no feeling that you possess them, and therefore do not try to run their lives.

4. Relinquishment of all negative feelings.

Work on relinquishing negative feelings. If you live in the present moment, which is really the only moment you have to live, you will be less apt to worry. If you realize that those who do mean things are psychologically ill, your feelings of anger will turn to feelings of pity. If you recognize that all of your inner hurts are caused by your own wrong actions or your own wrong reactions or your own wrong inaction, then you will stop hurting yourself.

Have yourself a merry little christmas

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

Through the years
We all will be together,
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
And have yourself A merry little Christmas now.

A happy christmas and a brilliantly bright new year with lots of love and great memories to be gathered.

In memory of Anne-Cath Vestly

This woman is one of the things I think about when I think about my childhood. Listen to her voice))) I know you don't understand what they are saying))) She is called the grandmother of the whole of Norway))) She passed away a couple of days ago... She wrote about things that no one else had before, like the father of Aurora that was actually a stay-at-home dad (while studying to be a doctor). And she did it in like the end of the 60s!! And she had the nerve to tell children where they really come from in the 50s))

I feel really sad, but in a good way. It reminds me of how much she and her books meant to me.

Isn't that one of the most beautiful faces you have seen?

Price of Silence

Congratulation to Martti Ahtisaari on the Nobel Peaceprize 2008.

Lovely Tolkien

The first quote down below is of course from the poem about Strider or Aragorn as he is best known. We will be coming to it, but I really like it so I'll post it here.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

We need to remember that not all those who wander are lost...

J.R.R. Tolkien quotes

Some quotes by Tolken:

Not all those who wander are lost.

There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.

It is the job that is never started that takes longest to finish.

The wise speak only of what they know.

You can only come to the morning through the shadows.

Courage is found in unlikely places.

Fair speech may hide a foul heart.

The world is full enough of hurts and mischance without wars to multiply them.

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

The wide world is all about you; you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.

I wish life was not so short, he thought. Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.

Still round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate.

Paulo Coelho quotes

From the Alchemist:

Wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.

You must always know what it is that you want.

Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him.

It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.

Don't forget that everything you deal with is only one thing and nothing else.

When we love, we always strive to become better than we are.
When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.

There is only one way to learn. It's through action.

The world's greatest lie: At a certain point in our lives we lose control of what's happening to us and our lives become controlled by fate.

Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it.

Life really is generous to those who pursue their destiny.

List of books

1. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
2. The Odyssey by Homer.
3. The Harry Potter Books by J. K. Rowling.
4. Tao Te Ching
5. Heimskringla by Snorre Sturlasson.
6. The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien.
7. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Ringpoche.
8. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
9. Haugtussa by Arne Garborg.
10. Sverresaga.
11. Older Edda, especially Voluspå and Håvamål.
12. Mahabarata.
13. Dune-series by Frank Herbert.
14. Brand by Henrik Ibsen.
15. Kalevala.
16. Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer & Jacob Sprenger.
17. Asbjørnsen & Moe's fairy tales collection.

In the beginning…

We have always had a need to try and understand how the world came to be. The most recent theory is called the Big Bang. A great nebula broke with an unthinkable force and matter was cast all through the universe and in the midst of this was what came to be earth…

Before science took over the wonderment of how, people used storytelling to explain their world’s existence. Today the most prominent mythology in existence says that: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the deep…” That’s how Genesis begins.

Most mythologies start with a god. The Egyptians said that in the dawn of time Ra created himself. He was alone, and from his saliva, he created the air, Shu, and Tefnut, moisture. When Shu and Tefnut united, Geb and Nut was created – the god of the earth and the goddess of the sky.

In the beginning, the Norse said, there was no earth, no ocean, and no sky. Just Ginnungagap. South of Ginnungagap was the realm of fire, Muspell, with dancing flames. North of Ginnungagap was the realm of ice, Niflheim, cold and covered with snow. Slowly between them, the air got milder and the ice closest to the warmth began to melt and the drops fell onto the giant, Ymir. And from him the worlds of was created.

For the Chinese at the beginning of time everything was chaos. The chaos formed an egg and within this egg was Yin and Yang. The enormous forces within the egg exploded and the heavy matter fell downwards and created the earth and the light floated upwards and became the sky. And in between earth and sky was Pangu, the first living creature.

For the Aborigines the earth was a desolate plain. It was dark. There was no life, no death. The sun, the moon, and all the stars slept underneath the earth where the eternal forbearers also slept, until they tore themselves away from their eternity and broke through the surface. This is the beginning of what the aborigines call the Dreamtime.

The Persians starts with two twins. The wise Ahura Mazda lived in the light, and his twin brother, Angra Mainyu or Ahriman, lived in the dark. Between them there was only air. Ahura Mazda created time, and the world began.

It starts with chaos or darkness, from a word, or from music, from one single divine beginning,from a nebula, from ice, from fire, from a god's sweat or saliva, from an egg... The earth is created in many ways, but they often originate in the different peoples natural surroundings. From what is known...

Lamp post, Aslan and a couple of beavers

Ginger

Your result for What Spice Are You Test...

You are Ginger!

10% Habanero, 0% Sage, 0% Thyme, 40% Ginger, 40% Garlic, 0% Curry, 10% Cinnamon and 0% Oregano!

You are versatile and yet rather erratic!

You can be hot or sweet, it just depends on your mood that day. Sometimes people overlook you and don't give you enough credit for who you are. They try to take advantage of you often, but you aren't one to just sit back and let it happen. When you've had enough you definitely let them know.

You can be a bit moody and have definitive up and down times. It makes being with you a challenge at times, but you have so much personality that being your friend is very much worth the challenge.

You can be very popular, and you don't mind being so. You are more a leader than a follower. You have a wide range of interests and abilities. In your opinion life is too short so you should do as much as you can during your lifetime.

You have your own flair and style, but you still look to see what it trendy.

Take What Spice Are You Test at HelloQuizzy

The flower of contemplation

One of the things I were to do last week, was to buy a flower and contemplate it. This was the lucky flower. Just thought you'd want to know:)

Hatshepsut

I have always been fascinated by the underdog so to speak, in history it is the woman who rise in the positions usually obtained by men. Egypt has seen some women on the throne, Hatshepsut, Cleopatra, Merneith (possibly the 4th pharaoh during the 1. dynasty), and some others.

Hatshepsut reigned in the 18. dynasty, in the period called the New Kingdom. She reigned from 1479 to 1458 B.C. Hatshepsut was the daughter of Tuthmosis I and queen Ahmose, and came to power when her brother and husband, Tuthmosis II died. It was not unheard of that a woman seized the throne, but for most part the tradition was that a dynasty usually ended with a woman. At first it was thought that Hatshepsut only was co-regent with her stepson, Tuthmosis III, but it is now generally accepted that she was in fact considered a pharaoh.

“Then his majesty said to them: "This daughter of mine, Khnumetamun Hatshepsut—may she live!—I have appointed as my successor upon my throne... she shall direct the people in every sphere of the palace; it is she indeed who shall lead you. Obey her words, unite yourselves at her command." The royal nobles, the dignitaries, and the leaders of the people heard this proclamation of the promotion of his daughter, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Maatkare—may she live eternally.”

As a woman, it was impossible for her to lead an army and therefore campaign abroad, so she simply didn’t. Her reign is considered in many ways a golden age with prosperity and growth. The most famous of her building project is the temple at Deir el-Bahari, by her architect, Senenmut, in many ways being like Imhotep in importance.

It is impossible to find out a lot about something in one hour, but something interesting is that they think they have identified Hatshepsut's mummy from Tomb KV60. Further testing should make it even more sure.