Names, Ages, and a few large graves

This is the stone with the names and ages of people killed when my grandmothers village was massacred. I just found this photo.

Have you ever gotten an amazing idea to change the world... started a huge project... and then never gone back to it again? Can't blame him for trying.. leave comments!

http://humanprosperity.org/

The Catholic Bargain, at the cost of helping the homeless

Catholic Church gives D.C. ultimatum
Same-sex marriage bill, as written, called a threat to social service contracts

"The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care....."

Please check out this article.

As a follow up to my comment response in my last post: This is the cemetery. You can't see the ground really, but where the grass clears there are two parallel graves that run 15 to 20 feet. Each grave is a rise in the ground the width of a body, edged with wood and surrounded by miscellaneous crosses. There is one large, fairly new, headstone in the corner of the cemetery which includes the names and ages of all who were killed (maybe 50 people, maybe more maybe less) from children to the elderly. Perhaps the only testament to their lives, other than surviving relations. My grandmother at 17 witnessed the massacre and barely escaped. (She's one tough lady.)This was her village.

The cemetery is in the middle of the hills. There is no road or path to it, although it was possible to walk on some tractor markings in neighboring farms. The entire surrounding area felt like the Sound of Music. The cemetery is in this huddle of trees, offering shade. The sun was bright and the air was fresh. It was horrible to imagine the massacre, but the peace and beauty in this spot in the mountains was an odd juxtaposition to the graves. I thought how lucky anyone would be to live here, and how terrible it was for troops to march in and massacre this people. My trip was a revelation of beauty and terror.

My grandmother is 85. This is the house she was born in in Europe. I traveled across the world to Poland find it and her relations, not knowing a word of Ukrianian, just to hang out before studying abroad. A year later, I studied Polish intensively and returned to study in Poland, and return to visit. I have since been invited back, but I can hardly by groceries at the moment. I think that our names and our families mean a lot. I also think that "Life is brilliant."

A Brilliant Moment

When I studied in Rome, I didn't know anyone in the program and everyone was a year older. I became good friends with a variety of people from different walks of life.. called by Italy. (I studied French for 5 1/2 years before studying in Italy...it has a way of .. calling people.)

One very sweet girl who is now in her first year at a very good medical school was very dedicated to going to church on Sunday's, no matter what city we were in that weekend. God will return to you what you give to him, and he will bless you in your efforts to find a mass, she said. Church is surely a cultural experience, but when you are slightly hungover in the am or already sort of drunk in the pm, mass doesn't always seem that appealing. Clearly we were blessed, look at the view I stumbled upon following her directions to this particular church...

Inside, the congregation was sparse, mainly with older women and a few men. One women talked to us and repeated her Italian words over and over for us beginners...for a long time and gave us each a rosary. Surely, a cultural experience in the least.

A Beautiful Moment

Faith and Hope

I've been reading a lot that faith is different than hope. Hope is a sort of optimism; faith is more than optimism, its trust.



I stumbled upon this song on the radio...and I actually sort of love it, as corny as it is. It is sort of Jewlish. Anyways, maybe check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlL8LayF0uw



This blog, which also mentions Jewel (shout out to Maureen's comment about the song Hands), illustrates how close the beauty of the everyday is linked to hope.

http://allisonhopephotography.blogspot.com/?expref=next-blog

"Last Words"

In the far left corner of my apartment, between the doormat and the book shelf... I now have the Internet in my apartment (thank you to 12 dollars and kind neighbors on the other side of the building). I am conscious of keeping my red wine on the tile of the entry way and off the carpet... and aware that I do not yet have cable or the energy to head to the bar to watch the Steelers game.

I've been thinking a lot about my mother this past week, who raised four children alone working night shifts as a nurse in the trauma unit. She started working nights when my dad passed to increase the time she could spend on us... I think years passed where she spent days not sleeping more than three hours at a time. Staying up all night writing papers, I guess I have it easy.

Anyways, I wanted to draw your attention to an article I stumbled upon a few weeks ago titled "Last Words."

An author/ journalist Claire Cameron wrote the last words of execution prisoners she found in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website, published in the NY Times. Here are a few pieces of what she found.

Go ahead?

Nothing I can say can change the past.

I done lost my voice.

I would like to say goodbye.

I am nervous and it is hard to put my thoughts together.

I don't think that the world will be a better or safer place without me.

I am sorry.

I am taking it like a man.

I couldn't do a life sentence.

Let my son know I love him.

I want to tell my mom that I love her.

Lord I lift your name on high.

From Allah we came and to Allah we shall return.

For everybody incarcerated, keep your heads up.

VALUES

The following is an inspiring story from the VALUES website. How can you best share your goodness? Here's one guys story..

Find Your Mission!
Sixteen years ago I set out on a path of writing a life skills book for young people and creating a foundation to donate this book to youth organizations and schools. As a high school basketball coach my “Mission” was to teach and inspire kids around the world to “Achieve Straight A’s in the School of Life!” I recently turned age fifty and the book is now published in English as well as Spanish; plus, the foundation is launched. The organization is called the School of Life Foundation and the book that we give to kids is called Learn to “School” Your Toughest Opponent. Over the past two years we have placed this curriculum in the lives of close to 20,000 youth across sixteen states and eleven countries. The School of Life Foundation continues to grow each week.
The “Straight A’s in Life” system contained in the workbook has ten steps as follows:• Appreciate – Have more gratitude in your life• Assist – Serve others everyday• Attitude – Choose yours each morning• Aim – Learn to focus by setting goals• Associate – Make good people a part of your life• Align – Get organized• Action – Make things happen or watch and wonder• Avoid – Stay away from things that will harm you• Adapt – Turn every challenge into an opportunity• Always – Remember to pray and ponder each dayMy heart and soul is touched everyday as I learn of a new story of a young person’s life improving by using this journal workbook while “Living the A’s” in life!
I am now “Living My Dream” of making a difference in the world. I chose to not give up over the past sixteen years when obstacles and discouragement got in the way. You have to perform with passion!
Your mission in life may be large or small, but is vital to all of us no matter what it may be. What are doing today to find it? Are you living your dream? I am simply the guy next door encouraging you to get started today!
Jack R.

http://www.values.com/your-inspirational-stories/994

Billboard.

"He wrote a book about living, while dying."-Randy Pausch...


.....reads a billboard where Bigelow Blvd splits before Baum.

I was sort of moved. In researching how the values billboard campaign came to be, and other billboards... I came across the Wikipedia entry for The Foundation for a Better Life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Foundation_for_a_Better_Life

which is strangely interesting... I support their mission, but the Foundation itself strikes me as strange.

Here are some of their quotes.

“The greatest ability is dependability.”Robert Bob Jones

“I would rather be able to appreciate things I can not have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.”Elbert Hubbard

“We can do no great things - only small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”Vaclav Havel

Happy Sunday!

Betting on Good Health, by Karen Barrow

As many as 46 million adults and children in the United States lack health insurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. A recent short in the NY Times highlights this guy that lost his healthcare (a freelance writer, age 58). At first he was scared at the thought of having no insurance. Then, and I'm quoting him, "I decided, look, when you have insurance you are betting that you are going to get sick."

So, he took his health into his own hands and changed his lifestyle including eating and exercise. Now he says, "I am in control of my health."

We very much can have control over our general physical health. It is empowering to feel good about trying on clothes, knowing you can run a few miles no problem... If you can choose to feel better about yourself, why wouldn't you?

Don't Worry, Be Happy

According to Peter Handke's Kapsar, we are defined by language and language confines us. We see someone frown, we immediatley understand that "He is Sad." Language is this wonderful tool to descibe the world, but it cannot describe the color red or the soul.

I have to disagree, I think. Shouldn't Handke's "soul" enjoy the power of language as a tool and the challenge of trying to descibe the world around us?

If you see someone flash an ungaurded smile in reaction to a funny remark, you recognize their smile before you think the words, right? And so, "He is happy," descibes that person. We descibe and are descibed by language, not defined by language.

The Blue Grotto

I want the focus of my blog to be the sub-title, even if it is a little bit long and abstract. Cheers to challenge.

Take comfort, the power you need to pursue your greatest passions is already inside of you.

So, as you can see, I've changed the format of my blog. The picture is from my trip to the Island of Capri on the Amalfi Coast. Friends and I took a ferry ride to the Blue Grotto, a cave along the coast. One to three people then fit into small very small rowboats (think The Little Mermaid, while Kiss the Girl is playing...or The Notebook). You must lie down in the boat to pass through the small opening into the cave with the boat.

The sunlight passes through the seawater and the small opening, giving the water inside the cave this magnificent blue color in the darkness of the cave. Take comfort, the power you need to pursue your greatest passions is already inside of you.

PS I have a video of us getting into the cave. I'll post it next time I have my computer!

Pre-Game Gradeschool Prayer

The following is an excerpt from the Diocese of Pittsburgh memo on the role of sports in Catholic schools...

"All Catholic School activities must begin with both teams coming together for prayer in the middle of the court or field. The following prayer is to be said by the home coach or player.

Dear Lord,
You have blessed us with many gifts and talents.
We thank you especially for the ability to participate in sports today.
Help us play in a Christ like manner.
Help us to play in a way that fosters good will and teamwork.
Help us play to the best of our abilities.
Win or lose we hope to have fun, make friends and celebrate life.
Amen"

I remember having to say this prayer before basketball games at my small Catholic grade school. It was just something we did, like classrooms saying the pledge of allegiance.

I was strangely reminded of having to say this specific prayer through gradeschool when my youngest brother (who just started at my Catholic high school and went to the same gradeschool) added me on facebook. I had to chuckle when I saw his information...

Age, 14
Sex, Male
Relationship Status, Single
Political Views, Republican
Religious Views, Christian-Catholic

So much of who we are, especially at the age we start high school, is taught to us in our homes, families, and schools. The things we learn, (example saying this prayer before games and my little brothers republican political affiliation at the age of 14), are the building blocks of who we are going to become... the things that we bring to the table when while we are figuring out who we are out in a bigger world. I don't say this prayer before games, but I hold the values it taught me. The values it professes hold true beyond Catholic Doctrine, anyways. And so, I'm glad I said it all of those years.

Inspired Jewelry

"Soul, spirit, search, faith, harmony, hope, balance, inspire, trust, dream, endure, love, peace, love, faith, balance, inspire, search, soul."

Walking to turn in my rent check in Shadyside at the end of summer, I stumbled upon a jewlery sale. I'm not always one to take advantage of a yard sale. Don't get me wrong, I'm strangely interested in people's old things... But I hate the awkwardness of the people selling their stuff watching you appraise their things and deciding whether you are interested or not...

It was a beautiful last summer day and I decided to stop.

The Beatles were playing and I realized that under thetent in the front yard, the tables were filled with jewlery. Only jewlery. This family collects the jewlery for the entire year, and then sells it in their front yard once a year during the Shadyside festival. Everything is sold for $2 the first day, $1 the second and third day. They aren't doing it for profit. They said, they do it for the community. Anyways, the words at the top are the etched into the metal bracelet a bought there, among other things. In a small way, it keeps you centered when you are late for work, forget your umbrella, and your bannana explodes in your purse in the middle of the confusion. Damn bannana.

"Soul, spirit, search, faith, harmony, hope, balance, inspire, trust, dream, endure, love, peace, love, faith, balance, inspire, search, soul."

Smile because...

Everday is the start of something beautiful.

Listen to it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_as3ntBxgs

"There's a joke that calorie restriction may or may not extend your life, but it will most assuredly make your life feel longer."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/magazine/11Calories-t.html

"Passionate Life"

I was looking for a photo, googling images of abstract ideas - my search for peace and grace returned Dove women in their underwear, "power" turned up windmills, "passion" turned of images of Chirst in a crown of thorns and people going at it on the beach, "passionate life" turned up this image- which links to this blog much like my own... http://www.thecalmspace.com/2008/04/thespace-passion/

Prelude to Expectation and Gratitude

Here is some food for thought...

Can you have a genuine selfless ambition that seems to constantly fail?