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!