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When I look at this picture, I see a chance to make it beautiful - inside and out. I see a chance to 'restore'. I see a chance to buy it at much less of a cost, than a new home. I know what I can do; I've done 3 rehabs...I also see 'history' that will be preserved, and even made better. I see more money for those that make this choice - for the well-being of their family.
I see money that can be set aside for health,
dental, and medical care.
dental, and medical care.
I see adequate funds for proper foods to nourish our youth that will be handling the future 20 years from now.
I see nothing but beauty and
opportunity
here....
opportunity
here....
I made those 'egg' shapes, because I like to think of 'life' - rebirth, and when I hear the young birds chirping in the near-by tree, I'm pleasantly reminded of each new day!You can 'copy' and paste those eggs from
this 'blog' - you can transfer that paste into an open e-mail just waiting for
you to slap down that 'matrix' of eliptical shapes, and pop it over to your
spouse...it winds up on their computer, and the subject reads:Hey, honey - give me your ideas on what we can do to improve our home?Hey, sweetie - tell me at least 5 good things about our life and situation.Oh darling - print this and then 'ink in', five ways (at least) we can trim our expenses.Thoughts 'scattered'; notes written 'here and there' - nothing seems to 'take shape' in your mind.The eternal 'circle' forms a clear picture for you; those empty areas within those thin lines, invite you to jot your thoughts in 'brief form' - no long explanations; just a 'spark' - it's laid out and ready for you to discuss in detail - TALK in detail; come to an agreement, and reduce all that worry and dialog, to a simple game-plan you can readily see.Create your own personal 'matrix' -
your own 'template' ... design your success plan, and get
organized.Mark the dates on the calendar; make a line through what you've accomplished - each line; each time you delete a worry or realize a gain (no matter how small), your attitude will improve - you'll develop the belief you need, to ...'gitter done'...Remember these words -
beautifully said - by Kahlil Gibran...recession or not:And one of the elders of the city said, "Speak to us of Good and Evil."
And he answered:
Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts, it drinks even of dead waters.
You are good when you are one with yourself.
Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.
For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.
And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.
You are good when you strive to give of yourself.
Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
For when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.
Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, "Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance."
For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.
You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,
Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose.
And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.
You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.
Even those who limp go not backward.
But you who are strong and swift, see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.
You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.
Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.
In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: and that longing is in all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea, carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.
And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.
But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little, "Wherefore are you slow and halting?"
For the truly good ask not the naked, "Where is your garment?" nor the houseless, "What has befallen your house?"
And a poet said, "Speak to us of Beauty."
Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?
And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?
The aggrieved and the injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle.
Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory she walks among us."
And the passionate say, "Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread.
Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us."
The tired and the weary say, "beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.
Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow."
But the restless say, "We have heard her shouting among the mountains,
And with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions."
At night the watchmen of the city say, "Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east."
And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say, "we have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset."
In winter say the snow-bound, "She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills."
And in the summer heat the reapers say, "We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her hair."
All these things have you said of beauty.
Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.
It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.
People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror.And as a post script (in case you
missed this on the side-bar), some of the words of Thomas Carlye - written over
110 years ago...Industrial work, still under bondage to Mammon, the rational soul of it is not yet awakened, is a tragic spectacle.Labor is ever an imprisoned god, writing unconsciously or consciously to escape out of Mammonism!Show me a people energetically busy; heaving, struggling, all shoulders at the wheel; their heart pulsing - every muscle swelling, with man's energy and will, and I show you a people of whom great good is already predictable!This is not a man I would kill and strangle by corn-laws and shot-belts to the devil - try to help this man!I would teach this man by noble precept and law-precept, by noble example most of all, that Mammonism was not the essence of his or of my station in God's universe, but the gross, terrene, godless embodiment of it!Epic of this world is not now ARMS AND THE MAN - how much less; SHIRT-FRILLS AND THE MAN - not it is now - TOOLS AND THE MAN, henceforth to all time is now our epic, and you first of all others I think are wise to take note of that!Added today: I got a nice series of e-mails; some from those in other parts of the world.Something that struck me as 'oh so true' about America - simple, but true....Here is the passage from that e-mail that stuck out in my mind:I have a new appreciation for these "flowers". Dandelions here in Slovenia are considered a delicacy. They are not considered weeds like in America. They look so beautiful in a field. The Slovenes use the leaves as salad. They will go out and gather them in the field and wash them, mix them with oil and vinegar. Then they cook potatoes, chop them up and mix it all together.Now I know a few of my black friends who already do this - and many times they were 'teased'; but, hey - now the Food Network teaches us to use many 'ethnic' foods - and often the emphasis is on what a great nutritional value they have, and they still remain inexpensive in the grocery stores.The beautiful dandelion - it grows up through the cracks of the city sidewalks; it turns white and spreads millions of seed....I'm guessing nature had a purpose for the dandelion, and some of us have over-looked that purpose.
