"Never are we nearer the Light
than when darkness is deepest."

Swami Vivekananda

Hanggang may buhay may Pag-asa.
If there's life, there's hope.

Hello dearest friends, how I miss you all...
I'll write more fully, when I have some strength...I'm under heavy medication and between injections...does that sound painful??? does that sound possible?????? hahaha.

I love ALL the comments you've made on my blog, and feel so guilty at not replying yet...but I promise I will asap.

I'm also taking some Chinese medication too; ginseng and wild lingzhi. This is day 4 of the all natural Chinese powdered medicine, and I don't mind it at all.
But my NHS medication, has been forgotten...since yesterday the 'deliverer' forgot to stop by me, and I've therefore been 20 hours without my much needed medicine!!! sigh...

for the sake of my sigh
came an honest cry
tears failed my eyes
in the bitter taste of abscence.

Under a blanket of snow here in Norwich, I say take care, my thoughts are POSITIVELY with you all.
love,
lauren6

"Crying In The Rain"

I'll never let you see
The way my broken heart is hurting me
I've got my pride and I know how to hide
All my sorrow and pain
I'll do my crying in the rain

If I wait for stormy skies
You won't know the rain from the tears in my eyes
You'll never know that I still love you so
Though the heartaches remain
I'll do my crying in the rain

Raindrops falling from heaven
Could never take away my misery
But since we're not together
I pray for stormy weather
To hide these tears I hope you'll never see

Someday when my crying's done
I'm gonna wear a smile and walk in the sun
I may be a fool
But till then, darling, you'll never see me complain
I'll do my crying in the rain

I'll do my crying in the rain
I'll do my crying in the rain
I'll do my crying in the rain.

(I actually like A-ha's version of this song the best.)

I've been to the edge and stepped on your toes
Crossed swords and harangued my foes
Jumped for freedom flown
Resting realisation grown

Monday, 27th Feb. 16h00

Christopher Logue: Come To The Edge

Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It's too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came,
and he pushed,
and they flew.

Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.

The trouble with a milk cow is she won't stay milked.

Forgive your enemies. It messes with their heads. (This is a modern adaptation of the original quote by Oscar Wilde: "Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them more." - Ack I Mac.)

Don't corner something meaner than you.

Most of the stuff people worry about never happens. (Probably based on an original quote attributed to Leo Buscaglia: Ninety per-cent of what we worry about never happens, yet we worry and worry. What a horrible way to go through life!

Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree.

In the first book of the Bible, Guinness's, God got tired and took the Sabbath off.

Noah's wife was called Joan of Ark.

Lot's wife was a pillar of salt by day but a ball of fire by night.

Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread which is bread without any ingredients.

The first commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple.

The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.

Moses died before he ever reached Canada.

The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.

Solomon, one of David's sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.

When Mary heard that she was the mother of Jesus she sang the Magna Carta.

Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption.

He also explained, "Man doth not live by sweat alone."

The people who followed the Lord were called the 12 decibels.

The epistles were the wives of the apostles.

St Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached holy acrimony which is another name for marriage.

Christians have only one spouse. This is called monotony.

"If you stood on the bottom rail of a bridge, and leant over, and watched the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you would suddenly know everything that there is to be known..."

1] People deny that the innovation is required.
2] People deny that the innovation is effective.
3] People deny that the innovation is important.
4] People deny that the innovation will justify the effort required to adopt it.
5] People accept and adopt the innovation, enjoy its benefits, attribute it to people other than the innovator, and deny the existence of stages 1 to 4.

Inspired by Alexander von Humboldt's 'Three Stages Of Scientific Discovery', as referenced by Bill Bryson in his book, 'A Short History Of Nearly Everything'.

"With a strong heart and a ready mind what have I to fear?" (Chu Yuan, aka Qu Yuan, Chinese politician-turned-poet, c.300BC - China's first great poet and considered the father of Chinese poetry, his death in 278BC is celebrated every year on the Day of Dragon Boat Festival)

Another time another place
recovering amid fears
struggling against tears
mountains I attempt to face

eclectic symptoms of fate
the finest to date
bemoaning the sacred unknown
of pain hopelessly outgrown

superficially medicated rest
at doctor's bequest
calories replaced by miligrams
entwined divan penning spinelessly

tales seen without words
nerves tweaked by doctor's swords
I neither feel pain nor peace
Love nor hate...

...but I still feel life.

Morning dearest friends,

hope you're all fine?
These past three days have been even harder than I could have imagined. Deep in my subconscience, I guessed that Saturday would require help from my deepest reserves, and indeed it was true.

The hospital time, surgery, needles, operation etc, seem to have touched the nerves near my spine, as for some reason I was not 'asleep' but 'felt' the nerve by my broken spinal bone, being 'prodded' it was the most fundamentally disturbing feeling I have ever felt inside my physical body, and one which I cannot forget. That moment felt as if my whole entity was being compromised.
I was assured it would be "virtually painless" as I should have been 'put out' with the injection...but maybe my brain is too alert, too sceptical in fact, because I was awake...unable to move or speak, but awake, sure enough.

Well, I want to say so much, and reply to your beautiful comments, but I'm so weak, and fighting for my future mobility, which is in question, at present.

Nonetheless, I'll come out fighting.
Warm wishes, and love,
lauren6

Aesop's fables are as relevant today as they were centuries ago. Like the Panchatantra of ancient India or the Jataka tales of the Buddhist world, Aesop's fables fired the imagination of generations of young minds since ancient times and served as reminders of our age old moral values and the importance of being good and doing good in a simple and straightforward manner.

The fables are remarkably simple in expression but convey the deeper aspects of human life in a very appealing way and leave a strong impression upon the readers and listeners alike. They are as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago. For some it may be surprising to know that some of the best remembered and well known sayings like "self help is the best help" or "much ado about nothing" or "look before you leap", are drawn from Aesop's Fables only.

The history of Aesop is buried in antiquity and, like that of Homer, is shrouded in myth and legend. Aesop probably lived sometime around the 6th BC, in ancient Greece, first as a slave, serving two masters and then as a free intellectual, earning a good reputation for his remarkable wit and wisdom.

According to some legends, his death was unnatural. He was said to have been killed in Delphi by some people following some misunderstanding. There is no general consensus as to what constitutes the original fables of Aesop and how many were later added on ascribed to him owing to his popularity. There is also a theory that Aesop probably got some of his stories from the sailing Indian merchants or the traveling Buddhist monks and added them to his own. The similarity between some stories of the Panchatantra and those of Aesop do suggest that both these works had drawn probably from some common folklore of their times. It is possible that some of the fables might have traveled either ways along the trade routes and the wandering tribes and got incorporated in course of time into respective lists.

-V.Jayaram
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.

Like will draw like

In serving the wicked, expect no reward, and be thankful if you escape injury for your pains.

If you were foolish enough to sing all the summer, you must dance supperless to bed in the winter.

Slow but steady wins the race

Self help is the best help

Birds of a feather flock together

The greatest kindness will not bind the ungrateful.

No arguments will give courage to the coward.

Fair weather friends are not worth much

Don't make much ado about nothing.

If men had all they wished, they would be often ruined.

Pleasure bought with pains, hurts.

One story is good, till another is told.

If words suffice not, blows must follow.

Look before you leap.

Fair weather friends are not worth much.

Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends.

Those who suffer most cry out the least.

Zeal should not outrun discretion.

Change of habit cannot alter Nature.

Do not attempt to hide things which cannot be hid.

He is wise who is warned by the misfortunes of others.

The value is in the worth, not in the number.

Do not attempt too much at once.

No one truly forgets injuries in the presence of him who caused the injury.

Harm seek. harm find.

Evil companions bring more hurt than profit.

Do not be in a hurry to change one evil for another.

Little liberties are great offenses.

Old friends cannot with impunity be sacrificed for new ones.

Notoriety is often mistaken for fame.

Whatever you do, do with all your might.

Those who seek to please everybody please nobody.

Pride goes before destruction.

There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.

Time and place often give the advantage to the weak over the strong.

Example is more powerful than precept.

Better poverty without care, than riches with.

Harm hatch, harm catch.

Benefits bestowed upon the evil-disposed increase their means of injuring you.

Equals make the best friends.

Hypocritical speeches are easily seen through.

What's bred in the bone will stick to the flesh.

Abstain and enjoy.

The memory of a good deed lives.

Children are not to be blamed for the faults of their parents.

Avoid a remedy that is worse than the disease.

The least outlay is not always the greatest gain.

Might makes right.

We must make friends in prosperity if we would have their help in adversity.

False confidence often leads into danger.

The more honor the more danger.

Every man for himself.

He is not to be trusted as a friend who mistreats his own family.

They are not wise who give to themselves the credit due to others.

He who shares the danger ought to share the prize.

Evil wishes, like chickens, come home to roost.

Our mere anticipations of life outrun its realities.

In quarreling about the shadow we often lose the substance.

Stoop to conquer.

I should indeed be a very simple fellow if, for the chance of a greater uncertain profit, I were to forego my present certain gain.

The hero is brave in deeds as well as words.

Do nothing without a regard to the consequences.

It sometimes happens that one man has all the toil, and another all the profit.

In avoiding one evil, care must be taken not to fall into another.

Every man should be content to mind his own business.

The great do not always prevail. There are times when the small and lowly are the strongest to do mischief.

It shows an evil disposition to take advantage of a friend in distress.

The best intentions will not always ensure success.

Everyone is more or less master of his own fate.

How can you expect the sheep to be safe if you admit a wolf into the fold?

Know that not even the stars need to be relit

Happy is the man who learns from the misfortunes of others.

Misfortunes springing from ourselves are the hardest to bear.

Men often bear little grievances with less courage than they do large misfortunes.

Those who assume a character which does not belong to them, only make themselves ridiculous.

Contentment with our lot is an element of happiness.

The desire for imaginary benefits often involves the loss of present blessings.

Count the cost before you commit yourselves.

Be on guard against men who can strike from a distance.

Use serves to overcome dread.

No one can be a friend if you know not whether to trust or distrust him.

Fine feathers don't make fine birds.

Every tale is not to be believed.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

A willful man will have his way to his own hurt.

A false tale often betrays itself.

Acquaintance softens prejudices.

Counsel without help is useless.

Straws show how the wind blows.

The dishonest, if they act honestly, get no credit.

Union is strength.

Evil tendencies are shown in early life.

Persuasion is better than Force.

A man is known by the company he keeps.

What is most truly valuable is often underrated.

Youth's first duty is reverence to parents.

Some men are of more consequence in their own eyes than in the eyes of their neighbors.

Self-interest alone moves some men.

Try before you trust.

They who act without sufficient thought, will often fall into unsuspected danger.

No evil, whether it be small or large, ought to be tolerated.

The safeguards of virtue are hateful to those with evil intentions.

Source: Fables. Aesop.

If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want.
~Oscar Wilde

Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.
~Voltaire

I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet.
~Ancient Persian Saying

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
~Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1893

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. ~Albert Camus, Lyrical and Critical Essays

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.
~Buddha

The only end, is the one without a beginning.
~lauren6

Hi everyone...apologies for not replying to you yet...but I will soon, and your comments here are precious to me, so many thanks.

I have just had my eighth operation, and am severely weakened, particularly by the Chinese doctor's more open and honest words regarding my spine.
I am not sure how much more I can take, but for now, I'm fighting it all.

This is for you all, (I drew it yesterday), hope you like it...

EVENING EBB

The ocean has not been so quiet for a long while; five night-herons
Fly shorelong voices in the hush of the air
Over the calm of an ebb that almost mirrors their wings.
The sun has gone down, and the water has gone down
From the weed-clad rock, but the distant cloud-wall rises. The ebb whispers.
Great cloud-shadows float in the opal water.
Through rifts in the screen of the world pale gold gleams and the evening
Star suddenly glides like a flying torch.
As if we had not been meant to see her; rehearsing behind
The screen of the world for another audience.

Robinson Jeffers

Tame pigeons, which are pampered by high feeding, and lie perhaps under more frequent temptations from living together in crowds, are apt to forget the rules of strict chastity, and follow too often the example of people in high life.

Gilbert White, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, 1789

When the wild ducks or the wild geese migrate in their season, a strange tide rises in the territories over which they sweep. As if magnetized by the great triangular flight, the barnyard fowl leap a foot or two into the air and try to fly. The call of the wild strikes them with the force of a harpoon and a vestige of savagery quickens their blood. All the ducks on the farm are transformed for an instant into migrant birds, and into those hard little heads, till now filled with humble images of pools and worms and barnyards, there swims a sense of continental expanse, of the breadth of seas and the salt taste of the ocean wind.

Antoine de Saint Exupery, Wind, Sand and Stars

All I want to say, is right here, in my hand...

While recovering from successive operations, and awaiting the major one on a date to be arranged, I have read about Tao diets and wellbeing, and agree with many basic principals on good and stable eating habits, which actually cover every corner of the earth if we only realise it a little more, instead of being hauled into the norm.

Have a look at these;

Eat whole, natural foods.

Eat only foods that will spoil, but eat them before they do.

Eat naturally raised meat including fish, seafood, poultry, beef, lamb, game, organ meats and eggs. The best beef is grass fed.

Eat whole, naturally produced milk products from pasture-fed cows, raw and/or fermented, such as whole yogurt, cultured butter, whole cheeses and fresh and sour cream.

Use only traditional fats and oils including butter and other animal fats, extra virgin olive oil, expeller expressed sesame and flax oil and the tropical oils—coconut and palm. For best results use only coconut oil in cooking and small amounts of olive oil and flax seed oil for salad dressings.

Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic, in salads and soups, or lightly steamed.

Use whole grains and nuts that have been prepared by soaking, sprouting or sour leavening to neutralize phytic acid and other anti-nutrients.

Include enzyme-enhanced lacto-fermented vegetables, fruits, beverages and condiments in your diet on a regular basis.

Prepare homemade meat stocks from the bones of chicken, beef, lamb or fish and use liberally in soups and sauces.

Use filtered high PH alkaline water for cooking and drinking.

Use unrefined sea salt and a variety of herbs and spices for food interest and appetite stimulation.

Make your own salad dressing using raw apple cider vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and/or cold pressed flax seed oil.

Use natural sweeteners in moderation, such as raw honey, maple syrup, Barly Malt

Use only un-pasteurized wine or beer in moderation with meals.

Cook only in stainless steel, cast iron, glass or good quality enamel.

Eat your last large meal before sundown

Use only natural supplements made from whole foods.

Get plenty of sleep, exercise and natural light.

Always sit down to eat.

Always chew your food at least 30 times each mouthful

Think positive thoughts and minimize stress, always look for the positive in any experience that comes your way, even if that experience causes you pain. The key is not to waste life force in worry.

with so much to read
and plenty to tell
much to see
whether heaven or hell
these words shall be written
these hands will clutch
as feet will guide
the legs that walk

The road to positivity is strewn with the abandoned vehicles of the faint-hearted.”
Peter McWilliams

There would be nothing to frighten you if you refused to be afraid.
Gandhi

Take chances. When rowing forward, the boat may rock. -Chinese Proverb

At the center of your being you have the answer;
You know who you are and you know what you want.
Lao-tzu

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill where two worlds touch. The round door is open.
Don't go back to sleep.
Djalal ad Din Rumi

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.
Robert H. Schuller

As plentiful as the grass that grows,
Or the sand on the shore,
Or the dew on the leaf,
So the blessings of the King of Grace
On every soul that was, that is, or will be.
Traditional Irish blessing

Because today I'm being given chicken korma with rice, (in hospital), I thought this posting seemed fun...

The Legend of the Rice
In the days when the earth was young and all things were better than they now are, when men and women were stronger and of greater beauty, and the fruit of the trees was larger and sweeter than that which we now eat, rice, the food of the people, was of larger grain.

One grain was all a man could eat; and in those early days, such, too, was the merit of the people, they never had to toil gathering the rice, for, when ripe, it fell from the stalks and rolled into the villages, even unto the granaries. And upon a year when the rice was larger and more plentiful than ever before, a widow said to her daughter "Our granaries are too small. We will pull them down and build larger."

When the old granaries were pulled down and the new one not yet ready for use, the rice was ripe in the fields. Great haste was made, but the rice came rolling in where the work was going on, and the widow, angered, struck a grain and cried, "Could you not wait in the fields until we were ready? You should not bother us now when you are not wanted."

The rice broke into thousands of pieces and said "From this time forth, we will wait in the fields until we are wanted," and from that time the rice has been of small grain, and the people of the earth must gather it into the granary from the fields.

These past two weeks have been a testing time, indeed, this year ahead will be even more so.

I'm undergoing treatments, (at long last), for my damaged spine, which involved injections, awaiting a very major operation on my spine itself. An operation in which my consultant requested my permission three times.

Finally, after two months, my MRI results were shown to me, revealing that my spine is far, far worse than they had previously diagnosed, namely the 'slipped disc' is an absurd term for a vertebrae that is way off line, and cracked, with the added discomfort of having two areas of protrusion, both pressing the nerve, one of which is close to causing some paralysis.

There are several other battles going on within, such as a stomach ulcer too.
But, I've every intention of fighting, and eventually winning...

...it is the power of nature

...it is the certainty of the future

...it is the strength found in faith

...it is the glow of candlelight

...it is the scent of twilight

...it is the depth of the heart

...it is the power, of you and me

Where I presently find myself
cannot be called home
nor a comfort, when in Rome,
but an eyeopener
of self-healing, and inner reeling
fortunes lost and found
belief nutured and bound
escaping and arresting pain
this day, not like any other
my day, about to discover

The Oak
by Sheila Blair

The oak's icy outline,
Etched against the sky,
Winter's cold has stripped it bare,
Naked to the eye.

Sitting in the snow,
Beside this tall, strong friend,
There's warmth, steady comfort,
Promise the storm will end.

Inside the massive trunk,
A river of life flows,
Winter cold gives way to spring,
Hope of rebirth grows.

In the sun, a bud appears,
Unfolding a velvety leaf,
A new season arrives from patience,
Wisdom, and true belief.

Underneath the shady boughs,
The oak's rejoicing splendor,
Forget the blizzard's bitter touch,
The surviving bond, remember.

Reading, and loving this in hospital, at present.

...I could presently reply to all your lovely comments on my blog.

...I could say how precious you have all become.

...I could revisit my lake...and my friends, the mystical swans.

...I had more energy to realise these burning dreams inside me.

...good and especially bad were not so often seen and felt as a shard of glass.

...good health to you all, and please forgive me in my late replies to you all.

Richard Ashcroft: God in the Numbers

Sometimes you hold the world in your hands
Sometimes the world it baffles you with plans
Some days you drift oh so easy and free
Some nights you sleep in blissful harmony

How do we leave the wreckage of our lives?
How do you leave the past out in the night?
Don't throw away the pictures that give you a smile
Don't throw away the memories that make you cry

I saw God in the numbers
I saw God in the numbers
I saw God in the numbers
I saw God in the numbers

I know that I could learn a little harder
There's so much that I want to read and know
But maybe I'm a little lazy
Maybe I don't really want to know

I saw God in the numbers
I saw God in the numbers (I saw God in the numbers)
I saw God in the numbers
I saw God in the numbers (I saw God in the numbers)
I saw God in the numbers
I saw God in the numbers (I saw God in the numbers)
I saw God in the numbers
I saw God in the numbers (I saw God in the numbers)

The more I learn of history the more I hate it
'Cos we're repeating things we did a thousand years ago
We're building palaces of fortune in the sky
There's an underclass dying whilst we smile

I saw God in the numbers (I saw God in the numbers)
I saw God in the numbers (I saw God in the numbers)
I saw God in the numbers (I saw God in the numbers)
I saw God in the numbers (I saw God in the numbers)
I saw God in the numbers (I saw God in the numbers)
I saw God in the numbers (I saw God in the numbers)
God in the numbers (I saw God in the numbers)
I saw God in the numbers (I saw God in the numbers)

(I don't wanna
I don't wanna
I don't wanna)