More Graphic Wisdom...

...from many sources:

Speak Softly with Authority While Breathing in Peace & Breathing Out Love

You have the gift of gab today and everywhere you turn, the words continue to slip out. You are at your best when you are talking about your recent experiences, yet this isn't a time to rest on past achievements. Throw caution to the wind and open your mind as wide as possible before acknowledging that you can do anything you want.

The above was my horoscope yesterday. Do I believe in horoscopes? Well, uh, no, I don't. Do I trust horoscopes? Of course not. Then why do I read horoscopes? Well, uh...let me tell you a story, which you may already know if you read Nick's Bytes post on Monday:

An American scientist once visited the offices of the great Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Neils Bohr, in Copenhagen, and was amazed to find that over his desk a horseshoe was nailed to the wall.

The American said with a nervous laugh, "Surely you don't believe that horseshoe will bring you good luck, do you, Professor Bohr?"

Bohr chuckled. "I believe no such thing, my good friend. Not at all. I am scarcely likely to believe in such foolish nonsense. However, I am told that a horseshoe will bring you good luck whether you believe in it or not!"

So... even though I don't believe in horoscopes, I took that part about the gift of gab and decided to spend the day using my voice to solve some of the varied pickles that I seem to have recently found myself in. So.... I spent six hours on the phone with the following results:

• My bank ended future $35 overdraft charges & refunded $43 from the last $105 of charges.
  

• Direct-TV agreed to refund of the mistaken charge they took from account that led to that $105.00 overdraft charge. However, they refused to refund it to my VISA/debit card account and are issuing a check which they say won't reach me for 3-4 weeks.

• After 3 phone calls (to India, I think) I convinced Salliemae to allow ME to control payments on my 22-year-old seminary student loan rather than their computer.
  

• With the refunded $43 I was able to pay the $5 Medicare co-pay for a critical Rx that I have been out of for over a week

I am telling you this not to boast of my success, but to explain how I was able to do it. For all of my gift of gab, I have difficulty dealing with the minions of huge, capitalist corporations.I usually end up feeling as if I am (1) being talked down to, (2) discounted, and (3) treated as a thing rather than a human being. I also often feel oppressed, with all of the powerlessness that goes with oppression.

Phrases like the computer won't allow that, it is our policy, and that is not our problem usually have me seeing red and triggering in me the fight or flight response.

Yesterday I decided not to be manipulated. Thus, during each phone call I not only dialogued with the agent and presented my case, but I also paid attention to my breathing. With each in breath I thought Peace in; with each out breath I thought Love out.

It worked. It worked well. I did not feel intimidated to the point of giving up and running. I only came once close to forsaking peace for a yelling match. That was with the very nasty and inflexible woman at Direct-TV who was unable to say anything that wasn't in her script-book. So, I asked to speak to her supervisor, to which she replied (probably from the script) that the waiting time to speak with a supervisor was at least 45 minutes. Frustrated and close to losing my cool, I said to the woman, No, thank you. I promise you that I will, however, tell my blog readers of our conversation, mentioning, of course, Direct-TV. I just kept my promise.

Blessings, peace, and love to you, my friends.

December 1st Is World AIDS Day 2008

Tomorrow, December 1^st, is World AIDS Day. With the many predicaments—the world economy, wars, terrorism, unemployment—facing us today, it may easy to put AIDS in the backgro

und. After all, we don’t hear as much about AIDS today as we did ten or twenty years ago. But AIDS is still with us, taking and destroying lives.

Leadership has been chosen by the World AIDS Campaign as the theme for World AIDS Day 2007 and 2008. This theme will continue to be promoted with the slogan Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.—the World AIDS Campaign (WAC) emphasis from 2005-2010. So, won’t you…

World AIDS Day 2008: When I Was a Young Man

World AIDS Day 2008: Shed Some Light

FAQ about AIDS (source AIDS.gov)

 

Am I at risk for HIV?

HIV can only be transmitted through certain body fluids. Specific behaviors may place you at higher risk for coming in contact with HIV. You may be at increased risk for HIV infection if you have:

• Injected drugs or steroids, during which needles or equipment were shared with others
• Had unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex with men who have sex with men, multiple partners, or anonymous partners
• Exchanges sex for drugs or money
• Been given a diagnosis or treated for hepatitis, tuberculosis (TB), or a sexually transmitted disease (STD)
• Received a blood transfusion during 1978-1985
• Had unprotected sex with anyone who has any of the risk factors listed above

For more information visit HIV and AIDS: Are You at Risk? (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

 

How is HIV transmitted?

The most common ways that HIV is transmitted from one person to another are:

• By having sex with an HIV-infected person
• By sharing needles or injection equipment with a person who is infected with HIV
• From HIV-infected women to their babies before or during birth, or through breast feeding

For more information visit How is HIV passed from one person to another? (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

 

Which body fluids transmit HIV?

The following body fluids have been shown to contain high concentrations of HIV:

• Blood
• Semen
• Vaginal fluid
• Breast milk
• Other body fluids containing blood

Other body fluids may contain small amounts of HIV, but small amounts of HIV does not necessarily mean that HIV can be transmitted by that body fluid.

For more information visit Which body fluids transmit HIV? (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

 

How can I protect myself from HIV transmission?

The most effective to protect yourself from HIV transmission are to remember the ABCs:

• Abstain from sex
• Be faithful to you partner if you are having sex
• Condoms – use condoms if you are having sex

Other ways to protect yourself is to:

• Know the HIV-status of your partner
• Do not inject illicit drugs
• If you do inject drugs, never share needles or other equipment and use only clean needles and equipment
• Make getting an HIV test part of your regular medical checkup

For more information visit HIV and AIDS: Are You at Risk? (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

 

Other Resources

Other frequent questions and answers are available at:

• Prevention – Questions and Answers (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Transmission – Questions and Answers (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

The Last Song ~ Elton John

One World, One Light

Post #994

My friend Vishwa introduced me to the Light Channels World Movement website. The site explains the Light Channels World Movement, in part, with these words:

This is a Movement in Conscience. A Movement to make this world a beautiful place to live in Peace and Love. This is a Movement of Light without any sermons, banners or boundaries.

The “how-to” of the movement is quite simple:

All that we have to do is to just channel and spread the Light which is above us in a subtler realm daily for seven minutes when we wake up and go to bed.

Do not worry about any technique. A plain request is enough. The Light will flow through us. The Light has Intelligence, Power and the Future. The Light has everything. When we spread it, it enters others’ hearts and homes and transforms all the darkness in thoughts, emotions and systems into Light full of Love and Peace. The individuals transform. The families, societies and nations transform. There is no doubt about this. It is a matter of time.

Will you take a moment and click over to the Light Channels World Movement and read the rest? There really isn’t that much more to read and the reading is easy.

I am not endorsing or asking you to join the movement. I am myself devoting an additional seven minutes to my evening and morning prayer/meditation time to channeling the Light. This world of ours is in need of Light—and a whole lot of peace!

This Little Light of Mine (The Kingston Trio)

May the blessing of light be on you - light without and light within.

May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire, so that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it.

And may light shine out of the two eyes of you, like a candle set in the window of a house, bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.

And may the blessing of the rain be on you, may it beat upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean, and leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines, and sometimes a star.

And may the blessing of the earth be on you, soft under your feet as you pass along the roads, soft under you as you lie out on it, tired at the end of day; and may it rest easy over you when, at last, you lie out under it.

May it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be out from under it quickly; up and off and on its way to God.

And now may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly. Amen.

~An Ancient Scottish Blessing

Please remember to visit Alex’s new blog: HERE

The furball has promised to write a new-post-a-day.

Sunday Thoughts

O, the sky who turns above our head!
In love of the sun, you share the same mantle with me.
By God you are in love - and I shall tell what reveals your secret:
Inside and out you are radiant and lush.
You do not get soaked in the sea, you are not bound to the earth;
You do not burn in fire, and are not disturbed by the wind.
O the millstone! which is the water that makes you turn?
Tell me! Perhaps you are a wheel made of Iron.
You turn one way and make the earth green [with raindrops] like paradise;
Then you turn the other way and uproot the trees [in storm].
The sun turn the other way and uproot the trees [in a storm].
The sunis a candle and you a moth in action;
Weaving your web around this candle.
You are a pilgrim wearing in Ihram turquoise in color
Like pilgrims you are in circumambulation in Ka'bah.
God said: 'whoever performed Hajj is safe';
O dutiful wheel [of the sky!] you are safe from harm.

Everything is a pretext, there is love and nothing besides love;
Love is the house of God and you are living in that house.
I will say no more, for it is not possible to say;
God knows how much more is in me crying out to be told.

~Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi