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"Whoever is spared personal pain must feel himself called to help in diminishing the pain of others. We must all carry our share of the misery which lies upon the world." -Albert Schweitzer

I've been thinking a lot about the imprisoned Baha'is in Iran ever since the news came out that they were to be put on trial. I've been thinking about how strong they are, how steadfast. In the past when Baha'is have been imprisoned they have always been given the option to renounce their faith. I would assume this time is no different. It warms my heart to know they have remained centered in their Faith and love for God.

I have read the letter coming from the sister of one of the imprisoned Baha'is. My heart swells with love and appreciation. " I asked Mahvash what are you doing at the breakfast time during the fast. They give us hot tea and they will warm up the dinner that we have kept from last night. But we have not memorized the Dawn Prayer. Please read it on our behalf and tell people to pray for us during these times. We do feel the warmth of their prayers. Please express our greetings to all."

However, I do not feel that what I gain ends with admiration and personal strength. I do not even think it ends with gratitude and prayerfulness. I believe that through these series of events one can as a community grow stronger and more unified.

When I heard the news of the trial I was visibly upset. Housemates started stopping by, asking what the matter was. I shared with them the history of persecution of Baha'is in Iran and the current situation. The next day two of the girls shared something with me in return. One had told her friends what I had said and they said their prayers were with those in prison. The other had shared it in two of her classes. It was to be a topic of further discussion in at least one.

In the Lawrence community we have had several prayer gatherings for the Baha'is in Iran. It has been incredibly heartening to see that members of other faiths have come to join, no hesitation.

I feel that through these events I have become closer to people in my community. That we have had a new level of understanding of one another.

I continue to think a lot of the situation of the Baha'is in Iran and I continue to share it with others. Not only is it spreading awareness, something vitally important to the protection of these beloved souls, but it is also cultivating a new kind of community.

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3 Quotes that Have Got Love All Wrong

Alright, rest assured this is not some lame (please pronounce la-may) attempt at concealing some lame (pronounce lame) drama in my personal life. No, this was spurred by reading a love quote which is so not descriptive of love. That is why it is number one.

1. "Love means never having to say you're sorry." -love story, 1970

That should really be "Bitter hateful love means never having to say you're sorry because you don't respect the other person enough to tell them you are sorry."

2. "Why do I love you? Because you are and always have been my dream." <<<----I think it's okay if my significant other is not who I always dreamed him to be. Cuz then he would be Aladdin.

3. "Love is like swallowing hot chocolate before it has cooled off. It takes you by surprise at first, but keeps you warm for a long time."

Sometimes I feel like we try too hard at metaphors and such



So if you want an example of some nice love stuff click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-aNJTY6JtM&feature=related

Books books books!!!

So...I saw this everywhere...

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Italicize and bold the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them. (If you have not read The Handmaid's Tale or A Prayer for Owen Meany, please go to your local library right away.)



1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible - God
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. 1984- George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

The Most Vaulable Thing I Teach is the 5 Second Rule

I work with two year olds. Rest assured I am not making a whiny comparison between my co-workers and toddlers. Its just that I work with two year olds (to be precise, kids ages between 24 and 30 months). I have a total of 16 students but no more than 14 on any particular day. That's a lot of potty training. Some days the number of diapers I change gets to the range of 40. For a safer estimate of how many diapers I change, lets say that I change 25 each work day. I work Monday through Friday. That's about 125 a week, about 500 a month. Give or take of course.

That's right, I work at a nursery/daycare/preschool.

The kids are darling and I don't think I could conceive of a better job for me at this moment in my life. The greatest hilarity of my job is my job title. Assitant teacher. Mmmhmm. Teacher. So every day we have circle time (and I know what you are thinking, but no, we don't sit in a circle, we sit ON circles) and learn about different things. We count to ten in English and Spanish, sing the days of the week attempt to talk about colors in English and Spanish, and then we learn something about our theme of the week. This week and next week's themes are A Bug's Life. Then we do art projects revolving around that theme. All that takes about 30 minuntes. Because, hey, remember, they are two.

I don't think that I could have a much better entrance into work. I open the door and I hear a chorus of attempted "Madeline!"s none of which actually come out that way. And then a herd of toddlers running full speed towards me for hugs and kisses. And my exit from work? They leave one by one, blowing kisses and giving hugs and saying,"Byebye, love you Madeline" all in that fantastic toddler accent.

I can't be a good student right now. I mean it. See, for some reason my university site that has all my assignments is down. Since I can't do my homework, I just can't be a good student right now. But that is alright. I'll post instead.

We had a speaker come to my Intro to Education class a while ago. He told us that fifty 80-year olds were interviewed and asked what three things did they wish they had done more of during their lives. I only remember two of them but I feel like that's because they are probably the two best. 1. Reflect more. Reflect more on the good moments you have, replay them, because you don't want to forget them when you need them most, when you are old. 2. Take more risks. The more risks you take the less you will regret and the more great memories you will have to reflect on.

So I've been reflecting a lot lately on fantastic moments I've had. And its been really fun. Now I'm ready to start doing things that scare me. Taking those risks. I've got some fantastical things lined up which I'm looking forward to in that slight scared way.

I realized that many people have these different ways of reaching out to others and encouraging them to do the things they never did. I did a google search and found some websites. Here are snippets of my favorite advices.

Save a life

Remember that a smart and sarcastic response is not called for in every situation!

The greatest source of misery and hatred in this world is clinging to past hurts.

Waiting to do something until you can be sure of doing it exactly right means waiting for ever.

The quickest and simplest way to wreck any relationship is to listen to gossip.

Smoking is just dumb.

Wish I'd valued my work more highly earlier in my career

I wish I had shown more ‘unconditional love and acceptance’ of my family.

I would have eaten more ice cream. There are so many varieties and so little time!

All these mistakes you’re going to make, despite this advice? They’re worth it.





www.bspcn.com/2008/02/18/20-things-i-wish-i-had-known-when-starting-out-in-life/
http://www.lifestorywriting.net/woulda.htm
http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000036.html
http://www.writing.com/main/campfires/item_id/693282

Shells

Surreal is the only word, however overused, that I can think of that can adequately describe my sense of being. Here I was, walking on the beach belonging to Florida's coast, my footsteps slightly slower than this boy I watched grow up. He's nearing thirteen which sounds incredulous to me. His mother comments on how along with this approaching age also comes a somewhat cantankerous attitude. Her choice of words remind me of a species of crab crawling out of its shell ever so slightly before returning to its dark home. In all seriousness we can see this boy being one of the most courteous, family conscious teenagers this side of the Mississippi.
I look down at my feet, the sand runs in and out between my toes and the waves lick my calves. Broken pieces of shell cover the ground like a mosaic. I look above me a ways and see the pieces make a design. At the very beginning of the beach they are whole shells, this subsides into large pieces which eventually breakdown into tiny pieces almost but not quite resembling sand. Once you are able to wade in the ocean, the shells are whole again. I pick one up.
It is my mother's shell. It isn't as whole and perfect as I wish it could be, but it belongs to her. While wet, the black, grey and white seem to mix perfectly into a marble. I smile as I grasp the shell in my palm. I glance at the sun which is not quite ready to make its rapid descent. I have time. I climb up the sand towards the full shells and smile at the boy as he runs a little too far into the ocean. There! I see it, it is such a strangely shaped shell, certainly not one that would be sold in a shop. It has rounded spikes colored coral and purple, white masking the rest. 'Werf' is the word that passes through my mind when I pick it up and it is Afsaneh's.
I glance up and breathe in the semi-salty air. I am almost positive that I am one of tens of thousands of people who have made the comparison, but holding these shells in my hand I cannot help but think that they resemble people. They are washed ashore as whole shells and gradually break down and return to the ocean. Each shell is an individual,though you might see several clam shells they are all different.
This thought ran rampant in my mind and I saw a blindingly white shell, perfection. That is what I want to grace her life, its been a difficult several months, so this shell is hers.
I knew that I could walk forever on this beach naming a shell for every person in my life but I stopped. My name was being called, my attention drawn to the sunset. Our eyes darted over the horizon wondering if the dolphins remembered their cue of the falling sun. I turned to his father, speechless for several breaths. His smile rippled into laughter at my obvious excitement of this moment. I know I am hooked. Hooked on this feeling of ecstasy and ease that took me over from my limbs to my soul. I feel if I stayed here long enough that I could find the whole meaning of life in that ocean.

The Answer to the Question that Hasn't Been Asked

sitting on a ledge
legs swinging to tap out the beat
of confusion and pain
and I see you on the other
side of this chasm
back turned towards me
though this is nothing to do with me
wish I could finish this bridge that we started
but the pieces we valued seem to fall through
and break
my mind gets worse, most every sentence broken down
rearranged before understood
I'm exhausted from this circus of thought
but I will gladly shoulder any speech you would hand me
Arm stretches out,
trying to help you
wanting you to know how endlessly I love you
Its always autumn that causes the fall
know this and treasure our summer
but like the 1950's husband
you leave me in my home
mind only on business
I take the dishes and throw them off my ledge
watch them fall
wonder when they'll shatter