Admittedly, I launched into this read with a critical editor’s eye toward some stylistic choices. I even groaned a bit thinking it was going to be another “speak/do good and it’ll all come back to you” formula for . . . getting books published perhaps, but not necessarily for helping this woman tap into her strongest life. Then I began to stumble over some memorable lines of succinct applicability to my journey and I underlined my way through to completion. I was impressed with the author’s earnest use of research and his determined push to aid his readers with his experience and understanding. Yes. A guy wrote this . . . for women . . . and it’s refreshingly insightful! I would not go so far as to say it touched on the breadth of my experiences and challenges. However, he does tackle the common cross-sections of female endeavor and teaches the reader how to approach life more realistically from an imbalance. Yep! He quickly dispels with the notion that happiness and a strong life grow out of achieving balance! Buckingham dispels other notions about strengths and weaknesses, which left me with fresh perspective on how to focus on who I am and move toward my strongest, most effective and fulfilled self!

He couldn’t make out what he was looking at.

Just that it was far off.

He couldn’t be sure when he’d catch up to it.

Just that it would be at great cost.

I despise murderous despots, but I also dislike and fear world courts, not because they are inherently wrong, but b/c they are so susceptible to the same thing that has plagued the UN, w/c originally was created out of lofty idealism. The main problem is they tend to be devoid of having any absolute moral foundation to determine right and wrong. And even if there is a commonly held moral foundation among the participants, such international bodies have a tendency to spiral very quickly into a free-for-all, abandoning the principles that inspired its creation and that should govern its existence, as participants adopt whatever is convenient or advantageous for its selfish interests. Considering the current state of things in our world, a world court is essentially going to be nothing more than a zoo filled w/ monkeys, snakes, asses, turkeys, and other slimy, stinky, dumb animals. For that reason, I do not like world courts.

I’m wondering when educated Americans became so profane (common, vulgar, rejecting worth). Such a repeat of failed histories past. Such devolution. So unlearned. So disintegrating.

Why hel-lo there!
Welcome back to reality.
We hope you’ve enjoyed your ride!
With all its loop-de-doops, made-up turns and sugary sides.

Well, now. Please step back in
to yourself.
feel the sun on your skin;
and forget how cotton candy felt.

Reality calls.
You must return.
Knock down your walls;
You’ve a lot to learn.

Watch your step as you go!
Have a nice day.
And please … don’t come back.

(c) 2008

Social Justice is manifested as the fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the *natural law* that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice.

If your heart (or mine) contains prejudice or lacks a clearly objective adherence to natural law, then any motivation or attempt to enact socially just laws, or to properly administer the same, would be tainted, breached; and, therefore, inadequate to achieve social justice – no matter how altruistic the collective aim.

In short: toss out natural law, strive in vain for an equality under the law that has integrity in all four corners and along the edges.

“I want someone to laugh with me, someone to be grave with me, someone to please me and help my discrimination with his or her own remark, and at times, no doubt, to admire my acuteness and penetration.”

 ~ RB

Bless the Christ, Who alone is sovereign.

Bless us all for being given yet another night. Bless the morning for bringing in yet another year. And sight. Bless us all while we sleep; visions of glory may we seek. And when we wake in ‘09, help us live only for Thine!

The Son of God took on flesh and dwelt among us. He came with one purpose … and set His face like flint to accomplish it. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t comfortable. It was far far from pain free. But He willingly died … to bridge a gap. He died because God, our Father, missed us.  God Himself wanted to be in relationship with us again. God needs us. God, Who needs no thing (nothing), needs us.  He desires to commune with His beloved. He intended all along for us to be together.  He pursued. He did not settle for a temporary fix or a weekend visit. He doesn’t do joint custody. He wasn’t looking for a one time party or a chance to walk down the memory lane of history. He fully intended to secure our communion for all eternity; to sacrifice now for that forever feast soon to come. He was never going to be satisfied with a distant relationship. He had to have us with Him.  So He came to be with us. Emmanuel – God with us. He fought for us in the only Way He could … in the only Way that would bridge the gap truly, finally and forever. He conquered death to be with us always. He was, He is; He came, He conquered, He’s coming again. His ways are not our ways. He is full of mystery, tender mercies, graciousness & compassion. When we are no longer bound by time or space … “He is” will be with us. He only wants to know you. He wants a relationship. He will not settle for less than love. He is love. He defines love. Love is His standard. Love’s standard is Him. He reigns and a King does not eat scraps. Where oh death is your sting? He lives. It is accomplished. Come to the feast. Turn toward Home … 

I bring you Good News of great joy, for all people …   

Love lives. Love unchanging. Love singular, complete, &  exclusive.

Love has come; Love bought you back from a death sentence; and Love – Well, at the consummation of time (to all who have welcomed Him), He’s coming back! Good News!

Death, crushing, powder, dust.

Life, resurrecting, form, flesh.

There is nothing new under the heavens.

Yet, One makes all things new.

Nothing more. Just One.

One Way, One Truth, One Life.

One long road, made of vapor.

A short stretch to neverending

Life.

Skip, skip, skip to my lou, my darlin’ !!

If my great fiddler grandfather were alive, I’d ask him to play me a jig! But he’s having one grand party himself these neverending days!

Ah yes … one day closer to the neverending! Skip to my Lou my Darlin’ …

Cholera: The word that leaves even Mugabe fearful

James McGee, the US ambassador to Zimbabwe, put the number of confirmed cholera deaths at a minimum of 294, and warned that the true toll was greater. “The overall health and food situation is frankly intolerable,” he said. “Clinics in the countryside are unable to operate and are turning patients away. In some places, police have been stationed outside clinics to ensure that no-one can enter.”

Mike Dziruni, who lives in the Harare township of Glen Norah, watched his nieces, Maria and Bridget Dziruni, 24 and 21, die from cholera.

He said: “It is the water we drink and the raw sewage that flows like rivers in our streets that made them sick. We don’t have clean water. The government is failing us. It says we should eat hot food and boil water, but we don’t have electricity and firewood is too expensive to heat food or water.”

Médecins Sans Frontières, one of the few international non-governmental organisations still operating in Zimbabwe, said 1.5 million people were at risk of cholera.

The Zimbabwean Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR), blaming the Mugabe government for the catastrophe, appealed for international intervention and aid.

There are no precise statistics for the epidemic: government offices are not functioning and there is no-one to collect figures or to register births and deaths, because the infrastructure has collapsed.

Primrose Matambanadzo, the ZADHR co-ordinator, said: “We cannot continue to watch helplessly while patients die in thousands.”

State hospitals in Harare, the capital, have closed after staff walked off the job over abysmal pay, horrendous working conditions and a chronic lack of essential drugs and medical materials. Most hospitals have been turning people away and most local clinics are closed.

Some wonder if this may be the disaster that finally brings down Robert Mugabe, the president. He cannot counteract the epidemic because he has presided over the total collapse of Zimbabwe’s infrastructure, and has chosen international isolation over rescue bids.

Three high-profile members of Nelson Mandela’s group, the Elders, will today visit Zimbabwe to assess the escalating humanitarian crisis. However, Mr Mugabe said yesterday that the Elders would not be welcome and he would not meet them.

“I wonder if they’ll even get into the country,” one observer commented.

Termites for teas as Zimbabwe suffers

CHILDREN near Murehwa prod sticks into a termite mound to draw out insects to eat, sweeping them into a bag for their family’s evening meal.

Famine is taking hold as Zimbabwe’s economy is in crisis, and a political deadlock has left the nation without a functioning government since disputed elections in March.

A power-sharing deal signed two months ago has stalled over the allocation of ministries between Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change.

Meanwhile, the people find other ways to stave off hunger pains, such as picking up single corn kernels spilled from trucks that ferry the harvest to market. Shingirayi Chiyamite is a trader from Harare who brings household goods to the countryside to barter for crops. A 12in bar of laundry soap is exchanged for 22lb of corn.

He crisscrosses the land in search of the few villages that have corn to spare, hauls his purchases to the highway and hitchhikes back to the city. Some of the corn will feed his family, the rest he sells. He is constantly on the move. “If you rest, you starve,” he says.

In a school in Doma where the class size has dwindled from 20 to four, parents pay those teachers still willing to work in corn, cooking oil, goats or chickens. One trip by bus to the nearest bank to draw their government salaries costs more than teachers earn in a month.

• Last Updated: 21 November 2008 11:32 PM
• Source: The Scotsman
• Location: Edinburgh