Man is timid and apologetic;

he is no longer upright; 

he dares not say "I think," "I am," 

but quotes some saint or sage.

 He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. 

These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. 

There is no time to them. 

There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. 

Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less.

 Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike. 

But man postpones or remembers; 

he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past

or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. 

He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time

 How dare men call God infinite, and yet try to compress Him within the covers of a little book

 Power attracts pathological personalities. 

It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible

  If The Atheist Truly Did Not Believe, He Would Not Bother To Deny

the religious people — most of them — really think this planet is an experiment.

That's what their beliefs come down to. 

Some god or other is always fixing and poking, 

messing around with tradesmen's wives, 

giving tablets on mountains, 

commanding you to mutilate your children, 

telling people what words they can say and what words they can't say, 

making people feel guilty about enjoying themselves, 

and like that.

Why can't the gods leave well enough alone? 

All this intervention speaks of incompetence. 

If God didn't want Lot's wife to look back, why didn't he make her obedient, so she'd do what her husband told her? 

Or if he hadn't made Lot such a shithead, maybe she would've listened to him more. 

If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn't he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? 

Why's he constantly repairing and complaining? 

No, there's one thing the Bible makes clear: 

The biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. 

He's not good at design, 

He's not good at execution.

He'd be out of business if there was any competition

“But for me the sweetest contact with God has no form. 

I close my eyes, look within, and enter a deep soft silence. 

The infinity of God's creation embraces me.”

― Michael Jackson

 Nobody has ever been in an empty room 

 

The first teacher never went to school 

Words that do not appear in the Bible

 Trinity

Rapture

Second Coming

Original Sin

Omniscience, 

Omnipresence, 

Supernatural,

Transcendence, 

Afterlife, 

Deity, 

Divinity, 

Theology, 

Monotheism, 

Missionary, 

Immaculate Conception, 

Christmas, 

Christianity, 

Evangelical, 

Fundamentalist, 

Methodist, 

Catholic, 

Pope, 

Cardinal, 

Catechism, 

Purgatory, 

Penance, 

Transubstantiation, 

Excommunication, 

Dogma, 

Chastity, 

Unpardonable Sin, 

Infallibility, 

Inerrancy, 

Incarnation, 

Epiphany, 

Sermon, 

Eucharist, 

the Lord's Prayer,

 Good Friday, 

Doubting Thomas, 

Advent, 

Sunday School, 

Dead Sea, 

Golden Rule, 

Moral, 

Morality, 

Ethics, 

Patriotism, 

Education, 

Atheism, 

Apostasy, 

Conservative (Liberal is in), 

Capital Punishment, 

Monogamy, 

Abortion, 

Pornography, 

Homosexual, 

Lesbian, 

Fairness, 

Logic, 

Republic, 

Democracy, 

Capitalism, 

Funeral, 

Decalogue, 

or Bible

 When an infection destroys a cell, the surrounding cells signal each other to wall it off. 

They isolate the infected cell to prevent it from spreading and harming other parts of your body. The isolation is temporary but important. It gives your body time to trigger your immune system and stop the infection from spreading. Until isolation is no longer needed. 

Much like the cells in our body, humans often isolate to avoid harm.

The truth is, no single part of the body can thrive on its own. Your organs work together as a system. They'll compensate for each other when one gets weak. 

People can do the same for each other, stepping up when someone else is down. 

Isolating ourselves often makes us feel more alone. 

We're usually better together,

 even when we're struggling.

Years ago, a New York physician discovered a gene mutation that causes congenital insensitivity to pain, or CIP. It's an extremely rare condition that blocks people from feeling pain. 

Sounds good in theory, but pain is important. It tells the body when it's in danger and helps keep it alive. 

Put your hand in fire, get burned and you learn not to do it again. 

Or, put another way, living hurts. 

As long as you're hurting, you're living. We know this. 

Pain is an excellent teacher. 

And life is full of sayings that remind us of its upsides:

 "Growing pains. Labor pains. Happy tears. So good it hurts." 

Pain warns us. It protects us. 

And most of all, pain makes us appreciate life's pleasures. 

Cherish good company, good health, savor the moments after the hurting, when you're all better, pain free. 

At least for a while.

 

In 1963, Dr. Thomas Starzl performed the first five liver transplants. 

One patient bled to death on the operating table. The other four died within days. As a result, the operation was considered too dangerous to be performed on humans and liver transplantation was suspended worldwide for the next four years. 

It wasn't exactly an auspicious start for a surgery that has saved countless lives. 

Progress doesn't happen overnight and setbacks are all but inevitable. Sometimes, it can make you feel like Sisiphus, endlessly pushing the same boulder on the same hill. 

But where we would be if doctor Starzl hadn't persevered to perfect the liver transplant, if he had let the setbacks win? 

As tempting as it can be to throw in the towel, sometimes you have to take the obstacles as they come and find a new path forward.

 

At the height of the Great Depression, Harvard scientists started tracking students in hopes of discovering the key to a long and happy life. They looked at participants' mental and physical health over 75 years. It is the longest study of happiness to date. 75 years and all they did was confirm what we've known since the beginning of time. The most powerful predictor of health and happiness is the quality if our relationships. Strong relationships protect us. Loneliness, on the other hand, can be deadly. Over the course of our lives, our relationships ebb and flow. We get together, break up, move away, or fall out of touch. It's prolonged periods of loneliness and toxicity that wreak havoc on our health, our brain function, and our longevity. Sometimes, being alone can be so terrifying that we trap ourselves in harmful relationships. But in order to really thrive, you've got to be ready to cut and run. Your life just might depend on it.

 

Researchers say the average length of a dream is two to three minutes. 

But many people experience their dreams as hours, if they can remember them at all. 

The science of dreaming has been questioned for hundreds of years. Some hypothesize that dreams are our way of processing real events that occur when we're awake. They may also serve as an outlet for repressed hopes and desires. 

Neuroscientists introduce a new theory every few years. 

But honestly, no one knows why we dream or why we have nightmares. 

We just hope that after the dream, we wake up. 

Some people spend their lives trying to make a dream come true. They set a goal, then make a plan on how to achieve it. It works for some people. 

for others, it's not so easy. 

As hard as you work towards the dream, it can feel like the whole world is plotting against you. As you get further away from it, you cling to any sign of hope. And the longer it takes and the more it costs you, you start to consider whether you should give up.

 Do you find a new dream? 

Or do you stick to the one that started you on this journey in the first place?

 Oh to be in England 

now that April's here 

April

 

April

 

The Romans gave this month the Latin name Aprilis but the derivation of this name is uncertain. The traditional etymology is from the verb aperire, "to open", in allusion to its being the season when trees and flowers begin to "open", which is supported by comparison with the modern Greek use of άνοιξη (ánixi) (opening) for spring. Since some of the Roman months were named in honor of divinities, and as April was sacred to the goddess Venus, her Veneralia being held on the first day, it has been suggested that Aprilis was originally her month Aphrilis, from her equivalent Greek goddess name Aphrodite (Aphros), or from the Etruscan name Apru. Jacob Grimm suggests the name of a hypothetical god or hero, Aper or Aprus

April was the second month of the earliest Roman calendar, before Ianuarius and Februarius were added by King Numa Pompilius about 700 BC. It became the fourth month of the calendar year (the year when twelve months are displayed in order) during the time of the decemvirs about 450 BC, when it was 29 days long. The 30th day was added back during the reform of the calendar undertaken by Julius Caesar in the mid-40s BC, which produced the Julian calendar.

The Anglo-Saxons called April ēastre-monaþ. The Venerable Bede says in The Reckoning of Time that this month ēastre is the root of the word Easter. He further states that the month was named after a goddess Eostre whose feast was in that month.

April's birthstone is the diamond. The birth flower is the common daisy (Bellis perennis) or the sweet pea.

The zodiac signs are Aries (until April 19) and Taurus (April 20 onward)

April

 

April 

I open wide the portals of the Spring 
To welcome the procession of the flowers, 
With their gay banners, and the birds that sing 
Their song of songs from their aerial towers.
 
I soften with my sunshine and my showers 
The heart of earth; with thoughts of love I glide 
Into the hearts of men; and with the Hours 
Upon the Bull with wreathed horns I ride.