Kindness is considered to be one of the Knightly virtues, and is a recognized value in many cultures and religions. In the dictionary it is described as "the quality of being warmhearted and considerate and humane and sympathetic"

Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, but because you are.  ~Author Unknown

Kindness is not just action. Action on its own can come from many different motivations, and none of them compassionate. There’s a BIG difference between people giving to make themselves look good or out of obligation, and giving because you have compassion for those who need what you give.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion.  ~Dalai Lama

Kindness is something you can be taught but genuine kindness stems from the heart, the soul. Whether it be opening a door, paying for someones order in a drive-thru, a simple smile and some friendly conversation, a simple gesture of kindness can warm even the coldest heart.

Today, give a stranger one of your smiles.  It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.  ~Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

It saddens me when I try to remember the last time I saw someone display a random genuine act of kindness towards a stranger. Fear tends to cast shadows over contact with strangers. The media makes money by promoting fear, fear sells. It is time that we started listening to our own instincts and stopped listening to factors that are only concerned with profiting off of our insecurities. Your instinct is a very sharp tool. Trust in your instinct and you are not likely to be wrong.

It is time that we started to bring back the community spirit in our society. It is time to open your heart and your eyes to the things/people around you. Take a moment out of our day to do something positive for someone in the community whether it be a family member, a stranger, a neighbour. The impact of your kindness can be astonishing, amazing and breathtaking.

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

Mood: SORROW IN MY HEART

My heart aches for the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre and their families. Really and truly. And I know in light of this tragedy that my opinion on the matter is pretty irrelevant. I have no understanding of what it’s like to experience any of this first hand. I can only look on in horror and wonder why with the rest of the world.

We may be separated by a continent, but my heart and spirit are with you all during this tragedy and its aftermath.

 

The actions of campus security, school administration, teachers, classmates, mental health professionals, and law enforcement are under the microscope. My heart aches for these folks too. That they spend even one sleepless night wondering if they could have done something to prevent this is an additional tragedy.

The truth is that there are very dark corners of society that we all turn a blind eye to each day because we have to for our own survival. Just read the statistics of child abuse, domestic violence, hunger, human rights violations, AIDS, or any of the countless other ways that mankind is suffering if you doubt this. I believe that one person can make a difference, but there is only so much one person can do on their own. We’re in this together

I offer my prayers and deepest condolences to those who are affected by this. I pray that somehow healing will come to a hurting community. I mourn with them.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!   

I have so many different things on my mind, worries, fretting I am....it seems my mind is constantly running like a hampster in its circle. Running but getting nowehere. I should be smarter, stop, look down at each laid out stone before me, one by one deal with the worries and put them to the past, pick them up and toss them away, but I don't or I can't, I'm not sure what the case is. I just keep running, stepping momentarily on a worry, enough to let it penetrate me, and then I take another step and land on a whole different issue to wrap around my mind.. You;d think eventually I would run out of these stepping stones, that eventually they would seem small or be so routine they no longer affect me, but each step I take I look down and there it is, something to worry about, a decision to be made, an issue to attend to, yet nothing gets tended to, I only seem to add more stones......woe is me

Today (saturday) was Shutdown Day, and as you can see I have failed. Actually, I failed at about 6 a.m. Then around 7:30. Followed again at around 9. Maybe once more at 10:30. And each of the many more times I logged onto my computer today, checked e-mail or just surfed around aimlessly, looking for something to read.

I’m such a loser. I admit it.

I could not go 24 hours without plugging in. I’d have a hard time lasting for 24 minutes some days. Heck, I didn’t even bother trying to make it through Shutdown Day. I didn’t have a chance. I’m an Internet junkie. Maybe others may have it worse than I do. Although I can’t imagine it. If you’re online more than I am then you really need to get a life.

I check and send messages from everywhere and anywhere, constantly. From my car. From theatres. From the middle of meetings. From stores. Walking through malls. Visiting relatives. From the dinner table. The Niagara Falls Review parking lot. In the middle of conversations with other people. From arenas. Baseball stadiums. Trains. Get this. I’ve sent an e-mail to someone while talking on the phone … to the person I just sent the e-mail to.

But as you can see, it would have been fruitless for me to even try to get involved with this Shutdown Day nonsense. It would have been the ultimate exercise in futility. It was a goofy idea anyway.

So a couple of guys in Montreal decided they wanted to demonstrate the world’s addiction to their modems. The planet is hooked. Stop the presses. They issue a challenge to get people to stay off their computers for one day? Kiss my hard drive. My relationship with my MacBook is between Apple and me, thank you very much.

In all seriousness, I believe I could step away from my computer if needed. Truth is, I don’t want to. It’s a miraculous tool for entertainment, for communication, for information, for research, for killing time. Given a choice between the television and the computer, I’d take the computer every time.

For work, it really is a matter of life and death. All right, that’s overstating the case. But it is essential. Internet or server crashes send newsrooms into hand-wringing fits. Blood pressures rise. Tempers grow short. And we curse our dependence on these little boxes with the flashing lights. But there is no getting around it: Computers and the Internet are our lifeblood. I don’t know many businesses these days that aren’t the same.

Michael Taylor, one of the organizers of Shutdown Day (www.shutdownday.org ), says he used to be obsessed with his computer. He realized he had to make a change when he was missing meals because he was too busy online. I guess I can understand that. You’ve truly got a problem if what’s new on YouTube or MySpace takes priority over food.

Fortunately, that isn’t a problem for me, I eat infront of my PC too

Mood: Perplexed

 

 

an immaculate presentation

Eager I devour them

One by one

Swallowing them whole

Your lies like an appetizer

TWO FRIENDS
WERE WALKING
THROUGH THE DESERT.
DURING SOME POINT OF THE
JOURNEY, THEY HAD AN
ARGUMENT; AND ONE FRIEND
SLAPPED THE
OTHER ONE
IN THE FACE.

THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED
WAS HURT,
BUT WITHOUT
SAYING ANYTHING,
WROTE IN THE SAND:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.

THEY KEPT ON WALKING,
UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS,
WHERE THEY DECIDED
TO TAKE A
BATH


THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN
SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE
MIRE AND
STARTED DROWNING,
BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM.

AFTER HE RECOVERED
FROM
THE NEAR DROWNING,
HE W ROTE ON A STONE:

"TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE ".

THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED
AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND
ASKED HIM, "AFTER I HURT YOU,
YOU WROTE IN THE SAND AND NOW,
YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?"

THE FRIEND REPLIED
"WHEN SOMEONE HU RTS US
WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN
IN SAND, WHERE WINDS OF
FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY.
BUT,
WHEN SOMEONE DOES
SOMETHING GOOD FOR US,
WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN
STONE WHERE NO WIND
CAN EVER ERASE IT."

LEARN TO WRITE
YOUR HURTS IN
THE SAND AND TO
CARVE YOUR
BENEFITS IN
STONE.

Mood: happy

YAY I made it to the top 25 in the video competition I am in! Three days left so if you didn't or hell even if ya did vote for me already, read my post fron Feb 12th n vote for me again!

Hugs n Kisses

Christin

Mood: Cranky-Maybe its PMS haha

The last few weeks this website has become a place not to enjoy friendships and laughs and harmless flirting but a place for people to sling nastiness back and forth. I am finding myself at the tail end of that merely for voicing my opinions. The drama is unbearable to me as I try to live my life with a big happy smile. I try not to let anything bring me down but have found as of late the one place I thought I could have some fun and relax, vent my feelings and enjoy the company of nice people is the one place that is bringing me down. I've even found myself the subject of other peoples blogs, which perhaps is what set the following chain of events in motion.

I have decided today that I need to take a break from this drama. I am not sure for how long, maybe a day, maybe a week, maybe forever, For my closest friends here, and you know who you are, I will try to come n answer your emails and keep you up to date on the happenings in my life and up to date on yours, but for everyone else, forgive me if I don't reply to your emails during this time.

I just need a break from this place and the drama it is causing and hopefully when I come back, it'll be the way I remember it once was. A good place. A happy place where people lift you up instead of trying to hold you down.

Hope everyone understands that I just need a break from it all and I wil be back sometime.

 

Hugs  N Kisses

Christin