Though we all have the fear and the seeds of anger within us,
we must learn not to water those seeds and instead nourish
our positive qualities – those of compassion, understanding,
and loving kindness.
~Thich Nhat Hanh

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Kyle and Max at the camp, day 1. They stay there three days.
Hmmm…. I have no clue why Kyle dressed up like this!
Max looks bored, Kyle looks lost!

The very first time AJ knocked on my door and brought me many string beans, with a big smile!
“A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside.”  ~Denis Waitley

The lady only sold us two lotus plants, after begging her to sell them to us for many days, maybe months! Now, one has been stolen already, especially the large and beautiful and healthy one. I have been waiting for the flower to appear right before my eyes, as pink as the shirt I am wearing, as a surprise to make my smile more beautiful and meaningful. Well, I love pink and pink lotus so much, that’s why I wear pink almost every day. And I wear yellow too, of course, not just pink! Well, my plant is so beautiful. Cannot blame the person who stole it, or took it without our permission. Who does not love that super gorgeous green plant! I would cry if, and only if I know how to cry. The problem is, I was born to smile, and I only know how to smile!

Well, whoever took my lotus plant, please take good care of it. You must keep your eyes on this gorgeous plant wide open, in case someone else would sneak in to take that a way, same way you did to Jendhamuni.

By Jennifer Welsh, Business Insider
August 22, 2014

Humans are no newcomers when it comes to messing around with nature. While we haven’t created Frankenstein’s monster yet, what we do messes with the natural world. One recent example is the creation of the coywolf — a hybrid of the coyote and the wolf that is also known as the Eastern coyote.

These animals have a completely new genetic make up: Their genes are about 1/4 wolf DNA and 2/3 coyote DNA, the rest is from domesticated dogs. They were created when previously separate wolf and coyote populations merged in the land north of the Great Lakes.

 Here’s the coyote, which traditionally maxes out at 75 pounds and has pointier features, and readily populates cities:

And this is what a wolf looks like. Wolves, are usually bigger, weighing in at about 100 pounds, and prefer more wild habitats.

While the grey wolf and the coyote are each other’s closest living
relatives, the two animals separated evolutionarily one to two million
years ago. These hybrids have only really emerged en force during the
last few decades, as wolves were hunted and forced north and coyotes
moved east from the Great Plains.

According to the New York Times’ Moises Velazquez-Manoff: “[The
coywolf] can be as much as 40 percent larger than the Western coyote,
with powerful wolflike jaws; it has also inherited the wolf’s more
social nature, which allows for pack hunting.”

Specifically,
this genetic combination of the two animals seems especially well
suited to its northern habitat — better suited than either parent
species. The wolf genes allow the coyote to take down bigger prey, while
the coyote genes let them adapt to cityscapes and other metropolitan
areas.

To study the hybrids better, scientists went
ahead and made some 50/50 hybrids in the lab, mating female coyotes with
male grey wolves. That’s not exactly like the wild coywolves, but it’s
similar. And gives scientists a better idea of how successful a mating
between the two species would be. While two pregnancies didn’t result in
live offspring, one litter created six puppies.

Here’s the result:

Generally the hybridization of species gives evolution something to work with to deal with tough times. When food is low because of climate change or your habitat is being destroyed by humans, these animals can turn out to be tougher or more adaptable than their parent species (though many aren’t and many turn out to be sterile).

So, how did these hybrids come to be? Well, as Velazquez-Manoff writes in the New York Times magazine:

The emergence of the Eastern coyote, however, shows how human activity can break down the barriers that separate species. Perhaps the most obvious way in which humanity is altering the natural world is through climate change. The Arctic, where its effects are especially evident, is warming between two and four times as fast as the rest of the planet. Spring thaws now arrive weeks earlier; winter freezes come weeks later. Shrubs are invading once-barren tundra. Animals at high latitudes — where related species tend to have diverged more recently and can therefore interbreed more easily — are shifting their ranges in response to rising temperatures and melting sea ice. As they do, they may encounter cousins and hybridize.

This is what a wild coywolf looks like. This one was spotted in West Virginia.

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Today is a brand new day and yesterday has gone away.
So make today a better day and don’t let anyone come in the way.
Even if they do, stand firm with who you are coz’ it’s your life, it’s your day.

Poem title: A brand new day, written by Chloe Pierson

Your choice to move on emotionally. – Don’t let past relationships and old mistakes ruin your future. Don’t let someone or something that didn’t make it in your life continue to hurt you. If you do, you’re still giving a portion of your life to something that no longer exists – it’s like letting your happiness slip into a black hole. Learn the lesson, release the pain, and move on. Scars remind us of where we have been, not where we are headed. ~Marcandangel

Plenty of women would prefer a phone call over a text from guys they’re dating, yet they don’t realize a very simple method exists to getting less texts and more calls: Don’t text him back.

I know, I know, such a suggestion will strike many as foolish or even insane in our text-addicted society, yet it really all goes back to incentives and human behavior. What we reward, we get more of. When you respond to texts you wish were phone calls, guess what you’ll get? More texts. Less calls.

You’ll also get more time wasters, and less serious contenders in your dating pool. Why? Because not texting men back is the ultimate means of separating those who are really into you from those who are kinda, sorta, maybe-if-it’s-easy interested in you, at least until something better comes along.

Think about it. If a guy who’s really smitten with you texts you and doesn’t get a text back, what will happen? He will pick up the phone and call. It’s the same with you. Let’s say you texted a colleague to confirm a sales meeting you were supposed to attend. If you didn’t hear back, you wouldn’t just shrug it off and forget about it. If it was important to you to get to the meeting to make your pitch, you’d call until you nailed things down. Conversely, let’s say the meeting wasn’t that important, or it conflicted with another, better lead — sure, then maybe you’d let it go.

Same thing with dating. The guy who truly wants to see you, may text initially, but if he doesn’t hear back, he’ll call. Many women fear that if they don’t text back, they’ll lose a guy. And, yes, you will shake off those with lukewarm interest in you, which is a very productive and time-efficient thing to do: You’ve avoided wasting time on and possibly getting hurt by Mr. Maybe.
Too many women think not texting back invites dating mishaps and disasters — but it actually prevents such. Example: An ex-boyfriend of mine, kind of on-again-off-again, was trying to get things “on again” with me, and had set up a dinner date with me by e-mail. The day of the date, he texted me to confirm. I didn’t text back. The date didn’t happen. Disaster — or disaster avoided? Definitely the latter! His lack of interest was why our relationship was always so difficult — or to use the common euphemism, “complicated.” But finally, with non-texting, I was able to put an end to the whole stupid time-wasting nonsense. It’s really, really, not that complicated.

On the other hand, if he’s strongly attracted to you, he’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, make excuses for you — as in “Oh, she’s not a texter” or “Maybe she didn’t get my text.” Indeed, as I’ve seen time and time again in my practice as a dating coach, if a contender is already starting out with a high level of interest in you, not texting back will pique — not dilute — that interest.

This is why the authors of The Rules, Ellen & Sherrie Schneider, encourage women to avoid texting. They rightly point out that if you’re texting back and forth, you’re way too available. There’s no mystery, no distance for him to pursue, if all he has to do it punch a keypad for you to respond.

That said, I know that for many even extremely practiced and disciplined Rules Girls, the “no texting” rule can be one of the most challenging to follow. I hear the complaint all the time: “But we live in a texting world. Everyone texts.”

But the fact that everyone – every girl, to be precise – does text is, perhaps, the strongest case for why YOU should not. After all, Rule #1 is all about “Being a Creature Unlike Any Other.” If every other creature out there is texting – and sexting – on a constant basis, what a simple, elegant way for you to separate yourself from the competition. Take it to the bank, girls: If he really likes you, he WILL call you. No exceptions.

Jag Carrao, Dating and relationship coach
Source:Huffingtonpost