Promise me,
promise me this day,
promise me now,
while the sun is overhead
exactly at the zenith,
promise me:

Even as they strike you down
with a mountain of hatred and violence; even as they
step on you and
crush you like a worm, even as they dismember and
disembowel you,
remember, brother, remember: man is not your enemy.

The only thing worthy of you is compassion –
invincible, limitless,
unconditional.
Hatred will never let you face the
beast in man.

One day, when you face this beast alone, with your
courage intact, your
eyes kind, untroubled (even as no one sees them),
out of your smile will
bloom a flower.

And those who love you
will behold you
across ten thousand worlds of
birth and dying.

Alone again,
I will go on with bent head,
knowing that love has become eternal.

On the long, rough road,
the sun and the moon
will continue to shine.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

"Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth." ~Earl Nightingale

This is one of the songs I love most since I was a little girl. It's about love and the impermanence of life for all sentient beings. Very sentimental and spiritual too. The kind of song that could take my soul a way.

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You ABSOLUTELY cannot make everyone happy. (So stop trying.)
 It's a no-win situation. It'll drain you and leave you like a pile of coffee grinds. People will be disappointed for various (often weird) reasons. Sometimes those reasons will make sense, sometimes not. Sometimes those reasons will be fair and sometimes fair is just another word for a place where they have funnel cakes and roller coasters. ~Jennifer Pastiloff, Mindbodygreen

http://leelavadeeflower.blogspot.com/2014/09/you-cant-be-everything-to-everyone-so.html

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When we recognize the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth,
something is born in us, some kind of connection; love is born.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

One of them looks so sleepy, but does not want to give up…

Lacking a shared language, emotions are perhaps our most effective means of cross-species communication. We can share our emotions, we can understand the language of feelings, and that’s why we form deep and enduring social bonds with many other beings. Emotions are the glue that binds. ― Marc Bekoff

We have constructed a system we can’t control. It imposes itself on us, and we become its slaves and victims. We have created a society in which the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, and in which we are so caught up in our own immediate problems that we cannot afford to be aware of what is going on with the rest of the human family or our planet Earth. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Anxiety is the illness of our age. We worry about ourselves,
our family, our friends, our work, and our state of the world.
If we allow worry to fill our hearts, sooner or later we will get sick.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Human beings are a part of the animal kingdom, not apart from it. The separation of “us” and “them” creates a false picture and is responsible for much suffering. It is part of the in-group/out-group mentality that leads to human oppression of the weak by the strong as in ethic, religious, political, and social conflicts. ― Marc Bekoff

Inquisitr, September 14, 2014

A shark attack off of the shores of Santa Cruz County in northern California Saturday left a surfer frightened — but fortunately unharmed, as the Great White shark seemed more interested in his surfboard than in taking a bite out of a human being.

Surfer Beau Browning was riding the waves about 150 feet out to sea at Manresa State Beach shortly before 7 pm September 13, when what he described to local TV station KSBW as a 15-foot Great White shark leaped out of the water and landed squarely on his surfboard.

The shark was so heavy that the surfboard sustained serious cracks and Browning had to dispose of it.

“I caught my second wave, and barely got into it and out of nowhere, I was popped into the air by probably like 10-15 feet, and I looked down and saw a shark,” Browning told the TV station. “He took a bite on the way down.”
Browning said that he was more in danger of drowning than suffering a shark bite, because he remained tethered to the surfboard throughout the surprise shark attack. As a result, he said, when the shark swam away, Browning was dragged under the water for several seconds until the shark freed itself if the surfboard.

Though shaken up by the shark attack, Browning said that he does not bear any ill will toward the shark, or any shark.

“They were just doing what they’re designed to do,” the surfer said. “And they thought I was something else. And that’s all it is. I got no hard feelings against sharks.”

The reported shark attack was only the seventh in Santa Cruz County in the past 88 years. None of the shark attacks has resulted in a human fatality.

A Florida surfer in August was not as lucky as Browning, however. On August 29, 17-year-old Brendan Murphy was attacked by a small shark no more than four feet in length. But the shark gave him a leg wound that required 15 staples. Murphy is still recovering from the shark attack.

Most shark attacks in California have occurred further south than Santa Cruz and adjacent Monterey County. Scientists speculate that the plentiful population of seals and other pinniped animals in the area provides enough food for the local sharks, keeping them away from humans.

I've been busy all day and night. I'll be back to visit some of you before heading out to work. I need to get my one-hour beauty sleep first. Wishing you a most peaceful and beautiful day, with endless smiles. For now, you can listen to my favorite song 😉

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