Sorry Max. I had to crop you out in this photo!

http://leelavadeeflower.blogspot.com/2014/08/home-is-where-heart-can-laugh.html

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Max thinks he’s a human. Been trying to take everyone’s shoes
and pants this whole week. Yesterday, as soon as I got out of the car,
Max ran straight to me to grab my shoes and wouldn’t give me back!

The art of knowing is knowing what to ignore.

 Patience is not sitting and waiting, it is foreseeing. It is looking at the thorn and seeing the rose, looking at the night and seeing the day. Lovers are patient and know that the moon needs time to become full.

― Rumi

It’s hard to be happy when past events or situations haunt your present. Maybe you said or did something that you regret or you failed to take action when you should have. So, you beat yourself up day after day, not letting go because you feel like you need to punish yourself and remind yourself that you failed.

Kids don’t do this to themselves. In fact, not only do they seem to have the ability to forget about yesterday, they often forget about what happened five minutes ago.

Sure, you don’t want to let go of things without learning from them. So, pick out the lesson and then put in on the shelf in your memory bank. Let it start to collect dust because you’ve taken what you need from it and now it’s time to walk on. It’s done its job so let it go.

Source: YouQueen

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Just be yourself

Kids have a great knack for being who they are regardless of who is watching. That’s evidenced by the number of times you see them walking with a weird step just because it’s fun or jumping around like a crazy animal because they’re excited.

Can you imagine yourself responding to things the way you want to instead of the way you feel you should? What’s stopping you? So what others may think you’re a touch of crazy if you scream out of excitement when something positive happens or do a happy dance when you’re feeling giddy? The truth is that they’ll probably actually envy you for being who you are and wish that they were able to do the same.

Let yourself respond to life the way you want to respond. Don’t worry about other people’s interpretations of you. Just be yourself and you’ll be much happier.

Source: YouQueen

Photo source: behindmydesk.com

Coconuts contain white, juicy flesh and a delicious drink commonly called “coconut water.” These nuts grow on the tropical coconut palm (Cocos nucifera), known as “the tree of life,” which reaches up to 30 meters in height and provides not only food, but also clothing, building materials and wood. Unusual uses for coconut shells include the construction of gas masks.

Household Items
After the nuts are split in two and the edible meat is removed, the cleaned and dried shells provide a variety of household utensils. These include ready-made drinking vessels, bowls for cooking and eating as well as a variety of spoons and ladles. With a little carving, coconut shells are crafted into salad servers and even hookahs for smoking tobacco. Highly decorated versions of these everyday utensils, as well as purses, picture frames and rattles, (often featuring the name of the area) are purchased by visitors as mementos of their travels to regions such as southern Asia where the coconut palm grows plentifully.

Fuel
Coconuts provide nourishment in the form of meat, oil and water, as well as the means to cook up a meal. The untreated coconut shells (either used whole or cut into sections), burn quickly and make a hot cooking fire. In countries like India, which is the world’s biggest producer and exporter of coconut products, empty coconut shells are used to make charcoal bricks for cooking. This process involves burning the cut up shells in a low-oxygen environment which removes most of the moisture and creates a light-weight, long-burning product that is easy to export.

Photo source: wasilablog.com

Aquariums
Coconut shells are used as small caves for aquariums and make especially good hideaways for female fish escorting fry.  Home aquarium enthusiasts with a squid in the tank can try adding a couple of halved coconut shells in the hope of observing new phenomena. According to National Geographic, octopuses near the Indonesian coast were observed cleverly using two coconut half-shells as mobile homes. The creatures use tentacles to grasp and carry the shell parts while traveling, then simply reassemble the nuts while resting. This tough home, which offers them a unique disguise, caused a stir among biologists like Mark Norman, who commented, “we were blown away, it was hard not to laugh underwater and flood your (scuba) mask.”

Source: eHow

We are not going to change the whole world, but we can change ourselves and feel free as birds. We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil. Serenity is contagious. If we smile at someone, he or she will smile back. And a smile costs nothing. We should plague everyone with joy. If we are to die in a minute, why not die happily, laughing? ― Swami Satchidananda