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Friday, July 31, 2009

Costa Rica 2009

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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Balboa park



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Balboa Park Gardens

There are more than eight gardens in the Park, which include the lovely Alcazar Garden, the award-winning rose garden, the Japanese Friendship Garden, the desert garden and the historic Botanical Building. The City of San Diego’s Park and Recreation Department manages and maintains the grounds of this spectacular public resource.





-- Post From My iPhone

More from San Diego Here

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Cactus Garden - Balboa Park, San Diego

1935 (Old) Cactus Garden

This historic garden was developed under the direction of Kate Sessions for the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition.









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Balboa Park

Welcome to Balboa Park - the nation's largest urban cultural park. Home to 15 major museums, renowned performing arts venues, beautiful gardens and theSan Diego Zoo, the Park has an ever-changing calendar of museum exhibitions, plays, musicals, concerts, and classes—all in the beautiful and timeless setting of this must-see San Diego attraction.








-- Post From My iPhone
More from San Diego Here

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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Leading


A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity


Ralph Nader

I wonder if Ralph Nader’s quote is upside down. Maybe a society that has more charity is a society that needs less justice. Maybe it is neither. Maybe charity has nothing to do with justice and justice nothing to do with charity. Do you see a relationship between justice and charity? Do you think the absence of one affects the presence of the other?
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Saturday, July 25, 2009

Kindness

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”

Lao Tzu

I like to think that I am committed to spreading joy in the world. I want everything I do, say and think to result in more happiness. I value kindness and try to let it govern me. Still I notice that some of my duties are difficult. I remember being a music teacher and having to tell an aspiring young pianist that she wasn’t going to be able to participate in a concert because she could not manage the part. I told her with as much kindness as I could and even as I watch the painful disappointment on her face I felt such love for her and noticed that I was powerless to control her experience. Years later I came to realize that it was my attachment to immediate results that made it difficult for me to see the long range effects of giving bad news kindly.

I have been lucky to receive both unkind bad news and kind bad news and now understand the power of giving kindly. It is a sobering thought to understand that I cannot control anyone, but that I can be kind.

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Friday, July 24, 2009

Joy


“Real charity doesn't care if it's tax-deductible or not.”


Dan Bennett



Joy is more than a deep form of happiness. It is more than an emotion that is the result of some event or circumstance. It is more than the opposite of sadness or the absence of depression. Joy is the natural state of one who has learned to take delight in Reality. Try to think of joy as having no cause. Try to think of joy as being present and available. Imagine that you don’t have to do anything to cause it and that you can’t create it because it exists already. This thinking puts us in the best frame of mind to serve and be generous because everything we see and everyone we encounter is an opportunity to experience the natural joy of being.


Can you recall a time when you had a feel of joyfulness that had no particular reason attached to it?


If so, describe it in detail. If not, try to imagine what that would be like.


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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

What is it?

Almost looks like a protea.

Costa Rica has an incredible range of plants and flowers. Also numerous varieties of orchids (over thirteen hundred species of orchids I read). The best time of the year for orchids is just as the rainy season is starting up with the first scant rains. We had the rain for sure. I spotted orchids and other flowering plants that I had no idea about, like this one.

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Mt. Arenal

We finally got to see the majestic volcano. Yeeeeha! The volcano had been dormant since 1968 when it erupted and destroyed the town of Arenal killing 87 people during the several days of its activity. It has been active almost continuously since the eruption and is constantly surveyed for eruptions.

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Loading up to go

We're coming home
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Yoga in the rainforest

Listening to the cicadas who are thrilled that the sun is shining.
Time to mate. Only got two weeks to live. No wonder they make such a
racket.
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Leaf cutter

A leaf cutter meets a guard. Both depend on the minute service ants
for maintenance, health and food.
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Monday, July 20, 2009

Hanging Bridges

19000 species of butterflies.... yikes.....80% of them nocturnal because of the large amount of night blooming flowers. And here, cycles of seasons do not apply. One tree can be blooming on one branch, while another branch is fruiting and yet another is changing leaves, at least that's what the guide says.

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Pond

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Night lily

The guide told us that this flower belongs to the same family as
tomatos and is poisonous.
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Sunday, July 19, 2009

The shower

It is fantastic having an outdoor shower in the middle of a tropical
storm. Only thing is the bugs like my shower about as much as I do.
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Jacuzzi

On our balcony we found an outdoor hot tub from which we can watch the
volcano. I was complaining to a friend back home that it hadn't
stopped raining and that we couldn't see the mountain through the fog.
He said "what part of the word 'rain' don't you understand in
'rainforest'?". Perspective. So humerous. We are in paradise.
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Hanging bridges

Today we are going on a walk through rainforest on suspended bridges in the rain guided by a rainforest expert. Can't hardly believe how beautiful it is here and I've been here several times.
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Saturday, July 18, 2009

The group

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Pied beauty

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On the way to breakfast

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Dinner in the rainforest

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Friday, July 17, 2009

Testimonial

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Jim always working

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Kansas city contingent

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Hoping for a breakfast snack

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Iguanas on the path

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Morning meditation site

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Edward in the sunset

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Ocatal beach resort

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Chris studies local culture

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Wow

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Arriving at ocatel beach

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Lurker

Headed for Liberia
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Waiting for the flight to Liberia

Who is that lurking?
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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Cooperation

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Friday, July 10, 2009

Expressing Joy

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Thursday, July 9, 2009

How to Create World Peace

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Slowing Down - June 14, 2009

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Reality show gives points to clerics for converting Atheists

POSTED BY CORY DOCTOROW, JULY 4, 2009 6:54 AM | PERMALINK

A new Turkish game-show asks clerics to convert atheists and awards prizes for the most conversions; I think the atheists should get points for resisting the pitch, too -- it's only fair (and the atheists should win supreme if the cleric loses faith altogether!).


A new game show on Turkish television will pit a Greek Orthodox priest, a rabbi, an imam and a Buddhist monk against one another in attempt to convert atheists to their respective religions.

In each episode of Penitents Compete, to be broadcast by Turkey's Kanal T television station in September, the four faith guides will try to persuade 10 atheists of the merits and truth of their creeds...

An eight-member team of theologians will vet contestants to ensure they really are atheists before deciding who will participate in the show.

Faiths compete on Turkish game show (via Derren Brown)
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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Champagne

She's not to be disturbed. I shall have to be very quiet now.

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Monday, July 6, 2009

Are You A Caring Person? Contributing to Well Being.

“Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work.”

William Arthur Ward


Are you a caring person?  The answer to that question may be revealed in an inquiry into whether or not you are contributing to the well being of others.  To practice caring about other people leads inevitably to the desire to contribute to their well being. Practicing caring without following this impulse to contribute is only half of the work of becoming aware of the Presence. Just as the Presence is continuously active in all of life all the time, so will you begin to notice the continuous desire to express good in the world as a result of its influence on you. It will continue to nudge you into activities and practices that lead you into participation and acts of kindness.

True caring is the recognition of the innate perfection in others. It is more than the feelings of love and kindness we have for those closest to us. It is the feeling of kinship with all of life and it is the response to the call we feel inside to love the life that appears in others.

More articles on Are You A Caring Person? click here
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