Monthly Archives: August 2014
“YOU ARE AN ARTIST OF THE SPIRIT. Find yourself and express yourself in your own particular way. Express your love openly. Life is nothing but a dream, and if you create your life with love, your dream becomes a masterpiece of art.” ~Don Miguel Ruiz
“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” ~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Comic by Jay Larsen
25 years ago on this date, the Baltic independence movement, called the Singing Revolution, reached a peak when the Latvian People’s Front joined with its counterparts in Estonia and Lithuania to form a 373-mile human chain (600km) connecting the three capitols, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius with 2 million people united in a call for democracy and an end to Soviet control. The Singing Revolution lasted more than four years, with various protests and acts of defiance. Lithuania was the first of the three Baltic states to start the movement. In Estonia, on the Tallinn road, they sang national songs and hymns, which had been strictly forbidden during the years of Soviet occupation, while rock musicians played. In 1991, as Soviet tanks were rolling throughout the countryside in an attempt to quell the Singing Revolution, the Estonian Soviet Legislature together with the Congress of Estonia proclaimed the restoration of the independent State of Estonia and repudiated Soviet legislation. Estonians stood as human shields to protect radio and TV stations from the Soviet tanks. As a result of the revolution, Estonia won its independence without any bloodshed. Additionally, when the USSR invaded the already independent state of Lithuania, thousands of people stood against the tanks and machine guns without fighting, but singing, emphasizing the idea that peaceful action can lead to victory.
Thanks to the Good News Network for this post.
This is what happens when creative, visionary, youth activists are brought together from around the world…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gyk4Phf3Pzc
Earth Guardians are empowering a generation of young environmental and social leaders by providing education, tools and resources to become effective leaders in their communities. We inspire youth to connect with their creative passion and take it into positive action.
“Don’t confuse your career path with your Life’s Journey. Don’t settle down for safe when you can saddle up for extraordinary. You get ONE. Make it one for the ages.” ~Aaron Paquette
Mark Bustos cuts the hair of wealthy clients in Manhattan six days a week. On the seventh, he cuts hair for free in parks and on street corners for those in need. Love it!
“When life brings trouble You can fight or run away, I have no struggle Relax watch me float away I’m coastin’, I’m coastin’ on a dream, I’m coastin’, This one’s for you and me…”
“In the heart of my release, I couldn’t help but marvel at the courage it took to surrender to this depth of pain. Suddenly I had a new appreciation for the feminine, particularly the many women I had known who had kept their hearts open amid great disappointment and loss. They now seemed extraordinarily courageous to me. They had felt it, they had grieved it and they had risen again with their hearts on their sleeves. Through my armored masculine lens, they had often appeared fragile and foolhardy, wasting their precious time on foolish emotions. But as I lay in a pool of heart-ache, they were revealed as great warriors. How often they had suffered on life’s battlefields without losing faith. Warriors of the heart! If you can be in heartbreak, and keep your heart totally open, you are living so very close to God.” ~ Jeff Brown
Art by Samuel Ronquillo
“It’s been a rough few weeks, watching what’s happening in Ferguson, in Gaza, in Iraq, at our borders. It can be very disheartening. So every Wednesday I get together with some friends and we sing for a couple of hours. We’re not performing; we’re not jamming; we just go around the circle and everyone gets a chance to pick a song for the group to sing. It’s extraordinarily uplifting.” ~ Worley Dervish
Love this so much! Thanks to the awesome Worley Dervish for this post.
Under The Blue Door 