That's Life!!

This Hit song from the 20th century by Frank Sinatra
made me laugh this morning when it was in a commercial, so I wanted to find the lyrics and share them. I even set my ringtone to this catchy tune.

Jessica is my Heart

                                 Jessica- February 9, 2013

I love this photo of Jessica. She was only 2 1/2 months old here. She is still beautiful and loving. Long haired black and tan German Shepherd. AKC registered however she is disqualified from shows because they discriminate against long haired shepherds. Such a silly standard for this organization. I just couldn't believe it when I took her for her first showing.  She makes me happy and provides a lot of love and so we don't need the group to acknowledge that with a Blue Ribbon. I just think it is odd that discrimination from humans even affects the other animals on our earth. We people are the strangest of them all.

Knitty and Jessica - Sisters

KNITTY

JESSICA

Well I wish I could explain how much I love my dogs.. These 2 sisters I call them the girls
are so very intelligent and loyal. Every day
they show LOVE that most humans withhold from each other. We can learn a lot about true love and loyalty by watching the other animals in our world. I believe humans are the only animal that kills for sport or just the hell of it. Humans have a need for superiority
which is superficial. You do get the ALPHA in other species. I believe it is mostly due to leadership of the unit. Well enough about that. Knitty had a lateral suture band replacing her left knee approximately 4 weeks ago. She will be on restrictions until spring. That is quite difficult with an active dog. She has had a lot of pain with this.
I find myself wondering if I should have held off on the surgery and tried something else.
Jessica is my long haired girl. She has this full teeth showing smile when she gets a belly rub. I swear she could do a commercial for dentures. It is so comical. My girls aren't these super hollywood dogs
however they are actually more. They purebred shepherds and have the intelligence and temperament of their particular breed. What they do that nothing can replace is bring a peace and comfort that only love can bring. I will be writing more on my girls and take better photos to introduce you to them. I hope that they bring a smile to your day. Their antics and loyalty will definitely show through.

Dance or Dancer

I read quite a bit and I love quotes or pithy comments that are able to convey a far reaching meaning, thought, or “knowing”.
When my oldest daughter was in boot camp I would write her daily and send a “Thought for the day.” She didn’t seem to thrilled or inspired, but she did tell me that several other young ladies in her training looked forward to HER letters from her mom, just for the “thought of the day.” Remembering this makes me smile as much today as it did then.
I recently read a book, (I think it was Eckhart Tolle’s- “A New Earth”) but I can’t say for sure if that was the one or not, but what I do remember is a quote that has stayed with me. I am going to share that quote with you all now and hope that it produces a thought of understanding and peace for you as you go about your day.
“In Life sometimes you’re the dance and other times you’re the dancer.”
So no matter which you are today the dance or the dancer do it well. Life is good. Have a Splendid and blessed day.
Take time to be thankful for all you take for granted.
With Love
Restless Raven

What Happened to Common Sense?

It was one of those nights when I woke early (2:30am). Instead of lying in bed awake I got up let the dog out, made some coffee checked the weather channel, when I decided I should channel surf. I happened upon the SUNDANCE CHANNEL. What a neat channel to find. Well, anyway the program they were airing was spotlighting a particular company in St. Louis, MO by the name of Monsanto. Monsanto is a company that is known for “GM” genetically modifying crop seeds. The company is known as a GREEN company that engineers biogenetic seeds under the pretense of feeding the world. If you had watched the program and heard the farmers you would understand without an iota of doubt that the only thing Monsanto is feeding is their own greed and legally getting away with it.
Strike (1) How can this company GENETICALLY MODIFIY seeds and call them NATURAL.

Strike (2) They obtained a legal patent.

Strike (3) Seeds germinate or pollinate naturally when planted so farmers who don’t buy these seeds have their crop contaminated with the GM seeds

Strike (4) Monsanto sends “employees” legally to farmers land and crops and have their silos and crops tested for “GM” qualities sues the farmers for their farms and everything else because they have a patent on the GM seeds.

Strike (5) Most farms are in the family for several generations .They stand a good chance of losing the Family Farm. The Indiana Farmers talking to the reporter, their farms go back 5 generations and now Monsanto is trying to steal it from them.

Strike (6) The Monsanto employees encourage other farmers to “turn” their neighbors in so they can legally check farms for patented seed growth and sue. So now they are advocating turning neighbor against neighbor.

Strike (7) The Company is widely International. I will elaborate on this strike a little in hope that I can explain what is occurring. I will focus on two countries India and Mexico. India is known for cotton the GM seeds have a lower crop rate and the seeds are costly to the poor farmers if Monsanto nets 40-60% of the profit if there is a real bad year
The farmers lose big. The rate of suicide among these poor farmers is doubled. Mexico again a poorer country known for their native corn and family business now have to either buy the seeds or face the pollination problems with their native crops, and also be subject to litigation because of the patented seeds. The difference in the GM produce and the native produce is quite noticeable in the size of kernels and smell and market value. I can’t speak on taste but I am sure that the true natural seed is best. The local farmers in Mexico are fighting a losing battle with the pollination and no one cares.
It is hard for me to believe that our government would give a patent for seeds to grow food. I thought it is mans given right to feed his family, not anymore now we are in jeopardy of having ONE corporation and ONE man own the food industry worldwide. Now that is control we can do without. Makes the Bill Gates monopoly look like silliness doesn’t it, but then again Mr. Gates didn’t have an army of lobbyists in Washington. I think we need to stop this madness and boycott Monsanto and tell the government to use common sense and repel these patents. It is mans right and duty to feed himself and his family. I also would like to have my choice of whether or not to EAT GM produce. I really don’t want to and I don’t appreciate being force feed products that I don’t choose. Now I know that Monsanto has some really clever people working for their interests just don’t be fooled the “scientists” they had claiming superior products has been linked back to the company with vested interest and iffy credentials.

The Struggle to Understand Suicide;by Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI 7-17-2005

Every year I write a column on suicide because, among all forms of death, it's still the one we struggle with the most. How can suicide happen? What makes a person take his or her own life? Suicide, no doubt, is the most misunderstood of all deaths and leaves behind a residue of questions, guilt, anger, second-guessing, and anxiety which, at least initially, is almost impossible to digest. Even though we know better, we're still haunted by the feeling that suicide is the ultimate act of despair, a deed that somehow puts one outside the family of humanity, the mercy of God, and (in the past) the church's burial grounds. When someone close to us commits suicide we feel both pain and shame. That's why suicides are often not reported publicly. An obituary is more likely to say that this person "died suddenly", without specifying the cause of death. This reticence to admit how our loved one died speaks deeply about both the pain and shame that we are left with after the suicide of a loved one. To lose a loved one to death is painful, to lose a loved one to suicide is also disorienting. What needs to be said about suicide? A number of things need to be re-iterated over and over again: First, that suicide, at least in most cases, is a sickness, a disease, a terminal illness that takes a person out of life, as does any terminal illness, against his or her will. In essence, suicide is death through emotional cancer, emotional heart attack, emotional stroke. That's why it's apt to say that someone is "a victim of suicide." Suicide is a desperate, if misguided, attempt to end unendurable pain at any cost, akin to throwing oneself through a window and falling to one's death because one's clothing is on fire. Suicide is an illness, not a sin. Next, those left behind when a loved one commits suicide should not unduly second-guess themselves, anxiously examining over and over again what they might have done differently, why they weren't more present, or how they somehow failed the one who committed suicide. Part of the anatomy of the disease is precisely the pathology of distancing oneself from one's loved ones so that they cannot be present to the illness. When a loved one commits suicide we can't help but ask ourselves: "If only I had been there! Why was I absent just on that morning?" But we weren't there precisely because the person committing suicide did not what us to be there and picked the moment, the venue, and the means precisely with that in mind. Besides, we're human beings, not God. People die from accidents and illnesses every day and all the love and attentiveness in the world sometimes cannot not prevent someone we love from dying. Suicide is a sickness and, like cancer, sometimes cannot be cured by any amount of love and care. Knowing this isn't an excuse to rationalize our failures, but it can give us some consolation in knowing that it wasn't our neglect or inattentiveness on a given day that led someone we love to suicide. Finally, we should not have undue worry and anxiety over the eternal fate of our loved ones who commit suicide. Why not? First, in most cases, as we know, suicide victims have cancerous problems precisely because they are over-sensitive, wounded, too- bruised to be touched, and too raw to have the normal resiliency needed to deal with life. Their problem is not one of pride and strength, but rather of shame and weakness. What drives them to do this act is not the arrogance of a Hitler, but the weakness of an illness. That's why we can make a distinction between "falling victim to suicide" and "killing oneself." The former is done out of illness, the latter is done out of pride. On the surface they might look the same, but there's an infinite moral distance between being too bruised to continue to touch life and being too arrogant to continue to take one's place within it. And God, more than anyone else, understands this. God's understanding and compassion are much deeper than ours and God's hands are infinitely gentler than our own. If we, in our imperfect love and limited understanding, have some grasp of this, shouldn't we be trusting that God, who is perfect love and understanding, is up to the task and that our loved ones are safe in God's hands and God's understanding? Any faith that connects itself to a God worth believing in doesn't have undue anxiety as to what will happen when God, finally, face to face, meets a bruised, gentle, over-sensitive, wounded, ill, struggling soul. Indeed, we have many scriptural references as to what happens, namely, God, who can descend into any hell we can create, goes straight through our locked doors, enters into the hell of our paranoia, illness, and fear, and gently breathes out peace.

A Challenge to Understand

The Suicide Battlefield My child died on her own battlefield. She was killed in action fighting a civil war. She fought against adversaries that were as real to her as her casket is real to me. They were powerful adversaries. They took toll of her energies and endurance. They exhausted the last vestiges of her courage and strength. At last these adversaries overwhelmed her. And it appeared that she lost the war. But did she? I see a host of victories that she has won! For one thing --she has won my admiration -- because even if she lost the war, I give her credit for her bravery on the battlefield. And I give her credit for the courage and pride and hope that she used as her weapons as long as she could. I shall remember not her death, but her daily victories gained through her kindnesses and thoughtfulness, through her love for family and friends, for animals and books and music, for all things beautiful, lovely and honorable. I shall remember the many days that she was victorious over overwhelming odds. I shall remember not the years I thought she had left, but the intensity with which she lived the years she had! Only God knows what she suffered in the silent skirmishes that took place in her soul. But my consolation is that God does know and understands!

This poem was read at the end of the AFSP Suicide Survivors Conference. A wonderful way to remember our loved ones during the holiday season.

At the rising of the sun and its going down, we remember them. At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter, we remember them.
At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring,
we remember them.
At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer,
we remember them.
At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn,we remember them.
At the beginning of the year and when it ends,
we remember them.
As long as we live, they too will live;
for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.
When we are weary and in need of strength,we remember them.
When we are lost and sick at heart,
we remember them.
When we have joy we crave to share,
we remember them.
When we have decisions that are difficult to make,we remember them.
When we have achievements that are based on theirs,we remember them. As long as we live, they, too, will live;
for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.