Knowing Our Hearts Desire

Jealousy is one of the toughest feelings we come up against in our lives. There is not much worse than this aching sense that somehow life has been unfair to us, while amply rewarding someone else. It's even worse if that someone else is present in our daily lives, making it difficult for us to get the space we need to feel and heal our pain. We may be jealous of a sibling, a dear friend, or even famous personalities. We may even face the challenge of feeling jealous of our spouse, our child, or one of our parents. Whatever the case, we can normalize our experience by understanding that, as painful as it is, jealousy is a common human feeling.

Nevertheless, it is important that we not revel in our jealousy for too long, feeding it with inner talk or gossip with others. If we do, we run the risk of losing ourselves to its negative power. Jealousy has something good to offer us, though, and that is information about our own heart's desire. When we are jealous of certain people, we want what they have, and if we are to be conscious, we must acknowledge that. In this way, we discover what we want for ourselves, which is the first step to getting it. It may be a certain kind of relationship or a career. Whatever it is, it is possible that we could create it for ourselves, in our own lives, if we are able to honor our own desires.

Of course, there are times when we cannot heal our jealousy in this way, and then the lesson may be about acceptance and the understanding that our path is different from the paths of those around us. It may be hard to see now, but perhaps it will eventually be clear why our life has taken its particular path. In the end, the best cure for jealousy is the recognition that the life we have is full of its own meaning and beauty, utterly unique to us—a gift that could never be found in the life of another.

Note: I got this message in my Friendster site from Erica who posted this in Friendster Bulletin. Click Here!

A Reason, A Season, or A Lifetime...

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person...

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, provide you with guidance & support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually.

They may seem like a Godsend & they are. They are there for the REASON you need them to be.

Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship/friendship to an end.

Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up & force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered & now it is time to MOVE ON.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real. But only for a SEASON.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person & put what you have learned to use in all other relationships & areas of ur life.

It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

Thank you for being a part of my life... whether you were a reason, a season or a lifetime.

Think Before You Speak!

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see the world, I will marry you.'

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend. He asked her, 'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her

saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before

they were yours, they were mine.' This is how the human brain often works when our status changes.

Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who was always by their side in the most painful situations.

Life Is a Gift! Today before you say an unkind word - Think of someone who can't speak.

Before you complain about the taste of your food - Think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife - Think of someone who's crying out to GOD for a companion.

Today before you complain about life - Think of someone who went too early to heaven.

Before whining about the distance you drive Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

And when you are tired and complain about your job - Think of the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down - Put a smile on your face and think: you're alive and still around.

Of Writing and Typing...

It is just so funny how I think about the use of my bare hands. With the exception of bragging, I have a nice handwriting when I was still a good student or shall I say until to these days... I try to write as neat as possible for my own and everyone's understanding when they read what I write. Especially when I answer questions in my test papers. I don't even remember what age I started writing but as far as I can remember I know how to write my own name, write the letters in the alphabet and count from 1 to 10 just before I started to step in my early school days (Kindergarten). There are times that I get lazy to write because my teacher wants us to copy the whole book during my Elementary years cover to cover! That was weird! Where in fact, we already have the book that was loan to us and return it at the end of the school year.

When I was in High School, I was even challenged by the use of the modern technology - the computers! Using computers was a very challenging task. I have to know the basic programs and features of the computers plus, typing was made easy than using the manual typewriter. It was flexible and there's more things to discover than just typing alone. As for my handwriting, it requires a lot more patience than doing the task in typing. Now that I got the job, I have to go back to let my right hand do it again - to write using a pencil or ball pen. It felt like my right hand are not use to it anymore because I am using my personal computer and I just basically type what I think. Sooner or later, everything will be better and comfortable.

Instructions for Life

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R's:

• Respect for self
• Respect for others and
• Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go somewhere you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Note: From The Dalai Lama - Good Karma!

Chocolate Break!

I never knew I will be having my 3 hours break since I started working last 1st of August. I was overwhelmed with all the blessings since we moved up here in North Dakota. We were camping for a little while since we got here, a little bit of love and labor cleaning the new house and that was 2 weeks before I got my very first job here in the United States. I am a receptionist in a campground near the city where I live. It is a seasonal job and this means that I will have more time spending quality time with my husband when the spring-summer-early fall is over.

While working in the office, I can't help myself but to have a munch for my delicious and favorite chocolate bars. I know, all of you will say that "chocolate makes me fat" but it is not. Whatever you say, I still love having my chocolate break from time to time that I am on break. Well, I don't eat as in everyday but once in a while. This makes me feel good especially having my favorite ones.

What's for Lunch?

I was thinking what would be my meal for lunch yesterday. I was hoping to eat another dish or try out something extraordinary. Since I got the job, I seldom cook. I go home basically just to sleep and take a bath because I am working 12 hours plus 3 hours break a day straight from Monday to Sunday. Yes, it is true! I don't have any day-off. What I do sometimes is, I accumulate all my 3 hours break everyday and get off on Sunday so I will have my time for my God and my loving husband. It was my hubby who cooks for me not until the camping season is over, I may have to replace him and go back for my little passion - cooking.

While I was on my way getting my lunch, my Native American friend, said that she wanted me to try her dish. It was a beef with carrots, mushrooms and bell pepper topped with roasted peanuts. It was delicious! I got a bowl serving and was satisfied at the end of my lunch break. I even use chopsticks so I will be better in using chopsticks but end up using a spoon to eat them all for more satisfaction!

My Own Version of Kip Saté a La Mina

How do you want to cook your chicken meat? Do you have a special recipe for your chicken? What about a chicken and peanut butter combination? Does it sound good to you? Does it taste delicious and sure enough it will be a knocked out? I asked my husband, Winn what does he think of a chicken and a peanut butter combination? He looked straight at me with his eyebrows curled wondering about my new chicken recipe. Well, I got a recipe from a good friend, Jacy from Minnesota. She posted this recipe in her blog - Kip Saté a La Mina.

Since I can't go to the grocery store to buy what I need for the recipe, I let my hubby to buy it for me instead. I made a list for him not to forget all the ingredients I needed for my chicken recipe, including the peanut butter! He's still puzzled about the chicken and peanut butter combination. So to make his curiosity short, I made the Kip Saté a La Mina. It was delicious! I couldn't imagine I made Jacy's chicken recipe. I even served it with hot plain rice and shared it with my new found friend who is a Native American (Indian). She loved it too!

Water Rafting

Rafting or whitewater rafting is a challenging recreational activity utilizing a raft to navigate a river or other bodies of water. This is usually done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water, in order to thrill and excite the raft passengers. The development of this activity as a leisure sport has become popular since the mid 1970s.

Rafts were originally the simplest form of man’s transportation in water and were then made of several logs, planks or reeds which were fastened together. Nowadays, inflatable boat were used as rafts which were later adopted by the military for beach assaults. It consists of very durable, multi-layered rubberized or vinyl fabrics with several independent air chambers. Its length varies between 3.5 m (11 ft) and 6 m (20 ft), the width between 1.8 m (6 ft) and 2.5 m (8 ft). The exception to this size rule is usually the pack raft, which is designed as a portable single-person raft and may be as small as 1.5m long and weigh as little as 4 lbs.

As I consider myself adventurous, I would like to try to get on and paddle my way to this wonderful adventure. It will be surely one of my wonderful experiences in life. I want to do it in time I am not busy working. I want to consider this adventure as one of the best experiences that I will enjoy.

Mountain Biking

Mountain biking entails the sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, whether riding specially equipped mountain bikes or hybrid road bikes. Most mountain bikes share similar characteristics that underscore durability and performance in rough terrain: wide, knobby tires, large frame tubing, front fork or dual suspension shock absorbers. The durability factor means a far heavier bicycle weight to rider ratio than their road touring cousins.

Mountain biking is roughly broken down into four categories: cross country, downhill, free ride and trials/street riding. Each has differing levels of safety-consciousness with different types of mountain bikes and riding gear.

This individual sport requires endurance, bike handling skills and self-reliance, and can be performed almost anywhere from a back yard to a gravel road, but the majority of mountain bikers ride off-road trails, whether country back roads, fire roads, or singletrack (narrow trails that wind through forests, mountains, deserts, or fields). There are aspects of mountain biking that are more similar to trail running than regular bicycling . Because riders are often far from civilization, there is a strong ethic of self-reliance in the sport. Riders learn to repair their broken bikes or flat tires to avoid being stranded miles from help. This reliance on survival skills accounts for the group dynamics of the sport. Club rides and other forms of group rides are common, especially on longer treks.

Wilderness Camping

Did you ever try camping? I know some of you have done camping when you were a kid or you may have joined being a boy and girl scout. Camping is fun, with the bonfire at night and just gather together, sharing stories or throw a game that you can play. Camping is fun! It is an outdoor recreational activity where everyone, known as the campers, get away from urban areas, leaving their home and the big city for awhile and enjoy nature while spending one or more nights in a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, recreational vehicle (RV) or the use of a small cabin when it is provided by the campsite. The campers often go to the national parks, other publicly owned natural areas and some people, they go to privately owned campgrounds.

While camping, they can either enjoy nature walk or hiking, watch the sunset, mountain biking, swimming in the lake, do fishing and hunting wild animals. There are more great ways to enjoy camping because there lots of activities to do. Camping is also used a cheap form of accommodation for people attending large open air events such as sporting meetings, music festivals, bikers festival or simply the county fair where everyone will enjoy and get some fun. Here are the things that you will need in camping:

• tent (for shelter)
• hammer (to drive tent stakes into soil)
• sleeping bag, pad and blankets (for comfortable sleep and for warmth)
• lantern or flashlight (to serve as a light to find something in the dark)
• folding chairs (placement to sit around especially when you're around the bonfire)
• camping tools (includes hatchet, axe, lighter, saw, tarp, ropes, scissors, knife that you can in camping)
• raincoat or umbrella (to protect you from getting wet for foul weather)
• personal things (such as your clothes, towel
  
• insect repellent and sunscreen (to protect your skin from the mosquitoes and sun)
• cooler (to store your drinks and food that you will eat while camping)
• disposable plates, bowl and cup (use for the convenient of eating)
• trash bag (where you can put all your trash/garbage and help save ecosystem from pollution)

So much for that, the remaining equipment needed for camping is commonly available at home like dishes, pots and pans. But some campers prefer to use disposable and those easy to use and prepare foods at their own comfort. Camping is leaving the comfort of a home and be in the wilderness and enjoy the beauty of nature.