Oh, shock, shock shock... brain-washed women bombers and all that.. .but doesn't the 'woman' in the picture look like Terry Jones of the Monty Python comedy group?????? I ask you ???! No wonder Muslim men want to go to heaven and get some real babes... look at what they got here! If these Muslim women commit the BIG ONE for Allah, do they get 72 men virgins?
NO, On second thought, I don't want to go there!

Why do you look for the living among the dead, He is risen !
A very joyful Easter to everyone who reads this: peace, joy, hope. The soul is immortal and never dies. The soul evolves through many lifetimes until we are ready for the long, hard climb towards a truly spiritual and spirit-filled life. We must defeat the attractions of earth and our own anger & fears, striving ever to love and not fear the weapons of Earth and our fellow mortals. We must strive to believe what seems to the rest of the world, unbelievable - the immortality of the soul and the reality of soul & spirit - what I call, the spiritual realms.

 We must reject in our deepest hearts the selfish desires of our Egos, the fleshed based part of ourselves who only wants to enjoy life and never to be inconvenienced by any troublesome thing ... this, perhaps, is the hardest thing that a mystic/spiritual seeker does. Convincing the Ego that a spiritual life is in its' best interest when it knows quite well it gets only one short lifetime and then it is scraped, nearly forgotten; a construct of brain chemistry and flesh, it can never see eternity. This is a nearly impossible job for unseating the Ego from its throne and putting the soul on the throne is not easy to do. The Ego  wants to taste everything - like a cat, a teenager or a lion, it is very naturally bothered easily and can get rather nasty when it is truly bothered. During this battle you are the battlefield, the combatants &  the weapons. It can be a time of great confusion and despair, until the Ego abdicates - dies and is defeated. It dies to self so the True Self can rule.

The Ego is the mortal part of ourselves, the soul the immortal - the ego dies each life, the soul is what remains and is the True self.

We never truly die - we evolve. Life after life. Then, after many lives we, after we have played with the toys of the earth, learned that all material things are but shadows that pass away quickly and never fill the empty recesses of the mind and soul and that the only real, everlasting things are the things of spirit, which will fill our empty souls with light... THEN, and only then,  we are ready to become like Christ was from his birth, fully self aware and conscious souls, immortals who never truly die.

It isn't an easy journey. It is demanding. It is painful. But it is ultimately glorious - as glorious as Christ was when His body rose from its' tomb and He knew his death of the cross had not defeated Him. His soul was so full of life, love and light that it transformed his Body into something immortal, made it light - Do I understand why this happened? no. Do I understand its implications? I am not sure.   The transformation of Christ's body into light is one of the great mysteries I can only HOPE to understand, someday.

Why did he have to die on the cross? Because we needed an example of a man who willingly and literally 'died to self' - turned his physical form over to death, without fear or despair. We needed an example of the ultimate justice of God. We needed an example of what one does to escape the 'wheel of rebirth'  ----  We needed that example to fill our souls with hope, that we, too, could be strong enough to truly  BELIEVE that we are souls in bodies and that our bodies are what is most temporary in our lives. We are so much more than mere apes who stand upright !!

Christ is the great master - the great teacher - the great example of what a fully spirit-filled life can be. It is enough, as he said, for the students to become like their teacher.

He saved us in so many ways. He gave us his example of what the journey towards ultimate spiritual evolution must be, He gave us his immortal words of wisdom and understanding, he promised he would never leave us, who strive to seek him  --- to seek the HOLY GRAIL, which is God's presence in our lives and in  the mundane world; we must work to change ourselves, our desires, to escape our animal instincts for survival and ease, overcome lust and a thousand other sins...but all this is possible. He did it first, he was truly man and truly something else, something that can only be called, God &  God's son, an immortal soul of incredible beauty and strength - our hope and our strength.

 He is still with us. Why do you seek the living among the dead ? What a foolish thing to do!
He exists, He will always exist. The great teacher was not murdered by the Romans or the religious community of his day. We have nothing to fear, there is JUSTICE in the universe. The good do not die needlessly, for, if we do not find justice on earth, we will certainly find it in heaven.
Our lives mean something : they are steps towards something beautiful. We can strive to be more than Apes.

He is risen, my friends, He is still with us. Our souls are immortal and never die.
Have faith. Believe in the reality of the soul and in Jesus' kind gift of his perfect example and you, too, can be united with God.
I am the vine - you are the branches - that is how close our union can be if we but strive for it.
Jesus Christ is still with us. Never doubt that !

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080315/D8VE3B700.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=528694&in_page_id=1811
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-10-petfood_N.htm
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hcqbO7l-1Bm1b77FTH0Ct5LxbuFQ
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5233704.stm
http://www.voice4dogs.org/tsinc.htm
(last link is very ugly.. honest pictures & details - prepare yourself or don't look.)
Above are raw links to relevant articles about the cruelty of China towards animals the rest of the world considers pets. One of the articles is about what they are doing to Tibet.
I hate doing this because I just wrote a great article about my novel but I must do it. I beg every one who reads this - on bended Kneels - to boycott the Olympic games in Beijing. I beg you - down on my kneels to protest China's abuses. China has an awful history of murder of animals and human beings. Look at what they are doing to Tibet right now - just weeks before the Olympics.. look at what they are doing to cats... to impress us with how clean their city is, of all things - they don't seem to understand that they control rabies and other dieases in sane, merciful ways.

 They hold no life of any kind sacred and I protest the choice of Beijing as the focal point for this year's summer games. The cats in the picture above are doomed. They will be murdered and eaten, there are places where they are being taken to be killed in the most awful ways possible. They did the same to dogs, recently. These are the same species that give so many of us so much pleasure of a completely different kind - the pleasure of love, companionship and friendship, the love of their incredible beauty and lovely diversity. We kill cats, too, but we try to do it humanely. The word 'humane' doesn't seem to exist in the Chinese lexicon.

Please people, don't give the Olympic authorities what they want most - your money and attention. In four years the games will be in a decent part of the world, hopefully,  one where life is loved and respected. Holding the games in the barbaric country of China makes as much sense as holding them in Saudi Arabia or Iran - where  dogs, Christians, Jews and women have no rights of any kind. What are the Olympics for if not about the rights of the individual to excel in every possible way?  China does not love individuals and does not encourage the Greek idea of beauty and excellence by extreme effort. Their poor people are not encouraged to be individuals, I have friends that escaped that country who have told me how bad it really is, there.  As a descendant of the ancient Greeks who settled Agropoli (my mother's home town in southern Italy) I can not think of many cultures of the world further from the Greek ideas that gave modern Western culture its wonderful diversity and love of beauty.
Please, all of you who love the human race & cats and dogs as much as I do - don't watch the games, don't buy anything they sell to commemorate the games. Protest with your dollars and your feet. Do it, people - your pets will thank you, the people of Tibet will thank you, I thank you. Let us show the Olympic commitees and the the country of China that we have the power  to oppose them.
You may also try writing to American companies that advertise the Olympic games. No, we should not expect China to change, but we need not be silent to their cruelty and abuses. I do my best to refrain from buying Chinese goods - but we all know how hard that is, now. I Do try, though, I would rather give my money to the good countries. Please do the same. Be not silent, friends, let your voices be heard!

If I sleep too much, death.
If I sleep too little, death.
If I am tired my work is left undone.
If I am rested I work all day with passion and strength.
Why does my body crash at 7:30 AM and not 7:30 PM?
Why do I feel strong at night when the moon shines?

Why must I now worry about each bite in my mouth
counting them like beads on a rosary
and each second I sleep ? Is the whole point of life
worrying about death ? Must we worry about death?
Or does it come when it comes?

Wasn't life simpler when
we hit two rocks together to make the evening fire
and we slept till we awoke?
And died when we died.
I long for more innocent times
and a more natural life.

I finished "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows" last night about 1 am and could not sleep much afterwards, it is a haunting end to a fine Magnum Opus, a true achievement. I had not felt so effected by a novel in a very long time, perhaps since my youth. The Problem is that I don't want to give you any spoilers because, being an adult reader I am sure that I have read it faster than most young people- 3 days seems to me a very short time for a teenager to read 759 pages - even in that lovely large typeface that is used its still a lot to read in less than a week. I just about despaired for Harry by Chapter 23 - the darkest of the darkest and I will admit I wept at the end of that chapter (always have cried easily.) - I would compare it to Frodo's capture by the Orcs for just pure hopelessness, yet, it is a turning point. After reading that chapter I gave my husband the book Sunday morning.
I think I can share with you this one thing about the novel : I tend to give up easily when opposing people/things/society - I don't believe in victory (for myself.) I don't run away - I just give up because I see myself as a weaker person than most. I stand up for myself with a decent amount of skill and I am a fine speaker but I don't believe there is any point to it all - the strong always win and all we can do is fight nobly until we die or some other end/defeat comes. This isn't your every day kind of despair its a lesson I learned in my past lives which has stained this lifetime. This has effected me many times in big and little ways. I don't like to argue. I don't believe that what I want really matters.... like I said...
Well, this book made me face that old tendency to despair when faced with what seems impossible odds - which is certainly what Harry and his friends face in the second half of the book. Yet there is victory - its an expensive, terrible, destructive victory but it is a victory born of all things - defeat - in a way, the book seems to me to be oddly Christian in its message, but its Christianity seems buried, hidden away in the heart of the thing.

I did not see how he could have anything like a victory or how they could repair the damage done once it was all over. I really didn't think the book would end the way it did. I can only suggest you read the book - it is a masterpiece of imaginative literature and see what you find in it. You are in for a fine read.

I sometimes can not find words enough for the moment. Yesterday, another young man went insane and killed his fellow students at a school. It was not a High School but a university and the one my husband attended for a short time before he met me. For me, the shock was magnified,some because it was place that held a special place in my memories. My memories of Virgina are all of a place I love intensely.
I do not understand evil and the desire to kill others other than war or in self defense. But evil walked the halls of V. T. yesterday morning. What makes a young man with everything to live for believe that his problems are so important that he has a right to kill others during a Rage? Himself, I might understand, for we all know despair off and on in our lives until we grow spiritually mature, but destroying life that is not your own makes no sense and is a terrible sin and the worse possible karma a person can possibly inflict on their soul. Had no one ever gotten through to him, speaking of the sacredness of all life? Had no one told him he was not the center of all existence that he did not matter more than others? Had no religion or philosophy touched his heart and awakened in him a love for all of mankind? Obviously not, madness and hate, evil and something even worse than evil, possessed him till the end.

Christ warned us if we do not fill ourselves up with good things : with love, mercy, God's presence, spirit, soul and the desire for service, evil will enter in and make its home in us and it will rule us and destroy our lives.

We can be possessed by Good or by evil, it is our choice.

I pray for all those who died and who survived, for the families and friends - for our country and for our race - the human race - for, though today, it is acceptable to break us into smaller and smaller races and minority groups - we are BUT ONE RACE - the HUMAN RACE , we are one race, spiritually and physically for the few differences - hair, eyes, skin color, place of origin matters not one little bit.

WE are ONE and we each have the potential for great good or great evil ... each of us can choose to do great good or great evil - life is a choice - no amount of suffering, no amount of prejudice, no amount of need, no amount of isolation drove that young man to do what he did because millions of young men and women have suffered through the centuries the same things he suffered (or may have suffered.) and they chose LIFE , not DEATH and as God says - Choose life. Choosing life, choosing to love life and to love others, to love ourselves (would anyone who loved themselves decide to kill themselves in such a horrific manner?) and to Love God, whatever we conceive Him/Her/It to be and to be a positive force in the world for Good.
Thus is all the law, commandments & sacraments, it is all that is that is required of a human being. Nothing matters more than to choose Life and Love.

Let us remember never to despair. Let us, each grow in hope and trust that mankind will survive, endure and evolve into more than it is right now - we are meant to be here and we are evolving. Trust, hope and love and the greatest is love.

So, please, let us choose life, light, love, mercy and kindness. Let us remember what we have in common and concentrate on these things and not what is different. The blood that flows through my veins is the same as that which flows through yours. The Prana that flows through me flows through all things, including all living creatures. The message of all mysticism the world over is Oneness of everyone and everything.
We are one people, one race. Let us, each, strive to bring more light and hope into the world and to reject evil, hate, egotism & materialism in all its multitudinous forms.
I would particularly like to mention Liviu Librescu a surviver of the holocaust who gave his life so others might live, holding the door against evil as his students jumped out the windows. He is in Eternity, tonight, standing before God with love and joy in his heart, for He knew the truth of life and is blessed with this sacrifice of this one life. I would wish, given the same choices, that I would have the courage to stand and hold the doors so others might live even if it meant that I would die. That is what I have been working for all my life - to have courage when faced with death.
May God bless Mr. Librescu's soul for all eternity!