Hello! Thanks for checking out my profile! If you're interested in sending me a friend request, please include a note saying how I might know you and/or why you want to be friends. I don't have a great memory and I don't want to just add anyone I get a request from. I'm not interested in collecting friends as numbers or being part of a collection. Only friends as people I like and want to get to know.
Thanks!
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By Peter Handke


When the child was a child
It walked with its arms swinging,
wanted the brook to be a river,
the river to be a torrent,
and this puddle to be the sea.

When the child was a child,
it didn’t know that it was a child,
everything was soulful,
and all souls were one.

When the child was a child,
it had no opinion about anything,
had no habits,
it often sat cross-legged,
took off running,
had a cowlick in its hair,
and made no faces when photographed.

When the child was a child,
It was the time for these questions:
Why am I me, and why not you?
Why am I here, and why not there?
When did time begin, and where does space end?
Is life under the sun not just a dream?
Is what I see and hear and smell
not just an illusion of a world before the world?
Given the facts of evil and people.
does evil really exist?
How can it be that I, who I am,
didn’t exist before I came to be,
and that, someday, I, who I am,
will no longer be who I am?

When the child was a child,
It choked on spinach, on peas, on rice pudding,
and on steamed cauliflower,
and eats all of those now, and not just because it has to.

When the child was a child,
it awoke once in a strange bed,
and now does so again and again.
Many people, then, seemed beautiful,
and now only a few do, by sheer luck.

It had visualized a clear image of Paradise,
and now can at most guess,
could not conceive of nothingness,
and shudders today at the thought.

When the child was a child,
It played with enthusiasm,
and, now, has just as much excitement as then,
but only when it concerns its work.

When the child was a child,
It was enough for it to eat an apple, … bread,
And so it is even now.

When the child was a child,
Berries filled its hand as only berries do,
and do even now,
Fresh walnuts made its tongue raw,
and do even now,
it had, on every mountaintop,
the longing for a higher mountain yet,
and in every city,
the longing for an even greater city,
and that is still so,
It reached for cherries in topmost branches of trees
with an elation it still has today,
has a shyness in front of strangers,
and has that even now.
It awaited the first snow,
And waits that way even now.

When the child was a child,
It threw a stick like a lance against a tree,
And it quivers there still today.

Please donate:

www.africare.org/supportus..._today.php
www.nomadfoundation.org/donate.html
www.africanceremonies.com/projects.html

Or buy jewelry and merchandise that helps:

www.judithshead.com/tuareg_jewelry/
www.tuaregjewelry.com/

Or learn more about the Tuareg, Wodaabe & Fulani tribes in Niger:

www.tuaregjewelry.com/
www.gateway-africa.com/tribe/...be.html
www.africaguide.com/culture/...ulani.htm
www.dontletmypeopledie.org/

A letter to all you scent wearers (A slightly altered version from Bo's blog)...

Dear (Dearest, Darling) Perfume (and Cologne) Wearers of the World:

Let me begin by saying that I don't dislike you, nor do I have anything against the pleasure of a nice smell. Like you, I find my nose delighted at various scents, some of them even wafting from perfume bottles. But my physical reactions towards strong scents (especially synthetic one's) are painful and sometimes debilitating with headaches and nausea. By no means do I expect everyone in the world to stop wearing scent. What I would like to do is set some ground rules. Here is what you (yes, you) can do to help:

1 - Wear natural scents. I myself can't put on synthetic fragrances. Rarely even "natural" one's. But natural fragrances are some of the best smelling things out there (it's hard to improve upon nature) and they make life a lot more bearable for people like me (and people with disorders, like Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) who have to smell you.

2 - Wear quality scents. Whether natural or synthetic, quality really makes a difference. Cheap perfume smells... well, cheap. It smells like the underside of a pillow in a very clean trailer home. It smells like dryer sheets. It smells like my dog used to smell when she came back from the groomer. Trust me... you do not want to smell this way, and if you simply cannot afford to buy something of quality, it is better to just not wear perfume.

3 - Stop wearing so much perfume. There's this funny thing that happens about 10 minutes after you apply a scent to yourself: you stop being able to smell it. This is a very normal, very natural phenomenon, and while I can't explain it, I would guess that it serves to avoid totally overloading your little sniffer. So if you can't smell your own perfume, ask -someone else- to sniff you and see if it is detectable. Which brings me to number 4...

4 - Perfume is for your kids, your lover, and your close friends. In other words, it is meant to please those who get very, very, very (may I stress "very") close to you. Perfume should be delicately detectable from close conversation or hugging distance - not down here in my cubicle while you are up in front reception. Perfume should be a private delight, shared amongst those who are allowed in your personal space. A pleasant surprise for someone who helps you on with your jacket or hands you your scarf. It should not be a frontal assault on all persons within a 100 foot radius (more, if the wind is blowing). Perfume should reach out to others in a whiff. If your co-workers can taste the constituent materials in your chosen scent by standing near you, you are wearing -too much- fragrance. A small spritz or dot on either forearm and once on the back of your neck should really do nicely.

5 - If you find yourself needing a little freshening up at midday... Go to Antarctica. If you cannot go to Antarctica to reapply your perfume, go outside. Do not reapply your perfume in enclosed spaces such as offices, shared public bathrooms, cars/buses, or elevators (even in poorly insulated apartment buildings!). This traps the smell, mysteriously accosting passerby (or people who live above you) long after you have vacated the area. See rule 4 for reasons this is unacceptable.

On behalf of all nasally sensitive individuals, scentophobes, and scentophiles... thank you, and goodnight.

And thank you, Bo for posting this!

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~This is from Kathleen's blog, which was taken from Zarina's blog. It says quite a lot about our world today and reminds me of what my childhood era was like.~

For Those Born Before 1980

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because,

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.!

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms.......

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them.....CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good .

While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

Are you putting pesticides on your body and in your mouth?
www.beyondpesticides.org/pesti...ed.pdf