i went to my cousin lisa's graduation dinner last night. we ate at the royal on sheridan and military because that's where my grandma liked to go every week during the last years of her life. my grandma's 90th birthday would have been yesterday, and lisa went to visit her grave, which was really sweet.
lisa was proud to make the announcement about getting a job that she really likes. and i'm happy that she's doing so well.
i just had to pause though afterwards and wonder why people all rush in to the job and whole being busy thing. while i am comforted by the thought that we are all one, i know there's another way and we have such freedom of choices.
people sometimes think i am not serious when i say that my job is spreading peace. but it is important. there have been major studies done on large scale meditation groups. it had reduced violence and war when only 1% of the population meditates.
i am going to start school in just over a week. i am a bit saddened to leave being my immediate peace-keeping work to be busy with books and learning new material all the time.
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12/17/2006 09:12 #30513
graduationCategory: family
12/17/2006 02:18 #30512
hippies!!Category: love
my roommate and i hung a few more strings of christmas lights tonight.
one of the strings of lights was all pink, so we hung it in part of the apartment that needed some love in the form of a big HEART.
love!
one of the strings of lights was all pink, so we hung it in part of the apartment that needed some love in the form of a big HEART.
love!
12/15/2006 12:27 #30511
samantha!come home
12/14/2006 17:32 #30510
christmas barterCategory: blessings
here's what i've accomplished from my posting the other day (see my post #29)
relaxing: i relax all the time. and i get requests for relaxing together with other people. i love seeing people relaxing
house cleaning/cleansing (i am especially good at doing deep cleaning involved with moving): i have totally changed the space i am living in. it was honestly the dirtiest place i've ever lived in that wasn't on wheels. i scrubbed the kitchen multiple times and cleaned off years of dirt from baseboards and months of two people who often spill things, and did lots of other intense cleaning. i have spent two hours a day cleaning here.
reiki: i did reiki today, but only for a minute because i have not been doing reiki much for the past months so i need to reestablish my connection with it
picking up trash: i have taken out a bag of trash six times this past week
taking care of children: i live with an infant and often feed her and hold her
spreading peace: i went to a sufi ritual to open your heart. we chanted and sang and danced together slowly and opened our hearts. it was a ritual i was unfamiliar with until this point.
arts & crafts: decorating for christmas. once the apartment was clean and cleared, my roommie and i were able to put up a christmas tree. we've been making baby books and will make christmas ornaments
cooking (vegetarian) meals for groups of people (especially brunch): i cooked brunch the other day for four people, we had scrambled eggs, hash browns, and pancakes and free dumpster bagels (which were totally legit, inside their own bag on top of everything), and coffee and mellow tea. welcome to oda's!
and here's what i've received
money, from my uncle, who sent me $100 bill for christmas and from my job stuffing envelopes, which ended up paying me $45 for the 10 hours i worked
rides to run errands around town, my mom brought me to go grocery shopping, and i spent the first $25 of my christmas money at wegmans, which enabled me to cook one of my best indian lentil dishes to share at a vegan potluck with a bunch of hippies
positive vibes, circle after dinner where we all shared a bit about who we are by telling the high point and low point of the past week
love, i am blessed to receive free yoga classes from a wise, poetic yoga teacher who has helped shape who i am. i hadn't been going to yoga only because i didn't have the money to do so, and although i never told her that, she made that beautiful offer.
we are so blessed!
thank you.
relaxing: i relax all the time. and i get requests for relaxing together with other people. i love seeing people relaxing
house cleaning/cleansing (i am especially good at doing deep cleaning involved with moving): i have totally changed the space i am living in. it was honestly the dirtiest place i've ever lived in that wasn't on wheels. i scrubbed the kitchen multiple times and cleaned off years of dirt from baseboards and months of two people who often spill things, and did lots of other intense cleaning. i have spent two hours a day cleaning here.
reiki: i did reiki today, but only for a minute because i have not been doing reiki much for the past months so i need to reestablish my connection with it
picking up trash: i have taken out a bag of trash six times this past week
taking care of children: i live with an infant and often feed her and hold her
spreading peace: i went to a sufi ritual to open your heart. we chanted and sang and danced together slowly and opened our hearts. it was a ritual i was unfamiliar with until this point.
arts & crafts: decorating for christmas. once the apartment was clean and cleared, my roommie and i were able to put up a christmas tree. we've been making baby books and will make christmas ornaments
cooking (vegetarian) meals for groups of people (especially brunch): i cooked brunch the other day for four people, we had scrambled eggs, hash browns, and pancakes and free dumpster bagels (which were totally legit, inside their own bag on top of everything), and coffee and mellow tea. welcome to oda's!
and here's what i've received
money, from my uncle, who sent me $100 bill for christmas and from my job stuffing envelopes, which ended up paying me $45 for the 10 hours i worked
rides to run errands around town, my mom brought me to go grocery shopping, and i spent the first $25 of my christmas money at wegmans, which enabled me to cook one of my best indian lentil dishes to share at a vegan potluck with a bunch of hippies
positive vibes, circle after dinner where we all shared a bit about who we are by telling the high point and low point of the past week
love, i am blessed to receive free yoga classes from a wise, poetic yoga teacher who has helped shape who i am. i hadn't been going to yoga only because i didn't have the money to do so, and although i never told her that, she made that beautiful offer.
we are so blessed!
thank you.
oda - 12/14/06 20:22
paul,
first, i did not know what the wage was for stuffing envelopes, it was mostly that i was helping bridget to motivate to start working after she had her baby. she's not able to leave the house to go to work now.
and no, i would not say that the money had cleaner energy for working for less than minimum wage. but by not having to spend 1-1/2 hours each way on the bus, which is the honest situation for bridget, you save three hours a day by working at home. when you assume that your travel time to work is part of your "hours worked" each day, you can subtract these 3 hours from your 10 hours worked, and that would make your wage around $6.43/hour. also, when you take in to account that bridget has no office skills, we ended up wasting around 1 hour each by redoing a lot of the folding. this would make it a total of only 6 hours worked each, and at $45, that comes to $7.50. and it's something that a new mother who doesn't have a car or have to pay for day car could actually do.
i only took 13 of the bagels, and there were around 200-300 bagels in the bag. they are there every night, and i am sure that many of them are often wasted. my sister told me about the dumpster, so i know that sometimes, people help themselves there. but in no way am i going to take more that i will use. (i have enough money to buy food for myself, but i am living in a house with three other people and it's really nice to be able to share things, especially when they don't really have the opportunities that i have.) and if i believed at all that someone else would go hungry if i took a few bagels for myself and my friends, i certainly would not take them. nor should i. but seeing things go to waste really bothers me, and i feel this is more of the actual situation.
i suppose the idea would be to bring the bagels to a homeless shelter or something like that that could help a lot of people.
paul,
first, i did not know what the wage was for stuffing envelopes, it was mostly that i was helping bridget to motivate to start working after she had her baby. she's not able to leave the house to go to work now.
and no, i would not say that the money had cleaner energy for working for less than minimum wage. but by not having to spend 1-1/2 hours each way on the bus, which is the honest situation for bridget, you save three hours a day by working at home. when you assume that your travel time to work is part of your "hours worked" each day, you can subtract these 3 hours from your 10 hours worked, and that would make your wage around $6.43/hour. also, when you take in to account that bridget has no office skills, we ended up wasting around 1 hour each by redoing a lot of the folding. this would make it a total of only 6 hours worked each, and at $45, that comes to $7.50. and it's something that a new mother who doesn't have a car or have to pay for day car could actually do.
i only took 13 of the bagels, and there were around 200-300 bagels in the bag. they are there every night, and i am sure that many of them are often wasted. my sister told me about the dumpster, so i know that sometimes, people help themselves there. but in no way am i going to take more that i will use. (i have enough money to buy food for myself, but i am living in a house with three other people and it's really nice to be able to share things, especially when they don't really have the opportunities that i have.) and if i believed at all that someone else would go hungry if i took a few bagels for myself and my friends, i certainly would not take them. nor should i. but seeing things go to waste really bothers me, and i feel this is more of the actual situation.
i suppose the idea would be to bring the bagels to a homeless shelter or something like that that could help a lot of people.
paul - 12/14/06 19:15
I cannot imagine spending 10 hours stuffing evelopes for $45. There is nothing on earth that would make me work for less than minimum wage. Think about that - you were making less than the "minimum wage." You really just blow my mind. Does the money have "cleaner" energy because you were paid less than a "minimum wage" for you time?
I am not saying that you should want to be a millionaire but it seems reasonable to leave dumpster bagels for people who really do have no other option and get a job with the skills you do have (and already paid for) to buy food with.
I cannot imagine spending 10 hours stuffing evelopes for $45. There is nothing on earth that would make me work for less than minimum wage. Think about that - you were making less than the "minimum wage." You really just blow my mind. Does the money have "cleaner" energy because you were paid less than a "minimum wage" for you time?
I am not saying that you should want to be a millionaire but it seems reasonable to leave dumpster bagels for people who really do have no other option and get a job with the skills you do have (and already paid for) to buy food with.
12/12/2006 21:30 #30509
wandering aboutCategory: blessings
i went for a super long walk. it's a nice day and it's nice to feel some air that's not overly dry from the heating.
early on in my walk, i saw a guy yelling "hold that bus," which didn't end up happening so he was yelling the F-word loudly as he realized he missed it, right as he walked by me. i generally don't cuss, and i said "blessings" as he passed, to send him blessings and to cancel out the words he was yelling.
i walked all over buffalo. as i was returning home, maybe five miles later, i saw the same guy again. he asked me for money...or food. well, as it turned out, i had JUST recieved 13 free bagels that the bakery was about to throw out.
he was pleased to get two bagels.
"god bless you," he said. "god bless you"
the blessings worked!
early on in my walk, i saw a guy yelling "hold that bus," which didn't end up happening so he was yelling the F-word loudly as he realized he missed it, right as he walked by me. i generally don't cuss, and i said "blessings" as he passed, to send him blessings and to cancel out the words he was yelling.
i walked all over buffalo. as i was returning home, maybe five miles later, i saw the same guy again. he asked me for money...or food. well, as it turned out, i had JUST recieved 13 free bagels that the bakery was about to throw out.
he was pleased to get two bagels.
"god bless you," he said. "god bless you"
the blessings worked!
oda - 12/13/06 11:33
i take blessings seriously. as i was just blessed to have 13 free bagels, i thought it was beautiful that he asked me for food and that i got to share with him. most people in buffalo just ask for money.
i take blessings seriously. as i was just blessed to have 13 free bagels, i thought it was beautiful that he asked me for food and that i got to share with him. most people in buffalo just ask for money.
matthew - 12/13/06 09:27
work = word
work = word
matthew - 12/13/06 09:26
i think "Bless you" is more a curse work than Fuck. What's with the god thing all of a sudden?
i think "Bless you" is more a curse work than Fuck. What's with the god thing all of a sudden?
I agree with brit here that it is too difficult to prove scientifically that meditation causes peace. There are just too many factors. On the other hand I do believe, believe being the key word, in the power of thought, prayer, meditation, chanting, whatever you want to call it. How could these things possibly not have an effect somewhere in our environment? I pray for peace everyday, and although we live in a violent world, I still have faith that my prayers do have an effect. I also believe that if there are many in body and one in mind that the effect will be greater.
No doubt this is interesting but it isn't scientific, the conterfatuals are not explored and the 'control' variables that they account for in their statistical regression are entirely arbitrary. To control for weather conditons affecting levels of violence you would have to prove at first that it did then build a level of significance into the model that you were working with.
Could it be that the violence did not continue in these particular places owing to other factors? We don't know because they can't explain why it happens. You cannot simply say that something happens but you have no idea why, the methodology is backward and the results have no explanatory power.
If you are interested in Peace, then you should read the journal of conflict resolution or the Peace Science Society journal which might give you a better idea of the steps to war and the paths to peace. Meditation may result in a willingness to lay down arms which may result in a reduction in fighting however there is a clear reson why that chain would hold, saying it is a mystical forcefield which cannot be explained is a cop out
Don't worry Oda you don't have to abandon your peace efforts just because you are in school or working. Your mission towards peace will be with you no matter where you go.
Spreading peace is wonderful and noble and we need more of it- but I don't think it pays very well. Not that money is the only goal of life, but you need at least some to survive.
I would have loved to not have had to rush into working 80/wk just a couple weeks after graduating, but my debt ain't going away on it's own.
whilst I agree that spreading peace is important, regarding studies of the population where war allegedly decreased when only one per cent of the population meditates sounds like a spurious correlation to me. You could say that incidences of drowning are correlated to higher ice cream sales and indeed higher ice cream sales may occur alongside higher incidents of drowning but it doesn't mean that they are causally realated. The actual cause would be that more people bathe in the summer AND buy ice cream. Conflict resolution depends on researchers and diplomats being able to establish patterns of behavior which are more liable to increase conflict and take steps to avoid the path dependent behaviors which lead these states to war over and over.
You should always question the theory, methodology and bias with which studies are undertaken before you decided that they are sound.