The Christmas Shoes

These people are baby abusers. I am a wife beater .

I love my family so much.

is so divine
where love is shown by gabi raping me,
hurt is shared
our love for each other is never impaired. especsilly when my dad helped me grt rid of my baby at 14 and cover for me

we talk
we laugh
we cry

but we are a family
we abuse babies
for as a family
we do it all as one

you hurt one
you hurt all
and as a family unit
we are all horrie people. my dad is a child beater and molester

for we are family
a family full of strength
a family full of love. & i wish i was never adopted
a family no one can touch
that's why I love my family so much.

It was worth it

I was browsing through the Internet the other day and I ran into this beautiful poem:

You Can Be Whatever
You Want To Be!

There is inside you
all of the potential
to be whatever you want to be,
all of the energy
to do whatever you want to do.

Imagine yourself as you would like to be,
doing what you want to do,
and each day, take one step
towards your dream.

And though at times it may seem too
difficult to continue,
hold on to your dream.

One morning you will awake to find
that you are the person you dreamed of,
doing what you wanted to do,
simply because you had the courage
to believe in your potential
and to hold on to your dream.

~ Donna Levine ~

I've had great examples in my life when it comes to following your dreams, we tend to fall into this daily routine were we are no longer humans, sons and daughters of a Heavenly Father who has given us unlimited potential to become whoever we want to become. We become robots who are programmed to follow this same routine day by day.

I admire people who have the courage to follow their dreams regardless of what obstacles they might find in the way. I've learned that obstacles in this life are not meant to stop you from moving forward, they are meant to make the trip worthwhile and interesting. How boring would life be if there was no obstacles? no opposition?

I have a list of dreams I want to accomplish before I die... a "bucket list" sort of thing. :)

Places I want to visit:

The Grand Canyon
Victoria Falls (between Zambia and Zimbabwe)
Iguassu Falls (between Brazil and Argentina)
The Great Barrier Reef
The Galapagos Archipelago
The Northern Lights (the Aurora Borealis)
The Fjords of Norway
The Amazon Rainforest
The Perito Moreno Glacier
The Basilica di San Marco, Venice
St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican, Rome
The Acropolis in Greece
The Alhambra in Spain
Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
The Statues of Easter Island, Chile
Hagia Sophia, Turkey
Kiyomizu Temple in Japan
The Kremlin in Russia
The Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
Stonehenge, United Kingdom
The Sydney Opera House, Australia
The Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, London, England
The Parthenon in Greece
Machu Picchu, Peru
The Coliseum in Rome
Petra, Jordan
Christ Redeemer, Brazil
The Great Wall of China
Chichen Itza, Mexico
The Taj Mahal, India
Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris
See the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
Go to the Pike Place Market in Seattle
See Mount Rushmore
See the Empire State Building
Climb up the Statue of Liberty
Go to Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, MA
Visit SeaWorld Florida, Orlando
Go to Universal Studios, Hollywood, CA
Visit Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii
Visit Disney World
Visit all Fifty of the United States
The Dome of the Rock, Israel
Salzburg, Austria
Bora Bora
Karnak Temple; Egypt
The Terracotta Warriors
Hong Kong Harbor
Mecca
Go on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Eiffel Tower
Dubrovnik, Croatia
The Panama Canal
Visit all 7 continents.

That is just a small list of all the places I want to visit, but honestly, who cares if its a small list or if its a long list? Nothing in this life is impossible, nothing is unachievable. There is one person that I truly admire, not only because she is living her dream but because I witnessed her every step to achieve it. Yes, I'm talking about my sister in law, Sara Ballstaedt. She had a dream to go to Europe and travel to all of this places. Was it hard? YES.... Did it feel impossible at times? YES.... Was it impossible? NO!!! and that is what makes it beautiful... that regardless of how hard it was to achieve your dream at the end you can always look back and say "It was worth it".

Trick or Treat

There could hardly be a better example of the way that language and traditions migrate over time and across different cultures than trick or treating. This is well-known to be an American tradition, but its origins lie in medieval Europe.

There are myriad Christian and pagan rituals and celebrations that have taken place on or about the 1st of November each year. These occurred in virtually every English-speaking and/or Christian country. They have evolved and merged over the centuries and continue to do so. Common features of these traditions are - asking for food, dressing in disguise and a connection to the spirits of the deceased.

The language of these traditions is heavily influenced by the naming of days in the Christian calendar. The central date of the rituals that herald the beginning of winter is the 1st of November, called All Saints Day or All Hallows Day. The following day is All Souls Day and the 31st of October is All Hallows Eve - shortened to Hallowe'en (i.e. the evening before All Hallows Day).

The practice of souling - going from door to door on or about All Souls Day to solicit gifts of food in return for prayers for the dead - evolved from a pagan ritual that was practiced all over Europe, possibly as early as the 10th century. As a Christian tradition it goes back to at least the 14th century, when it is mentioned by Chaucer. It is still commonplace in many Catholic countries, notably Ireland, where soul-cakes are left out for the departed. The first reference to the practice under that name in England is John Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, 1779:

"On All Saints Day, the poor people go from parish to parish a Souling, as they call it."

The tradition has altered so that it is now children, usually dressed in disguise, who go about asking for gifts around the beginning of November. Some examples of this are from:

England, where we have requests for 'a penny for the guy'. This derives from the bonfire celebrations that began to celebrate the thwarting of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. Guy Fawkes was the explosives specialist of the plot. He was scheduled to be hanged, drawn and quartered, but escaped that fate by prematurely hanging himself by jumping from the scaffold with the noose around his neck. He is now symbolically re-executed each year on 5th November (Bonfire Night), when effigies of him, called guys, are burned on bonfires all over England. The 'pennies' that children collect are traditionally spent on fireworks. This had a secular and political rather than religious or supernatural motivation, but it clearly inherited much from souling.

The USA, where the tradition is trick or treating. This 20th century tradition has many of the features of the earlier rituals, a knowledge of which were of course brought to the USA by immigrants from Europe.

Scotland, where it is called guising. This is a clear predecessor of trick or treat. The main difference between the two was that the children performed small entertainments before being given gifts - poems, jokes etc. This is now merging into trick or treating, with sweets being expected without the party piece.

The earliest known citation of trick or treat in print is from an item in the Oregon newspaper The Oregon Journal, 1st November 1934, headed 'Halloween Pranks Keep Police on Hop':

"Other young goblins and ghosts, employing modern shakedown methods, successfully worked the 'trick or treat' system in all parts of the city."

Trick or treating spread across the USA in the 1930s and is cited then in newspapers from many states. For example, the Indiana paper The Vidette-Messenger, October 30th 1937:

"Trick or treat. This seems to be the popular pastime among the younger folk and Valparaiso people... will hear it many times tonight, for it is Hallowe'en."

From Washington state we have The Centralia Daily Chronicle item for 1st November 1939:

"Pranksters were bought off when oldsters complied with their 'trick or treat' demand..."

It seems that the practice wasn't universally popular amongst adults when it appeared in the 1930s. Many of the early references to trick or treating feature 'what's the world coming too' type comments by outraged residents and police. The Reno Evening Gazette, 1st November 1938, alludes to Nevada children using methods similar to the protection rackets of the Mafia. Its piece was headed 'Youngsters Shake Down Residents':

"Trick or treat was the slogan employed by Halloween pranksters who successfully extracted candy fruit from Reno residents. In return the youngsters offered protection against window soaping and other forms of annoyance."

Trick or treating was well-enough established in Montana by the end of the 1930s for The Helena Independent newspaper to be advertising a 23 cent "Trick or Treat Mix" of candies. It isn't clear how many they sold though. On 2nd November 1938, the same paper reported that some of their readers had not taken kindly to being given 'an offer they can't refuse' by small mask-wearing ghosts and ghoulies and, although they were threatened with little more than some impromptu window soaping, they expressed their annoyance in no uncertain terms - by shooting at the little devils.

"Hallowe'en pranksters in several sections of the nation carried home loads of buckshot last night. Most persons are not in favor of shotgun treatment, but they are in favor of some chastisement."

A ring on the doorbell, followed by "trick or treat?", is heard in households in many countries around the world each 31st October. There are several reasons for the international spread. Partly it is due to the migration of US families and partly to the cultural dominance of the USA (what child with a television set can have failed to have seen Spielberg's ET or at least one of The Simpsons' seventeen Treehouse of Horror Halloween Specials?). Probably more significant though are the commercial interests of the media and manufacturers. If you can get away with spending just 23 cents this Hallowe'en or Bonfire Night you'll have done well.

The triple filter test

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day one fellow met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?". "Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test.". "Triple filter?". "That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?" "No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and...". "All right," said Socrates. "So you don't know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?" . "No, on the contrary...". "So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?" "No, not really." "Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"

Now tell me, how many times have we found ourselves in this situation? What role do we play? the randow fellow? or Socrates? I know that most of the time I play the random fellow role. Lets all strive to be more like Socrates and apply the Triple filter test in our lives.

The 50 state game....

A few months ago I was invited to play a unusual game for a brown person like me... The 50 state game. Ok... so, how do you expect a brown guy to name all the 50 states? But hey, I gave it a try. Guess what my score was? I'm proud to announce that I got a 24 out of 50! That's a very good score for someone that was not raised in the US, dont you think? I remember when I was a kid and I had to learn the 50 states for my US History Class.... apparently I did not pay attention or just stored it in my short term memory. :)
Anyways, if anyone has forgotten the 50 states... here is a video that will help you remember!