Vacation Pictures

Vacation August 2007

Nisfu Sha'ban

According to my calendar, today is the Islamic holiday Nisfu Sha'ban, a/k/a Mid-Sha'ban (and a bunch of other names)

Nisfu-Sha'ban is a Muslim festival celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month (Shaban) of the Islamic lunar calendar. (This year, it corresponds to August 28 on our calendar).

There are two major denominations of Islam: Shia (the Shi'its) and Sunni [aha - I never knew what these groups were exactly]. These denominations celebrate the holiday for different reasons.

Shias celebrate this holiday as the birth of Muhammad al-Mahdi. The Shias consider him to be the twelfth, final and current Shia Imam [a leader appointed by Allah who is a perfect example of how to live] and also the Mahdi [the ultimate savior of mankind]. The Prophet Muhammad said there would be 12 Imams after him, and apparently the Shias believe this one is the last one.

Sunnis observe this holiday as a night of worship and salvation, commemorating when Allah saved prophet Nuh's [Noah's] followers from the deluge [the flood]. They believe that on this night Allah prepares the destiny for all people on Earth for the coming year. It is decided who will be born, who will die, how much provision each person will get, etc. The angels are also given their duties for the coming year. It is a night spent in sincere introspection and repentance.

The Prophet Muhammad urged Muslims to stay up during the night and fast during the day. He himself would go to the graveyard of Madinah [a holy city] and pray for the dead. It is also desirable for Muslims to seek the forgiveness of their dead either by reciting the Qur'an, feeding the hungry, giving money in charity, or by just praying for them. .

SOURCES/MORE INFO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Sha%27ban

http://www.sanatan.org/weekly/2002/144/festivals.htm

http://www.deenislam.co.uk/dua/Shaban_3.htm

http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/february02_index.php?l=3

Isra/Me'raj

According to my calendar, today is the Islamic holiday Isra/Me'raj

The official name of this holiday is "Laylat Al-Isra wa Al-Miraj", which means "the night journey and ascension." It celebrates that night that Muhammad went from Mecca to Jerusalem, ascended into the Seven Heavens, and returned, all in the same night. During his time in the Seven Heavens, Muhammad was instructed to establish the five daily prayers that Muslims use now. He also met other religious figures, including Abraham, Moses, Aaron, Adam, the archangel Gabriel, and Jesus. Many Muslims consider this a physical journey, while some scholars consider it a dream or journey of the soul.

The rock from which Muhammad is believed to have ascended is the focal point of the Dome of the Rock, a sacred building in Jerusalem.

http://www.bibleplaces.com/domeofrock.htm

Not all Muslims celebrate Isra Mer-aj and there are no obligatory prayers. Celebrations vary by area and may include gathering in mosques or homes to listen to the story of the journey, illuminating the cities with electric lights and candles, fasting, colorful decorations, and the partaking of sweets. It is also an opportunity for devotees to engage in good deeds, such as donating money to charity, distributing food among the poor, etc.

(There are more detailed descriptions of the vision/journey/dream in the links below - it's quite interesting. I found it somewhat amusing that after Allah told Muhammad he had to say 50 prayers ever day, Moses said that was too much, the people would never do that many, and told him to go back and get it reduced, and so he did, so there are only 5 prayers to do.)

Sources/More Info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isra_and_Mi'raj

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/holidays/isrameraj.htm

http://www.al-islam.org/restatement/16.htm

http://www.sanatan.org/en/festivals/islam/lailatulmiraj.htm

Ellen Burstyn

I've added her to my list of heroes. the others are Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Katherine Hepburn and Eleanor Roosevelt. Like them, she is strong, wise, independent and has worked in her own way to make the world a better place for women.

Excerpt from a BeliefNet interview (link at bottom):

"Can you talk about your exploration into Sufism, which you practice today?

Oh, it started with reading. I was reading the work of Gurdjieff. And Gurdjieff led me to the Sufis, and then I met a Sufi teacher. And then I traveled to Europe and I climbed the Alps and went up to a Sufi camp conducted by Pir Vilayat Kahn; I was initiated up there.

When I was on top of the Alps and Pir Vilayat did the universal worship ceremony, I was so moved by it because here we were on an Alpine peak facing Mont Blanc, and there was an altar, and Pir lit a candle to each of the major religions of the world, and then read from the sacred books of those religions.

And the idea that we didn’t have to say, “I am a Christian” or, “I am a Buddhist” or, “I am a Muslim,” but, "I am a spirit opening to the truth that lives in all of these religions,” brings you into a place where you see that the differences are in the dogma, and the essence is very, very similar.

The truth is there spread out and speaking. For instance, Jesus says that if someone strikes you to turn the other cheek and the Buddha says that "Hatred cannot be fought with hatred--hatred can only be fought with love. This is a law eternal." Well, they’re saying the same thing there. And you find that consistently. So, I knew when I came upon that that I had found what was, for me, a doorway into spirit."


Ellen Burstyn's True Face: The Oscar-winning actress talks about embracing her essence, a love of Sufi poetry, and her scorchingly honest new memoir.

Protective Aura

"As you develop your intuition and strengthen your inner guidance, it can have the effect of enhancing your sensitivity to everyone and everything. This week notice how some people or places make you feel energized, while others leave you feeling drained. Learn to strengthen your aura with protection. As you get dressed each morning — just before you start your day — remember to place a protective thought on your aura. See your aura as a brilliant white light that acts as an invisible shield, surrounding you throughout the day. It really is our own personal psychic shield. Use it – it’s part of you!"

(from John Holland's newsletter and 101 Ways to Jumpstart Your Intuition)

Lughnasa

According to my calendar, today is the Pagan/Wiccan holiday Lughnasa.

Lughnasa is a Celtic harvest festival celebrated on August 1st. It marked the beginning of the harvest season, the ripening of first fruits.

In Celtic mythology, Lughnasa was begun by the Irish god Lugh in honor of his foster-mother, Tailtiu, the last queen of the Fir Bolg. Tailtiu cleared a great forest so the land could be cultivated, but then died of exhaustion. On her death bed, she told the men of Ireland that as long as they held funeral games in her honor, Ireland would not be without song. Since Tailtiu's name means "The Great One of the Earth," she was probably a personification of the land itself. Lugh's name refers to childbirth, which ties in with the time of year when the earth gives birth to her first fruits.

The festival was traditionally a time of community gatherings, market festivals, horse races and reunions. Among the Irish it was a favored time for handfastings - trial marriages that would generally last a year and a day, with the option of ending the contract before the new year, or later formalizing it as a more permanent marriage.

At one time the festival had evolved into a great tribal assembly, attended by the High King, where legal agreements were made, political problems discussed, and huge sporting contests were held on the scale of an early Olympic Games.

In later times, the festival was christianized as Lammas ("Loaf-Mass"). Some Wiccans and Neopagans use this name. In some rural areas, it was called "Bilberry Sunday," the day to climb the nearest "Lughnasadh Hill" and gather blackberries.

Lughnasadh is observed by Neopagans in various forms and by a variety of names. Some celebrate like the Ancient Celts, while others observe it with rituals adopted from other unrelated sources. In Wicca, Lughnasadh is one of the eight sabbats and the first of three harvest festivals.

Sources/More Info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lughnasadh
http://www.chalicecentre.net/lughnasadh.htm
http://www.lughnasa.com/pages/1/index.htm
http://www.irishcelticfest.com/

Author says UFO-Air Force dogfight ended in Flatwoods

"BECKLEY -- Sci-fi buffs flocked to a fantasy film in 1984 bearing a title prediction that 2010 would be the year earthlings make contact with aliens.

Actually, contact has come, and it was less than friendly, says one UFO researcher.

Three decades earlier, in fact, back in 1952, just five years after the famed Roswell, New Mexico incident, the American military engaged a convoy of alien aircraft with orders to destroy them in a pitched air battle right off the Atlantic Coast, says Frank Feschino, author of "The Flatwoods Monster,'' a phenomenon that rocked a tiny West Virginia town that year.

An illustrator and writer, Feschino has produced a follow-up book, this one titled "Shoot Them Down,'' an effort produced after years of painstaking research of the U.S. Air Force's once-classified files on unidentified flying saucers and digesting countless magazine articles on the matter.

His years of exhaustive study have convinced Feschino that American jet fighters did indeed make contact -- at the point of their guns.

"Shoot Them Down'' draws its name from orders Feschino says President Truman gave military commanders while an American public was growing increasingly jittery over coast-to-coast UFO sightings.

Two years earlier, Truman had remarked at a news conference, "I can assure you that flying saucers, given that they exist, are not constructed by any power on earth.''

"There are tons of documents right there, intelligence reports, talking about pilots chasing these things, going after them,'' Feschino said, citing the once-hidden reports on the Air Force's so-called Project Blue Book.

"That's when it hit the fan, and the government stepped up. That is when they had to simmer the whole country down. The whole country was in an uproar. Everybody was panicking. The job of the government is to keep things under control, and they couldn't let the country panic.''

UFOs were buzzing the entire country that year, "and a good chunk of them were over military installations, and power plants, like Oak Ridge,'' the author says.

Feschino pulls his theory largely from the writings of Air Force Capt. Edward Ruppelt, a decorated World War II veteran, recalled to duty when hostilities erupted in Korea.

Roswell might stand out as the mother of all UFO stories, but 1952 was the most prolific year by far for aircraft sightings -- by one account, some 30,000 alone in the United States, many of them reported in local newspapers around the country.

Craft ranged from discs to round balls to elongated, cigar-shaped ships, the Port Orange, Fla., resident said.

"Capt. Ruppelt was dropping clues throughout his book,'' Feschino said. "And that's the premise of my book. During that time of 1952 we had the highest amount of sightings.''

In a book he wrote, Ruppelt said "other assorted historians have pointed out that normally the UFOs are peaceful,'' but he alluded to a chase in which one of two pilots engaging unidentified aircraft perished.

"They just weren't ready to be observed closely,'' he wrote.

"If the Air Force hadn't slapped down the security lid, these writers might not have reached this conclusion (about peaceful aliens). There have been other and more lurid duels of death. That's what everybody missed.''

Feschino flatly says the Air Force took on alien aircraft just off the coast with orders to destroy them in a move to pacify a public growing ever restless over bizarre sightings. In the battle, apparently one craft hobbled back inland, resting on a knoll in a West Virginia community known as Flatwoods. And it was there on Sept. 12 a group of boys, accompanied by some adults, scampered up the hillside and saw a metallic, 12-foot object emitting a sulfuric odor. Locals dubbed it "the Flatwoods Monster.''

"I have no idea who they were,'' Feschino said.

Based on his interviews with some 200 residents of Flatwoods, however, the author believes the aliens remain interested in rural West Virginia.

"There are people in West Virginia who have been seeing UFOs for the past 50 years, and there are key locations where they are being seen -- Wheeling, Huntington, and quite a few south of Charleston, around Cabin Creek, even down in the Beckley area,'' he said.

Feschino is a headliner for a Sept. 7-8 UFO summit in Charleston, organized by promoter Larry Bailey. Joining him will be Freddie May, a witness to the Flatwoods incident, and nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman, considered the leading UFO researcher in the world. Friedman has appeared on numerous cable TV shows with his belief that extraterrestrials are frequent flyers to planet Earth.

At the two-day gathering, Feschino plans to sell his new book, featuring a special, limited edition cover for West Virginia consumers."

Author says UFO-Air Force dogfight ended in Flatwoods

Quotes

Posting quotations here:

http://quotescollector.blogspot.com/

Anniversary of Nana's death

12 years ago today, my maternal grandmother, Christine Ellen Woolard Canterbury, passed over.

She was the source of the most unconditional and boundless love I ever had. In her eyes, I could do no wrong.

I have no doubt that I'll see her again when it's my time. Until then, I'll continue to think of her and miss her every single day.

I love you, Nana.

"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere." - Frank A. Clark

"In every moment we have a chance to make a choice to bring light into the world. When we bless others with the gift of our positive energy, instead of letting circumstances affect us negatively, we bring a little peace to the world every day." - www.dailyom.com

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return."

- Mary Jean Iron

Big Brother Starts This Week!

The cast has been revealed: "Half are under the age of 25, with one player below the age of 21. Four players hail from the Los Angeles area, and there are no less than three players who work at a restaurant or bar."

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117967770.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

Pictures of the house:

http://www.tvguide.com/news/big-brother-preview/070628-02

Be Here Now

"Be here in your mind as well as in your body, in a state of appreciation and an absence of longing. Let go of wondering about doing the right thing. Release the what-ifs and all of your goals for the future, replacing them with the power of this instant. Be here, and remember to do it now, for thinking about being someplace else uses up your precious present moments. The enlightened sage makes a practice of immersing himself completely in the current “nowness” of his life.

Being here now is accomplished by adopting an acceptance of life as it is presented by the great Mother, or the Tao. It’s a surrendering process, if you will—simply allowing this great all-creating, all-nourishing Source to take you where it will. You give up the idea of having to get more or to be in another place in the future, and instead see yourself as whole and complete just as you are. This surrendering process allows you to bear witness to the unlimited abundance and eternal light that is always present. You retrain yourself to give up your beliefs about lacks and shortages; you instead trust in the great Source to provide what you need, as it has always done for all beings."

- Excerpt from Dr. Wayne Dyer's forthcoming book Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life which is to be released July 31st

Animal stuff

This is such a precious story about some animals rescued after the tornado in KS (I just got it in email and found it online):

http://www.heavenlycreatures.ca/blog/?p=19

And this is a great story about a pet hippo!! She is going to be featured on a show on Animal Planet tomorrow night. I hope I remember to record it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/06/19/eahippo19.xml

"The question for each of us is not what we would do if we had the means, time, influence, and educational advantages, but what we will do with the things we have." - Hamilton Wright Mabie

stuffonmycat.com

One of my kitties finally made my favorite website!

http://www.stuffonmycat.com/index.php?itemid=4007

Revelers welcome summer solstice

"STONEHENGE, England - Druids, drummers, pagans and partygoers welcomed the sun Thursday as it rose above the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge on the longest day of the year — the summer solstice.

Clad in antlers, black cloaks and oak leaves, a group of druids cheered and danced at the Heel stone — a twisted, pockmarked pillar at the edge of Stonehenge.
...
About 24,000 people gathered at the stone circle in Wiltshire, in southwestern England. Dancers writhed to the sound of drums and whistles as floodlights colored the ancient pillars shades of pink and purple. Couples snuggled under plastic sheets.

Solstice celebrations were a highlight of the pre-Christian calendar. Bonfires, maypole dances, and courtship rituals linger on in many countries as holdovers from Europe's pagan past.

In more recent years, New Age groups and others have turned to Stonehenge to celebrate the solstice, and the World Heritage Site has become a magnet for men and women seeking a spiritual experience — or just wanting to have a good time."
...
Stonehenge, on the Salisbury Plain 80 miles southwest of London, was built between 3,000 B.C. and 1,600 B.C., although its original purpose is a mystery. Some experts say the monument's builders aligned the stones as part of their sun-worshipping culture."

Revelers welcome summer solstice

Summer Solstice

Today is the summer solstice, a/k/a Midsummer, Litha, St. John's Day, Alban Heflin, Alben Heruin, All-couples day, Feast of Epona, Feast of St. John the Baptist, Feill-Sheathain, Gathering Day, Johannistag, Sonnwend, Thing-Tide, Vestalia, etc.

The Summer Solstice occus on the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer. It is also referred to as Midsummer because it is roughly the middle of the growing season in Europe. People around the world have observed celebrations during the month of June (or in December in the southern hemisphere), most of which are holy days linked in some way to the summer solstice.

"Solstice" is derived from two Latin words: "sol" meaning sun, and "sistere," to cause to stand still. This is because, as the summer solstice approaches, the noonday sun rises higher and higher in the sky on each successive day. On the day of the solstice, it rises an imperceptible amount, compared to the day before. In this sense, it "stands still."

Many ancient celebrations related to the feminine, fertility, prosperity and abundance. They honored Mother Earth and other goddesses representing the divine feminine. The Celtic Druids celebrated the apex of light, midway between the spring and fall equinoxes.

After the conversion of Europe to Christianity, the feast day of St. John the Baptist was set as June 24 (the alleged date of his birth).

There are many ancient sacred sites where temples or other structures are built so that they are aligned with the solstices and equinoxes. The largest room of the ruins at Qumran (location of the Dead Sea Scrolls) appears to be a sun temple with two altars at its eastern end. Stonehenge's main axis is aligned on the midsummer sunrise. Machu Picchu's Sacred Plaza, Temple of Three Windows and Intihuatana platform align with the summer solstice. Many medieval Catholic churches were built with solar observatories, typically a small hole in the roof admitting a beam of sunlight which would trace a path along the floor. The path, called the meridian line, was often marked by inlays and zodiacal motifs.

Sources and Lots More info:

http://www.circlesanctuary.org/pholidays/SummerSolstice.html

http://www.religioustolerance.org/summer_solstice.htm

http://www.souledout.org/earthday/summersolstice/summersolstice.html

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/29/story_2991_1.html

http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html

http://www.satimagingcorp.com/gallery/machu-picchu.html

I'm famous

I was minding my own business at Chesapeake Bagel waiting for my breakfast when a newspaper reporter came up and asked me about the mayor's proposal to raise the user fee (that you pay for the "privilege" of working in Charleston). I am against it.

http://www.dailymail.com/display_story.php?sid=2007061861&format=prn

Then a little bit ago a television station, WSAZ, called asking to interview me later! I declined. I would be too nervous!