Tolerance of Beliefs

So, I know I talk about tolerance of other people a lot, but now, I want to kind of shift gears on the same subject, and talk about religious tolerance, or tolerance of other beliefs.

One of the most important things I can say here is that if you don't know how the person will react to what you say, don't say it at all. This is important, especially when you are talking about touchy subjects like religion with a religiously diverse group of people. An example of this was during History class, we are talking about religion. We have covered Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam so far. And there are plenty of people who fall all of religions listed above in my class. So, our teacher was lecture us and then he made a comment about how "Christianity was basically a religion centered on Mary getting pregnant and not wantign to tell her parents so she said it was God" with a completely serious look on his face.

This offended plenty of people in our class, and it was not okay when he dismissed it with a smirk before moving on to the next topic of conversation.

Not only the Christians were offended by this comment, but many other people were too. They thought that he had kind of stepped over a line that was not meant to be crossed. Maybe if he were just joking, it would be more accepted by our class, even though plenty of poeple would still be rather upset. However, he didn't even make an effort to apologize to the people that he had offended.with that comment. It has made plenty of people lose a lot of respect for him.

So, do you have any stories about people who are intolerant to your faith, or another faith?

A New Journey

I am pleased to report about a new journey that my family is embarking on. Last night, my grandmother reutned home to St. Louis after being in Chicago since July of 2010. This was very amazing for us, because we didn't know if and when this was ever going to happen, and how we would make it work. We don't know if things are going to get easier or more difficult from here, but we do know that we are very lucky to have gotten this far.

The journey that my family was on before this one brought us together and farther apart. It brought us closer as a family, but it also created many disputes and arguements, some of which resulted in our family nearly falling apart. But we knew that we would get it after a little while.

Maybe you're wondering why our family is no longer on the same journey that we were on before. Well, the answer is that we are on a different journey, because many different things are happening. This journey is not focusing on the recovery, but it is focusing on the maintaining and making a woman's life as happy for her as it could possibly be.

One of the biggest changes in this journey was the addition of a new member, Beth. Beth will be taking care of my gramdmother when we cannot. And she will, and has already proven to be a huge help to our family. So thanks ot her, and thanks to everyone else who has helped us out.

So, are you or your families in the middle of a journey? If so feel free to post about it in the comments section of this post.

Dying...

Odd post title...I know. But, you can always trust that I will explain it. Yesterday, I had a very huge hospice meeting. It was a training meeting for visiting patients. As a student, I am only allowed to see patients in a nursing home for about two times a month. I will also be doing that with a partner.

One of the main things we talked about at the meeting was death. This is because all the patients will die, and we need to know all the signs and stages, and also how to help the families. But, one of the things that I learned at that meeting is that not everyone dies with the loved and support of their family and friends. That's where us volunteers come into play.  We support those people who don't have families. We also support people who do have families, because the families always need a break, and we should give them that.

The reason I decided to do this was because two years ago, in October, my grandmother fell and was placed in a rehabilitation facility. My dad and I went to visit her every single day, and we worried about her constantly. But, the woman who shared a room with my grandma was in much worse condition than her. And there was never anyone to visit her. I wondered how horrible that must be. To be by yourself with nobody there to visit me. Maybe it's just because family is so important to me and my family.

So, I encourage you to take a step out into something like hospice, or a friend who is in the process of losing someone. I'm not asking you to do a lot. But, just be there for them, and help them through this journey that htey are on.

Losing and Gaining Friends

So, here's something that I have been struggling with a lot recently. Gaining and losing friends. This is more of an advice post, because I know it's something that you struggle with a lot. Especially when your friends with someone and one of you is changing in a way that the other is not, and it's really affecting your friendship.

I'll say one thing. Don't stress over it as muh as you do. There's plenty of people out in this world. It's not like you won't ever find another friend, no matter what. Because you will. If you aren' t spending as much time with one of your friends as you owuld want to, or they aren't taking an interest in your friendship, take it as an opportunityto meet new people. Maybe you'll meet someone who you'll form a lifelong relationship with. So, don't stress over not being as connected with one of your friends as you used to be.

Next, take the opportunity to meet new people, because  you never know who you'll meet. You might just meet someone who you'll form a lifelong bond with. Even if you have good friends, there's never any harm in meeting new people, because you never know how that person might impact your life later.

Anyway, if you have any friendship advice that you need or tips you have to share, feel free to post them in the comments section.

Learning About Your Heritage

So, here's something that's recently becoming very important for me. Learning about my heritage. Today, I performed a dance that was baically Bollywood and Bharata Natyum mixed together. I dance, but I do ballet, tap and jazz, and I have never done an Indian style of dance. I've always wanted to do some sort of Indian dance, but I've never actually done it before. This was my first time performing it, and it went surprisingly well, actually. I enjoyed it very much.

Luckily, none of my friends were in the crowd today, but htey will be soon. Next Monday to be exact. I know I have to practice a lot before I perform for them, but, I will put in the effort needed, because I want this to be amazing.

But, the cool thing is that it doesn't really feel like practicing when I do the dance. It's just fun. Which is why I want to encourage everyone to look into their own backgrounds. Maybe you'll find something about the culture that you'll enjoy doing.

Do you have any stories or cool things about your culture you would like to add? Feel free to post them in the comments section.

A Helpful Day

Today was a rather interesting day for me. I learned a lot about hunger, but also solutions of hunger. Now, I'm not going to go into all of that, because I know it would bore plenty of people, however, I will post a link to the Danforth Plant Science Center for anyone who is interested in learning more. 

http://www.danforthcenter.org/
:
Anyway, today was World Food Day of 2011, and so, for this special day, the center decided that they would package food to help fight hunger. We packaged soy, vegetables and rice into bags, and made sure that everything was ready to be sent away to the people who needed it most. We tried to package as much food as we could, for as many people as we could. For us, we did this mainly to beat everyone else at packaging, and try and produce as many bags as possible, but, while I was doing it, I thought about the people who would end up eating this meal, and how much they would appreciate it. 

Also, recently, I found out that my dad's friend's wife has cancer, and it's not looking very good for her. So, my dad set up something where we could pre-make meals for them, and their family, because they have two kids, and it's really hard on them to have to deal with her chemo, yet also needing to cook for the family. It wasn't exactly meant to be for World Food Day, but it tied in well. Everyone is scared, but in terms of her medical condition there isn't a whole lot we can do about it. But then I got to thinking about what else we could do...

There's always more to do. In any situation, there's always something that you can do to make people's lives easier, and sometimes, it doesn't even take longer than five minutes. Even the smallest things could be helpful.

So, to those who want some advice on what to do, here's a list that you can use to help you.

1. Explore your community: There's always someone who could benefit from your help in your own community. Chances are, there's going to be someone who could use your help. If you want to get involved, take a look around your own community, and try to fnd if there is someone who really needs the help.

2. Do some research: Do a quick internet search of charity organizations in your area, and try and find our how you can volunteer there. Who knows? Maybe you'll find an organization that you really like.

3. Get people to help out: One thing that my dad did, was he got a group of friends to help today, which made things go efficiently, but it also made it a lot more fun. When there's other people with you, more work gets done, and it makes doing the work better, because you are helping out, yet having fun at the same time.

Hopefully, this list has helped you. If you have any other ideas, or you want to post your World Food Day stories, or stories of volumteer work in general, feel free to post a comment.

A Lesson

So, in early June, I posted about my mission trip to Chicago, and how if affected my life, and my thinking. Now, I am going to elaborate on one experience I had on that trip in particular.

On one of the last nights, my group went to the homeless shelter for the men staying there, who didn't have families there. The main point of our visit there was just to talk to them, and tell them about our lives, and try and see if we could make a differencce in their lives, or be a link in their chain. Which is exactly what we did. But, we didn't know that some of them would be links in our chains as well.

One of them who still stands out in my mind today is Fred. I first met him while I was serving dinner. I was putting cherry cobbler on someone's tray and the woman who was showing me what to do basically did all the work. I felt that I wasn't doing enough, but finally, he came and asked for some cobbler. He put his tray right in front of me, and so I gave him a couple scoops. He said thank you, and I felt really good about it for a moment or too, and then went back to waiting to serve somoene. After we had served, gone back to eat  dinner, and then went back to the family shelter to watch Despicable Me, we went to the shelter.

The walk was long, and many of us were exhausted from things that we had done previously. We finaly got there, and my friends and I felt awkward at first, because we didn't exactly know what we were supposed to do.

Them, Fred walked in, and we noticed each other. He asked to talk to me, and so my friends and I sat in a circle with him, and basically listened to his story. From the time that he was a child, he was bullied, which made him feel like he needed to do certain things to be able to fit in, or be okay. Those things ended up getting him into jail after a certain point, and he later became homeless.

He taught me many things. The first being that everything has a right to live. When there's a bug, never kill it, because it is a living creature and it has a right to life, just like we do. Yet, just because I'm bigger, I don't get to decide what right to life that creature has. He also taught me that anyone can become homeless. I don't believe I will ever become homeless, but neither did he. Who knows what could happen in the future? He taught me much more, but those two points were the key things that I will always remember from talking to him. Wherever he is now, I hope he's doing well, and living by the advice which he gave me.

How Good People Matter

Good people. We've all known a few, and heard of many more. There's my hero, Mother Teresa, who devoted her entire life to helping people. However, less than a handful of people would ever be willing to do something like that.

How about people who have just been all around helpful and loving for their entire lives?

In my life, the two people who have come to fit that description as well as they possibly could are my grandparents.

This weekend, my aunt, uncle and cousins came down here and we spent the majority of the weekend cleaning out my grandparent's house, because my grandma is coming home, and she's going to live there. Recently, we had the entire house remodeled because it was very old, dirty, and it was falling apart by the minute. On the outside, it looks the same as it always did. But, on the inside, it's no longer the same house where they took care of me. But, I can feel all the memories around me when I'm in it. Anyway, the people who did the remodeling stayed in it for some time, and it was a mess when we looked at it. All of her clothes from a closet that they didn't even do anythign with were dumped on the floor. Half of the stuff in the house was gone, and all the the dining room table was a mess. Not to mention the floors and bathrooms. When I walked through the house, and saw all this, I wondered how anyone could do this to the place where two amazing people lived.

It made me upset, as my cousin and I angrily, yet thoroughly, cleaned every space in the house, and made it look as beautiful as we possibly could. We folded all the sheets, cleaned all the bathrooms, folded the clothes, cleaned a lot of dishes and scrubbed the floors. And there was more that the rest of my family did. I was still upset thinking about what a mess the house was before we finished it, but when we were done, I looked at the house, and the weekend's worth of hard work that we put into the house, and realized how much work we did, without a single complaint, because we love my grandparents so much. And that's when I realized that the poeple who made it such a mess didn't know my grandparents, and how much they helped others, but we did. And my family and plenty of people in our community loved them so much that we would do anything for them. And that thought makes me so happy.

So, how about some good people that you know? Please leave a comment about them, because I would love to read it.

Halloween How-to:Jack-O Lantern Decoration

Hey everyone! So, today, I'm going to do something a little bit out of hte ordinary for my blog, but hopefully, it will still be fun for everyone to do. So, let's get started!

Halloween is coming up at the end of the month, andit's going to be really fun to blog about. Enjoy posts about constumes, fun ideas and scary stories that I am planning to post. But, this month, I'm going to get started writing a fun How-to about a cool Halloween craft idea. And that is...

Paper Jack-O Lanterns!

Well, let's get started making this!
1. To start off, we wil be taking some paper of any shape, color or size you want and folding it in half.
2. Next, cut out a half pumpkin shape as shown in Image 1 at the bottom of this post. Also, if you want to get creative, you can cut out a stem at the top of the pumpkin, to make it look more realistic. The line should represent where the fold of the paper is.

3. Unfold the cut portion of the paper, and make sure that you are happy with how it turned out. If not, try Step 1 again and try and cut it out so that it looks the way you want.

4. Refold the paper at the same place and using a pencil lightly draw an outline of a face as shown in image two. Make sure that all your lines are able to be cut from the fold. When you do this, it should resemble Image 2.

5. After you have done this, cut out the lines with the pencil and unfold your pumpkin. It should resemble Image 3.

6. From this, you can put some individuality on your pumpkin. You can add bows, and mustaches and other defining facial features and what I like to do is lightly put scented oil on it. You should be able to find pumpkin spice scented oil at a craft store.

Be sure to tell me about the Jack-O Lanterns that you made, and the creative touches you added to them.

Image 1

Image 3

Image 2

Tibetan Prayer Wheel

I know this looks very random for me to be writing about the Tibetan Prayer Wheel when it has nothing to do with my blog. However, hopefully, you will find it as interesting as I do.

Spinning the wheel sends prayers to haven, which is useful for devotees who can not read. This is important because it opens a new door for Buddhism, and all of it's followers. Larger prayer wheels are sometimes turned by larger groups of people, which brings large groups of people together in their beliefs.

This prayer wheel is a very important symbol and is very important for Buddhists. Not to mention it is a beautiful piece of art.

Practice

"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."

The truth of this quote rings far and near, because of the amount of truth it packs in just a sentance. Practice can be the key to the heavens in terms of a skill. Even if your skill has been your skill since the very moment you were born, it is still important to practice it, or it will never develop into what it could be. Everyone has something they would jump over the moon for. Whether it be writing, dancing, singing or a sport, there's something. For some it may take lifetimes to find. For others it's there since day one. But however long it takes to find, it's nothing without being practiced or developed.