This is the week that was
So, how was your week? Below is some random stuff from my past few days—from simply choosing happiness, to decision making about the financial crisis, to the evolving definition of marriage, to an exploration of my little city of Asheville.
Choosing happiness
An excerpt from a book I’m finishing up. The working title: Be Happy Now!
There’s nothing you have to do. You want to be happy? Be happy.
–Neale Donald WalschYour happiness is not dependent on what’s happening out there; it depends on what’s happening inside you. It’s not a matter of chance; it’s a matter of choice. Believe it or not, you can be happy whenever you really choose to do so.
Sure, you’ve had challenges in your life. Of course, there are things taking place in the world that you wish were different. Yes, your loved ones didn’t always treat you as you wanted to be treated. And you can wallow in self pity and play victim, if you like. Or you can put your focus on what’s great about your life and make a conscious choice to be happy. It’s entirely up to you.
So lighten up. And at the beginning of each day set an intention to be happy: “Today I will be happy and focus on the good stuff life brings my way.”
An alternative take on the financial bailout
How are decisions about fixing the financial crisis really being made in Washington? This video from South Park explains it in full. LOL!
Updated definition of marriage
Same sex marriages are now included Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary’s definition of marriage. See 1 [a] (2) below:
1 [a] (1) the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (2) the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage [b] the mutual relation of married persons [c] the institution whereby individuals are joined in a marriage
2: an act of marrying or the rite by which the married status is effected ; especially : the wedding ceremony and attendant festivities or formalities
3: an intimate or close union
Asheville is a melting pot
From the Richmond Times Dispatch, an article about the eclectic and hospitable little city of Asheville.
The drummer sounds the first thumping beats, steady and thick in the cool night air.
After several moments, a second offers a tentative melody, gaining confidence from the approving cheers of the gathered crowd.The toddlers and barefoot teens are the first to start moving — bouncing and swaying and twirling with abandon.
A third and a fourth drummer join the growing tempest, now a fifth and sixth, building to a rhythmic crescendo. Suddenly, the staccato peal of a tom-tom breaks through the din. A goateed sexagenarian raps his cowbell, and a long-haired man in a black beret crouches around his drum, inches away from the audience like a washed-up rock star.
The crowd is alive now, a pulsing mass heaving along with the frenetic pace of the drummers. Dancers sway and swoop, arms akimbo and heads bowed, their eyes closed as the sound washes over them and echoes back from the darkening stone walls.
This is the Friday night Drum Circle, and this is Asheville, a city that makes no apologies for its nontraditional flair, that embraces the bohemian and yet welcomes outsiders like a long-lost friend.
Click here for a video of the drum circle.
Click here to read the entire article.
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