arlene2009

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⭐*Life is a continuous learning experience. Throughout our lives we keep rising and falling, picking up important lessons along the way. Some of these lessons come from experience, yet there are others that we learn watching others or reading in books for example. No matter how much we learn from the books there is a significant difference between practical and theoretical experience. Furthermore, there are many life lessons that we simply cannot learn until we face certain situations in our life. Most people would say that there are some lessons that come too late, catching us off-guard.

◆ Your life is now.
We keeping waiting for that amazing thing to happen in the future that will be the key to our happiness.But this is it. Your life is right now. Life continues to be a series of right nows. So learn to love your life right now, and you'll have an amazing life.
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◆ Kindness matters.
Small expressions of kindness have an enormous positive impact on other people and on your own happiness.It doesn't take much to be kind. Practice it every day, in every situation, until it's your natural way of being.

◆ Age is a number.
When you're twenty you think fifty is old. When you're fifty, you feel thirty. When you're seventy, fifty looks like adolescence.Our chronological age doesn't have to define us. Don't allow a number to hold you back or prevent you from being the person you are inside.

◆ Grudges cause pain.
Holding on to a grudge is like injecting poison into your body every day. Forgive and let go. There's no other way.If your ego is preventing you from forgiving and letting something go, then tell your ego to take a hike. It's getting in the way of your happiness and well-being.

◆ You can't control others.
We want people to think and behave as we do. We want them to accommodate us and live the way we think they should live. We want to change them.But with awareness, we realize we can't and shouldn't try to control others. Instead, embrace differences and honor the uniqueness of the people in your life.

◆ You can handle it.
Whatever you think you can't handle, you actually can.You have more strength, more resilience, and more inner wisdom than you give yourself credit for. You'll get through it and survive — and maybe even be better for it.

◆ Gratitude multiplies happiness.
Consciously focusing on all you have rather than thinking about what you don't have is a far better use of brain power. Gratitude fosters positivity and well-being.

◆ Please yourself first.
Pleasing others for approval and acceptance might feel good in the short term, but eventually, you will lose yourself and feel resentful.Please yourself first and give to others based on conscious choice, not the desire for approval or feelings of guilt.

⭐ Have a great weekend.......Stay safe.
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Have a great week ahead..........Stay safe

Jaclyn Moriarty is a award winning Australian and the best-selling author of novels for young adults including Feeling Sorry for Celia, The Year of Secret Assignments, and the Colors of Madeleine trilogy. Jaclyn grew up in Sydney, lived in England, Canada and the US, and now lives in Sydney again. She studied English at the University of Sydney, and law at Yale University and Cambridge University, where she was awarded a PhD....* I would like to recommend the adult debut novel from Jaclyn...*Gravity Is The Thing.

If you love the feel of the paper between your fingers as you read a great book, this is a true page turner, I always travel with a novel mostly for the plane going and returning home, this book did not make it to the trip home, had to finish it.
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Gravity Is the Thing is a smart, unusual, wickedly funny novel about the search for happiness that will break your heart into a million pieces and put it back together, bigger and better than before.

Astonishingly wonderful and magical and moving and uplifting - Marian Keyes

Hope you had a wonderful summer.....Have a great week......Stay safe
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Inspirational True Stories.....

A Little Hurt...............By Joseph J.Mazzella
I was laying on my bed relaxing after a long day. Music was playing in the background and I was taking the time to read a good book. Just as I turned the page an old song started playing that always reminded me of my Mom. I put the book down and listened. Even though it had been 23 years since cancer had taken her from us, sometimes it still felt like it was only yesterday. I closed my eyes and allowed the flood of memories to wash over me. I thought of Mom’s sparkling eyes and shining smile which lived on in the faces of my own children. I thought of her sweet voice and gentle laugh that never failed to lift my spirits. I thought of how she brightened up every room she walked into. I thought of how she was a friend to everyone she met and how her kindness touched the hearts of so many. I thought of how she made this world a better place just by being in it. And my heart ached as I thought of how I still missed her so much. I wiped the tears from my cheeks as the song finished, looked out my window at the night sky, and sent an "I love you, Mom" from my lips to Heaven’s ear. Now some people would ask why I didn't shut the music off the second that song came on. Why did I subject myself to the pain it brought? I think the answer is that sometimes you have to let in a little hurt in order to let in a lot of love. Sometimes you have to open your heart in order to truly live. Life here will always be a mix of the bitter and the sweet, but you can’t shut down your soul. At times you have to embrace the pain and then let it go. When you do you will find that what is left is love. May you always keep your heart open to love. May you always keep your heart open to messages from Heaven. They can come at the strangest times on the winds of a memory or the wings of a song.
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Experience The Beauty Of Life And Of You...............By Patti Hatzistavrakis
Life is busy – we hustle from one place to another, engrossed in our electronic devices, books or simply looking away to avoid making eye contact with the human race, including ourselves. Never stopping to take in the tranquility of the ocean, the art spray painted on a building or the beauty of the sunset. Most of us aren’t awake for the sunrise and are not truly present at important (or even ordinary) daily happenings. We miss life as it passes us by and wonder what we did with the daylight...We continue on this treadmill, this sprint, this exercise in getting it all done – but seem to have little to show for it. Time is all we have on this earth. Friends, lovers, money, and experiences all come and go, leaving only memories – if you are lucky enough to remember. The good, the bad, the remembered, the forgotten, the happy, the sad, the ordinary, the extraordinary; makes you YOU...Live, dream, make it come true. Anything less is not living, it’s merely existing. Existing is just going through the motions, without thought or emotion. Cry, laugh, scream, love; do whatever you have to live life. Honor yourself by not taking life, or a day, or an experience for granted. Fulfill your dreams, make things happen, see the beauty that is around you and create more...Make the most of the time you have on this earth. Be positive, helpful and understanding. Share peace and happiness. Give love. Give yourself. For those are the things that live on and make a difference, beyond your time, beyond your life.

“Love is the absence of judgment.” ― Dalai Lama

Happy Friday.....I will be leaving this Sunday for Greece will be back in four weeks...Have a great weekend and a wonderful and safe month of August, see you when I get back.....*Be well my friend
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Surreal Scenes of African Animals Playfully Living Life....By art photographer Thomas Subtil, from Paris, France.......*HAKUNA MATATA*

The surreal artworks are composed of pictures he took while traveling in Kenya combined with his imagination to transform them into surreal new realities. Featuring animals living by the popular Swahili motto *Hakuna Matata* meaning no worries.





Have a safe week ahead........Be well.

✴A friendly look, a kindly smile, one good act, and life's worthwhile.

✴Hope all is well.......Have a wonderful weekend........Stay safe

🔸Two Old Guys at Dinner

🔸An elderly couple has dinner at another couple's house, and after eating, the wives leave the table and go into the kitchen. The two gentlemen were talking, and one says, Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great. I would recommend it very highly. The other man asks,What is the name of the restaurant? The first man thinks and thinks and finally asks, What is the name of that flower you give to someone you love? You know... The one that's red and has thorns....Do you mean a rose?...Yes, that's the one, replied the man. He then turns towards the kitchen and yells, Rose, what's the name of that restaurant we went to last night?

🔸 Have a great week........Stay safe

Rancher John
★Old ranch owner John farmed a small ranch in Montana. The Montana Wage and Hour Department claimed he was not paying proper wages to his workers and sent an agent out to interview him....I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them,'demanded the agent. Well, replied old John, 'There's my ranch hand who's been with me for 3 years. I pay him $600 a week plus free room and board. The cook has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $500 a week plus free room and board. Then there's the half-wit who works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about $25 per week, pays his own room and board and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night.That's the guy I want to talk to, the half-wit, says the agent. That would be me, replied old rancher John.
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Farmer's Names
★George, the farmer, had so many children that he ran out of names. So he started calling his kids after something around his farm. It was the first day of school and the teacher asked each child their name. When he got to one of the farmer George's sons, the boy replied, 'Wagon Wheel.The teacher said, I need your real name boy, to which the lad replied, It's Wagon Wheel, sir....Really. The teacher, rather annoyed rejoined, All right young man, take yourself right down to the Principal's office this minute. The youngster pushed himself out of his chair, turned to his sister and said, 'C'mon, Chicken Feed, he ain't gonna believe you, either.

How To Grow Strawberries
★Farmer Evans was driving his John Deere tractor along the road with a trailer load of fertilizer. Tim a little boy of eight was playing in his yard when he saw the farmer and asked, What've you got in your trailer? Manure, Farmer Evans replied. What are you going to do with it? asked Tim. Put it on my strawberries,answered the farmer. Tim replied, You ought to come and eat with us, we put ice-cream on our strawberries.

★Stand-Up Comic..*George Wallace...Montreal Just For Laughs Festival.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4Jsewy...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjzCkIiT...

★Have a wonderful weekend.....Be well.
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Famous & Inspiring Photography.............*Austrian Boy and his Shoes
The picture moves you to happy tears the moment you see it. The gentle curve of the child’s cheeks make you think that the innocence of infancy remains a permanent guest. The happiness is palpable, a pair of chubby little fingers clutch a pair of shoes to the chest of the little boy. Six-year-old Austrian boy, Werfel, was photographed when he got a new pair of shoes at the Am Himmel orphanage, donated to him.The photograph was first published in LIFE magazine on December 30, 1946 and later, again, on September 24, 1951 and was titled “New Shoes”.

The picture is a beautiful effort in capturing the quintessence of childlike happiness. The abandon that children feel and profess, enjoying happiness in the littlest of things, in a life that an adult might otherwise be quick to profess as being filled with misery. The child’s ability to enjoy and cherish what has just been given to him, notwithstanding the fact that he lives in an orphanage, notwithstanding the historical events that had just unfolded snatching his comfortable life away from him, notwithstanding the fact that, that he doesn't understand were his parents are ...Reminds you how flawed our thinking is, to look at the negatives and focus on them. The expression of absolute purity in happiness is reminiscent of how beautiful life is – and wakes you up to straighten your own thinking when life strikes you down on occasion.
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Have a wonderful weekend.......Stay safe.
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📽️ Short Film...........................................★ WE WIN
★ There’s a great party game called “Mafia.” Some call it “Werewolf.” Have you played it?
This game has a unique ability to bring out interesting and sometimes nasty sides of people.The film, follows a couple hosting a dinner party. When the evening’s activities turn from casual conversation to a game of “Mafia,” they’re pitted against one another, and their once happy and supportive relationship begins to unravel.

★ I certainly relate to how hard it can be to be stuck in one’s career, while cheering on someone else’s success. Your happiness for them is authentic but it’s tinged with your own resentment.....Can a game kill a relationship?....RunTime:12min ➤ vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/32...
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📽️ Award Winning Short Film.........................................★ Caroline
★ Inspired by a trio of real-life stories, Caroline follows a single mother as she desperately prepares for a second interview for a job she clearly needs. Unfortunately, her childcare fell through and she is forced to leave her six year-old daughter in the car outside, looking after her two younger siblings, on an extremely hot summer day....*A film looking to provoke a little internal conflict, by making you question the situation, and the system, it’s a powerful and resonating watch driven on by the incredibly touching performances.
★ Leaving kids on a hot summer day in a car is indisputably wrong, but the way the situation is introduced in the first minutes can’t help but make us sympathize with the mother. The directorial duo really focus on making the mother’s desperation, exhaustion and the blazing temperature transpire through the screen, which makes her albeit wrong decision, more understandable. She is getting no help, definitely not from the government, and we all know that having our backs against the wall does not trigger the best decision making. .... RunTime:12min➤ vimeo.com/295591903

★ Enjoy.....Have a great week.......Be well my friend.
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SWEET AND HEARTWARMING TRUE STORIES ABOUT MOMS....

TWO SIMPLE WORDS
On the first day of first grade, I stood by the front door with butterflies in my stomach. I voiced my biggest concern to my mother: “How will I make friends?” Crouching in front of me, she handed me advice I carry with me to this day: “Be Switzerland.” Be friends with everyone. Treat everyone equally and fairly. For all of my 20 years, I have lived by these words. Soon I will graduate and become a part of the real world. And on that first day, nervously facing new responsibilities, I know I will whisper two words to myself: “Be Switzerland.”


A STAND-UP WOMAN
... My mom had a great sense of humor and a knack for making everything fun. One thing that resonated with me, even as a small child, was how much she seemed to enjoy her own company and found ways to entertain herself. As a kid, I remember her giggling while paying bills. What was so funny about bill paying? She would put humorous notes in the reference section of the check: For the electric bill, she might put “You light up my life,” and for the mortgage she’d write “Four shingles closer to owning it all.”

THE HARDEST CHOICE
Thirty-five years ago, when my mom was 22, she became a widow and a mother within the same month. The life she had imagined was stolen in a heartbeat. She tried to move on, but was lost. She gave me to my father’s family to be raised in the United States. Some call her weak; others call her selfish. I could be mad or bitter. Instead, I’m grateful for the life I have and to have a mother who sacrificed our relationship to give me a chance at a better life. She is courageous. She is my mother.

Have a wonderful Mothers Day weekend......Stay safe
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★ Happy May...........*Have a great week......Stay safe

Artist-Photographer-Author....................... Thomas Herbrich
*Thomas Herbrich, born in 1955, is a multi-award winning fine art photographer from Dusseldorf. This professional is sought after for making brands come alive. More than that, he takes photos more or less the same way an artist paints a picture or a filmmaker adds special effects with an endless amount of imagination. His spectacular scenes are meant to look realistic.

*Herbrich decided to bring the imagery of the film world into the photograph. My photography often reaches the boundary of what is possible, and yet, despite numerous computer techniques, very simple tricks are often used.

... *For me, a good picture is like the first line of a story, the viewer would like to know how the tale continues..... *So they are always ‘pictures, that tell a story’.

Have a wonderful weekend.........Stay safe.
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......*A Story of Four Worms
A minister determined a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. For this demonstration, he watered his lawn in the evening, then when night time approached, visited his back yard with flashlight in hand. He carefully selected four worms, night-crawlers to be exact. The Four Worms were Placed into Four Separate Jars
The FIRST WORM was put into a container of alcohol.
The SECOND WORM was put into a container of cigarette smoke.
The THIRD WORM was put into a container of chocolate.
The FOURTH WORM was put into a container of good clean soil.
At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results:
The FIRST WORM in the jar with alcohol - was DEAD.
The SECOND WORM in the jar with cigarette smoke - was DEAD.
The THIRD WORM in the jar with chocolate - was DEAD.
The FOURTH WORM in the jar of good clean soil - was ALIVE!
... So the Minister Asked the Congregation:
What can you learn from this demonstration?
From the back of the church, came the response:
"As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!"

*That pretty much ended the service . . .

*Happy Earth Day.....Have a wonderful week ....Stay safe.
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★Have you ever wished someone a Happy Easter only to be told it's not 'their' Easter yet? It happens to the best of us especially when we don't realize that our friends, or co-workers belong to the Orthodox Church, which celebrates Easter on a different day than the Catholic Church and the majority of the world. The dates are almost always different, except on rare occasions when the dates fall on the same day. Sounds confusing? It turns out that there is actually a carefully calculated system behind the day Easter is recognized. Easter is the day members of the Christian faith recognize the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is a celebration of life and new beginnings....*Orthodox Easter this year is on April 28th
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★Before the invention of calendars and other modern methods of tracking years and seasons, people relied on the position of the sun in the sky and obvious signs in nature to indicate the passing of time. When the equator and the hemispheres of the Earth became common knowledge, it was understood that the slightly tilted rotation of the earth causes different hemispheres to experience different seasons. While one hemisphere experiences spring and summer the other hemisphere experiences fall and winter. This happening is called an equinox. The vernal equinox is the event that occurs in late March, which brings spring to the parts of the earth in the Northern Hemispheres. The council chose this equinox as part of the calculation to ensure Easter would be celebrated in the spring at the same time..

★Easter reminds us that hope must never be lost for as dark as the road may seem, there always lies light at the end of it......May all your prayers be fulfilled.......I wish you and your family with abundances of happiness and inner peace...........Have a Blessed Easter weekend...

André Rieu - I Will Follow Him
➤ www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqN9aS2S...

Luminato Festival,Toronto Canada
1500 Singers sing HALLELUJAH!
➤ www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGRfJ6-q...
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*Have a safe week.....

Life Lessons.......Described By A 70-Year-Old ................*As I've Aged....

*As I've Aged...
I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging. Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4AM or sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 &70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love... I will...I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old. I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. ... And I eventually remember the important things. Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect. I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver. As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore... I've even earned the right to be wrong. So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day *If I feel like it •Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time •Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly..........•Have a wonderful weekend.....Be well my friend
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📽️ Multi-Award Winning CGI Animated Short Film................. ..CITIPATI
✴ We follow a dinosaur in his last moments, in which he, in an inhospitable world, succumbs to the effects of fatigue and his injuries. With his last breath, his world of thought unfolds, and his last impressions merge with his memories to a very personal end.

RunTime:7min ➤ www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSoImbo8...

📽️ Award-Winning CGI Animated Pixar Short Film................ ..Smash and Grab
✴ Smash and Grab is a tale of two robots. After years of toiling away inside the engine room of a towering locomotive, two antiquated robots will risk everything for freedom and for each other.
... RunTime:8min ➤ www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4-G7YpS...
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Happy Sunday..............*Have a wonderful week ahead.......Be well.