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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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★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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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.

★ An abundance of blessings and prosperity are my heartfelt wishes to you today and throughout the month.....*Happy April.......*Have a wonderful week...Stay safe


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★It's time for April Fool's Day - a day when it is socially acceptable to prank your near and dear ones. April Fool's Day is celebrated on April 1. It is a day of laughter and cheer, when people around the world play practical jokes on their loved ones....Just be considerate and make sure your jokes are harmless, and then go ahead and enjoy April Fool's Day!

🎥 CGI 3D Animated Multi-Award Winning Short Film......................... Anna
★Spring 1941. A plane crashes in the Canadian Rockies and a little girl is taken in by a puma.

★RunTime:8min..➤ vimeo.com/320790011



🎥 Short Film............................................. MARS HABITAT
★Here is the final film for the Mars Habitation competition for NASA

★RunTime:5min..➤ vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/32...

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..Have a wonderful weekend.......*Stay safe
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•Inspirational Story...........•A Bit Of Warmth...........•By Joseph J. Mazzella•

•It was a morning in January. The jet stream had dipped down causing the arctic cold to reach the mountains of my home. It was only 2 degrees outside but the wind chill made it feel like it was 15 below zero. Still, I was kneeling in the snow along side of my house trying to open a tiny door so I could get underneath it. I had forgotten to leave my water dripping the night before and now my water pipes were frozen and my faucets were dry.The wind cut into me like a knife while I struggled to get two electric space heaters in place around the section of frozen pipe. The waterlines were buried except for a small piece that connected up to my house. I put a space heater on each side of it, ran the extension cords into my house and plugged them in. Both heaters roared to life and started blowing hot air on the frozen water pipe. My fingers had already started to go numb so I stayed inside to wait. I could only hope that this bit of warmth could get my water flowing again.Finally, after twenty minutes the water started flowing through my faucets again. I went back outside into the bitter cold and gathered my heaters up. I looked at the weak January sun shining on the frozen snow and smiled. Then I sent a joy filled "thank you" heavenward and went back inside to make myself a hot breakfast.Sometimes the coldness of this life can get to us as well. It can make our hearts feel icy and frozen. It can keep our kindness and love from flowing out to others. At times like these, though, all we need is a bit of warmth to get us going again. It can be a simple smile, a kind word, a heart-felt hug, a morning sunrise, a bird’s song. Let us all be grateful for those bits of warmth that get us going again. And let us all try to be that bit of warmth for others every chance we get.....
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•Have a wonderful week ahead........*Be kind to one an other.........Stay safe
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May your days be filled with endless peace, success, harmony, love, passion and compassion..

𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒕, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒆𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏’𝒕 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒔
★ When I first saw Zaria Forman’s work, I thought I was looking at a photograph. Instead I discovered that these incredibly detailed images are actually hyperrealist pastel drawings. They depict places that are profoundly affected by climate change—Antarctica, Greenland, and the Maldives. Her renderings of ice, waves, and water are astonishingly tangible and compelling.

★ Brooklyn artist Zaria Forman makes beautiful, ginormous pastel landscapes that serve as snapshots of melting glaciers and rising seas. You may’ve seen her work in House of Cards if you have a habit of staring at sets.
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★ Her mother dedicated her life to photographing the most remote regions of the Earth. The cold and isolated landscape of the Arctic consumed her interest from 2001 until her passing in 2011. She always said that she was a polar bear in a past life, and watching her spend endless hours in the frigid winds, patiently and happily waiting for the moment when the light was just right.

★ She was diagnosed with brain cancer on Mother’s Day in 2011 and passed away six months later.And I promised to carry out her journey to Greenland... I was compelled to address the concept of saying goodbye on scales both global and personal as I scattered my mother’s ashes amidst the melting ice.


Zaria Forman's large-scale drawings that show the beauty and fragility of earth.......Join her as she discusses the meditative process of artistic creation and the motivation behind her work.
"My drawings celebrate the beauty of what we all stand to lose"
➤ www.ted.com/talks/zaria_forman_d...

𝙃𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙬𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙚𝙣𝙙.....𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙮 𝙨𝙖𝙛𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙
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ᗰOᑎTᖇᕮ́ᗩᒪ ᕮᑎ ᒪᑌᗰIᕮ̀ᖇᕮ 2019.........ᗰOᑎTᖇᕮᗩᒪ'S ᖴᕮSTIᐯᗩᒪ Oᖴ ᒪIGᕼTS
★You may have heard of the Festival of Lights held in Berlin every October. Or maybe Diwali, the ancient Hindu festival of lights comes to mind. Hawaii has its own variation on the theme too. But in Montreal, the celebration of lights in the dark of winter is called Montréal en Lumière and it's totally different. Organizers coordinate the display of light installations in key downtown locations and on select building façades..... For 2019, Montréal en Lumière runs from February 21 – March 4.

★Montréal en Lumière is an annual celebration brightening up a Montreal's winter, visited by 1,300,000 festival-goers every year. The festival's program combines performing arts, gastronomy, and winter outdoor family activities.................★Montreal The City That Never Sleeps★
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★On March 2nd the last Saturday of the festival...... ᑎᑌIT ᗷᒪᗩᑎᑕᕼᕮ.....ᗯᕼITᕮ ᑎIGᕼT
*From 6pm to 6am the Festival takes over several districts in Montreal - Old Montréal and the Quays of the Old Port,and the downtown core, the Plateau Mont-Royal and the Mile-End, and the Pôle Maisonneuve. Throughout the night, these districts will be linked by a shuttle service, allowing the festival-goers to move easily and quickly from one district to another. Live performances, music, exhibitions and design will cast their spell over the city, with attractions and events including a winter fairyland in the Place des Festivals, and a redesigned "Underground City" featuring the artistic corridors of Art souterrain.....★ A plethora of activities to please all Festival fans.

★ 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 ★
ᕼᗩᐯᕮ ᗩ Sᗩᖴᕮ ᗯᕮᕮK.....➤ www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Blnzxz...
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