This is a video I made as a tribute for my dad.
Happy Father's Day to all the fathers, step-fathers, foster-fathers, father-figures, big-brothers and other male role models. :D
-ESA
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Puzzle (Story)
This was forwarded to me by email. Enjoy. :D
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After a few minutes, Shelby returned and handed him the map, correctly fitted and taped together. The father was surprised and asked how she had finished so quickly. 'Oh,' she said, 'on the other side of the paper is a picture of Jesus. When I got all of Jesus back where He belonged, then our country just came together..'
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A father wanted to read a magazine but was being bothered by his little girl, Shelby. She wanted to know what the United States looked like. Finally, he tore a sheet out of his new magazine on which was printed the map of the country. Tearing it into small pieces, he gave it to Shelby and said, 'Go into the other room and see if you can put this together. This will show you our whole country today.'
After a few minutes, Shelby returned and handed him the map, correctly fitted and taped together. The father was surprised and asked how she had finished so quickly. 'Oh,' she said, 'on the other side of the paper is a picture of Jesus. When I got all of Jesus back where He belonged, then our country just came together..'
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- ESA
- ESA
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Happiness
Today, I've encountered three interesting statements about happiness. The first was sent to me. The second is my response to the first. The final one is my husband's response to hearing the first two.
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Happiness has nothing to do with pleasure. You feel pleasure when you want something and you get it. Or when you don't want something and you remove it. Pleasure is always relative. Happiness is absolute. Happiness is the understanding and acceptance of life as it is in this very moment as completely perfect, because every creation of God is perfect. The degree to which you do not accept life in all of the Divine forms is the degree to which you suffer.
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Happiness doesn't come from outside; it comes from inside. And once found and embraced, nothing that is outside can silence the song it sings within you.
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Pleasure is tied to events. Happiness is tied to being.
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Any others? Please feel free to add in the comments below. Thanks!
Be happy!
Happy!
Be!
- ESA
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Happiness has nothing to do with pleasure. You feel pleasure when you want something and you get it. Or when you don't want something and you remove it. Pleasure is always relative. Happiness is absolute. Happiness is the understanding and acceptance of life as it is in this very moment as completely perfect, because every creation of God is perfect. The degree to which you do not accept life in all of the Divine forms is the degree to which you suffer.
-------------------------------------------------
Happiness doesn't come from outside; it comes from inside. And once found and embraced, nothing that is outside can silence the song it sings within you.
-------------------------------------------------
Pleasure is tied to events. Happiness is tied to being.
-------------------------------------------------
Any others? Please feel free to add in the comments below. Thanks!
Be happy!
Happy!
Be!
- ESA
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Poem Presented by Proud Aunt (Poem)
This weekend I'm down in VA with family - a good sized gathering of siblings, my mom, nieces and nephews. One of my nieces (and god-daughter) takes after me and likes to write.
I wasn't at the house five minutes before she insisted on showing me her blog ("just like you have"). It certainly puts a smile on someone's face when a child looks to them as an example. :D
I may not have kids of my own to brag about, so I will brag a bit about my neice. She's only 13 and has a definate developing talent for words. She gave me permission to repost the poem she wrote yesterday here:
If You Could See
I imagine it
With no candle lit
No way to see
Sometimes you can't believe
There's so many reasons
Believe in You
Because in the dark
Hell or Heaven
He is there
- ESA
I wasn't at the house five minutes before she insisted on showing me her blog ("just like you have"). It certainly puts a smile on someone's face when a child looks to them as an example. :D
I may not have kids of my own to brag about, so I will brag a bit about my neice. She's only 13 and has a definate developing talent for words. She gave me permission to repost the poem she wrote yesterday here:
If You Could See
I imagine it
With no candle lit
No way to see
Sometimes you can't believe
There's so many reasons
Believe in You
Because in the dark
Hell or Heaven
He is there
- ESA
Friday, June 5, 2009
Catching Up
Good morning (at least it is here at this moment:D)!
I've been offline for nearly a week following a hard-drive failure on my work (and only) laptop. While the contingency plans I had in place ensured the functionality of my position at work, they did nothing in terms of keeping up on YouTube, Twitter and my blogs.
While I ponder that point, wondering if I should have contingencies for those, my mind brings around the first question when doing a contingency plan: What is important?
Interestingly enough, this is close to the topic I chose to write about in the story I was going to post on Sunday (when my computer died). Please take a moment and read it below.
I hope to have this blog up and running daily again too, but I'm still catching up at work as well as online.
I wish all a great weekend!
Live and Learn.
Laugh!
Life.
- ESA
I've been offline for nearly a week following a hard-drive failure on my work (and only) laptop. While the contingency plans I had in place ensured the functionality of my position at work, they did nothing in terms of keeping up on YouTube, Twitter and my blogs.
While I ponder that point, wondering if I should have contingencies for those, my mind brings around the first question when doing a contingency plan: What is important?
Interestingly enough, this is close to the topic I chose to write about in the story I was going to post on Sunday (when my computer died). Please take a moment and read it below.
I hope to have this blog up and running daily again too, but I'm still catching up at work as well as online.
I wish all a great weekend!
Live and Learn.
Laugh!
Life.
- ESA
Ant and Grasshopper (Story)
Anita Ant and Gabrielle Grasshopper were cousins from the same town. Like many in small towns, they attended the same schools when they were younger, worked at the same place and lived near each other. But the one major difference between these two cousins is what they did with their spare time.
Anita would often walk around the neighborhood, stopping whenever she spied a neighbor out on their front porch or yard, and would wave to them as they went past in their cars. She always had a friendly smile and an open ear for anyone she came across, friend or stranger.
Gabrielle – Gabbie to her friends – spent all her spare time in the electronic world. If she was out for a walk, she had her cell phone to her ear and chatted with someone a great distance away. She also spent a great deal of time chatting with people online from around the world. She had many good friends online, almost more than the entire population in the small town they lived in.
One Monday, Anita saw Gabbie walking past her cubicle on the way to the restroom, she smiled and waved. Gabbie just walked right by obviously caught up in the conversation on her cell phone and she never saw the wave. Anita thought about this a moment and realized it had been weeks now since she actually traded more than two words with her cousin. She knew her cousin wasn’t mad at her or intentionally ignoring her, but was just caught up in her friends outside the town.
At lunch, Anita grabbed her plastic container from the pile of similar containers in the lunchroom fridge. She noted that Gabbie had yet to get her lunch. So she grabbed her cousin’s container and walked it back to her cousin’s cubicle. Gabbie was there, chatting online with three people via IM and holding a fourth conversation with someone on her cell phone. Anita placed the container to one side of the keyboard and patiently waited for her cousin to take a break and say “hi.”
The half hour passed quickly, and Gabbie didn’t even look up. She did nab the container, pulled a plastic fork from her drawer and started to eat, however. At the end of the lunch break, Anita, sighed and hoped that this wasn’t going to be the way her cousin behaved all the time.
As the days of the week passed, Anita realized that Gabbie treated all her co-workers the same way. Anita would take the time to get to know them and exchange news or stories with them during the breaks, but Gabbie was so wrapped up in people elsewhere, she had even stopped smiling and nodding greetings to her coworkers that saw her everyday.
Week by week, Anita realized this was also the case with people in the neighborhood and even when they both attended family gatherings. Gabbie was there physically but mentally she was in cyberspace or deep in conversation with someone miles away. Anita finally decided to bring this to Gabbie’s attention.
One Saturday morning – VERY early in the morning, Anita went over to Gabbie’s apartment and pounded on the door. She could hear a half-asleep Gabbie fumble around inside the apartment. The door swung wide and a disheveled head stuck out. She opened her mouth but only got out a startled “What the – ” before Anita jammed the door open with her foot and shoved a hot cup of coffee into her cousin’s hand.
“We really need to talk, Gabbie.”
Gabbie’s eyes widened in panic. “Someone died?”
Anita smiled. “Not quite, but close. You haven’t talked to anyone around here in almost two months now.”
“Whaddaya mean? I see you at work everyday?”
“See, yes. But we haven’t spoken in ages. You’re always on your cell phone and computer. Heck, girl, I even hear you in the bathroom stall! You really should take a moment and talk to the people around here too.”
“You’ve GOT to be kidding me, Anita! People around here are boring! Heck, we’ve all gone to the same school, had the same teachers, live the same lives. You and I even have the same jobs, for crying out loud! I want to connect with people from different backgrounds, different countries, different lives! The world is too wide to just keep yourself in one small town your whole life.”
“I agree with you there, I do go out online from time to time too. But I don’t sacrifice my life here, my contacts with those in this town. Gabbie, you didn’t even talk to anyone at Jimmy’s birthday party last weekend.”
“I was there, wasn’t I?”
“Yes, but you talked on that cell phone the whole time. You even had the laptop out a good part of the day. Couldn’t you have at least stopped talking on that cell phone long enough to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ with the rest of us?”
“So you’re upset that I didn’t sing???”
“You’re not getting it at all, are you?!?” Anita’s temper flared. “I give up! I tried but I don’t think there’s a way I could get it through your thick skull!” Anita stormed out of her cousin’s apartment.
Gabbie, shrugged, sipped her coffee and opened the laptop to check her email and see who was online. Even at this hour, someone in the world was awake.
Weeks turned to months. Gabbie and Anita’s uncle passed away and willed the duplex he owned to the two girls. Both were thrilled as their rents were rising faster than their paychecks.
When the day came to move, most of the company where they worked and a good part of the neighborhood showed up at Anitia’s apartment early to help her move. With the number of hands and vehicles they had, they were able to haul all her belongings over in one collective convoy and had her settled within three short hours.
As they passed the pizza boxes, beer and soda, they noticed Gabbie pulling up before the duplex. Anita looked around, no one had offered to help her cousin move. She tried to encourage a few of her closer co-workers and neighbors to go out and help, but many offered excuses such as being tired or that they had other plans for the afternoon. Some offered no excuse at all but simply refused to help.
After thanking everyone for their help and encouraging them to eat up the pizza, Anita went out alone to help her cousin with the first of many carloads.
While the two girls were wrestling a mattress onto the car’s roof for the third trip, Anita huffed, “What happened to all the friends you have? Couldn’t any of them help?”
Gabbie laughed and nearly slipped off the curb from where she wrestled with a rope, “Are you kidding? They’re thousands of miles away! They’re not going to come out here just to help me move!”
Anitia looked sadly at her cousin, “Who else is there to help you then?”
Gabbie froze as if the thought had taken hold a moment. Then she shrugged and replied, “Well, I have you, so I guess I can always depend on my family. Right?”
Thus Gabbie didn’t change her ways. The months became years. One day on the way home from work Gabbie was talking on her cell phone and didn’t hear the nearby car out of control. The driver’s side door of Gabbie’s car was completely crushed. Her cell phone flew from her hand, completely destroyed upon impact.
Gabbie woke up in the hospital. No cell phone. No laptop. No visitors.
Doctors and nurses came and went. The administrator said that both her place of work and family had been notified.
Hour by hour the time dragged. The little TV on the wall near the foot of her bed was definitely not as stimulating as being connected to the world had been. She was lonely – very lonely.
Hours turned around the clock once, night was over and day started again. Gabbie jumped a little when the phone rang beside her bed. Anxious to connect to someone – anyone – Gabbie answered the phone, “Hello?”
“Hi, Gabbie, it’s Anitia. I’m so sorry to hear about the accident. I just got the message this morning when I got into work. I’ll swing by after hours today, OK?”
“Is anyone else coming?”
“From here, no. Has anyone else from the family called?”
“No. Nobody since I woke up here yesterday. You’re the first.”
“Oh….. Well, you should see all the virtual cards that are pouring into your inbox. IT had to ramp up the server.”
“Swell…” Gabbie replied sarcastically as she sadly looked around at the empty white walls around her bed. She could see past the curtain all the cards and balloons and flowers her roommate had.
“Well, I need to get back to work, I’ll see you later. Bye….”
“… Bye.” Tears welled up in Gabbie’s eyes. All the friends she had. Where were they? Why hadn’t anyone come yesterday? Why is Anita the only one coming today? Where are her family members? Her co-workers? Her friends from the neighborhood and school? The people she saw everyday?”
Wiping the tears from her eyes, she tugged the curtain between the beds a little to one side and smiled warmly to the stranger on the bed beside her. “Hi, there, my name is Gabbie Grasshopper. What’s yours?”
Anita would often walk around the neighborhood, stopping whenever she spied a neighbor out on their front porch or yard, and would wave to them as they went past in their cars. She always had a friendly smile and an open ear for anyone she came across, friend or stranger.
Gabrielle – Gabbie to her friends – spent all her spare time in the electronic world. If she was out for a walk, she had her cell phone to her ear and chatted with someone a great distance away. She also spent a great deal of time chatting with people online from around the world. She had many good friends online, almost more than the entire population in the small town they lived in.
One Monday, Anita saw Gabbie walking past her cubicle on the way to the restroom, she smiled and waved. Gabbie just walked right by obviously caught up in the conversation on her cell phone and she never saw the wave. Anita thought about this a moment and realized it had been weeks now since she actually traded more than two words with her cousin. She knew her cousin wasn’t mad at her or intentionally ignoring her, but was just caught up in her friends outside the town.
At lunch, Anita grabbed her plastic container from the pile of similar containers in the lunchroom fridge. She noted that Gabbie had yet to get her lunch. So she grabbed her cousin’s container and walked it back to her cousin’s cubicle. Gabbie was there, chatting online with three people via IM and holding a fourth conversation with someone on her cell phone. Anita placed the container to one side of the keyboard and patiently waited for her cousin to take a break and say “hi.”
The half hour passed quickly, and Gabbie didn’t even look up. She did nab the container, pulled a plastic fork from her drawer and started to eat, however. At the end of the lunch break, Anita, sighed and hoped that this wasn’t going to be the way her cousin behaved all the time.
As the days of the week passed, Anita realized that Gabbie treated all her co-workers the same way. Anita would take the time to get to know them and exchange news or stories with them during the breaks, but Gabbie was so wrapped up in people elsewhere, she had even stopped smiling and nodding greetings to her coworkers that saw her everyday.
Week by week, Anita realized this was also the case with people in the neighborhood and even when they both attended family gatherings. Gabbie was there physically but mentally she was in cyberspace or deep in conversation with someone miles away. Anita finally decided to bring this to Gabbie’s attention.
One Saturday morning – VERY early in the morning, Anita went over to Gabbie’s apartment and pounded on the door. She could hear a half-asleep Gabbie fumble around inside the apartment. The door swung wide and a disheveled head stuck out. She opened her mouth but only got out a startled “What the – ” before Anita jammed the door open with her foot and shoved a hot cup of coffee into her cousin’s hand.
“We really need to talk, Gabbie.”
Gabbie’s eyes widened in panic. “Someone died?”
Anita smiled. “Not quite, but close. You haven’t talked to anyone around here in almost two months now.”
“Whaddaya mean? I see you at work everyday?”
“See, yes. But we haven’t spoken in ages. You’re always on your cell phone and computer. Heck, girl, I even hear you in the bathroom stall! You really should take a moment and talk to the people around here too.”
“You’ve GOT to be kidding me, Anita! People around here are boring! Heck, we’ve all gone to the same school, had the same teachers, live the same lives. You and I even have the same jobs, for crying out loud! I want to connect with people from different backgrounds, different countries, different lives! The world is too wide to just keep yourself in one small town your whole life.”
“I agree with you there, I do go out online from time to time too. But I don’t sacrifice my life here, my contacts with those in this town. Gabbie, you didn’t even talk to anyone at Jimmy’s birthday party last weekend.”
“I was there, wasn’t I?”
“Yes, but you talked on that cell phone the whole time. You even had the laptop out a good part of the day. Couldn’t you have at least stopped talking on that cell phone long enough to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ with the rest of us?”
“So you’re upset that I didn’t sing???”
“You’re not getting it at all, are you?!?” Anita’s temper flared. “I give up! I tried but I don’t think there’s a way I could get it through your thick skull!” Anita stormed out of her cousin’s apartment.
Gabbie, shrugged, sipped her coffee and opened the laptop to check her email and see who was online. Even at this hour, someone in the world was awake.
Weeks turned to months. Gabbie and Anita’s uncle passed away and willed the duplex he owned to the two girls. Both were thrilled as their rents were rising faster than their paychecks.
When the day came to move, most of the company where they worked and a good part of the neighborhood showed up at Anitia’s apartment early to help her move. With the number of hands and vehicles they had, they were able to haul all her belongings over in one collective convoy and had her settled within three short hours.
As they passed the pizza boxes, beer and soda, they noticed Gabbie pulling up before the duplex. Anita looked around, no one had offered to help her cousin move. She tried to encourage a few of her closer co-workers and neighbors to go out and help, but many offered excuses such as being tired or that they had other plans for the afternoon. Some offered no excuse at all but simply refused to help.
After thanking everyone for their help and encouraging them to eat up the pizza, Anita went out alone to help her cousin with the first of many carloads.
While the two girls were wrestling a mattress onto the car’s roof for the third trip, Anita huffed, “What happened to all the friends you have? Couldn’t any of them help?”
Gabbie laughed and nearly slipped off the curb from where she wrestled with a rope, “Are you kidding? They’re thousands of miles away! They’re not going to come out here just to help me move!”
Anitia looked sadly at her cousin, “Who else is there to help you then?”
Gabbie froze as if the thought had taken hold a moment. Then she shrugged and replied, “Well, I have you, so I guess I can always depend on my family. Right?”
Thus Gabbie didn’t change her ways. The months became years. One day on the way home from work Gabbie was talking on her cell phone and didn’t hear the nearby car out of control. The driver’s side door of Gabbie’s car was completely crushed. Her cell phone flew from her hand, completely destroyed upon impact.
Gabbie woke up in the hospital. No cell phone. No laptop. No visitors.
Doctors and nurses came and went. The administrator said that both her place of work and family had been notified.
Hour by hour the time dragged. The little TV on the wall near the foot of her bed was definitely not as stimulating as being connected to the world had been. She was lonely – very lonely.
Hours turned around the clock once, night was over and day started again. Gabbie jumped a little when the phone rang beside her bed. Anxious to connect to someone – anyone – Gabbie answered the phone, “Hello?”
“Hi, Gabbie, it’s Anitia. I’m so sorry to hear about the accident. I just got the message this morning when I got into work. I’ll swing by after hours today, OK?”
“Is anyone else coming?”
“From here, no. Has anyone else from the family called?”
“No. Nobody since I woke up here yesterday. You’re the first.”
“Oh….. Well, you should see all the virtual cards that are pouring into your inbox. IT had to ramp up the server.”
“Swell…” Gabbie replied sarcastically as she sadly looked around at the empty white walls around her bed. She could see past the curtain all the cards and balloons and flowers her roommate had.
“Well, I need to get back to work, I’ll see you later. Bye….”
“… Bye.” Tears welled up in Gabbie’s eyes. All the friends she had. Where were they? Why hadn’t anyone come yesterday? Why is Anita the only one coming today? Where are her family members? Her co-workers? Her friends from the neighborhood and school? The people she saw everyday?”
Wiping the tears from her eyes, she tugged the curtain between the beds a little to one side and smiled warmly to the stranger on the bed beside her. “Hi, there, my name is Gabbie Grasshopper. What’s yours?”
-ESA
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