Mother’s Day appreciation mug for my wife.
I knew she would love it.
– She’s a great mom, terrific, beautiful, fantastic.
– Other moms, total disasters, everyone agrees.
Trump says it best.
Happy Mother’s Day! 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Being a heart alone in this world is very lonely, indeed.
Chasing another heart, so that we can pair together makes two less lonely hearts.
Two hearts that beat as one making beautiful music together.
When the hearts are in harmony, we sway and are uplifted flying away into the heavens.
And when the music is discordant, we are forced to retune and to grow wings that we never even knew we had.
Hearts that complement each other, help us face the questions we often fear to ask ourselves.
When these hearts meet, they touch so gently, and like silk they dance a perfect dance.
What is meaningless alone is all of a sudden meaningful with another.
What is too painful to bear by oneself is manageable when shared between two.
And what is joyful is magnified in sweetness when there is someone else to enjoy it with.
One heart chases another until they embrace that long blissful embrace. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I came across these excellent graphics used to educate and prevent against domestic dominance and abuse.
The first wheel shows how “power and control” are used to instill fear and dominate domestic partners as well as in an overall pattern of relationships with physical and sexual violence:
– Intimidation
– Emotional Abuse
– Isolation
– Minimizing, Denying, and Blaming
– Using Children
– Male Privilege
– Economic Abuse
– Coercion and Threats
In contrast, the second wheel displays positive patterns of “equality” in relationships and nonviolence and are marked by the following attributes:
– Non-threatening behavior
– Respect
– Trust and Support
– Honesty and Accountability
– Responsible Parenting
– Shared Responsibility
– Economic Partnership
– Negotiation and Fairness
Have you ever noticed a pattern of domestic abuse behaviors that include the following?
– Constantly lecturing on political views the other person should hold.
– Keeping them away from their family and friends.
– Controlling the major life decisions.
– Hiding money and accounts.
– Demanding the partner stay home with the kids indefinitely.
– Using emotional withdrawal and/or passive aggressiveness to control.
– Requiring the other person to be available whenever they want.
Spouses and partners should be your best friend and not your servant or dog to kick when you get home.
Watch out for those who exhibit the bad behaviors and patterns of abuse and violence…and stay safe in good and healthy relationships! 😉
(Source Photo: Domestic Abuse Intervention Project – Duluth Model)
Just an observation about love today.
But it seems that it’s far easier and more frequent to see love turn to hate and resentment than vice versa.
It’s a lot easier to destroy a relationship (or any success) than to build it to begin with.
Even as we talk about forgiveness and loving thy neighbor, it seems that more often than not negative feelings are at best turned to acceptance or neutral feelings rather than back to true endearment.
This state is often accompanied by such fears or protectionist sayings as “leopards don’t change their spots” or “love once lost is lost forever.”
While we may be willing to turn the other cheek for a moment or even a while, bad feelings and distrust towards another does not make the leap back to closeness and an endearing, loving relationship all that often.
Of course, there are exceptions where through trust building measures and “easing of sanctions” or hostilities, we can over time rebuild a relationship and become allies or partners again.
However, it is far easier to break trust and lose love then to ever rebuild and recover it.
All the more reason to cherish our meaningful relationships and make love count, sing, and dance for us every moment of every day. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So just a couple of birds, right?
Not to me!
There were a number of reminders to me today about how special and fortunate it is for any of us to be with someone we love.
It’s not just that two heads are better than one.
Pretty much, everything is better with a partner who looks back at us and smiles.
We magnify the joy and we share the sorrow, together.
What my dad used to call my mom, his “better half!”
What we are lacking in, often our soulmate can fill in the blank.
And planning and executing is as a team, rather than flying solo.
There is someone who keeps our lofty ideas in check and at the same time challenges us when it’s time to think bigger.
We learn from the other person, at the same time that we teach them maybe a little thing or two from our repertoire.
Strategically, divide and conquer makes everything from routine tasks to complex projects easier to achieve, especially when we agree on the goal and the approach.
Even the “occasional” disagreements and fights helps us to learn to control our temperament and to work things out or when to take a break and think things through afresh.
Someone to reach out to.
Someone to hold unto.
Someone to caress.
Someone to buttress.
Someone who makes us a better person than the one we see in the mirror naked and mortal.
Like 2 by 2 in Noah’s Ark or in the birds and the bees, we are committed to that special someone.
The Bat Kol calls out “so and so shall be married to so and so” like only the L-rd in heaven can decree from the rib of man to the flesh of a women. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Yes, since the founding of Israel, the United States has been “Best Friends Forever” (BFF) with Israel.
The U.S. helped found Israel in 1948 and it has graciously invested in Israel financially and military for almost 70 years.
And Israel has been a tried and true friend to America from intelligence, security, and innovation to shared values on human rights, freedom, democracy, and our Judeo-Christian shared roots and beliefs.
The U.S. and Israel stand together, always.
Yes, administration after administration…the support, friendship, and alliance between the two nations have flourished and been unshakeable.
And while Congress passes unanimously this past week to make Israel a “Major Strategic Partner,” something unthinkable and what others have called “unprecedented hostility” is going on elsewhere in our government:
While the U.S. is pulling back sanctions on one of our greatest enemies, Iran (part of the famous Axis Of Evil), it is said to be mulling the imposition of sanctions on one of it’s best friends, Israel (Washington Beacon).
How is it that in extremist, terrorist world post 9/11–up to the recent grotesque torture and beheadings of multiple U.S. citizens–that we forget who our friends are and embrace our enemies?
A world gone mad…and we are trapped in the audience watching the insanity unfold.
Say it isn’t so–not even in Disney World is such a fantastical breach possible.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
They let us walk right up to them and sit down on a stoop next to them–maybe two feet away only,
It was nice just sitting with Rebecca and watching these birds: they were scratching, clucking, shivering, dancing, taking in their surroundings, and wandering away together.
Felt really at peace and happy by the water, doing something so simple and basic.
In a way just wanted this time to last forever. 😉
Wow, what type of politician calls the Prime Minister of Israel, our “Major Strategic Partner,” with an “unshakable bond,” a “Chickensh*t”?
Yes, it’s in the Washington Examiner today.
Forget about being completely rude and disrespectful–how utterly impolitic!
Sinking to new political lows globally with our friends and allies–while the ratings sink (and sink) to new lows for these politicians.
Imagine, Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu defends his nation by putting real boots on the ground in Hamas-run Gaza for the 50-days of fighting rocket barrages and terror tunnels, and builds apartments in Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel–Sorry, that is not Chickensh*t.
While domestically, we have been seen as in full global retreat abandoning our bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, carpet bombing from the air in Syria and not punishing chemical weapons use (remember the “red line“), leaving key portions of Ukraine in the hands of Russia, seeking to forge WMD-losing deals with the devils in Iran, and watching the situation deteriorate as we “Pivot East” to Asia, and as we all know, much more.
– Finanically–we can’t balance a budget,
– Ebola Epidemic–we can’t put together a sensible quarantine policy (while the States fill the void)
– Imigration–we can’t muster a realistic bill
– Veterans–the scandal of not caring for our veterans is still scathing.
And the list goes on, virtually without end.
Horrible name-calling and snubbing leaders on the world stage, let alone of our best allies and friends, is not only politically immature, but morally disgraceful–but psychological projection is a very real possibility.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
The other day, I passed the prestigious George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and someone had quite prominently graffitied the wall with “Free Palestine.”
But then yesterday again, we saw another terrorist attack strike Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel, and a 3-month old baby from America was murdered after being thrown 30 feet in the air and landing on it’s head.
I applaud the GW students who came out today to celebrate the enduring relationship between the United States and Israel.
At the event, a banner hung high with the promise from President Obama, as of those similarly who came before in the Oval Office that “The bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable today, unbreakable tomorrow, and unbreakable forever.“
Moreover, last month, the Senate unanimously passed a bill upgrading and declaring Israel a “Major Strategic Partner” of the United States.
The defense of Israel as a secure and sovereign nation is an imperative as freedom and democracy shine forth as a beacon of hope and peace for humanity.
May G-d bless the 2 countries and may their flags fly as one–2gether 4ever. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
It all started on the first night of Chanukah…
Yeah, I know it’s a miracle! 😉
(Source Comic At Bitstrips: Andy Blumenthal)
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