Silly Me

Anyone else ever hear the phrase, "There are no stupid questions"?
Yeah. Well, today my cousin gave me a look that said almost the opposite. I walked onto the porch of my aunt's house here in northern New Hampshire and noticed a moderately sized piece of wood flying past my head. I turned around to see where it had come from, and there was my twelve year old cousin, picking up another piece of firewood to throw onto the growing pile across the yard. Now, I'm from the city. I spent the last 7-ish years of my life living in the city-- seven in the Boston, MA area and almost another year now in New Haven, CT. As you can imagine, I'm not exactly used to having logs about the width of my arm flying past me. So I was surprised. 
"What are you doing?" I asked. She stared at me like I must be crazy and replied in a very matter-of-fact tone, "Throwing wood."
Now she's not a smart-aleck, and she is certainly not disrespectful. Therefore I have no doubt that she was honestly trying to answer my question and had no idea why I was asking such a dumb question.
That brings us back to the phrase, "There are no stupid questions".
I personally agree with that statement, but feel the need to point out, as my cousin so wonderfully expressed without exactly realizing it, that if you ask an obvious question (like I did), I can pretty much guarantee you'll get an obvious answer.
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Soulmates

Someone online asked me today, "Does real love exist?"
That got me thinking about soul mates and Greek Mythology. So I looked up some stuff online about Soul Mates and found this information on WikiPedia.

Ancient Greece

Aristophanes presented a story about soulmates in The Symposium by Plato. It states that humans originally consisted of four arms, four legs, and a single head made of two faces, but Zeus feared their power and split them all in half, condemning them to spend their lives searching for the other half to complete them. ex: Pru And Pao soulmates ^[1]

[edit] Theosophy

According to Theosophy, whose claims were modified by Edgar Cayce, God created androgynous souls—equally male and female. Later theories postulate that the souls split into separate genders, perhaps because they incurred karma while playing around on the Earth, or "separation from God." Over a number of reincarnations, each half seeks the other. When all karmic debt is purged, the two will fuse back together and return to the ultimate.^[2][3]

I think that these concepts are very interesting. There is another section to the article that talks about Soul Mates in Judaism. I thought that was interesting as well.

Bashert, (Yiddish: באַשערט), is a Yiddish word that means "destiny".^[4] It is often used in the context of one's divinely foreordained spouse or soulmate, who is called "basherte" (female) or "basherter" (male). It can also be used to express the seeming fate or destiny of an auspicious or important event, friendship, or happening.

The idea of soulmates comes from statements found in classical rabbinic literature. A proverb that "marriages are made in heaven" is illustrated by a story in a midrash collection:

A Roman matron, on being told by R. Jose ben Ḥalafta that God arranges all marriages, said that this was an easy matter, and boasted that she could do as much herself. Thereupon she assembled her male and female slaves and paired them off in couples; but on the morrow they all went to her with complaints. Then she admitted that divine intervention is necessary to suitable marriages

(Genesis Rabba lxviii. 3-4).

Even God Himself finds it as difficult an undertaking as the dividing of the Red Sea. Forty days before a child is born its mate is determined upon (Genesis Rabba lxviii. 3-4; also Babylonian Talmud, tractates Soṭah 2a; Sanhedrin 22a; comp. M. Ḳ. 18b; "Sefer Hasidim," § 1128).

In modern usage, Jewish singles will say that they are looking for their bashert, meaning they are looking for that person who will complement them perfectly, and whom they will complement perfectly. Since it considered to have been foreordained by God whom one will marry, one's spouse is considered to be one's bashert by definition, independent of whether the couple's marital life works out well or not.

The concept here is that although a marriage may not work out well, the person you are married to is your soul mate. I see a difference here in that in Greek mythology and in Theosophy, a soul mate is someone you once shared a soul with, making them quite literally a soul mate. I do not see that here in this segment about Judaism. Perhaps it is an incomplete article.... I would like to know more! Does anyone have more information?

Any thoughts?? Comment or message me as you see fit and let me know what you think.

As always,

Best--

Heather B.

ok, so I wrote a poem called Like a Girl that I want to share with you all.

LIKE A GIRL

When you tell me I run "like a girl"
You're telling me I run with grace and poise.
When you tell me I throw "like a girl"
You're telling me I throw with strength and power.
When you tell me I jump "like a girl"
You're telling I jump with more force of will
and ambition than you have ever seen.
When you tell me I think "like a girl"
You're telling me what I already know-
That you have forced yourself into labeling me,
that you have allowed yourself to be duped
into the false security of assumptions.
How can you tell me who I am
When you cannot lift the shroud
that blinds you enough to see me?
I do throw "like a girl",
I throw with power and calculated force.
I threw you for a loop, didn't I?
I threw you off,
startled you,
gave you what you didn't expect,
proved you wrong,
you don't have to tell me twice,
I already know.
You can't change me by telling me
what you think I don't want to hear,
Can't insult me with your words,
Because I hear your words for what they really are-
Your insecurity.
So I'll just keep on doing what I'm doing-
I'll keep on being me-
And if that upsets you, I'll even respond "like a girl"-
With the self assurance and the knowledge
that I am who I want to be.
So the next time you tell me I do something "like a girl",
I'll say "thank you!"
And I'll walk away
like a Woman-
Like Me.
© Copyright 2010 Heather Rosebud Blakney
UN: rosebud890 at Writing.Com).
All rights reserved.
Heather Rosebud Blakney has granted Writing.Com,
its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights
to display this work. 

What do you think? Let me know in your comments.

---Heather

Q:Wat's a Motto? A:Nothin! Wat's a motto with you?

So I was diddling around on the interwebs today and found the Blakney family motto:
Auxilium Meum Ab Alto.
That's Latin for:
My help comes from above.

Well, that got me thinking about mottos, and what my personal one might be. After a whole lot of fooling around with grammar and wording on a couple of English to Latin and Latin to English translators and some tweaking that was cross referenced with a Latin dictionary, I came up with this--
Novo vos, ego novo mihi primoris.
It means:
To change you, I must change myself first.
(Its literal translation is, "to make anew you, I to make anew me first".)
I think that one of humanity's biggest problems is thinking that we can change each other without knowing how to begin changing ourselves.
To make a change, we have to start with ourselves.
I think the best way to explain what I mean is to quote Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror:
"I'm starting with the man in the mirror/
I'm asking him to change his ways/
And no message could've been any clearer/
If you wanna make the world a better place/
Take a look at yourself and make that change!"

Change must first come from the heart.
Here are some more quotes about change that I love.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me." ~Author Unknown

"If you don't like something, change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it."
~Mary Engelbreit

"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
~W. Edwards Deming

"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."
~Victor Frankl

We, The People...

We, The People...

by Heather Rosebud Blakney

Maggie Gallagher, Board Chair of NOM, I have this to say-- Your statements, first of all, are absolutely appalling and morally incorrect! Secondly, they go against the Declaration of Independence! "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." We, the LGBTQ people (for we are, contrary to YOUR beliefs, in fact, PEOPLE) of the United States of America, hold THIS truth to be self evident-- that you are obstructing our rights by giving your speeches against us and our INALIENABLE RIGHTS TO LIFE LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. I wish you the best of luck on your road to hell.