Currently Listening Define the Great Line By Underoath see related

Must Reads...

• The Great Pyramid of Giza
  
• The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
  
• The Temple of Artemis at
  Ephesus
  
• The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
  
• The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
  
• The Colossus of Rhodes
  
• The Pharos of Alexandria
  

• Stonehenge
  
• The Colosseum
  
• The Catacombs of Kom
  el Shoqafa
  
• The Great Wall of China
  
• The Porcelain Tower of
  Nanjing
  
• The Hagia Sophia
  
• The Leaning Tower of Pisa
  

• Mount Everest
  
• The Great Barrier Reef
  
• The Grand Canyon
  
• Victoria Falls
  
• The Harbor of Rio de Janeiro
  
• Paricutin Volcano
  
• The Northern Lights
  

• Palau
  
• The Belize Barrier Reef
  
• The Galapagos Islands
  
• The Northern Red Sea
  
• Lake Baikal
  
• The Great Barrier Reef
  
• The Deep Sea Vents
  

• The Empire State Building
  
• The Itaipú Dam
  
• The CN Tower
  
• The Panama Canal
  
• The Channel Tunnel
  
• The North Sea Protection
  Works
  
• The Golden Gate Bridge
  

• Angel Falls
  
• The Bay of Fundy
  
• Iguaçú Falls
  
• Krakatoa Island
  
• Mount Fuji
  
• Mount Kilimanjaro
  
• Niagara Falls
  

• The Clock Tower (Big Ben)
  
• Eiffel Tower
  
• The Gateway Arch
  
• The Aswan High Dam
  
• Hoover Dam
  
• Mount Rushmore National
  Memorial
  
• The Petronas Towers
  

• Abu Simbel Temple
  
• Angkor Wat
  
• Taj Mahal
  
• Mont Saint-Michel
  
• The Moai Statues
  
• The Parthenon
  
• The Shwedagon Pagoda
  

• The Aztec Temple
  
• The Banaue Rice Terraces
  
• The Borobudur Temple
  
• The Inca City
  
• The Statue of Liberty
  
• The Mayan Temples
  
• The Temple of the Inscriptions
  
• The Throne Hall of Persepolis
  
• Petra
  
• The Suez Canal
  
• The Sydney Opera House
  
• The Red Fort in India
  

Currently Reading The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho see related

YOU GOTTA WATCH THIS!:

I recently had a somewhat lengthy discussion with a good friend of mine on spirituality. It wasn't about God. It wasn't about Jesus, so if you're not comfortable with the subject (there are people that are afraid, believe it or not), don't hold back on reading my post. I won't tell you what to think here. I'll bring up topics; you can make your own deductions, and formulate your own opinions. I'm not here to do that for you. So if I don't explain something in writing, you'll know it's because I'd prefer you to think about it rather than being stuffed with my personal beliefs, ideas, etc... Towards the end I'll just leave something to stew about from my own thoughts just for the sake of a some sort of conclusion/cliffhanger.

The point I wanted to get across was the importance of spirituality. Spirituality doesn't necessarily have to involve a deity or ritual like many religions. Spirituality simply involves the belief in something bigger, if you follow me. Some may even take it as what we humans will never understand simply because we aren't meant to. Some take it as fate. Some as coincidence. (If you're still wondering why people are afraid of the subject, it's because certain perspectives of this subject involves some lack of control over one's own life, yet it doesn't have to be so: spirituality can merely involve belief in another presence, omnipotent or not).

I found myself in an extremely difficult situation trying to explain why I felt spirituality was so important, so I moved to fairly universal topics: priorities, materialism, and death. For example, we all know that friends, family, relatives, etc... are of much more value than material possession. Now combine that idea with the priorities of life, everyday priorities, dilemmas. "Should I go to a beach party or a birthday dinner?" "Should I spend a year working or go straight to college?" There are no "right" answers, so to speak. To bring it up a notch, how is any of this, I repeat, any of this, going to matter when we're on our death beds. It certainly matters to the people that we affect that are still alive (considering that we're not yet looking at the subject of an afterlife), but how will it affect us? Here come the slew of questions...

What happens to us when we die? Do we cease to exist? What happens to our state of mind? Our conciousness?  Maybe we just go out like that! No more! No more thinking, theorizing. No more emotions. No more rational thought.

Imagine not being able to think, not being able to deduce where you are, when you are, or even what you are. Pretty impossible for me, personally, but I don't retain the knowledge of ever knowing death (I leave it open for interpretation that I may have been dead before "this life" but I don't remember it). We know death (earthly death) is for eternity, but is it possible to lose all conciousness for eternity?

Now is when I leave a little rambling about what I think and possibly what you might have concluded. If you agree, that's awesome! If you don't, that's awesome too. I figured that spirituality is something that keeps us living, gives us something to hold on to, and gives us some comfort for the "death concept". Spirituality helps me grasp things that I may never be able to understand. Not only is spirituality a gap-filler for me, it's become a way of life. A long time ago, I realized that I have nothing to lose if I chose to live my life in this certain way. Yes, I'd be giving up certain things, but none of these things are nearly as important as having something like spirituality. Personally, the benefits of my decision have been amazing; I don't deny that I've faltered, as I have innumerable times. Choosing to live with a belief in some spirituality is a lot like having morals, values, or scruples. I have a set of morals that I stick to, I have a laid out set of priorities, etc... There are times where I've felt lost and alone, and in saying this, I want to put it out there that there really is no perfect solution to life. We're human, we're going to have our ups and downs. Not everything is going to be peachy. Everyone is going to depart.

Spirituality is a philosophy to some, but I also see it as something much more. I've spent plenty of time thinking it over, going through a journey in search of answers, and I expect to continue to do so for the rest of my life. The real treasure in the journey is not the end point, but the journey itself. I deeply encourage everyone to make a decision to go on a journey, as alike or as dissimilar as it may be to my own.

Don't limit yourself.

Currently Listening Jars of Clay By Jars of Clay see related

Beautiful, letting go of all you've held on to... Why can't I? Why can't I?

A Franciscan Benediction

Currently Listening Come Away with Me By Norah Jones see related

I could go on forever... almost

Currently Watching The Goonies By Jeb Stuart Adams, Steve Antin, Sean Astin, Bill Bradley, Josh Brolin see related

On the edge of a rainbow

Mary Lange, art teacher at West High in Los Angeles, had a very important goal for theupcoming school year. She wanted her class to be involved in an outreach or community project that would utilize them and their artistic talents. “I talked to my classes about this and mentioned a project that I had seen on the news that described high school artists drawing children from other countries.”

Raechel Wong, West High artist and high school senior, remembered reading about a trip that Stephen Christian (the lead singer of the band Anberlin) went on with his friends in the music industry. “Being a frequent visitor of Stephen Christian’s awe-inspiring blog (modesty.blogspot.com), I couldn’t help but dive into his amazing description of his trip to Haiti. His account of going from the main stage as an artist to the streets of underdeveloped countries completely changed my perception of myself as an American and my ideal of the American Dream. The most prominent idea to me in Stephen’s entries was that every person has a responsibility and the potential to help others, whether it is through a massive movement or a small, simple gesture.”

Inspired by Christian’s words, Wong wanted to be involved with Christian’s next trip to Calcutta, India. “I wanted to incorporate his [Christian] next trip to Calcutta into my mission. Without a plan, I stumbled upon an article that I introduced to the board of West High’s Art Club that explored media coverage of third-world poverty through art. The two ideas were meant to come hand in hand, later giving birth to The Likeness of Love program.” Wong, along with other West High Artists, would hand draw portraits from photographs taken of the children Christian worked with. The hand drawn portraits would then be framed and mailed back to the children of Apne Aap, the school Christian worked in, giving them their very own hand drawn portrait to share with family and friends.

“The results are outstanding. I think it gave West High Artists the opportunity to create art and think about a special person on the other side of the world. The more you look the more you see and by creating these portraits, West High Artists were able to open their hearts and see a Likeness of Love” said Lange. Katie Peters, a West High artist, agreed. “I felt like this project was a way for us to connect with someone we’ll probably never meet. It’s a way to begin building bridges between our cultures and countries– to demonstrate in a visible way the love that you can feel for a complete stranger.” Jonathan Tong, another West High artist, wanted to not only capture the image of the children-but their culture as well. “The project was like gazing into a window at a foreign world within. So many new ideas revealed themselves within the composition. So many wonders and possibilities. The challenge laid within capturing not just the image of the children, but the soul of the culture before us. Through the point of a pencil, the bristle of a brush, and the tip of a marker, we were finally able to join these two worlds into one, resulting in the art that now lies before you.”

Wong does not want the newly started program to end with her graduation. “I hope with all my heart and soul that this project does not sit as a glorious one-time spark in the past of West High; this project was created to fuel inspiration for years and years to come, and it is our intention to keep The Likeness of Love as an annual tradition.”

Because of the energy and passion of some high school artists in California, other students halfway around the world in Calcutta, India, now have memories that will bring hope to their days and will remind them of the love that will continue on throughout the rest of their lives.