Category: Short Takes
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Courage is…: Joannie Rochette & Petra Majdič
The greatest achievement of this 2010 Winter Olympic games wasn’t Canada’s first Gold medal, or its last, or any other Gold or Silver medal awarded in the Olympics. The two most courageous performances in the Olympics netted Bronze. One was a battle as much with emotional trauma as with any other competitor. The other was…
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Quotes and notes regarding Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram
A dream is a place where a wish and a fear meet. When the wish and the fear are exactly the same, we call the dream a nightmare. ~ Gregory David Roberts Shantaram
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Deva Premal: the tranquility of Gayatri Mantra
A day of stress and frustrations and, in the end, a recognition that I’m not ready to move forward on a course of action requiring a one-year commitment…not just yet…not without a more careful consideration of the options and possibilities. So, a little something to calm the soul….
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Butterflies: Hope for the caterpillars
While we’re still fresh with images of butterflies… ‘How does one become a butterfly?’ she asked pensively. ‘You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.’ ~ Trina Paulus Hope for the Flowers
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Winnie the Pooh and the Vinegar Tasters
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by
The Vinegar tasters is among my favourite allegories and provides an excellent introduction to the three philosophies that dominated China through thousands of years: Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. For me, the most important of these is Taoism, a gentle, soulful and luminous philosophy. I’m going to be lazy and let someone else explain it all.…
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Fugitive Peace
I watched the film adaptation of Anne Michaels’ novel, Fugitive Pieces today. One of the most achingly beautiful love scenes I’ve ever seen is followed, closely, by Michaela picking up Jakob’s journal, holding it, looking at it, quizzically, curiously. she seems to be asking of it, “what else might you reveal of the man I…
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Om Namo Bhagavate: Deva Premal — Tranquil Mantra
Something peaceful, tranquil, to end a day of moving forward, oh-so-slowly, but forward. Translated, this very simple mantra reads “Om, reverence to the Lord Vasudeva”.
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Contact: When science learns faith…
Following is some dialog from the film Contact, a film adaptation of Carl Sagan’s sci-fi novel of the same name. I had… an experience. I can’t prove it. I can’t even explain it. All I can tell you is that everything I know as a human being, everything I am — tells me that it…