At the beginning of the Renaissance period, Gutenberg invented the printing press, thus allowing the masses, for the first time, to be able to read the Bible in their own language. It therefore opened the way for the Reformers to begin noticing discrepancies between biblical teachings and the way the church of the day was run and new churches began to spring up.
A few years ago I came across the Gutenberg project by accident but now i really like it. It provides access to all sorts of books, mostly classics, where the copyright has expired. I made a goal to read the 100 most recommended books according to the Eton press, a few of them I've read but i still have alot to go. The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoevsky seems the likely next contender.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Choosing to Follow Jesus
Yesterday I taught my 5-7yr old Sunday school class for the last time, due to a sad mix of circumstances, the chief one being I have to work nearly ever other Sunday. And even though teaching children has always been quite frustrating and challenging for me, I think that I will miss them. They’re at an age where they can read and take care of themselves most of the time, but the curiousity and enthusiasm has not quite been hammered out of them by scholastic methods. They’re open to playing games, drawing, discussions and colouring/craft activities (one of my favourite ways to speed up the class time) and they’re not yet at an age where they think most things are boring and not worth their time.
Our lesson was about the pre-earth life and the council in heaven. Some of the kids were really onto it and already knew everything, and others stared at me blankly when I asked them where we lived before we came to earth. My sister has of late been researching nearly everything she can find on NDE’s or near death experiences, whereas I find PBE’s (Prebirth experiences) much more intriguing. People who remember events from before they were born, people who see or communicate with their future children, “announcing dreams” where spirits come to tell their parents they’re ready to come down. I have my own PBE, but I don’t feel comfortable sharing it with strangers like the world wide web.
Science says, for every reaction there is an opposite and equal reaction. In physics they told us that when we jump, the earth moves. But in proportion to our mass and the earths mass we don’t have much of an impact.
The scriptures say that there must be opposition in all things. Good vs bad and so on and so forth. And now that I think about it, I wonder what other Christians have come up with for the obscure references to falling from grace mentioned for Lucifer in the bible (Job 38:4-7 and Isaiah 14:12-15) or even obscure references to a pre-earth life such as in the first chapter of Jeremiah.
I read a book once about the adversary. Kind of freaked me out a bit. It said fighting against the agents of evil is like fighting blindfolded with your hands behind your back. They can see you but you can’t see them, and they know you at least as well as you know yourself. It said the better you know your enemy & his tricks the better off you’ll be.
When I was teaching at the missionary training centre I had this Tahitian girl come into my class, she was different from a lot of the ones I taught. Very connected spiritually. But she came to me because she’d had an unusual number of “things that go bump in the night” stories while she was in the dorms. Toilets flushing when nobody was there, sounds of a woman crying, things being moved. Probably it happened on a regular basis but that was the first time I’d heard about it. I told her one or two methods of counteraction she could use. I’ve never been fully spooked out like she was, but I have had a few creepy instances in my life. I have to keep reminding myself that spirits can’t hurt me.
And I have had a few instances in my life where I prayed for help and it came straightaway. Even though I think I’ve gone downhill spiritually in the last year, and I don’t know what I’m going to do now that I don’t have my kids to keep my focus on the gospel, I still think trying to follow Jesus is the best thing I can do in my life right now.
Our lesson was about the pre-earth life and the council in heaven. Some of the kids were really onto it and already knew everything, and others stared at me blankly when I asked them where we lived before we came to earth. My sister has of late been researching nearly everything she can find on NDE’s or near death experiences, whereas I find PBE’s (Prebirth experiences) much more intriguing. People who remember events from before they were born, people who see or communicate with their future children, “announcing dreams” where spirits come to tell their parents they’re ready to come down. I have my own PBE, but I don’t feel comfortable sharing it with strangers like the world wide web.
Science says, for every reaction there is an opposite and equal reaction. In physics they told us that when we jump, the earth moves. But in proportion to our mass and the earths mass we don’t have much of an impact.
The scriptures say that there must be opposition in all things. Good vs bad and so on and so forth. And now that I think about it, I wonder what other Christians have come up with for the obscure references to falling from grace mentioned for Lucifer in the bible (Job 38:4-7 and Isaiah 14:12-15) or even obscure references to a pre-earth life such as in the first chapter of Jeremiah.
I read a book once about the adversary. Kind of freaked me out a bit. It said fighting against the agents of evil is like fighting blindfolded with your hands behind your back. They can see you but you can’t see them, and they know you at least as well as you know yourself. It said the better you know your enemy & his tricks the better off you’ll be.
When I was teaching at the missionary training centre I had this Tahitian girl come into my class, she was different from a lot of the ones I taught. Very connected spiritually. But she came to me because she’d had an unusual number of “things that go bump in the night” stories while she was in the dorms. Toilets flushing when nobody was there, sounds of a woman crying, things being moved. Probably it happened on a regular basis but that was the first time I’d heard about it. I told her one or two methods of counteraction she could use. I’ve never been fully spooked out like she was, but I have had a few creepy instances in my life. I have to keep reminding myself that spirits can’t hurt me.
And I have had a few instances in my life where I prayed for help and it came straightaway. Even though I think I’ve gone downhill spiritually in the last year, and I don’t know what I’m going to do now that I don’t have my kids to keep my focus on the gospel, I still think trying to follow Jesus is the best thing I can do in my life right now.
My Health
And it came to pass that I did search for a healthier way of nourishing my body. How do I know my body needs nourishing? Because I’m much more tired than I should be at my age. Where was I to go? Which of the many diets that I came across was right? There was the Eat right for your blood type, Atkins, Zone, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Meditteranean, Don Tolman, Sureslim, Herbalife, Usana, ACV, Vegetarian, Gabriel Method, Body for life, Fit for life, Boutenko raw diet and many others. More importantly which one was right for me? If any one of them was right (or a combination of them) which was it and how should I know it?
Still I kept myself aloof from all these groups, preferring to observe from a distance and read their many books as often as occasion would permit. In process of time, my mind because somewhat partial to the green smoothie revolution, and I felt some desire to be united with them, especially after Mrs Boutenko announced in a newsletter that she was stepping down from her 100% raw pedestal because she felt it was too extreme.
However, so great were the confusion and strife, not to mention propaganda, mudslinging and references to scientific research that may or may not have been properly designed that it was impossible for me, being so young, naïve, and unacquainted with whatever the truth might be, that I could not possibly come to a certain conclusion about who was right and who was wrong.
Some say you need supplements, because normal food doesn’t supply the adequate minerals and vitamins that your body needs. Then others say, no you shouldn’t have supplements, because your body doesn’t recognize dead unnatural chemicals when they’re introduced individually, they have to come to you in the form of whole food because the ingredients in fruit and vegetables work in harmony with each other. Detoxing an ideal solution or a crazy fad? Fats – necessary for your body or harbinger of death? Sugar - good or bad. Protein good or bad. Meat good or bad. Dairy good or bad.
The healthy living magazine actually had the gall to refer to meat and dairy as healthy foods. I had to laugh. Whos paying your bills? Meat, loaded with fat, carcinogens, stress hormones, uric acid, antibiotics, bacteria and toxins? Or dairy – both fatty and mucus forming at the same time?
Reasoning and logic don’t seem to play much of a part here, since food is so inextricably linked to a persons emotional state.
If you whittle down the majority of diets, they pretty much boil down to 3 or 4 main things
1) Drink lots of water. If you don’t, water retention will make your ankles swell up.
2) Eat lots of fruit and vegetables. I’ve also recently formed the opinion that legumes and pulses are probably a good thing to have as well.
3) Limit everything else you eat – meat, dairy, starch, fat and junk food.
I’m still not decided on the pros and cons of carbohydrates, but I guess if you can find low GI/GL foods then they’re ok.
I also really like meat. Especially fish and lamb. But I suppose limiting them to a few times a week wouldn’t kill me.
I have recently developed a new recipe for healthy bliss ball snacks that I’m totally in love with. So here it is:
1c tahini (sesame paste, used in making hummus)
1c honey (I like manuka, but that’s just me)
1/2c each of the following: raw walnuts, cashews, almonds, all ground in a blender
1/2c coconut added to mix. Extra needed for dipping.
Small handful of raisins, goji berries, whatever other dried fruit is on hand
1/2c cocoa powder
Mix it all together thoroughly, roll into balls, roll in coconut, eat. Yum.
Still I kept myself aloof from all these groups, preferring to observe from a distance and read their many books as often as occasion would permit. In process of time, my mind because somewhat partial to the green smoothie revolution, and I felt some desire to be united with them, especially after Mrs Boutenko announced in a newsletter that she was stepping down from her 100% raw pedestal because she felt it was too extreme.
However, so great were the confusion and strife, not to mention propaganda, mudslinging and references to scientific research that may or may not have been properly designed that it was impossible for me, being so young, naïve, and unacquainted with whatever the truth might be, that I could not possibly come to a certain conclusion about who was right and who was wrong.
Some say you need supplements, because normal food doesn’t supply the adequate minerals and vitamins that your body needs. Then others say, no you shouldn’t have supplements, because your body doesn’t recognize dead unnatural chemicals when they’re introduced individually, they have to come to you in the form of whole food because the ingredients in fruit and vegetables work in harmony with each other. Detoxing an ideal solution or a crazy fad? Fats – necessary for your body or harbinger of death? Sugar - good or bad. Protein good or bad. Meat good or bad. Dairy good or bad.
The healthy living magazine actually had the gall to refer to meat and dairy as healthy foods. I had to laugh. Whos paying your bills? Meat, loaded with fat, carcinogens, stress hormones, uric acid, antibiotics, bacteria and toxins? Or dairy – both fatty and mucus forming at the same time?
Reasoning and logic don’t seem to play much of a part here, since food is so inextricably linked to a persons emotional state.
If you whittle down the majority of diets, they pretty much boil down to 3 or 4 main things
1) Drink lots of water. If you don’t, water retention will make your ankles swell up.
2) Eat lots of fruit and vegetables. I’ve also recently formed the opinion that legumes and pulses are probably a good thing to have as well.
3) Limit everything else you eat – meat, dairy, starch, fat and junk food.
I’m still not decided on the pros and cons of carbohydrates, but I guess if you can find low GI/GL foods then they’re ok.
I also really like meat. Especially fish and lamb. But I suppose limiting them to a few times a week wouldn’t kill me.
I have recently developed a new recipe for healthy bliss ball snacks that I’m totally in love with. So here it is:
1c tahini (sesame paste, used in making hummus)
1c honey (I like manuka, but that’s just me)
1/2c each of the following: raw walnuts, cashews, almonds, all ground in a blender
1/2c coconut added to mix. Extra needed for dipping.
Small handful of raisins, goji berries, whatever other dried fruit is on hand
1/2c cocoa powder
Mix it all together thoroughly, roll into balls, roll in coconut, eat. Yum.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Thought Provoking Linguistic Technicalities
In french they have two ways to say "I am happy," je suis contente and je suis heureuse (for a female). More often than not they use the first version but if you translate it back the other way its more equivalent to "pleased, glad, or content". Since when do english people ever say I am content?
The best explanation i could get, when i questioned some native french speakers about it, is that "content" refers to a general moderate state of joy or happiness, whereas "heureux" refers to periodic bliss or supreme and overwhelming gladness. Unfortunately this second one doesn't seem to last as long as the first. I guess its like the difference between joy and euphoria. But words give meaning and shape to our experiences, and it seems sad that happiness (at least in french) can't last. Maybe thats why they have such high levels of antidepressants in their country.
Why can't we be happy for ever?
and if happiness is to be found in this life, "men are that they might have joy" and all that, where do we go to find it?
I knew a lady in switzerland, she used to give us lunch once a week, but every time we went there it was the same thing - sort of like weekly repeats "Groundhog day". We (les Soeurs) would ask her how she was and she would launch into a diatribe about how awful the world was, especially according to the media and how could anybody be happy in the world. We would attempt to calm and reassure her, but it never seemed to work, because the next week she would be all ready to launch the latest news stories she had heard over the 7 days. She accused either us or the scriptures of lying, I was never entirely sure which, about being here to have joy.
It was quite disturbing listening to her rant and rave sometimes, and i wished i could find an answer that would help her, but i left that little village and it was months later that i found an answer to her souci (concern), or at least one that satisfied me.
Men are that they might have joy.
In 3rd nephi in the book of Mormon, Jesus tells the people that his joy is full. This is the same "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" that isaiah talks about in the bible. So i wonder if, the fact of the matter is that Jesus never found a fulness of joy in this life - and neither will we. His joy came after his life, death and resurrection. So maybe ours will too.
My dad told me once that when we feel joy in ourselves over a good decision that we've made (at the time he was specifically referring to an experience i had when i decided to go on a mission), its because God allows us to feel a portion of that joy that he experiences, over the good decision that we've made. I really like that idea, even though i don't know if its true.
The best explanation i could get, when i questioned some native french speakers about it, is that "content" refers to a general moderate state of joy or happiness, whereas "heureux" refers to periodic bliss or supreme and overwhelming gladness. Unfortunately this second one doesn't seem to last as long as the first. I guess its like the difference between joy and euphoria. But words give meaning and shape to our experiences, and it seems sad that happiness (at least in french) can't last. Maybe thats why they have such high levels of antidepressants in their country.
Why can't we be happy for ever?
and if happiness is to be found in this life, "men are that they might have joy" and all that, where do we go to find it?
I knew a lady in switzerland, she used to give us lunch once a week, but every time we went there it was the same thing - sort of like weekly repeats "Groundhog day". We (les Soeurs) would ask her how she was and she would launch into a diatribe about how awful the world was, especially according to the media and how could anybody be happy in the world. We would attempt to calm and reassure her, but it never seemed to work, because the next week she would be all ready to launch the latest news stories she had heard over the 7 days. She accused either us or the scriptures of lying, I was never entirely sure which, about being here to have joy.
It was quite disturbing listening to her rant and rave sometimes, and i wished i could find an answer that would help her, but i left that little village and it was months later that i found an answer to her souci (concern), or at least one that satisfied me.
Men are that they might have joy.
In 3rd nephi in the book of Mormon, Jesus tells the people that his joy is full. This is the same "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" that isaiah talks about in the bible. So i wonder if, the fact of the matter is that Jesus never found a fulness of joy in this life - and neither will we. His joy came after his life, death and resurrection. So maybe ours will too.
My dad told me once that when we feel joy in ourselves over a good decision that we've made (at the time he was specifically referring to an experience i had when i decided to go on a mission), its because God allows us to feel a portion of that joy that he experiences, over the good decision that we've made. I really like that idea, even though i don't know if its true.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
New Years Resolutions
1. To have more fun
2. To talk to God more
3. To overcome my carb addictions using green smoothies, sacred meals and nature cure
4. To visit every town in NZ that airnz flies to (where i haven't been yet)
5. To spend less time thinking and more time doing
Every year i make these resolutions and they hardly ever get done. Hopefully this year will be different.
2. To talk to God more
3. To overcome my carb addictions using green smoothies, sacred meals and nature cure
4. To visit every town in NZ that airnz flies to (where i haven't been yet)
5. To spend less time thinking and more time doing
Every year i make these resolutions and they hardly ever get done. Hopefully this year will be different.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
My Health
When you eat a food such as white bread which has a high glycaemic index, it raises the blood sugar level in your body faster than if you sat and ate spoonfuls of sugar. Because blood sugar levels have to be kept in a narrow range, your body responds immediately by sending out insulin to get it down. The blood sugar level then drops well below normal, creates cravings for more food and so the vicious cycle continues. Nasty carb & sugar addictions. I've noticed for myself i can see wild mood swings while this whole process is going on.
If i were to eat a low glycaemic index food then my blood sugar levels wouldn't go up as much, my body wouldn't react so strongly and the insulin and glucagon levels in my system would be evenly balanced.
I knew parts of this stuff before, like that carbs turn into sugar in your body, i was just operating under the old school thinking that all carbs are equal and that wheat is good. Actually wheat is good, but most of the bread people eat has been stripped of all nutrients to create a lightweight feel good substitute for the real thing.
In the glycaemic index anything under 30 is good, 40-60 is moderate and over that is bad. Raw fruits and vegetables, nuts, greens are all good. Fat and fibre are good because they slow digestion of food in the gut so the blood sugar isn't spiked. Meat and dairy products don't spike the blood as much, but they come with their own set of pros and cons. Lentils and beans are ok. Junk food, potatoes, white rice, white bread, pasta, chocolate and sugar all spike the blood. Those are the ones i have to watch out for.
In the end i was disappointed with Dr Strands book because the first 2 wks of his releasing fat program involves living entirely on Usana meal replacement formula and nutrition bars as well as their supplement program. All of which is unbelievably and prohibitively expensive, quite frankly i'd rather spend my money on fruit and veges which react synergistically in the body, all the chemicals, mineral and elements working together to provide greater benefits than one thing alone. Unfortunately, man will take one element, eg vit c or bromelain (found naturally in pineapple) throw it into a pill and sell it for 200x more than its worth. I have a very low opinion of supplements. One day i might change my mind but i doubt it. Herbs in pill form are another thing entirely though, i quite like them.
If i were to eat a low glycaemic index food then my blood sugar levels wouldn't go up as much, my body wouldn't react so strongly and the insulin and glucagon levels in my system would be evenly balanced.
I knew parts of this stuff before, like that carbs turn into sugar in your body, i was just operating under the old school thinking that all carbs are equal and that wheat is good. Actually wheat is good, but most of the bread people eat has been stripped of all nutrients to create a lightweight feel good substitute for the real thing.
In the glycaemic index anything under 30 is good, 40-60 is moderate and over that is bad. Raw fruits and vegetables, nuts, greens are all good. Fat and fibre are good because they slow digestion of food in the gut so the blood sugar isn't spiked. Meat and dairy products don't spike the blood as much, but they come with their own set of pros and cons. Lentils and beans are ok. Junk food, potatoes, white rice, white bread, pasta, chocolate and sugar all spike the blood. Those are the ones i have to watch out for.
In the end i was disappointed with Dr Strands book because the first 2 wks of his releasing fat program involves living entirely on Usana meal replacement formula and nutrition bars as well as their supplement program. All of which is unbelievably and prohibitively expensive, quite frankly i'd rather spend my money on fruit and veges which react synergistically in the body, all the chemicals, mineral and elements working together to provide greater benefits than one thing alone. Unfortunately, man will take one element, eg vit c or bromelain (found naturally in pineapple) throw it into a pill and sell it for 200x more than its worth. I have a very low opinion of supplements. One day i might change my mind but i doubt it. Herbs in pill form are another thing entirely though, i quite like them.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Avatar 3D
I really really liked this movie. Its been a while since i found a really memorable movie. The brilliant colours reminded me of "What dreams may come," the amazing graphics, the strong saving nature theme. The wounded warrior, the strong willed scientist, the stubborn economist, the bad ass girl pilot & the chiefs daughter all stuck in my mind long after the movie had finished.
It was simply awesome.
It was simply awesome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)