Gratitude Sunday

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My heart is so full today. I cannot begin to express what this day means for me. So much of Tyler’s life is a struggle… for him as well as for his mama. To see this young man I grew from my own body coming into his own… to have members of my beloved community come to me and tell me they were honored to have been on the review panel when he had his interview…

Those of you on my Facebook know I’m reading Gregory Boyle’s book, Tattoos on the Heart. With as many excerpts as I’ve copied from my kindle, I don’t know how you could miss that tidbit. So in keeping with that theme, here’s another gem.

“When you fill my heart, my eyes overflow.” ~ An Algerian Trappist

Boyle, Gregory (2010). Tattoos on the Heart (Kindle Locations 377-378). Free Press. Kindle Edition.

http://www.facebook.com/v/2079595270848

Unitarian Universalists believe that all religions should and can be accepted. A Unitarian Universalist believes in equality for all religions and every race. Unitarian Universalists often believe that religion is a search for meaning. It is more of an openness to new experiences rather than a set of beliefs. Religions help us to realize that every piece of our lives is related to the others.

Some Unitarian Universalists often think of religion as a time consumer for Sunday. Some Unitarian Universalists think of religion as a way of life, a sacred search for meaning and understanding. Some Unitarian Universalists believe in God, some don’t. Some believe that the theory of God is used to bully other religions and some think that God is a force, a feeling that flows through us and connects us to one another. To seek God would be to seek yourself and your surroundings.

Ho Mitakuye Oyasin. This means, I am related to all things and all things are related to me. I don’t believe in God I believe in love and faith. No matter what the situation is I will stand on the side of love, which means I care for the equality of all living things.

Cyndi has a PSA for (grand)Parents:

These little gems usually appear in my Facebook status, but I am blogging this one specifically so you can share it with others… I know  a couple of you have parents or other relatives who do stuff JUST LIKE THIS…

If you need to tell your adult child something important… say, that you have liver cancer and will be having surgery within the next three weeks… PLEASE don’t tell your her daddy that you tried to reach said child “several times” if you never left a voice mail.

Unlike the caller ID on your house phone, there is no “missed call” if the cell phone you are calling is off (while the grandchild who carries it because she uses public transit is in school) or in a dead zone (like the elevator at work or the depths of Super Wal-Mart) or the battery got worn down (because she took too many videos at volleyball practice, or pictures, or was using her phone as an MP3 player).

I’m just sayin’… leave a message.

Parents who are comfortable with their teenager on social networking sites | Adolescent Sexuality

Folks, I want to talk with parents – mothers or fathers – who feel basically comfortable with their teenager(s) being on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace, etc. There are lots of parents who feel pretty passionately about watching over their teenagers in one way or another – by “friending” them, keeping their passwords, and just flat-out telling them they can’t be on these sites. These are not the parents I hope to talk with. If you are aware that your teenager is on these sites (or at least one of them), and you pretty much trust your teenager and do not intervene, I’d love to talk with you.

Please e-mail me (karen.rayne@gmail.com) or leave a comment here (http://karenrayne.com/2009/11/17/parents-and-teens-and-social-networking/)…

Please feel free to post this request anywhere you feel would be appropriate.

via Parents who are comfortable with their teenager on social networking sites | Adolescent Sexuality by Dr. Karen Rayne.

a Facebook “oops”

So I woke up this morning and had a notification that a coworker had accepted my invitation to join Facebook. This was puzzling, since I don’t solicit people to join facebook if they’re not already on, unless you’re family anyway. I also seem to have a lot of email on my blackberry, for it being not quite 5AM… and strangely, some of them are out of office replies from vendors that I hadn’t emailed from work and who I’d never given my blackberry email to. Then I get an actual response from another coworker to an email I apparently generated, inviting them to view my pictures on facebook. I couldn’t have been more mortified… I mean, my kids & dogs are real cute, but most of the time that you get an email from someone you don’t really know inviting them to view your pictures… well… they’re not of cute kids & dogs.

I think my son, who has only been on facebook for a month, showed me a text he’d received from an uncle, telling Tyler he’d just signed up for facebook. I told him he could add his uncle this weekend, but Tyler was having trouble sleeping last night, and I strongly suspect he went online at some point with the intent of “friending” his uncle. The late hour may be why he didn’t realize he was in my account and not his, or that the “friend finder for smartphones” was not going to work on the kiddie lojack cell phone that he carries to & from the school bus stop… but it does would explain why he’d asked me yesterday evening what kind of phone he had/if it was a smartphone. It looks like he unintentionally sent invitations to join facebook to everyone in my blackberry, which wouldn’t be too big of a deal if I only had personal contact in my blackberry, but I sync it with outlook at work… so that request would have gone out to HUNDREDS of people. Literally. I’ve worked for US Airways for almost ten years and I probably have at least 1500 contacts in oulook.

So long story short/short story long… if you got an invitation to be my friend or view my pictures, please feel free to disregard or accept as you see fit. I only ask that either way, you never mention this little fiasco to me or anyone else for the rest of your natural life… 😉

Obama advises caution in what kids put on Facebook

and other great advice…

By JULIE PACE
Associated Press Writer
ARLINGTON, Va.

President Barack Obama went forward with a controversial speech to students nationwide Tuesday, preceding it by advising young people at a suburban Virginia school to “be careful what you post on Facebook.” “Whatever you do,” he told them, “it will be pulled up later in your life.”