Found this post somewhere in my past…

There is so much selfishness in life. Exaggerated selfishness can be destructive sometimes. It can kill many other feelings. Joining forces – gathering minds, or really the attitude of holding hands – in its purest purpose — can be placed under doubt. People don’t trust one another anymore therefore they don’t think quite possible caring for someone else in its most truthful way.

The lack of selfishness would be the acceptance for being altruistic.

I agree that there is a big difference between choosing to be altruistic and feeling altruistic. It is my hope that others will feel altruistic as a result of their own understanding of themselves. Even though I am aware of the altruistic feeling, I don’t so much choose to be altruistic, but instead I acknowledge and understand the feeling for both what it is and its possible effects.

If one just ‘tolerates’ people’s differences, then is he/she not just remaining ignorant? In fact, it isn’t even that important that we know any of our similarities or differences, but instead that we have a mindset of openeness when it comes to experiencing and becoming aware of them – and therefore wouldn’t we be aware of each other’s feelings?

Yes, one of the SOLUTIONS is elimination the fear of the unknown. In fact, this is directly related to how we deal with differences and selfishness. Each difference has its own degree of fear. Each fear has its own POWER to block the will to dive into the unknown!

That is why is needed to take some time to get into self-awareness which isn’t only the understanding of oneself, but also the understanding of others, and of the environment which IDEAS can be found. There is a deepness to existence. It seems obvious to me that the understanding of ourselves is an effect of society. You can increase your awareness, but still remain in this effect. There is much more to explore. Understanding is a feeling, and words are just words, although they tell about feelings.

One should try harder to hold hands!
That one is in fact ME.

There are two special moments in life. The times when you are thinking about it, and every second in between. I see awareness in any of those times as I am always thinking about my existence. Now it’s time to steer the ship based on the feelings and understandings generated by my thoughts…

Found this post somewhere in my past…

There is so much selfishness in life. Exaggerated selfishness can be destructive sometimes. It can kill many other feelings. Joining forces – gathering minds, or really the attitude of holding hands – in its purest purpose — can be placed under doubt. People don’t trust one another anymore therefore they don’t think quite possible caring for someone else in its most truthful way.

The lack of selfishness would be the acceptance for being altruistic.

I agree that there is a big difference between choosing to be altruistic and feeling altruistic. It is my hope that others will feel altruistic as a result of their own understanding of themselves. Even though I am aware of the altruistic feeling, I don’t so much choose to be altruistic, but instead I acknowledge and understand the feeling for both what it is and its possible effects.

If one just ‘tolerates’ people’s differences, then is he/she not just remaining ignorant? In fact, it isn’t even that important that we know any of our similarities or differences, but instead that we have a mindset of openeness when it comes to experiencing and becoming aware of them – and therefore wouldn’t we be aware of each other’s feelings?

Yes, one of the SOLUTIONS is elimination the fear of the unknown. In fact, this is directly related to how we deal with differences and selfishness. Each difference has its own degree of fear. Each fear has its own POWER to block the will to dive into the unknown!

That is why is needed to take some time to get into self-awareness which isn’t only the understanding of oneself, but also the understanding of others, and of the environment which IDEAS can be found. There is a deepness to existence. It seems obvious to me that the understanding of ourselves is an effect of society. You can increase your awareness, but still remain in this effect. There is much more to explore. Understanding is a feeling, and words are just words, although they tell about feelings.

One should try harder to hold hands!
That one is in fact ME.

There are two special moments in life. The times when you are thinking about it, and every second in between. I see awareness in any of those times as I am always thinking about my existence. Now it’s time to steer the ship based on the feelings and understandings generated by my thoughts…

My kids are simply awesome:

My kids are simply awesome:

Blabbing…

1. I’ve been working so hard that I literally thought that tomorrow would be Saturday. I’ve been also reading a nice book written by a teenage Brazilian writer. Her name’s Mayra Dias Gomes and the book, Fugalaça. She’s now 19 years old but when she finished up this book she was only 16. It is amazing the way she was able to connect words and make up one-of-a-kind metaphors. It made me reconsider my own way of writing my literary projects. How come a 31-year-old teacher is not getting there the same way? Am I that sad as a writer? That is a dangerous query. I lack vocabulary in my own language. This is something I cannot hide. I don’t read much in Portuguese. That is my major problem. Without reading Brazilian or Portuguese authors, it is quite hard to nail a written project in that language.

2. In the deepest sense, you’ve got nothing special to read about me for now. Well… That is what there’s to read…: I’ve got new things to say in matters of material gains. Right here, in the back of my mind, there is this image of myself being a young boy getting his first bike for Christmas. I am truly facing an ear-to-ear smile for having gotten the best x-mas gift ever. That is the feeling I have been having when I notice my very first laptop – all for myself – heating up underneath my hands. It does not get as hot as Roberto’s new HP Pavillion, though. My ACER ASPIRE is just perfect for my needs. I got it not for Christmas. It was more like a Valentine’s present – Valentine’s Day is celebrated on June 12th, in Brazil. It was a way to seal my commitment on finishing up my both books – the poetry and fiction ones.

At the moment I’ve got, materialistic speaking, what it takes to end my projects. Now, I only need to find time for those activities – Eaaaaasy… LOL Ha!

3. I’ve seen ‘Hard Candy’. I guess it was pretty proper to have watched that movie since I’ve been reading a 16-year-old author book lately. I mentioned it in the first paragraph above. Teens have made my main topics for discussions among adults. I teach teens. I am not so sure if I have ever passed over this stage in my life yet. Roberto was saying, just yesterday, that we cannot have kids for a while since we do love purchasing teenage things, since we play computer games, log on sites for hours on weekends, since we blog (well, just me…), since we care for consuming and trying out new things. We do appreciate experimenting what the market is able to bring us. It is true that we do not roll in money, therefore we cannot afford EVERYTHING that is out there… However, we place our comfort and entertainment needs in first place. We’d rather keep being able to get all those things than having babies. To have children costs a lot. They demand time and they last too long. Ha! Ha!

Roberto and I are in our early thirties. We do feel and behave like teenagers. And I am pretty sure that many of you do too.

4. This year, we’ve accomplished something that I am way proud of. Our yard/garden looks a lot better now. Honestly, I’ve never mentioned any of these things in here before, but our front yard plants were dying and don’t let me get started on the interior conditions of the house (this house we live in is over 60 years old). Our both bathrooms and roof needed some renovations… We got all these things done this fall. Our both ‘johns’ look awesome. Our roof top resembles something better. Our garden has gone through some severly changes too. No more lawn. We have replaced the lawn by small rocks. We have also planted exotic bushes and ‘possible trees’.

Actually, it was a gardening company that helped us on that matter. Regardless, our front yard is 10,000 times more appealing. We’ve placed a bench on it too… Man! It is just like heaven. The funny thing is that it wasn’t “Robert Smith” the responsible for all those changes… Ha! Ha! Ha!

Blabbing…

1. I’ve been working so hard that I literally thought that tomorrow would be Saturday. I’ve been also reading a nice book written by a teenage Brazilian writer. Her name’s Mayra Dias Gomes and the book, Fugalaça. She’s now 19 years old but when she finished up this book she was only 16. It is amazing the way she was able to connect words and make up one-of-a-kind metaphors. It made me reconsider my own way of writing my literary projects. How come a 31-year-old teacher is not getting there the same way? Am I that sad as a writer? That is a dangerous query. I lack vocabulary in my own language. This is something I cannot hide. I don’t read much in Portuguese. That is my major problem. Without reading Brazilian or Portuguese authors, it is quite hard to nail a written project in that language.

2. In the deepest sense, you’ve got nothing special to read about me for now. Well… That is what there’s to read…: I’ve got new things to say in matters of material gains. Right here, in the back of my mind, there is this image of myself being a young boy getting his first bike for Christmas. I am truly facing an ear-to-ear smile for having gotten the best x-mas gift ever. That is the feeling I have been having when I notice my very first laptop – all for myself – heating up underneath my hands. It does not get as hot as Roberto’s new HP Pavillion, though. My ACER ASPIRE is just perfect for my needs. I got it not for Christmas. It was more like a Valentine’s present – Valentine’s Day is celebrated on June 12th, in Brazil. It was a way to seal my commitment on finishing up my both books – the poetry and fiction ones.

At the moment I’ve got, materialistic speaking, what it takes to end my projects. Now, I only need to find time for those activities – Eaaaaasy… LOL Ha!

3. I’ve seen ‘Hard Candy’. I guess it was pretty proper to have watched that movie since I’ve been reading a 16-year-old author book lately. I mentioned it in the first paragraph above. Teens have made my main topics for discussions among adults. I teach teens. I am not so sure if I have ever passed over this stage in my life yet. Roberto was saying, just yesterday, that we cannot have kids for a while since we do love purchasing teenage things, since we play computer games, log on sites for hours on weekends, since we blog (well, just me…), since we care for consuming and trying out new things. We do appreciate experimenting what the market is able to bring us. It is true that we do not roll in money, therefore we cannot afford EVERYTHING that is out there… However, we place our comfort and entertainment needs in first place. We’d rather keep being able to get all those things than having babies. To have children costs a lot. They demand time and they last too long. Ha! Ha!

Roberto and I are in our early thirties. We do feel and behave like teenagers. And I am pretty sure that many of you do too.

4. This year, we’ve accomplished something that I am way proud of. Our yard/garden looks a lot better now. Honestly, I’ve never mentioned any of these things in here before, but our front yard plants were dying and don’t let me get started on the interior conditions of the house (this house we live in is over 60 years old). Our both bathrooms and roof needed some renovations… We got all these things done this fall. Our both ‘johns’ look awesome. Our roof top resembles something better. Our garden has gone through some severly changes too. No more lawn. We have replaced the lawn by small rocks. We have also planted exotic bushes and ‘possible trees’.

Actually, it was a gardening company that helped us on that matter. Regardless, our front yard is 10,000 times more appealing. We’ve placed a bench on it too… Man! It is just like heaven. The funny thing is that it wasn’t “Robert Smith” the responsible for all those changes… Ha! Ha! Ha!

ASAP – Awesome School Annoying Projects

I love school environment. I am so glad I own, live, and teach in one. Very often, I catch myself searching YouTube videos on school projects. I’ve foung this one. Man, it’s lovely. It’s annoying, but nicely done. I keep watching it over and over till my eyes sting and bleed. Oh dear God! I admire these young individuals in a very strange way. How terrifying High School kids are to me! Their mood swings scare me like hell. Besides, they talk as if they have lived for decades. Their self-confidence is very inspiring though. No one can explain why I am so attracted by teen crime literature and school video projects… Maybe because I think I am a teenager trapped in an adult’s body… Or maybe because I’m actually interested in myself… Who knows?

THAT’S AN AWESOME VIDEO, CHEESY, BUT AWESOME!!!

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The Mysterious Corpus Christi

I normally have time to write new posts here only when there is holiday. Yesterday, June 7th, was an example. We celebrated Corpus Christi. Nobody worked or went to school because of it. The funny thing to me about this holiday is that I may be Christian, but I am not really catholic, so why should I have celebrated it? I say again: “I may be Christian” but I don’t see why I (me, Laila) have got to celebrate it.

I was taught Christianism principles at school and home, and, I live in a catholic country – at least that is what encyclopedias say about Brazil. I personally think that most people down here have protestant beliefs rather than catholic, anyway. Fewer and fewer Brazilian families attend masses and to make it worse, I developed a public survey myself last week regarding Corpus Christi day and nobody knew how to answer a tiny little query. The question was very simple: “What do we celebrate on Corpus Christi?”. Most answered: “I don’t know!” or “We celebrate the “body of Christ”. What? What’s that? Whose body? Just kidding.

Since not many could explain to me what the holiday is about, I had to research on it myself. And here it is what I’ve found: Corpus Christi is the celebration of the Holy Sacrament or Eucharist. “Most Christians classify the Eucharist as a sacrament. Some Protestants view it as an ordinance in which the ceremony is seen not as a specific channel of divine grace but as an expression of faith and of obedience to Christ.”*** From the earliest times, the followers of Jesus had a sense of His continuing presence with them as they gave thanks, broke bread, and shared it, together with a cup of wine – the Sacrament.

Besides that, Corpus Christi is a celebration of theology; how Catholics understand what Christians believe. The Feast of Corpus Christi began in the late Middle Ages not only as a service of special recognition and thanks for the gift of Jesus’s Presence with humanity in the “Sacrament of the Altar”, but as a service which emphasized a particular way of understanding the nature of that Presence, an understanding then later called “trans-substantiation.”

This theory provides one particular explanation of how Jesus is present in the sacrament — the being or “substance” of the physical bread and wine is actually changed, overtaken by the spiritual presence, so that what looks to us like bread — the same as before the prayer of consecration — is now in actuality the flesh of Jesus. It appears to us as bread, but that’s an illusion — what seems to us as bread is Really flesh. Of course, according to this theological theory.

Understanding or not this religious holiday is a matter of choice. What I will never understand is why people who aren’t catholic, like me, have to celebrate something that we barely understand what it is. And the worst, why don’t catholics in this country understand it either? And one more thought: Brazilian culture covers more religions, then why don’t we celebrate Native or African-Brazilian beliefs as well? How come we don’t?

***Wikipedia

The Mysterious Corpus Christi

I normally have time to write new posts here only when there is holiday. Yesterday, June 7th, was an example. We celebrated Corpus Christi. Nobody worked or went to school because of it. The funny thing to me about this holiday is that I may be Christian, but I am not really catholic, so why should I have celebrated it? I say again: “I may be Christian” but I don’t see why I (me, Laila) have got to celebrate it.

I was taught Christianism principles at school and home, and, I live in a catholic country – at least that is what encyclopedias say about Brazil. I personally think that most people down here have protestant beliefs rather than catholic, anyway. Fewer and fewer Brazilian families attend masses and to make it worse, I developed a public survey myself last week regarding Corpus Christi day and nobody knew how to answer a tiny little query. The question was very simple: “What do we celebrate on Corpus Christi?”. Most answered: “I don’t know!” or “We celebrate the “body of Christ”. What? What’s that? Whose body? Just kidding.

Since not many could explain to me what the holiday is about, I had to research on it myself. And here it is what I’ve found: Corpus Christi is the celebration of the Holy Sacrament or Eucharist. “Most Christians classify the Eucharist as a sacrament. Some Protestants view it as an ordinance in which the ceremony is seen not as a specific channel of divine grace but as an expression of faith and of obedience to Christ.”*** From the earliest times, the followers of Jesus had a sense of His continuing presence with them as they gave thanks, broke bread, and shared it, together with a cup of wine – the Sacrament.

Besides that, Corpus Christi is a celebration of theology; how Catholics understand what Christians believe. The Feast of Corpus Christi began in the late Middle Ages not only as a service of special recognition and thanks for the gift of Jesus’s Presence with humanity in the “Sacrament of the Altar”, but as a service which emphasized a particular way of understanding the nature of that Presence, an understanding then later called “trans-substantiation.”

This theory provides one particular explanation of how Jesus is present in the sacrament — the being or “substance” of the physical bread and wine is actually changed, overtaken by the spiritual presence, so that what looks to us like bread — the same as before the prayer of consecration — is now in actuality the flesh of Jesus. It appears to us as bread, but that’s an illusion — what seems to us as bread is Really flesh. Of course, according to this theological theory.

Understanding or not this religious holiday is a matter of choice. What I will never understand is why people who aren’t catholic, like me, have to celebrate something that we barely understand what it is. And the worst, why don’t catholics in this country understand it either? And one more thought: Brazilian culture covers more religions, then why don’t we celebrate Native or African-Brazilian beliefs as well? How come we don’t?

***Wikipedia