Renee Robinson's Blog, page 25
June 26, 2013
Smashwords — The Color of The Wind — A book by Renee Robinson
See on Scoop.it – Shadows & Flames Book Net phoenixwriter.spruz.com
In Renee Robinson’s poetry collection, The Color of The Wind,the author battles colon cancer.
Death can be a celestial transition into a new realm.
Renee Robinson‘s insight:
I am dying. I am in the final stages of metastatic colon cancer. I have just finished my 26th round of chemotherapy. At this point, chemo will most likely not save my life, but prolong it.
Have you ever wondered what you would do with your life if you knew when it was about to end? It is a unique place to be in and it really isn’t that bad.
Like everyone else, I do not want to die. In fact, the next "I want" on my To-Do List, is to meet and enjoy my grandchildren. However, in all likelihood, this will not transpire.
For years, I have quietly planned how I would hold my grandchildren and tell stories about their daddy as a child.
Obviously it is not my time to be a grandmother, instead it is my time to write. It is my time to write the memories of my heart that my grandchildren may enjoy and pass on. It is my time to face death and allow my thoughts and emotions to pour out that I may help the next person who is about to turn the last page.
Life is ever-changing. It is what we make of it. Though I have no control of when my life will end, I can paint my words out on a canvas. I can show my love for my family with each stroke. Life is temporary. Memories, like words, live on.
See on www.smashwords.com
Filed under: My Poetry
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Filed under: My Poetry
June 25, 2013
Spiritual Bondage
Bound
Gagged!
I can’t breathe!
HELP!
SCREAMING IN MY MIND
I am innocent
I committed NO CRIME!
I collapsed on the floor
Tired, hungry
How long I have been here
I am not sure
I begin to pray
Pray like I never have before
Dear Lord, I am in dismay
What am I to do?
Please take me away
Take me home, let me be renewed
Take me out of this shell
A spiritual cleansing
Restoring my soul
Escaping this hell
Here I am imprisoned
Caged like a bird
My wings have no span
My song goes unheard
I have so much to offer
So much to give
If only you will save me
Allow me to live
To my surprise
God answered me
He said I have the power
To set myself free
I will drink of His cup
An offering of love
A representation
Of His blood
I will partake
Including some bread
Spiritual bone
I will be fed
Giving my life
Over to Him
The Master of all
Including all men
Spiritual bondage
Slowly it steals
The death of a soul
Taking what’s real
The soul is what
Makes us worthy
Worthy to live
And worthy of life
Living is a gift
The Master did give
But life is the gift
We give unto Him
Dedicated to God
Washed of all sin
Renee Robinson
Filed under: Art, by Renee Robinson,
Museum Mystery Mummy
ANOMALIES, HAUNTINGS & GHOSTS, ODDITIES, PARANORMAL, UNSOLVED MYSTERY
The mystery of the Manchester museum moving mummy statuette
by idoubtit • June 23, 2013 • 23 Comments
Fascinating! Intriguing. Can’t wait to hear more on this. Video: The curse of the spinning statue at Manchester Museum – Manchester Evening News.
An ancient Egyptian statue has spooked museum bosses – after it mysteriously started to spin round in a display case. The 10-inch tall relic, which dates back to 1800 BC, was found in a mummy’s tomb and has been at the Manchester Museum for 80 years. But in recent weeks, curators have been left scratching their heads after they kept finding it facing the wrong way. Experts decidedto monitor the room on time-lapse video and were astonished to see it clearly show the statuette spinning 180 degrees – with nobody going near it. Scientists who explored the Egyptian tombs in the 1920s were popularly believed to be struck by a ‘curse of the Pharaohs’ – and Campbell Price, a curator at the museum on Oxford Road, said he believes there may be a spiritual explanation to the spinning statue. “In Ancient Egypt they believed that if the mummy is destroyed then the statuette can act as an alternative vessel for the spirit. Maybe that is what is causing the movement.” Other experts have a more rational explanation – suggesting that the vibrations caused by the footsteps of passing visitors makes the statuette turn. Considering the statue only seems to rotate during the day when people are walking near it, the latter explanation seems to be the more logical one. I do like the part in the article where they say they would like the mystery solved. Glad they are taking that stance instead of of hyping the mystery. Some testing is in order. It could be that imperfections in the statue or the surface it is on is created an imbalance. When people walk by and make small vibrations, the rocking (from inequilibrium back to equilibrium)creates motion in a circle due to inertia. Since the statue appears to sit on suspended glass, perhaps a very small imperfection in the object has caused this. If it was sitting on a less smooth platform, the movement would not happen. Have a look at the time lapse. If that’s all it does, that’s some lame curse. But very cool phenomenon regardless.
Filed under: Art, dark poetry and stories, Death, Nae's Nest, News Article, photography, Renee Robinson, Spirituality/Reigion, Surrealism Tagged: Egyptian, haunting, Mancheter Museum, museum haunting, mystery mummy, supernatural
Joan of Arc
Although accusations of witchcraft seem to have been most commonly made against older women who lived on the margins of society and who may have become socially troublesome, there is also evidence that women who were too powerful could become targets as well. Joan of Arc is one famous example of a woman who achieved a great deal but was then burned as a witch for her trouble.
Joan of Arc, who has become the patron saint of France, was a peasant girl who experienced mystical visions of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret during the Hundred Years War which convinced her that she was destined by God to lead the French to victory over the English invaders.
In 1429 she convinced the dauphin Charles VII to let her demonstrate that she had the ability to match her ambitions and she led French forces to liberate the city of Orleans from an English siege. She was eventually taken prisoner by the Burgundians, allies of England, and turned over to the English who burned her at the stake as a witch on the argument that herclaims of direct communication with God were heretical and an act of disobedience to the Church.
Not until June 16, 1456, did Pope Callistus III declare Joan of Arc to be innocent on the charges of heresy and witchcraft. It can be difficult for powerful institutions to admit error of any sort, but especially when the errors involve grave injustices that cause the suffering and death of innocent people. Everyone likes to think of themselves are pure of heart and doing good work, even when they are hurting others. Sometimes the need to justify one’s actions leads one to justifications of brutality, cruelty, and violence in general — and thus a betrayal of whatever moral principles they thought they held to begin with.
Burning and hanging were the most popular forms of execution for accused witches in medieval Europe. Burning seems to have been most common in continental Europe while hanging was more common in Britain — and thus also in the American colonies later as well. The death penalty was imposed on a wide variety of crimes in this era, but witchcraft in particular was punished by death on the basis of Exodus 22:18: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” and Leviticus 20:27: “A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones.”
The heretics who were the earlier targets of the Inquisition were almost never executed at first. They typically had a chance to repent and submit to the Church; only after relapsing intoheresy did they generally become subject to execution. Even then, they might still be given another chance to repent. Witches received almost the exact opposite treatment: execution was typically applied after the first accusation and only rarely were accused witches allowed to go free after repenting.
This helps demonstrate the level of threat which the Church made out ofwitches and witchcraft. Witches couldn’t be allowed to live no matter what — not even if they were willing to admit all that they were accused of and fully repent. Their evil was too much of an existential threat to Christian society and they had to be completely excised, not unlike cancer which has to be cut out lest it kill the entire body. There was simply no tolerance or patience for the witches — they had to be eliminated, whatever the cost.
Some have claimed that as many as nine million women were executed as witches, even though few could possibly have been truly guilty of witchcraft, and that because this represented a deliberate attempt to kill women generally it should be dubbed a “Women’s Holocaust.” More recent research demonstrates that many accused witches were men, not just women, and that number of those executed is far lower. Estimates today range from 60,000 to 40,000. Even if we are especially pessimistic, we probably can’t go higher than 100,000 people killed across all Europe and over an extended period of time. That’s obviously very bad, but not quite a “Holocaust.”
As most Americans know, witch hunts also affected the American colonies. The Salem witch trials pursued the Massachusetts Puritans have entered American consciousness as being much more then just the killing of witches. They, like the trials of Europe, have become a symbol. In our case, the witch trials have become a symbol of what can go wrong when mobs of ignorant people go crazy, especially when egged on by just as ignorant and/or power hungry leaders.
The Salem story began in 1692 when a few girls, who had become friendly with a slave woman named Tituba, began acting very strangely — hysterical screaming, falling into convulsions, barking like dogs, etc. Soon other girls began acting in a similar manner and of course they all must have been possessed by demons. Three woman, including Tituba, were promptly accused of witchcraft. The result was much like the European experience, with a chain-reaction of confessions, denouncements, and more arrests.
In an effort to help combat the witch menace, courts relaxed traditional rules of evidence andprocedure – after all, witches are a terrible menace and must be stopped. In place of the normal rules and methods, the courts used what was common among Inquisitors in Europe — scouring the womens’ bodies for marks, numb spots, etc. Also accepted were “spectral sources” of evidence — if someone had a vision of a woman being a witch, that was good enough for the judges.
The people who were mostly killed were not those who submitted quickly and obediently to authorities. Only those who were defiant or hostile were put to death. If you admitted being a witch and repented, you had a very good chance of living. If you denied being a witch and insisted that you had rights which must be acknowledged, you were on a quick path to execution. Your chances were also bad if you were a woman — especially if you were an older, deviant, troublesome or somehow disorderly woman.
In the end, nineteen people were executed, two died in prison and one man was pressed to death under rocks. This is a better record than what we see in Europe, but that isn’t saying very much. The religious and political authorities clearly used the witch trials to impose their own ideas of order and righteousness upon the local populace. As in Europe, violence was a tool used by religion and religious people to enforce uniformity and conformity in the face of dissent and social disorder.
Jews and heretics were often treated as scapegoats for other social problems and witchesended up no different. Regions with the most social and political unrest also happened to be those with the greatest problem with witches. Every social, political, and natural problem was blamed on witches. Crop failure? Witches did it. Well gone bad? Witches poisoned it. Political unrest and rebellion? Witches are behind it. Strife in the community? Witches are influencing people.
Lest anyone imagine that the persecution of witches has been relegated to the distant past, it must be noted that witch hunts — and killings – continue well into our own “enlightened” times. The church’s creation of witchcraft and devil worship has exacted a heavy and bloody toll on humanity which still has not yet been fully paid.
In 1928, a Hungarian family was acquitted of killing an old woman they thought was a witch. In 1976, a poor German woman was suspected of being a witch and keeping familiars, so people in the small town ostracized her, pelted her with stones, and killed her animals. In 1977 in France, a man was killed for suspected sorcery. In 1981, a mob stoned a woman to death in Mexico because they believed that her witchcraft incited an attack on the Pope.
In Africa today, fears of witchcraft cause the persecution and death of people on a regular basis. Parents who fear that their children are possessed or are witches either kill them or turn them out into the streets. Government authorities have tried to put a stop to such nonsense, but they haven’t had much luck. Both traditional African religion and Christianity contain enough to feed people’s superstitious fears and this leads to others being harmed.
It’s not just allegations of witchcraft which causes people to behave like this. Many other things can become the object of hysterical persecutions and prosecutions. Sometimes the alleged threats are genuine and sometimes they are not; in either case, the threats are magnified to such a degree that people no longer feel bound by traditional standards of justice or morality in order to confront their enemies. The consequences are almost always violence and suffering pursued in the name of good and God.
Author unknown,source: http://atheism.about.com/ Flame
Filed under: Art, Death, Nae's Nest, News Article, Renee Robinson, Short Stories, Spirituality/Reigion, Surrealism Tagged: burned at the stake, Joan of Arc, Salem Witch Trials, scapegoat, witch hunt, witchcraft
Emotional Gate
What is your Emotional Starting Gate
By Vedam Clementi ttp://www.facebook.com/vedam.clementi We are all products of our conditionings. Until you begin to live a life that is based upon Universal Awareness, you could even say that you are a puppet on a string, and your conditionings are the puppet master. Your conditionings have built your belief systems, and your conditionings have led you to your ‘Emotional Starting Gate.’ Your conditionings act as a filter through which you view life, perceive life, judge life, and how you react to life. Your conditionings, your belief systems, and your emotional starting gate pull your strings, setting the stage to react a certain way; therefore, robbing you of the gift of free will, and your opportunity to respond to life. Now, just for a moment, be truly honest with yourself. Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Are you a cynic, a doubter; do you automatically go to the place that defends your limitations, or explains why this or that will not or cannot work? Do you trust people, the process, and the journey? Do you trust yourself? When I have asked my life coaching clients these questions, most of them say they are optimists, and they do trust the process and the journey; however, the deeper we go, we uncover an emotional starting gate that is based upon doom and gloom. It may not be in every area of their lives. Sometimes it is only in certain areas of their lives, and other times, we uncover a prophet of doom, a real doubting Thomas. So, who and what is this phantom behind the curtain, who is the puppet master? What exactly is your Emotional Starting Gate (ESG), and how does it affect your life? We are no different from Pavlov’s dogs. We have been conditioned to be a certain way; we have been conditioned to perceive, react and respond to life. Each of us has been conditioned to have a particular starting point, or place that the mind goes to first that begins to set the stage for how your react or respond. Everyone has multiple ESG’s; you have at least ten, and often, more than that depending upon your mood or outlook at any given day. You have an ESG relating to your family, your work, your money, your sex life, and being intimate. You have an ESG regarding your leisure and play time, your mental and physical abilities and capabilities, and your spiritual connection and life. You have an ESG relating to trusting yourself and others, and you have an ESG regarding all the other different facets of life: Is your ESG telling you that life is easy or difficult? Does it tell you that you have to work hard to achieve your goals? Are you automatically cautious? Is there a force that is guiding you, or testing you? Is there a force that is judging you and your actions? Are you fearful, and if so, in what areas of your life are you experiencing fear? Your ESG is the set point that your conditioned, thinking mind goes to automatically when an event happens in your life. Right, wrong or indifferent, your mind goes there first. Your ESG sets the stage; it is the puppet master! This is no way to live. Living a preset or predetermined life because of your ESG takes away your birthright as a free willed being; it robs you of seeing all that life has to offer. ESG also set the stage for a life of self-fulfilling prophesies. It not only dictates the future as it unfolds, it reinforces your existing belief systems. Again, this is no way to live! The key is first knowing, understanding, and accepting your ESG’s, and from there, you can begin to respond differently to life. Awareness and honesty are the keys that will begin to liberate you; they can and will open new doors and new opportunities! Until you are honest with yourself, and you choose to be different from your training, you are allowing your conditionings to write your viewpoints, outlook, perspectives, and your future. Become aware of your Emotional Starting Gate, and if it answers the call of the moment, embody it; however, if it does not support you, then begin to change it immediately. You get to choose! Vedam Clementi is a Spiritual Teacher, Life Coach, Meditation Coach, Author, and Lecturer. A full recovery from paralysis using spiritual concepts, meditation, and natural healthcare led to Vedam’s spiritual awakening and desire to share what he has learned. Vedam has taught fellow souls for over a decade to leave the past behind, plant seeds for their desired tomorrow, and to be present in each moment as they move through life. Vedam has a unique way of uniting psychological and spiritual tools that support the individual to relate to themselves, others, and life in a new way: openly, lovingly, and authentically.
Filed under: Art, inspiration, Nae's Nest, nature, photography, Renee Robinson, Spirituality/Reigion Tagged: flowers, garden art, gateway, puppet master, summer
June 24, 2013
Backyard BBQ & Burial
APPLE VALLEY, Calif. (UPI) — An Apple Valley, Calif., woman, 59, apparently buried her husband in her backyard after he died, claiming she could not afford a funeral, authorities said.
The body of the man, 63 when he died several weeks ago, was found in a shallow grave behind the couple’s home, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
“The distraught female said the man died at home and she did not have the resources to give him a proper burial,” the San Bernardino County, Calif., Sheriff’s Department said in a statement, adding there was no sign of trauma to the body.
The woman and her deceased husband were not identified.
Copyright 2013 by United Press International
Filed under: Art, Death, humor, Nae's Nest, Renee Robinson Tagged: grave humor, man buried in backyard, morels, mushroom, peckheads
Women Anxious Everywhere!
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com
Stork that flew away from zoo still on the loose
SAN DIEGO (UPI) — Zookeepers at the San Diego Zoo are searching for a rare painted stork that managed to escape earlier this week, officials said.
The 1-year-old bird flew away from the zoo’s Safari Park on Monday while it was training to fly, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Officials said the bird it full grown, but still inexperienced in flying.
Anyone who spots the bird should contact the zoo via email or phone.
Copyright 2013 by United Press International
Women everywhere anxiously await to see who is next to get a visit from the stork. -Nae
Filed under: Art, birds, humor, Nae's Nest, Renee Robinson, wildlife Tagged: babies, baby humor, escaped stork, pregnancy, stork
June 21, 2013
Article: Immune to Cancer: Naked Mole Rats Reveal Their Secret Denise Chow, LiveScience Staff WriterDate: 19 June 2013 Time: 01:01 PM ET
Apart from their hairless appearance, naked mole rats are known for several distinguishing characteristics: They have an unusually long life span for a rodent, and they seem to be protected from developing cancer. Now, researchers have pinpointed a natural substance found between the rodents’ tissues that may explain their cancer resistance.
Understanding how this substance, known as hyaluronan, protects naked mole rats from developing cancerous tumors
could lead to novel cancer-prevention techniques for humans, said study lead author Vera Gorbunova, a professor in the department of biology at the University of Rochester in New York.
In animals, hyaluronan is a component of the extracellular matrix (the noncellular part of tissue) and is known to hold cells and tissues together. The substance also acts as a signal to control the growth of certain cells, said Andrei Seluanov, an assistant professor in the department of biology at the University of Rochester, and co-author of the new study.
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CANCER PROOF
The researchers studied tissue cultures from naked mole rats and found these small, subterranean rodents produce a unique, high-molecular-mass form of hyaluronan, which they referred to as HMW-HA. When this substance was removed, Gorbunova and her colleagues found that naked mole rat cells became susceptible to tumor growth, suggesting HMW-HA plays an important role in the rodents’ resistance to cancer. [10 Amazing Things You Didn't Know About Animals]
“This is unique to this species, so it’s pretty amazing,” Seluanov told LiveScience. “We were able to focus on the anti-cancer mechanism in naked mole rats.”
Hyaluronan also keeps tissues flexible, he added, something that would be beneficial for the burrowing rodents.
“Naked mole rats need good elasticity in their skin, because they don’t have any fur,” Seluanov said. “When they move through their tunnels, it’s important that they do not rupture their skin.”
The demands of their subterranean lifestyle may explain why naked mole rats developed higher levels of hyaluronan in their skin in the first place, the researchers said.
“What excites me is that this is just one component of a whole mosaic of strange characteristics that these animals have produced due to extreme adaptations to living underground,” said Chris Faulkes, a molecular ecology researcher at the Queen Mary University of London, who was not involved with the study.
In this way, natural selection may have influenced the cell biology of naked mole rats, he added.
“This high-molecular-mass hyaluronan may have been produced to give naked mole rats highly elastic skin so they don’t get stuck in burrows, and it’s almost a side consequence that it seems to be useful in preventing cancer as well,” Faulkes told LiveScience.
Clinical applications
Whereas humans also produce hyaluronan naturally, it is in much smaller quantities, and the physical properties are different, according to the researchers. Still, determining the anti-cancer mechanism in naked mole rats could have far-reaching clinical applications for humans.
“By looking at this completely weird and unusual organism, we can find some novel mechanisms that apply across mammals,” Faulkes said. “Understanding some of these amazing things could have broad applicability for human health.”
Because of its elastic properties, hyaluronan injections are already used in clinical settings, most notably in dermatology and as a pain reliever for people with arthritis in knee joints, Seluanov explained. So far, no significant side effects have been reported, the researchers said.
In the future, the researchers plan to investigate whether HMW-HA can effectively protect human cells from cancer.
“We are very optimistic that the anticancer mechanism we found in the naked mole rat can be translated to humans,” Gorbunova said.
The detailed results of the study were published online today (June 19) in the journal Nature.
Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow . Follow LiveScience @livescience , Facebook & Google+ . Original article on LiveScience.com.
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