Comment

Comment by joe erpenbeck on November 16, 2011 at 10:28pm

“We all know that community must be the center of our lives because it is only in community that we can be citizens. It is only in community that we can find care. It is only in community that we can hear people singing. And if you listen carefully, you can hear the words: “I care for you.”

John McKnight

 

Comment by Jacqueline Morris on November 4, 2011 at 6:57pm

You Can't Judge A Book By It's Cover 

 

Have you ever looked at a person and made the wrong judgement of that person? 

It has been said that "you can't judge a book by it's cover."  Yet often when people look at me they make a bold prejudgement.  From just one glance they think they know what I'm capable of.  If they would only look past the outward appearance they would see that there is more to me then just my disability.

Many people look at me and automatically assume that l can not speak or think for myself.  Some ask me who does my hair and makeup not considering that I am capable of doing these things. Or sometimes when I'm with another person, some will speak directly to the person I'm with instead of me.  For me, that is one of the most insulting things a person can do before finding out what I am capable of.  I know first hand what it is like to be a book judged by its cover.

A lot of the times we sit and judge people based on their appearances, without knowing their circumstances. We may judge others based on where they come from,

The colour of their skin, whether or not they have a job, what they wear or even their hair style.  Sometimes we judge a person's character. We make assumptions and prejudgement's without knowing why things happened in their life and why they turned out the way they did.  If we could actually see for ourselves how the person's circumstances came about, we wouldn't make such harsh judgements.

Sometimes people are judged based on their actions, or actions they are accused of.

Has there ever been a time when you've been judged for something you haven't done. Or have you ever been led into a wrong situation with someone else only to realize that you are going to end up taking the fall along side that person for something that should never have happened in the first place? 

When we judge a person based on their appearance, or judge a person's character or their actions, we are holding that person up to a standard that we ourselves may not be able to achieve.

I was reading the Daily Word the other day, and it was talking about this very subject.

In Matthew 7:1, Jesus gave us a command to Judge Not! We should not be judging anything or anyone before we know the truth.  Jesus says that only he can be the Judge and juror, because only he knows all things and counsels of our hearts.

So we should try not to judge others unless we want to be judged.

We all have faults and we all face struggles in life.  So when we see others with faults and struggles and make a wrong judgement, we are in no position to judge them since we have our own faults and struggles. In conclusion, Let God be the judge and the jury.

By Jacqueline Morris

Comment by Rose Marshall on March 18, 2011 at 9:50am

The Rider

Naomi Shihab Nye

A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn’t catch up to him,

the best reason I ever heard
for trying to be a champion.

What I wonder tonight
pedaling hard down King William Street
is if it translates to bicycles.

A victory! To leave your loneliness
panting behind you on some street corner
while you float free into a cloud of sudden azaleas,
pink petals that have never felt loneliness,
no matter how slowly they fell.

 

from Fuel: Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye, 1998
Boa Editions, Rochester, NY

Comment by Mary Clare Carlson on March 4, 2011 at 4:51pm

"Being concerned is seeing something awful happening to somebody and feeling 'hey that's really too bad.'  Having compassion is seeing the same thing and saying 'I just can't let that happen to that person.'  Concern comes from a recognition of the problem.  Compassion comes out of a feeling of relationship." - Jim Wallis

 

 

 

Comment by Tony Osgood on March 1, 2011 at 3:47pm

Concerning the passing of Wolf Wolfensberger

 

Source: http://ndisonline.blogspot.com/2011/03/wolf-wolfensberger-1934-2011...

 

"By all accounts, his was a life well lived,in the service of others. At one of his workshops, I think in answer to a question about critiques and praise of his work, he laughed that off by pointing to storing one's riches in heaven, not here. I have no insider information but I suspect that he has now found much treasure there."

 

 

Comment by Becki Pauls on February 28, 2011 at 11:54pm

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass... It's about learning how to dance in the rain.

- Vivian Greene

Comment by Marjorie Theresa Devine on January 26, 2011 at 11:06pm

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more waterk or less sun.  You never blame the leetuce.

Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person.  But is we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce.  Blaming  has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument.

That is my experience

No blame, no  reasoning, no argument, just understanding.

If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love and the situation will change

Thich Nhat Hanh

 

 

Comment by Tony Osgood on January 26, 2011 at 3:05pm

Philip Larkin's The Mower

 

The mower stalled, twice;

kneeling, I found

A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,

Killed. It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.

Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world

Unmendably.

 

Burial was no help:

Next morning I got up and it did not.

The first day after a death, the new absence Is always the same;

we should be careful

Of each other,

we should be kind

While there is still time.

Comment by Jack R Pealer Jr on January 26, 2011 at 2:14pm

"...sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left."

 Itzhak Perlman (on having to play a complex piece on a violin with only 3 strings)

Comment by Jacqueline Rioja Velarde on January 26, 2011 at 1:47pm

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." — Martin Luther King

Comment by Samuel Demissie Wodajie on January 26, 2011 at 11:50am

"Everything the power of the world does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its reatest greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles. The sun comes forth and comes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the season's from a geat circle in their change and always come back to where they were. The life of a person is a circle... and so is everything where power moves."

Black Elk

Comment by Michele N. Banks on January 26, 2011 at 8:43am

The Legacy of Mattie J.T. Stepanek and Heartsongs

The job of the poet
Is to leave stains of the storms
Yet echo laughter of the light
That is seen from the soul. . . .
The job of the poet
Is to . . . capture
And to spirit and to script
The pulse of life.¹

Comment by Budd Hall on January 26, 2011 at 7:27am

Imagine/Learning

Learning is about our relationships,

our communities,

our places of work,

our bio-regions,

our political structures,

our planet and our universe. 

 

It is about us. 

It is about the kind of work we do. 

But above all it is about our right to imagine.

 

To imagine a context where we are each respected for who we are;

To imagine a life of sufficiency and health;

To imagine that everyone would have support to learn throughout their lives

To imagine that all our children could live without abuse;

To imagine that violence or the fear of violence in the lives of all women and children could decline;

To imagine that race and ethnicity would be a code for creativity and contribution rather than a filter which excludes;

To imagine relationships of harmony and rhythm with the earth;

To imagine that differences in ability could be cherished for the gifts that they make possible

To imagine that learning mathematics science, the arts, language and our own bodies are aspects of the same;

To imagine that we have the courage to speak

To imagine that we have the capacity to transform our lives

 

 

 

Budd L. Hall

University of Victoria

January 20, 2006

Comment by Wendy Partridge on January 26, 2011 at 12:06am

Sara Stup "Are Your Eyes Listening?"

Wish and Climb

Wishes are the beginning of a happy ending for people with or without disabilities.  A wish often escapes or is allowed to disappear.  But successful people turn them into staircases leading to a sky with no limits.  When people decide to climb even a few steps, they can sit on a wish's tail.

Comment by Sharon Coyle on January 25, 2011 at 11:20pm

My Quote for the week is quite simple put,  "honor your name".

Our name carries us a long way, our reputation follows us, and anything we do, good or bad, comes back when people mention our name!

Comment by Jan Fitzgerald on January 25, 2011 at 11:06pm

It is not about my son's diagnosis or IQ; it is about people's attitude and the labels others impose on him.

JAF

Comment by Becki Pauls on January 25, 2011 at 10:42pm

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique.

And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.

The world will not have it.

It is not your business to determine how good it is now how valueable nor how it compares with other expressions.

It is your business to keep it your clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.

- Martha Graham, quoted by Agnes DeMille
Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham

Comment by Becki Pauls on December 8, 2010 at 12:44pm

Reports get stuck in the filing cabinet. Stories get stuck in the mind.
- Sparknow

Comment by Anne Mitchell on September 1, 2010 at 9:38am

Donald Hall entitled "Life Work":

He is talking with the artist Henry Moore about his work - Henry was
in his eighties and Hall asks him what the "secret of life" is. Henry replies:

“The secret of life is to have a task,
something you devote your entire life to,
something you bring everything to,
every minute of the day for your whole life.  
And the most important thing is

-- it must be something you cannot possibly do."

Comment by Thomas Bortscheller on September 1, 2010 at 8:33am

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

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