Life is an opportunity,
benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
— Mother Theresa
(1910-1997)
WHAT IF?
(Blueprint to Peace)
"Peace, Fulfillment, Selfworth" - wonder of wonders if there were a blueprint to these three. If we could find the common denominator, the single thread that weaves through each pattern of life, through each animate, as well as inanimate existence.
What If: One morning we woke to the knowledge that each individual is a part of the earth. We all breathe the same air, live under the same sky that covers the earth, have the same bodily functions, depend on the same main ingredients of life, though varied they be.
What If: One morning we woke to the knowledge that each beast, each insect, each blade of grass, is part of this earth we inhabit.
What If: One morning we woke to the knowledge that the earth along with the planets and the sun in our galaxy share the same star-studded space, the same universe.
What If: One morning we woke to the knowledge that the words "alien" and "specie" were no longer part of language, that each being, each creature, each grain of sand, each puff of smoke, each element, each molecule, each minutest amount of gaseous matter, each galaxy, be it flat, a platform, spiral or concentric, round like the planets, or a cubicle, with finite borders, or infinite, without end, was all a part of the universe, all sharing the same common denominator, the same thread of existence. Would race bias stand a chance? Would war have meaning, if we declared war on ourselves?
The common denominator, the thread that weaves through each pattern of existence, whether animate or inanimate. Belonging - All belongs - is a part - is joined - is the same - the universal truth - we cannot harm another without harming ourselves.
What If: We woke to the realization that all desires, all needs, all intellect, palls before this simple truth — that we are all one.
What If: we woke one morning to the knowledge that Peace was at last ours, that war, mayhem and murder were obsolete, that all creation now knew its true purpose, to care for itself - all of itself, that each of us holds the Blueprint to Peace in our hearts, that the solution to universal harmony resides in these simple two words — What If?
For every word there is a counter-word, but what if every argument that could be posed against this simple truth were self-extinguished, with the words: Peace on Earth and Good Will.
Copyright
by Paula Freda
Editor's Note:
For anyone unable to attend THE SUNDAY MASS (aged, infirm, or simply sick that day), the Mass can be seen on several regular broadcast channels and on certain cable networks around the country. It can be heard on the radio in the USA, and also in Nome, Alaska and eastern Russia. Many people of other denominations as well tune in each week. No one need be left out. For more information, click on the above link.
You can also view the Sunday Mass on the Internet. Three of the sites are: (New Link Changes)
"Even the most hardened sinner, if he recites this chaplet even once, will receive grace from My infinite Mercy."
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
A Promise is a Promise by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer with Marcelene Dyer Published by Hay House (available thru Alibris Bookstore and Amazon.com)
This true, upbeat, inspiring biography is filled with courage, love and miracles. Barely 90 pages, it is an inspirational journey well worth taking. I highly recommend this book along with the author's personal website The Edwarda O'Bara Story.
Oscar The Seriously Brave Kid with Big Ears
By Samantha Landon
Oscar, the Seriously Brave Kid with Big Ears is a children's graphic novel. Oscar, a large eared 4th grader, goes on an extraordinary adventure as he befriends a ghost along with other night-time creatures and battles to fight off evil. All the while discovering his own bravery and true friendship.
Sleds are for snow, trains are for tracks, and birds fly. The Pink Chameleon deals with emotions, with the stuff that life is made of. From the alluringly unexplainable to the boringly logical, from the frightening unknown to the refreshing deducible, the Pink Chameleon understands...the thief, the saint, the angel, the demon. Like Campbell's "Hero With A Thousand Faces," the Pink Chameleon rides the wind, the wave, and the snowflake. He bends in the path of the storm, safe in the depths of the sea while above the tempest rages; accepts the inevitable, reaches for the stars, the future, the past, the present...the soul of mankind.
Beware of what lies within these pages. The Pink Chameleon will make you laugh and cry, stir your emotions, and worse, make you think. If you are willing to chance it, then sit back, kick off your shoes, put your feet up, and allow the Pink Chameleon to carry you to places where only the heart may go.
Albert J. Manachino is a well-known writer of the witty, whimsical and unpredictable, and thoroughly entertaining, among the small presses for the past 50 years and recently, the Internet. Here are the twelve consecutive stories about Willie Button, a small-time thief, who unintentionally burglarizes the Devil's Bible. His attempts to sell or give the deadly book away are met with refusal and horror. When Willie Button is killed by a wildly driven taxi, the book stays with him. And St. Peter refuses to let him through the Pearly Gates until he rids himself of it. The twelve stories follow poor Willie as he is returned to life, and his attempts to unload the "albatross" — the albatross around his neck, as he calls the book, so that he can gain forgiveness, and be allowed to enter through Heaven's Gates.
Albatross Dark Bible Escape Clause Book of Limbo Alien Concept The Evening Friend Pardonable Error Mr. Diabolicus Night of the Warlock The Whispering Men Chamber of Fear (Conclusion) - The Redemption of Willie Button
With this issue we allot Albert J. Manachino and his works his own separate section. The man deserves it. He has published hundreds of stories over the past 70 years in many small presses. Also novels and cartoons. Worked with artists well known in their own fields, among them Kevin D. Duncan and Larry Dickison. His stories continue to appear in electronic presses on line, among them Surprising Stories and Bewildering Stories. Thank you, Al, for the opportunity to showcase your witty, quirky, imaginative, often hilarious stories, that often have an undercurrent of truth concealed under the guise of hilarity.
Backwards Pupil (New)
Ultimate Fulfillment (New)
A Home for the Winter
The Music of Eric Zorne
Bishop's Gambit
Wednesday Night at the Rounders
The Man Who Reached Back
Coupon Special
Dreadful Bargain
Backyard Bronto
Geppetto's Children
The pink chameleon is a magical creature.
He hides among the roses;
He says his prayers at night;
He eats jasmine and lavender.
Legend has it,
He once belonged to Thumbelina;
And for services rendered,
She placed a diamond-studded collar
about his neck.
From the collar,
Hung an opal,
Milky-white and honey-smooth.
A magical opal.
All the colors of the rainbow,
In shades of soft pastels,
And all the gentler mysteries
of the universe, and beyond,
Are known to the pink chameleon.
