Facts You May Not Know About the Holocaust

Auschwitz

Auschwitz

Yesterday I seen that it was a day to remember Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp that resided in Poland during Hitlers reign of terror. Here are some facts that many seem to overlook about the Holocaust that sheds light on the truth behind Hitler and why he did what he did.

1. No one know the exact amount of people killed during this time, estimates have shown that around 5 or 6 million were Jews, but altogether 11 million were killed. This proves to me that even though Hitler may have been targeting Jews, he killed anyone who got in his way, so the next time you remember the holocaust, remember all who lost their lives not just some.

2. When you look at the core of why Hitler did what he did you see that he harbored hatred towards a certain group of people (no, not just Jews) and believed that his interpretation of what a person should be like was better. It’s amazing how many people adhere to this ideal, plus they put a religious spin on it and say this group is okay and this one is not. Once Hitler began to see one group as human and the other group as dogs his conscious never bothered him because it’s okay to treat animals bad, just like people lose their love and compassion for one another when they see one as lower.

Everyone wants to be important, everyone wants to know that their lives mean something and that they are not just nothing, this Hitler attitude feeds on people’s self-worth, killing them from the inside out. Instead of boasting about how much better one type of person is than another, we should be building people up, helping them to see their greatness and beauty. Diversity is a good thing, look at nature, diversity is beauty.

superiority3. Even though the holocaust may be over, his attitude still lives on in many people. Many people out there claim to be superior to those around them and all religions claim to be more special to God than anyone else.

I just finished reading a book by Victor Frankl called Man’s Search For Meaning. If you want to read a good book about the holocaust then I would definitely recommend reading his book. Victor was a psychiatrist who found meaning even during the years he suffered in the concentration camps, he did not allow his suffering to twist his meaning and purpose in life, he did not become angry and bitter about what was done to him. Instead he devised a new way to help people called logotherapy, which is mentioned in this book as well.

Here are some of my favorite parts of his book,

Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment. By the same token, ever human being has the freedom to change at any instant.

Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a secondary rationalization of instinctual drives; hence he is not driven by pain and pleasure but rather to see a meaning in his life.

From all this we may learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only these two-the race of the decent man and the race of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of “pure race”-and therefore one occasionally found a decent fellow among the camp guards.

A LIFE OF MEANING BRINGS LIGHT TO EVEN THE DARKEST OF CORNERS

A LIFE OF MEANING BRINGS LIGHT TO EVEN THE DARKEST OF CORNERS

Next time you remember the holocaust remember all the precious lives lost during that time not just a few, for every life has meaning and every life is important.

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My Journey to Uncover Happiness

My Happiness Journal

My Happiness Journal

Have you ever wondered how you could bring more happiness into your life? Did you know where to look or where to start? Life can easily knock us down, do you have ways that you increase your happiness after this happens? This is my journey to find the happiness within.

I am in the middle of a 30 day journey towards happiness, I am hoping to find the little things that can pick me up or tear me down. It surprised me how easily I lose my happiness because of outside circumstances, when these circumstances changed I experiences what many describe as a roller coaster ride of emotions, and  as much as I enjoy roller coasters, I’m tired of this one.

This journey has been very interesting and enlightening when it comes to me and how I perceive things to be. I tend to focus too much on situations being bad or good and I am also very mislead by this entitlement feeling I have that I never realized before. As kids we are fed with adults telling us to work hard and you’ll go far in life, but that doesn’t always work. Many people have worked hard their whole lives just to lose their jobs and have to start all over again, so I’m trying to reconstruct what I feel that I am entitled to. I feel that happiness is part of who I am, of who we all are, and we all have the right to be who we are so I have a right to be happy, the confusion comes about when I try to define this happiness with physical things.

What makes me happy now is not what made me happy 2 months, 2 years, or even 30 years ago, as my understanding of happiness deepens I find myself doing different things that coincide with this new way of being, and although my actions change on what I do to make myself happy, the core feeling of happiness never changes.

What do you do that keeps your happiness alive despite what is going on around you or where your life is heading?

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Let Life Flow

 

weaving beauty

weaving life’s beauty

Does life have a natural rhythm to it? Do we try to control too many details and block this natural flow in our lives? What does this do to our every day lives?

One thing I have learned is that life must flow and when we try to control it we restrict the flow that is naturally occurring. What we should do instead is allow this natural flow to continue in its path, maybe even align your goals with this flow.

While we can make plans and try to position our gardens and trees in the best possible way for greater yield and a positive impact on the environment, sometimes things will not work out as you hoped. During times like this we need to just let things flow as they will, I don’t encourage anyone to try to control every aspect of their garden or orchard, leave room for life to weave its own beauty.

I think people thrive off of having goals, goals help them to feel as if they are working towards something and give them a sense of accomplishment when these goals are met. Goals challenge and enrich our lives but there comes a time when we must allow for change to happen without getting upset.

My number one rule of permaculture is have fun, don’t take this too seriously to where it becomes a negative experience, just relax emotionally and allow life to flow. When you do, you will find joy and peace in your garden and everything around you will flourish.

Man plans while God laughs.

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Contradicting Thoughts And Their Effects On Reality

imageDoes what you think affect your reality? Does having negative thoughts block situations from working out to their full potential? Quantum physics says yes.

Quantum physics is proving that what you focus your attention on will manifest in your reality, so when you focus on how fat your body is, this focused attention will make it happen. When you start any project whether it’s permaculture or DIY home projects, be careful what is being said in your mind, don’t allow your mind to focus on contradictory thoughts that are trying to stop what you are doing.

When you focus on how your techniques will not work, then your permaculture gardens and orchards will not thrive even though it has all the ingredients to do so. The same way that other circumstances in your life will not work out despite all your attempts to make it happen. If your focus does not line up with your intentions then your focus will override your intention, that is why loving people fail to spread love when they are focused on all the hatred and conspiracy in the world.

When you start anything, you must focus your attention on what you want, see your permaculture area just as you desire it to look like, see full trees and healthy plants, focus on that now and it will manifest in reality. Allowing your focus to see droopy, half eaten plants will only produce what you do not want, seeing your garden as a failure will only bring it to an end.

I have a hard time keeping my focus on what I want, I allow contradictory thoughts to infect my circumstances and many of my potential projects never turn out right because of my own misguided thoughts on how I can’t do it.

 Watch Your Thoughts, They Become Words; Watch Your Words, They Become Actions

What projects did you have that didn’t turn out the way you wanted? What were your thoughts at the time?

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Food For Thought

Wayne Dyer I was listening to a CD series by Wayne Dyer and there is one sentence he said that I want to share with you,

“You don’t know enough to be a pessimist, the Universe is too vast and expansive for that.”

We shouldn’t make judgements about ourselves and our situations especially when we don’t know the full potential of what can truly happen in any given moment.

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Lessons From My Dog

playing with dogs  It seems that everything I am reading this morning is following one common theme, surrender.

What is surrender and how does one do this? There are a few definitions to surrender but this is one the one I like, “to give up in favor of another, especially voluntarily.” I want this blog to focus on giving up voluntarily instead of giving up by force, or to give up or abandon.

As I sit here looking at my dog he looks back at me with anticipation, anticipation of what, I’m not sure, but whatever it is he is happy. He is a comfort to me when I am sad, he plays with me when I am happy, he lays with me when I am sleeping, he is a companion to me when I am lonely, my dog is everything I need him to be in each moment. I realized that he was giving up his identity as a dog to be what I needed him to be.

Dogs are dogs but when you get them in a home where people truly love them, love transforms the dogs into something else, something that is far from their original state.

Maybe humans are here on this earth to acquire the same understanding as my dog, the understanding that we should voluntarily (yes, this is the key) surrender our identity to Love.

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Lessons I’ve Learned This Week That Could Change A Persons Life

lessons learned We all learn lessons every day if we pay attention to them, here are some of the major lessons I learned this past week through various readings and experiences.

1. When you create the intention within yourself to do something, do it as soon as you can, don’t delay or someone else will get the credit. There are many variances to this number, not only will someone else get the credit but you may forget, or worse yet, you may never do it because you waited so long you talked yourself right out of doing it.

2. When you cause someone else to suffer, you set in motion the effect of suffering the same way or more than what you caused. Many call this karma or reaping what you sow, it’s a law of life, you cannot plant corn seeds and get pumpkins, life just doesn’t work that way. I can see this all over the news at the present moment, people are spreading hate but yet want love and respect in return, it doesn’t work that way, you cannot spread hate and get love in return, only when you spread love will you receive love.

3. How much are we focused on others? This was a huge lesson for me this past week, I found that I am focused too much on other people. For example, I get upset when people don’t put in the same amount of energy I do, like when my husband doesn’t help out around the house as much as I do. I can get upset when people at work don’t try their hardest so some jobs only get half done. Why am I focused on them? I am in this world to do my best, not to sit and become emotionally upset because others aren’t living like I want them too.

4. Do you have a problem remembering the lessons you’ve learned? This was another huge lesson as I found that what I had learned wasn’t as fresh in my mind anymore, like how our memories fade over time. I’m not sure how to help this situation yet, writing the lessons I’ve learned down does help as long as I can remember where I wrote them down at. Trying to make a routine out of it for a while really seems to help but there are days that routines don’t work and you end up flying by the seat of your pants.

If anyone has any more tips on these subjects, feel free to add your comments and I will share them so they can help others. Life doesn’t have to be challenging, we can share our experiences and what worked for us and hopefully what we share will help someone else.

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Getting Ready for Spring

In the Planning Stage

In the Planning Stage

Even though winter is a time that most people can sit back and take a break from outside work, many gardeners and farmers are in the planning stage for this up-coming spring’s planting season.

There are a few steps that I know I have to take before I can get started this spring.

  1. Remove any expectations. In my experience, having expectations on how things should go is a dangerous game, it can cause depression and anxiety when things don’t go as you want them to, so I don’t want to have any expectations.
  2. Research. Researching what I want to do and how other people have done it helps me to build a list of ideas on how I want to carry out the changes I will be undertaking.
  3. Set certain goals. It’s always nice for us to set goals, but keep in mind that they need to be attainable goals. For example, I know we need a new roof this next year so I may not have as much money to spend when it comes to all the changes I would like to make. Bearing that in mind, I need to make sure my goals are attainable with the funds that I expect to have. You don’t have to get too technical here, no one’s expecting you to sit up all night with a calculator budgeting out your money, just knowing that you can’t make any huge changes will keep your mind focused on all the small, more inexpensive changes you can make.
  4. Make a list. I have to point out that you shouldn’t make this list a list of expectations on how you want things to turn out, this should be a list of what I want to get done or a reminder of the steps I want to take to get to my goal. Many people have lists when it comes to their home repairs or finances, lists can help us organize and keep all the information we need in one place that is easy to find.
  5. Get started. Once you have set your goals and made your lists all you have to do is start. Once I get everything planned the first thing I have to do is order my seeds and plants for the spring growing season. I have never grown any of my plants from seeds, maybe this is the year to try it?

This list I gave can be used for anything you want to do, it’s good to have a clear picture in your head of what you want to do no matter what it is.

If for some reason you don’t like what you planned, or it’s just not working out, change it, it’s that simple. Nature is so flexible and forgiving, it allows you to make mistakes and it will keep coming back, so don’t worry.

Over the next few months I will be sharing my own ideas and drawings of what I want to achieve this up-coming year.

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Connections We Make and Why They are So Valuable

Heart of others

Heart of others

Have you ever noticed that there are people who seem to just capture your heart, even when you don’t know them personally? Why is this? Why do you feel a connection with them when you have never met them?

I have heard some people say that you feel this connection because you see a part of yourself within them and that draws you to them. But maybe it’s because you see a part of who you want to be in them and that draws you to them as well?

Either way you view it there are unexplainable reasons why we feel drawn to certain situations and to certain people, or can they be explained?

What I feel is that despite the above reasons, even though they are valid and I believe they are true, I feel this connection is meant to teach us something valuable about ourselves and about the world around us. It may be a way to strengthen us and keep us focused on what we want to become or strengthen these qualities we already possess.

Each connection we make is valuable in many ways, when we are open to these experiences and not bitter when they don’t turn out the way we want, we can learn so much more than when we are close-minded about the whole experience.

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Another Confession of Mine

confessionI have another confession to reveal to you, if you’ve been reading any of my posts you may already know what it is.

I was challenged today to really find my ‘voice‘ as a writer and I was given 3 things to do to help me achieve this directive. 1. List possibilities of what is wrong with the world. 2. What experience do I have that’s unique to me? 3. What is easy for me to do but may be harder for others, this is a way to give of your experience and knowledge to those who may be struggling in this area (this list was sent to me by a writer named Jeff Goins who helps people find their own unique voice to write with).

As I sat and thought about the first question I couldn’t help but think about what was wrong in my life that turned my world upside down, and my answer is my inner self. I didn’t know who I was or what God wanted of me, religion caused  so much confusion in my life I didn’t know where to turn.

My confession is that I love nature but my passion is spirituality and finding who you are inside. Please note that my passion is not religion but more the soft whisper of a Creator that loves us all and tries to remind us who we are and the power we possess. When we hear the superheroes say “with great power comes great responsibility” what you don’t realize is that this is really talking about YOU and not just a certain group of people.

This kind of power is not about yourself and what you can do only for yourself or your family, even though time for yourself and your family are important, it is a power of knowing that you can better the world in so many beautiful ways despite what that little voice inside your head tells you or what other people may say or think about you.

What we can do as humans is beyond our comprehension and yet we sit and give our lives and our power over to others and to selfish desires that help no one, not even ourselves.

 My deepest desire is for people to see themselves the way the Creator sees them, and if you don’t believe in a Creator that is fine, the Universe still believes in you and your potential to change the world for the better. So along with my normal nature posts I will begin a spiritual category that dives deep into understanding ourselves and our place within the world around us.

I don’t speak about these things as a person who knows everything, I only know my experience and what I felt and understood through each step of this process, a process that is still going and will never end. I also can’t deny my inner yearning anymore, I’m tired of seeing so many people struggle because they don’t understand themselves or their surroundings, just as I am tired of struggling myself.

I also want to point out that this is not a way to convert people to any religion or any school of thought, it’s a way for you to see your own worth and understand the struggles you may be going through.

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