Category Archives: Children

December 14, 2012

In the Wake of Tragedy – Remembering the Victims in Connecticut

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

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“Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.” – Robert Francis Kennedy

“Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.” – William James

“Seeds of faith are always within us; sometimes it takes a crisis to nourish and encourage their growth.” – Unknown

“If we climb high enough, we will reach a height from which tragedy ceases to look tragic.” – Irwin Yalom

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” – Mahatma Ghandi

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“Life is filled with unanswered questions, but it is the courage to seek those answers that continues to give meaning to life. You can spend your life wallowing in despair, wondering why you were the one who was led towards the road strewn with pain, or you can be grateful that you are strong enough to survive it.” – J.D. Stoube

“Everybody going to be dead one day, just give them time.” – Neil Gaiman

“When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something.” – Dmitri Shostakovich

“Even death has a heart.” – Markus Zuzak

“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” – Thomas Campbell

“Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.” – Mitch Albom

“Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.” – Unknown

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“Instead of weeping when a tragedy occurs in a songbird’s life, it sings away its grief. I believe we could well follow the pattern of our feathered friends.” – William Shakespeare

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” – Unknown

“Tragedy is a representation of action that is worthy of serious attention, complete in itself and of some magnitude – bringing about by means of pity and fear the purging of such emotions.” – Aristotle

“A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him.” – George Orwell

“Embrace each day, realizing it is a present sent with love from above.” – Uknown

No More Tears
No More Anger
No More Bloodshed

Leave a comment | posted in Children, Connecticut, Newtown, Overcome, Quote, Tragedy

January 28, 2012

In the Eyes of a Child…The World is Perfect

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

“Cut up by the passion of a field that nurtured the young child to a beautiful blossoming lady
Never to return to the home that feed her senses with innocent awakening

Now the meadow lies still, alone with only the memories of that lady with the cherub smile whisking away in the wind.”

Time changes all of us. We are and will always be a product of our surroundings. The lessons taught by our parents, our religion, friends, home town, region, news, teachers and even the imaginary friends we create. As a sponge, we soak in all things, good and bad and through the eyes of innocence, we often as children are unable to filter the information.

What ultimately gives the child a fighting chance to become the adult of virtue?

The beauty of a child is simplicity and wholesomeness. The daughter of a close friend of mine still tells her mother I am the “bestest and she should marry me” Who could argue that logic and this coming from an adorable young girl that made me a Rutgers fan made out of paper and a Popsicle stick. As adults, we look at the whole situation, the challenges, the consequences and the responsibilities. She sees it as a nightly sleep over, movies and popcorn and outings to the zoo. That sounds like the perfect relationship to me.

Because I see the world as a daily challenge, am I to say this idea of marriage because they want their mother to be happy and she knows a fun, caring guy is wrong? I don’t think so. I think she is right but as much as women and men at metaphysically different, so are children and adults.

It’s a shame. How often to we wish to do it all again. For some the pursuit of eternal youth is a deeply rooted fear of death but the thought of a life of simplicity and innocence forever is utopia.

I want to play on the swings and look up at the clouds
I want to play hide and seek all around the neighborhood
I want to play baseball until it is so dark we can’t even see the ball
I want to imagine being in space and touching all the stars
I want to hug a complete stranger just because they look sad
I want cuddle with all my friends in the middle of the day
I want to sing songs while skipping down the road
I want to make believe I am someone different
I want to be your friend because you are silly
I want to kiss you and then giggle about it
I want to slide down the mountain in the snow and scream just because
I want to build a tree house and make it my mansion where I will live forever
I want own the beach and become the King and make it free for everyone
I want a puppy that will be my best friend
I want to wear 500 silly bands and cover my hand with the rainbow
I want to touch a rainbow

Who is to say we cannot return to innocence. We are adults. We are well educated individuals that has experienced all of life’s offerings and can now see the difference between right and wrong. Morals have been fortified and a foundation is set. If we embrace the memories of childhood, know good and bad, why then is there still prejudice, hate, greed, gluttony and all the other morally corrupt feelings and behaviors around us?

In the eyes of a child, “I don’t know”

I know I am wishing for something that is unattainable and no single person can define a movement that will set the bricks for this new world but so many have tried

John Lennon with his words
Martin Luther King Jr. with his vision
Ghandhi with his presence
Jim Henson with his Muppets
Abraham Lincoln with his fortitude for equality
Steve Jobs with his brilliance
Bill Gates with his generosity
Mother Theresa with her heart
Princess Diana with her beauty and warmth

All shared a vision of a better world and took the next step to allow their hearts to guide their path.

We all have the capability to be the children we once knew. We all have the strength to make this world a better place. I am not looking to change everyone, but asking you to look inside yourself, find that inner child that never left and start seeing the world the way it was meant to be.

Leave a comment | posted in Child, Children, Innocence, Life, Love, Peace, Simplicity, Utopia, Vision, Wholesome, Winnie the Pooh

October 23, 2011

Life is funny…Embrace it

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

“I just broke up with someone and the last thing she said to me was “You’ll never find anyone like me again!” I’m thinking, “I should hope not! If I don’t want you, why would I want someone like you.”

- Unknown

In the tradition of excellence in humor, last evening could be described as a thought provoking erotic sitcom build around an entire cast of supporting actors with the single goal of embracing every element of life and performing a show led by the ringmaster himself.

It was an night of doppelgangers, lesbians, strippers, strangers, kissing, laughing and a bit of warmth created in a land penned by Lewis Carroll.

It was one of those evenings after a bit of E Entertainment news you wish you could have lived. The glamorous life of a celebrity with all the perks, attention and outrageous events transpiring right before your eyes as the center of life and for just a moment it becomes you. This was one of those nights.

Now we will archive it away and move on to many more subjects of wonder and intrigue as we dig into Pandora’s box of life’s many great wonders and humorous anecdotes.

I was recently talking to a friend who had an ex boyfriend who was just focused on image that he would buy an expensive pair of designer jeans and then sand them down personally to fit the exact specs of an ad on page 57 of GQ that month. It made me think that he may be the same person I saw at the mall stopping at every mirror and making the proper adjustments. Coming from a jeans and tee-shirt man, maybe my thoughts on fashion are flawed. Of course I believe a good look is important as it represents a strong sense of responsibility, creativity, and a savvy sense of fashion.

There was a zombie crawl downtown. It is that time of the year when teens and adults raid thrift shops and purchase tacky dresses and suits only to cover them in fake blood and guts. At least, let’s hope they were fake. There are some that take the season of ghosts and goblins very seriously. Everywhere I turned, I smiled at the sea of dead walking, limping and later in the evening crawling along the streets. Funny how some people put more effort into the appearance of being dead than actually living.

Children are totally funny. On a crazy mad cap Saturday night, I watched Gnomeo and Juliet with a good friend and her two children. The same two children that showed me their favorite stuffed animals and then began to repeatedly hit me in the head with them, over and over and over again. But in the end I got to wear the pink blanket cape. Then randomly, during a tense scene, they would leave their couch, run over, jump on me and then snuggle up. Don’t you wish adults could just be that way.

Buffets are funny. They are cheap, they offer tremendous selection and give the customer the freedom to decide. But, we have an obesity issue, health care costs are rising and many individuals have difficulty with will power. A little bit funny, wouldn’t you say.

The new IPhone 4S cost 169.71 according to a report released this week in the Wall Street Journal. The cost was broken down into components, parts and labor. Labor: $8. Priceless.

Every Saturday and Sunday there is a ritual during football season, drink, drink, eat food with lots of dips and then drink. Multi-million dollar athletes that work out, maintain a strict diet and the pulverize each other each week fill the airwaves. That is 2100 athletes in the NFL and about 8000 in college. While 10,000 fit athletes give their heart and soul, over 100 million sit on about butts and fall into a pit of laziness and obesity.

It’s life funny.

I feel like I just had an Andy Rooney moment.

1 comment | posted in Children, Doppelganger, Funny, Humor, Irony, Lesbian, Life, Obesity, Zombies

October 18, 2011

Reflections of Family – Quotes and Pictures

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

“Whatever they grow up to be, they are still our children, and the one most important of all the things we can give to them is unconditional love. Not a love that depends on anything at all except that they are our children.” – Rosaleen Dickson

“Other things may change us, but we start and end with family” – Anthony Brandt

“If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

“A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” – George Bernard Shaw

“In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.” – Alex Haley

“You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.” – William D. Tammeus

“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.” – Anne Frank

“Family is the most important thing in the world.” – Princess Diana

“The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other.” – Mario Puzo

“In truth a family is what you make it. It is made strong, not by number of heads counted at the dinner table, but by the rituals you help family members create, by the memories you share, by the commitment of time, caring, and love you show to one another, and by the hopes for the future you have as individuals and as a unit.” – Marge Kennedy

“Cherish your human connections – your relationships with friends and family.” – Barbara Bush

“Family is not an important thing, it’s everything.” – Michael J. Fox

Leave a comment | posted in Bonds, Children, Family, Parents, Quotes, Unity

August 10, 2011

It’s Never Too Late to Say “I Love You”

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

For many of us, our grandparents and later our parents grew up in difficult times surrounded by the tribulations of depression, world war, domestic violence, racial abuse and cultural change. We have been raised in a time of unprecedented technology and have been afforded certain luxuries unknown to our parents and grandparents as they grew from childhood to adult. During these times of the early through mid twentieth century, it was a culture domestically built on family values and respect. It was this foundation that developed a strong outer core and to us a stoic and often emotionless view of relationships between parents and children.

Not to say their love wasn’t strong and pure, but the way they translated that to us is different than our expectations. As we may put our hearts on our sleeve, our parents and grandparents saw the unspoken bond as the means of communicating love for one another.

In a way, technology has desensitized us and sent us backward to the same held back emotionless state we have grown to know from our elders. In an age of text messaging, instant messaging and tweeting, the ability to show unconditional love and feelings is slipping away. This by no means is an apocalyptic view on modern society, but a warning to all of us, including myself that we need to see where we are and more importantly where we are going. Is this the society we want to raise our children in? Do we want them to have a computer at age two, an IPad at three, I gaming console at five, and a complete lack of human need by ten?

As much as I prod my father to tell me he loves me, just to hear the words, it is something I know is difficult for him. I know he means it every day with his actions and his unconditional support and caring he shows for all his children. For him, it is a silent cry to us and very expressive at that. I know he won’t change and I don’t expect him to, but through mutual respect we know. My parents were raised to believe they will do everything in their power to provide their children with a good life.

They did. A wonderful education, safe neighborhood, good friends, strong family structure and most importantly independence. They provided me with the greatest gift: trust. They bestowed to me all their teachings and let me see and experience the world for myself. To me that is the greatest sense of love.

Look at your own life. Look at your family, your children, your friends, your relationships and ask yourself this question: “Is this the life that is truly making me happy?” If there is any doubt in that response or a no, a change needs to be made. I am not about to tell every reader they need to connect more, but to look inside yourself and determine if you are connecting enough.

We all want to hear words of encouragement, receive a hug and a smile, have a person to turn to in times of need and feel connected to others. It is that energy that is exchanged between two human beings that makes the gift of life so remarkable. You may have 1000 followers or 5000 friends in the virtual superhighway, but I will take a long hug and a sunset with someone I care about over that any day.

Maybe the first thing you should do in the morning is smile at someone, hug someone and tell someone special in your life that you love them.

It’s not too late!

1 comment | posted in Children, Connecting, Emotions, Family, Grandparents, Love, Parents, Relationships

April 25, 2010

Are Community Gardens A Sign of Community Rebirth in a Nation that is Reaching for a Connection?

By Recruiterpoet - Professionalism With Flare

Community Gardens

There have been changes in the economy and a shift in suburbization that have caused many inner city areas to become downtrodden. Some of the residential areas have given rise to a growing number of poor single parent families that are living amidst high rates of violence, and drugs. The opportunities for resources in these neighborhoods are limited, but many neighborhood residents are coming together to form coalitions to better their neighborhoods and their lives. Many neighborhood groups are forming community gardens in vacant lots, or even on rooftops. These community gardens are a great way to get both children and adults involved in beautifying the neighborhood community while working with nature.

There is a book called Takiya and Thunderheart’s Life Garden that is about children who revive a neighborhood vacant lot into a flourishing vegetable garden. This book communicates to children what community gardening is all about and can be ordered through Spice of Life Educational Publishing. If you would like to visit a community garden to see what one is all about, try the Clinton Community Garden which is located in New York City. Information on community gardens in Vancouver and Montreal are also available. In Philadelphia , urban agriculture is widespread. To find out information about international urban agriculture, the City Farmer Homepage has a lot of information on this and other neat topics related to urban greening. The Seeds of Hope…Harvest of Pride site has good basic information and a number of links that can help people get started in community gardening.

The American Community Garden Association is a national organization that oversees many of the community gardens in the nation. They have tips on starting and maintaining community gardens. Kansas State University and the American Community Garden Association completed a nationwide study of community gardeners and the benefits they perceive. They also have provided this list of tips for working with kids in the garden.

Some Basic Tips for Gardeners Working with Kids

A picture is worth a thousand words. Never tell kids something you could show them.
Young kids have a very short attention span. Make sure that you have lots of options available so they can get started immediately and stay busy. Digging holes is one thing that seems to hold endless fascination.
Instant gratification helps a lot. Plant radishes even if you don’t like them-they come up in three or four days.
Growing their own will generally get kids to try eating things they otherwise wouldn’t walk into the same room with.
GETTING DIRTY IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF GROWING UP.
Your role should be as facilitator, rather than as a leader who imposes direction. Be a good model.
When giving out supplies to several kids, try to keep seeds, tools, etc. as similar as possible to avoid the inevitable squabbles.
After an activity, do something to reinforce what everyone has learned. Talk about what went on, who did what, who saw what. If you can, have them write things down or draw pictures. If they’re too young, take dictation.

Many kids who won’t talk in a large group will often speak easily in a small group.
When working with older kids (past about 13), one-to-one works better than groups, since gardening (and anything else that could get you dirty) is a remarkably un-cool and disgusting way to spend time. Try to add responsibility and ownership to projects. (“Quincy is in charge of the wheelbarrow today.”) Try pairing up older kids with younger ones. Rest assured that if you give them a healthy respect for gardens and green things when they are young, it will all come back to them once the acne goes away.
Children are very sensitive to lead poisoning and should take these precautions when working in the garden.

For more information:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/Kinder/acga.html

Leave a comment | posted in Children, Community Gardens, Fruits, Unity, Vegatables

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