As we go through life, and we learn more from our experiences, it is impossible to avoid the lessons that pain will bring. The key to overcoming the pain in your life is to realize that though pain is something that is inevitably a part of life, we have the choice of whether we are going to wallow in it and suffer, or move on from it, and do our best to let it go.

Our lives are much too short to just focus on the hurtful times, and instead we should make great attempts to stay on the path towards greatness and reaching our dreams despite how much pain we may be in. Eventually the pain of your present will diminish, and if you waste time by not continuing to move forward you will be set back much further than you would have if you would of just worked through it. So hold on, be strong; keep pushing through the rough patches in life, because eventually pain ends. ~J. Johnson

Jendhamuni at the Wachusett Mountain on a rainy and foggy day on November 26, 2020.

I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white…

Human Family
Maya Angelou
Source: Familyfriendpoems

Ice-Fog-Sunrise. Photo credit: Randy Neufeldt

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
4. Always Do Your Best
   ― Miguel Ruiz

The environment and the economy are really both two sides of the same coin. If we cannot sustain the environment, we cannot sustain ourselves. You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them. — Wangari Maathai

Natural environment

The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally, meaning in this case not artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses the interaction of all living species, climate, weather and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity. The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished as components:

• Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention, including all vegetation, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere, and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature.
• Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from civilized human actions.

In contrast to the natural environment is the built environment. In such areas where humans have fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural land conversion, the natural environment is greatly changed into a simplified human environment. Even acts which seem less extreme, such as building a mud hut or a photovoltaic system in the desert, the modified environment becomes an artificial one. Though many animals build things to provide a better environment for themselves, they are not human , hence beaver dams, and the works of mound-building termites, are thought of as natural.

People seldom find absolutely natural environments on Earth, and naturalness usually varies in a continuum, from 100% natural in one extreme to 0% natural in the other. More precisely, we can consider the different aspects or components of an environment, and see that their degree of naturalness is not uniform. If, for instance, in an agricultural field, the mineralogic composition and the structure of its soil are similar to those of an undisturbed forest soil, but the structure is quite different.

Source: Wikipedia

Sharing really is caring. If you want to be a more caring person, then you should be willing to share your things. This means sharing things you actually care about, like clothes you like, or half of your favorite sandwich, not sharing something that means nothing to you, like a book you didn’t like much anyway. Be on the lookout for opportunities to share things, whether it’s a material object or a piece of advice. People who are caring are unselfish, and sharing is a key trait of a person who is selfless.

Source: wikiHow

Photo credit: Randy Neufeldt

Most people dislike facing the true facts of life and prefer to lull themselves into a false sense of security by sweet dreaming and imagining. They mistake the shadow for the substance. They fail to realise that life is uncertain, but that death is certain. One way of understanding life is to face and understand death which is nothing more than a temporary end to a temporary existence. But many people do not like even to hear of the word ‘ death’. They forget that death will come, whether they like it or not. Recollections on death with the right mental attitude can give a person courage and calmness as well as an insight into the nature of existence.

Besides understanding death, we need a better understanding of our life. We are living a life that does not always proceed as smoothly as we would like it to. Very often, we face problems and difficulties. We should not be afraid of them because the penetration into the very nature of these problems and difficulties can provide us with a deeper insight into life. The worldly happiness in wealth, luxury, respectable positions in life which most people seek is an illusion. The fact that the sale of sleeping pills and tranquillizers, admissions to mental hospitals and suicide rates have increased in relation to modern material progress is enough testimony that we have to go beyond worldly, material pleasure to seek for real happiness. ~By Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda

by 17th Karmapa

The wish to pull in or push away what we perceive around us is a big force in our relationships. Rather than relaxing and appreciating the other person, we engage in a constant struggle to get what we want from them, and to avoid getting what we do not want. For that reason, in order to build healthy relationships we need to deal with our attachment as well as our aversion.

It might be useful to start by looking at our assumptions about attachment and also about non attachment. Conventional wisdom leads many people to question whether or not relationships are even possible without attachment. I have heard people say that if there were no attachment, they would have no close relationships. People try to induce attachment in others as a basis for starting a relationship with them. They wield a attachment like a hook, trying to pull people towards them and literally get them hooked.

If you find it hard to imagine how a warm and healthy relationship could exist in the absence of attachment, this indicates confusion between being detached and being free of attachment. Detachment is very different from non attachment. Detachment suggests an unfeeling indifference. By contrast, when there is an absence of attachment, healthy feelings have ample room to blossom. This is because attachment causes you to be totally consumed by something or someone.

Vitamins and Minerals

Chili peppers are rich in various vitamins and minerals.

However, since they are only eaten in small amounts, their contribution to the daily intake is very small.

Vitamin C: Chili peppers are very high in vitamin C. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant, important for wound healing and immune function.

Vitamin B6: A family of B-vitamins, some of which have important functions in energy metabolism.

Vitamin K1: Also known as phylloquinone, vitamin K1 is essential for blood clotting and healthy bones and kidneys.

Potassium: An essential dietary mineral that serves a variety of functions in the body. Adequate intake of potassium may reduce the risk of heart disease (2).

Copper: Often lacking in the Western diet, copper is an essential antioxidant trace element, important for strong bones and healthy neurons.

Vitamin A: Red chili peppers are high in beta-carotene, which is converted into vitamin A in the body.

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