Well, I must say, is anyone else completely in awe of the new Kleenex commercials? I love the idea that a stranger, with an open heart and ready ears could ask me just to talk. I don't know if I could unburden myself on a on some poor soul with good intentions who is not getting paid to listen to me speak (that's what my therapists are for!), but I like the idea of just sittiing with someone whose spirit is genuine enough to try to save a life. I think I would ask them to speak, because I know it would be an enlightening experience to speak with someone whose positive outlook could change the world.

I hope that this is just the tip of an iceberg of opportunities. When I look back, I would like to say that 2008 was the beginning of a fantastic journey!

Ahh.... so it's finally my last semester of high school, and I'm so excited to be moving forth with my life! But before the celebrating starts, I have three more courses to complete, including one that excites me to no end: philosophy.
My philosophy teacher recently gave us the assignement of finding a song that resonates with us in a philosophical sense, and I wanted to share the lyrics, and discussion questions, that I will be using with my beautiful-souled friends here at Gaia. If you have any personal responses you\d like to share with me, I'd love to hear from you!

 

Dead Man Walking (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

You never had a dream like this

Never felt the cold cold steel

Slam you like a fist

Break you down until you kneel

Just like a beggar man

Asking only for redemption

All the things that can

Make a man believe in heaven

Fix your eyes upon the bars

Memorize their other side

Like the tattoos on your arms

They brag so loud and tough that night

But now the truth comes out

Fast as feel can do your talking

It sets you free as one guard shouts

Dead man walking

When neither light nor darkness

When neither night or day

When neither kind nor heartless

When neither lost or saved

When neither still nor moved

When neither held or free

Oh to be so human

Dead man walking

When neither light nor darkness

When neither night or day

When neither kind nor heartless

When neither lost or saved

When neither still nor moved

When neither held or free

Oh to be so human

Oh to be

Somewhere in a dream like this where

Light of love leads us home

Broken worlds will not be fixed

Vengeance take us as thy own

We're just like beggars now

On our knees we hear our names

God forgives somehow

We have yet to learn the same

Discussion Questions:

• 1. As conscious beings, do we have the right to ask for forgiveness after we have committed a grievous act? Can redemption be delivered in this case?
• 2. Do you agree with Chaplin Carpenter's description of what it is to be human?
• 3. Does death (and more particularly the death penalty) help heal victims' wounds, and is it ethical to kill those who have killed?
• 4. What does the phrase "Broken worlds will not be fixed/ Vengeance take us as thy own" mean to you?
• 5. Given the lyrics of the song, is it possible that we are all prisoners (and victims) of this world?

Right now, all I want is to get away. A rewind button. Being able to sleep. Seeing Dom.

Like I mentioned in my previous blog, for the past little while, I've been trying to figure out what  constitutes a good day and why this is such an important thing to have. In my opinion, there seem to be so many factors these days that can take your day from 'good' to 'bad'  (or vice versa) in a matter of moments, depending on how you perceive the days events. Your mood, the comments of others, feelings of success or failure. I guess what I'm trying to vent is my frustrations for the idea that a day can be rated on a scale. To me, asking how one's day was is like asking for such a tiny piece of their personal puzzle. It's like trying to give them a score for how well the past 24 hours have gone. In all honesty, most people who ask this question do not really care about the answer... they just want to seem polite. It's the same with 'what's up' or 'how are you'? Nobody wants to wait for the response, yet it's so easy to slip out those words. So what can we ask, and how can we measure a day? One of my friends once told me Success is happiness, so happiness is success. I love it because it's such a simple concept but I also think it is such an honest answer. To say, 'my day was happiness or coded with extraordinary moments'.... to me, that is how one should answer... AND ELABORATE! Share good news and revel in your joy! As for the days that are not so good, please don't say 'Bad'. It negates all the tiny positives that may have come your way. What about 'my day was shrowded in the self-doubt that seems to be possessing be or troubled by the ill-spoken comments of my neighbours'. Personally, I would have to say that recently, I have been having a lot of days that leaving me feeling isolated, confused and full of harmful thoughts, but I know primarily, that this is a small paragraph (perhaps even a forgotten footnote) in the pages of my life, but each day I am thankful for the love and support I find here in this community... so each day is filled with tiny miracles.

I have to admit that I have quite an addictive personality, and not necessarily in the best of ways, but it's been a 'good day' (what constitutes a 'good' day, by the way? I've been trying to come up with definitive response, but good is such a realtive term... but I digess!) so I am going to only share the good ones! <3 
- Hugs... wow, that is my drug of choice these days. Who doesn't love cuddling?
- Lipgloss (because chapped lips are the bane of my existence)
- Fresh air
- Playing Scrabble and Bejeweled 2 online... the hours I have lost are too numerous to count
- Smiling at strangers
- Peanut butter
- Music
- Naps

Walking today, there was an eerie calmness as fog swept over my little neighbourhood, enveloping Suburbia in a mysterious shroud that makes one contemplate life. Seeing the  stark bare trees, the only thoughts that came to my mind were 'Wow, what could Tim Burton do with a setting like this?' and 'Why aren't there radios in trees?'  I became a tad obsessed with the latter thought while pondering the role of music in my life. I know there are people who would say that adding technology to nature would just ruin it, but just for once, I wish there was a place, with a radio in a tree, where I could sit. Just in the summer time, when it's a beautiful day and the music that suits your mood just right seems to be coming from up above. To change the setting, all you would have to do is climb... high up into the branches, where you could hide among the leaves with a good notebook. I wish I could find a radio in a tree.

I live in a dark house
No windows and a single door
But it hurts too much, trying to find the key
Because it is hidden inside of me
So I lie in waiting
For someone to remember who I used to be
Someone willing to break me free
Touch my scars but see past old wounds
To what has always torn me up inside
I live in a dark house
Even man-made luminescence in all its frailty
Has forsaken me for brighter homes
I sit here in pitch black
Tear down a wall please